Emma Bunton 'Free Me' album

With her U.S. solo debut for 19 Recordings, Free Me, Emma is ready to show America that Baby Spice has not only grown up, she’s created her own musical style and image.

“I’ve had a chance to grow up and find out who the real Emma Bunton is,” she explains. “This album shows me learning who I am and being able to open up.

Emma returned to her favorite era, the swinging ’60s, channeling such influences as songbirds Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark, songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Motown and the sultry sounds of Brazilian pop singer Astrud Gilberto.

Emma took charge on Free Me, co-writing 11 of the 12 songs on the album, while collaborating with the likes of U.K. hit singer-songwriter Cathy Dennis and Zero 7’s Henry Binns.

“When it came to start writing, I just wanted to put in elements of things I’ve always loved to hear,” she says. “I was brought up with Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. And, just like in the ‘60s, we brought musicians into the studio to play live. I’ve just become so much more comfortable recording. I was in there going, “Turn the bass up… Where are the strings?”

As one of the five Spice Girls, Emma Bunton was part of a pop music phenomenon. Since the release of their debut single in 1997, the U.K.-based group achieved worldwide success, selling more than 40 million albums and sold out arenas everywhere.

Emma’s solo career has proven to be the most successful of all the Spice Girls. Free Me has already sold more than 100,000 albums in the U.K. and produced three hit singles in “Free Me,” “Maybe” and “I’ll Be There”, with a fourth just released in the bossa nova beat of “Crickets Sing for Anamaria,” originally covered in the ‘60s by Astrud Gilberto. All four were accompanied by videos inspired by the songs.

“Free Me,” shot in Brazil, is a seductive, lush torch song with a full orchestra that features Emma romping in gorgeous surroundings with the Latino hunk of her dreams.

The ‘60s pop kitsch of “Maybe,” co-written with Yak Bondy, features a choreographed dance scene that mirrors Emma’s interest in Broadway classics like Chicago and Sweet Charity. “I’ll Be There,” reminiscent of such U.K. Britpop classics as Petula Clark’s “Downtown” and “Don’t Sleep in the Subway,” is a take-off on Jean Luc-Godard nouvelle vague classic, Breathless, in black and white and subtitles, with a dead ringer for French heartthrob Jean-Paul Belmondo. “Crickets Sing for Anamaria,” a Brazilian samba that celebrates sexual ardor, has the feel of the sensual tropical flavor of the 1978 import Dona Flor and her Two Husbands.

“When we were in Brazil for the ‘Free Me” video, I heard some amazing music in the bars down there, just fantastic stuff,” she says of the album’s Latin America flavor, which can be heard in the breathy romanticism of “Amazing,” her duet with singer Luis Fonsi. “I’d heard ‘Crickets Sing for Anamaria’ on one of the albums I bought when we were there. Marcos Valle did the original. It really fits in with the feel of the album.”

Songs like “Tomorrow,” “Breathing” and “No Sign of Life” are reminiscent of the brassy, sophisticated pop of Bacharach/David, evoking such torch singers as Dionne Warwick and Shirley Bassey.

“I listened to so much music when I was younger,” says Emma. “My mum and dad would play Motown records every morning. That passionate, raw feeling influenced every song on this album. The fullness of the melodies. It wasn’t taken over by the production… I wanted it to be simple.”

Songs like “Who the Hell Are You” show that Emma hasn’t forgotten her own playful roots in the Spice Girls’ brand of “grrrl power.”

“We all go through our days with boys, and on that song, I’m going through one of them, a bad day with an ex-boyfriend,” she laughs. “I was brought up by my mom as a single parent who went back to college and taught herself karate at the age of 40. She keeps on learning and growing, and that’s been embedded in me. I look up to her. There’s always a bit of grrrl power in me.”

And “Lay Your Love on Me,” which Emma co-wrote with good friend and U.K. pop diva Cathy Dennis, shows she’s not afraid to be playful with her own sexual image, either.

“Before we went into the studio to record, we ate some Chinese food and drank some wine,” says Emma. “We get on so well, it was comfortable for me to be open and have a bit of a laugh about things. It’s a sexy song.”
With a remix of “Free Me”, already garnering club play and dance chart action in the U.S., Emma is ready to conquer America all over again… this time as a solo artist.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” she says. I want people to see how I’ve grown. I am going to work hard and spend lots of time in the States. Because you can’t just go over for a couple of weeks and expect to be accepted.”

“I’ve always remained close with the people at 19,” says Emma. “They all really believe in me as an artist. Simon Fuller has given me the space to create an album I love and make great videos.”

“I’m comfortable with my past and learned a great deal from it,” concludes Emma. “Baby’s grown up… I am much more independent now, a different person.”

On Free Me, the spice is just right for Emma’s second act in America to be every bit as successful as her first one.

You’ve come a long way, Baby.

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Emma Bunton - Free Me