The Spice Girl that never was. And the story of the popstar who took her place.

As a 22-year-old, Geri Halliwell was struggling to make ends meet, at one point juggling five different jobs in a week to fund sessions in a studio.

She wanted to be somebody, but becoming somebody was the tough part. Housekeeping, bartending, looking after kids. None of it was very glamorous.

Then she saw an ad in a trade magazine – it was the 90s, there was no social media or job sites — calling for young “streetwise” women to audition for an all-female pop act on Friday March 4, 1993.

It sounded perfect… but Geri couldn’t make it. She would be overseas visiting her grandmother.

Meanwhile, Melanie Chisholm was on her way to audition to be a cruise dancer when she came across the same ad, this time on a flyer.

Watch: Melanie C talks about how the Spice Girls got their name. Post continues below.

"It said something along the lines of 'Are you 18 to 24?'" Melanie remembered on Mamamia's No Filter podcast. "Can you dance? Sing? Are you street-wise?"

Not too keen on cruise dancing, Melanie turned to her friend and said "That's it. That's what I'm going to do."

Approximately 400 women with similar hopes and dreams made it to the audition. They were placed in groups of 10 and danced to Stay by British R&B group 'Eternal', then made to perform a solo song of their choice.

"It was very much on the way you looked initially and the way that you moved," said Melanie. "Then you were asked to come back and sing."

Only 12 made the cut for the second round of auditions: Among them were Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm.

The midnight mission that set the Spice Girls free. Post continues after podcast.

"On that day, I think myself, Mel B, and Victoria were there and danced and sung for the management team. Geri missed that day but came later down the line. And then Emma was the missing piece of the jigsaw who didn't come in to the band for a couple of months later."

After returning from Spain, Geri felt compelled to ring the men who had placed the ad, Chris and Bob Herbert from Heart Management. She’d kept the ad stuck to her mirror for weeks and well, something just felt right. She asked if they were still looking for talent — they were, and they invited her to the second audition.

A week later, Victoria, Melanie B, Melanie C, Geri and another woman, Michelle Stephenson, were selected to be members of the girl band named 'Touch'.

"It's quite complicated story," Mel C said on No Filter. "So there were five of us: Geri, Victoria, myself and the other Mel, and a girl called Michelle. Management put us in a little house, which is brilliant because it was a really great way to get to know each other."

It was called the Berkshire house, and it's where the group spent much of 1994, living, practising and recording, together. There was an internal struggle: one member, Michelle Stephenson, started having doubts early and was replaced by Emma Bunton.

Michelle Stephenson left the band before their big break (woops) and was replaced by Emma Bunton. Image: YouTube/eujoey

As soon as Emma joined the group, the other girls knew it was the right decision.

"I remember being in Geri's car… and we picked up Emma at the train station," said Mel C. "Geri was looking at her through the rear-view mirror, and she was just so lovely and sweet, and there was just a massive dynamic shift. From that moment, it was just sparky."

Lauren Bravo, author of What Would The Spice Girls Do?, told Mamamia's daily news podcast The Quicky, there have been many stories of why Michelle left — that she wasn't getting along with the others, that she wasn't willing to put in the work, that she was going to look after her sick mother and wanted to return to university.

"Poor Michelle... there are lots of different versions of the story. Michelle claims that it was her decision to leave and she says that she's still happy with that decision. I think we have to take her at her word, but you can't help but wonder if she kicks herself just a little bit."

Listen to the full episode of 'No Filter' with Mel C below. Post continues afterwards.

But the group faced another problem — their name.

'Touch' was a band of five women with five different styles and personalities. The name didn't feel representative.

Geri was in an aerobics class, stepping side to side when a light bulb went off: "Spice". She ran back to the house and shouted out it to the other four.

The "Girls" in Spice Girls came later, but it was at this moment the best-selling female group of all time was born.

For more than a year, the Spice Girls worked hard, often making tough career decisions that went against the advice of those in the industry and taking drastic steps, like a night-time heist, to make sure they would have control of their own music.

"They were giving us songs that are being written by other people, and they've mostly been written by middle-aged men," Mel C told us.

So, they took matters into their own hands.

Viva Forever. Source: Getty.

"The story that people don't necessarily know is that, yes they were manufactured up to a point, but when they weren't happy with the direction that Chris and Bob Herbert were taking them in they decided they weren't going to sign this contract," Lauren Bravo explained.

"They all piled into Geri's car in the middle of the night, they broke into the recording studio, stole their master recordings, drove to Sheffield, called the managers and said 'That's it, we're not coming back'. They managed themselves after that for a year."

They also really fought music executives about the music they wanted to release. The execs wanted a song with more of an R&B sound for their first single, but the Spice Girls insisted on Wannabe.

Geri and Mel B helmed the ship.

"I think we always looked up to Geri in that she has a lot more experience in life," said Mel C. "She'd been out there, she'd worked, and she was exceptionally driven. It felt, in many ways, that she was the voice of the Spice Girls.

"Then, of course, that's where the interesting relationship comes between her and Mel B, because Mel B is also very outspoken. They're very different, but when they came together, it was very powerful. I think without personalities like Mel B and Geri, I don't think we would have got as far as we did."

The women got their way, and they were right.

The iconic Spice Girls performance at the 1997 Brit Awards. Image: Getty.

By the end of that year, Wannabe had a hit number one in 22 countries. It was released in the US in January 1997 and stayed at number one for four weeks.

When 1997 ended, Wannabe was the best-selling single by a girl band with more than seven million copies sold worldwide.

As Wannabe was released, they were still just Victoria, Mel C, Mel B, Emma and Geri. But soon after, Top of the Pops magazine devised the nicknames for a feature article that ran in July 1996.

Posh Spice, Sporty Spice, Scary Spice, Baby Spice and Ginger Spice. Five women with different styles and different personalities, and they were all able to let themselves shine.

Over the next couple of years, the band would release three studio albums, 11 singles, and 18 music videos. There was also a movie Spice World, various television specials, and merch sales of $75 million annually.

Put simply, the Spice Girls were a global phenomenon. And it was all about girl power.

In 1998, Geri departed the group, and in 2000, the Spice Girls announced their hiatus.

Remember when we collectively LOST OUR SHIT over this moment? Image: Getty.

Seven years later, a reunion tour sold out in 38 seconds and for four minutes in 2012, the entire world stopped (and tweeted — seriously, there were 116,000 tweets per minute) for their medley of Wannabe and Spice Up Your Life at the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony.

On November 5, 2018, the Spice Girls announced a Reunion Spice World UK 2019 Tour without Posh. The first show in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday saw an attendance of 75,000 people.

In April last year, the girls reunited for Victoria's 50th birthday where they performed their hit song Stop.

It's been 29 years since Wannabe was released, but their girl power has never ended.

"Even now, it's quite rare the five of us are in a room together, but it is electric," said Mel C. "There is something just about whatever it is between the five of us, and it has been since day one, that is just exciting."

This article was originally published in 2019 and has since been updated with new information.

Feature Image: Getty