Spy's Nick Levine said that "Wannabe" still remained an "exuberant calling card". Billboard named the song #5 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time and the Best Pop Song of 1997. Chart performance As part of Virgin's strategy to make the group an international act, "Wannabe" was released in Japan and Southeast Asia two weeks before its British release. After the song was placed into heavy rotation on FM stations in Japan, the Spice Girls made promotional tours in May, July, and September 1996. The group received major press and TV exposure, appearing in programmes such as Space Shower. The single was released by Toshiba EMI on 26 June 1996, and sold 100,000 copies by October 1996. "Wannabe" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number three, six days after its physical release, with sales of 73,000 copies. It climbed to number one the next week, and spent seven weeks at the top, the second-longest stay by an all-female group, only behind Shakespears Sister's "Stay". With eighteen weeks in the top forty and twenty-six weeks in the top seventy-five, it became the second-biggest selling single of the year, and as of November 2012 has sold over 1.38 million copies, the biggest-selling single by a female group in the UK. "Wannabe" was commercially successful in the rest of Europe. On 4 September 1996 the song reached the top of the Eurochart Hot 100, where it stayed for nine consecutive weeks, when it was replaced by the group's second single, "Say You'll Be There". "Wannabe" topped the singles charts in Belgium (both the Flemish and French charts), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, and peaked inside the top five in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Italy. The song was a success in Oceania. In Australia, it debuted at number sixty-four, reached the top of the ARIA Charts for eleven weeks, and ended at number five on the 1996 year-end chart. In New Zealand, it debuted on 1 September 1996 at number thirty-eight, reaching the top position ten weeks later. It spent one week at the top and seventeen consecutive weeks inside the top ten. "Wannabe" also topped the singles charts in Hong Kong and Israel. In Canada, it debuted at the eighty-ninth position of the RPM singles chart on the week beginning 16 December 1996, a full month before it