Quick Facts
Biography
Michelle Stephenson is a British singer and television presenter. At the age of 17 she was briefly a member of the English girl group that would go on to become the Spice Girls.
Stephenson was born in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Alongside Melanie Brown, Melanie Laccohee (later replaced by Victoria Adams), Lianne Morgan (later replaced by Melanie Chisholm) and Suzanne Tinker (soon replaced with Geri Halliwell), Stephenson completed the original 1994 line-up of Touch receiving the highest scores at the audition. At the audition, she sang Dina Carroll's song "Don't Be a Stranger". Stephenson was a member of the group for only a short period before commitment issues prompted Heart Management to remove her. Stephenson says that she left because her mother was suffering from breast cancer. "To say I was turfed out of the group when I left because I wanted to be with my sick mother – well, what kind of person does that?" She was replaced by Emma Bunton.
Stephenson worked briefly as a TV presenter for LWT, ITV, Friendly TV and BSkyB. She also filmed a TV show in Malta called Wild Games before forming a songwriting partnership with Ben Hackett and Mike Edwards (under the name SHEsongs). She has also worked as a session singer for various record companies. She performed backing vocals for singers like Ricky Martin and Julio Iglesias, while working on her own songs as well. In November 2003, Stephenson recorded and released an EP entitled SHESongs, featuring six songs called "In Control", "Fall Over", "Hey Sugar", "Dirty Music", "Boom, Boom" and "Happens for a Reason".
In March 2001, Stephenson gave a newspaper interview about her time with the group, saying "of course I regret I'm not a multi-millionaire like them. But at the time I left the group I knew I was doing the right thing – and I still think it was the right thing." She also joked that if she had been in the group that her name would have been Mel S and stated that had she remained in the group and thus been assigned a 'Spice name', she would have wanted to be Sexy Spice. Michelle joked that Emma and Victoria would have been replaced to make way for two more Mels. Mel B, Mel C and Mel S it wouldn't have worked with Em and Vic she claims.
In 2007, after the Spice Girls reformed, Victoria Beckham claimed in Giving You Everything, a documentary film about the group's reunion, that Stephenson never fit into the group. Today, Stephenson is married, lives in London, and still works in the music industry.
Albums
- 2003: SHEsongs (EP)