Victoria Beckham

Victoria Beckham was born in Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow in Essex to Anthony William Adams, an electronics engineer, and his wife, the former Jacqueline Doreen Cannon. She was brought up in Goff's Oak, Hertfordshire where she lived with her family in a detached house owned by her parents, the owners of an electrical wholesale business. She is the eldest of three children. Prior to joining the Spice Girls, Victoria trained as a dancer and had a number of modelling and dancing jobs. Before answering the advertisement that led to her becoming a Spice Girl, Victoria was the lead singer of an unsigned band named Persuasion{Beckham,Learning to Fly, 2004}}. Even though she admits having sung off-key in the audition for Touch (later renamed the Spice Girls), claiming the song was in the wrong key for her but 'she can really sing', she was chosen anyway.

Victoria Adams married the ex-Manchester United and current Real Madrid footballer and former England captain David Beckham, on July 4, 1999, with whom She has three sons: Brooklyn Joseph (born March 4, 1999), Romeo James (born September 1, 2002), and Cruz David (born February 20, 2005).

Despite being one of the most famous celebrities in Britain, and having all her Music reach the UK top ten, Victoria Beckham's career as a solo artist is largely considered to have been a commercial failure. She was the last of the Spice Girls to launch a solo career, allegedly due to her reluctance to 'go it alone'^{[citation needed]}.

In August 2000, Victoria released her first single outside of the Spice Girls: 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 [1]. 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 (a figure that would have usually guaranteed a #1 position)[2].

Victoria was given a solo recording contract by her group label Virgin Records. Her true début 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 progess 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[3], 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^{[citation needed]}.

Released a fortnight after Not Such An Innocent Girl, 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. This track was much slower. The single stalled at number 6 in the UK and sold 66,000 copies [4]. Following this lacklustre chart performance, rumours started spreading that Beckham was soon to be dropped by her label. These were refuted at the time [5].

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, and Victoria parted ways with Virgin Records [6].

To the surprise of the Music industry, 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 herself shelved it after not being happy with the results [7]. 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. 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 Groove sparked some media interest due to the song being about phone sex. 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 Réal 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. Resentment has since been covered by Beyonce 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. ([8]). 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[9]. 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. A full version never leaked.

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 [10]. 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 written for her by 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 leaked remix by Armand van Helden.

A previously unknown track, Back To Life, leaked online in 2005 after someone found it in a small record store. Although uncertain, it is believed this track dates from early recording sessions for the Victoria Beckham album.

In spring 2006, hope for new tracks was raised when an auction for a CD of 25 unreleased songs from the Telstar / 19 Management era appeared on eBay. It eventually sold for £390, although the buyer never leaked the songs onto the internet after being warned by lawyers representing the copyright owner of the material^{[citation needed]}.

Despite this, 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.

List of unreleased Music: