The ’90s were a wild time. The music industry was overflowing with cash. Exorbitant multi-million contracts, photo shoots with Rolls-Royces in swimming pools, music videos with the budget of a modest Hollywood film: anything was possible.
Smartphones, streaming, and high-speed internet connections were still distant dreams. CD sales were at their peak. Billions of shiny discs flew off the shelves annually. And in the charts, even the pickiest listener could find something new every week. Amidst eclectic genres like Grunge, Britpop, Eurodance, Gangsta Rap, G-funk, Gabber house, Alternative Rock, Ska & Skate Punk, R&B, Country, and Nu Metal, one music style stubbornly held its ground: POP!
Not every superstar emerged unscathed from the ’80s. Michael Jackson’s antics increasingly overshadowed his musical genius. Prince demanded to be addressed as ‘The Artist Formerly Known as Prince’. And had anyone actually seen Lionel Ritchie lately? Other artists like Madonna reinvented themselves in the blink of an eye and proved they were still completely essential in the ’90s. Whitney Houston made the leap to the silver screen and scored her biggest hit there with ‘I Will Always Love You’.
But there was new blood too. Mariah Carey and Céline Dion unleashed their golden voices and, as brand-new Pop Divas, delivered one successful album after another. Boy bands left a trail of screaming teenage girls in their wake. The Spice Girls showed that girls could just jump onto the stage themselves. And before you could count to “Un, Dos, Tres!”, Ricky Martin became a global star.
Who were the ultimate superstars of the ’90s? What were their biggest hits? How did they achieve world fame? And what juicy facts did you not know about them yet? Find out in this Top 10 Pop Stars of the 90s!
10. Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston was one of the first African-American women to grace the cover of ‘Seventeen’. But the slender beauty proved to be more than just a pretty face. Mother Cissy Houston earned her stripes as a background singer for legends like Elvis, Mahalia Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. Whitney could call the latter godmother, by the way. Her older cousin was the world-famous Dionne Warwick. And Whitney herself could already sing a mean gospel tune as a child.
The former teen model released her debut album ‘Whitney Houston’ (1985) at the age of 22. After the number 1 hat-trick ‘Greatest Love of All’, ‘Saving All My Love for You’, and ‘How Will I Know’, all of America knew her magical voice.
The follow-up ‘Whitney’ (1987) then confirmed her status as an absolute global superstar. ‘Didn’t We Almost Have It All’, ‘So Emotional’, ‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go’, and of course ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ effortlessly topped international charts. By the late ’80s, Whitney was already by far one of the biggest stars of the decade.
Many celebrated ’80s artists experienced a commercial and creative dip after the decade change. But Whitney Houston? Her greatest successes were yet to come. In 1992, the year she married R&B singer Bobby Brown, the singer made her notable acting debut.
‘The Bodyguard’ (1992) was only surpassed by Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ at the box office that year. The romantic drama, starring Kevin Costner as Whitney’s bodyguard love interest, also came with a wildly popular soundtrack. ‘The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album’ remains the best-selling film soundtrack ever, with 45 million copies sold, and the 3rd best-selling music album of all time.
Borrowed from Dolly Parton, ‘I Will Always Love You’ sizzled at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks.
The powerful soul ballad naturally won wheelbarrows full of awards. As if the superstar didn’t have enough precious metal already. Guinness World Records hails the superstar as the ‘most awarded female artist of all time’. Even before reaching the ’90s, you’d get dizzy scrolling through Whitney’s digital trophy case.
Her soundtracks for ‘Waiting to Exhale’ (1995) and ‘The Preacher’s Wife’ (1996) also became outright bestsellers. With her long-awaited 4th studio album, the soul diva proved she could still score hits even without the silver screen. ‘My Love Is Your Love’ (1998) captivated all of Europe and dropped one hit after another with the Mariah Carey duet ‘When You Believe’, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘It’s Not Right but It’s Okay’, and the glorious title track penned by Wyclef Jean. European record sellers reported the following year that only Cher’s ‘Believe’ had sold more CDs.
Both CDs and Whitney’s world fame vanished like snow on a hot stove the following decade. As the noughties dawned, ‘The Voice’ made headlines less for her vocal talent. Hubby Bobby Brown not only had loose hands but also burdened his wife with a massive addiction to alcohol, coke, and pills.
The promising comeback initiated with ‘I Look to You’ (2009) never fully delivered on its promise. On February 11, 2012, the 48-year-old singer was found unconscious in the bathtub of Suite 434 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Her drowning death was an unfortunate combination of cocaine, heart failure, and the toll of a deeply troubled private life.
