With over 100 million records sold worldwide, the Spice Girls are international superstars who popularized “girl power” and were icons of the Cool Britannia era of 1990s pop culture.
For most of the group’s history, it’s been impossible to discuss the Spice Girls without referencing the nicknames associated with each group member: Posh, Ginger, Sporty, Scary, and Baby. Yet these nicknames didn't originate with the Spice Girls or their management. They were given to the group by Top of the Pops magazine in an article following the release of “Wannabe” in 1996. According to the editorial team's recollections, relatively little thought went into this, and no one expected the group to adopt them. The nicknames were mainly doled out to accompany a whimsical image of a Spice Girls spice rack published alongside the article.
The nicknames quickly caught on in the British press, and the group members decided to embrace them, essentially fashioning exaggerated versions of themselves as their onstage personas. Victoria Adams (now Victoria Beckham) was Posh Spice due to her reserved manner and classy wardrobe, Geri Halliwell was Ginger Spice due to her hair color, Melanie Chisholm (Mel C) was Sporty Spice due to her athleticism and energy, Melanie Brown (Mel B) was Scary Spice due to her bold attitude and fashion sense, and Emma Bunton, the youngest member of the group, was Baby Spice.
In fact, when the group was initially put together by Heart Management in 1994, they weren’t even called the Spice Girls. Originally known as Touch, they were encouraged to live together and dress similarly, as earlier girl groups had. Less than a year later, unhappy with their contract and the idea that they all had to act and look the same, they hired Simon Fuller as their manager and signed with Virgin Records, who encouraged each young woman’s personality, style, and songwriting to shine through in their music and performances. They had already changed their name to Spice, based on a song they had written called “Sugar and Spice,” and later became the Spice Girls as the stage name Spice was already used by a rap artist.
Spice up your life:
- The Spice Girls are the best-selling girl group of all time, and their 1996 debut album, Spice, is the best-selling album by a girl group.
- One of the Spice Girls’ most iconic looks was the Union Jack minidress that Ginger Spice (Geri Halliwell) wore to the 1997 Brit Awards. In a 2010 interview, Halliwell revealed that this was a little black dress made by Gucci, and the flag was simply a dish towel that her sister had sewn on the front.
- South African President Nelson Mandela was a massive Spice Girls fan, and even (unsuccessfully) invited them to perform at his birthday party.
