Melanie
Brown (Mel B aka Scary Spice) (1975)
Melanie
Chisholm (Melanie C aka Sporty Spice) (1974)
Emma
Burton (Baby Spice) (1976)
Geri
Halliwell (Ginger Spice) (1972)
Victoria
Beckham (Posh Spice) (1974)
Where were we? Oh, right. A band
formed out of central casting.
If they gave awards for band casting, the
Herberts would be unbeatable. The debut
single for the Spice Girls, “Wannabe”
(co-written by the Spice Girls), reached #1
all around the world and the album it came
from - “Spice” - sold 23 million copies.
Yowza.
The Spice Girls and their songs were very much
about girl empowerment (their slogan was “girl
power,” after all). They wanted to call
the shots, and they wanted their demands and
needs met. Just like men. Imagine
that.
The
next few years of unimaginable success were
intense -- both the work load and the tabloid
attention. It was the tabloids that gave
them those nicknames: Posh, Scary, Baby,
Sporty, Ginger.
But
the lead up to their fame is a much more
fascinating tale and a testament to “girl
power.”
Once
the quintet was through the extended and
arduous auditions for the group (which was to
be called “Touch”), the five were given vocal
lessons, songwriting lessons (they would go on
to co-write most of their songs), etc.
All the while, they kept waiting for the
Herbert’s management company, Heart, to
present them with a contract.
But Heart kept delaying and dithering.
There were secret tryouts of the group for
industry insiders, and when the cumulative
results were overwhelmingly positive, a
contract was finally drafted and presented to
the ladies.
Upon legal advice, they declined to sign it
and put themselves on the open market,
selecting Simon Fuller for management.
Many
record labels were eager to sign them, and the
Spice Girls eventually made a deal with Virgin
Records. Presumably a very favorable
contract. Girl Power! Or more
precisely: Spice Girl Power!
“Wannabe” was the first of a cascade of giant
pop hits. Then came:
Say
You'll Be There
followed
by:
2
Become 1
(with
most of the filming done on location in
New York City)
The press compared the frenzy for the group
to Beatlemania and termed it
“Spicemania.”
The Spice Girls became fashion icons.
Especially memorable was Geri Halliwell’s
Union Jack dress.
Union
Jack Dress
The
Spice Girls had a cornucopia of brand-name
sponsorship deals, a publishing deal for
their best-selling book, Girl
Power, and roles in a movie all
about them, "Spice World."
They
soon felt that their management company was
overworking them into exhaustion. In a
response very much in light pop music mode,
the Spice Girls wrote and recorded:
Stop
By
1998, exhaustion (and creative
differences) led to Halliwell’s departure
from the group, and, two years later, the
group disbanded (for the moment).
All
five Spice Girls have gone on to
successful solo careers, as singers and as
judges on popular talent TV shows.
Victoria (now married to soccer star David
Beckham) is a very successful dress
designer.
The group reunited in 2007 for an
international tour (which reportedly paid
them $20 million each).
And
the group memorably got back together
again for the Closing Ceremony of the
London Olympics in 2012.
Spice
Girls at Closing Ceremony
Their
performance was tweeted more times than
the Queen’s bit with Daniel Craig as James
Bond:
James
Bond and The Queen
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