Spice Girls: Encyclopedia II - Spice Girls - 5 Become 4

Spice Girls - 5 Become 4

Geri Halliwell announced her desire to quit the group shortly after the release of "Stop". She claimed she was tired, fed up, and wanted to pursue a solo career. This did not come as a huge surprise to some fans, as she had always been seen as wanting to do her own thing and the Spice Girls were simply a stepping stone to a successful solo career. Halliwell agreed that she would only leave after the completion of the American Tour which began in June 1998, because "you couldn't get any better than that." However, events quickly spun out of control when nude photographs of Geri were published by Playboy magazine. According to television reports, this was a shock to Halliwell, making her extremely frustrated, and only added to her desires of leaving the group. She then began missing concerts in Oslo, due to what she claimed was gastroenteritis. The final strike came when the girls were due to appear on the U.K. state lottery (the National Lottery), and only four of them showed up. This stirred more "Geri Quits" headlines in the papers than ever before. On the eve of the American Tour, May 30, 1998, it was confirmed that Geri Halliwell announced her departure from the group. Here is a portion of the statement read by her lawyer:

"Sadly I would like to confirm that I have left the Spice Girls. This is because of differences between us. I'm sure the group will continue to be successful and I wish them all the best. P.S. I'll be back."

The four remaining girls decided to continue their career as the Spice Girls and said this in response to Halliwell's statement; "we are upset and saddened by Halliwell's departure but we are very supportive in whatever she wants to do. The Spice Girls are here to stay—see you at the stadiums!" They then went on to complete the American Tour without Geri.

After Halliwell's departure, a fourth single from Spiceworld, "Viva Forever", was released in Europe and Australia (not in North America due to fan reduction and an uncertainty in the video's theme). It stayed at number one in the UK for two weeks, and peaked at number two in Australia. Over two million copies were sold across Europe as well. The animated music video received some limited airplay on the American VH1, as part of a special on Halliwell's departure from the group. Her vocals did feature on the song as she had recorded the entire album with them the previous year, however, as she could not feature in the video, an animated version using tin puppets of all five girls were placed in it. This was the last of the group's singles on which Halliwell was featured.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "5 Become 4", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki