They Spiced Up The World
In the 1990s, the Spice Girls became the biggest pop phenomenon in the world, turning “girl power” into tens of millions of record sales. But their domination of the music world was even shorter, stranger, and rockier than fans remember.
Photo by Rino Petrosino\Mondadori via Getty Images
1. They All Responded To The Same Ad
In February of 1994, father-and-son managers Bob and Chris Herbert took out an ad in the British trade paper The Stage: “R U 18–23 with the ability to sing/dance? R U streetwise, outgoing, ambitious and dedicated?” One month later, roughly 400 hopefuls poured into London’s Danceworks studios, ready to audition for the unique opportunity.
Only five would become Spice Girls.
2. Halliwell Almost Missed Her Audition
Geri Halliwell, who would become a fan favorite as “Ginger Spice”, almost never became a Spice Girl at all. And neither did Melanie Chisholm, the future “Sporty Spice”. Halliwell missed the first round of auditions while tonsillitis took out Chisholm. Fortunately for them both, Halliwell made it to the second round of auditions and even convinced the Herberts to give Chisholm another chance.
And with that, the biggest girl band in history began to take shape.
3. They Shacked Up Together
Bands don’t come together through a wanted ad—they only find harmonies through hardship. After the auditions, the Herberts selected their lineup: Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, and a fifth name you probably don’t recognize, Michelle Stephenson. For the rest of the year, the girls lived together, practicing their harmonies and dance moves.
Not all of the girls seemed to love the arrangement.
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4. They Lost A Spice Girl
Depending on who you ask, Michelle Stephenson either walked out of the house or had someone push her out. According to Stephenson, a sick relative and her studies precluded her commitment to the band. According to other sources, the Herberts didn’t think her heart was in it. Either way, vocal coach Pepi Lemer stepped up and offered the perfect candidate to replace Stephenson: Emma Bunton.
The band was complete—but not cohesive.
5. Sporty Spice Was Almost Too Spicy
Chisholm was very nearly the second member of the nascent girl band to get the boot—all because of her mouth. In the band’s early days, Chisholm let loose some choice four-letter words on a bandmate, causing an early rift in the group. Management was decisive: another bad word at any other bandmate, and she’d be singing the blues…alone.
Despite the tension, they were starting to look like a real band.
6. They Had An Identity Crisis
Naming the band was even harder than forming it. Originally, the Spice Girls might have been known to their fans as “Touch”. Then, a songwriting session for a track called “Sugar and Spice” gave them pause. However, a rapper had already claimed the name “Spice” while a racy adult website had dibs on “Spicy Girls”. But “Spice Girls”? That was wide open.
Even better than that, though, they were finally starting to work like a band.
7. They All Chipped In
The old adage goes something like this: “The band that mops together, mogs together”. Ok, that’s entirely made up, but it might be the secret to the Spice Girls’ future success. Emma Bunton (aka Baby Spice) later explained how the girls all lived together in the house: she and Melanie Brown did the cooking, Chisholm and Halliwell dragged out the garbage, and Victoria—yes, Posh Spice—was the one scrubbing the bathroom.
With all that hard work, they thought they were ready for the bright lights.
8. They Staged Their First Show
By late 1994, the Spice Girls were chomping at the bit to get out on stage and do what they knew they could. So, they reached out to Bob Herbert to have him arrange a December showcase for them. The response from the audience? “Overwhelmingly positive”. The Herberts, seeing their potential, quickly produced a binding contract but all five Spice Girls turned it down flat.
They knew their worth—and they weren’t going to settle.
9. They Took The Master Records
Songwriter and producer Matt Rowe had been in attendance at the Spice Girls’ December showcase—and he was impressed. The next month, he sat down with the Spice Girls and produced “Wannabe” and “2 Become 1”. And they really were becoming one. Just two months later, the Spice Girls walked out on Heart Management, taking the master records of their future hits with them.
They really did have all of the “girl power”—and they weren’t afraid to use it.
