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Tag: Mel B

  • Music Competition Show ‘Who’s In The Band’ In Works At ABC With Simon Cowell, Joe Jonas, Mel B & ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Star Rei Ami

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    EXCLUSIVE: ABC is putting work into finding the next big TV music competition series — and it has turned to a maestro of the genre to test a new format.

    Deadline hears that the Disney-owned network has set Simon Cowell as a judge on a proof-of-concept taping of Who’s In The Band, a talent search for the next One Direction.

    He will judge alongside a panel that includes Joe Jonas, Spice Girl Mel B (a frequent Cowell collaborator on America’s Got Talent and beyond), and songwriter Savan Kotecha. Rei Ami, who provided Zoey’s singing voice in Netflix sensation KPop Demon Hunters, is on hosting duties.

    Who’s In The Band casting materials suggest it will contain a twist on the well-trodden genre, with singers performing the same song, at the same time, in different colored tubes.

    The Who’s In The Band test shoot will take place on October 30 at Eastbrook Studios in London. Sources say the presentation will not air on ABC, and there is no series greenlight. It is believed to be part of the network’s plan to launch a new talent competition series as soon as this coming summer. ABC currently has veteran reality series American Idol — which made Cowell a household name in the US with its original incarnation on Fox — returning for a new season in early 2026.

    Who’s In The Band hails from Yes Yes Media, the London and LA-based production company founded by Richard Bacon, the former television presenter turned format guru. The recording has generated a smattering of press in the UK, but Deadline is the first to reveal ABC’s involvement. The network declined to comment.

    Cowell has never featured as a judge on an ABC reality series, sitting out of the network’s American Idol reboot. He did collaborate with ABC on American Inventor in 2006, but only as a producer. Cowell has remained a fixture on network TV as a judge and executive producer on NBC’s America’s Got Talent.

    Yes Yes launched in 2023 with backers including Courteney Cox and Sister, producer of Black Doves. Deadline reported in July that the company was piloting BBC show, The Easiest Quiz Show in the World, with Strictly Come Dancing winner Chris McCausland.

    Mark Sidaway, former The X Factor showrunner and Yes Yes Media’s head of entertainment, is involved in producing Who’s In The Band.

    Music reality series focused on assembling a group have been around for years. Some notable examples include Popstars, Making the Band, and most recently, Netflix’s Building the Band.

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    Jake Kanter

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  • Mel B is taking the fight against hair discrimination to parliament for World Afro Day

    Mel B is taking the fight against hair discrimination to parliament for World Afro Day

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    Mel B has joined this year’s World Afro Day campaign, to affect change when it comes to hair discrimination in the UK.

    The campaign will urge MPs to update the Equality Act in order to make afro hair a protected characteristic. If it is successful, the UK would be the first Western country to introduce law to end afro hair discrimination.

    “The very first video shoot I did as a Spice Girl for Wannabe, the stylists took one look at my hair and told me it had to be straightened,” Mel said. “My big hair didn’t fit the pop star mould. But I stood my ground – backed by my girls – and I sang and danced as me, with my big hair, my brown skin and I was totally proud of who I was.

    “So yes, I’m proud to support World Afro Day in its call for the Equality Act to protect against afro hair discrimination in the UK.”

    An open letter, signed by 100 campaigners including Mel, Labour MP Paulette Hamilton, Beverley Knight and Fleur East, warns that “omission of hair as a protected characteristic from the law has facilitated everyday discrimination and the normalisation of afro hair as inferior in every sphere of life”.

    The campaign is set to host a drop-in clinic at Parliament with Hamilton and World Afro Day founder Michelle De Leon with their children, in order to “focus on the change for the next generation”.

    “As Birmingham’s first black MP, and as a mother to four daughters, I know the impact this campaign could have on my local community and on people with afro hair across the UK,” Hamilton said.

    Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images

    What is World Afro Day?

    15th September is World Afro Day, a global day for millions to celebrate the beauty of their afro hair and to feel proud of their naturally kinky, coiled or curly strands.

