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Melanie C

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Melanie C

Melanie Jayne Chisholm (born January 12, 1974 in Widnes, Cheshire), also known as Melanie C or Mel C, was one fifth of the English girl group the Spice Girls, where she was known as "Sporty Spice". As solo artist she has released three solo albums with a fourth on the way. Chisholm has co-written 11 UK number-one singles - second only to Madonna for a female artist [1].

Music career

1996-2000: Sporty Spice

Main article: Spice Girls

In 1996 Chisholm, along with Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham, shot to fame as a member of the Spice Girls with the release of "Wannabe" . The follow-up album 'Spice' also shot to number one all over the globe including in the USA. Due to the fact she was often to be found in a tracksuit with her hair in a ponytail and sporting a rather "tomboyish" attitude, Chisholm received 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 Spice Girls dominated the late 1990s, selling over 35 million albums in just two years. The Spice Girls went on to become one of the best-selling girl bands of all time, selling more than 55 million records worldwide. They had 9 UK #1 singles and 2 #1 albums. After a third album release, Forever (UK #2) the girls went their separate ways, and Melanie C went to develop a solo career.

1999-2003: Virgin Records

Chisholm took her first steps in establishing a solo identity in late 1998 by singing with Canadian rocker Bryan Adams on the song "When You're Gone". She followed the duet with the album Northern Star in 1999. A track from this album ("Ga Ga") was included on the Big Daddy soundtrack prior to her own album's release. Singles "Going Down" and "Northern Star" were met with luckwarm success, but finally the 3rd single "Never be the same again" became a huge worldwide hit. 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. 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 and proceeds were donated to a charity for the homeless and peaked at (UK #18), in the highly competitive Christmas market. The song might have 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). Northern Star is certified 3x platinum in the UK selling over 900,000 copies, platinum in Europe for selling over a million copies and Gold in Australia for selling over 35,000 copies.

Melanie C released her second studio album Reason in March, 2003. The album included production from a series of collaborators include Gregg Alexander (New Radicals, Ronan Keating), Marius De Vries (Madonna), Dr Robert of the Blow Monkeys, David Arnold (Björk) and Matt Rowe, writer of the Spice Girls "Wannabe". The lead single from Reason was "Here It Comes Again" which peaked at number seven in the UK with the album entering the UK album charts a week later at number five. 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 / Yeh Yeh Yeh" which achieved a disappointing chart position of #27. After a series of disappointments and the failure of "Melt / Yeh Yeh Yeh", she was dropped by her label, Virgin Records. However Reason has been certified Gold in United Kingdom.

2004-present: Red Girl Records

Melanie 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 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. 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 soon reported after the release of Better Alone on her website that Red Girl Records had sold out of one of the three versions of the single formats. The third single from her third album was "First Day Of My Life", a previously unheard Melanie C recording written by Guy Chambers and Enrique Iglesias. First Day Of My Life topped the charts in several European countries - including Spain, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Portugal. The single became one of the biggest hits of 2005 in parts of Europe, but it was never released in the UK. It was nominated as The Single Of The Year in ECHO Music Awards 2006 on March 12th, but won Hung Up by Madonna. As the result of this success, Beautiful Intentions has been certified Gold (100,000 sales) in Germany. It has been certified Platinum in Portugal and reached the #1 spot on the album charts on its second week of release (9 weeks at number one). 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 24th. The song appeared to have been slightly remixed. On May 15th, First Day Of My Life was released inAustralia. The "Beautiful Intentions" era concluded with the radio release of Je Suis Nee Pour Toi (French version of First Day Of My Life) to Francophone radio stations. On a worldwide scale Beautiful Intentions outsold her second album Reason.

This Time

In a news statement on her official website, it was confirmed that Melanie C is working on her next studio album (to be released in Spring 2007). The first single release from the project will be the international single "The Moment You Believe" released on March 16th in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In Britain, Chisholm is scheduled to release the track "I Want Candy" on March 26th and it will feature on the soundtrack to the movie of the same name, which stars Tom Riley, Carmen Electra, Tom Burke, and MacKenzie Crook. Videos for both are directed by Tim Royes.

On February 21st, 2007, it was announced on her official site that the new album would be titled "This Time" and released on April 2 in the UK and March 30 in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In other countries album will be released in similar period.

On the 3rd March, Melanie's I Want Candy music video went to number 1 on the YouTube most viewed video of the day (180,000 views).

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Year Title Album Chart position Audio
UK GER SWI AT SPA
1998 "When You're Gone" On a Day Like Today 3 14 11 4 3 .ⓘ
1999 "Goin' Down" Northern Star 4 73 17 .ⓘ
1999 "Northern Star" Northern Star 4 50 75 73 .ⓘ
2000 "Never Be the Same Again" Northern Star 1 3 3 2 Audio file "NeverBeTheSameAgainSample.ogg" not found
2000 "I Turn to You" Northern Star 1 2 3 11 .ⓘ
2000 "If That Were Me" Northern Star 18 58 50 28 / Audio file "IfThatWereMeSample.ogg" not found
2003 "Here It Comes Again" Reason 7 59 61 49 16
2003 "On The Horizon" Reason 14 80 / 24 /
2003 "Let's Love" Reason NR NR NR NR NR
2003 "Melt / Yeh Yeh Yeh" Reason 27 63 NR 13 .ⓘ
2005 "Next Best Superstar" Beautiful Intentions 10 32 25 41 NR Audio file "NextBestSuperstarSample.ogg" not found
2005 "Better Alone" Beautiful Intentions NR 51 33 66 NR Audio file "BetterAloneSample.ogg" not found
2005 "First Day of My Life" Beautiful Intentions NR 1 1 2 1 .ⓘ
2007 "The Moment You Believe" This Time NR TBR TBR TBR TBR
2007 "I Want Candy" This Time TBR NR NR NR NR

DVDs

B-sides

Tours

  • 1999 - From Liverpool To Leicester Square
  • 2000/2001 - Northern Star European Tour
  • 2001 - Northern Star World Tour
  • 2003 - Reason UK & Ireland/Germany Tour
  • 2004 - The Barfly Mini-Tour
  • 2005/2006 - Beautiful Intentions Live Tour

See also

References

  1. ^ RTE - Madonna smashes record in UK charts (2006-02-28)
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