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Emma Lee Bunton (born 21 January 1976)
is an English pop singer, songwriter, and occasional
actress. Emma is best known for being a member of the
successful '90s girl group, Spice Girls. Emma was known
as "Baby Spice", in the group, as she was the
youngest member, had an "innocent" demeanour,
and often wore "baby doll" dresses.
Biography: Bunton was born in Finchley and grew
up in Woodside Park, both in Barnet, London. Her
parents, Pauline, a karate instructor, and Trevor, a
milkman, split up when she was eleven, and she stayed
with her mother. She has a younger brother, Paul James.
She attended St Theresa's Roman Catholic
Primary School in Finchley, and then went on to go to
the Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone,
Westminster. In 1993, she appeared in the on-going
ITV1's police drama series The Bill, and also auditioned
(although unsuccessfully) for the role of Bianca, later
to be played by Patsy Palmer, in the BBC's soap opera
EastEnders.
Music career: She joined the Spice Girls (then
still called Touch) in 1994 after the original fifth
Touch member, Michelle Stephenson, left the group. The
group became one of the most successful musical artists
of the 1990s selling thirty-five million albums with the
studio releases Spice (1996), Spiceworld (1997), and
Forever (2000). She was known as Baby Spice because she
often wore baby doll dresses and had her blonde hair in
pigtails.
Their debut single "Wannabe"
became the first of a string of number ones in the
United Kingdom (nine in total) and reached the top
position in thirty-seven countries around the globe,
including Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the U.S. In
1999, she presented her own music show entitled Emma on
VH1. The Spice Girls stopped recording in 2000. Many
rumours circulated about a reunion for the group's tenth
anniversary, but nothing materialised.
Her debut solo album entitled A Girl Like Me spawned the
UK number-one hit "What Took You So Long?" as
well as the top five hits "What I Am" (a cover
of a 1988 song earlier recorded by Edie Brickell &
New Bohemians) and "Take My Breath Away"
(which has nothing to do with Berlin's 1986 hit), and
the top twenty hit "We're Not Gonna Sleep
Tonight". The album sold approximately 125,000
copies in the UK. Due to the disappointing sales of the
project, Bunton parted with Virgin in 2002.
Bunton then signed a contract with Spice Girls' manager
Simon Fuller's 19 Management and a complex licensing
deal with Polydor Records, which included TV work and
releasing music. In the spring of 2003, she returned as
Emma (losing the Bunton), with the top five hit
"Free Me" and later that year released
"Maybe", which also went top ten. In the
spring of 2004, the single "I'll Be There" and
the album Free Me were released. The album contained
'60s-style pop gems and outsold her first album.
Free Me was released in the United States on 25 January
2005, but it didn't manage to chart on the U.S.
Billboard 200 despite her appearances on major U.S. talk
shows such as The View, Live with Regis and Kelly, and
The Tony Danza Show to promote the album. She also made
a number of promotional appearances for album signings
in the U.S., including the gay bar XL Lounge, in New
York City. Her first single released in the U.S. was a
dance remix of the album's title track, which reached
the top five of both the Hot Dance Club Play and the Hot
Dance Airplay. "Maybe" also followed the
success of "Free Me" on the U.S. dance chart.
In November 2006, Bunton released the official charity
single for the BBC Children in Need appeal, recording a
cover of Petula Clark's '60s classic
"Downtown". It peaked at number three on the
UK Singles Chart and was followed by her third studio
album, Life in Mono, released on 4 December. The album
entered the UK Albums Chart at number sixty-five,
selling approximately 13,000 copies in its first week.
To date, it has sold more than 45,000 copies in the UK.
The second single from it was "All I Need to
Know", released on 12 February 2007, intended for
the Valentine's Day market. Bunton shot the video around
Old Street in East London, in the week before Christmas
2006. Entering the UK Singles Chart at number sixty,
"All I Need to Know" became Bunton's
lowest-charting single of her solo career. Recently,
Emma Bunton is back with the Spice Girls when an
announcement was made on June 28 2007.
Television and film: In October 2006, Bunton
appeared as one of the celebrity contestants in the
autumn 2006 series of the popular BBC programme Strictly
Come Dancing and was partnered with professional dancer
Darren Bennett. Despite being the bookies' favourite,
she was placed third overall, and was the final female
contestant to be eliminated.
She has also appeared in other roles in recent years,
most notably in the fifth and final season of Absolutely
Fabulous playing herself in a couple of episodes. She
has also guest-presented the television programmes SM:TV
Live, T4 and hosted her own show Emma for VH1. In August
2006, former Spice Girls' manager Simon Fuller announced
that he was planning a television sitcom based around
Bunton.
In 2005, Bunton filmed guest roles in two Bollywood
films: Pyaar Mein Twist and Chocolate. Emma has won the
head female role of The Pink Panther 2 and will be
filming in 2008, with the cast and crew. Bunton is
headed to replace Beyoncé Knowles as the role of the
female lead in The Pink Panther 2.
Bunton has recently been seen in a high-profile
television commercial for the supermarket chain Tesco.
She also had a cameo role on the Australian soap opera
Neighbours as herself on the episode titled "What's
a Spice Girl Like You...?", aired on 19 March 2007
in Australia, and on 25 May 2007 in the UK. Bunton
returned to US screens with a nationwide commercial for
Prego in May of 2007.
Personal life: She has been linked with such
stars as actor Nigel Harman, pop singer Justin
Timberlake, and 911 lead singer Lee Brennan. Her
boyfriend of eight years is former Damage and current
CherryBlackStone lead singer Jade Jones. In October
2006, there were rumours that the couple were engaged,
with plans to marry in March 2007. This rumour was
denied several days later.
After being diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition
which can reduce fertility, Bunton and Jones announced
in January 2007 that they were expecting their first
child together, due sometime in the summer. It was
rumoured that Prince William was to be one of the baby's
godparents. However, Bunton appeared as a guest on the
11 February episode of Loose Women, where she denied
that this was the case, stating that, yes, she and
William were friends, and "exchanged Christmas
cards", but that he would not be one of the baby's
godparents. |
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