Spice Girls back in 1997

Spice Girls 2007 announcing their Reunion Tour Dates

The Spice Girls
The Spice Girls signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe", in 1996. The song went on to spend seven weeks atop the UK Singles Chart and helped establish the group as an "international phenomenon" who went on to release three studio albums and ten singles, selling in excess of 53 million records world wide.

The group embraced merchandise and became a regular feature of the British press. Each member of the group was given an alias by Top of the Pops Magazine in 1996, aliases which were adopted by the group and media alike. According to biographer David Sinclair, "Scary, Baby, Ginger, Posh and Sporty were the most widely recognised group of individuals since John, Paul, George and Ringo", stating that the group was "a social phenomenon that changed the course of popular music and popular culture".

The Spice Girls released three studio albums and went their separate ways in 2001 (a break-up was never formally announced) to focus on their solo careers. On June 28, 2007, they reformed and are now planning a greatest hits album, plus a tour, The Return of the Spice Girls, which will be in support of their hits compilation.

All five of The Spice Girls went on to pursue solo careers, Geri Halliwell being the first, releasing her debut album "Schizophonic" in May 1999 and going on to sell over two million copies worldwide, in 2001, Halliwell released her second album preceded by her single, "It's Raining Men", a cover of the The Weather Girls hit song, the single went on to become the second best seller in the world with over four million copies sold becoming the best selling single by a solo Spice. After that, Halliwell became one of the judges on UK Reality television show, Popstars: The Rivals and released her third album, failing to chart inside the UK top forty, Halliwell has not made plans for recording anything else as a solo artist.

Melanie C followed the same year with her album "Northern Star", at first the album had started with relatively low sales, but when her singles "Never Be The Same Again" (duet with Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes") and "I Turn To You" became hits around the world the album went on to sell over three million copies becoming the best selling album by a solo spice. Melanie C's sophomore album, "Reason" was not as successful and she and Virgin Records parted ways that year, she then started her own record label, Red Girl Records and releasing her third solo album through it, "Beautiful Intentions" in 2005, sales of the album started low, but when she released her single "First Day Of My Life" in Europe later that year, the song became a number-one hit in Germany, Switzerland and Spain and made the top ten elsewhere making the album re-enter the charts and eventually outselling her previous album. Mel C is currently promoting her fourth album, "This Time" which was released in early 2007.

Melanie B was the third Spice Girl to release her solo album, even though, she was the first to release a solo single. Her debut album "Hot" was released with little success in late 2000, the album's lead single, "Tell Me" became a top five hit in the United Kingdom, but it failed to make an impact elsewhere, sales for the album were disappointing selling a total of 52,000 copies in the United Kingdom and less than 250,000 worldwide. Brown was later dropped from Virgin Records and disappeared from the spotlight for years until she announced the release of her second album, "L.A. State of Mind", she stated that the album was not meant to be a commercial success and was just made as "present to the fans".When the album was finally released in the summer of 2005, the album debuted outside the top 400 in the UK Albums Chart, making it the lowest chart position for a Spice album with sales of a little over 670 copies the album went unnoticed. In 2006 Brown started dating Eddie Murphy and after a highly publicised break-up the couple had a child, Brown later married long term friend Stephen Belafonte.

Victoria Beckham released her first solo single: "Out Of Your Mind", a collaboration with the Garage act the Truesteppers and Dane Bowers in August 2000. The week of release coincided with the release of "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" by Spiller ft. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, resulting in a chart battle dubbed 'Posh vs. Posher' by the tabloids. Following a huge publicity campaign, "Out Of Your Mind" was outsold by 20,000 copies and debuted at number two with first week sales of 180,584 copies, in 2001 she became the last Spice Girl to release a solo album when she signed a recording contract with her group label Virgin Records. Her true debut single as a solo artist, "Not Such An Innocent Girl", was released in September 2001. Again, she faced competition in another hugely hyped chart battle, this time with Kylie Minogue's single "Can't Get You Out Of My Head". Despite huge promotion and an expensive and futuristic video Beckham was massively outsold. In the week of release, the tabloid newspaper The Sun ran a daily progress chart covering the chart battle, but they gave up half way through the week when it was clear the battle was a one horse race. A potential factor attributable to Beckham's weaker sales could be the due to the media furor she created after wearing a fake lip ring during a live performance in Birmingham,. She was widely criticised by many groups, including the British Dental Association, for setting a bad example that her younger fans may wish to emulate, Beckhams debut album became a top ten hit, but it only went on to sell 52,000 copies in the United Kingdom and half a million worldwide. After the relative failure in her solo career Beckham decided to focus in fashion and later in 2007, she moved with Los Angeles with her husband David Beckham and their children.

Emma Bunton Biography
Emma Lee Bunton (born 21 January 1976) is best known for being a member of the successful '90s girl group, Spice Girls. Emma was known as "Baby Spice", in the group, as she was the youngest member, had an "innocent" demeanour, and often wore "baby doll" dresses.

Emma Bunton was born in Finchley and grew up in Woodside Park, both in Barnet, London. Her parents, Pauline, a karate instructor, and Trevor, a milkman, split up when she was eleven, and she stayed with her mother. She has a younger brother, Paul James. She attended St Theresa's Roman Catholic Primary School in Finchley, and then went on to go to the Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, Westminster. In 1993, she appeared in the on-going ITV1's police drama series The Bill, and also auditioned (although unsuccessfully) for the role of Bianca, later to be played by Patsy Palmer, in the BBC's soap opera EastEnders.

Music career
She joined the Spice Girls (then still called Touch) in 1994 after the original fifth Touch member, Michelle Stephenson, left the group. The group became one of the most successful musical artists of the 1990s selling thirty-five million albums with the studio releases Spice (1996), Spiceworld (1997), and Forever (2000). Emma was known as Baby Spice because she often wore baby doll dresses and had her blonde hair in pigtails. Their debut single, "Wannabe", became the first of a string of number ones in the United Kingdom (nine in total) and reached the top position in thirty-seven countries around the globe, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the U.S. In 1999, she presented her own music show entitled Emma on VH1. The Spice Girls stopped recording in 2000. Many rumours circulated about a reunion for the group's tenth anniversary, but nothing materialised until June 2007, when they reformed for a Spice Girls reunion tour and Best Hits CD.

Going Solo
Emma's debut solo album entitled A Girl Like Me spawned the UK number-one hit "What Took You So Long?" as well as the top five hits "What I Am" (a cover of a 1988 song earlier recorded by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians) and "Take My Breath Away" (which has nothing to do with Berlin's 1986 hit), and the top twenty hit "We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight". The album sold approximately 125,000 copies in the UK. Due to the disappointing sales of the project, Bunton parted with Virgin in 2002.

Emma then signed a contract with Spice Girls' manager Simon Fuller's 19 Management and a complex licensing deal with Polydor Records, which included TV work and releasing music. In the spring of 2003, she returned as Emma (losing the Bunton), with the top five hit "Free Me" and later that year released "Maybe", which also went top ten. In the spring of 2004, the single "I'll Be There" and the album Free Me were released. The album contained '60s-style pop gems and outsold her first album. Free Me was released in the United States on 25 January 2005, but it didn't manage to chart on the U.S. Billboard 200 despite her appearances on major U.S. talk shows such as The View, Live with Regis and Kelly, and The Tony Danza Show to promote the album. She also made a number of promotional appearances for album signings in the U.S., including the gay bar XL Lounge, in New York City. Her first single released in the U.S. was a dance remix of the album's title track, which reached the top five of both the Hot Dance Club Play and the Hot Dance Airplay. "Maybe" also followed the success of "Free Me" on the U.S. dance chart.

In November 2006, Emma released the official charity single for the BBC Children in Need appeal, recording a cover of Petula Clark's '60s classic "Downtown". It peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart and was followed by her third studio album, Life in Mono, released on 4 December. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number sixty-five, selling approximately 13,000 copies in its first week. To date, it has sold more than 45,000 copies in the UK. The second single from it was "All I Need to Know", released on 12 February 2007, intended for the Valentine's Day market. Bunton shot the video around Old Street in East London, in the week before Christmas 2006. Entering the UK Singles Chart at number sixty, "All I Need to Know" became Emma's lowest-charting single of her solo career.

Television and film

In October 2006, Bunton appeared as one of the celebrity contestants in the autumn 2006 series of the popular BBC programme Strictly Come Dancing and was partnered with professional dancer Darren Bennett. Despite being the bookies' favourite, she was placed third overall, and was the final female contestant to be eliminated.

Emma has also appeared in other roles in recent years, most notably in the fifth and final season of Absolutely Fabulous playing herself in a couple of episodes. She has also guest-presented the television programmes SM:TV Live, T4 and hosted her own show Emma for VH1. In August 2006, former Spice Girls' manager Simon Fuller announced that he was planning a television sitcom based around Bunton.

In 2005, Emma filmed guest roles in two Bollywood films: Pyaar Mein Twist and Chocolate. Emma has won the lead female role of The Pink Panther 2 and will be filming in Fall 2007 for release in 2008. Bunton has been tapped to replace Beyoncé Knowles as the female lead in The Pink Panther 2.

Emma has recently been seen in a high-profile television commercial for the supermarket chain Tesco. She also had a cameo role on the Australian soap opera Neighbours as herself on the episode titled "What's a Spice Girl Like You...?", aired on March 19, 2007 in Australia, and on May 25, 2007 in the UK. Bunton returned to US screens with a nationwide commercial for Prego in May of 2007.

Personal life
Emma's boyfriend of eight years is former Damage and current CherryBlackStone lead singer Jade Jones. In October 2006, there were rumours that the couple were engaged, with plans to marry in March 2007. This rumour was denied several days later.

After being diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition which can reduce fertility, Bunton and Jones announced in January 2007 that they were expecting their first child together due sometime in the summer. It was rumoured that Prince William was to be one of the baby's godparents. However, Bunton appeared as a guest on the February 11 episode of Loose Women, where she denied that this was the case, stating that, yes, she and William were friends, and "exchanged Christmas cards", but that he would not be one of the baby's godparents. Bunton has a personal wealth of around £30 million.

Bunton's spokeswoman confirmed that at 11:12 A.M. on August 10, 2007, Bunton gave birth to a 7lb 15oz baby boy named Beau.

Spice Girls Tour Dates l Emma's Discography l Emma Photos