90’s Icon of the week: The Spice Girls

When it comes to 90’s icons, there’s a group of girls that owned the music space globally. That‘s right, this week’s 90’s icons are the one and only Spice Girls. Formed in 1994, the group originally consisted of Melanie Brown (“Scary Spice”), Melanie Chisholm “(Sporty Spice”), Emma Bunton (”Baby Spice”), Geri Halliwell (”Ginger Spice”), and Victoria Beckham, (”Posh Spice”). Releasing 3 albums, and 10 singles, the group has sold 90 million records worldwide, making them the best-selling female group of all time, one of the best-selling artists of all time, and the biggest British pop successes since The Beatles. 25 years later, the iconic group still has fans asking, “when is the reunion tour?” From that time they pinched Prince Charles’ butt, to the reunion tours, read all about our 90’s icon of the week.

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The Spice Girls released their debut single “Wannabe” in 1996, which hit number one in 37 countries, making them an international phenomenon. ‘Wannabe’ was and remains one of the catchiest songs in existence and is all about female empowerment and loyal friendships. Their debut album Spice sold more than 31 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. Their follow-up album Spiceworld sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The girls took it to the big screen with their 1997 movie “Spice World” which had the highest-ever weekend debut for Super Bowl weekend, making over $10 million at the box office.

The group had a short and intense time together as a 5 woman group before becoming a foursome. Less than 2 years after the release of Wannabe, Geri, (Ginger Spice) announced her departure in May 1998 during the middle of their Spiceworld Tour. Geri performed in Helsinki with the girls then was absent when they returned to the U.K. for an appearance on The National Lottery. “Unfortunately Geri’s not very well tonight,” Mel C, told the audience. Meanwhile, Geri was at her brother’s house in France keeping a low profile. The girls kept the show on the road and flew to Oslo without her and, on May 31, 1998, they announced that Geri had left the group, citing “differences between us,” per E!.

Rumors began flying about what caused the split, like a physical encounter on the plane. Some of the girls have talked about the split in their books. Victoria explained in her 2001 book Learning to Fly, “Everyone had their theories “like ”That there had been some great row on the flight back from Helsinki. That we‘d been hitting each other. The truth is that we’d all really had a laugh on that flight back... We didn’t know [why she took off].” “Geri Halliwell had left us totally in the lurch,” Victoria wrote, adding, “she was one of my best friends. And now she had walked out without a word. What I felt was anger at the selfishness of it all, then betrayal.” Geri acknowledged in her 2002 book Just for the Record that her departure “was sudden and the timing was far from ideal.”

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The group went on hiatus in 2000 and they all tried their best going solo. Since then they have done multiple reunions. Although all five of them are rarely together, they made the magic happen in 2007, with a hugely successful reunion tour. A few years later in 2012, they performed at the 2012 summer Olympics in London. And in 2019 they reunited for their fourth concert tour, without Victoria, who declined due to other commitments. But many were afraid the tour wouldn‘t go down after Mel B revealed she had a sexual encounter with Geri. “She’s going to hate me for this because she’s all posh in her country house and her husband. But it’s a fact,” Mel said in an interview for Piers Morgan’s Life Stories. Mel added, “Hopefully when Geri gets asked she won’t deny it because it was just a thing. It was not anything major. It was just a fun thing.” Unfortunately for Mel, Geri quickly denied it. “It has been very disappointing to read about all these rumors again, especially on Mother’s Day of all days,” a rep for Halliwell, said in a statement. “She would like [the fans] to know that what has been reported recently is simply not true and has been very hurtful to her family.” Thankfully, they worked it out, and the tour sold out 13 dates, earning $78.2 million in ticket sales, per Billboard.

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Over the years the girls have shared wild stories about their time and cleared up some of the rumors. Everyone lost it after reports that Geri pinched Prince Charles butt in London at the premiere of Spice World in 1997. But in 2016 Geri told The Times, “I didn’t pinch Prince Charles’s bum, as was reported. I patted it.” She added, ”Patting him on the bottom was against royal protocol but we‘re all human. It was the premiere of our film, Spice World, in the late Nineties. There was a lot of nervous energy – young women, happy antics.”

Now the “young women” are approaching 50. To mark their movie‘s upcoming 25th anniversary The Spice Girls are reportedly creating a sequel to the film. According to The Sun, everyone is tentatively in- except for Victoria. Victoria has shot down reunion rumors in the past and this time is no different. As reported by Metro, Victoria shared the story alongside the caption, “Has someone got something to tell me?!” adding a crying laughing emoji. If their 2021 reunion actually does happen, it could be the last. A source told The Sun, they are “approaching 50, so they want to get out while they still look great for the fans.” Time will tell if the rumors are fact or fiction.