Spice Girls

The Spice Girls (1996–1998/2000) were a British vocal girl group. They enjoyed substantial commercial success from 1996 to 2000, and it is claimed that they are the biggest-selling girl group of all time, with reported sales of over forty-five million albums and thirty million singles. They are also famous for popularising the term Girl Power. The group originally consisted of Victoria Adams, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown, and Geri Halliwell. However, in 1998, Halliwell left to pursue a solo career. The remaining four members never formally broke up, but have not performed together or released any new recordings since 2000. They have each released solo material, and some have stated that they have no interest in participating in the group in the future.

Five become four

Geri Halliwell announced her desire to quit the group shortly after the release of "Stop". She claimed she was tired, fed up, and wanted to pursue a solo career. This did not come as a huge surprise, as she had always wanted to do her own thing and the Spice Girls were simply a stepping stone to a successful solo career. She did agree with the girls that she would only leave after the completion of the American Tour which began in June 1998, because "you couldn't get any better than that". However, events quickly spun out of control when nude photographs of Geri were published by Playboy magazine. This was a shock and Geri was extremely frustrated, and only added to her desires of leaving the group. She then began missing concerts in Oslo, due to what she claimed was gastroenteritis. The final strike came when the girls were due to appear on the U.K. state lottery, the National Lottery, and only four of them showed up. This stirred more "Geri Quits" headlines in the papers than ever before. On the eve of the American Tour, May 30, 1998, it was confirmed that Geri Halliwell announced her departure from the group. Here is a portion of the statement read by her lawyer:

Related Topics:
Nude - Photograph - Playboy - Concert - Oslo - Gastroenteritis - National Lottery - May 30

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"Sadly I would like to confirm that I have left the Spice Girls. This is because of differences between us. I'm sure the group will continue to be successful and I wish them all the best. P.S. I'll be back."

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The four remaining girls decided to continue their career as the Spice Girls and said this in response to Geri's statement; "we are upset and saddened by Geri's departure but we are very supportive in whatever she wants to do. The Spice Girls are here to stay—see you at the stadiums!" They then went on to complete the American Tour without Geri.

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After Geri's departure, a fourth single from Spiceworld, "Viva Forever", was released in Europe and Australia (not in North America due to fan reduction and an uncertainty in the video's theme). It was pretty successful in the U.K., returning the girls to the zenith position of the charts for two weeks, and peaked at number two in Australia. Over two million copies were sold across Europe as well. The animated music video received some limited airplay on American VH1, as part of a special on Geri's departure from the group. Her vocals did feature on the song as she had recorded the entire album with them the previous year, however, as she could not feature in the video, an animated version using tin puppets of all five girls were placed in it. This was the last of the group's singles on which Halliwell was featured.

Related Topics:
Viva Forever - VH1

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