-Hi! We're the Spice Girls!
-In the late '90s,
five wannabes
become the best-selling
girl group of all time.
-That level of fame
was a juggernaut.
-Girl power coming at ya!
-[ Shouts ]
-But a brazen attitude
about their own success...
-Phil Spector called them
the Antichrist.
-...has critics saying
it's too much...
-People don't want to take
their kind of arrogance anymore.
-...moralists telling them
to stop...
-They were very open about it.
-...and even some fans
wondering,
who do you think you are?
-Fame definitely comes
with a price.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-But their biggest test
will come
when one of them says goodbye.
-"I would like to confirm that
I have left the Spice Girls."
- Geri left. Oh, why?
What happened?
-No way!
-Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Where do you go from there?
♪
-Oh, no!
♪
[ Dial-up modem screeching ]
♪
[ Crowd cheering ]
-The London Olympics
coming to an end
with a rocking closing ceremony.
-Oh, yeah.
-The five Spice Girls
last take the stage together
at the 2012 Olympic Games
in London.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
-Their appearance was like the
last Spice Girls music video.
It was capital "G"
capital "P" Girl Power.
-But as they take their
closing ceremony victory lab...
[ Crowd cheering,
fireworks exploding ]
-...they're also
closing out a career
that began with a sprint
to stardom in the late 1990s.
♪
Earlier in the decade,
America's grunge scene
is threatening to take over
the global music market.
[ Crowd cheering ]
But in England,
music magazines are heralding
an anti-grunge movement
called Brit-pop,
which is about to launch
a new British invasion.
Led by bands like
The Stone Roses and Blur,
the groups provide
the soundtrack for the birth
of Cool Britannia,
marked by an increased pride
in U.K. culture
and especially by Britain's
young artists.
♪
-Brit-pop was
a very male-dominated thing.
-They are the band
of the people.
They are Oasis.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Oasis were the biggest.
I'm David Sinclair.
I'm the author of
"The Spice Girls:
How the Spice Girls
Reinvented Pop Fame."
In Britain,
there was no girl group around.
It was all boy groups.
East 17 and Take That
were very successful.
-We want Take That!
We want Take That!
We want Take That!
We want Take That!
-It was the start
of a real pop scene in London
dominated by
manufactured boy bands, really.
-Boyzone, Gemini,
Backstreet Boys, Upside Down,
the list of boy bands around
these days is endless.
-In the early '90s,
I was really looking for an act
that would get me
some recognition.
My name is Chris Herbert.
I'm a music manager by trade,
and I'm responsible for putting
the Spice Girls together.
Boy bands really only appealed
to a female and a g*y audience.
I thought if you could put
a girl band together
that was both aspirational
to girls, appealing to boys,
I think -- and also a bit camp,
you could double that audience.
-21-year-old Chris
successfully pitches
the idea to his partners,
his father, Bob, and
financial backer Chic Murphy.
He then begins scouting
London for female talent
with a distinct type of girl
in mind.
-There's a different work ethic
with working-class girls.
We wanted girls
that were hungry for it.
I just put an advert
in the Stage newspaper.
It was kind of an Uncle Sam
recruitment poster, basic,
but they did the job.
♪
I probably saw
a few hundred girls.
I managed to certainly
tick off a few.
I got it down to 10 or 12 girls.
-Well, I'm Melanie Brown.
I'm 19 years old.
-Chris eventually spots
a couple of girls he wants.
-Mel B actually turned up
to audition for a cruise,
and I plucked her out,
and we pulled her in
and put her upstairs.
And I knew the minute I saw her
that she was hot property.
-[ Vocalizing ]
-Mel C was great.
She had that northern soul.
She was good.
She just snapped into it.
-Everyone wanted the audition,
and luckily I got it.
-Another girl, Victoria Adams,
doesn't fit Chris's
working-class ideal.
-She was different
to the others.
Sophisticated.
-She is the foxy lady
of the group.
-I'm not.
-But he makes an exception.
-[ Singing indistinctly ]
-Michelle Stephenson
is Chris's fourth pick.
But the girl he desperately
wants to fill out the group
is playing hard to get.
-My name's Geri,
like Tom and Jerry.
-Geri wasn't at
the original audition.
Every time I asked her to come,
there was always an excuse.
-Basically, I don't think
I would have got the audition
because my vocal technique was
not exactly very good then.
