Michelle Stephenson is a British singer and TV presenter. At the age of 17 she was briefly a member of the English vocal girl group

Girl group

A girl group is a popular music act featuring several young female singers who generally harmonise together.Girl groups emerged in the late 1950s as groups of young singers teamed up with behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers to create hit singles, often featuring glossy production...

 that would go on to become the Spice Girls

Spice Girls

The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...

. Alongside Melanie Brown

Melanie Brown

Melanie Janine "Scary Spice" Brown , often better known as Mel B, is an English pop singer-songwriter, actress, author and television presenter...

, Victoria Adams

Victoria Beckham

Victoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...

, Lianne Morgan (later replaced by Melanie Chisholm

Melanie Chisholm

Melanie Jayne Chisholm is an English singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman professionally known simply as Melanie C . She is best known as one of the five members of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed "Sporty Spice"...

) and Suzanne Tinker soon replaced with Geri Halliwell

Geri Halliwell

Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English pop singer-songwriter, author and actress. After coming to international prominence in the late 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career in 1998 and released her album Schizophonic...

, Stephenson completed the original 1994 line-up of Touch receiving the highest scores at the audition. 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 a girl called Abigail Kis, but only for a short period, and then finally by Emma Bunton

Emma Bunton

Emma Lee Bunton is an English pop singer/songwriter and TV and radio presenter. She was a member of the 1990s girl group, the Spice Girls, in which she was known as Baby Spice as she was the youngest member. In 2010, she joined the judging panel on ITV's Dancing on Ice...

 after 6 months as the fifth member.

Stephenson worked briefly as a TV presenter for LWT, ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

, Friendly TV

Friendly TV

Friendly TV was a British television station, owned by Telecoms TV Limited . Much of the channels output is made up of interactive programmes and games which allow the viewer to phone in or send an SMS message to take part in the programme....

 and Sky

Sky

The sky is the part of the atmosphere or outer space visible from the surface of any astronomical object. It is difficult to define precisely for several reasons. During daylight, the sky of Earth has the appearance of a pale blue surface because the air scatters the sunlight. The sky is sometimes...

. 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

Ricky Martin

Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales , better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican and Spanish pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991.During his career he has sold more than 60 million album copies worldwide...

 and Julio Iglesias

Julio Iglesias

Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva , better known simply as Julio Iglesias, is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best selling music artists in history,...

, while working on her own songs as well. At the audition, she sang Dina Carroll

Dina Carroll

Dina Carroll is an English singer of Scottish and African American descent who had a string of hits from the late 1980s to the early 2000s.-Early career:...

's song "Don't Be A Stranger

Don't Be a Stranger

Don't Be A Stranger was an album by Preston Reed, his only release on FolkStudio Records and available in Italy only. It subsequently went out-of-print.-Track listing:# "Bye Bye Boo Boo"# "Elephant Walk"# "Kristy"...

."

In November 2003, Stephenson recorded and released 6 solo songs for SHEsongs called "In Control", "Fall Over", "Hey Sugar", "Dirty Music", "Boom, Boom" and "Happens for a Reason."

In March 2001 Stephenson stated in a newspaper interview, "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.

In 2007 after The Spice Girls reformed the documentary of Spice Girls return Victoria Beckham

Victoria Beckham

Victoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...

 stated that Stephenson never fit into the group. The documentary aired Boxing Day 2007. Today Stephenson is married, lives in London, United Kingdom, and still works in the music industry.

External links

• http://www.myspace.com/mchellestephenson Official Michelle Stephenson's Myspace
• http://www.flingflang.co.uk/shesongs.html
• http://www.purevolume.com/michellestephenson