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10. They Signed A Big Deal
Free from Heart Management, the Spice Girls took their time finding a new management company. This time, they settled with Simon Fuller at 19 Entertainment—and they chose right. By July of 1995, Fuller had every major record label vying to sign the Spice Girls. Ultimately, the band chose Virgin records and then immediately flew off to Los Angeles to hunt down opportunities.
But they already had everything they needed right at home.
11. They “Wannabe” Music Video Stars
The Spice Girls wrote their debut hit single in 20 minutes—and filmed the video in even less time. “Wannabe”, one of the songs from their session with Rowe, had a flash of genius but Virgin Records balked at the video. One nearly four-minute continuous take, shot on a freezing London night at a hotel. The Spice Girls refused to reshoot the video—and they were right to.
The scrappy video went on to win an MTV Video Music Award in 1997.
12. They Topped The Charts And Broke A Record
Released on July 8, 1996, “Wannabe” introduced the world to the girl band that had been taking shape in the shadows. The track hit the charts at the number three spot before rocketing to the top, reaching number on in more than three dozen countries. “Wannabe” wasn’t just a debut—it was a statement that became the best-selling single for any all-female group. Ever.
But who really were these new superstars?
13. They Each Got A Nickname
Believe it or not, “Posh”, “Baby”, “Sporty”, “Ginger”, and “Scary” weren’t some marketing agency’s brainchild. In 1996, a writer at Top of the Pops magazine matched each Spice Girl with a moniker to fit her persona, never intending it as anything official. But the names struck a chord with the rapidly-growing Spice Girls fanbase and stuck like glue.
What option did the Spice Girls have but to adopt them? Their new names were already everywhere anyway.
14. They Caused A Mania
When their debut album Spice landed in November of 1996, Britain lost its collective mind. The record moved nearly two million copies in less than two months—numbers no British act had posted since the Beatles. When it was all said and done, Spice sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, the most ever for an all-female group.
“Beatlemania” was over. The “Fab Five” had just launched “Spicemania”.
Michael Stephens - PA Images, Getty Images
15. They Were Just Like The Jacksons
Spice didn’t have a single dud on it. All five of its singles—“Wannabe”, “Say You’ll Be There”, “2 Become 1”, “Mama”, and “Who Do You Think You Are”—hit number one in the UK. That year, the Spice Girls claimed three of the five best-selling records. That put the emerging girl band into a rarefied level of stardom not seen since the Jackson 5.
They weren’t just setting music trends either.
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16. Ginger Spice Spiced Up The Union Jack
Halliwell’s outfit for the 1997 Brit Awards was supposed to be a plain black dress—then she got out her sewing kit. When the band stepped on stage to perform “Who Do You Think You Are”, Halliwell had stitched a Union Jack onto the front and a peace sign onto the back. Harper’s Bazaar raved about the look, calling it “one of the most memorable fashion moments of all time”.
A year later, the dress fetched nearly $70,000 at auction. Not that the Spice Girls needed the cash.
17. They Made Millions—And Then Millions More
The Spice Girls sold a lot more than records. Seeking to capitalize on the tidal wave that was Spicemania, Fuller lined up more than 20 endorsement deals with the likes of Pepsi, Cadbury, Walkers, and Polaroid wanting to spice up their brand. Fans could buy Spice Girls everything: dolls, games, even deodorant. The estimated revenue generated by their merchandising empire? An estimated $500–800 million.
With that kind of money came some very fancy invitations.
18. They Kissed A Prince And Found A Prince Charming
The Spice Girls might have been a little too spicy for the British royals. While performing at a charity show for the Prince’s Trust, Brown and Halliwell each kissed Prince Charles’ cheeks before Halliwell pinched his royal behind. Funny enough, that happened to be the same day that Posh Spice found her own prince charming: footballer David Beckham.
They were about to score a goal of their own.
