Melanie C looks back on her incredible life and career as she celebrates the release of her first-ever memoir ‘Who I Am: My Story’!
The Spice Girls superstar topped the charts in 1996 with the group’s cheeky breakout hit Wannabe and went on to achieve global domination as one-fifth of the band – before carving her own career as an international solo artist.
Despite the numerous highs of her decades-spanning legacy, she’s still not at ease with life in the limelight. “I still struggle with being a celebrity,” Melanie tells Retro Pop’s October 2022 issue. “It’s something I often feel very uncomfortable with.
“But I’ve suffered with things that many people go through – eating problems, anxiety – and I think it’s really important to go, ‘You know what, I’m just like you’. We achieved incredible things with the Spice Girls but at the end of the day I’m just human and fallible. Reading about other people having those issues made me feel less alone and it’s important for me to share that same connection.”
That’s why putting pen to paper and telling the story of her life has been rewarding in so many ways. “It felt like such a momentous occasion and there was so much reflection and a realisation of all the incredible things we’d achieved, how we’d affected so many people in such a positive way,” she beams. “I had this moment of going, ‘Fucking hell, I’ve done so much,’ and it put everything into perspective.
“It allowed me to go ‘I can be a Spice Girl, a solo artist, a mum and all the other guises I have in life’. I’m all of those things all of the time. It’s not like I can only do one thing at a time. Also, there’s so much information out there, isn’t there? There’s so much out there about everybody in the public eye, myself included, so I thought ‘Maybe it’s time for me to put it out there in my own words’.”
The secret to the Spice Girls’ success? “If people haven’t worked it out by now it’s a case of ‘Never tell a Spice Girl what they can’t do – because that’s what they’ll go on to do’,” she laughs. “Whether it’s pinching Prince Charles’ bum or selling loads of records, the ammunition we needed was being told we can’t do it.”
She adds: “I’m very proud to be Sporty Spice. I used to see her as a character and at one point she was somebody I wanted to distance myself from because I was so determined to be taken more seriously than maybe the Spice Girls were being taken at that time. Now I fully embrace her.”
Following the Viva Forever group’s triumphant 2019 ‘Spice World’ trek, talk of the group taking the production internationally was thwarted when the pandemic struck, and while she insists the group is “an ongoing, incredible part of our lives,” it’s new solo music she has her eye on.
“It’s had to take a bit of a backseat because writing and promoting the book has been a lot more work than I anticipated,” Melanie reveals. “But I’ve done some sessions, there are some new songs and I’ve begun the process for the next album. Back in the day there was this cycle of writing, recording, promoting, touring. Technology has changed so much that now it feels like you can do everything at the same time. And music is my passion. Doing a book has been fun but if it keeps me away from music for too long I’m gonna get a bit bitter about it.”
‘Who I Am: My Story’ is out September 15 on Welbeck Publishing. Get yours from Amazon, Waterstones and WH Smith, and all good retailers.
Read the full interview in the October 2022 edition of Retro Pop, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
