Viva Forever the tour, the girls sang the radio edit of the song instead of the album version. Melanie Chisholm also sang "Spice Girls forever" rather than the original lyrics "viva forever" near the end of the song. "Viva Forever" was the group's last performance on television as a quintet, on "Top of the Pops", which was recorded on 21 May 1998, and broadcast on 5 June 1998. The show's producer, Chris Cowey, said that they originally intended to broadcast the performance in July but they pushed it given Halliwell's departure from the group. It was also the first song they performed
Say You'll Be There Spice, after the group, because it had never been used before. Together, they composed two songs in the session: "Love Thing" and "Say You'll Be There". Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins—the songwriters and production duo known as Absolute—produced the song and recorded it for the most part at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. At first, discussions were made about what song the group would release as their second single; originally it was going to be "Love Thing", but in the end they decided to go with "Say You'll Be There". In December 1996, while charting across Europe, "Say You'll Be