How did the Spice Girls meet? Group explain how they formed

1 November 2025, 16:21

According to band member Geri Halliwell, the group’s origins involved dozens of hopefuls and a management company in London. Picture: Getty

By Giorgina Hamilton

The Spice Girls went from answering a small audition ad in the early ’90s to becoming the biggest girl group on the planet.

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Few pop groups of the 1990s achieved the global reach and cultural impact of the Spice Girls.

With chart-topping singles like 'Wannabe', 'Say You’ll Be There', and '2 Become 1', and numerous awards including Brit Awards and MTV Europe Music Awards, they became one of the most celebrated girl groups of their era.

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Decades on, all five members—Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, and Victoria Beckham—have built successful solo careers in music, television, fashion, and business, cementing their influence well beyond their time as a band.

To understand how they became the world’s biggest girl group, we need to go back to the early 1990s, when a series of auditions in London brought the five women together for the first time.

Few pop groups of the 1990s achieved the global reach and cultural impact of the Spice Girls. Picture: Getty

According to band member Geri Halliwell, the group’s origins involved dozens of hopefuls and a management company in London. In a Marie Claire interview, she explained:

"I was 22 years old, trying to make ends meet by juggling various side gigs... when I came across an ad in a trade newspaper called The Stage looking for "streetwise" girls to audition for a pop band.

"I actually missed the first round of auditions because I was visiting my grandmother in Spain, but something told me to ring the managers behind the ad, Chris and Bob Herbert from Heart Management, to ask if they were still looking. They were. 'Come down to the London audition,' Chris said. 'We are down to 12 girls.'"

In 1994, Melanie Chisholm was out with a friend, auditioning for a cruise ship dancing job, when a man handed her a flyer.

“It basically asked, ‘Are you 18‑24, can you dance, sing, and are you streetwise?’ I realised it was for a girl group audition, and I knew immediately that’s what I wanted. I wasn’t interested in dancing on cruise ships!” She told Mamamia’s No Filter podcast.

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“I nudged my friend and said, ‘That’s it. I’m doing this.’ That choice eventually led to the formation of the Spice Girls.”

At the time, a 20-year-old Mel C turned up in what she described as a “terrible” outfit: a lilac top, jeans, and trainers—the best she could manage on a tight budget. Despite making a strong initial impression, Mel C was unwell during the callback audition.

“My mum begged them to let me recover and come back, but they refused. Fortunately, one of the girls they had initially selected didn’t work out, so they called me in—and that’s how I ended up in the band.”

Heart's Emma Bunton also recalled doing everything she could to get into the Spice Girls: “I remember having a call with [original manager] Chris [Herbert] and he said, ‘How tall are you? Are you over 5 foot 3 and can you sing?’ … I thought, ‘I’m not, I’m 5 foot 1.’ So I literally went out and bought myself the first pair of Buffalo boots.”

Victoria Beckham is amazed she got through the audition process: “Everybody was singing Madonna or pop songs. I.. stood up and sang a song from Cabaret.". Picture: Getty

Victoria Beckham is still amazed she got through the audition process: “Everybody was singing Madonna or pop songs. I came from a musical theatre background and stood up and sang a song from Cabaret,” she said on the Armchair Expert podcast.

“I sang 'Mein Herr'... It was so theatrical and so wrong for what it was... It obviously got their attention because they saw something in me; God knows what it was,” Victoria added.

“I look back at those early videos and I'm like, wow, what did they see because I was pretty average.”

Geri Halliwell later reflected on the logistic of how the auditions were held: "The girls who'd made the final round were split into two groups of four. Each group sang Stevie Wonder's 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)' and performed a dance we'd learned for the audition.

"Before I left, one of the guys came over and told me I'd made it: I was elated!"

She went on to explain that the five girls would be put up in a house in Maidenhead as they got to know one another.

Mel B would later say: "When we walked into a room, apart from people not knowing what to expect, we were just unbreakable.". Picture: Getty

"A month later," Geri continued, "I picked up Mel B from the train station—I remember thinking, "Oh, my God! I'm picking up this girl I don't know at all!" in my car, which would soon become the band's wheels that I'd go on to crash, often with them in it," adding: "It's difficult to drive a car with five girls chatting inside, you know."

Their first single, 'Wannabe', would drop just two years later in 1996, marking the start of a global phenomenon that would define their careers.

That same camaraderie, forged during auditions and early days living together, is what Mel B later described, highlighting the grit behind the glamour of the Spice Girls:

"All of us individually went through such rejection, whether it be from auditions or being bullied or not fitting in at school, so we were all kind of misfits that came together and the puzzle fitted," she said.

"When we walked into a room, apart from people not knowing what to expect, we were just unbreakable."