Mel C says Spice Girls started talking about girl power because of sexism in music industry

‘Talking about girl power gave us a fire in our belly,’ Sporty Spice states

The Spice Girls pose outside the Martinez Hotel in Cannes, during the 50th Cannes Film Festival, to promote their new movie 'Spice the Movie' (Neil Munns/PA Archive/PA Images)

Mel C has discussed what inspired the Spice Girls to speak out about girl power, recalling the sexism that she and her bandmates experienced in the music industry during the early stages of their career.

Mel C, whose full name is Melanie Chisholm, became known as Sporty Spice in the Spice Girls, alongside Victoria Beckham, Mel B – whose full name is Melanie Brown – Geri Horner and Emma Bunton.

The pop group’s debut album Spice became one of the best-selling albums in history, with the band’s ethos of “girl power” prevailing from the 1990s to the present day.

During the latest episode of podcast Table Manners with Jessie Ware, Mel C spoke to Ware and the singer’s mother, Helena Ware, about some of the obstacles the Spice Girls faced when they first started out, with people in the music industry underestimating the potential of a girl group.

“We started talking about girl power because we experienced sexism in the industry,” the 46-year-old said.

“’Cause we were just five girls, we wanted to be famous, we wanted to be pop stars and quite quickly we were being told girl bands don’t sell records, you can’t be on the front cover of magazines because girls buy records by boys.”

According to Mel C, the sexist attitudes the Spice Girls encountered inspired them to champion girl power to an even greater degree.

“We were like, ‘Seriously, don’t say that to the Spice Girls, that’s like a red rag to a bull,’ she said.

“So that’s when we started talking about girl power and we knew, actually, we had a really important point to prove, and it was great because it gave us a fire in our belly.”

Mel C told Ware and her mother that after the Spice Girls started championing the girl power movement, they became more aware of their LGBT+ following.

The singer explained that at the time, the Spice Girls were not fully of aware of the “impact” they were having among the LGBT+ community.

“We quite quickly realised that we had quite a big gay following, and it became more than girl power. It became people power. It became about equality,” she stated.

“And we knew that at the time, but we didn’t realise how important it was and the impact that it was having.”

During her conversation with the Wares, Mel C also compared the way in which the Spice Girls approached the media to musicians today, as the band “never had media training”.

“It wasn’t a thing when we came out. And I think all artists have it now,” the musician said.

Mel C said that while it was “quite chaotic” as the bandmates “just said anything and spoke over each other”, they “loved it”.