Melanie Jayne Chisholm (born January 12, 1974 in Liverpool), also known as Melanie C or Mel C, is a singer and successful English female artist. She has co-written eleven chart topping singles

In the early years of her singing career she was one fifth of the hugely successful English girl group the Spice Girls. Since then she has released three solo albums and many hit singles.

Music career

 
Sporty Spice
Chisholm, along with Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, and Victoria Beckham, shot to fame in 1996 with the release of "Wannabe" (in which she was shown performing a backflip on one of the tables). This went straight to number one and stayed there for 7 weeks, making the band the first Girl Band to go to #1 with their debut single, it also went on to become the biggest selling single by a girl band of all time worldwide. The album that followed of the name 'Spice' also shot to number one all over the globe including USA and became the biggest selling album by a girl band of all time selling over 23 million. Often to be found in a tracksuit and with her hair in a ponytail, Chisholm earned the nickname "Sporty Spice" from Top of the Pops magazine (all of the group were given humorous nicknames in a small piece titled "Spice Rack"). the next album was equally successful selling over 18 million worldwide and going to number one everywhere.

The Spice Girls dominated the late 1990s, selling over forty million albums in just two years. The Spice Girls went on to become the biggest selling girl band of all time, selling around 75 million records worldwide. They had 9 UK #1 singles (same as Abba) making them the girl band with the most number ones in the UK, and broke many other records such as film records, music records and merchandises records. From the early days, Melanie was widely considered the most musically capable of the group. After a third album release (now without Geri) which sold a respectable 7 million worldwide and charted at number 2 on the UK chart, the girls went their seperate ways, and Melanie C went to develop what was already a sucessful solo career. In 2006 the Spice Girls were officially named the Biggest Icons of the 90's winning 80% of the vote made by 10,000 people (Kurt Kobain of Nirvana came in second place).

 

Northern Star

 
Northern Star album coverChisholm took her first steps in establishing a solo identity in late 1998 by duetting with Canadian rocker Bryan Adams on the massively successful song "When You're Gone". Though it never topped the charts (UK #3), it went on to become the eighty-second best-selling single of the 1990s. She followed the duet with the critically acclaimed album Northern Star in 1999. Eager to distance herself from her "Sporty" image, the rocky "Goin' Down" (UK #4) was chosen as the first single from the album. Though it failed to make a huge impact in the charts or do much for album sales, the single and its video showed the world a different side to Melanie Chisholm.

The album's title track was chosen as the follow up single and was a surprise hit (UK #4). With its simple, yet beautiful video the single sold in excess of 195,000 copies, but did little for album sales. In March 2000, Melanie had her first break as a solo artist. A slightly remixed version of "Never Be The Same Again" featuring a rap from Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes was chosen as the album's third single and became Chisholm's first solo UK #1. The song, co-written and produced by Rhett Lawrence, went on to sell over 400,000 copies and helped bring Northern Star back into the album chart Top 10.

Capitalising on her new found success, Chisholm released a fourth single from Northern Star, a dance remix of "I Turn To You", and earned herself a second UK #1 single. "I Turn To You" eventually climbed to the top of the Billboard Dance Charts in America, and went on in 2002 to be featured in a club scene in the film Bend It Like Beckham (the film also featured a new version of "Independence Day", a song particularly popular with fans from the Northern Star days, but never before released). Northern Star was re-released with the single versions of "Never Be The Same Again" and "I Turn To You", and eventually peaked at #4 on the UK album charts.

"If That Were Me" was chosen as the fifth and final single from Northern Star, but made little impact on the charts (UK #18), having received poor promotion for the highly competitive Christmas market. The song suffered as a result of recent Spice over-exposure (the release of Melanie B's solo album Hot and the Spice Girls' Forever, both with accompanying singles). It should also be noted that it was the first of Melanie's singles to be released on just one CD format in the UK. Sadly, little was made of the charity status of the record. Northern Star is certified triple platinum in the UK selling, to date, over 900,000 copies (998,000 to be exact) and platinum in Europe. Worldwide sales exceed three million copies, making it the biggest selling solo album from a "former" Spice Girl.

 

Reason

 
Reason album coverReleased in March 2003, Reason was Melanie C's second solo album, and the follow up to the critical and commercial success of Northern Star.

The lead single from Reason was the Marius DeVries produced "Here It Comes Again" (UK #7), which helped push the album to an initial #5 placing, though it was to sink quickly.

Other singles from the album were "On The Horizon" (UK #14, written with Gregg Alexander, former frontman of New Radicals), "Let's Love" in Japan (where the song accompanied a Toyota commercial, "Yeh Yeh Yeh" in mainland Europe and, finally, a UK double A-side of "Melt" and "Yeh Yeh Yeh" which achieved a disappointing chart position of #27. The failure of the "Melt" / "Yeh Yeh Yeh" single has often been put down to Melanie's inability to complete thorough promotion, due to a knee injury acquired whilst competing in the UK Channel 4 reality TV series, The Games.

After this disappointment, the Reason project seemed to Virgin to have reached it limit, and despite it actually selling half a million copies worldwide, they terminated Melanie's contract in late 2003. It is still hotly contested as to whether different choices of singles (such as Reason, If that were me and Positively Somewhere), to promote the album could have saved the project, as it fared well with the critics, and remains popular with Melanie's fans.

 

Beautiful Intentions

 
Beautiful Intentions album coverMelanie spent much of 2004 working on new material and setting up her own record company, Red Girl Records. Now without major label backing, all of Melanie's activities are decided upon and funded by herself, alongside her business partner and manager, Nancy Phillips.

In April 2005 Melanie released her third album, Beautiful Intentions. The album received favourable reviews, some claiming it to be her strongest work yet. The Adam Argyle penned "Next Best Superstar" was chosen as the lead single and was released simultaneously in the UK, Europe, and Australia. The single peaked at number-ten in UK. The album debuted at #24 and quickly fell off the charts. It would eventually go on, however, to be a success throughout other parts of Europe.

A second single, "Better Alone", was announced for UK release - but later restricted to purchase from iTunes (for digital download) and her official online shop (for two physical CDs and a DVD single) It was also available on Amazon for some reason, and it should be noted that it became the second best selling Cd on their website that week, suggesting that it may have fared well on the UK charts. The third single from her third album "First Day Of My Life", a previously unheard Melanie C recording. "First Day Of My Life" topped the charts on the aforementioned countries, and more recently Spain, managing to outsell acts such as Madonna, Robbie Williams and Sugababes. The single became one of the biggest hits of 2005 in parts of Europe, selling over 300,000 copies. It was nominated as The Hit Of The Year in Echo Music Awards 2006 on March 12th. As the result of this success, Beautiful Intentions has been certified Gold (100,000 sales) in Germany. It has been certified double Platinum in Portugal (+40.000) and reached the #1 spot on the album charts on its second week of release (6 weeks at number one). "First Day Of My Life" will soon be confirmed for an April release in France.

"Better Alone" (accompanied by a different video to the initial Mary McCartney shoot for the proposed UK release) was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on February 24. The song appeared to have been slightly remixed.


 

Discography

Studio albums

Singles