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    Ali Pantony, Charley Ross

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  • ICYMI, Mel B’s Daughter Re-Created Her Mom’s Spice Girls Look From The ’90s

    ICYMI, Mel B’s Daughter Re-Created Her Mom’s Spice Girls Look From The ’90s

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    By Corey Atad.
    Published:

    Mel B’s daughter is spicing up her life.

    This week, Phoenix Brown, daughter of the Spice Girls singer, shared a video on TikTok in which she recreates her mom’s girl group look from the ’90s.


    READ MORE:
    Spice Girls’ Mel B Is Engaged To Hairstylist Rory McPhee

    In the video, Phoenix poses for a photoshoot wearing a colourful quilted pants with matching bra, intercut with images of Mel B in a very similar outfit.

    @phoenixisphoenix

    Re created my mums outfit from the 90’s! What do you guys think?

    ♬ Spice Up Your Life – Spice Girls

    The look Phoenix re-created was featured on cover of the 1997 album Spice Up Your Life, as well as the film “Spice World”.

    “Mel’s daughter is a full blown grownup and gorgeous!!” one user commented, while another added, “I can’t believe how much you look like her! Mel B should be so proud!!!”


    READ MORE:
    Mel B Calls Spice Girls Bandmate Geri Halliwell And James Corden ‘Biggest D***heads’ She’s Ever Met

    Another fan wrote, “I can’t. this series is giving me everything, all that joy can bring, this I swear.”

    On Instagram, Phoenix shared more photos of her recreations.

    Mel be shares Phoenix with ex-husband Jimmy Gulzar, also has two other children: Angel, whose father is Eddie Murphy, and Madison, whose father is Stephen Belafonte.

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    Corey Atad

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  • Spice Girls’ Mel B Is Engaged To Hairstylist Rory McPhee

    Spice Girls’ Mel B Is Engaged To Hairstylist Rory McPhee

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    By Mona Khalifeh, ETOnline.com.
    Published:

    Mel B is getting married! In a Friday appearance on the U.K. talk show, “Celebrity Gogglebox”, the 47-year-old Spice Girls star revealed that her boyfriend of three years, hairstylist Rory McPhee, popped the question.

    Mel B, whose full name is Melanie Brown, divulged the details of the romantic moment after comedian Ruby Wax asked her about the recent engagement.

    “He said, ‘I love you, you’re my best friend and I want to spend the rest of my life with you,’” “The Masked: Singer Australia” judge said of the proposal, which happened while she and McPhee were on vacation in Berskhire.

    She continued, “There were rose petals everywhere, a log fire, a hotel — which was Cliveden. It was very romantic. I love flowers.”

    McPhee, 36, who worked with Brown on this season of the singing competition series, often posts the hairstyles he gives his now-fiancée on his Instagram account.

    ET has reached out to Brown’s rep for comment.

    This will be the third wedding for the “Spice Up Your Life” singer. Brown was previously married to Jimmy Gulzar from 1998 to 2000, and shares a 23-year-old daughter, Phoenix Chi, with the dance pro. She was also married to Stephen Belafonte from 2007 to 2017, and together they share custody of daughter Madison, 10.

    Brown is also mom to 15-year-old Angel Iris, who she shares with ex, Eddie Murphy.

    While Brown has kept her romance with McPhee largely under wraps, she hinted at the relationship in a 2020 interview with The Guardian, telling the outlet, “I’m with someone who’s very kind. Very, very kind. And more than anything we’re really good friends from way back.”

    For the latest on the Spice Girls, check out the video below.

    MORE FROM ET:

    Jamie Lynn Spears, Kate Gosselin to Compete in Fox’s ‘Special Forces’

    Destiny’s Child’s Michelle Williams Thanks Mel B for ‘Paving the Way’

    ‘Queen of the Universe’ Adds Mel B to the Judging Panel for Season 2

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    Brent Furdyk

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