-Now, I now know that what
her tactic was, which was to try
and bounce her way through
those preliminary auditions,
fast-tracking everything else
and getting into the --
into the main event.
-I want to be a pop star.
-And to help them
make that happen,
Chris moves his ragtag group
of girls into a house
to begin their transformation.
-It was a boot camp to get
these girls really singing
and performing
like a fully formed unit.
-Their drill sergeant
is a vocal coach
and former backup singer who has
performed alongside The Beatles,
The Rolling Stones,
and Tina Turner.
-So I had a call one day,
would I come up
and have a listen to them
to see what I thought.
I'm Pepi Lemer.
And I trained the Spice Girls.
Oh, gosh.
Each of them needed
a lot of work.
-[ Vocalizing ]
-Right away,
there's a problem.
Michelle Stephenson is out
of harmony with the other girls.
[ Laughter ]
♪
-She just wasn't fitting in.
She would never gel with it.
And we had to tell her to go.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-But Pepi has
a replacement in mind...
-Hi.
-...18-year-old Emma Bunton.
-I had taught Emma
a couple of years before,
and I always remembered her
because she's so pretty,
a pretty voice.
-I just had to sing a song.
I sang SWV.
-She was cute, really likable.
You know, they loved her.
-Yeah.
-Chris's blonde.
-She's the only blonde
in the group.
-I've got a strip of it.
-And I've got a streak.
-I'm a little bit ditzy.
So is she.
-♪ Time is now ♪
-When you saw them lined up,
the whole thing just
kind of fell into place.
-Chris names his
new girl group Touch
and hands them off to Pepi
to begin grueling rehearsals.
-We got off to a bit
of a rocky start.
-Hey.
-[ Vocalizing scale ]
-Geri was more hesitant because
her voice wasn't strong.
Neither was Victoria's.
-♪ Yeah ♪
♪ But why did you
come in my life ♪
-And at the end of the day,
Geri got hold of my notes,
and she was very upset
because I had said,
"You're going out of tune."
I would privately say to her,
"Learn from it.
Don't cry about it.
You're just at the beginning,
beginning of learning."
-None of them
were the best singers.
-♪ Deeper ♪
♪ Than ♪
-A little bit flat.
-None of them
were the best dancers.
-Yeah.
-Alright. Whoo! Let's go.
-We were looking for
great characters,
and we felt that
we could do the rest ourselves.
-♪ Away, you know ♪
-We were doing eight-hour days
in the studio,
and it was rehearse, rehearse,
rehearse again, again, again.
-What keeps the girls going
is their dreams of fame
and fortune.
-♪ Oh, oh ♪
-Hopefully, when we get
where we -- where we want to be,
we'll be able to lay back
in the limousines
and all that, but it's just
been a lot of hard work now.
-I thought I'd show you
some my outfits.
'Cause I am the original
pop queen, everyone says.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-They didn't have very much.
I remember I brought
a big bag of clothes.
They took the clothes because,
you know, they were struggling.
-Oh, my God!
Oh, no!
-Struggling and working-class
but not stupid,
the girls keep being told
they're going to be
hugely successful.
-...I wouldn't want.
-Convince yourself
it's gonna happen so that --
-So it does.
-So it does happen.
-Yeah.
-So they tell
their management team
they want something in writing
for when that day comes.
-Obviously, I would have put
a management contract in place.
But my father and the
financial backer at the time
were much more old school
in their way of thinking.
-What I would do is work 'em.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-You know, you kind of
keep everyone
fighting for their position,
feeling slightly insecure
that they could actually
be replaced at any time.
That way,
you get people fighting for it.
♪
I didn't think
that that was the right way,
so, you know,
I was all for them --
us getting a contract together.
-[ Vocalizing ]
-Alright, it was a mistake,
a mistake.
But you made a big --
[ Indistinct arguing ]
-Chris's partners' plan
to keep the girls anxious
and fighting works
to drive them apart
until a leader emerges
to pull them back together.
-Millions of kids out there
want to be pop stars.
Do you know what I mean?
And we're actually taking steps
getting closer and closer
to a dream.
Do you know what I mean?
-Without a doubt,
Geri was the leader.
-I'm the brains behind it all.
-She was a little bit older.
