End of the Spice Girls?
2001-03-09 10:15
Los Angeles - Bye-bye, Spice Girls.
Melanie Chisholm, aka Sporty Spice, said on Thursday she does not plan to keep working with Britain's biggest pop phenomenon since the Beatles and will instead focus on her burgeoning solo career.
Her decision could effectively mark the death knell for a mega-selling act whose rallying cry of "Girl Power!" reverberated
around the world when they burst on the scene six years ago.
While Chisholm specifically said twice in the interview that she no longer planned to work with the group, a Spice Girls spokesman insisted to the BBC that the group was still together.
Chisholm, 27, who is widely considered the best singer in the
group and has developed a solo career, said in a telephone
interview there were no plans for a new Spice Girls album.
While she vowed that, "I'll always be a Spice Girl", she added, "I don't intend to do any more work with the Spice Girls. Really, I've not been comfortable being in the Spice Girls for probably the last two years. It doesn't really feel that natural to me anymore."
She added, "I've grown up, and I just feel that I want to do
things my own way and not compromise."
Chisholm was philosophical about her decision, said she did not consider her departure the end of an era.
"We were such a huge phenomenon, and there's not really anywhere else to go with that. It was a question of sacrificing our lives and trying to maintain the success, or just being honest with ourselves. We've all been very honest and we all wanted to pursue solo careers."
Chisholm said that she would remain close to her colleagues. "We're still linked business-wise and we're still friends, but I don't really consider myself to work as a band any more."
A spokesman for the Spice Girls, Alan Edwards, later denied to the BBC that the group was breaking up. "Everyone wants to say
it's over, but it isn't," Edwards said.
"The group have still got strong ties. What she said is that we've got no plans at the moment, and it's been exaggerated into
the final split, and it isn't the final split. As everyone knows,
the Spice Girls are pursuing their own solo projects, but the
Spice Girls still exists. It ain't over until it's over, and it
ain't over," he added.
Girl power paid
With global sales of 38 million albums since they broke through in 1995, the Spice Girls launched a cultural revolution. The cheeky group, originally a quintet, scored with high-energy
anthems such as "Wannabe" and "Say You'll Be There", made a
feature film, and dominated the tabloids.
Everyone had their favourite Spice Girl: Sporty, Baby (Emma
Bunton), Scary (Melanie Brown), Ginger (Geri Halliwell) or Posh
(Victoria Beckham).
However, Ginger Spice abruptly quit the band in 1998 amid
internal disagreements, and the group's optimistically titled
third album, "Forever", was a big flop when it was released last
November.
Each of the Spice Girls pursued side projects along the way, with Chisholm enjoying the most success. Her 1999 solo debut "Northern Star" emerged as a big international hit, except in the United States. It has sold about 2.5 million copies worldwide to date, according to a publicist.
Chisholm has just completed the Asian leg of a solo world tour, and will start the North American leg in Calgary, Canada, on March 29. She hoped the new single, "I Turn To You", would take her over the top in the United States.
"I've still got a lot of fans over there. We get lots of hits on the website and lots of e-mails and lots of fan mail from America, so hopefully the tour's going to be a success, and hopefully we'll have some sell-outs just to get this going, get
people excited about the album."
New solo album
After she finishes the UK leg of the tour at the end of May, she will start work on a new solo album, which she hopes to release by fall 2002. She expects to maintain her eclectic brand of pop, rock and R&B but wants to delve more into each genre. She will record the album mostly in London, and will reunite with some of her "Northern Star" producers like Rick Nowels, Phil Thornalley and Marius De Vries.
Chisholm has not begun songwriting yet, but has plenty of life experiences to draw from. The naturally muscular Chisholm endured plenty of press attention last year when she put on weight and was instantly dubbed "Sumo Spice". She also was dogged
by rumours she was a lesbian, which she has denied, though she did
disclose that she was battling an eating disorder and depression.
She said that she was feeling much better, was taking mild anti-depressants and undergoing a lot of therapy. News reports have linked her to British filmmaker Dan Cadan, but she suggested it was more platonic. "He's lovely and he's a friend, but I'm away a lot and I don't really know him that well."