"Mama" is a pop ballad that features instrumentation from keyboards, a rhythm guitar, a cello, and a violin, and its lyrics deal with the difficulties in relationships between mothers and daughters that appear during their childhood.

[1][2] During the writing process, each member wrote a small verse in a different corner of the recording studio, while the chorus was finished around the piano with a guitar.

'"[4] "Mama" was released in the UK and Ireland as a double A-side along with "Who Do You Think You Are" in March 1997, timed not only for the Comic Relief telethon, but also for Mothering Sunday.

[5] The song is constructed in a verse-chorus form, with a bridge before the third chorus,[5] and its instrumentation comes from keyboards, a rhythm guitar, a cello, and a violin.

[9] Edna Gundersen of the USA Today said that their album Spice "is assembly-line dance-pop", adding that "only the funky 'Say You'll Be There' and touchingly cornball 'Mama' hint at depth".

[10] In a review of their album Spice, Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly called it "a fearlessly corny ballad", and added that it "will likely keep them from being one-hit wonders in America".

[11] Melissa Ruggieri of the Richmond Times-Dispatch said that in the song, the girls "are sunny vocalists who harmonize with perfumey sweetness when called upon".

[14] It debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number one on Mother's Day,[15] with sales of 248,000 copies,[16] becoming the group's fourth consecutive chart-topper.

It became the group's third number-one single in Ireland,[20] and peaked inside the top ten in Belgium (both the Flemish and French charts), Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland.

[26] The music video for "Mama" was directed in February 1997 by Big TV!, and filmed in a studio in Ealing, London.

Whereas the re-edited version pans to the girls already sat in a circle on stage, along with a slide show displaying photos of the real band members as children.

[4] The song was performed many times on television, including An Audience with..., Live & Kicking, Top of the Pops, the 1997 Prince's Trust Gala, and the 1997 Comic Relief.

[28][29][30][31] In October 1997, the group performed it as the thirteenth song of their first live concert at the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey.

The performance was broadcast on Showtime in a pay-per-view event titled Spice Girls In Concert Wild!.

[34] In the scene, the group performs "Mama" at London's Royal Albert Hall, surrounded by the media and thousands of fans.

[36][37][38][39] It remained in the group's live set after Halliwell's departure at the end of the European leg of the Spiceworld Tour.

The performance at the tour's final concert can be found on the video: Spice Girls Live at Wembley Stadium, filmed in London, on 20 September 1998.