19. They Spiced It Up Some More
October of 1997 was when the Spice Girls learned just how universal “Spicemania” really was. Hot off the success of their record-breaking fifth consecutive chart-topping single, “Spice Up Your Life”, the girls held their first big concert in Istanbul in front of 40,000 fans. When their tour took them to South Africa, they met their number one fan: Nelson Mandela, who declared, “These are my heroes”.
He wasn’t kidding, either.
20. They Had A Very Famous Fan
Nelson Mandela might actually have been the Spice Girls’ number one fan and he wasn’t joking when he called them his heroes. The legendary South African figure later said that his 1997 meeting with the Spice Girls was one of his fondest memories. He invited the Spice Girls to his 89th and 90th birthday parties, but prior engagements meant they couldn’t attend.
They had a much bigger date on the horizon anyway.
John Stillwell - PA Images, Getty Images
21. They Spiced The World
November of 1997—that’s when the entire planet entered Spiceworld. The girl group’s second album shipped seven million copies in its first two weeks, outpacing every record ever sold. It eventually cleared 14 million worldwide and gave the Spice Girls their seventh consecutive chart-topping single with “Too Much”. With all that success, who needed a manager?
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22. They Ditched Their Manager
The 1997 MTV Europe Music Awards was the backdrop for the Spice Girls’ surprise coup. After snagging the award for Best Group and performing “Spice Up Your Life”, the girls packed their bags, crammed into Halliwell’s car, and simply took off. That’s how the band’s manager, Fuller, learned that the Spice Girls had fired him.
He wasn’t the only manager left in the Spice Girls’ dust.
23. They Were Cowell’s Biggest Blunder
Legendary record executive Simon Cowell missed his opportunity to launch the Spice Girls. According to Cowell, by the time he had offered the Spice Girls a deal, it was already too late. But that’s not how Beckham remembered it. As Posh Spice recalled, Cowell had made the biggest mistake of his life by rejecting the Spice Girls altogether.
They would reach new heights, with or without Cowell.
24. They Filmed A Busted Blockbuster
When the Spice Girls released their feature film, Spice World, in December of 1997, three princes attended the premiere—Charles, William, and Harry. However, the film received a less-than-royal welcome from film critics, ultimately netting seven Razzies nominations. Of course, that didn’t stop the band’s fans from turning the film into a $100 million box office sensation.
You might say that they were kicking backsides.
25. Baby Spice Couldn’t Beat The Heat
Baby Spice was the cute and harmless Spice Girl—or so everyone thought. Turns out, Bunton was something of a karate master. When it came time to film the video for “Say You’ll Be There”, Bunton trained the other Spice Girls on how to throw a punch and launch a kick. But there was one thing she couldn’t beat: sunstroke.
Training her fellow Spice Girls in the heat of the Mojave Desert left Bunton exhausted and she collapsed from sunstroke. Of course, she didn’t stay down for long.
26. They Toured The World
Spicemania went global in early 1998. Kicking off their Spiceworld Tour in Dublin, Ireland, the Spice Girls put on nearly 100 shows, selling out performances all over the world. When it was all said and done, they had performed for over two million screaming fans and raked in anywhere between $220 and $250 million, setting yet another record.
And then it all came to a sudden and surprising end.
27. Ginger Spice Broke Up The Band
For two years, the Spice Girls had been everywhere—the music charts, the box office, the small screen, stadiums, you name it. And finally, by mid-1998, one Spice Girl had had enough. “I’m gonna say bye for now, girls”. That’s what Halliwell told her bandmates as she announced that she would be stepping away from the group, claiming “exhaustion” and “disillusionment”.
But that wasn’t the real reason for her sudden and unexpected departure.
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28. Ginger Spice Was All About “Girl Power”
“Girl power” was the secret ingredient in the Spice Girls’ success and no one had more of it than Halliwell. In a 2019 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Halliwell explained what “girl power” really meant. “For me, if you look it up, it means equalisation,” she said. “Forget about labels, it’s about embracing everyone’s individuality and giving them the opportunity and gender equality and pushing that forward”.
That made her departure back in 1998 all the more mysterious.
