Victoria Beckham

Victoria Beckham (then Adams) joined the all-girl band Spice Girls, first called "Touch," in 1994, together with Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm. The group's first single, "Wannabe," went straight to number one, and would be followed by eight other hugely successful number one singles from their albums "Spice" and "Spiceworld." Each member of the group received a nickname from the media: Beckham became "Posh Spice," so called because of her regal and composed attitude, deadpan facial expressions and much elegant pointing towards the camera, and a penchant for short black Gucci dresses and high heels. The group would become one of the most successful acts of the 1990s, selling in excess of thirty-five million albums worldwide. After the release of their third album, "Forever," which was much less successful than their previous two albums, the Spice Girls stopped recording, and Beckham would eventually take steps toward a solo career.

"Posh" was one of the most popular Spice Girls in the media, but had considerably less musical input than the others, especially in the beginning. For instance, she was the only one not to sing solo lines in their debut single, "Wannabe" (although after Geri left, Beckham took over the majority of her parts on stage), and whenever she took lead vocals for other numbers, she was partially or even completely harmonized by Emma (e.g. "Naked," "Viva Forever," "Goodbye"). Notable exeptions are "Say You'll Be There" and "The Lady is A Vamp," where she's one of the main vocalists throughout, and "Holler," which was the first Spice Girls song ever in which all members sang a verse of equal length, albeit without Geri. VB did sing on much of the album "Forever" though; many were surprised with her ability to hit high notes.

In August 2000, Victoria released her first solo single: "Out Of Your Mind", a collaboration with the Garage act the Truesteppers and Dane Bowers. The week of release coincided with the release of "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" by Spiller ft. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, resulting in a chart battle dubbed 'Posh vs. Posher' by the tabloids. Following a huge publicity campaign, Out Of Your Mind was outsold by 20,000 copies and debuted at number two with first week sales of 180,584 copies.

Beckham signed a recording contract with her group label Virgin Records. Her true debut single as a solo artist, "Not Such An Innocent Girl", was released in September 2001. Again, she faced competition in another hugely hyped chart battle, this time with Kylie Minogue's single "Can't Get You Out Of My Head". Beckham was unlikely to beat Kylie, but she gave the project huge promotion, and the record had an expensive and futuristic video. In the week of release, the tabloid newspaper The Sun ran a daily progress chart covering the chart battle, but they gave up half way through the week when it was clear the battle was a one horse race. A potential factor attributable to Beckham's weaker sales could be the due to the media furor she created after wearing a fake lip ring during a live performance in Birmingham, an event that also saw her getting booed and pelted with fruit by a hostile public. She was widely criticised by many groups, including the British Dental Association, for setting a bad example that her younger fans may wish to emulate. "Not Such An Innocent Girl" did, nevertheless, sell respectably in the UK and was a #1 hit in the Philippines