"Mama" | ||||||||
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Single by Spice Girls | ||||||||
from the album Spice | ||||||||
A-side | "Who Do You Think You Are" | |||||||
B-side | "Baby Come Round" | |||||||
Released | 3 March 1997 | |||||||
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Recorded | 1996 | |||||||
Genre | Pop | |||||||
Length | 5:03 | |||||||
Label | Virgin | |||||||
Writer(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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Spice Girls singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Mama" is a song by the British girl group the Spice Girls. It was written by the Spice Girls, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard, and produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996. "Mama" is a pop ballad that features instrumentation from keyboards, a rhythm guitar, a cello, and a violin, and its lyrics deal with the difficulties in relationships between mothers and daughters that appear during adolescence.
It was released as a double A-side with "Who Do You Think You Are", and became the official single of the 1997 Comic Relief. Its Big TV! directed music video, featured the group singing to an audience of children and their own mothers. Despite receiving mixed reviews from music critics, "Mama" was commercially successful. Released as the album's fourth single in March 1997, it became their fourth consecutive number-one single in the United Kingdom, which made the Spice Girls the first act in UK chart history to have its first four singles reach number one. It was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The single performed well internationally, reaching the top ten in many European countries and New Zealand, and the top fifteen in Australia.
"Mama" was written by the Spice Girls with songwriting partners Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard. In an interview about the writing process between the group and the duo, Rowe credits Mel B as the one who came up with the song's concept. During the writing process, each member wrote a small verse in a different corner of the recording studio, while the chorus was finished around the piano with a guitar. Then, the producers added a gospel choir filled with the group's harmonies at the end of the song. Brown explained the song's inspiration on the book Real Life: Real Spice The Official Story: