Geri Halliwell

Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell (born August 6, 1972) is a English pop singer and songwriter. Halliwell rose to prominence in the late 1990s as one of the five members of the girl group the Spice Girls, where she had been known as "Ginger Spice" (sometimes "Sexy Spice"). The name has since been trademarked.

Halliwell was born and grew up in Watford, in the county of Hertfordshire to a British-Swedish father and Spanish mother. She was raised in a Jehovah's Witness household.

Preceding fame

Before starting her music career, she worked as a club dancer in Majorca, a model on the Turkish version of Let's Make A Deal and as a nude model. Following her rise to fame with the Spice Girls, nude photos of Halliwell were re-published in a number of top-shelf magazines, including Club International in the UK.

Musical biography

Original success

Halliwell first found fame as one of the five members of the girl group the Spice Girls. The group joined the most successful musical artists of the 1990s selling over forty million albums with the studio releases Spice and Spiceworld. Their debut single "Wannabe" became the first of a string of number-ones in the United Kingdom (nine in total) and reached the top position in thirty-seven countries around the globe, including Australia, Canada, and the U.S. Other successful releases followed including "Say You'll Be There" and "2 Become 1" from Spice, and "Spice Up Your Life", "Too Much" and "Stop" from Spiceworld.Chart performances for the singles released by the Spice Girls. Retrieved from http://foreverspice.com/spicediscography/spicegirls.htm/.

On May 30 1998, Halliwell departed from the Spice Girls to pursue a solo career. On This Day (May 30, 1998): "Ginger leaves the Spice Girls". BBC News. Her actions left a great deal of controversy concerning her former band which had yet to embark on a North American tour, one they would eventually complete without Halliwell."Spice Girls will do U.S. tour, with or without Ginger". London (AP). Saturday, May 30, 1998. Aallpop.canoe.ca. Although she had already left the group, the Spice Girls released "Viva Forever", the final music video to feature Halliwell.Answers.com. Geri Halliwell: Biography. In 1998 Halliwell split from The Spice Girls. Amid rumours of strife with the girls, she left in May (although she was featured in the August hit, "Viva Forever"). After Halliwell left, the girls wrote a few songs about her on their album Forever, notably "Goodbye", "Let Love Lead the Way" and "Tell me why". "Spice Girls dismiss comeback plan". Tuesday, 18 February, 2003. BBC News. Halliwell left at the peak of Spice Girls success, and the remaining four have not recorded together since 2000.

Solo career: Schizophonic

In 1999 Halliwell released her debut solo album Schizophonic, with lead single "Look at Me", produced by cowriters and old friends, Absolute. The single reached number two in the UK, behind Boyzone's "You Needed Me". Further singles from the album, "Mi Chico Latino" and "Lift Me Up", became UK number-ones with the latter outselling Halliwell's former bandmate Emma Bunton. The fourth single "Bag It Up" also reached number one. Demonstrating typical flair for outrageous promotion, Halliwell performed "Bag It Up" during the Brit Awards ceremony in 2000, emerging between giant inflatable legs, ripping off her shirt and walking in stilleto heels over the backs of topless pink-haired men whilst singing the song.

"Look at Me" was released to radio in the United States in late 1999, receiving limited airplay. Even more surprisingly, with only a radio single, Schizophonic debuted at number forty-two on the Billboard 200 before dropping out within the next month. This is still the highest charting by a solo Spice album in the US (Emma Bunton's Free Me peaking at #183 and Melanie C's Northern Star peaked at #200). The album was eventually certified gold, selling over 500,000 copies. "Mi Chico Latino" did not have a big impact on US radio, and no further singles from Schizophonic or LPs were released in the United States. Schizophonic went to sell over 2.5 million copies around the world.

Halliwell has had high profile, but short lived, relationships with both Chris Evans and Robbie Williams. As these relationships have occurred around the time of her single releases there have been claims that they are orchestrated for publicity purposes.

Halliwell has also pursued a TV career in America, re-uniting with former Spice Girls manager, Simon Fuller, to host All American Girl. She has also made appearances in the television show Sex and the City and a film, Fat Slags (2004), based on characters from Viz Magazine.

Second album: Scream If You Wanna Go Faster

In 2001 Halliwell followed up with her second album Scream If You Wanna Go Faster. It also included the Weather Girls' 1983 hit, "It's Raining Men", used on the Bridget Jones's Diary film soundtrack, and the video game, Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX.

The song became a huge hit selling close to 2.5 million copies worldwide and became the 2nd best selling single in 2001. The song had been added to the album at the last minute; another song, "Feels Like Sex" had already been slated as the lead single. In the event, this song remained an album-only track, with the follow-up singles being "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" (number eight) and "Calling" (number seven), the latter, stated by Halliwell was her favourite co-written track on the album. She even released a special French edition of the single, in which she sang in French, entitled "Calling (au nom de l'amour)". The album went to sell over 1.7 million copies across the world (this album wasn't released in the US). In 2003, she came ninth in the Channel 4 poll of the 100 Worst Britons.

She has released two best-selling autobiographies in 1999 and 2002, detailing her rise to fame, and her turbulent celebrity lifestyle. She has also released two Yoga DVDs which sold fairly well.

Halliwell also was featured on the UK television programme "Popstars: The Rivals" in 2002 which featured her as a judge alongside Pete Waterman and Louis Walsh.

After the stress of releasing all those projects Halliwell had announced (at the end of 'Just for the record') she may not return to music. She no longer needed fame in her life and she wasn't sure where she would go from that point. It would be another few years before she was heard from again.

Third album: Passion

In late 2004, Halliwell made a return to music with the single "Ride It", which reached number four on the UK charts and number one on the dance charts. The single was not promoted abroad but still sold well throughout Europe reaching high positions such as #3 in Spain. It was the first single from her third album, Passion which was at that stage slated for a spring release after a second single. However, several months elapsed before another single was released, during which time Halliwell was apparently ordered to record some new tracks for the as-yet unreleased album by her record company, who were unhappy with the setlist. Halliwell was planning her first solo tour around the UK and Ireland, but she was pushing on the album until she found the right tracks, one of which was "Desire", an attempt to cash-in on the electronic-style that had recently provided others such as Kylie Minogue and Goldfrapp with hits. With little airplay (radio and television failed to pay attention to the track) "Desire" reached number twenty-two in the UK. Released shortly after, Passion similarly received little attention from the public or critics, and stalled at #41 in the UK Charts. It was subsequently rumoured that "Love Never Loved Me" would be released as the third single from Passion, however, this never materialized.

Since 2003, Halliwell has been in contact with the rest of the Spice Girls, and rumours of a reunion have been swirling, especially since all five members have now had singles success of some degree or another. Rumours indicated that they might perform together again in 2005, at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London. Initially organisers axed the idea, but after the publicity surrounding the cut, Bob Geldof stated that they would reconsider their possible attendance. However, the Spice Girls were in the end not present for the Live 8 show, the press claiming that Melanie Brown had claimed prior work commitments so she would not be present.

Bluebell Madonna Halliwell

In October 2005, after Passion was a moderate failure, and the Spice Girls reunion never materialized, Halliwell fired her managers, husband and wife team Paul and Katie Conroy, and went to Los Angeles, California to work on unnamed projects. Soon after, she was photographed by the paparazzi, having put on weight and looking exhausted. Instantly, the tabloids reported that Halliwell was pregnant, which was subsequently confirmed. British scriptwriter and former drummer with the band Bush, Sacha Gervasi, is reported to be the child's father Daily Telegraph, May 16 2006; he made a statement saying he wished Halliwell and child the best shortly after the rumours came out. On March 7, 2006, Hello! magazine published an interview with Halliwell which did not confirm the father's identity. Halliwell said, "it is tacky to kiss and tell, I would never deprive a child of the right to know its father."

In April 2006 it was revealed that Halliwell has invited all four of her former Spice Girl colleagues to be godmothers at the christening of her baby. Victoria Beckham has already phoned Halliwell to thank her and accept the invitation."Celebrity GossipThursday, 13 April, 2006. Wanadoo Entertainment. " Former bandmate Emma Bunton was photographed going to Halliwell's baby shower in early May, and Melanie C was rumoured to be there as well.

On May 14, 2006, Halliwell gave birth to a daughter, Bluebell Madonna, by caesarean section at London's Portland Hospital with her sister by her side. Explaining her name choice, she said, "What really clinched it for me was my mother telling me that the bluebell is increasingly rare – so it's a precious flower, which seems just right for my daughter." Her daughter's middle name came from one of Halliwell's heroines, singer Madonna and the Virgin Madonna. [http://people.aol.com/people/articles/0,19736,1197132,00.html

The future

It has been reported that Halliwell is planning to release a new tell-all book about her time in America and plans to make it as an actress. Halliwell is also returning to the recording studio, with plans to add four new tracks to a greatest hits album. "I really plan to tour at some point this year," Halliwell apparently told a source. "Not an arena tour but somewhere small and intimate, as a thank you to fans who have stuck by me." ^*

Discography

Studio albums

Released: 1999
Chart positions: #4 U.K., #22 AUS, #42 U.S., #53 GER
Certifications: 2x Platinum U.K., Gold U.S.
Worldwide sales: 2.2 Million
Singles:
- 1999 "Look at Me"
- 1999 "Mi Chico Latino"
- 1999 "Lift Me Up"
- 2000 "Bag It Up"

!align="left"|Album cover

Released: 2001
Chart positions: #5 U.K., #29 GER, #7 MEX, #55 AUS
Certifications: Gold U.K., Gold MEX
Worldwide sales: 1.7 Million
Singles:
- 2001 "It's Raining Men"
- 2001 "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster"
- 2001 "Calling"