Mel C Biography

Birth Name : Melanie Jayne Chisholm

Date of Birth : 12 January 1974, Whiston, Knowsley, Merseyside, England, UK

Height : 5' 6" (1.68 m)

Occupations : Singer-songwriter, actress

Chisholm was born on 12 January 1974 at Whiston Hospital in Whiston, Lancashire. Raised originally in Rainhill, Merseyside and then Widnes, Cheshire she attended Fairfield High School where she studied singing and dancing. After leaving school at age 15, Chisholm studied for a diploma course in dance, singing, drama and musical theatre at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts in Sidcup, Kent. During college, she replied to an advert in The Stage by Chris and Bob Herbert, who were looking to form a new girl group, later to become the Spice Girls. She left college just short of completing her three-year course and gained teaching qualifications in Tap and Modern Theatre Dance with the ISTD.

In the US, it peaked at a disappointing #208 after being released on 2nd November 1999. After 5 singles - two of which were UK #1s, three tours, and 18 months of constant promotion, the album went triple platinum in the UK, peaking at #4 on its re-release in August 2000. "Reason" was her second album, which took 18 months to complete. Released on 10th March 2003, it reached #5 in the UK chart - selling 30,500 copies in its first week. Although it didn't perform as well as "Northern Star", "Reason" has a Gold certification in the UK, with 80,000 copies sold. January 2004 saw the album reduced to £2.99 in all major record shops, but even then, "Northern Star" at the same price outsold it greatly. After the failure of "Melt/Yeh Yeh Yeh", the album is now truly a closed chapter. Although sales stalled after "On The Horizon", it managed to sell 500,000 copies worldwide.