She knew that she had
the least talent
in terms of singing and dancing,
but Geri brought an energy
and a camaraderie
that was the nucleus
of what that band became.
So she steps up immediately,
and her sidekick was Mel B.
-♪ I need you ♪
-Like five unique ingredients
that create a savory dish,
the girls blend together
in a way
that gives rise to a new name.
-We wrote a song
called "Sugar and Spice."
-We're just very individual.
-We're just very spicy.
-And very spicy,
and we all like to get up
and have a good old laugh.
-Along with their new name
Spice comes a two-word slogan
that one day will become
a rallying call
for girls across the globe.
-Girl power coming at ya!
-[ Shouts ]
-Whoo!
-Girl power.
-Their slogan is borrowed from
American punk band Bikini k*ll,
who pioneer
an underground feminist movement
called Riot Grrrl
in the early '90s.
-♪ I think I want to be
your best friend, yeah ♪
-♪ No stopping, delaying ♪
♪ You know exactly
what I'm saying ♪
-Geri had borrowed
that whole attitude,
but she -- quite cleverly,
she sort of repackaged it
but in a much more pop
palatable way.
-In 1994, in a tiny
London rehearsal studio,
Pepi's efforts
to energize girl power
seemed to happen in a flash.
-I had them in a singing circle
going, "One, two, three, four,"
and then they started to sing
with a four-part harmony.
I remember tingles.
-[ Harmonizing ]
-♪ Take me away ♪
-I only thought, "Oh."
That was magical.
The music world was waiting for
something like this to happen.
-Soon, these five girls
from London --
Ginger, Posh, Sporty,
Baby, and Scary --
will take over
the BRIT Awards...
-The all-conquering Spice Girls!
-...and then the world.
-♪ Take me away ♪
-In December 1994,
Spice, the girl group
Chris Herbert put together
and Pepi Lemer spent months
meticulously training,
is ready for their first
industry showcase.
-[ Speaks indistinctly ]
-I had invited along
the best writers, producers,
managers of writers,
and publishers.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
-We were all on edge.
It was a huge deal for them.
They have worked so hard.
-♪ We're gonna make it happen ♪
-♪ You know that ♪
-Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.
Oh, it was fantastic.
-♪ Ooh-hoo ♪
-They were just
not fazed by it at all,
and, in fact,
they took control of the room.
-We think that there's
a massive gap, definitely, yeah,
for a girl group.
-They were sitting there
interviewing the writers,
saying, "Look, you know, well,
he's written for Take That.
Who have you written for?"
-You know, we're not as poppy
as Take That.
-People wanted to work
with them.
So I was rubbing my hands
together.
It was everything I wanted.
-But like they're saying
"Be careful what you wish for,"
Chris soon discovers
that the girls' confidence
in front of those
music executives
foreshadows a problem
when he and his partners
finally offer Spice a contract.
-By the time we
had presented it to the girls,
I think there was a slight,
you know,
change of thought on their part
where they weren't coming
to us cap in hand and saying,
"When are you going to sign us?"
It was more like,
"We don't necessarily think
that we need your contract now."
-Chris still believes
the girls will sign with him.
So he sets up a recording
session at Sheffield Studio
for them to work
with songwriter Eliot Kennedy.
[ Line ringing ]
But on the day, the girls
stop answering Chris's calls.
[ Ringing continues ]
-[ Sighs ]
Hmm.
-I didn't really know
what was going on.
So I run to Eliot and I said,
"Look, the girls won't be making
the session.
We'll reschedule."
He said, "Look, Chris,
I've got to tell you."
He said, "The girls
are already here."
I was like, "Oh."
[ Indistinct conversation ]
They had gone up to Sheffield.
Eventually got to Eliot, said,
"Hi. We're Spice.
We've kind of fallen out
with management.
Would you have the session
anyway?"
He said, "Look, the girls
don't want to speak to you."
And that was it.
[ Beeping ]
-[ Sighs ]
[ Cheering, laughing ]
-That just superpowered them
and gave them the belief
that they can do this themselves
and take -- take --
you know, be in control
of their own destiny.
I didn't see the girls for dust
after they had left.
You know, I was a young manager.
You know, I was kind of
their older brother and friend.
-[ Vocalizing ]
-So I was more hurt personally
because we -- we hung out
and we were friends
and everything else.
And we'd spent
so much time together.
