The Cheeky Girls on making a music comeback — and the Spice Girl who almost ruined their career

Virgin Radio

26 Apr 2022, 11:12

Music's favourite 'cheeky cheeky' Romanian twins are back for another, ahem, crack at the pop charts after first finding fame at 19 in (can you believe it?) 2002 on ITV’s Popstars: The Rivals.

The sisters are stepping away from their career in car sales to release single Let’s Have Fun and album PartyTime 20 — two decades later.

Twins Monica and Gaby Irimia, 39, told The Sun: “If people will say to us they don’t want to see us any more, then we will probably stop.”

Back in 2004, their music careers nearly didn't take off thanks to money being thrown at a certain Spice Girl who was on the same now-defunct label Telstar Records. Monica said: “They spent our money — spent everybody’s money — on Victoria Beckham and she flopped.

“She’s a lovely person and everything, and she really tried to have a go at her solo career. But we suffered the consequences.”

As the label went under, they missed out on royalties and were left with huge debts including a £65,000 hotel bill plus charges for a rented flat and recording sessions.

Gaby explained: “As soon as we did gigs, as soon as we would earn some money, that would not go in our pockets, as you have so many people knocking on your door.”

But she adds: “The hotel room was under our name, not Telstar’s, and so many other things including the bill for recording the first time.”

Talking about their audition in front of judges Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh and Geri Horner, Monica recalled: “He definitely thought we are transsexuals, because we had short hair . . . literally no boobs.

“I really didn’t like my hair, to be fair, back then. I didn’t like looking back at the pictures. It was awful for me.

“But that’s what made us have a very different look than anybody else, and just be totally unique.

“The fact our trends got picked up made us even more famous.”

So cheeky cheeky...