Richard Goldschmidt, www.piqtured.com, Wikimedia Commons
29. Ginger Spice Wanted Her Girl Power Back
In a later interview, Halliwell revealed the real reason that she broke up history’s most successful girl group. According to Halliwell, the band’s management had prevented her from speaking up about chest cancer. In other words, they tried to take her “girl power” from her. Given her passion for the cause, she chose to stand up for women and strike out on her own.
Thankfully, the other Spice Girls vowed to keep the hits coming. Plus, they had some new members.
30. They Had Little Spices
The band was already on shaky ground before Halliwell’s departure. On their final American tour date, Brown and Beckham were carrying secrets: the family kind. Scary Spice and Posh Spice had both become pregnant, pickle cravings and all. Their babies arrived less than two weeks apart in early 1999, with Brown giving birth to her first daughter and Beckham to her first son.
Before the diapers, though, the four remaining Spice Girls wanted to sing goodbye.
31. They Sang Their Goodbye
The next single from the Spice Girls was, fittingly, a kind of farewell. The Fab Five were down to four, but their emotional track “Goodbye” struck a chord with fans reeling from Halliwell’s departure and soared to the top of the UK charts. Not since the Beatles had another group achieved three consecutive number one Christmas singles.
Their next celebration wouldn’t be on the charts. It would be in a castle.
32. Posh Spice Had A Posh Wedding
The Spice Girls continued going their separate ways—and Posh Spice did it in style. In July of 1999, Beckham proved that she really was posh when she married footballer David Beckham at the historic Luttrellstown Castle in Ireland. The whole affair reportedly cost more than £500,000 and came complete with golden thrones for the newlyweds.
The band’s fairy tale was, sadly, coming to an end.
Tony Harris - PA Images, Getty Images
33. Their Third Time Was Not The Charm
There wouldn’t be a happily ever after for the Spice Girls. When they released their third—and ultimately their last—album, Forever, in late 2000, fans and critics barely reacted. Despite producing yet another number one single, the album itself had to take second place on the charts and only sold about four million copies.
Spicemania was ending—and the Spice Girls knew it.
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34. They Took An Indefinite Vacation
Despite their record-breaking success between 1996 and 2000, the Spice Girls never really got the credit they deserved. They did win the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, becoming the youngest to receive the honor, but the Grammys snubbed them their entire career. And, with dwindling record sales, they knew it was over.
Just one month after releasing Forever, the Spice Girls announced they would be taking an indefinite hiatus.
35. Posh Spice Was Almost Tomb Raider Spice
The Spice Girls insisted that their hiatus was not the end—just a break. But the girls lost no time looking for other work. Beckham, for example, tried her hand at becoming a serious actress, auditioning for the role of Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider franchise. Alas, the role would ultimately go to Angelina Jolie.
The other Spice Girls had some soul searching to do.
36. Ginger Spice Had Troubles From The Beginning
Before she found fame as Ginger Space, Halliwell had a different career, hosting the Turkish version of Let’s Make a Deal. Even that level of fame appears to have been hard for her to handle. For years, Halliwell had battled an eating disorder that saw her total weight dip below 100 pounds. It wasn’t until her friend, pop star Robbie Williams, intervened that she finally recovered.
She wasn’t the only Spice Girl with a dark secret.
Brian Minkoff- London Pixels, Wikimedia Commons
37. Sporty Spice Was Actually Sporty—Too Sporty
The Spice Girls were going their separate ways—and Sporty Spice’s direction was straight down. Just as the band was breaking up, doctors diagnosed Chisholm with depression that manifested as an obsession with exercise and severe dieting. “I’d hammered the gym for three hours a day,” Chisholm told Contact Music. “It was a way of running away, not thinking. I felt like a robot”.
Thankfully, she made a full recovery and got ready to rock and roll.
