Victoria Beckham

Victoria Caroline Beckham (born Victoria Adams, April 17th 1974) is a British singer, originally in the girl band the Spice Girls, where she was known as Posh Spice.

She was born in the county of Herefordshire as Victoria Adams. Her parents are Anthony William Adams and Jacqueline Doreen Cannon. She has a younger sister Louise (November 21st 1976) and a younger brother Christian (August 8th 1979). Louise has three children, daughter Liberty (May 24th 1998) by Stephen Lawrence and daughter Tallulah-May (April 4th 2002) and son Finley (September 23rd 2004) by her husband Haydn Isted whom she married May 9th 2002. Christian's long-time girlfriend Lucy Lee is due to give birth to their first child in March/April 2005.

Prior to joining the Spice Girls Adams had tried with a number of music acts to attempt to secure Celebrity without success. Sometime later her audition tapes for the Spice Girls came into the public domain in which it was clear that she is tone deaf.

Adams married the ex-Manchester United and present England footballer David Beckham, on July 4, 1999, with whom she has three sons: Brooklyn, born March 4, 1999, Romeo, born September 1, 2002, and Cruz, born February 20, 2005 by caesarian section at the Ruber International Hospital in Madrid.

Following the birth of her first child Victoria's weight loss became a topic of much discussion. She agreed to appear in adverts for a potato crisp brand but there were claims that she would not actually eat the crisps.

An alleged plot to kidnap Victoria on November 1, 2002, was revealed by the News of the World. The court case against the alleged kidnappers collapsed after the original informant admitted that he "made the whole thing up".

Her attempts at a music career have been mixed, despite being one of the biggest celebrities in Britain, she has failed to convert that into chart success. She is the only Spice Girl not to have had a UK number one as a solo artist. She fought unsuccessful chart battles for the top spot with Spiller featuring Sophie Ellis Bextor in 2000 and Kylie Minogue in 2001. Her debut album made number 10 in the UK. In support of the 'Not Such an Innocent Girl' single she appeared at Party in the Park in Birmingham sporting a fake lip piercing that attracted much ridicule.

In 2003 she became involved with controversial Rap music producer Damon Dash in an attempt to reignite her career. A first single (a AA-side) was released in late December 2003, a compromise with her manager Simon Fuller, one side being a pop/dance effort and the other side being a laid back r'n'b number. Despite making number 3 in the charts and selling more in its first week than any other former Spice Girl in the past 2 years (and being released in a low sales week when it is harder to sell a decent number of copies), the press declared the single a flop. A second single was in the pipeline, but this and other music plans were shelved due possibly to the over-exposure dealt by the affair allegations, loss of confidence in the music industry, deciding to take a family holiday in the Summer instead, and feeling fashion would be more appetising.

Victoria's first U.S. album would have come out in either August or September of 2004, with the first single being, 'My Love is For Real.' However, in mid 2004, even though the album was complete, Telstar Records went bankrupt, citing Victoria as the cause and banned her from releasing any of the material. It would have been released under Jay-Z's label, Rocafella Records.

In 2004 her happy marriage image suffered when a string of women lined up to claim having had affairs with David, including Rebecca Loos. All were dismissed as "ludicrous", "absurd" and "unsubstantiated," and the Beckhams showed a united front against the salicious allegations. Some cynics noted that the allegations were not out-right denied; this was later addressed in David Beckham's updated autobiography where he said "even straight denials would be creating more headlines for the spiteful, sorry procession of stories...trying to extinguish fires by splashing them with petrol." In an interview with top female magazine, Marie Claire, Victoria refused to talk directly about the women who alleged they had an affair with David, instead simply saying that she "know[s] in [her] heart and for a fact that David has not been unfaithful." The Beckhams have said on separate occasions that the people involved with the stories were trying to get money and attempt to break up their marriage. The allegations are slowly being discredited over time (the mass media do not describe Loos et al as "former lover", for example) as the Beckhams continue with their happy marriage (there has not been any proven evidence that they have been affected by the allegations).

Loos also claims that Victoria has had several breast enhancements, and restated the infidelity claims in a mens magazine ten months after she made the initial allegations. Loos has also appeared on several Spanish gossip shows, always mentioning Beckham, this despite declaring several months ago that she "does not want to talk about the Beckhams anymore." The Beckhams continue with their indirect, dismissive stance and refuse to speak about Ms Loos.

On October 20th, 2004, the Daily Mirror reported details of her new fashion projects and how she is scared about another failed music project, though she may return to the music scene given time. A spokeman was quoted as saying: "This is the start of a new phase in Victoria's career, combining two things she loves - business and fashion. She's going to be more behind the scenes, but she is very excited." Victoria recently designed jeans for Rock & Republic clothing, which are expected to be released in late February in the US. There continue to be rumours of more fashion projects in the pipeline, including a perfume range.

It was announced in May 2005 that Victoria plans to try another go at music later in the year, despite rumors that she had quit pop all together. In late May of 2005, Victoria announced that she had recently recorded some new tracks and was very proud of them. However, she stated that she would release them under an alias and reveal her true identity only when she had a big, preferably a number 1, hit. She stated that even if the songs were great, the djs would'nt play them if they knew it was her work.

Discography

Singles -

• "Out of Your Mind" (2000) [with True Steppers and Dane Bowers] #2 UK
• "Not Such an Innocent Girl" (2001) #6 UK
• "A Mind of Its Own" (2002) #6 UK
• "This Groove"/"Let Your Head Go" (2004) #3 UK

Album -

• Victoria Beckham (2001) #10 UK

Learning to Fly

Victoria Beckham wrote an autobiographical book called Learning to Fly. In it, amongst other things, she detailed the first incident of the football chant Posh Spice Takes it Up the Arse being sung by the opposing fans at a Manchester United game. The fans chanted this when David Beckham gained possession of the ball. The autobiography was the 3rd best selling non-fiction title of 2001, and has been translated into several Asian languages.

External links

• Site about Victoria's sister Louise Adams (http://www.louiseadams.homestead.com)
• posh madness (http://posh-madness.net/index2.htm) - a regularly updated fan sitede:Victoria Beckhamnl:Victoria Beckham