Victoria Beckham only scored five out of 10 for singing in her Spice Girls audition.
The band’s founder Chris Herbert has spilled all the secrets of the formation of the iconic girl group – also comprising Geri Horner, Melanie C, Emma Bunton, and Mel B – in 1994.
On ‘Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed Britain’ – which kicks off tonight (14.09.21) at 9pm on Channel 4 – Chris, who put together the lineup with his father, Bob, also of Heart Management, reveals all about the audition process for the ‘Wannabe’ group, originally called Touch.
And Chris – who was replaced by Simon Fuller as their manager – has insisted Posh Spice, 47, now a fashion designer, didn’t have the best singing voice but there was something striking about her.
While Ginger Spice (Geri), 49, “always had an excuse and managed to move herself through” each stage of the audition process.
The audition revelations come after the band’s former voice coach previously slammed Mel B for saying Victoria had her mic turned down when they performed live.
Legendary British jazz star Pepi Lemer, who was the ‘Viva Forever’ hitmakers’ original voice coach, felt it was “unfair” of the 46-year-old singer – also known as Scary Spice – to single out her bandmate because they all had their own individual vocal faults.
Although, when they harmonised together, they were much stronger.
Pepi told BANG Showbiz in 2016: “I was surprised Mel did say that because each one of them had defects.
“They weren’t trained properly, and each one of them had weaknesses that had to be strengthened, but singing as a group they were strong.
“I think Mel was unfair for saying that, not one of them was a vocal diva. “
Pepi was full of praise of their unique singing qualities but admitted Posh had to be trained to “blend in” with the rest of them.
She continued: “They all had to be trained in their own way. Mel C (Sporty) had a good soul sound, Emma (Baby) had a pretty voice, a pretty vibrato.
“Geri had the hardest part because singing wasn’t the most natural thing for her to do, Neither was it natural for Victoria to sing, she wasn’t a natural singer.
She had to be trained so she could blend in with the others and form a group.”
Pepi – who has also trained Madonna and The Beatles – helped the girls learn how to use their voices and would make them practice daily.
She added: “With Victoria, and all of them, she had to discover her voice.
“The only way to understand what you have is to train. I helped her (Posh) with tuning, how to project – which is incredibly important – how to breathe, I showed her how to stretch her voice so she wouldn’t harm it.
“I would make her – and all of them – practice individually every day, practice scales, make their voices stronger.”