Melanie C finally makes peace with forever being a Spice Girl
Melanie C has revealed she has finally accepted that Sporty Spice will always be part of her identity, even while pursuing her solo career.
Melanie C has finally made peace with the fact she can never escape her Spice Girls past.
The 52-year-old singer shot to worldwide fame as Sporty Spice alongside Geri Horner, Mel B, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham, but admitted it took her years to fully embrace the character who became such a huge part of her life.
Melanie revealed that the penny finally dropped during the Spice Girls' 2019 reunion tour, when the group played a series of huge stadium shows.
She told Rolling Stone magazine: “When we did the stadium shows, it just finally hit home. I’m thinking, ‘Oh, my God, how does a 40-something jump around as Sporty Spice to Wannabe?’ But as soon as we started rehearsing, it was just there: Sporty Spice isn’t somebody I become. It’s within me.”
The singer admitted she had previously struggled with the idea of being permanently associated with her Spice Girls persona.
She said: “I really made peace with being a Spice Girl every day. Even when I’m onstage as a solo artist, I have to embrace the Spice Girl in me because she never goes away. She’s always there, and I felt so much more comfortable.”
Mel rose to fame as Sporty Spice
Melanie believes her experience taught her an important lesson about identity and self-acceptance.
She added: “I think as a young person, a lot of us make the mistake of looking outside to discover who we are when we’re always there.”
Despite her acceptance of Sporty Spice, Melanie remained tight-lipped when asked about speculation surrounding another Spice Girls reunion.
However, she did reveal which songs remain her favourites to perform with the group, largely because of the explosive reaction they receive from fans.
She said: “It’s funny because what I used to call the silly songs - a song like Wannabe or Spice Up Your Life - they’re the ones that really take the roof off. They’re the ones that people just go nuts for.”
Spice Girls' 2019 reunion changed her stance
She added: “So, I think for the experience of that and seeing other people’s joy, it would have to be Wannabe or Spice Up Your Life.”
Away from the Spice Girls, Melanie has continued to explore her own story through her solo music.
The Northern Star hitmaker released her ninth album, Sweat, earlier this year, and admitted the record became an emotional journey through some major changes in her personal life.
Some of the songs were inspired by the end of her long-term relationship with former manager Joe Marshall, while others emerged after Melanie met and married Chris Dingwall.
She said: “I had all of these things going on, all of these phone conversations and arguments and all of this anger to get out, but then I also met somebody and I fell in love with the man that went on to become my husband.”
Melanie believes that emotional contrast gave Sweat a particularly personal quality.
She added: “I feel like [the album] crossed such a range of human emotions. It gave me a great journey to go on through the record."
