Victoria Caroline Adams was born to a wealthy Hertfordshire family in 1975, in fact so wealthy her father, the owner of an electrical wholesale company, reportedly drove her to school in a Rolls Royce (much to her embarrassment).

Victoria wanted to be famous from a young age, taking dance lessons after watching Fame and attending the Jason Theatre School in Enfield from the age of 8 until she was seventeen. This was when she secured a place at the Laine Arts Theatre College in Surrey and began auditioning for bands.

In March of 1993, when she spotted an ad in The Stage: "Are you between 18 and 23 and are able to sing and dance? Are you street-smart, extrovert, ambitious and serious about it?" Victoria joined Geri, Mel B and Mel C along with a girl called Michelle (who would later be replaced by Victoria’s childhood friend Emma Bunton) in winning a place in the Spice Girls. After a rocky start the group signed to Virgin Records and became the biggest girl group ever, releasing hit singles and albums year after year, making a succesful feature film and becoming one of the most influential bands of the nineties and inspiration to millions of young girls.

However, the Spice Girls’ bubble eventually burst as Geri left to pursue a solo career and although the remaining four released a few more singles the magic had gone and after recording a final album they went their seperate ways. Victoria bided her time before launching her first solo single, Out Of Your Mind, in collaboration with Truesteppers and Dane Bowers.  The single coiincided with the release of Sophie Ellis Bextor’s collaboration with Spiller and resulted in a chart battle which Sophie won.  The defeat reflected badly on Victoria and her solo career seemed to go from bad to worse.  Her next single, Not Such An Innocent Girl found itself up against Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, which only served to highlight the difference in quality between Victoria’s efforts and those of established pop stars.  Her debut album was released two weeks later and on managing to only just edge in to the top ten Victoria was dropped by Virgin.

On hooking up with former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller, Victoria decided to take a more R&B influenced turn, against her manager’s advice.  She began a friendship with Damon Dash who not only assisted Victoria in her musical direction but signed her up to model for his Rocawear label.  A dounle A side, Let Your Head Go/This Groove, was released in the week following Christmas 2003 but charting at number 3 in the single chart’s least competetive week it was considered a commercial flop.  The single remains Victoria’s last release although she has regularly returned to the studio to work with, among others, Cathy Dennis.  Several tracks remain unreleased and Victoria claims that she’ll only sing again if the Spice Girls reunite.

Concentrating on her fashion career, Victoria as previously designed for Rock and Republic as well as modelling for Rocawear and Maria Grachvogel.  Her second book (her first was an autobiography, Learning to Fly), That Extra Half An Inch: Heels, Hair and Everything in Between, cemented Victoria’s influence as a fashion icon.

In 1997 Victoria met British footballing icon David Beckham and before long they were the country’s most talked about couple.  Victoria fell pregnant two years later and following the birth of their first son, Brooklyn, the couple were married in a lavish ceremony at Ireland’s Luttrellstown Castle.  Despite rumours of David’s infidelity and problems moving between Britain and Spain for his career the Beckham’s marriage remains strong and they have had two further sons, Romeo (born 2002) and Cruz (born 2005).  The family plan to move to Los Angeles later this year with plans to create a relaity show based around the move.  Meanwhile rumours of a Spice Girls reunion persist.  We might get Victoria back in front of that mic yet.

November 2007

David Beckham
Emma Bunton
Geri Halliwell
Mel B
Mel C