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Melanie C.
Melanie started her music career as one fifth of the world's biggest girl group, the Spice Girls. During their reign of the 1990s, the girls scored nine number 1 singles in the UK, sold over 40 million albums worldwide and made their distinctive mark on pop culture.
Melanie released her first solo material in 1999 after months of recording in Los Angeles. The fruit of this liberating labour being the critically and commercially successful album 'Northern Star'. Promoting in the way Melanie does best, touring and performing live, the record produced five hit singles, including two successive number 1's in 'Never Be The Same Again' and dance track 'I Turn To You'.
'Reason' was the follow up album in 2003 with 'Here It Comes Again' chosen as the lead single. Writing once again with some 'Northern Star' collaborators and introducing some new writers and producers to the record, it became a top five album when it was released in the spring. Continuing to tour the country, Melanie's captivating on stage performances were attracting more fans as she made her name as a confident live artist. Another single and double a-side were released from 'Reason' but by the end of the year Melanie had parted ways with record company Virgin.
In this new lease of freedom Melanie felt the time had come to put her money and learnings from the last eight years in the industry towards her own project by setting up her own label, Red Girl Records, in early 2004.
The first such project was third album 'Beautiful Intentions'. Songs were previewed before fans at a series a Barfly gigs in the summer of 2004 as Melanie became eager to encapsulate the 'live' feel of her new tracks and one such previewed track, 'Next Best Superstar', was decided as the first single. It scored a top ten hit for Melanie at the start of 2005 and second single 'Better Alone' was released as a download and through the official online shop.
In late 2005, Melanie was asked to record the theme tune to German soap opera 'Julia'. The track, written by Guy Chambers and Enrique Iglesias entitled 'First Day Of My Life', was then released in Germany where it topped the charts and was certified platinum after selling a massive 400,000 copies. But its success didn't stop there, going on to be number 1 in Spain, Portugal and Austria, it became one of the biggest hits of the year. The huge success of the single reflected on album sales as 'Beautiful Intentions' became certified gold in Germany and platinum in Portugal, where it stayed at number 1 for nine weeks.
This year looks set to be an equally busy time as Melanie has already released two singles in 2007. 'I Want Candy' is the fun and infectious track taken from the British comedy film of the same name and 'The Moment You Believe' is an emotive and uplifting ballad that showcases Melanie's development both vocally and as a songwriter. Both tracks are taken from album number 4, 'This Time' which gets its release on April 2nd. Largely co-written with Adam Argyle (who penned 'Next Best Superstar'), 'This Time' also features writing and production credits from Guy Chambers, Cathy Dennis, Steve Mac, Stephen Hague, Jill Jackson and two of her own band members Paul Gendler and Greg Hatwell. Melanie played many festivals across Europe during the summer, including the sold out Isle of Wight Festival.
And the busy schedule doesn't stop there, the title track from 'This Time' is released on October 22nd before Melanie joins up with the other Spice Girls on their mammoth world tour.
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