Spice Girls finalist ‘gutted’ she did not make band but tipped Mel B for success

A singer who made it to the final eight to be in the Spice Girls said she was “gutted” she was not part of the superstar girl group but always tipped Geri Halliwell-Horner and Melanie Brown to make the band.

Melanie Coloma responded to a advertisement in The Stage some 30 years ago and auditioned to be part of an unnamed girl band.

She made it through a series of callbacks, and was in the final eight singers but was eventually not selected to be in the group.

She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “It was something quite different compared to the normal sort of auditions you see, so it was quite exciting.

The then-Prince of Wales meeting the Spice Girls (John Giles/PA)

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“There were  hundreds of girls, and we all had to sing at the first audition, and then lots of names got called back, and I didn’t, so I was like, “Oh, OK, I’m done.”

“I was about to leave, and then somebody ran out and said, ‘Oh no, we still want you as well’. And I said, ‘Oh, OK, cool. Amazing’.”

“And then we had a second audition, and that’s where I remember the girls mostly.

“I remember Mel B, and I remember Geri, and they were both fantastic. Geri was really funny, she was really good fun.

“And Mel B, I knew from day one that she would make it because she just looked amazing.”

Coloma tipped Melanie B for success (Yui Mok/PA)

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She continued: “Victoria (Beckham) I don’t remember very well from auditions and Emma (Bunton) wasn’t there because she joined later. Mel C (Chisolm) wasn’t at the second audition because she was poorly.”

Asked when she realised the band she had auditioned for turned out to be the Spice Girls, Coloma said: “I was in a hotel in Liverpool. I remember it very well.

“I was on tour in a show, and I switched on my TV, and I saw them singing Wannabe on the TV, and I was like, ‘I recognise those girls’, and that’s when it hit me. Oh my goodness!”

She described their success as “amazing”, adding: “They really brought girls’ music to the front line, and there was more equality.

“More girls were making it big, like boys.”

Describing how it felt for her personally, she said: “Obviously I was gutted, but I was like ‘Ah, that could have been me’, anybody would feel that way.

The Spice Girls became global superstars (Fiona Hanson/PA)

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“But I’ve always had a lot of respect for them, and they’re lovely girls, the ones that I’ve met anyway.

“They’re fabulous. They were so talented and they got as far as they did.”

The Spice Girls – made up of Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, Brown and Halliwell (now Halliwell-Horner) – shot to global fame after the release of their debut single Wannabe in 1996, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

The award-winning group also produced hits such as Stop, 2 Become 1, Who Do You Think You Are? and Viva Forever, amassing nine UK number one singles and two chart-topping albums.

Halliwell-Horner left the band in 1998, citing “differences between us”, and in December 2000 the rest of the group went their separate ways, announcing an indefinite hiatus.

They reunited in 2012 for the closing ceremony of the London Summer Olympics and in 2019 for their Spice World tour, but have since been the subject of speculation about a return to the stage.