Sven Mandel, Wikimedia Commons
38. Sporty Spice Just Wanted To Rock Out
Sporty Spice’s solo career got off to a rocky start. Performing at a music festival, her adoring fans expected to hear the Spice Girls’ familiar pop sound. Instead, they got Chisholm’s edgy rock and roll—and revolted. They pelted her with fruits, cereal, and even, allegedly, pee. But she took it all in stride, saying that the adversity made her stronger.
Plus, she was accustomed to dealing with mean, "scary" people.
Raimond Spekking, Wikimedia Commons
39. Sporty Spice Had Bad Memories
In 2016, Chisholm refused an opportunity to perform with the other Spice Girls, even after the event organizers offered her £2 million. Her reason? Chisholm claimed that she had “bad memories” of her Spice Girls days. And fans who listened carefully to her lyrics knew why. With a simple nod, Chisholm confirmed that Scary Spice had actually been scary, bullying her during their time together in the band.
Seems like Scary Spice had favorites.
Wer-Al Zwowe, Wikimedia Commons
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40. Scary Spice Got A Little Ginger
Brown had been open about her preferences—she liked both men and women. But, in a 2019 interview with Piers Morgan, she shocked Spice Girls fans when she revealed one of her romantic partners: Geri Halliwell. Brown shrugged it off as “a little thing”, saying “we giggled about it the next day”. Halliwell, on the other hand, wasn’t giggling and said that Brown’s claims were “hurtful to her family”.
Scary Spice just couldn’t avoid controversies.
Eva Rinaldi, Wikimedia Commons
41. Scary Spice Had Eddie Murphy’s Baby
Even Brown’s love life came with controversy baked in. Her first husband was Jimmy Gulzar, a dancer from the Netherlands. The marriage lasted just two years—1998 to 2000—but gave Brown her first daughter. By 2007, Brown had welcomed another daughter and made headlines when she named comedian Eddie Murphy as the father. But Murphy wasn’t so sure.
A judge ordered a DNA test that confirmed Brown’s claims. Despite their disputes, Brown would go on to describe Murphy as “the love of her life”. Sadly, the love of her life wasn’t the man she married next.
David Shankbone, Wikimedia Commons
42. Scary Spice Had A Scarier Marriage
Brown married again in 2007, this time to a film producer named Stephen Belafonte—and it took until 2018, and her memoir Brutally Honest, for the details to emerge. The tell-all book painted a grim picture: substances she never wanted, mistreatment behind closed doors, and a spiral so dark that, in December 2014, Brown tried to take her own life.
Finding the courage to move on would not come easy.
43. Scary Spice Spent All Of Her Spice Girl Money
By 2017, Scary Spice had had enough of her marital horrors and walked away. But Belafonte wasn’t letting her go that easily. He claimed that Brown had been the bad spouse and that she had “wiped out all her Spice Girls money—approximately $50 million, if not more”. But Brown came out on top: a patron’s role at Women’s Aid, and an MBE from the Crown in 2022.
Meanwhile, Posh Spice had been quietly building a legacy of her own.
44. Posh Spice Actually Became Quite Posh
When, in 2001, her debut self-titled solo album flopped, Beckham traded her microphone for a measuring tape. By 2008, she had her own label and within three years it was the UK’s Designer Brand of the Year and a favorite amongst the elite at New York Fashion Week. Yet, somehow, for 14 straight years, the label hemorrhaged money.
The brand didn’t turn a profit until 2022. Fashion, it turns out, had always been in the Spice Girls’ DNA.
Daniele Venturelli, Getty Images
45. They Dressed For Their Fans
Beckham made a name for herself in high fashion, but that was a clear departure from the Spice Girls’ legacy. For all the platform boots and Union Jack dresses, at the height of their popularity, the Spice Girls had never dressed to impress. They kept their wardrobes deliberately affordable and attainable because they wanted any fan, rich or poor, to be able to copy their look.
That loyalty to their fans would pay off. Spectacularly.
