‘I could have been a Spice Girl… instead, I’m working in the NHS’
Mel Coloma was one of the original members of the best-selling girl band in the world — before she was replaced by Posh Spice
MEL Coloma could have been a superstar, with a footballer husband, a jet-setting lifestyle and millions in the bank.
Instead she’s an NHS worker living a quiet life in Cambridgeshire, where she lives in a semi-detached house with her hubby and two kids.
Back in 1994, Mel was one of the original members of the Spice Girls – before she was replaced by Victoria Beckham.
Mel, then 18, was among about 400 wannabes to respond to an advert in performing arts mag The Stage looking for singers and dancers.
She impressed talent scouts with her rendition of Dreamgirls ballad And I am Telling You I’m Not Going, and got picked for a fledgling girl group, then called Touch.
She learned choreography and rehearsed with the future Scary Spice Melanie Brown – before management decided her voice was “too strong” and would overpower the other singers.
But Mel had no idea just how close she’d come to superstardom until she saw the video for Wannabe two years later and noticed someone she recognised.
Mel, now 41, told : "Mel B’s face flashed up on the screen and everything fell into place. This was the group I’d so nearly been a part of. I’d assumed it hadn’t come to anything because it had been two years and I’d never heard anything about Touch. But here they were."
She added: “I thought the song was terrible – but I’d have sung the Hokey Cokey if I thought it would have made me a millionaire.”
The Spice Girls would go on to become the best-selling female group of all time and one of the best-selling bands ever, while Mel took a job at her local hospital in Huntingdon.
She eventually found out she'd been replaced by Posh Spice Victoria Adams, who went on to marry footballer David Beckham and launch a successful career as a fashion designer.
The glam couple, who have a net worth of over £500million, split their time between their Holland Park mansion and their lavish estate in Los Angeles.
Mel said: “In a different life I could have been married to a footballer, dressed in designer clothes and jetted all over the world. I had no idea then how close I’d come to being in the biggest girl group of all time.”
Far from the massive arenas where the Spice Girls have taken the stage, Mel sings at pubs and weddings in a band called The Decanters with her brother.
She's also sung on cruise ships with X Factor winner Sam Bailey.
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She said: “I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times I wished I could have traded places with [Victoria]. As a singer, it did make me laugh when she said they sometimes turned her mic off.”
However, she added: “Over time, I learned to accept the girls were ultimately picked for their images, not their voices. I don’t resent Victoria.
“I’ve had a very happy life and been blessed with a wonderful husband and two lovely children, so I try not to dwell on what might have been.”