"FORMER Spice Girl Emma Bunton broke down in tears twice during training for TV's Strictly Come Dancing this week.

The 30-year-old singer, better known as Baby Spice, is joint favourite to win the BBC1 ballroom competition along with EastEnder Louise Lytton, 17.

But she sobbed to dance partner Darren Bennett that the public's high expectations have left her feeling totally overwhelmed."


Pressure gets to Spice Girl Emma in TV ballroom show

I hate to be abrupt with her but the girl needs to pull herself together. She's a performer and should be used to this kind of pressure. Suck it up woman because letting it get on top of you won't help.

This sounds like a poor attempt from someone to make a sympathy story but it doesn't work. It just makes her sound rather needy to me and the 'woe! for I am the favourite and have enormous pressure to be brilliant!' routine seems daft. In the end what does it really matter is she isn't brilliant - she can only try her best and if that's not enough...well, it's not her career on the line hereis it?

Instead of sobbing she should pull it together and be determined to get on with it - after all, it's practice and not crying which will make her live up to the expectations put on her.

Oh dear, I feel poor Emma is becoming the Zoe of last year - disliked by people for no reason.

I don't dislike her, but if she's just gonna cry because of expectations then I'm not gonna like her...

All you can do is try your best, so what people might have higher expectations but thats only because they think seeing she was in a band she should be able to dance....

She was about the only spice girl I had no comment on...

All she can do is dance to the best of her ability and hope to get lots of votes because like 12p goes to charity doesn't it?

Actually I would imagine the stress is just getting to her a bit. I don't suppose she is the only one to get tearful or lose their temper this week, it is just her turn to get reported on, if indeed it is true.

I would imagine going in as favourite is not the best thing, and I, for one, would sympathise with her. It is far easier going in with no expectations and then improving from there. There is no pressure on you then.

I think you may be right about her turning into the Zoe of last year. People may just be waiting for a chance to have a go at her.

I agree with you. I would think that the pressure is getting to all the girls this week. First of all Georgina and now Emma. Tomorrow it could be one of the other girls in the papers.

It must be hard for Emma coming in as the favourite to win with all those expectations placed on her. Plus apparently she always gets very nervous before going on stage so Saturday is going to be interesting how she copes.

When Claire and Brendan were on ITT the other day Brendan said that before the group mambo he was concerned how it would go but when Claire was put in the spotlight she turned it on. Emma could do the same on the night.

I hope she does because I think she'll really love it and getting your first dance outta the way will make her stronger next week...

She's just got to stop thinking about what everyone else expects and do it for herself...

I agree with the three previous posts. I feel sorry for her too, but hope that when she gets in front of the cameras she forgets her nerves and performs. I expect all the girls are pretty nervous at the moment anyway.

That's how I feel about it. I don't go in for the whole sympathy/feeling sorry for her because she chose to do this show, it wasn't forced upon her.

Articles like this always read like fishing for sympathy and that loses my respect. If she's good and I like the way she performs I'll vote for her. But if she becomes another Fiona and constantly moans and cries about how difficult it is, I'll go right off of her. I just don't like this whole sob story thing - I'd have more respect for it if at the end she turned round and said 'that was really hard and I cried a lot'. That's fair enough. But in a newspaper just before the first show? Doesn't do her any favours.

Well it doesn't matter how good she is Darren gets my votes...

I know people keep going on about choosing the best preformers but I've choosen 5 dancers I'll vote for because I know my money will be going to a good place in the end...

She was in the Spice girls?

Don't forget the article is from a crap tabloid paper ...

Took the words out of my mouth... by the way, is Lousia really only 17?? How on earth do you cope with this sort of pressure at that age?

I read she is almost 18 but I still think thats very young for SCD. I think the next youngest is Emma at 30. Thats a big age gap

She's a great dancer though if the group mambo is anything to go by. Dunno about Baby Spice being the favourite girl to win, think this Baby could win it!

Because she's been performing since a young age. If you've been doing it most of your life then obviously you can cope with the pressure or you never would have continued.

I don't actually see how anyone really could be favourite or how anyone could have expectations in their first week...

But thats just me isn't it...

With you on this. There are people doing much harder jobs than dancing in a reality TV show for a career boost. Don't get me wrong, I love SCD, but at the end of the day its a charity entertainment show & people go on it to raise money for charity, to boost/expand their career options and (presumably) to enjoy themselves and challenge themselves with a new skill. Its not the be-all and end-all of anything.

And this smacks of publicity to me: "blah balh blah" she sobbed to Darren ~ err, was the reporter in the room with them? And if not, who told them? There's only two candidates......

That's exactly what I mean, they are meant to be doing it for charity, I know it is a competition and its going to be treated that way, but you need to suck it all in and get on with the job because acouple years down the line winning SCD won't mean that much to them, but the money they raise will still mean a lot to the people who receive it...

Why does anyone believe either of them spoke to the press?? As someone said the reporter was not in the room, and I hardly think either of them would run to a rubbish paper with a silly story like this. This particular couple do not need the publicity as they have been feature enough in the papers.

This sort of reaction is exactly what the tabloids want when they print rubbish like this. Yesterday it was James kicking chairs across the floor and threatening to quit. I wonder whose turn it will be tomorrow and whether anyone will believe it??

From the looks of this thread, a lot of people have swallowed the story whole-heartedly.

She was always my favourite spice girl!

Then she should be on to her legal team because they have direct quotes in there from her and they're putting words in her mouth.

There's a difference between the he said/she said, he did/she did story about James yesterday and something like this.

You can only take legal action if what is said is deemed to be defamatory or libellous, which obviously this is not. I hardly think she would would waste her time making a legal issue out of tabloid rubbish!

Actually what is the difference between this and the James story, or indeed the furious rows story with Brendan and Claire??
Last edited by bewest : 12-10-2006 at 13:56

Ummm nothing really apart from the angle of the story, the James and Brendan storys just seemed to put them in a bad light, the Emma story was making it into a sympathy thingy...