WOKE BBC bosses are now playing a censored version of the Spice Girls hit Spice Up Your Life which removes the word “yellow”.
In the 1997 No1, the group sing: “Yellow man in Timbuktu. Colour for both me and you.”
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But execs at Radio 2 have deemed it too offensive and when breakfast DJ Scott Mills played the song yesterday, “yellow” was taken out.
A music insider said: “Spice Up Your Life is a piece of pop music history — it’s baffling that the Beeb have decided to censor it.
“The [band] are singing in celebration of people from all walks of life. It’s clumsy but not insulting. There haven’t been calls to change it so it’s odd they have decided to do so.”
The Spice Girls are the biggest-selling girl group of all time with more than 100million record sales.
They reportedly considered replacing “yellow man” with “happy people” for their 2019 reunion tour but ultimately sang the original lyric.
Spice Up Your Life was also censored in a 2023 episode of Doctor Who called The Giggle, in which the characters talked over the line.
A Radio 2 spokeswoman said the edit was not made by them and is also played on other UK stations.
Radio 1 and 2 both now play an edited version of the 1987 Christmas hit Fairytale of New York, by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, which replaces a homophobic slur.
In 2022 a Radio 2 spokeswoman said: “We are reflecting what we are hearing back from many of our listeners who love the song, but find some of the lyrics jarring.”
At the weekend, fans criticised the Sex Pistols and new singer Frank Carter for changing the word “f****t” to “loser” in song New York.
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