Less than 3 years later, concerned friends discovered Bobbi Kristina Brown in almost exactly the same circumstances in her bathtub at home in Atlanta. A few months later, doctors realized the 22-year-old woman would not emerge from her coma. Whitney Houston’s only daughter joined her mother on July 26, 2015, heading to ‘A City Called Heaven’.
9. Ricky Martin
In the late ’90s, the temperature of the charts suddenly rose significantly. Woodstock veteran Santana returned from obscurity with his monster album ‘Supernatural’. Gloria Estefan graced the Super Bowl with ‘Oye!’ and recorded a song with the boys from *NSYNC. Jennifer Lopez debuted as a singer with ‘On the 6’ and immediately smuggled some salsa into ‘If You Had My Love’.
Meanwhile, Shakira was diligently practicing her English to conquer the rest of the world after the American continents with ‘Whenever, Wherever’. Singers like Marc Anthony and Enrique Iglesias made millions of women swoon. From Latin America, countless other Latino artists conquered the international charts. 1999 became the year of the ‘Latin explosion’.
One man led the charge. In the mid-’90s, he had already proven with flair that sultry southern Latin music had a place in the mainstream. His name, of course, is Ricky Martin. With over 70 million albums sold worldwide, the crown of ‘The King of Latin Pop’ sits firmly on his impeccably styled head. Although Anna Kournikova and other devout Enrique Iglesias followers would certainly
‘(Un, Dos, Tres) María’ became the signature song with which Ricky Martin broke through internationally. We almost never heard that most successful Latin song of all time. Previously, mellow ballads were Ricky’s trademark. When he proudly presented the flashy single from his third album ‘A Medio Vivir’ (1995) to a record label underling, the high-ranking executive in question reacted furiously: “Are you crazy? You have ruined your career! I can’t believe you are showing me this. You’re finished — this is going to be your last album.” – Because yes, in the ’90s, musically inept bumpkins often made it to important management positions in the music industry.
But the Puerto Rican singer persisted. And how. The follow-up ‘Vuelve’ (1998) confirmed Ricky Martin’s hard-fought superstar status. The lead single promptly delivered another global hit. In the US, it even knocked Céline Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ off the number 1 spot. That year, FIFA asked the Latino pop star to compose a song for the little football tournament they were organizing in France that summer. ‘La Copa de la Vida’ garnered rave reviews. Many football fans praise the energetic samba bomb as the ultimate World Cup anthem.
When the singer delivered a legendary performance of ‘The Cup of Life’ at the Grammy Awards the following year, everyone realized the ‘Latin explosion’ was a fact. And that Ricky Martin had single-handedly lit the fuse. The ‘Latin Pop God’ closed the decade in style with his first English-language album ‘Ricky Martin’ (1999). ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ became his biggest hit, and the new millennium beckoned seductively with new triumphs.
8. Mariah Carey
“Baby All I Want For Christmas Is You, YOU!” – Well, just give us those millions in royalties that Christmas song brings you every year, Mariah! The gentlemen at ‘The Economist’ calculated that the 1994 single still makes the American pop diva $2.5 million richer each year. According to the scribblers at the ‘New York Post’, the annual check even amounts to $3 million! And rest assured, some serious research preceded that. In America, Mariah Carey enjoys absolute goddess status! It wasn’t for nothing that Billboard named her ‘Artist of the Decade of the 1990s’.
As a young woman in her early twenties, the future ‘Queen of Christmas’ immediately showcased her highly exceptional 5-octave vocal range on her debut album ‘Mariah Carey’ (1990). The pop star even effortlessly hits the whistle register. The what? An otherworldly high human vocal sound. She can make your eardrum snap like a rubber band with one well-aimed melismatic cluster of notes from her vocal cords.
No worries if you don’t understand a lick of those musical terms. They’re mainly here to make it clear that Mariah is one of the most impressive vocal talents in the pop world. She didn’t get it from strangers. Mother Carey was a voice coach and former opera singer. And apparently a terrible shrew at times too, if you believe the memoir ‘The Meaning of Mariah Carey’.
“… you should only hope that one day you become half the singer I am!”, Patricia Carey once snapped at her daughter. Wow. But look. Determined, the 21-year-old Mariah immediately fluttered to the top spot on the charts with her first single ‘Vision of Love’. The public had barely recovered from her vocal acrobatics when number 1 hits like ‘Love Takes Time’, ‘Someday’, ‘I Don’t Wanna Cry’, ‘Emotions’, and the MTV Unplugged triumph ‘I’ll Be There’ followed one another in the American Billboard Charts.