MJ Kim/Spice Girls LLP, Getty Images
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46. Their Reunion Sold Out In A Minute
Spicemania came back in full force on June 28, 2007. All five Spice Girls held a press conference to make a major announcement: the Return of the Spice Girls Tour was on. In 38 of the fastest seconds in music history, the group’s first London concert sold out completely. Even when they added another 16 London shows to the tour, every ticket was gone in less than a minute.
Eagle-eyed fans, however, noticed something odd about the setlist.
Eric Mutrie from Canada, Wikimedia Commons
47. Posh Spice Strutted The Stage
The setlist for the Return of the Spice Girls Tour celebrated each member’s post-hiatus success by giving them a solo to perform. Well—almost. Beckham, whose solo music career had flopped, had another way of celebrating her post-Spice Girls wins. When her spotlight came, she worked the stage like a Milan runway instead, strutting from one end to the other.
Whatever they were doing on stage, it was working—really well.
48. Their Reunion Made Them Rich
When the Spice Girls’ reunion tour kicked off in Vancouver, it opened the floodgates for all of that late-1990s nostalgia. And what came rushing through was a tsunami of money: $107.2 million in tickets and merchandise, $200 million once the sponsors chipped in. The overwhelming response made it the highest-grossing concert between 2007 and 2008.
Behind the scenes, though, the good times were already running out.
49. They Were Too Spicy For Each Other
Just two months after the Spice Girls had reunited, they were already breaking up—though no one knew why. In February of 2008, they pulled the plug on their wildly popular comeback, cancelling shows from Beijing to Buenos Aires, Sydney to Cape Town. The rumor mill got to work, speculating that too much time on the road had turned the bandmates against one another.
It wouldn’t be the last Spice Girls venture to end in disappointment.
MJ Kim/Spice Girls LLP, Getty Images
50. Their Musical Flopped—And They Knew It Would
If ABBA could spin their songbook into Mamma Mia!, why couldn’t the Spice Girls turn their chart-toppers into a “girl power” production? At least, that was the thinking behind Viva Forever!, an original story stitched together from the band’s biggest hits that debuted in London’s West End in late 2012. Unlike the songs themselves, the play got shredded by the critics and it closed down after seven months.
Brown later revealed that she and the other Spice Girls had envisioned something different. Fortunately, 2012 gave Spice Girls fans something else to cheer about.
51. They Dominated The Olympics
The whole world got one more look at the Spice Girls on August 12, 2012. The London Olympics saved them for the closing ceremony, where they brought the roof down with “Wannabe” and “Spice Up Your Life”. Social media melted down—fans fired off more than 116,000 tweets per minute at the peak, a record for the entire Games.
No one knew it then, but all five Spice Girls would never sing together again.
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52. They Toured Without Posh Spice
When the Spice Girls announced another reunion tour in late 2018, fans spotted a hole in the lineup. Brown, Chisholm, Bunton, and Halliwell all signed on for the Spice World – 2019 Tour and collected a cool £12 million apiece. But that apparently wasn’t enough to pull Posh Spice away from running her fashion empire.
Pressed on her absence by Ellen DeGeneres, Beckham dodged an outright controversy: “It just didn’t feel like the right thing to do. I’ll always be Posh Spice, always”.
53. They Are All About Nostalgia
With or without Posh Spice, the Spice Girls delivered “girl power” like it was still 1998. After a string of successful performances, they ended their comeback with three nights at London’s Wembley Stadium. There weren’t any new Spice Girls tracks, but that’s not what the 221,971 fans bought tickets for anyway. “As nostalgia tours go,” The Guardian wrote, “this could hardly have been bettered”.
Which begged the question: would they ever do it again?
54. They Probably Won’t Be Back
Decades have passed since “Wannabe” made the Spice Girls national treasures. So, when the group’s 30th anniversary came around, questions came up. Music fans and the media all wanted to know: when would the Spice Girls be back? Sadly, Chisholm didn’t give them the answer they wanted. There were, Chisholm confirmed, no plans to bring the band back together.
Then again, the Spice Girls have surprised us before.
Jeroen Kuipers, Wikimedia Commons
