Victoria Caroline Beckham (born Victoria Caroline Adams on April 17,
1974) is an English celebrity and fashion designer, formerly a pop
singer, who first came to prominence as a member of girl group the
Spice Girls, as "Posh Spice", a nickname given to her by the BBC's Top
of the Pops magazine. She is married to footballer David Beckham.
Victoria Beckham was born and brought up in Goff's Oak, Hertfordshire
to Anthony William Adams, an electronics engineer, and Jacqueline
Doreen Cannon. She is the eldest of three children. Prior to joining
the Spice Girls, Victoria trained as a dancer and had a number of
modeling and dancing jobs, and had joined a band in which she was to
be the lead singer, but left them in favour of the Spice Girls
project. Even though she admits having sung off-key in the audition
(claiming the song was in the wrong key for her but 'she can really
sing') she was chosen anyway. Victoria Adams married the ex-Manchester
United and present England and Real Madrid footballer David Beckham,
on July 4, 1999, with whom she has three sons: Brooklyn Joseph (born
March 4, 1999), Romeo James (born September 1, 2002), and Cruz David
(born February 20, 2005).
Following the birth of her first child, Victoria's weight loss became
a topic of much discussion in the British tabloid press. She agreed to
appear in adverts for a potato crisp brand but there were claims that
she would not actually eat the crisps. She has claimed to this day
that she never had an eating disorder though she says former band
member Geri Halliwell did get her dangerously addicted to dieting. She
likes to say her dramatic weight loss was due to polycystic ovary
syndrome, a condition that more usually causes hirsutism, central
obesity and occasionally masculinization.
Despite being one of the most famous celebrities in Britain, and
having all her music reach the top ten (the only solo Spice to do so),
Victoria Beckham's career as a solo artist is largely considered to
have been a commercial failure. She is the only ex-Spice Girl not to
have had a UK number one single as a solo artist: "Out of Your Mind"
(2000) at number 2 being the closest that she came to the accolade.
Her debut album reached number 10 in the UK album chart. The album
featured the much talked about 'Every Part Of Me'. The song was
co-written by Victoria and was dedicated to her son, Brooklyn. The
track also featured Brooklyn at the start, his 'part' was an
off-chance recording which took place during a break during a
recording session.
Her d?but solo single, 'Not Such An Innocent Girl', was released in
September 2001, and she faced competition from Kylie Minogue's "Can't
Get You Out Of My Head". Victoria, most likely was never going to beat
Kylie, but she gave the project huge promotion and the record had an
expensive and sophisticated video. During promotion however Victoria
wore a 'fake' lip ring which she claimed to be 'real'. Many fans
copied her only to find hers was false; this angered many fans and
resulted in huge media backlash against Victoria. It has since been
argued that this 'stunt' was the beginning of the end of Victoria's
music career.
The second single from the album was 'A Mind Of Its Own'. This record
was much slower and a more mature effort by Victoria. This record
garnered Victoria some critical acclaim. Despite all acclaim and
praise the record stalled at number 6 in the UK and sold only 66,000
copies.
A third single, 'I Wish', was planned to be released. The single
version was due to be a remix featuring Robbie Craig. Many thought the
record would turn around Victoria's fortunes, however the record was
never released as Victoria 'left' her record company, 'Virgin'.
Let Your Head Go / This Groove (a double A-side) was released in the
UK in late December 2003 and reached number 3. This single was the
result of a compromise with her manager Simon Fuller, one side being a
pop/dance song and the other side a song displaying strong R&B
influences which was inspired by her new mentor Damon Dash.
Disagreement between Dash and Fuller over how to manage and produce
Victoria's career and music lead to the cancellation of the US release
of this record, and Victoria began to work on a range of original
fashions for Rock and Republic instead, however this single proved to
be both a critical and commercial breakthrough in terms of solo
success. Most critics agreed that Victoria had made a good pop record
and the diversity of the two records proved she was capable of more
than some previously thought. The single sold over 60,000 copies and
achieved considerably more than her previous work. The record was the
most successful solo spice Girls single since Geri Halliwell's "It's
Raining Men". A promotional CD, featuring these singles and a snippet
of a cover of Lennon and McCartney's Come Together, was sent to the
media but the full song was not released. In the spring of 2004, it
was announced Victoria's next single would be the Cathy Dennis-penned,
'My Love Is For Real'. Reports claimed the song was much more
pop/dance orientated than Victoria's previous work. The single wasn't
released due to Victoria's record label, Telstar, going bankrupt. She
along with several other acts (including Mis-teeq and Craig David) had
all future releases cancelled.
In July 2006, Victoria was voted to be the best dressed and most
iconic woman to women in a poll compiled by More Magazine. In another
poll she was voted to have the 2nd most desireable body in the world.
This offers a contrasting opinion to other magazines who claim
Victoria is too thin.