Victoria Beckham
9.0
2 votes
Age: 35
Victoria Caroline Beckham (née Adams) is an English pop singer, songwriter, dancer, turned fashion designer, author, businesswoman, and occasional actress.
During her rise to fame with 1990s pop group the Spice Girls, she was dubbed Posh Spice, a moniker first coined by the British tabloid press. Since the Spice Girls followed separate careers, Beckham has dabbled with pop music, scoring four UK Top 10 singles as a solo artist. Her first single to be released, "Out of Your Mind", reached number two in the UK Singles Chart and is her highest chart entry to date. During her solo music career she has been signed to Virgin Records and Telstar Records.
Beckham has found more success as an internationally recognised and photographed style icon. She has had a significant career in fashion, designing a line of jeans for Rock & Republic and later designing her own denim brand, dVb Style. Beckham has brought out her own range of sunglasses and fragrance, entitled Intimately Beckham which has been released in the UK and America. In association with the Japanese store, Samantha Thavasa, she has produced a range of handbags and jewellery. In addition, she has released two bestselling books, one her autobiography, the other a fashion guide.
In her television ventures, Beckham has had five official documentaries and reality shows made about her, some of which include Being Victoria Beckham and The Real Beckhams. Her last documentary to date was Victoria Beckham: Coming to America which documented her move to the United States with her family in 2007, but it was poorly received by American critics. She since made a cameo appearance in an episode of American TV series, Ugly Betty.
Universally referred to as "Posh", she is married to English football player David Beckham with whom she has three sons. The couple's joint wealth is estimated at £112 million.
Beckham was born to Anthony and Jacqueline Adams and raised in the prosperous area of Goffs Oak, Hertfordshire. Beckham's father was an electronics engineer and the success of the family business meant a wealthy upbringing for Beckham and her siblings, Louise and Christian.
Beckham attended St. Mary's High School in Cheshunt and Jason Theatre School in Hoddesdon. She was embarrassed by her family's wealth and often begged her father not to drop her off outside the school in their Rolls Royce. During her schooling days, Beckham was a victim of bullying, being made to feel like an outsider. She commented "Children were literally picking things up out of the puddles and throwing them at me. And I just stood there, on my own. No one was with me. I didn't have any friends."
After Beckham had watched the musical, Fame, it inspired her and she subsequently decided that she wanted to become famous. It was then that her parents enrolled her at Jason Theatre School. At 17, she attended Laine Theatre Arts College in Epsom, Surrey and studied dance and modelling. She was also in a band called Persuasion.
Beckham (known then as Victoria Adams) joined the all-girl group Spice Girls, first called "Touch," in 1994, with Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm. She had previously answered an advertisement in The Stage in March 1993 which required girls who were "street smart, extrovert, ambitious and able to sing and dance".
The group's first single, "Wannabe," went to number one in the UK and the United States, and would be followed by eight other successful number one singles from their albums, Spice, Spiceworld and Forever. Each member of the group received a nickname from the media; Victoria Beckham became "Posh Spice". The group was one of the most successful pop acts of the 1990s, selling over fifty-five million records worldwide. After the release of their third album, Forever (UK#2), which was much less successful than their previous two albums, the Spice Girls stopped recording, leading Beckham to try to build a solo career.
See also: Singer, Actress, Spice Girls, British, Dancer, Songwriter, Author, Fashion Designer, WAG
