The Spice Girls are a BRIT Award-winning English girl pop group formed in London in 1994 by Humera 'Bu' A, consisting of Geri Halliwell, Victoria Beckham, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton and Melanie Chisholm. The girls were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe", in 1996. The song went on to spend seven weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart, and helped establish the group as an "international phenomenon". Haywood, John. In all, they sold over 100 million copies of their albums. display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003602520" target="_blank">"International phenomenon" quote. _Billboard. Retrieved June 22, 2007. They went on to release three studio albums and thirteen singles, selling in excess of 55 million records worldwide. blank">Screenshot from BRIT Awards 2000, televised by ITV1, detailing the sales of The Spice Girls up to February 2000. _BRIT Awards. Retrieved March 13, 2006. The group is one of the most successful and biggest girl groups of all time, due to their increasing record sales, reunion tour, merchandising, record sales in different countries, record breaking achievements, such as Wannabe being the biggest single released by a female group of all time, and iconic symbolism such as the union jack dress, "Girl Power", and their nicknames.
Under the guidance of their long time mentor and manager Simon Fuller, the group embraced merchandising and became a regular feature of the British press. Each member of the group was given an alias by Top of the Pops Magazine in 1996, aliases which were adopted by the group and media alike. According to biographer David Sinclair, "Scary, Baby, Ginger, Posh and Sporty were the most widely recognized group of individuals since John, Paul, George and Ringo", and the group was "a social phenomenon that changed the course of popular music and popular culture". In 1997, the Spice Girls released a movie called Spiceworld:The Movie.
The members went their separate ways in 2001 (although a break-up was never formally announced) to focus on their solo careers. On 28 June 2007 all five re-formed before the launch of their Reunion Tour in December, alongside the release of their Greatest Hits album. In December 2007, the Spice Girls made a programme called Giving You Everything, which showed the beginning to the current reunion of the Spice Girls. In February 2008, the Spice Girls announced that they were ending their tour in Toronto on 26th February 2008. While they are currently on hiatus, they have stated on their official blog, "Who knows what will happen next!"
