Melanie C

Melanie Chisholm-better known as Melanie C, and formerly as Sporty Spice-came to fame as one of the '90s UK pop sensation the Spice Girls. Raised in Merseyside and Cheshire, she grew up studying dance and musical theater. An ad in The Stage magazine for a "girl group" brought her to a London audition; she was chosen for the new group along with Mel B., Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham (Emma Bunton was added later). Though not initially successful, the Spice Girls spent a year polishing their act and courting labels, ultimately getting signed to Virgin Records which released their first single "Wannabe" in 1996.

The group's message of "girl power" was upbeat and inclusive, with each member evincing a distinctive personality. Sporty was the scrappy athletic one with track suit and tattoos. The quintet largely defined pop culture in the U.K. during the second half of the '90s and their record sales hit Beatles-level heights, with all but one of their ten singles went to Number One (the exception, "Stop," stalled at Number Two). America also surrendered to their charms with "Wannabe" and the followups "Say You'll be There" and "2 Become 1" going Top 10. Chisholm had her first non-group hit during the Spice Girls' reign, singing with Bryan Adams on the hit "When You're Gone".

Making her solo debut with 1999's Northern Star, she broke away from the Sporty image and expanded on the group's bubbly dance-pop, adding more electronica and some light metal (on a track called "Ga Ga," which may have inspired another pop star a few years later). Though her album sales trailed off after Northern Star she continued to branch out musically, getting deeper into rock and becoming an indie artist in 2004, when she formed her own Red Girl label to release her third solo album Beautiful Intentions. After a Spice Girls reunion tour in 2007-for which all five members received ten million pounds-she returned to the theater and made her debut in London's West End, starring in the musical Blood Brothers from 2009-10.

Two years later she made an album of Broadway and movie songs, Stages. She ventured into international TV as well, becoming a judge on international talent competitions. During 2013 she returned to the UK Top 20 twice-first with "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother," an all-star charity single by the Justice Collective, which included her and ex-boyfriend Robbie Williams; then with "Loving You," a duet with Matt Cardle. The Spice Girls reunited a few times in the 2010s, first in 2012 to play the Summer Olympics and to promote the Spice-themed musical Viva Forever!. After teasing and cancelling a full reunion in 2016, they announced in late 2018 that the Girls-now a foursome with Beckham sitting out-would launch a new Spice World tour in 2019.