As one of the five members of the 1990’s British musical phenomenon, ‘The Spice Girls’, Mel  C was known as ‘Sporty Spice’ along with her other band members, ‘Posh Spice’, ‘Baby Spice’, Scary Spice’ and ‘Ginger Spice.’Born Melanie Chisholm on January 12^th 1974 in Whiston, Merseyside, England. Her parents, Alan and Joan divorced when Mel was still quite young and introduced into her life a half sister, Emma and three half brothers, Paul, Liam and Declan. When her parents divorced Mel C also welcomed two step parents into her life, Dennis and Carol.

Her mother was, and still is, a singer with a rock band who met her father at the famous Liverpool club The Cavern, which launched the career of ‘The Beatles.’Mel attended Southgate Infant School in Runcorn, Cheshire and then Brookvale Junior School and Fairfield Country High School, Liverpool. 

After completing her formal education, in 1993 she went on to attend the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts where she took lessons as a singer and took part in some ballet and dancing. During this time Mel C almost made it into the cast of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, "Cats".As a struggling artist, and prior to hitting the big time Mel C supported herself by working in a fish and chip shop in he home town.

Until she, and the other  four future members of ‘The Spice Girls’ responded to an ad for an all girl group in 1994 where they auditioned among thousands of other young hopefuls to achieve stardom in the music world. Mel very nearly missed the audition because of recurring chronic tonsillitis.When the group was founded Mel C was widely recognized as the most talented of the group and sang most of the lead vocals. Her trade mark in the group was her sporty attire, sneakers, track suits and tied back hair styles, this earned her the title ‘Sporty Spice’. She was also known for her array of tattoos which out did the other girls in the band by far.

So it was in the Summer of 1993 that the ‘Spice Girls’ were formed and hit, first the British music scene with avengence and later, Europe and finally their feisty, animated style was greeted with huge success on the other side of the Atlantic.During the late 1990’s ‘The Spice Girls’ dominated the music scene, and sold over thirty-five million albums in the first two years. They have been recognized as one of the best-selling girl groups of all time, selling more than fifty-five million records worldwide. In the UK alone they achieved nine number-one singles and two number-one albums. However, when their third album, ‘Forever’ only reached number two, in February 2003, the girls went their separate ways, amid a fairly acrimonious split.

During their career together the girls received a number of awards among which were, 1997 MTV Video Music Award, 1997 MTV Europe Music Award, Brit Awards 1997, 1998, 2000, Billboard Awards 1997,  American Music Awards 1998 and  the MTV Europe Music Awards 1998.

In 1998 while at Planet Hollywood in Los Angeles Mel C sang a duet with actor Bruce Willis. Then in 1998 Melanie released a duet with Canadian rocker Bryan Adams and their song ‘When You're Gone’ became a huge hit and stayed in the top ten for a total of ten weeks in the UK. Taking this as a sign of things to come Mel C launched her solo career in 1999 when she stating she wanted to explore a different musical direction which she exhibited with the release of her first CD ‘Northern Star.’  

During her career, Mel has been influenced by her favourite musical stars, Madonna and Stevie Wonder, and has obviously made her choice wisely as she has co-written eleven UK number-one singles which is second only to Madonna, for a female artist. Mel went on her ‘Northern Star’ World Tour, performing in countries such as Bahrain, Israel, Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.

In 2003 released her second studio album,’Reason’.

For the first time in five years there would appear to be a ‘Spice Girls’ revival on the horizon, with some of the band's members said to be keen on a ‘greatest hits album’ and several one-off concerts. These rumours come amid the overwhelming evidence of the girls’ solo career slumps in the past 5 years since their split. Victoria Beckham has tried her hand at singing and modelling, Emma Bunting has also pursued a less than succesful singing career, Mel B has been involved in a paternity row with the father of her baby, Eddie Murphy and Geri Halliwell has allbut disappeared from the music scene since an uneventful attempt at adopting a role as a humanitarian envoy for the UK, and after giving birth to her baby daughter. 

ABB.