And those were just the early years! The international successes ‘Hero’, ‘Without You’, ‘Always Be My Baby’, ‘Dreamlover’, ‘Fantasy’, the Boyz II Men duet ‘One Sweet Day’, and of course her Christmas album ‘Merry Christmas’ were still to come! After the singer kicked Tommy Mottola, the 21-years-older Columbia Records boss she married in 1993, to the curb, the future looked brighter than ever.
On ‘Butterfly’ (1997), the sugary-sweet singer adopted a new image. She even hit the studio with bad boys like Puff Daddy, Q-Tip, and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony! That yielded sparkling new stuff like ‘Honey’, ‘Butterfly’, and ‘Breakdown’. Mariah’s charms didn’t miss their mark. Rapper Krayzie Bone described the pop star as “very laidback and like one of the homies”. The ‘Songbird Supreme’ is also not just a passive performer. The pop diva co-wrote no fewer than 18 of her 19 American number 1 hits!
2001 was supposed to be Mariah’s year. She swapped her ex’s record label for Virgin Records. A price tag of $100 million dangled from that much-discussed transfer. Carey’s film project ‘Glitter’ and its accompanying soundtrack were meant to prove she was more than worth that hefty contract. It became a complete disaster.
The album was released on September 11, 2001, in the United States. The film followed 10 days later. You can imagine that the timing was a bit unfortunate. The record sold 2 million copies. A pittance for a global star like Mariah. The film was panned as one of the most dreadful things ever to hit the silver screen. The lead actress won a Golden Raspberry for ‘Worst Actress’. The poor kid subsequently had a complete breakdown.
An end in minor key? Not at all! 4 years later, Mariah Carey made a glorious comeback with ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’ (2005). It became her biggest success in 10 years. ‘It’s Like That’ and ‘We Belong Together’ became massive global hits. With the follow-up ‘E=MC²’ (2008) and ‘Merry Christmas II You’ (2010), the ‘Songbird Supreme’ proved once again that her singing days were far from over.
7. Michael Jackson
What would the ’90s bring for Michael Jackson? After all, ‘The King of Pop’ had just completed a wondrous decade. With ‘Thriller’, he made the best-selling music album ever in 1982. Estimated sales figures range from 70 to even 110 million copies, depending on the source you believe! The follow-up ‘Bad’ (1987) slammed number 1 hits like ‘Man in the Mirror’, ‘Dirty Diana’, ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, and ‘Smooth Criminal’ into the international charts.
Moreover, the then 28-year-old artist toured the world for a year and a half, performing a staggering 123 shows. Jackson’s first solo concert tour attracted nearly 4.5 million spectators. A lucrative feat for which Guinness World Records gladly made some whitespace in its record book.
In late November 1991, ‘Dangerous’ appeared. And lo and behold, Michael Jackson was now a man with a mission. On ‘Black or White’, he tackled racism. He also proved he was still the artist who stood above the zeitgeist. Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash squeezed the intro out of his Gibson Les Paul, and the music video featuring ‘Home Alone’ star Macaulay Culkin caused considerable controversy. Jackson’s 8th studio album effortlessly became the best-selling record of 1992, with his glitter-gloved fingers practically up his slightly crumbling nose.
But while MJ tried to heal the world with ‘Heal the World’, his eccentric image took increasingly hard hits. The quirks that first manifested in the late ’80s now went into complete crescendo. What had happened to that cute little boy from The Jackson 5? Visits to the plastic surgeon followed one another. Had the superstar bleached his skin, or did he really suffer from vitiligo? And what was the man with the Peter Pan syndrome up to with young fans at his Neverland Ranch? In 1993, the first accusations of child abuse emerged.
The tabloid press had a field day digging into Jackson’s daily antics. Did he really sleep in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber? Did he actually have the bones of Joseph ‘The Elephant Man’ Merrick in his living room? Meanwhile, the pop icon married Lisa Marie Presley in the Dominican Republic on May 26, 1994. 18 months later, Elvis’s only child filed for divorce. There was the peculiar family life with Debbie Rowe, the nurse who bore him children Paris and Prince. And let’s not forget Bubbles, the pet chimpanzee who was even allowed at the dinner table. And, according to the housekeepers, regularly smeared some monkey poo on the bedroom walls.
