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Melanie C: Margaret Thatcher wasn't the 'first Spice Girl' - Attitude Skip to main content
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Home Culture Culture Music

Mel C confirms Margaret Thatcher was ‘absolutely not’ the first Spice Girl

Sporty Spice corrects the record after her former bandmate claimed in 1996 that Margaret Thatcher was the OG Spice Girl.

By Emily Maskell

Melanie C
Melanie C during Night of the Proms at SAP Arena, Mannheim, Germany on 22/12/2017. Photo: Sven Mandel

The Spice Girls’ Melanie C has broken her silence on the moment Geri Halliwell said Margaret Thatcher was the original Spice Girl.

The 48-year-old English singer-songwriter was reflecting on signature Spice Girls moments when she contradicted her bandmate’s idea.

It was during a 1996 interview with The Spectator where the band were asked about their political views that Halliwell decided she had things to say: “We Spice Girls are true Thatcherites. Thatcher was the first Spice Girl, the pioneer of our ideology – Girl Power.”

Speaking to The Independent about her long-anticipated memoir Who I Am, Sporty Spice notes that it was frustrating that the public viewed the girl band as one homogenous thinking body, not a group of individuals with differing and contrasting perspectives and views. 

 “Abbbbbsolutely not!”

– Melanie C

When asked point blank if Maggie T was, in fact, the first Spice Girl, Mel C responds: “Abbbbbsolutely not!

“Geri, in the past, was very vocal about her support for Margaret Thatcher,” Chisholm continued. “I’m from Liverpool. It was a name that was not celebrated in that region.”

Melanie C adds that the thoughts Halliwell shared were never shared by her: “I don’t think people think I’m a raging Tory!”

This isn’t the first time Chisholm has made light of her fellow Spice Girls, Mel C was a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Vs The World earlier this year when she decided to throw shade at her bandmates.

When judging Blu Hydrangea’s musical number that saw two mannequins attached to her (she said she’s done that act before with the mannequins dressed as Spice Girls, one of which was Geri) Chisholm joked: “That’s a way of keeping Geri in time! We should do that next time we go on tour!”

Melanie Chisholm’s Who I Am is out now. 

The Attitude September/October issue is out now.