I was more hurt about that
than I was at the prospect of,
"Oh, God, we've lost this band."
I mourned the loss
of our friendship.
And the fact that they felt
that they could do that to me.
[ Glass shatters ]
-There was one particular guy,
and he was,
like -- he was auditioning
for a girl band.
And we went with him
for a little while.
But then what did we do, girls?
We did the off.
We did the off
and did our own thing
and started our own
spicy movement.
-But in the '90s
for women to launch a movement
in the music industry,
spicy or otherwise,
it still requires
getting past the gatekeepers.
And that means men.
-You know,
we're doing it for the girls.
We want the girlies out there
to join our g*ng.
-It was always manipulated,
the industry, by men.
Very, very few women.
Very few managers were women.
-I think girls like
to see some of the girls
doing it for a change.
-Their personalities were
on par with their music.
You know, that independent
feminist spirit
of young girls saying,
"Up yours."
-Understanding they need men
to help guide their career.
Spice decides to go after
the most powerful men
in London's music scene.
-They would find someone
that they wanted to influence,
be it a record company executive
or a manager,
and they'd march
into these offices.
[ Laughter ]
And they'd start doing
an impromptu performance.
They'd flirt
with these executives
or they'd pinch their bottoms.
[ Laughter ]
Geri once was told
that the executive
she wanted to see
wasn't in the office.
So she went over
to the photocopier
and just pulled up her top
and ran off a copy of her boobs.
Put the photocopy
on his desk, said,
"Well, tell him that's
what he missed."
-Fosse gets foxy!
-What they did was they
reversed the casting couch role.
They kind of seduced
the male people in charge.
-Including Simon Fuller,
one of London's
top music managers,
who represents Annie Lennox.
He later creates the shows
"Pop Idol"
and the wildly successful
"American Idol" in the States.
-Simon Fuller was the one
that was the winner,
and a few people were left
in the dust, including me.
-After making one manager
disappear and hiring Fuller,
the magical young women
rebrand themselves Spice Girls
and soon secure
a lucrative recording contract
from Virgin Records.
But on the day
of the contract signing,
they once again perform
a disappearing act.
-The Virgin executives
are waiting at their HQ,
and they sent a limo off
to pick up the Spice Girls.
Well, the limo arrives.
It's got five blow-up dolls
in it,
sex dolls
corresponding to the five girls.
And the Spice Girls
are nowhere to be seen.
They were out doing
who knows what.
[ Laughter ]
Finally, the girls arrive.
They had a few drinks, I think.
They sign the contract,
chuck the dolls in the canal.
[ Horn blaring, laughter ]
Apparently, Victoria's
knickers had been removed
before they got to
wherever they were going
and chucked out the window.
And it was an uproarious
drunken night out that they had.
[ Laughter ]
-Hey!
-Aah!
-Hi! We're the Spice Girls!
[ Crowd cheering ]
-A year later on the BBC...
-Spice Girls are
Top of the Pops!
-...the Spice Girls perform
their first single, "Wannabe."
It's a bittersweet moment
for their one-time manager
who helped get them there.
♪
-I was blown away by it.
The whole thing
had come together,
and I'm watching it on TV
as a punter,
which was a kind of
strange thing, so...
♪
-"Wannabe" quickly climbs
to number one
on the U.K. singles charts,
selling 7 million copies.
It will soon reach number one
in 37 countries worldwide.
-It's Spice Girl mania.
Young wannabes
all over the place.
-♪ If you wanna be my lover ♪
♪ You got to get
with my friends ♪
-We love you, Spice Girls!
-Kids just went nuts.
-Girl power.
[ Girls cheering ]
-It turned that whole generation
onto music virtually overnight.
I thought to myself, "Yeah,
that's certainly gonna
stir things up."
-But when the Spice Girls
stir things up in the media,
it's often the people around
them whose lives get shaken.
-They fired the whole
Spice Girls machine
that surrounds them.
[ Camera shutters clicking ]
-The Spice Girls song "Wannabe"
is making "girl power"
a catchphrase of the '90s...
-Girl power.
-[ Cheering ]
-...and launching a wave
of Spice mania...
-♪ ...is too easy,
but that's the way it is ♪
-It's the best group
in the world.
-...that sweeps across Europe
and Asia
before invading America.
-Alright, America, here they
come the Spice Girls.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Girl power!
-Girl power.
-I want to do this.
Mwah!
[ Audience cheering ]
-The fab five thrill
U.S. television audiences
on shows like "Live with Regis
and Kathie Lee"
and "Saturday Night Live,"
where they perform "Wannabe"
and their next number-one hit,
"Say You'll Be There."
-Girl power.
-The girls are
the hottest group around.
They even have mom's
stamp of approval.
-Spice Mom!
-Whoo!
-As for the man
who invented the Internet,
U.S. Vice President Al Gore,
he can't escape the Spice Girls,
either.
-I don't know.
[ Laughter ]
[ Camera shutters clicking,
indistinct shouting ]
♪
[ Crowd cheering ]
-I couldn't believe
the enormity of it all.
To be plucked from
where we were in a little house,
could this happen?
Yeah.
[ Crowd cheering, shouting ]
[ Horn honks ]
-With the Spice Girls,
that level of fame
was a juggernaut.
[ Crowd screaming ]
Probably not seen
since The Beatles.
[ Chuckles ]
I'm Shinan Govani.
I'm a longtime social
and pop culture columnist.
-She's brilliant.
-She's brilliant.
-Here we had the only girl band
up until then
who had really sort of played
into the idea
of their own brashness
and their own femininity.
[ Crowd shouting, horn blares ]
-In March of 1997,
the British press prints 141
Spice Girls stories in one week.
That summer, the group
rides girl power
to the cover
of Rolling Stone magazine.
♪
Now Britain's biggest
pop-culture phenomenon,
these once-working-class girls
get invited
to the most privileged
of U.K. events.
A royal gala.
-Oh, no!
-You are.
-There's the famous sequence
meeting Prince Charles
where Geri Halliwell
gives a pat on the butt
of the future King.
♪
Charles post-Diana was seen
as somewhat of a fuddy-duddy.
By putting their pixie dust
on him,
they made him instantly cooler.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
-We're just having a laugh.
We're just a girl g*ng
here doing music,
enjoy it to the max.
-Just 10 months
after the release of "Wannabe,"
the Spice Girls achieved
Mel B's goal...
-Hopefully, when we get
where we -- where we want to be,
we'll be able to lay back
in the limousine.
-...helped along by a movie deal
and endorsement contracts
for over 100 products.
-They could have sold
anything anywhere to anyone.
-Sporty Spice.
-I have Baby Spice.
-And I have Posh Spice.
[ Crowd screaming ]
-They were leveraging
their fame...
-Girl power!
-...their moment.
-Girls, we got to go
and press the button.
[ Cheering ]
-Is there such a thing
as too much spice?
The Spice Girls may
be suffering from overexposure.
-I don't think that the
Spice Girls were doing anything
that legions of male pop stars
had not done for decades.
-♪ You're the Pepsi generation ♪
-Michael Jackson was
in Pepsi commercials.
-♪ Hold it down,
feel the noise ♪
-English band the Spice Girls
has made a commercial
for the soft drink giant.
-The Spice Girls were
a brand unto themselves.
-But when the press announced
in 1997
that the Spice Girls would
earn an estimated $500 million
from sponsorships, the backlash
is swift and stinging.
-There's just too much
marketing, not enough music.
-Hey, who needs
Victoria's autograph?
-And the money comes,
of course, from the fans.
Spice girls Limited
operate a mail-order business,
selling everything from jackets
to mugs and T-shirts.
-Oh, God, there was nothing
that the Spice Girls
would not endorse.
-Spice Girls merchandising's
big business.
-People didn't like that
very much.
They felt that music should
exist for a higher purpose.
And art should be taken
more seriously
than the Spice Girls
were taking it.
-Here's the book.
-This is it.
This is the book.
-The Spice Girls' commercialism
is so over the top
that Liam Gallagher of the band
Oasis sparks a media feud
by announcing he's refusing
to attend the 1997 BRIT Awards
because he fears
he will smack them.
[ Crowd cheering ]
On awards night, Geri tries
to win back British favor
by performing in a dress
she and her sister craft
from a single
Union Jack tea towel.
-♪ Oh, yeah ♪
-And the winner...
the little Spice Girls!
When the Spice Girls
song "Wannabe"
beats out the Oasis song,
ironically called
"Don't Look Back in Anger,"
Sporty Spice can't resist
challenging Liam Gallagher.
