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31st December 2018
01:54pm GMT

The lyric “yellow man in Timbuktu” will be replaced by “happy people in Timbuktu.”
Fair.
“The original lyric was meant to be a bit of fun and never intended to be offensive. The reality is it’s not acceptable to say that now," a source told The Sun.
"Some of the girls feel uncomfortable getting up on stage and performing that lyric, especially when they have such a diverse and multicultural fanbase.”
In a 2007 interview with Music Week, song collaborator Richard Stannard explained the inspiration behind the track:
“We were talking about Bollywood films, the colours and how the Spice Girls could present themselves. It was a matter of how do we get everything in to one song?”
The original song lyrics are as follows:
"Yellow man in Timbuktu,
Colour for both me and you,
Kung fu fighting, dancing queen,
Tribal spaceman, and all that’s in between."Explore more on these topics: