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Melanie Brown

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Melanie Brown, known as Mel B, is an English singer from Leeds, born in 1975. She became famous as Scary Spice of the Spice Girls, the best-selling girl group ever, with more than a hundred million records sold. She was one of the five singers who ended up in the group after auditions, and each of them was given a nickname and a type of her own.

Music and breakthrough

In 1998, while the group still existed, she began a solo career. Her first single, I Want You Back, reached number 1 in England. The album Hot (2000) got no further than number 28, although the singles Tell Me and Feels So Good reached the top 5. The second album, L.A. State of Mind (2005), had little success: the single Today stalled at number 41.

Influence

After that Brown shifted her work to television. She came second in the American Dancing with the Stars (2007), sat on the judging panel of The X Factor in England and Australia and of America's Got Talent, and played Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical Chicago in 2016 and 2017. She wrote two memoirs, Catch a Fire (2002) and Brutally Honest (2018). In 2022 she was appointed MBE for her charity work. Her career shows how a member of a pop group builds an audience of her own after the group's success, with music as one element alongside television and books.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to the opening of Wannabe: Mel B and Geri Halliwell talk and shout rather than sing. Notice how the voices of the five then keep taking over from one another, so that you hear each Spice Girl separately.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Categories: Artists