best for Spice Girls
Yolanda Offodile always insisted on being Scary Spice during bedroom performances of Spice Girls’ songs, but she never thought it would become her day job…
Bouncing around my bedroom belting out Wannabe, I was channelling my inner Scary Spice. My sister, Celine, nearly two years younger than me, was always whatever other member of the band I told her to be. She wasn’t allowed to be Scary.
I was bossy, even then, just like my idol, Mel B! I’d even refuse to go to school if my hair wasn’t styled like Mel, with her bantu knots.
I grew up and became a professional singer, dancer and actor. Prior to lockdown, I was always busy gigging, but everything paused during Covid. Then, in early 2021, I saw an audition for another act under management company Valcato Entertainment. The manager asked if I wanted to audition to be Scary Spice in their Spice Girls tribute act, Spice Forever.
I didn’t have to be asked twice – it was my dream job! I auditioned and got the part but ,initially, I was the ‘dep’, short for deputy, which was a bit like an understudy. There was already a Mel B in the act but I was next in line whenever she couldn’t perform.
The band members are a rotation of incredibly talented women who perform as a fivepiece on tours and at festivals and gigs all over Europe. Whichever iteration of the five of us it is, I always feel totally safe on stage. I trust everyone I sing alongside, to give the performance of a lifetime, every time.
Not long after I was signed, the other Scary Spice fell pregnant, and I became the primary Mel B. Since then, I’ve only missed two shows.
When I was a child, if someone had told me when I grew up, I’d be Scary Spice for a living, I never would have thought it could be possible. Celine and I spent our childhood in the care system, living many years in a foster home. I was told by too many people that I’d never amount to anything.
I dared to dream I’d become a performer, but I was made to feel that I’d be just another statistic. So it feels surreal, yet magical, to have defied those expectations and be where I am now.
I needed Girl Power when I was little. I needed to power my way through what life had sent my way. The Spice Girls’ message of empowerment and self-belief was something I absorbed and utilised. As did thousands, maybe even millions, of other women. I truly believe the Spice Girls had a huge impact on how generations of women perceive themselves.
When people tell us we can’t do something, we show them that we can. The Spice Girls refused to bow to the expectations of a maledominated industry. They helped us all believe we are amazing, strong and beautiful just as we are. To have had that message sowing seeds
