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Geri Halliwell Information
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'Geraldine Estelle Halliwell' (born August 6, 1972), better known as 'Geri Halliwell', is an English pop singer, originally one of five members of the popular late 1990s girl group the Spice Girls, where she was known as "Ginger Spice".
She was born and grew up in Watford, in the county of Hertfordshire to an English-Swedish father and Spanish mother. She was raised in a Jehovah's Witness household.
Solo Career
Geri Halliwell left the Spice Girls on May 30, 1998 to pursue a solo career after fighting amongst the group left her the black sheep. She was convinced that the group was playing favourites and being jealous of her.
She is known for her charity work which has included raising awareness and funds for breast cancer and visiting Uganda for Comic Relief. In 1998 she was named a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations, concerned with promoting safe sex.
Schizophonic
In 1999 Halliwell released her first solo album, Schizophonic, which included her first solo single, "Look at Me". The song narrowly missed out on the top spot, just beaten by Boyzone. However, the number one was first given to Halliwell with the follow-up, "Mi Chico Latino", and again with "Lift Me Up", which had her outsell former bandmate Emma Bunton. Testing her popularity at the time came with the fourth single, "Bag It Up", which made it to number one again. Collectively, all singles taken from the album Schizophonic have sold over three million copies worldwide. Demonstrating typical flair for outrageous promotion, Halliwell performed "Bag It Up" during the Brit Awards ceremony in 2000, emerging from a giant vagina and walking in stilleto heels over the backs of topless pink-haired men whilst singing the song.
"Look at Me" was released to radio in the United States in late 1999, receiving limited airplay. Even more surprisingly, with only a radio single, Schizophonic debuted at number forty-two on the Billboard 200 before dropping out within the next month. The album was eventually certified gold, selling just over 500,000 copies, but no further singles from Schizophonic or LPs were released in the United States.
Halliwell has had high profile, but short lived, relationships with both Chris Evans and Robbie Williams, but some claim that as these tend to occur around the time she has a single release, they are orchestrated for publicity purposes.
Scream If You Wanna Go Faster
In 2001 Geri Halliwell followed up with the European and Canadian only release, Scream If You Wanna Go Faster. It also included a UK number one cover of the Weather Girls' 1983 hit, "It's Raining Men", used on the Bridget Jones's Diary film soundtrack, and the video game, DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX. The song had been added to the album at the last minute; another song, "Feels Like Sex" had already been slated as the lead single. In the event, this song remained an album-only track, with the follow-up singles being "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" (number eight) and "Calling" (number seven), the latter, as Halliwell, stated was her favourite co-written track on the album. In 2003, she came ninth in the Channel 4 poll of the 100 Worst Britons.
Passion
In 2004 Geri Halliwell made a return to the music scene with her single "Ride It", which reached number four on the UK charts, but was not promoted abroad. It was the debut single from her third album, Passion which was at that stage slated for a spring release after a second single. However, several months elapsed before another single was released, during which time Halliwell was apparently ordered to record some new tracks for the as-yet unreleased album by her record company, who were unhappy with the setlist. One of these new songs was "Desire", an attempt to cash-in on the electro style that had recently provided others such as Kylie Minogue and Rachel Stevens with hits. With little airplay (radio stations and TV music channels had blacklisted the track), "Desire" stalled in the UK charts at number twenty-two, the lowest position for Halliwell to date. Released shortly after, Passion simiarly received little attention from the public or critics, limping in to the charts at number forty-one in June 2005 and, with the obvious failure of "Desire", quickly dropping out of the charts. If it weren't for Melanie Brown's second album, L.A. State of Mind, which was released shortly after Passion, Geri would hold the record for the biggest flop album of a solo Spice Girl.
Despite the underwhelming failure of Passion, apparently it is rumoured that a third single from the album, "Love Never Loved Me", may be released later in the year.
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Halliwell has also pursued a TV career in America, re-uniting with former Spice Girls manager, Simon Fuller, to host All American Girl. She has also made appearances in Sex and the City and a film, Fat Slags (2004), based on characters from Viz magazine.
She has released two best-selling autobiographies in 1999 and 2002, detailing her rise to fame, and her turbulent celebrity lifestyle. She has also released two Yoga DVDs which sold fairly well.
Since 2003, she has been in contact with the rest of the Spice Girls, and rumours of a reunion have been swirling, especially since all five members have now had singles success of some degree or another. Rumours indicated that they might perform together again in 2005, at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London. Initially organisers axed the idea, but after the publicity surrounding the cut, Bob Geldof stated that they would reconsider their possible attendance. However, the Spice Girls were in the end not present for the Live 8 show, the press claiming that this was due to Melanie Brown changing her mind a few days before the performance.
In October 2005, it was reported that Halliwell is expecting her first child. The father of the child is rumoured to be British scriptwriter Sacha Gervasi. There has not been official announcement about the pregnancy, or identity of the father.
Although, on October 18th, 2005, a statement was released by Splash News by Sacha Gervasi: "I fully intend to give Geri and the baby all the love and support they need."
Discography
Studio albums
* 1999: Schizophonic - #4 UK; #4 CAN; #42 US; #17 BRA; #52 GER - UK: 483,150; US: 502,000; Worldwide sales: 2.2 million
* 2001: Scream If You Wanna Go Faster - #5 UK; #6 BRA; #29 GER - UK: 145,844; GER: 211,000; Worldwide sales: 1.8 million
* 2005: Passion - #41 UK; #127 CAN; #39 BRA; - UK: 12,000; CAN: 500; Worldwide sales: 35,000
Singles
* 1999: "Look at Me!" - #2 UK; #3 CAN; #22 GER; #3 AU
* 1999: "Mi Chico Latino" - '#1' UK (1 week); '#1' CAN (1 week); #29 GER; #48 AU
* 1999: "Lift Me Up" - '#1' UK (1 week); '#1' CAN (1 week); #77 GER
* 2000: "Bag It Up" - '#1' UK (1 week); #79 GER
* 2001: "Its Raining Men" - '#1' UK (2 weeks); '#1' CAN (3 weeks); #4 AU
* 2001: "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster"- #8 UK; #30 AU; #36 CAN; #66 GER
* 2001: "Calling" -#1 Russia #7 UK; #10 FRA; #48 GER
* 2004: "Ride It" -#1 UK Dance #4 UK; #3 SPA; #73 GER
* 2005: "Desire" - #22 UK; #55 MEX
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