The Spice Girls Biography

The Spice Girls’ charisma, cheery pop tunes and “girl power” philosophy made them music’s Next Big Thing in the 1990s.

The British band was created in 1994 by two would-be managers who advertised for women to form an all-girl group. The five winning applicants (who soon enough ditched the managers) each took nicknames: Sporty Spice (Melanie Chisholm, also known as Mel C, born January 12, 1974), Posh Spice (Victoria Adams, b. April 17, 1975), Ginger Spice (Geri Halliwell, also known as Sexy Spice, b. August 6, 1972), Baby Spice (Emma Bunton, b. January 21, 1976), and Scary Spice (Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B, b. May 29, 1975).

The group’s 1996 album Spice included the hit singles “WannaBe” and “Say You’ll Be There” and launched them to international fame. The Spice Girls hit the peak of their fame in 1997 with the release of a second album, Spiceworld, with the five women also starring in a jovial feature film of the same name. In 2011 the BBC reported that the band ultimately “sold 80 million records and had nine UK number one singles.”

Geri Halliwell left the Spice Girls in 1998 to go solo. The group continued on as a quartet, with the individual members also pursuing solo careers; “Posh Spice” Adams gained extra fame in 1999 when she married soccer star David Beckham. After releasing the album Forever in 2000, the Spice Girls disbanded in 2001.

All five original Spice Girls reunited for three months in 2007-2008 for an eight-country world concert tour that took in more than $100 million in ticket sales. They also gathered for a press event in 2012 to launch Viva Forever!, a musical based on Spice Girls songs. The show ran for seven months in 2012-13 at the Piccadilly Theater in London.