In September 1995, they signed a record deal with Virgin Records. Having changed their name to The Spice Girls along the way, the new girl band finally released their debut single “Wannabe” in the UK in July 1996, amid a flurry of anticipation and hyped-up publicity. The song entered the charts at number 3, before moving up to number One the following week, where it remained for seven weeks running. The song “Wannabe” soon became a global hit, and went on to make number One of no less than an astonishing 31 countries, thus becoming the biggest selling debut single by an all-female group of all time.