Melanie C

For the past five years, Melanie C has been Sporty Spice. She was one of five girls who, together, would go on to become some of the most famous women on earth. During their reign, Spice Girls have sold over 40 million records and have had their lives microscopically detailed by the tabloids in a fashion that suggests they must be royal. Wherever they've travelled in the world, they've been fanatically received: Nelson Mandela still remembers the kiss, Prince Charles the pinch. While other band members were perhaps louder and more glamorous, Melanie C was the more mysterious. She was the quietest of the quintet, then the quietest of the quartet. Then, she capped one of her teeth in gold, and had tattoos applied to her upper arms, her lower back. She got very fit. General consensus suggested that she was the best singer of the bunch, and the most down to earth. She was likeable, but never quite shone to her full potential.

While you may already be more than familiar with her, she is about to release a debut solo album, which is guaranteed to take everyone by surprise. Anticipation will be rife, and she will confound all expectation. Think re-birth, think total reinvention. And prepare yourselves for a shock.

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The world-famous Sporty Spice, singer Melanie Chisholm was born January 12, 1975, in Liverpool, England; a onetime session vocalist and ballet dancer, in March of 1994 she answered an advertisement for an all-girl vocal group, and with fellow applicants Geri Halliwell, Victoria Adams, and Melanie Brown formed the nucleus of what later (with the addition of fifth member Emma Bunton) became the Spice Girls. The biggest pop phenomenon of the late '90s, the Spice Girls enjoyed a series of chart-topping singles like "Wannabe," "Say You'll Be There," and "2 Become 1"; as the tracksuit-clad Sporty Spice, Mel C (as Chisholm was commonly known) was widely considered the most musically talented Spice Girl, and in the fall of 1999 she made her solo debut with Northern Star. I Turn to You followed a year later. Reason from 2003 was a mainstream pop album while 2005's Beautiful Intentions was a more rocking affair and the first album to be released on Melanie C's own label, Red Girl Records. In early 2007 two new singles -- "The Moment You Believe" and a cover version of "I Want Candy" -- announced the coming of her fourth full-length, This Time. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide