Melanie Jayne Chisholm, also known as Melanie C or Mel C, is an English singer-songwriter and television personality best known as one of the five members of the English girl group Spice Girls, who was nicknamed "Sporty Spice".

As a solo artist she has released four albums and was nominated for a BRIT and ECHO Awards. Chisholm has sold more than 6 million albums and 15 million records world wide, more than all the other solo spice efforts combined.

Immediately before joining the Spice Girls, Chisholm studied for a Diploma course in dance, singing, drama and musical theatre at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts in Sidcup, Kent.

While at the college, she replied to an advert placed 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 having nearly completed her three-year course and gained teaching qualifications in Tap and Modern Theatre Dance with the ISTD.

In 1996 Chisholm, along with Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, and Victoria Beckham (at that time Victoria Adams), shot to fame as a member of the Spice Girls with the release of "Wannabe". The debut album, Spice, shot to number one all over the globe, including the U.S.. Because 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 (each member of the group was given a humorous nickname in a small piece titled "Spice Rack").

The Spice Girls dominated the late 1990s, selling over thirty-five million albums in just two years. They went on to become one of the best-selling girl groups of all time, selling more than fifty-five million records worldwide. They had nine UK number-one singles and two number-one albums. After a third album release, Forever (UK #2), the members went their separate ways, and Chisholm developed a solo career.

Chisholm took her first steps in establishing a solo career 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 before her own album's release.

Singles "Goin' Down" and "Northern Star" were met with promising success, but the third single "Never Be the Same Again", featuring TLC member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, became her first UK number-one single as a solo artist, also a Top Five hit in Germany and #2 in Australia. 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 number-one single.

"I Turn to You" reached #2 in Germany, #11 in Australia and eventually climbed to the top of the Billboard dance chart in the United States. Northern Star was re-released with the single versions of "Never Be the Same Again" and "I Turn to You", and eventually peaked at number four on the United Kingdom album chart and number six in Germany.

"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; it peaked at number eighteen in the UK. Northern Star is certified three times platinum in the United Kingdom for shipping 900,000 copies, platinum in Germany for selling over 500,000 copies, gold in Brazil for selling 100,000 copies, and gold in Australia for selling over 35,000 copies.

Chisholm then went on her Northern Star World Tour, performing in countries such as Canada, Germany, Spain, Turkey, USA, Russia, Estonia, Bahrain, Israel, Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Chisholm released her second studio album, Reason, in March 2003. The album included production from a series of collaborators including Gregg Alexander (New Radicals, Ronan Keating), Marius De Vries (Madonna), Dr Robert of The Blow Monkeys, David Arnold (Björk) and Matt Rowe, co-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 chart a week later at number five, but quicly fell of the chart. Album also entering number 12 in Germany and #21 in Switzerland.

Other singles from the album were "On the Horizon" (UK number fourteen, written with Gregg Alexander), "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 UK chart position of number twenty-seven. After a series of disappointments and the relative failure of "Melt"/"Yeh Yeh Yeh", Chisholm parted ways with her label, Virgin Records. Reason has been certified gold in the United Kingdom.