Melanie C

Origin: United Kingdom

From her rise to fame as one fifth of the most successful girl band of all time – The Spice Girls – to her successful solo career, Melanie C’s impact on music and pop culture has been nothing short of incredible. With 11 UK number ones under her belt and being the only female artist to top the UK charts as a quintet, quartet, duo and solo artist in British music history, Melanie’s talent has gained the recognition and devotion of critics and fans all over the world throughout the last 25 years Melanie Chisholm, aka Melanie C and Sporty Spice, is one of the most successful international musical artists from the 90s with more than 108 million copies sold – 100 million as a member of the Spice Girls and 23 million as a solo artist over her 27-year successful career.

Melanie C came from a working-class background to an international superstar, cultural icon, philanthropist and British culture ambassador; flying proudly the United Kingdom flag with unquestionable talent, grace, determination and drive to make her time in the spotlight a positive impact. Born on January 12, 1974, in Whiston, Lancashire, Melanie C was drawn to the performing arts from the very beginning. Growing up with her mother Joan, also a singer, meant Melanie was surrounded by music and musicians throughout her young life. As a child, Melanie studied dance and participated in gymnastics. At age 16, she left home to continue her dance training at the Doreen Bird College Of Performing Arts in London, with the intention of pursuing a career as a professional dancer. It was during this time that Melanie was handed a flyer for an audition for an allgirls singing group. Melanie landed that audition and soon after, the Spice Girls were formed. Melanie and the other girls spent the next year living together, while song writing and developing their sound. On July 13th, 1995, Melanie, along with her 4 other bandmates, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Brown and Victoria Beckham, signed a contract with Virgin Records and the rest is history.

Melanie rose to fame with the Spice Girls in 1996, releasing, in two years with the Spice Girls, two consecutive number one albums, eight number one singles from nine worldwide hits, the biggest-selling debut single of all time and the biggest-selling album in music history by a girl group, respectively with “Wannabe” a top in 37 countries with over seven million records, and Spice, which peaked at number one in more than 17 countries across the world, with over 31 million copies, as well as the second album Spiceworld with more than 20 million copies sold. Melanie C is known for her unique vocal prowess that helped shoot the Spice Girls to international stardom. Chisholm began her solo career in late 1998 by singing with Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams, and her solo debut album Northern Star was released in 1999, reaching number one in Sweden and number 4 on the UK Albums Chart. It was certified internationally with seven platinum and three gold certifications, including the triple-Platinum by  the British Phonographic Industry, selling over 4 million copies worldwide, and becoming the best-selling solo album of any Spice Girls member.

After her second album, Gold certified in UK, Reason, with more than 500,000 copies, Chisholm, in 2004, parted from Virgin and founded her own record company, Red Girl Records. Beautiful Intentions, her third album, in 2005, spent 9 weeks at number one in Portugal and spawned international hit singles, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide with several international certifications. The fourth studio album, This Time, was released in 2007, became her first top 10 album in Switzerland where was certified Gold. Of the five singles released from the album, the first three went to number one in Portugal. In December, Chisholm reunited with the Spice Girls to release a greatest hits album supported by a world tour. They embarked on the tour on the 2nd of December, traveling for 47 dates until 26 February 2008. The tour is estimated to have grossed over US$70 million and produced $107.2 million in ticket sales and merchandising and still holds the record of selling out in 38 seconds. The Return Of The Spice Girls Tour, won the 2008 Billboard Touring Award. As well as their sell-out tour, the Spice Girls were contracted to appear in a series of very famous Tesco Christmas advertisements. She released her fifth solo album, The Sea, in 2011, her first EP The Night in 2012, the sixth studio album Stages, in 2012, and seventh album, Version of Me (2016).

Her eponymous eighth studio album Melanie C was successfully released in 2020 reaching the number 8 spot on British charts. One of Melanie’s proudest moments as a British artist happened in 2012 when the Spice Girls sent the world into a Girl Power frenzy when they took to the stage at the London Stadium for the Olympics closing ceremony. As five London black cabs pulled up – each resembling a different Spice persona – the five girls came out to rapturous applause as the opening bars of debut hit Wannabe rang out to the 66,000 strong crowd achieving the biggest moment on Twitter during #London2012 when The Spice Girls generated more Tweets per minute than anyone on the field of play throughout the games. In 2019 Melanie C and her Spice Girls bandmates, embarked on their fourth and latest tour ‘Spiceworld 2019’ It commenced on 24 May 2019 in Dublin, Ireland and ended on 15 June 2019 in London, England. It marked the group’s first performance together since the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Across the 13 sold-out dates, the tour produced 700,000 spectators and earned $78.2 million in ticket sales.

On 10 November 2018 several ticket-selling websites, such as Ticketmaster and See Tickets, crashed due to the overwhelming volume of people attempting to buy tickets. Ticketmaster later stated that at one point, over 700,000 fans were simultaneously attempting to purchase tickets making it their busiest sale ever. The three-night sellout stand at Wembley Stadium was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, winning the 2019 Billboard Live Music Award for Top Boxscore.  A competition to benefit various charities was held, with the winner getting to attend one of the London tour stops with Spice Girls “superfans” Emma Stone and US band Haim. Having co-written 11 UK number ones, more than any other female artist in chart history, with twelve UK number one singles, including the charity single as part of The Justice Collective, she is the second female artist – and the first British female artist – with most singles at number one in the United Kingdom, and with a total of fourteen songs that have received the number one in Britain (including the double A-sides), Chisholm is the female artist with most songs at number one in the UK ranking history. Her work has earned her several awards and nominations, including a Guinness Book mention, three World Music Awards, five Brit Awards from 10 nominations, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards from six nominations, eight Billboard special awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards from seven nominations, one MTV Video Music Awards from two nomination, ten ASCAP awards, one Juno Award from two nominations, and four nominations at the Echo Awards.

Since 1996, Chisholm has sold more than 108 million records, including 100 million copies with the group and 23 million solo albums, singles and collaborations, and has earned over 326 worldwide certifications (with numerous diamonds), including 41 silver, gold and platinum certifications as a solo artist. Throughout her outstanding career, Melanie C has been a significant role model to young women from all around the world. She has become an inspiration to the millennial generation that has found strength and meaning in her music and powerful message of self-belief, self-acceptance and self-care. 

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