- Title: UNITED KINGDOM:GERI HALLIWELL, ISSUES HER DEBUT MUSIC SINGLE
- Date: 15th May 1999
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (APRIL 21, 1999) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) HALLIWELL SAYING: "The bottom line is I told the Spice Girls I was going to leave in the September at the end of the world tour, that's when I wanted to go and I told them that at the beginning of the tour so it was no surprise that I was going. However, I did leave prematurely because I wasn
- Embargoed: 30th May 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVACVQKLCRWDSMAWEY5HAI9LGZPU
- Story Text: When "Ginger Spice" dramatically quit the most successful girl band in history, The Spice Girls, last year, critics were quick to predict the demise of the group and to suggest that it was 'curtains' for Geri Halliwell's career.
The remaining Spice Girls successively completed their world tour and Halliwell took time out to find herself again.
Ten months later, she's back and with a vengeance.Reuters met Halliwell at London's exclusive "Home House" to discuss her metamorphosis from Spice Girl to solo artist and her debut solo single, "Look at Me" taken from her forthcoming album due for release in early summer.
Looking back at the past year of her life, Geri Halliwell could be forgiven for experiencing certain regret.
But leaving the Spice Girls last year, she says was the right decision and although the rest of the world thought she'd made a serious error in judgement, Halliwell disagrees: "The bottom line is I told the Spice Girls I was going to leave in the September at the end of the world tour, that's when I wanted to go and I told them that at the beginning of the tour so it was no surprise that I was going.However, I did leave prematurely because I wasn't allowed to do a breast cancer interview and I just got really angry, very emotional about it because it was something that was very close to my heart and it made me question my priorities so there's lots of reasons why I left the Spice Girls, that is the reason, the breast cancer thing is why I left that day but it was one of the things where I just felt that I was meant to be the advocat of girl power and I felt like a hypocrite if I couldn't do somethingfor empowering women, so I had no choice really," she says.
Halliwell describes the months following as "a tail end of the tornado", an ordeal which she has clearly survived, thanks to a little help from a friend, singer George Michael.
He 'rescued her' for a few months in the summer last year by invitingher to stay with him at his homes in the South of France and in Los Angeles, United States.She says it allowed her to find herself again.
The offers came flooding in.She sold the trademark outfits she'd worn as Ginger Spice, closing a chapter in her own life and raised 150,000 pounds sterling for Sargent Cancer Care for Children in the process.
She was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador to the UN and she sang 'Happy Birthday' to Prince Charles at his fiftieth birthday celebration in true Monroe style.
It was in the Autumn of last year that Halliwell finally felt ready to go into the studio to record her debut album.
It's an album which she says reflects her own contradictions.
Using her writing skills acquired during her time with the Spice Girls, she's created what she calls 'a blueprint of herself'.
She says there were no half-measures, and that she took each song to the max.Recording the album was an 'emotional roller-coaster' which she poured all of her energies into because she wanted to and because she wanted to feel that her fans would be getting value for their money.
"My album might flop, I really hope it doesn't because I did the best job I could.I didn't put a single out riding on the back of my departure, I could have done it six months ago but I didn't, I waited because I wanted to get it right and give you something that was value for money.Why should someone spend fifteen pounds on something that's just riding off the back of my fame? I try to give you creativity and imagination for your money.So but I understand the nature of the beast, and it's fickle and you have no control of it, you can only do your best and after that you have to let it go and then say 'well it's up to you'., if you like it."
With a new image - she's discarded her bright red hair and lips - and a new record label, EMI: Chrysalis, Miss Halliwell is back on the music scene.The first single to be released from the album is "Look At Me", a song produced by Bristol duo theAbsolute Boys, which she says is about public image.
"It's about the way we're obsessed particularly in the media, the way we look and actually it's saying look at me, look at you, look at ourselves really, what are we really about? Because it's so we all put these labels on each other like your good looking, you're ugly, you're fat, you're thin you're gorgeous, we all have preconceptions, prejudice about prejuding each other on face value, cliched as it is and actually we're saying you know what, we can be everything, we can be drama queens, we canbe real, but actually look past whether you're mothers, lovers, fighters, teachers, whether we're rubbish, crap, great or smart look past that because actually you'll get who we are and that's the way I try to react with people, it's best it really is the nicest way and that's how you can speak to either a postman or a president then you don't get so nervous."
Separate from writing music, Halliwell has also been working on other projects.Since leaving the Spice Girls, Halliwell has been constantly filmed for a documentary called "A Moment In My Life".Although she now thinks she was 'mad' to let someone capture her life on film for so long, she describes the experience as 'cathartic' and therapeutic because she says it captures her moods, good or bad.The documentary was aired in the UK on May 5.
Halliwell has also been writing a book based on her life since the age of sixteen.With the help of a co-writer, Halliwell tells her story as a reflection on the eighties, nineties, the changing music scenes and chasing a rainbow and reaching her pot of gold at the end.The book is due to be released later in the year.
"Look At Me" is released in record shops on May 10. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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