On ‘HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I’ (1995), Jackson convincingly showed for the last time why so many contemporary artists praise him. In ‘Scream’, the singer proclaimed his innocence. The visionary black-and-white music video with sister Janet became the most expensive music video ever, with a price tag of $7 million.
Singles like ‘Earth Song’, ‘They Don’t Care About Us’, and ‘You Are Not Alone’ have lost none of their power today. The latter, a ballad penned by R. Kelly, became his 13th and final number 1 hit in America. Musically, the ‘Moonwalker’ would never again match the monstrous success of the ’80s. Remix album ‘Blood on the Dance Floor’ (1997) proved to be a final creative spasm. Michael’s last studio album ‘Invincible’ (2001) did not live up to the high expectations.
While Michael’s star faded, that of his 10-years-younger sister shone like a supernova. Janet Jackson took her first steps into show business in the early ’80s. With her groundbreaking 6th album ‘The Velvet Rope’ (1997) and her astronomical Virgin Records deal worth $80 million – then the priciest record contract ever – she showed who the most successful Jackson sibling was now.
In the spring of 2009, Michael Jackson announced his comeback. The ‘This Is It’ concert series marked his first real return to the stage since the ‘HIStory World Tour’ in 1997. The public clearly hadn’t forgotten him. In less than 2 hours, 1 million tickets were sold.
Unfortunately, it never came to that. On June 25, 2009, less than 3 weeks before the kick-off of the spectacle at London’s O2 Arena, Michael’s heart stopped beating for good. The greatest pop phenomenon ever was 50 years old.
6. Céline Dion
Céline Dion recorded her first record at the tender age of 13. ‘Ce n’était qu’un rêve’ became a modest hit in her home country of Canada. Legend has it that her manager then took out a mortgage on his house to finance Dion’s debut album ‘La voix du bon Dieu’ (1981).
That manager was René Angélil, 26 years her senior, with whom the French-Canadian began a relationship 7 years later. The romance officially started on the night the then 20-year-old singer won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland with ‘Ne partez pas sans moi’. An edition known for the most nail-biting scoring in the history of the contest. Only with the very last jury vote from Yugoslavia did Dion win by a single point over Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Go’.
Come again, for Switzerland?! Absolutely. One of the peculiarities of this annual guilty pleasure extravaganza is that a country can send any nationality. For example, none of Luxembourg’s 5 winners actually come from the Grand Duchy!
Céline and René’s love survived everything, except throat cancer. When Angélil succumbed on January 14, 2014 (Correction: Angélil died Jan 14, 2016), his protégée and wife was left devastated with 3 children and an indestructible reputation as one of the greatest pop divas ever. She owed that status as much to her uniquely powerful voice as to the shrewdness with which her husband managed her affairs until his death.
It was Angélil who convinced the singer in 1997 to record yet another movie theme song. Céline wasn’t immediately keen. Hadn’t she already won an Oscar and a Grammy with Peabo Bryson for their duet ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (1991)? And the romantic drama ‘Up Close & Personal’ (1996) had just recently given her the global hit ‘Because You Loved Me’.
As a three-time ‘World’s Best-selling Female Recording Artist of the Year’, the singer was busy enough with her own albums anyway. Since her first English-language record ‘Unison’ (1990), things had moved fast. ‘The Colour of My Love’ (1993) and ‘Falling into You’ (1996) are still among the most successful albums ever. With ‘The Power of the Dream’, Céline Dion opened the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta on July 19th.
But alright, fine. At least it would get her hubby off her back about it. ‘My Heart Will Go On’ was on tape in minutes. The return on fifteen minutes of studio time was immense. The dramatically arranged power ballad topped the charts in over 20 countries (incl. Belgium and the Netherlands) and swept every possible music award the following year. Besides the Oscar and Golden Globe for ‘Best Original Song’, the Canadian also found space in her trophy cabinet for the Grammy Awards for ‘Record Of The Year’, ‘Best Female Pop Vocal Performance’, ‘Song Of The Year’, and ‘Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television’.
After a brief interlude as a housewife, the ‘Priestess of Pop’ returned to the spotlight with ‘A New Day Has Come’ (2002) and ‘One Heart’ (2003). The astronomical monster sales of the mid-’90s were no longer there. But any lesser god(dess) would still push their grandma under a bus for a fraction of Céline’s 00s sales figures. Besides, the pop diva already had a new little project in mind: Las Vegas.
