A singer who reached the final eight candidates during auditions for the Spice Girls has spoken of feeling "gutted" to miss out on the pop sensation, despite correctly predicting that Geri Halliwell-Horner and Melanie Brown would secure their spots. Melanie Coloma responded to a listing in The Stage three decades ago for a then-unnamed female act, successfully navigating several callback rounds before just missing out on the final selection. Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Coloma recalled the unusual process: "It was something quite different compared to the normal sort of auditions you see, so it was quite exciting.
"There were hundreds of girls, and we all had to sing at the first audition, and then lots of names got called back, and I didn’t, so I was like, "Oh, OK, I’m done." "I was about to leave, and then somebody ran out and said, ‘Oh no, we still want you as well’. And I said, ‘Oh, OK, cool. Amazing’." Moving into the subsequent stage of the casting, Coloma noted how distinct certain future bandmates were to her.
"And then we had a second audition, and that’s where I remember the girls mostly. I remember Mel B, and I remember Geri, and they were both fantastic. Geri was really funny, she was really good fun.
And Mel B, I knew from day one that she would make it because she just looked amazing." She continued: "Victoria (Beckham) I don’t remember very well from auditions and Emma (Bunton) wasn’t there because she joined later. Mel C (Chisolm) wasn’t at the second audition because she was poorly." Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
It was only much later while working on a stage tour that Coloma realised what the project had become. Asked when the connection was made, she said: "I was in a hotel in Liverpool. "I was on tour in a show, and I switched on my TV, and I saw them singing Wannabe on the TV, and I was like, ‘I recognise those girls’, and that’s when it hit me.
Oh my goodness!" She described their overall impact as "amazing", adding: "They really brought girls’ music to the front line, and there was more equality. "More girls were making it big, like boys." Reflecting on her personal reaction, she said: "Obviously I was gutted, but I was like ‘Ah, that could have been me’, anybody would feel that way. "But I’ve always had a lot of respect for them, and they’re lovely girls, the ones that I’ve met anyway.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
