Spice Girls

Spice Girls are a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group comprised five members, who each later adopted nicknames initially ascribed to them: Melanie Chisholm ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Melanie Brown ("Scary Spice"), Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"), and Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"). They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30 countries and helped establish the group as a global phenomenon. Credited for being the pioneers that paved the way for the commercial breakthrough of teen pop in the late 1990s, their debut album, Spice, sold more than 28 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in music history. They have sold over 75 million records worldwide, making them the best-selling female group of all time. Measures of their success include international record sales, a 2007–2008 reunion tour, merchandising, record-breaking achievements, iconic symbolism such as Geri Halliwell's Union Jack dress, representing "Girl Power", a box-office film, Spice World, and their internationally recognised nicknames. The group became one of the most successful marketing engines ever, with their global grosses estimated at $500–800 million between 1996 and 1998, and the group earned up to $75 million per year.. The Spice Girls became media icons in Great Britain and a regular feature of the British press; during the peak of their worldwide fame in 1997, the paparazzi were constantly seen following them everywhere, to obtain stories and gossip about the group, as a supposed affair between Emma Bunton and manager Simon Fuller, or constant split rumours which became fodder for numerous tabloids. Rumours of in-fighting and conflicts within the group also have hit the headlines, specially between Geri Halliwell and Mel B; the rumours suggested that they were fighting to be the leader of the group. Mel B, who later admits that she used to be a "bitch" with Geri, said the problems had stayed in the past. The rumours reached their height, when the Spice Girls dismissed their manager Simon Fuller during the power struggles, with Fuller reportedly receiving a 10 million pound severance cheque to keep quiet about the details of his sacking. Months later, in May 1998, Halliwell would leave the band, in the middle of rumours of fight with Mel B, the news of Halliwell's departure was covered as a major news story by media around the world, and became the biggest entertainment news stories of the year.. In February 1997 in the Brit Awards Geri's Union Jack dress from Spice Girls live performance created phenomenal attention and subsequently made all the front pages the next day. During the ceremony, Geri's breasts were exposed twice causing controversy. This would not be the only such exhibition published of Geri, because during the year the release of nude photos of Halliwell that she posed for earlier in her career caused some scandal. According to the documentary Giving You Everything, the rest of the Spices confessed that they knew about the photos before they were famous, but when the photos were published they created problems and friction inside the group during these years, but the issue never went away....
read more (wikipedia)