Spice Girls legend Mel B said she was told she needed to straighten her hair for the band’s now famous Wannabe video.
The singer, 45, told the Daily Star Online she was approached by a stylist who abruptly said they wanted to straighten her natural curls before cameras started rolling.
Mel, who was opening up on her experiences of racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd in America and Black Lives Matter protests around the globe, revealed she gave the demand a resounding refusal.
She told the Daily Star Online: “I remember when we first did the video for Wannabe we had a big styling team and one of the first things they said to me was: ‘OK, so we need to straighten your hair’.
Mel revealed that a hairstylist asked her to straighten her hair for the Wannabe music video
“I refused point-blank because my hair was my identity and yes it was different to all the other girls but that was what the Spice Girls were about – celebrating our differences.”
Wannabe was the Spice Girls first hit song reaching number one in the UK, USA and tens of other countries around the world.
Released in 1996, it’s accompanying video shot the five-piece girlband to superstardom and is now considered a classic.
Mum-of-three Mel told the Daily Star Online that following the release of the video, she was inundated with letters from young girls and their parents praising her for showing off her natural locks.
The star burst onto the music scene in 1996 with the international chart-topper, Wannabe (Image: Daily Mirror)
She said: “I’d get really emotional letters from girls, and their mums, saying how incredible it was that they had someone to ‘be’ when they did dances in the playground at school and they were actually daring to wear their hair out and proud rather than scraped back or straightened.
“That was a big deal to me.”
Mel was sharing her experiences after witnessing the reaction to the death of George Floyd in the USA which ha ssince sparked protests around the globe.
Mr Floyd, 46, died while in police custody and ex-cop Derek Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder following the release of a harrowing video.
The footage showed Chauvin kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since it’s release there have been Black Lives Matter protests around the world.
Mel grew up with her younger sister Danielle, mum Andrea and dad Martin in the Hyde Park area of Leeds in he 1970s and 80s.
Mel recalled that she and her sister Danielle would be the only children on their street to not be invited to parties (Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
She said she was aware from a young age that she rarely saw people of the same colour.
Her dad Martin hailed from exotic Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, while her mum Andrea is British.
Talking about growing up, Mel said: “My mum made friends with a lady who also had a mixed-race baby called Sherelle, who is still my good friend to this day, and we used to play together.
Mel’s dad, Martin, came from Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean while her mum Andrea was British
“The only other little brown girl for miles around.”
“But it was really when I went to school that I understood the colour of my skin had such an effect on the other kids.
“All of a sudden I was called all these names I didn’t understand like ‘P**i’, ‘Redskin’ and obviously the N-word.
“I used to get chased home by kids shouting these names at me, so I learnt to run fast. When I was older I would always win all the races on sports day and that was because I’d learnt to run fast at such a young age.”
Read the full interview here.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
