Victoria Beckham

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Victoria Caroline Beckham (née Adams) (April 17, 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and fashion designer best known as a former member of the Spice Girls. While with the Spice Girls, she was known as 'Posh Spice.' In 1997, Adams started dating footballer David Beckham of the famous team Manchester United, and their relationship attracted a great deal of media interest. The couple married at Luttrellstown Castle, Ireland on 4 July 1999. Beckham's teammate Gary Neville was the best man and the couple's son Brooklyn, then four months old, was the ring bearer.

The Beckhams, who came to be known almost universally as "Posh and Becks", have three sons: Brooklyn Joseph Beckham (born 1999), Romeo James Beckham (born 2002), and Cruz David Beckham (born 2005).


Virgin Records

In August 2000, Victoria released her first solo single: Out Of Your Mind, a collaboration with the Garage act the Truesteppers and Dane Bowers. The week of release coincided with the release of Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) by Spiller ft. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, resulting in a chart battle dubbed 'Posh vs. Posher' by the tabloids. Following a huge publicity campaign, Out Of Your Mind was outsold by 20,000 copies and debuted at number two with first week sales of 180,584 copies.

Victoria signed a recording contract by her group label Virgin Records. Her true debut single as a solo artist, Not Such An Innocent Girl, was released in September 2001. Again, she faced competition in another hugely hyped chart battle, this time with Kylie Minogue's single Can't Get You Out Of My Head. Victoria was unlikely to beat Kylie, but she gave the project huge promotion, and the record had an expensive and futuristic video. In the week of release, the tabloid newspaper The Sun ran a daily progress chart covering the chart battle, but they gave up half way through the week when it was clear the battle was a one horse race. A potential factor attributable to Victoria's weaker sales could be the due to the media furore she created after wearing a fake lip ring during a live performance in Birmingham, an event that also saw her getting booed and pelted with fruit by a hostile public. She was widely criticised by many groups, including the British Dental Association, for setting a bad example that her younger fans may wish to emulate. It has since been argued that this "stunt" and the ensuing media backlash was the beginning of the end of Victoria's music career.

Victoria's eponymously titled debut album reached number 10 in the UK album chart. The album featured the much talked about Every Part Of Me, a song co-written by Victoria and dedicated to her son, Brooklyn, who features at the start, Brooklyn's 'part' allegedly being an off-chance recording which took place during a recording session break.

The second and final single to be released from the album was A Mind Of Its Own The single reached number 6 in the UK and sold 56,500 copies. Some speculate that due to its not hitting the Top 3, rumours started spreading that Beckham was soon to be dropped by her label. These were refuted at the time.

A third single, I Wish, was promoted but never materialised. The single version was a remix featuring Robbie Craig, and was performed on TV on Friday Night's All Wright. Many hoped this single would revitalise the album's fortunes, but following the announcement of Victoria's second pregnancy it was shelved, Victoria was dropped from the label Virgin Records.

The Telstar / 19 Management era

Telstar Records signed Victoria in 2002 in a deal made with Simon Fuller's 19 Management. She spent much of 2002 recording a 'pop-influenced' album, but Victoria allegedly shelved it after not being happy with the results. Instead of pop, Victoria wanted to record tracks with a more RnB and hip hop influence, and to accomplish this she began working with urban producer Damon Dash. There were some unsubstantiated rumours regarding both Dash and Victoria at the time. These plans reportedly worried Telstar and Simon Fuller, but they compromised with Victoria, allowing her to release a Dash produced track (This Groove) along-side one of her earlier pop tracks (Let Your Head Go) from the shelved album.

The resulting double A-side single Let Your Head Go / This Groove was released in the UK in late December 2003, following heavy promotion and many TV appearances across the Christmas period. The single charted at #3, although critics were fast to point out this was not much of an accomplishment due to singles receiving their lowest sales of the year the week after Christmas. This double A-side remains Victoria's last single release to date.

As another compromise, Telstar allowed Victoria to release some of her urban tracks on The Real Beckhams DVD. This 2003 documentary was released in January 2004, and bonus material included the videos for Let Your Head Go and This Groove, as well as four previously unreleased tracks: Resentment, That Dude, Me And You This Time and Valentine (none of the songs had a writing credit from Victoria). Resentment has since been covered by Beyoncé Knowles and released on her solo album 'B'Day' (2006).

