The biggest pop stories usually follow a predictable corporate machine, but in the mid-1990s five young women hijacked it entirely. This deep dive into the Spice Girls unpacks how a manufactured group stole their own master tapes, fired their powerful managers, and almost accidentally wrote the blueprint for modern celebrity culture.

We trace the group from a want-ad casting call and a controlled house in Maidenhead to the global earthquake of Wannabe, which hit number one in 37 countries. Selling over 100 million records, they turned their girl power ethos into a ruthless business strategy of unity and control.

• The industry belief that an all-girl group would simply fail
• The master-tape heist that gave them leverage to sign with Virgin
• How magazine-invented nicknames became psychological armor
• The legally binding 50-50 royalty split that preserved their unity
• Firing manager Simon Fuller and stealing a Filofax to run themselves