-I just want to say, Liam,
come and have a go
if you think you're hard enough.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-That was girl power
personified,
calling out, you know, this rock
hard man at an industry event.
-It's got f*ck all
to do with you.
-A month later
at the Capital Awards,
Liam's brother and bandmate
Noel Gallagher
takes his shot
at the Spice Girls
for doing marketing, not music.
[ Cheers and applause ]
True to their brand,
the fab five aren't going to let
Gallagher have the last word.
-Did anybody notice
how Noel Gallagher
ran out after he said that?
-He ran.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Later that year,
the Spice Girls
do get back to the music,
performing two sold-out shows
to ecstatic fans in Istanbul
that are recorded
and sold on VHS
and releasing a second
hit album, "Spice World,"
along with an autobiographical
movie of the same name.
But behind the scenes,
the girls are beginning to rebel
against their manager
Simon Fuller's
grueling schedule.
♪
-They were getting called
at 5:00 in the morning
to go and do the filming,
and they were ending up
in the recording studio until,
you know,
There were hardly any time
to even go to bed,
let alone have a life.
-Once willing
to pay any price for fame,
the Spice Girls now seem
tired of the cost,
something they dramatize
in their movie.
-We're old enough to
take responsibility
for our own lives.
Do you know what I mean?
-You don't have a life.
You have a schedule.
You are part
of a well-oiled global machine.
-In the movie, they were
just pleading for some time off,
and Richard E. Grant
wouldn't give it to them.
And in real life,
Simon Fuller was more
or less doing the same.
You know, he was saying,
"No, we've got to keep going.
We can't stop."
It all came to a head, really,
when they went to Johannesburg
and did a charity show
for Nelson Mandela.
And Prince Charles
was there at the same time,
and they spent a weekend there.
They were allowed
a little bit of time off.
-It is one of the greatest
moments in my life.
-Aye!
-It's the second greatest
moment.
-During that South African trip,
I think they got a bit
fed up with hearing
how much they owed
to Simon Fuller.
-And so, like they did
at the dawn of their careers...
[ Glass shatters ]
...the five girls
huddled together
to make a fateful decision.
-That was the time
at which they cooked up
getting rid of Simon Fuller
as their manager.
♪
It was a complete bombshell.
And it was a gift
to the tabloids.
-Wild fans screamed
as the British sensation
Spice Girls
made a grand entrance
at the long-awaited premiere
of their new movie.
-Charles is our new manager.
[ Laughter ]
-But with no Simon Fuller
to protect them,
the Spice Girls are
more vulnerable.
-Suddenly, it was open season.
-The girls have hit back,
saying it was all
a misunderstanding.
[ Crowd booing ]
[ Camera shutters clicking ]
-The Spice Girls
have been booed
for delaying an award ceremony
in Barcelona.
[ Crowd booing,
camera shutters clicking ]
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-A week after firing
their manager,
the Spice Girls refused
to take the stage
at a Spanish awards show
until the photographers
are removed.
-The girls insisted
they had the copyright
on any pictures of them.
When they finally came onstage,
the reaction was mixed.
After they'd sung...
[ Crowd booing ]
...the floor manager
desperately tried
to whip up applause,
but to no avail.
-Headlines and news reports
tell the story.
The girls' spicy
prima donna routine
is beginning to leave a bad
taste in people's mouths.
-What happened last night
is basically
the Spice girls displayed
quite a bit of arrogance.
I think they did
themselves no favors at all
by getting rid of their manager,
Simon Fuller,
who actually, you know, was
responsible for their success,
no matter what they might think.
-There was always going to come
a point where enough was enough.
Historically, pop groups have
a very limited time frame.
You know, they come and they go,
and that's it,
in the press, in the media.
And I think it was
just felt that it was time
to take them down a peg or two.
I mean, Phil Spector
called them the Antichrist.
-The 1997 Christmas season
delivers a sobering blow
to the five Spice Girls
when they're beaten
on the U.K. singles chart
by the four Teletubbies,
whose big hit
"Teletubbies say 'Eh-oh!'"
wins over the hearts and minds
of children
during the holiday rush.
-Eh-oh!
-You think this is
the beginning of the end.
-Yeah.
-But while critics are quick
to write the Spice Girls'
obituary...
-Girl power!