Outside of the UK, Damon Dash had plans for Victoria in the United States, including a potential release of Let Your Head Go / This Groove under the name of "Posh Spice Victoria Beckham". The release was proposed for sometime between March to May 2004, but never occurred. A Dash produced track It's That Simple featuring M.O.P. was promoed to vinyl, and received a premiere on BBC urban music radio station 1Xtra. This only generated further criticism, with the feeling being that Victoria was a far from convincing urban act. Around this time, a 90 second snippet of a track called Come Together was released to the media, which was notable for sampling the Beatles' song Come Together.

With the UK media describing her music career a failure, and combined with a rumored fall out between Dash and Fuller, remaining plans for Victoria's music career were cancelled. To try and salvage her music career, Victoria again began work on pop-styled tracks in 2004. It is known that she recorded a track she had written with Cathy Dennis entitled My Love Is For Real (not to be confused with the Paula Abdul song of the same name). With the collapse of Telstar Records, the pressure to stay with her family caused by the Rebecca Loos scandal, and the announcement of Victoria's third pregnancy, this song has never been heard, except for a remix by Armand van Helden.

Unreleased music

A previously unknown track, Back To Life, was put online in 2005. Although uncertain, it is believed this track dates from early recording sessions for the Victoria Beckham album.

In spring 2006, an auction for a CD of 25 unreleased songs from the Telstar / 19 Management era appeared on eBay. It eventually sold for £390.

On 5 September 2006, eleven of Victoria's unreleased songs from the shelved Telstar pop-style album leaked online in various music and fan forums. The unreleased album has been referred to by fans as both 'Open Your Eyes' and 'Come Together', although no official title has ever been stated.

Future Plans

On February 26, 2006, Victoria Beckham stated in an interview with the Sunday Mirror: "I'm never going to sing again, unless it was a chance to do something with the Spice Girls. I don't really miss the shows we did together. I miss the girls more. I see Geri a lot — I love her, she's amazing. I speak to the others from time to time. I love them too and miss them."

Beckham also declared that, for the moment, she and her former Spice colleagues are enjoying their solo careers in various fields. She says: "We're all still doing our own thing. But that's the great thing about the position we're in now — when we decide we want to do more stuff, we can. There's no pressure and, at the end of the day, our fans have been so supportive — and so loyal — that hopefully, when we do come back they'll still be there". However, it has been rumoured that in late 2006, Beckham hinted that she may return to singing one day, but was unspecific.

"She's focusing on her fashion activity at the moment and should she wish to do music at a later date then obviously that's something we can consider. She has a flexible career with which she can do whatever she wants to," her spokeswoman said.

Fashion career

In 2000 Victoria Beckham made a guest appearance on the catwalk for Maria Grachvogel.

In 2004 Victoria designed a fashion line for Rock and Republic called 'VB Rocks,' consisting mainly of jeans for the high end of the market (retailing at approximately $300 in the U.S.). She has also worked on a range of women's clothes including shirts and skirts. The clothing features a logo of a crown with the letters "VB". In September 2006, Beckham stopped working with Rock and Republic to launch her own jeans label. The new line of Victoria's jeans collection is called DVB Style.

Beckham was briefly the face of Rocawear, and has for or a number of years produced a range of handbags and jewellery in association with the Japanese store Samantha Thavasa. In July 2006, Victoria Beckham released a line of sunglasses (which she had been seen wearing at the World Cup games). In September 2006 'Intimately Beckham', a his and her fragrance line in association with Coty the world's largest fragrance house was launched.

On February 28, 2007 Victoria announced that she is working on a reality show that will document her move to Los Angeles from London. She signed a deal with NBC for six episodes of a half-hour unscripted reality tv series. The series, which may air as early as this summer, will be produced by Simon Fuller.

Books

Her autobiography, entitled Learning to Fly, (the title was taken from a line in a song from the musical Fame, which Victoria adored as a child). The book was the 3rd best selling non-fiction title of 2001 (total UK sales stand at more than 500,000 copies), and has been translated into several languages.

Victoria is widely believed to have told a Spanish journalist in 2005 that "I've never read a book in my life". Although often used to criticise and ridicule Victoria, this 'quote' was actually a mistranslation from the original Spanish in which the interview was printed - she actually stated she never had time to finish reading a book because she was always running around after her children.

Her second book, a fashion book titled That Extra Half an Inch: Hair, Heels and Everything In Between, was published on October 30, 2006. It was co-written by Hadley Freeman, deputy fashion editor of the Guardian and a contributing editor of Vogue and includes photography by Mario Testino, Annie Leibovitz and Steven Meisel.