Madrid was shaking with girl
power in January '97 when the Spice Girls arrived, cheered by thousands of
screaming fans.
Words by M.A. Garcias
Scene 1: Madrid-Barajas airport
Literally hundreds of fans were at the airport waiting for their arrival. The visit was sponsored by the most important Spanish radio channel, "Los 40 Principales", and they put on a special bus exclusively for the Spice fans to see their idols arriving at the airport. On TV you could see lots of girls dressed like the Spice Girls, singing and dancing Wannabe, showing albums, posters, T-Shirts and all that merchandise. It was a hell to be at the Madrid airport that day.
The girls were to arrive at 10am but they lost their flight in London, so they arrived one hour late. And then, there was the chaos. I saw on TV how they walked among the fans protected by the police and half a dozen bodyguards. I had seen a report about the visit of Mark Owen (ex Take That) to Madrid some weeks before. I thought that no fans could be as crazy as Mark's fans - I was wrong. A young girl, dressed like Mel C, was crying and shouting: "Me ha mirado, me ha mirado, la mia me ha mirado!" ("She looked at me, she has looked at me!"). If I were Mel C and I saw such a girl at the airport, I would have looked at her too. What madness. So, after that, they took a car and were driven to Madrid.
Scene 2: Los 40 Principales radio
station, Madrid.
I was home at 13:00 listening to the local news on the radio. When the local radio station connected to the main one in Madrid, you could hear the crowds shouting on the radio. As I saw later on TV, the scene at the airport had repeated at the front door of the radio station. The idea was that they were to appear on the radio for a while before performing later in the evening. But it was rather difficult for them just to enter the radio station because of the crowd of fans waiting for them. Finally, they did it, but in the studio, more difficulties arose.
There were dozens of reporters and journalists there with their cameras and microphones and the interview would be very complicated to do. Well, it was done: they were asked about their music and about all the fan phenomenon they had created, and then they were asked to sing the chorus to Wannabe live a capella... and they did. The Spice Girls talked a lot of nonsense, laughed and shouted a lot, and they were very nice and very fun. On TV you could see them smiling all the time, posing for the cameras and being very kind.
That was midday. They spent the afternoon with the media, the press, the reporters and their fans at the fan club. The presidents of the Spanish Spice Girls Fan club appeared in TV as happy as if he had won the lottery. They were probably envied and hated by lots of people.
Scene 3: the performance.
Well, I haven't said yet why were the girls were visiting Spain. Apart for promotion, they came to take the five platinum discs that they deserve for selling more than 500,000 copies of their album. For the event the radio channel organised a public (and free) performance of the Girls in a square in Madrid, besides a very important department store (who BTW sold that day more Spice albums than ever).
Well, I think it was a very brilliant idea. And a very ingenious one too. The organisation expected that some 5,000 people would come. After all, there was no space for more than that. The final count was of 20,000 people waiting for 5 hours, in the rain, and some cases of suffocation, unconsciousness and hysteria.
At 7pm the Girls appeared on the stage and there was real madness! You can imagine the rest: thousands of people singing Wannabe and some of their other songs... but the Girls didn't sing live (why?). If I were a fan who had gone there to see them, at least I would like to hear them singing. But the fans didn't seem to be disappointed. The fans were asked on TV what did they thought of the girls and the general response was "they are so beautiful, and look so good, and have big tits..." always completed with "and their songs, of course, they also sing very well". Nuff said. There is nothing more to tell about that "concert". It was not broadcast on Spanish TV except for some moments. The Girls were also very nice there (even if they weren't really singing, they know how to give a really good show).
And, you may ask, what about the girls? What
did they say? Well, I just heard some questions on a few TV programs. Mel B was
the one who was almost always was speaking, and she always had the right answer
to questions that could be a little embarrassing. When they were asked what they
think about the fact that the vast majority of their fans were very young
people, even children (that is, people with not enough criterion to know what's
good and bad music) Mel B said that they made their music for everyone, no
matter what age, sex, etc. (I don't know if it's the same in other countries,
but here in Spain the Spice fans are very very young).
When they were (frequently) asked about the message they wanted to throw to the people, you can guess the answers: freedom, love, peace, fun, respect, girl power, and all that stuff. They were very nice when they were asked about how fame had changed their lives: "Well, we used to be received by one or two friends at the airport when we arrived at somewhere, but now there are hundreds of fans. And also, we are always surrounded by the cameras, and we can't do things like putting our fingers up our noses" (and of course, they put then their fingers up their noses). But, undoubtedly, the funniest thing about them was listening to Geri speaking Spanish (her mother is Spanish). She didn't speak it very well, but it was as nice as you can imagine.
Scene 4: the live show.
The last appearance they did was on the radio that evening at 9pm. I couldn't hear it, but the TV broadcasted it later with an interview. The questions were pretty stupid, apart from asking them about the story of the band, to which Mel C told the official story: they met 4 years ago, trying to join a band as dancers and singers, and they decided to form the band themselves, etc. Other questions: Do you represent the new feminism? Are better women than men? Are you surprised of being so well known here in Spain? etc. The question "What are you going to do when you grow older?" was subtly eluded by Mel B, who said that "the spicy people never grow up!" And when they were asked "Do you know any Spanish songs?" well, imagine Emma and Victoria singing "Macarena", Mel B singing "Que Viva Espana" and Mel C and Geri trying to remember "Pajaritos" (a somewhat old and childish song that I never thought that was known outside of Spain).
Well, there was something funny on the TV show. Victoria was "singing" and dancing a little too near the camera, and the cameraman was filming too far down and Victoria's skirt was too short... well imagine what we saw (actually she wore panties, so don't think silly things!)