NAME: Melanie Jayne Chisholm
Born Melanie Jayne Chisholm on January 12, 1974, Sporty Spice was a ballet fanatic as a young girl. However, Mel also liked soccer and karate.
At 16 Mel had her sights set on a dancing career and was accepted at The Doreen Bird Dance School in Sidcup, Kent. Her instructors remember her as "a delightful ballet dancer". She had strong technical skills and she was a hard working student. They said her voice was not exceptional, but gutsy. Over all she made excellent grades and was ready to start her dancing career when she finished school.
Mel had always wanted to play the role of Rumpleteazer in the musical "Cats". She made the cut down to the last few auditions, but the role wasn't to be hers. It was about this time when Mel noticed an ad in a trade magazine. The ad called for 18 to 23 year olds for an all-girl band. Mel went to the audition and impressed the judges immediately.
Being a Spice Girl has changed the usually quiet, down-to-earth Mel a little. She enjoys a little rowdiness and has had her nose pierced and sports a Celtic braid tattoo on her upper right arm. Some wonder if the old Mel will return or maybe she's traded her tutu for her tattoo.
Mel describes being in the Spice Girls as being "absolutely f...ing mental". She is quoted in Melody Magazine as saying:
Oh, I don't know. To look at most Britpop bands' albums this year, you'd think that's precisely where they wanted to go...
Mel C is unique among the Spice Girls in not having had an ex-boyfriend dish the dirt on her ("It must be cos I'm so nice, "she chortles. "Or maybe they're just that bloody thick. Or maybe I just haven't got any ex-boyfriends...") but the tabloids have nevertheless done the dirty on her twice.
Once, they found out she had a 15-year-old half-sister that her dad had never told her about. The other time, well, heeeeere's Sporty:
"Oh, I had the big drugs scandal. My Cocaine Shame. An old friend of mine had pictures of me at a party and people were doing cocaine in the pic behind me. The frustrating thing was I wasn't doing cocaine at that party. Typical. If I was, I wouldn't have minded, at least I would have been guilty as charged. But who gives a f... really?"
When acid house hit Britian, Mel C was a full-on raver. If she didn't take drugs back then she was about the only clubber who didn't. Mel says "If it wasn't for the British press we probably would all be complete druggy pissheads. But we can't, we have to keep our noses clean cos they're watching us night and day. Maybe I should thank them for keeping me on the rails!"
On the topic of money Mel says that they are "Unfortunatly, not anywhere near as rich as the papers say. I'm not a millionaire yet. I'm not! Well, maybe on paper, but not in the bank. But you won't catch me doing a Bros. I'm just trying to make sure me and my family are all right for life, then I don't give a f...." Spoken like a true socialist. Which, you may be somewhat surprised to learn, Mel C is. To Mel, Mrs Thatcher wasn't the originial Spice Girl; she was the evil bitch who ripped the heart out of her native Liverpool.
What is girl power Mel?
Born:12th January 1974
Nick Name:Sporty Spice
Born in:Liverpool
Eye color:Hazel
Star sign:Capricorn
Music: Madonna and Neneh Cherry
Favourite Saying: You'll Never Walk Alone!!
Loves: Sports, especially football, and Chinese food
"Well yeah, but I never really wanted anything else in my life. And now I've got it I'm willing to do anything to keep it. No one's going to f... it up for me. I've never once wished I wasn't a Spice Girl."
Never?
"All right, sometimes when you're jet lagged to f... and doing another photo session and the photographer is being all arty and slow, you might think 'Do I really want to be here?' But then you wake up the next day and think 'Yes, I do.'
"You know, being famous is f...ing fun! You've got money, you're doing all these fantastic things, going to fantastic places... you're telling me that's not fun? And you get all these indie bands f...ing moaning... Ah come on, get a life! You'd really be moaning if you were back on the dole!"
"Yeah, all these people who are cool and don't want to be mainstream... Come on, f... off, if you sell a million albums who gives a f...? I mean, Blur were cool, but now that they're totally commercial they aren't down with that so that pisses them off? F... off! What's the point of them trying to be 'cool' again. They are cool, they don't need to try. Credibility doesn't bother me at all. Not. At. All. I mean, I'd love to be cool. When I was younger that's all I wanted but now I just look at my bank balance and think 'Bothered.'"
"It's really difficult to explain," she says. "It's just about getting girls to stand up for themselves. It's to do with media perception of what a woman should be like. There are so many kids with eating disorders and it's down to models in magazines. It's like, come on, that's not a normal person."