That’s right. Long before Britney Spears, Elton John, Billy Joel, Jennifer Lopez, and Lady Gaga descended upon the gambling city, Céline Dion paved the way with her ‘A New Day…’ concert residency on the Las Vegas Strip. Between March 2003 and December 2007, the Canadian superstar attracted nearly 3 million people to 717 shows. Caesars Palace specially built an expensive new theater for the singer. It was worth the cost, with Cirque du Soleil mastermind Franco Dragone behind the directorial controls. After Céline, every artist of significance begged for such a lucrative rendezvous in Sin City. But 2 decades later, Dion remains by far the only true ‘Queen of Las Vegas’.
5. Robbie Williams
Every boy band needs a ‘bad boy’. In Take That, that was Robbie. The troublemaker from Stoke-on-Trent was the youngest member at 16 when he responded to Nigel Martin-Smith’s ad for a new British boy band in 1990. He compensated for his youth with his amazing voice. He convincingly took the lead vocals on hits like ‘Could It Be Magic’ and ‘Everything Changes’. But he liked to marinate that voice in cocaine, alcohol, cigarettes, and other goodies. The night before Take That’s appearance at the MTV Europe Music Awards in November 1994, the loose cannon narrowly escaped an overdose.
The charming rogue also hated rehearsals. He preferred partying with Oasis at Glastonbury. – “I set off with [a] flute full of champagne and a pocket full of cocaine, ready to get insane in the membrane!” – His bandmates and manager watched disapprovingly. Especially when Robbie suggested swapping the familiar ballads for hip-hop and rap influences.
When Robbie Williams left Take That in July 1995, millions of teenage girls cried. And grandmothers cried. And probably even the guards in front of Buckingham Palace secretly shed a tear. Because, according to the BBC, it was about “the most successful British band since The Beatles in the UK, beloved of young and old alike”.
After Robbie’s departure, Take That struggled on as a foursome for a while. On February 13, 1996, coincidentally the day Williams turned 22, the group finally pulled the plug. Perfect timing. Various small print clauses in his contract screamed that Robbie couldn’t release his own music as long as Take That existed. Because you didn’t have to teach those ’90s managers how to draft dubious restrictive contracts. He was nicely rid of that now. When Robbie later verbally took revenge on his ex-manager in the song ‘The 90s’, the man dragged him before the High Court.
On July 29, 1996, Robbie celebrated his debut as a solo artist with the meaningful George Michael cover ‘Freedom’. The song stalled at number 2 in the UK Singles Charts. ‘Old Before I Die’ would also peak there. In September 1997, the liberated singer threw his first solo album ‘Life Thru a Lens’ onto the record store shelves. But the singles ‘Lazy Days’ and ‘South of the Border’ didn’t bring the hoped-for world domination. The latter song didn’t even make the Top 10 in his home country. So much for Williams’s successful solo career.
Then came ‘Angels’. – ‘… And through it all she offers me protection / A lot of love and affection …” – And you can be sure that ‘Angels’ did just that. The song, penned with Guy Chambers in less than half an hour, suddenly catapulted Robbie Williams to absolute stardom. Suddenly, music stores couldn’t keep up with the orders for ‘Life Thru a Lens’.
‘Let Me Entertain You’, Robbie then asks the audience. And does the audience want that! Robbie’s 2nd album, ‘I’ve Been Expecting You’ (1998), lived up to all expectations. With ‘Millennium’, the ex-Take That star now also had his first British number 1 hit as a solo artist. Because believe it or not, ‘Angels’ only reached number 4 in the UK Singles Charts back then! As is often the case with timeless songs. A decade later, at the 2005 BRIT Awards, the British public voted the immortal ballad the best British song of the past 25 years.
Hits like ‘No Regrets’, ‘Strong’, and the heart-wrenching ‘She’s the One’ followed effortlessly. The 1999 BRIT Awards became a Blitzkrieg. The singer walked out of the London Arena with the awards for ‘British Male Solo Artist’, ‘Single’, and ‘Video of the Year’.
The following year, Robbie immediately sank his teeth into the noughties. In the summer of 2000, everyone was talking about ‘Rock DJ’. The sublime video, in which Williams literally stripped himself completely bare, caused controversy worldwide. It didn’t stop the song from winning a slew of awards, including the obvious ‘MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects’. The singer followed up his spicy world hit with ‘Kids’, a wonderfully crackling duet with Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue. Robbie was clearly ready for the new decade.
The successes of ‘Sing When You’re Winning’ (2000), the Frank Sinatra tribute ‘Swing When You’re Winning’ (2001), and the rocking ‘Escapology’ (2002) found their apotheosis in August 2003. The pop star performed on 3 consecutive nights for 375,000 people. Robbie’s Knebworth shows have since been known as the “biggest music event in British history”. But don’t tell Liam and Noel Gallagher that.
4. Madonna
In the late ’80s, Madonna was the most successful, groundbreaking, versatile, and talked-about female pop star who ever walked this little blue planet. She would defend that reputation with flair in the ’90s. ‘The Queen of Pop’ set the new dance standard in the spring of 1990 with ‘Vogue’.
The black-and-white music video, directed by a very young David Fincher, cashed in 3 of its 9 nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards. During the ceremony, the singer delivered a truly stunning version of the hit song, dressed as the French queen Marie Antoinette with an entire court of homosexual dancers by her side. Because while backward puritanical America still lived in the Middle Ages, Madonna was already championing the New York gay scene.
Meanwhile, the pop icon also traveled the world in the notorious pointed bra designed by Jean Paul Gaultier. The ‘Blonde Ambition Tour’ was an unparalleled spectacle in which the American got up to so many naughty things that Pope John Paul II almost had a heart attack and anxiously called for a boycott of “one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity”. One Italian show was actually cancelled as a result.
Later that year, MTV refused to air the risqué video for ‘Justify My Love’. Madonna then released the song as a video single on VHS. Artists did that more often in the pre-internet and YouTube era. ‘Justify My Love’ remains the best-selling video single of all time.
After her first career retrospective ‘The Immaculate Collection’, the world’s best-selling female solo artist pulled the public under the covers with ‘Erotica’ (1992) and the coffee table book ‘Sex’, which left little to the imagination. Could Johannes Gutenberg have imagined when he invented the printing press in 1450 that Madonna, of all people, would create the most successful coffee table book of all time? Fans today gladly pay a fortune for an original copy of this groundbreaking paper collectible.
By ‘Bedtime Stories’ (1994), Madonna’s sensual magic seemed to have worn off. That turned out to be mere illusion. The ever-transforming pop star was actually planning her glorious resurrection! Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber sent the ‘Material Girl’ for singing lessons for the movie musical ‘Evita’ (1996). And that clearly paid off. ‘You Must Love Me’ won the Oscar for Best Original Song, and Madonna crooned ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’ so convincingly on the balcony of the Casa Rosada that the Argentine people promptly forgave her everything, and she received the Golden Globe for Best Actress.
Meanwhile, the tabloids had unearthed that the singer was pregnant by her fitness trainer, Carlos Leon. After the birth of Lourdes, the then 38-year-old new mother disappeared briefly from the spotlight in late 1996. Only to reappear in spring 1998 with ‘Ray of Light’. Madonna’s seventh studio album marked a return through the grand entrance.
An entrance that smelled of patchouli, blessing amulets, and essential oils, moreover. Because Madonna was completely reborn now that she had discovered Kabbalah. That Jewish mysticism certainly didn’t do her any harm. Even the biggest Madonna hater must admit that ‘Ray of Light’, produced by William Orbit, is a masterpiece. Lead single ‘Frozen’ became a global hit, and the album itself sold 16 million copies and reached number 1 in no fewer than 17 countries.
After Madonna placed her 4 won Grammy Awards and 6 VMA Moonmen in her trophy cabinet, the pop queen ended the decade beautifully. ‘Beautiful Stranger’ proved another golden collaboration with Orbit. The song from the film ‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me’ (1999) earned Madge yet another Grammy. A Golden Globe would certainly have followed too, had Phil Collins not just tinkled his touching ‘You’ll Be in My Heart’ for Disney’s ‘Tarzan’ on his piano that year.
3. Britney Spears
How do you become the ‘Princess of Pop’? How do you score a global hit as a teenage girl and then keep reinventing yourself with songs like ‘I’m a Slave 4 U’, ‘Toxic’, ‘Womanizer’, and effortlessly sell out a Las Vegas Residency for 4 years?
By getting up early, you lazy bum! While her peers were still happily filling their diapers, 2-year-old Britney Spears sang and danced as if she had never done anything else. The first talent shows followed not long after. The sweet child was barely 8 when she tried her luck at ‘The All New Mickey Mouse Club’. Talented, but too young – was the verdict at the audition.
Britney didn’t sit idly by. She reserved her summer vacations for the Professional Performing Arts School. Soon, her New York agent landed her first commercials. In 1993, the determined girl finally joined ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’, the wildly popular American children’s program where other ’90s pop icons like Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, ‘Felicity’ star Keri Russell, and Hollywood’s blonde heartthrob Ryan Gosling learned the ropes of show business.
At 15, the adolescent child star signed a contract with Jive Records. In spring 1998, the record label sent Spears to Sweden. Because they don’t just excel there in meatballs, throwing wooden blocks, and affordable design with inscrutable assembly instructions designed in the eighth circle of hell. Oh, no. The Swedes also write damn catchy pop songs. They live, after all, in pristine nature where artists like ABBA, Roxette, Ace of Base, and Robyn simply grow on trees. Really.
Max Martin, the brain behind Ace of Base’s successful album ‘The Bridge’, also occasionally composed a song for American acts upon request in his Stockholm music studio. For instance, he whipped up almost all the Backstreet Boys hits from the sleeve of his Filippa K shirt. But Nick Carter & co weren’t keen on Martin’s latest creation in 1998. The ladies of TLC didn’t immediately hear golden ‘Waterfalls’ cascading in the song offered to them either. The then 16-year-old Britney did: “It all just came together and felt right. In my opinion Max is the greatest songwriter of all time.”
On September 18, 1998, it happened. The most successful debut single by far in the history of pop music emerged in America. The European release followed in spring 1999. The impact on the pop universe was unprecedented. The meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs was nothing compared to it. ‘…Baby One More Time’ sold over 10 million copies and reached number 1 in no fewer than 22 countries! The global hit was packaged in an instantly iconic music video. Would the music business still get away with that lolita school uniform today? The pop star was barely 16 during filming.
With her eponymous album, Britney immediately made history. Her debut entered the US Billboard 200 at number 1 right out of the gate. More than 25 million people rushed to the stores for a copy. No debuting artist had ever done better. The record, stuffed with highly danceable teen & bubblegum pop gems like ‘(You Drive Me) Crazy’, ‘Born to Make You Happy’, and the ballad ‘Sometimes’, would influence an entire generation. Wondering where that whole teen pop revival suddenly came from around the turn of the millennium? The simple answer: “It’s Britney, Bitch!”
The pop icon subsequently opened the 21st century gloriously. ‘Oops!… I Did It Again’ and the accompanying tight red leather suit definitively made Britney Spears the best-selling teenage star ever. And she turns out to be a first-class live performer too! Later, it would become clear that such astronomical fame at such a ridiculously young age doesn’t come without consequences. And that the whole world, feasting on juicy, salacious gossip, contributed to it. After the revealing documentaries ‘Framing Britney Spears’ and ‘Controlling Britney Spears’ (2021), the unanimous cry on social media was ‘We are sorry Britney’ and #FreeBritney.
2. Backstreet Boys
In 1992, Lou Pearlman placed an ad for a new boy band in the Orlando Sentinel. The newspaper ad aimed for a “New Kids on the Block look with a Boyz II Men Sound”. Many American teenagers and young adults felt called. On April 20, 1993, the deal was sealed. Pearlman christened his creation ‘Backstreet Boys’, after a local flea market in the subtropical city of Orlando where crowds of young people hung out. What else were they supposed to do? Windows 95 hadn’t even been invented yet!
The quintet formed a remarkably motley crew. The youngest member, Nick Carter, had just turned 13. Kevin Richardson, the oldest, was already approaching 22 springs. He knew show business like the back of his hand. Or at least the bottom rungs of it. The young man worked at Disney World as Aladdin. And sometimes as Sebastian the Crab. Because the sun doesn’t rise for free in the harsh entertainment world.
Add to that Richardson’s 18-year-old cousin, the devout choir singer Brian Littrell. Plus the often-forgotten 19-year-old Howie Dorough. Also known as the Backstreet Boy whose recorded fart would later be incorporated into the rhythm track of ‘The Call’ on the 4th studio album ‘Black & Blue’. Seriously. AJ McLean said so himself. That notorious ‘bad boy’ was barely 14 when he participated in the first auditions in late 1992. His frequent drug and alcohol abuse later earned McLean a lifetime subscription to rehab.
The mega-stadiums full of shrieking tweens didn’t just fall from the sky. The boys had to work hard for that fame. For example, they performed their very first gig ever at SeaWorld. That’s right. Not only did those orcas have to perform tricks in captivity there. The poor killer whales were also vocally tormented by the Backstreet Boys before their show.
