Emma Lee Bunton (born January 21, 1976) is an English singer, originally in the girl band the Spice Girls, where she was known as "Baby Spice".
Bunton was born to parents Pauline, a karate instructor, and Trevor, a milkman, with one sibling, a younger brother. Her parents split up when she was eleven, and she stayed with her mother. Bunton grew up in the north London suburb of Woodside Park.
She attended St Theresa's Roman Catholic Primary School in Finchley, and then went on to go to the Dame Sylvia Young Drama School in London.
She joined the Spice Girls in 1994 after the original fifth Spice Girl, Michelle Stephenson, left the group. The Spice Girls stopped recording in 2000.
Music career
Her first solo album entitled A Girl Like Me (2001) spawned the number one hit "What Took You So Long", top five hits "What I Am" and "Take My Breath Away" and top twenty hit "We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight". The album sold around 125,000 in the U.K. but this was not sufficient for her record company, who dropped her. She also recorded a track "(Hey You) Free Up Your Mind" for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
However she soon recovered from being dropped, and signed a contract with 19 Management which included TV work and releasing music. In spring 2003 she returned as Emma (losing the Bunton), with the top five hit "Free Me" and later that year released "Maybe" which also went top ten and outsold the previous single. In spring 2004 the single "I'll Be There" and the album Free Me were released. The album contained sixties style pop gems and went on to outsell her first album, something other solo Spice Girls have yet to achieve.
In the run-up to the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, rumours circulated that Emma was being lined up as a rare big-name representative for the UK, in an attempt to wipe away the national humiliation of the 'nul points' achieved by the previous year's inexperienced entrants Jemini. This didn't materialise, but the fact that she ended up performing the interval act in the UK's Eurovision pre-selection show Making Your Mind Up suggested there may have been a glimmer of truth in the rumours at some stage. The performance gave her another outlet to indulge her passion for sixties pop - she started with a nostalgic burst of the UK's winning song from the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest, "Puppet On a String", which then melted into her own hit "Maybe".
The album Free Me was released in the United States on January 25 2005, peaked at #183 on the top 200 albums and selling over 2,817 copies. The first single in the U.S. is a dance remix of the title track, which reached the top five of both the Dance Airplay chart and the Club Play chart. "Maybe" also followed "Free Me"'s success in the U.S. Dance charts.
Studio albums
- 2001: A Girl Like Me - #4 UK; #2 BRA; #1 THA
UK sales: 125,000; BRA sales: 250,000 - Worldwide sales: 500,000
- 2004: Free Me - #7 UK; #26 BRA; #83 US
UK sales: 150,000 - Worldwide sales: 300,000
Singles
- 1999: "What I Am" (Tin Tin Out feat. Emma Bunton) - #2 UK
- 2001: "What Took You So Long" - #1 (2 weeks) UK
- 2001: "Take My Breath Away" - #5 UK
- 2001: "We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight" - #20 UK
- 2003: "Free Me" - #5 UK
- 2003: "Maybe" - #6 UK
- 2004: "I'll Be There" - #7 UK
- 2004: "Crickets Sing for Anamaria" - #15 UK
Personal life
In the past, Bunton has been linked with such stars as actor Nigel Harman, pop singer Justin Timberlake, and 911 lead singer Lee Brennan.
In 2000, she began dating former Damage and current CherryBlackStone lead singer Jade Jones. After being diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition which can reduce fertility, Bunton and Jones announced in January 2007 that they were expecting their first child together. On March 17, 2007, the couple married in a small family ceremony near their home in Hertfordshire. Following her marriage, she has sometimes been billed as Emma Bunton-Jones, and prefers to use her married name of Emma Jones in her private life.
On 10 August 2007, Bunton gave birth to a 7-lb. 15-oz. baby boy named Beau Lee Jones.
Trivia
- Has her name "Baby Spice" tattooed on her behind.
- Chosen by "People" magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World along with the four other Spice Girls. [1997]
- Winner of the 1997 MTV Video Music Award for Best Dance Video, "Wannabe".
- When the Spice Girls appeared on the BBC show The O-Zone in October 1997, Emma revealed that, aged 21, she'd just had her ears pierced for the very first time - she swept back her hair to show she was wearing a pair of diamond-style studs.
- Started her own solo work. Her first single, "What I Am", recorded in collaboration with the UK dance band, Tin Tin Out, was out in November, 1999. [1999]
- She revealed an interest to play a role in "EastEnders" (1985) - maybe the "Who Shot Phil?" storyline.
- In January 2004, while appearing on the CITV show Ministry of Mayhem, show host and magician Steven Mulhern sawed her in half while she was standing up in a trick he called "Modern Art".
- Ranked as #70 in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005" special supplement. (2005)
- She has a Blue Belt in Karate
Quotes
- "All of the other girls had pierced ears, and I didn't, so I did feel a bit left out when they were talking about earrings and stuff like that. So, one day, I just thought 'why the f*ck not' and went out and got them done. It did hurt a little bit when they did them, but I'm glad I got them done, because I do love my earrings now and just don't feel properly dressed without them."