Emma Bunton

Emma Bunton

Sponsored Links:

Birth name: Emma Lee Bunton
Date of birth: 21 January 1976
Place of birth: Barnet, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Nickname: Baby Spice
Height: 5′ 2″ (1.57 m)

Famous Quote: “I’m not a pop star. I’m not a big sports fan, but I love it when they “slam dunk.” That’s sexy. I love shopping, especially food shopping. I don’t think I will ever get tired of wearing pink. Be yourself, take control of your life. Be sweet, be good, and honest always.”

Contact Address and Autograph: Addresses and fan mail information

Emma Bunton
19 Entertainment Ltd.
Unit 32/33, Ransomes Dock
35 37 Parkgate Road, London SW11 4NP, UK 

Biography:  Emma Lee Bunton (born 21 January 1976) is an English pop singer, songwriter, and occasional actress. Bunton is best known for being a member of the successful ’90s girl group, the Spice Girls, in which she was known as “Baby Spice” as she was the youngest member and often wore revealing “babydoll” dresses. Spice Girl Emma Bunton wasn’t the first to venture off from her dance-pop band the Spice Girls for a solo career. Melanie C. was most triumphant with her 1999 debut A Northern Star while Melanie B. and ex-Spice Geri Halliwell earned mild reviews. But like her fellow musical mates, Baby Spice aimed for solo success during the new millennium. However, it wouldn’t have been nearly as possible if it weren’t for her millions and massive praise made while fronting one of Britain’s biggest pop acts to emerge during the 1990s. 

Bunton was born in Finchley and grew up in Woodside Park, both in the London borough of Barnet. Her parents, Pauline, a karate instructor, and Trevor, a milkman, split up when she was eleven; she stayed with her mother. She has a younger brother, Paul James. Bunton started off at St. Theresa’s Primary School in Finchley Central. Then Bunton went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone; in 1993 she appeared in the ITV1 police series The Bill and also auditioned (although unsuccessfully) for the role of Bianca (played by Patsy Palmer) in the BBC soap EastEnders; she had previously appeared briefly in the soap in 1992, as a mugger who attacked the character Jules Tavernier, played by Tommy Eytle.

Bunton’s time spent at St. Theresa’s Roman Catholic primary school was typical, yet Bunton’s passion for her hobbies turned full-scale as she spent her formal theater years at Sylvia Young Theatre School. Already a natural in front of the camera, she left secondary at 16 and began studying drama at Barnet Technical College. It would be several years later that she met the group that would make her a star. Bunton was still a young, bubbly teenager when she was christened Baby Spice in 1993. The rest of the decade was a whirlwind with winning the world over with the Spice Girls’ infectious pop energy. Five years spanned a career in entertainment, and at the dawning of the new millennium, Emma Bunton had other ideas. She was now a woman in her twenties and a bright mind of creative ideas. Her soul sisters were already moving on with solo projects and Baby Spice wouldn’t be left behind. 

She guested on Tin Tin Out’s “What I Am in 1999, but two years later, a fresh-faced Bunton returned with her debut album A Girl Like Me. Its first single “What Took You So Long?” shot to number one during its first week of release in mid-April, sustaining a two week reign. Bunton became the only Spice Girl to have a solo single stay at number one for more than one week. Her chart success continued into 2003 with “Free Me” and “Maybe,” two singles from her second effort, Free Me. The sophisticated pop sound caught on with fans and earned Bunton her third hit, “I’ll Be There”, in 2004. Free Me was released in the States in early 2005. 

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 acts of the 1990s, selling 35 million albums with studio releases Spice in 1996, Spiceworld in 1997, and Forever in 2000. She was known as Baby Spice because she often wore baby doll dresses and 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. 

As a songwriter, Bunton – as part of the Spice Girls – set the record for the shortest time to achieve 6 #1 UK singles, taking 1 year 5 months from Wannabe’s first week at #1 to the ascent of Too Much. This outpaced Lennon/McCartney, who took 1 year 6 months (From Me to You through I Feel Fine). In 1999 she presented her own music show Emma on VH1. She had also recorded the song “(Hey You) Free Up Your Mind” for the anime film Pokemon: The First Movie. The Spice Girls stopped recording in 2000; many rumours circulated about a reunion for the group’s tenth anniversary but nothing materialised until June 2007 when they reformed for a Spice Girls reunion tour and Greatest Hits CD.

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’s second album “Free Me” when released (2003/2004) also made the UK top 10. “Free Me” was released through 19/Universal. It sold marginally better than her debut and contained four hit singles, “Free Me”, “Maybe”, “I’ll be there” and “Crickets Sing For Anamaria”. After success in the American dance charts the album was also released in North America. The American edition included bonus remixes and a different cover to the UK edition.

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 around 60.000 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.

On June 28, 2007, it was announced that Bunton would be reuniting with the Spice Girls for a world tour and Greatest Hits collection release. Emma is currently working on her 4th studio album. 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 finished in third place, and was the final female contestant to be eliminated.

Related People: