Entertainment
Emma Bunton ‘won place in Spice Girls thanks to platform shoes’ as she was too short
Emma Bunton claims she was lucky to have made it into the Spice Girls – and she has a pair of the band’s iconic platform boots to thank.
Baby Spice, 45, spoke of her good fortune during an appearance on The One Show on Monday, reminding viewers she was a late entry into the band after its formation.
The girl group was formed after an audition which was advertised in The Stage newspaper in 1994 but Emma was not one of the original five members.
Baby’s college singing teacher Pepi Lemer encouraged Emma to try out for the now smash hit group after brief member Abigail Kis left as Michelle Stephenson’s replacement.
And while Emma may have had the perfect voice, she didn’t have the perfect height – at 5 foot 1 she failed to match up to the minimum of 5 foot 3 required by management.
However, the pop star had a saving grace in the form of a pair of Buffalo boots, the iconic platforms the girls became known for wearing.
Emma said on The One Show: ‘So, the girls were together and they wanted another girl to join them and I remember having a call with [original manager] Chris [Herbert] and he said, “How tall are you? Are you over 5 foot 3 and can you sing?” All these sorts of questions.
‘And I thought, “I’m not, I’m 5 foot 1.” So I literally went out and bought myself the first pair of Buffalo boots just so I could be 5 foot 3.
‘Me and my Mum went to Covent Garden and bought these big Buffalos so I could look 5 foot 3.’
Emma added that she moved in with the rest of the girls – Geri Haliwell, Mel C, Mel B and Victoria Beckham – two days later and the rest is history.
The One Show airs weekdays at 7pm on BBC One.
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