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Emma Lee Bunton was born on January
21, 1976 in Barnet, North London. While growing up in nearby Finchley,
Emma showed her desire to perform early on. After winning a beauty contest
at age three, she yearned to be a dancer and an actress. She told her
mother Pauline that she wanted to be a singer, after seeing Olivia
Newton-John in Grease. Later, in the '80s, Emma looked up to Madonna as a
role model.
After grade school, Emma attended Sylvia Young Theatre School, an early
training ground for showbiz-track Britons. But with her working-class
background -- father Trevor is a milkman -- she couldn't afford to attend
for long, and had to switch to a regular high school. The disappointment
drove the aspiring singer to tears: "The shock to my system was scary,"
Emma later admitted. However, after a mere three weeks, the theatre school
called, offering her a scholarship, and she returned.
In 1992, Bunton took a two-year drama course at Barnet Technical College.
Meanwhile, she made inroads as a model and actress, appearing in a number
of commercials, ads and magazines, as well as being cast as a troubled
youth on the BBC hit soap opera, Eastenders (after several auditions).
In 1994, Bunton answered an ad in The Stage trade paper looking for young
female singers to form a new all-girl pop group. The band, originally
called "Touch," was the brainchild of Chris Herbert, who auditioned
thousands of girls before selecting the final five members. Emma made the
cut, along with Geri Halliwell, Victoria Adams (now Beckham), Melanie
Brown, and Melanie Chisholm.
Herbert conceived of a two-year plan to train the band, hiring a vocal
coach, booking a rehearsal studio and arranging recording sessions; after
less than a year, however, the Spice Girls grew impatient. Halliwell led
Bunton and the rest away from their original management when, in 1995, the
quintet was signed by Virgin Records and hired manager Simon Fuller. The
Spice Girls released their first single the following year, and their
debut album, Spice, ended up selling more than 20 million copies. Touring
and international adoration soon followed.
Two years later, the headstrong Halliwell lead the Spice Girls to new
management once again, and soon after quit the group herself, embarking on
a solo career. This was trouble for the remaining Spice Girls. They were
sued by an Italian company over Halliwell's split, and Bunton later had to
testify that she never thought Halliwell would leave the group. Meanwhile,
the quintet-turned-quartet put out another album named Forever. While the
Spice Girls remained together on paper, each pursued a solo career, and
Bunton was no exception. First she took a break from music, focusing
instead on being a television presenter. Leading up to Y2K festivities,
she spoke on behalf of a safe-drinking campaign, warning Londoners about
the dangers of lighting fireworks while drunk.
In 2001, Emma Bunton was back with a single, "What Took You So Long?" and
a new album, A Girl Like Me. While not a smash hit, it was a personal
triumph. Bunton had a hand in writing all the new songs, something she had
wanted to do for some time. "I decided to make a solo album a couple of
years ago and started writing lyrics a long time before that," she says.
Bunton enjoys reading, watching movies, and going to the gym. She likes to
find time for family, and she bought her mother a new house (her parents
are now divorced) with her Spice Girls profits. |
