For years there’s been speculation that the members of the Spice Girls and All Saints hated each other simply because they were each successful girl groups competing for chart domination.
But decades on, members of each group have now shut down claims there was ever any serious tension between them all.
Ahead of an interview on Heart this week, Baby Spice Emma Bunton caught up with All Saint’s sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton.
During their chat the woman all rubbished long-standing rumours about any potential dislike of each other, insisting that the two groups are – and have always been – friendly.
‘Now I need to start off by saying we are mates,’ Emma, 50, kicked off by saying, to which both sisters declared ‘we are mates!’.
‘We are bessie mates! And I think, only because someone just the other day said, “Oh, I thought you and All Saints back in the 90s, you didn’t get on”. We are mates! We went to school together!,’ Emma continued.
Jumping in, Natalie also shared: ‘We have always been mates! I mean, we’ve known you since we were eleven. And do you know what? I’ve always said you’ve always been exactly the same.’
Meanwhile Nicole said Emma ‘had not changed’, while her sister called Emma the ‘sweetest, most beautiful, most loving person’.
Formed in 1994, the rest of the Spice Girls line-up consisted of Mel B, Mel C, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham.
Throughout their time together, they sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making them the best-selling girl group of all time. They eventually went on hiatus in 2000.
Meanwhile All Saints were formed in 1993, with the Appleton sisters joining three years later. The full line up of that group also included Melanie Blatt, Shaznay Lewis, and Simone Rainford.
Part of the 1990s wave of British girl groups, they peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart with their self-titled debut album, which became the UK’s third best-selling girl group album of all time to date. They eventually split in 2001 following in-fighting between the group but have since reformed twice.
At the time of their first split, All Saints announced their break was happening so they ‘could clear the air between themselves’.
Shaznay later explained that the catalyst for the break-up was a disagreement over who would wear a certain jacket for a photoshoot. ‘I would never in a million years have put money on the group ending over a jacket incident. But when that incident happened, it fired up so strong, it had to be over. And the way I was then, the state we’d got into then, there was no way she was getting that stupid jacket,’ she once said.
Meanwhile Mel B once detailed the tension when Geri announced she was leaving the Spice Girls, sharing: ‘When Geri left the group, it was so bad. She left on my birthday and didn’t tell anybody. She just didn’t show up.”
She also later said: ‘We fight, we argue, we make up…it’s always been like that. It’s been like that with all five of us over the years.’
Despite Emma and the Appleton sisters shutting down reports their two bands didn’t get along, Mel B once detailed a shocking run-in with one member of the other girl group.
Appearing on the podcast Allegedly in 2016, the singer recounted a fight with All Saints singer Shaznay in which she claimed she ripped out her weave.
‘There was this girl group called All Saints, and I had already beaten up one of them in the bathroom, the black girl, Shaznay,’ she shared.
‘Because she started giving me attitude, so I went into the bathroom and tried to rip her weave off and she chokes me and then we kind of got split up but I won.’
However, she went on to explain she’d moved on and there were no hard feelings anymore, adding: ‘And the funny thing is they just brought out a new record last week. It’s really good!”
Despite this story being shared by Mel, Shaznay’s rep claimed it was made up. ‘Shaznay says this story is not true. Mel B once came to an All Saints show and was invited to the after-party. Mel and Shaznay had a brief friendly chat and that was all,’ they said.
‘Otherwise, they don’t really know each other – so we are baffled as to why Mel would make this up and fabricate such a horrible thing.’
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