25 years of Spice Girls #Pinkinourlives #Spiceworld

The Spice Girls at 25: Here’s the story from A to Z

Released 25 years ago, on 8 July 1996, Wannabe spent seven weeks at number one in the UK and four in the US. In the process, it made five unknown girls – Victoria Caroline Adams, Melanie Janine Brown, Emma Lee Bunton, Melanie Jayne Chisholm and Geraldine Estelle Halliwell – global superstars.

So here’s a story from A to Z of how the band started, rose to fame, fell apart and put themselves back together again. Because which member of our LGBT+ Community does not love the Spice Girls?!?

I is for Istanbul

The Spice Girls performed their first ever concert at an 8,000-capacity basketball arena in Istanbul, Turkey, on 12 October 1997.

Why Turkey? One popular theory said they had chosen it to get as far away from the UK as possible, afraid the British press would savage their stage debut. But the reality was more prosaic. Pepsi was sponsoring the tour, and they insisted on launching it in a country where Pepsi outsold Coca-Cola.

The soft drink deal was hammered home at a press conference the day before the show. “Posh, will you marry David Beckham?” asked one reporter. “That’s none of your business,” she replied. “But he drinks Pepsi.”

The concert itself was “the sort of pop show they don’t do any more”, said The Guardian, full of pyrotechnics, slick choreography, and even a miniature roller coaster. And yes, the review added, “they really sang”.

The Sun was more cautious, calling the gig “competent and capable” with “plenty of room for improvement”.