Melanie C

Melanie C

Melanie C, also known as Mel C and born Melanie Jayne Chisholm, is an English pop singer and songwriter from Whiston, United Kingdom. She is best known as a member of the Spice Girls, where she is known by the nickname Sporty Spice. Her solo work runs alongside her group career and includes albums released under Virgin Records Ltd. and her own label, Red Girl Records.

Spice Girls

Chisholm joins the Spice Girls in 1994 through an audition process that leads to the group’s formation with Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Adams, later joined by Emma Bunton. The group’s debut album, Spice, becomes a major international success and includes singles such as Wannabe, Say You’ll Be There and 2 Become 1. Its follow-up, Spiceworld, also sells strongly and is accompanied by the film Spiceworld: The Movie. After Geri Halliwell leaves in 1998, the group releases Goodbye and then Forever before entering an indefinite hiatus in 2000.

The Spice Girls later reunite for a greatest hits release in 2007 and tour in 2007–2008 under the name Return of the Spice Girls. They reunite again in 2019 for the Spice World tour. Chisholm remains associated with the group throughout these later reunions.

Solo career

Chisholm begins her solo career in 1998 with a featured appearance on Bryan Adams’s When You’re Gone. She signs with Virgin Records and releases her debut album, Northern Star, in 1999. The album includes Goin’ Down, Never Be the Same Again, and I Turn to You. Never Be the Same Again, featuring Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, becomes her first UK solo number one, while I Turn to You also reaches number one in several countries. A remix of I Turn to You wins a Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical.

Her second album, Reason, appears in 2003 and includes Here It Comes Again and On the Horizon. She later leaves Virgin Records and sets up Red Girl Records in 2004. Beautiful Intentions follows in 2005 and includes Better Alone, Next Best Superstar and First Day of My Life, with the last becoming a number one single in several European countries. She releases a reissue of the album in 2006.

Subsequent albums include This Time in 2007, with singles including The Moment You Believe, I Want Candy and Carolyna; The Sea in 2011, with Rock Me, Think About It, Weak and Let There Be Love; Stages in 2012, a collection of musical theatre songs including I Don’t Know How to Love Him and I Know Him So Well, a duet with Emma Bunton; Version of Me in 2016, preceded by Anymore and also including Dear Life and Room for Love; and Melanie C in 2020, which reaches the UK top 10 and includes Who I Am, Blame It on Me and In and Out of Love. The 2020 album is reissued in a deluxe edition in 2021.

Other work

In 2009, Chisholm makes her stage acting debut in Blood Brothers, playing Mrs Johnstone and receiving a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. She also plays Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar, a role that earns her a theatre award. Her other screen and television work includes a role in the film Play Hard, mentoring on The X Factor Australia, judging on Asia’s Got Talent, and other live and broadcast appearances.

She is part of the charity single He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother with The Justice Collective, which reaches number one in the UK, and also records Stop Crying Your Heart Out for Children in Need. She collaborates with Jodie Harsh on the EP The Night in 2012. From 2022, she publishes the memoir Who I Am: My Story, also issued in the United States as The Sporty One: My Life as a Spice Girl, and continues work as a performer, DJ, mentor and collaborator.

Record label and later releases

Chisholm continues releasing music through Red Girl Records. In 2025 she releases Sweat and follows it with What Could Possibly Go Wrong? and Undefeated Champion. Sweat is also the title of her ninth studio album. She announces the Melanie C World Tour 2026, with dates scheduled across multiple countries.