How Geri Halliwell’s fingerprints are all over Madonna’s biggest hit of the last 20 years

Madonna is preparing to embark on the U.S. leg of her Celebration Tour after wrapping up in Europe earlier this month. The Queen of Pop is performing some of her biggest hits from the last four decades, and fans have been gobbling it up.

The whole thing recently got us thinking about one of Madge’s biggest hits of the last 20 years and, in particular, the song’s accompanying music video, which seemed to draw inspiration from an unexpected pop artist. And, no, we’re not talking about ABBA.

Let’s dive in…

In November 2004, Geri Halliwell (a.k.a. Ginger Spice) released “Ride It” as the lead single off her her third solo album Passion. Though the song didn’t make much of an impact in the U.S., it peaked at #4 in the U.K. and reached #3 on the Spanish and Scottish charts.

The disco-infused dance track is filled with campy sexual innuendos, as Halliwell compares her lover to a DJ spinning records and croons about how much she wants to “ride” him, er… the beat?

“You’re a DJ, I’m a song/Take me out and turn me on/Let yourself go,
I’ll be ridin’ it/Chicas bumpin’ to the beat/From the side and underneath/Yeah, my body’s where this party’s at/I’ll be ridin’ it.”

To promote the single, Halliwell released an equally campy music video directed by Luca Tommassini. In one part, she dresses up like a police girl and spanks a shirtless male model with a truncheon before flashing her bra. In another, she twirls around in a pink nightie and shows off her matching pink underpants. And in another, she spins around on a giant record in a slinky dress. All of this is done under a halo of flashing pink and purple disco lights.

Watch.

So, how exactly does Madonna factor into all this?

Well, less than a year later, in September 2005, the Queen of Pop released “Hung Up” as the lead single off her tenth studio album Confessions on a Dance Floor. Almost immediately, the song became an international success, peaking at #1 in 41 countries and earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. 

To promote the single, Madonna also released a music video, directed by Johan Renck, which was surprisingly similar to Halliwell’s “Ride It” music video in terms of energy, imagery, and color pallette, although it’s wasn’t an exact copy.

Instead of wearing a pink nightie and underpants, for instance, Madonna dones a pink leotard and leggings. And instead of riding a giant record, she grinds against a boombox. She even uses similar choreography, most notably the arm rolls.

Watch.

Now, all this could easily a coincidence. Or not. Artists borrow from one another all the time, and there are plenty of early Madonna references in the “Ride It” video as well. Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.

Eight years earlier, Madonna expressed her fondness for the Spice Girls, telling Elle magazine in 1998, “They’re just running around having fun, wearing sexy clothes. I love them. I was a Spice Girl when I started out.”

Whether or not the Material Girl drew her inspiration from the Spice Girl’s video, we’ll never know, but we highly doubt Halliwell minded. She’s been a longtime fan of the Queen of Pop and even named her daughter Bluebell Madonna, telling Hello magazine in 2006, “No one else has that name, apart from the Virgin Madonna and the singer, whom I love.”

The U.S. leg of Madonna’s Celebration Tour kicks off in New York on December 13.

Related:

Dusting off this haunting, long-forgotten ballad by Madonna 36 years after its release

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