Spice Girls' first live shows: Istanbul
Before their 1998 world tour, the Spice Girls had performed live only twice — two nights in Istanbul as part of a Pepsi collaboration.
Snapshot · The Louis Theroux Podcast
S8 EP5: Melanie C on Spiceworld, comparing muscles with Arnold Schwarzenegger and why she’ll always be a Spice Girl
Explore episode
Jul 6, 2026
Where this was said
Geri Leaves: The World Tour and the 'Less Than Two Years' of Spice Mania
At 17:18 · chapter starts 16:40
Louis makes a striking observation: the entire heyday of the Spice Girls, from Wannabe in 1996 to Geri leaving in June 1998, was less than two years — 'nothing'. He compares the way former boy and girl band members talk about that period to veterans processing war: extreme intensity compressed into a tiny window, then decades of unpacking it. Melanie C finds this entirely resonant, coining her own term — 'reintegrating into society' — for what followed. She adds that the band had performed live only twice before their 1998 world tour: two nights in Istanbul as a Pepsi collaboration. Geri's departure came two shows short of finishing the European leg, with America waiting.
Reintegrating Into Society After Spice Girl Life
From 1996 to 1998, Melanie C barely lived like a normal human — private jets, security, stadiums, bubbles. When the Spice Girls era ended and she was suddenly solo, the crash was profound. She calls the aftermath 'reintegrating into society', and says every Spice Girl has had things to deal with because the abnormality of that life was extreme.
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