Geri Halliwell

Geraldine Estelle Halliwell (born August 6, 1972), better known as Geri Halliwell, is a British pop singer, originally one of five members of the 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. She was raised in the Jehovah's Witness sect. From early in her life she attempted to fashion some career as a celebrity by posing as a topless glamour model.

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.

In 1999 Halliwell released her first solo album, Schizophonic, which included her first solo single, "Look at Me". She followed up with the very successful singles, "Mi Chico Latino" and "Lift Me Up". Each time a single was released, Schizophonic would move back up the charts. Her fourth release, "Bag It Up", was not as successful as the previous two, but still sold well, and did indeed moved the album back up the charts.

"Look at Me" was relased 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 literally 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 US.

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.

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.

In 2003, she came ninth in the Channel 4 poll of the 100 Worst Britons.

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 is the debut single from her third album, Passion. Despite the fair success of "Ride It", the album debuted at a poor forty-one. The second single from Passion, "Desire", debuted at number twenty-two on the UK Top 40, the second lowest debut achieved from a solo Spice Girl.

Halliwell has begun pushing her 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 new 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 since, especially since all five members have now had singles success of some degree or another. Recent rumours indicate that they might perform together again as soon as 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.

Discography

Studio albums

• 1999: Schizophonic — #4 UK, #42 US — Worldwide sales: 3 million
• 2001: Scream If You Wanna Go Faster — #5 UK — Worldwide sales: 2 million
• 2004: Passion — #41 UK

Singles

• 1999: "Look at Me" — #3 CAN, #2 UK
• 1999: "Mi Chico Latino" — #1 (1 week) CAN, #1 (1 week) UK
• 1999: "Lift Me Up" — #1 (1 week) CAN, #1 (1 week) UK
• 2000: "Bag It Up" — #1 (1 week) UK
• 2001: "It's Raining Men" — #1 (3 weeks) CAN, #1 (2 weeks) UK
• 2001: "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" — #36 CAN, #8 UK
• 2001: "Calling" — #7 UK
• 2004: "Ride It" — #4 UK
• 2005: "Desire" — #21 UK

CAN represents the singles that were released in Canada that also received airplay. Her music wasn't due to be promoted in Canada, but Geri Halliwell appeared on MuchMusic to promote her album Scream If You Wanna Go Faster. With this promotion, all of her videos from her first two albums were released in Canada and received airplay, with the exceptions of "Bag It Up" and "Calling", which were UK releases only.

"Look at Me" was the only single released in the United States, but only to radio. Since the song was never officially released, it was unable to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite this misfortune, Schizophonic actually debuted at a fairly decent number on the Billboard 200.

External links

• Official Website (http://www.geri-halliwell.com)
• HalliwellNews (http://www.halliwellnews.co.uk)
• Geri-Halliwell.org (http://www.geri-halliwell.org)nl:Geri Halliwell

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