-...news of their demise
proves premature
when their announced 102-date
world tour sells out in minutes.
-How long do you think
the Spice Girls are gonna last?
-Forever.
-As they perform
before screaming fans,
it appears Spice mania
can't be stopped.
-It's like a marriage.
-It is.
-Yeah.
-Totally, and I don't think
we'll ever lose that.
I think we --
We always say we're gonna
be like the Golden Girls.
-All of these girls
are strong individuals.
They just ignore the tabloids,
went on on their business
and what they had to achieve
and what they had to do.
Eszteca Noya.
My name is Eszteca Noya,
and I was one
of the main dancers
on the Spice Girls
world tour 1998.
Just wanted to make sure,
you know.
I'm a street dancer, and I was
lucky to end up as a Spice Boy.
To be onstage
with the Spice Girls,
that was incredible.
[ Crowd cheering ]
-As Baby Spice's dance partner,
Eszteca basks in the glow
of the spotlight.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-The view here is nice.
-And offstage...
-Geri.
The bodyguard, all fans here.
-...Eszteca has a front-row
seat to what happens
in the shadows of Spiceworld.
-Eszteca, you're a lazy b*tch.
-Spice Girls.
The daily routine
just exhausts you.
-Oi, come like this.
Do it.
Stage it like it is,
do it and get on with it.
-The girls were always
getting homesick, as well.
-Aah!
-So the girls try
to keep things light
to relieve the tour's
daily grind.
-[ Laughs ]
Yeah, there was some specifics
of which I heard about
pajama parties,
but I'd rather not tell that.
-But he will confirm
that some of the girls
are relieving homesickness
in the company
of their male dancers.
-[ Laughs ]
-We've got Spice Boys.
-[ Speaks Spanish ]
-You heard
Christian is together with Geri
and Mel B's together with Jim.
It was like, "Okay.
Okay, cool."
They didn't hide it.
They were very open about it.
That's how it all
went into the media.
-As did a Spice Girl
relationship
not involving a member
of the crew.
Posh Spice lives
in the tabloid headlines
alongside her
equally famous fiancé.
-David Beckham, one of the
most famous faces in football,
and Victoria Adams,
better known as Posh Spice,
posing for pictures after
announcing their engagement.
-The paparazzi hound
Posh and Becks
on the European leg of the tour.
-They were both just so hot.
We had just come out of the
Diana/Charles rise and fall.
-I'm embarrassed now.
Stop it.
-If Posh and Becks didn't exist,
the British tabloids,
they would have had to
make them up.
-And like with Princess Diana,
the tabloid encounters
with the Spice Girls
become increasingly ruthless
and relentless,
something Mel C speaks frankly
about during a 2022 podcast.
-They called me Sumo Spice.
I mean, how disgusting is that?
-There was a lot of focus
on their bodies at the time.
-As Geri reveals
when interviewed,
the cruelty of the tabloids
is hard to bear.
-When somebody calls me
a fat old slag, you know,
if I wasn't sure
of what I was doing,
I wouldn't be able to continue.
-They were privy
to all kinds of headlines
that would certainly not pass
muster in our time today.
[ Camera shutters clicking ]
When you become famous
at that level,
it is Pandora's box.
It's inevitable that the fame
begins to eat you alive.
-No!
-And also devours
relationships.
-Have you cut short
the tour out there?
-No.
-No.
-We're not telling you.
-The pressure and the pace
and the amount of work
that they'd done,
it all started to take its toll.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-People start to wear down...
[ Shouting continues ]
...spit out what they
really felt inside.
[ Shouting continues ]
We were asking ourselves like,
"Wow,
there's something going on."
[ Indistinct talking ]
-[ Sobbing ]
-But we didn't know
what was going on.
♪
-[ Sobbing ]
-Something snapped
at that point.
-In May 1998,
the Spice Girls perform
together in Helsinki, Finland.
And everything seems normal.
-It's the midweek
National Lottery draw.
-But when the group returns
to London for a TV appearance,
not all of them
make it to the studio.
-Are we not missing somebody?
-We are.
-Unfortunately,
Geri's not very well tonight,
so get well soon, Geri.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-When Geri
just didn't show up,
it was a pop-culture
earthquake.
-Girl power may not be enough
to hold the most popular
girl group of the '90s together.
Ginger Spice missed
a concert last night.
-Ginger Spice is missing.
-No way!
-Yeah.
-Where's Geri gone?
-♪ Where has Geri gone? ♪
-♪ Where has Geri gone? ♪
-What happens now?
-After four days
of wild speculation
over Ginger Spice's whereabouts,
Geri Halliwell's lawyer reads
her statement to the world.
-"I wish to apologize
to all the fans.
I would like to confirm that
I have left the Spice Girls.
This is because of differences
between us."
-Geri hasn't revealed
her future plans,
but the remaining four
Spice Girls say
they'll be pressing on
with their American tour.
-When Geri leaves the band,
for those who were invested
in these five women,
it represented
an abrupt break, death, end.
-[ Screams ]
-And it invited
so much speculation
about who was to blame,
what led up to it, you know,
where do the Spice Girls go now?
-What did she say that day?
-Funny enough, she didn't.
-Geri is asked
the same question
since leaving the Spice Girls.
-Why?
Why did you leave?
-You know, I have my reasons
why I left the Spice Girls.
But it's like a marriage.
I think, you know,
you should keep those kind
of things private to a degree.
-But time will do what
Barbara Walters couldn't --
get Geri to reveal how
her struggles as a Spice Girl
helped contribute
to her leaving.
-"They called her old, fat,
and ugly, as they often did."
Isn't that horrible?
-And in 2016,
Geri reveals to Oprah Winfrey
just how serious
her problems became.
-We all use different tools
to get by.
You know, coping mechanisms.
Mine was controlling
my body weight.
I started being bulimic.
-If you're under
that kind of spotlight,
all kind of scrutiny can affect
one's imbalances.
-Victoria and Mel C have both
revealed their own struggles
with eating disorders
and depression...
-Victoria Adams.
-...made worse by the media's
obsession with their weight,
which includes live humiliation
on TV
two months after Posh
has a baby.
-Is your weight back to normal?
-Yeah, it is.
-Can I check?
Do you mind?
-Oh, no. You did this to Geri,
didn't you?
No, but Geri was, like,
really small.
-But it's alright.
-The media's quick
and constant reactions
to the Spice Girls'
weight fluctuations
may have led
to their instability
and mental health issues,
something Mel C has been honest
about in recent interviews.
-I'd spent years trying
to make myself smaller.
And it was k*lling me.
I had depression.
I just knew I'd lost
control over my eating.
-Fame definitely comes
with a price.
For the girls, it
probably got too much for them
through those pressures.
When you're trying
to kind of keep a steady ship,
that becomes, you know,
quite damaging.
-No, no.
-In a documentary film shortly
after she leaves the group,
Geri drops hints that another
Spice Girl prompted her exit.
-I had no choice.
I had no choice.
Absolutely no choice.
-Do you think
they wanted you out?
-Yes.
One particular member did.
-[ Vocalizing ]
-♪ Everything... ♪
-Rumors involving Mel B,
who helps Geri pull
the group together
back during their
boot camp days,
have never gone away.
In a recent interview,
Mel B speaks candidly
about their relationship.
-There were rumors
that you and Geri
were, you know, more than
just good friends.
You'd had a little dabble.
-Oh.
She had great boobs.
[ Laughter ]
-So you did?
Yes, really?
-Even Mel C seemed shocked
by the admission.
-This was like an earthquake
revelation.
Geri has denied this,
so I guess the truth
lies somewhere.
[ Camera shutters clicking,
indistinct shouting ]
[ Crowd cheering ]
-After Geri's departure,
the four remaining
Spice Girls finish
the world tour in America.
-Spice Girls rule!
-Then they record
a third album called "Forever."
Aside from their reunion tour
in 2007,
the Spice Girls haven't
performed as a full group
since the 2012 London Olympics.
-The Spice Girls effectively
only existed for a few years.
Of course, their legacy lives on
in a whole new generation
of female pop stars
inspired by them.
-What it did for me
was springboard me
into the music industry.
-♪ Oh, oh ♪
-When I look at the Spice Girls,
I don't feel any bitterness,
remorse,
because I still look at
that band,
and it's still part
of my legacy.
They still hold the crown.
They're still
the biggest girl band.
-They've all come through it.
They all have children who seem
to be reasonably adjusted.
They've all found their own
place in the scheme of things
at the end of it all.
And that was what girl power
was all about, you know?
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