Melanie C has opened up on the origins of the Spice Girls’ “Girl Power” mantra.

The five-piece shot to fame in the ’90s off the back of their catchy hits, like Wannabe and Spice Up Your Life, and became well known for their quirky, individual styles and empowering spirit.

Speaking on the Table Manners with Jessie Ware podcast, the singer confessed she and Emma Bunton, Geri Horner, Victoria Beckham and Mel B came up with the slogan after record executives underestimated their appeal.

“We started talking about girl power because we experienced sexism in the industry,” she explained. “Because we were just five girls, we wanted to be famous, we wanted to be pop stars, and quite quickly we were being told, ‘Yeah, girl bands don’t sell records, you can’t be on the cover of magazines because — girls buy records by boys.’ And we were like, ‘Seriously?’ Don’t say that to the Spice Girls, that’s like red rag to a bull.

“We had a really important point to prove, which was great because it put a fire in our belly,” the star, who releases new album Melanie C in October, added. “It became more than ‘Girl Power.’ It became ‘People Power’; it became about equality.”

The In and Out of Love star also said that her and her fellow Spice Girls didn’t experience sexual harassment because men “were petrified by us.”

“It’s funny, because I get asked about the Me Too movement a lot and that within the music industry and if I’ve ever experienced anything, and I was like, are you kidding me? No one would come near the Spice Girls because they were petrified by us,” she laughed.

“I think often with these situations there can be vulnerable people that are targeted, aren’t there?” Melanie added. “Which, of course, there are some vulnerable people in Spice Girls, but because you knew if you mess with one of them, you would have to deal with the other four, so we always had backup.”