After an endless string of gigs in shopping malls, schools, and galas, things suddenly took off. ‘We’ve Got It Goin’ On’ didn’t make waves in America. But in Europe, listeners were immediately hooked. The debut single smoothly conquered the charts in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and a bunch of other countries where you can pay with euros today. In Germany, the boys even achieved their first platinum record in 1996. The following year, their home country finally succumbed to sugary sweet songs like ‘Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)’ and ‘As Long as You Love Me’.
With success and posters on millions of girls’ bedroom walls naturally came the scorn. But even the biggest masculine Backstreet Boys hater must admit that ‘I Want It That Way’ and ‘Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely’ are more than decent pop songs. The highly entertaining music video for ‘Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)’ still stands tall like a haunted house today. And the members have more humor and self-deprecation than you might suspect. In 2013, the BSB made a hilarious cameo in the Seth Rogen comedy ‘This Is The End’.
The most successful boy band of all time sold over 100 million records. According to the authoritative Billboard, it’s even 130 million! No boy band has ever done better. Moreover, they amassed their triumphs across 3 consecutive decades. And they still tour the world. Amazing, when you realize that Kevin Richardson and Howie D are now in their fifties. The screaming of millions of tweens and housewives apparently works as some kind of auditory elixir of life.
Since the return of Richardson (the prodigal son left the band between 2006 and 2012), the boys seem even more virile than ever. Or rather, men. Their fans from back then now have children of their own. They can conveniently take them to the ‘Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life’ residency in Las Vegas and the ‘DNA World Tour’. Or terrorize them during the holidays by blasting the Christmas CD ‘A Very Backstreet Christmas’ (2022) through the living room.
1. Spice Girls
“I wanna, I wanna, I wanna / I really, really, really wanna zigazig ah!” – Recorded in barely 30 minutes, ‘Wannabe’ jumped to number 1 in no fewer than 37 countries in 1996. Later that same autumn, ‘Spice’ appeared. The record sold over 23 million copies worldwide. With that, the Spice Girls still hold the record for the best-selling album by a girl group. The debut also catapulted the global hits ‘Say You’ll Be There’, ‘2 Become 1’, and the double A-side ‘Who Do You Think You Are’/ ‘Mama’ to the top of the charts.
It was a crazy time. Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, and Geri Halliwell giggled their way to conquering the whole world under their alter egos Posh, Baby, Scary, Sporty, and Ginger Spice. The British quintet even effortlessly wrapped the overseas music market around their fingers.
It hadn’t happened since The Beatles that a British band was so embraced by the American public. The fresh-as-a-daisy dance-pop songs were also a breath of fresh air amidst all the grungy grunge and dangerously tough hip-hop. A crucial assist for ‘teen pop’. After the Spice Girls, posters of girl groups, boy bands, and various pop lolitas suddenly adorned millions of teenage bedrooms.
Moreover, the girls also had something to say: ‘GIRL POWER!’ – That image of female empowerment was meticulously crafted by their manager Simon Fuller, but still. The man knew a thing or two about marketing. A few years later, he would launch the entire global ‘Idols’ TV circus.
When the hit single ‘Spice Up Your Life’ kicked off the second album ‘Spiceworld’ in October 1997, ‘Spicemania’ was at its absolute crazy peak. These were the days when Ginger Spice pinched Prince Charles’s royal bum, Pepsi and Polaroid waved lucrative sponsorship deals, toy maker Galoob Toys sold 11 million Spice Girls dolls at Christmas, their clay stop-motion versions dragged the Hanson lanky boys by their blonde hair through the boxing ring of MTV’s ‘Celebrity Deathmatch’, and the girls even chased The Fab Four with ‘Spice World – The Movie’ (1997).
But after the top, you can only go down. On May 31, 1998, nine days before the start of their American tour, Geri Halliwell announced her departure. Without the fiery Ginger, things quickly went downhill. Victoria, Emma, Mel B, and Mel C made a meager attempt at a comeback as a foursome. ‘Forever’ (2000) couldn’t even get past the choirboys of Westlife in the UK Album Charts. That same winter, the group pulled the plug.
Temporarily, we know now. At the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Spice Girls demonstrated with flair why they were the most important pop phenomenon of the ’90s. In autumn 2018, the ladies announced their 2nd reunion. Nostalgia sells. The group members reportedly received £12 million each for 13 performances in the UK and Ireland.
However, Victoria Beckham opted out of the ‘Spice World – 2019 Tour’. No big deal. Posh Spice has many qualities, but singing in tune was never one of them. Doing business, on the other hand. The absent group member earned a tidy £1 million by just sitting at home. The sponsorship deals, licenses, and merchandise still generate a fortune.
