Melanie C

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melanie Chisholm - known as Melanie C - is a singer and songwriter who found global fame as one fifth of the Spice Girls, the most commercially successful female group ever. Melanie was one of 400 other hopefuls who answered an advertisement to form a new girl band in 1994 - little knowing how her life would be turned upside down by fame and worldwide success. She was given the nickname Sporty Spice and presented what she calls a "gobby' persona to the outside world, but inside she was a shy girl who preferred to stay in the background. She grew up in Merseyside and as a child she loved performing. At 16 she attended the Doreen Bird College of Arts, aiming for a career in musical theatre. By her early 20s, she was an international star: Spice world was a high-octane life of constant recording and touring and the accompanying press scrutiny contributed to a stressful environment. As the pressure intensified Melanie suffered from eating disorders and in 2000 she was diagnosed with depression. Her recovery was long and painful but she says finally getting a diagnosis enabled her to begin the process of getting better. When the Spice Girls went their separate ways for a while Melanie began a career as a successful solo artist. In 2009 she played Mrs Johnstone in the West End production of Willy Russell's musical Blood Brothers, earning five star reviews and standing ovations. Recently she has been back on stage with the Spice Girls on their stadium tour. DISC ONE: I Wish by Stevie Wonder DISC TWO: The Chain by Fleetwood Mac DISC THREE: Prince Charming by Adam and the Ants DISC FOUR: Into the Groove by Madonna DISC FIVE: Girls and Boys by Blur DISC SIX: Everything I Wanted by Billie Eilish DISC SEVEN: Heaven on Their Minds by Tim Minchin DISC EIGHT: You'll Never Walk Alone by Gerry & The Pacemakers BOOK CHOICE: Dancing with Demons: The Authorised Biography of Dusty Springfield by Penny Valentine and Vicki Wickham LUXURY ITEM: A Martin acoustic guitar CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Wish by Stevie Wonder Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.8	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.4	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take
0:13.2	with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.3	For right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:20.5	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.0	Music Radio Music
0:44.4	My cast away this week is the singer and songwriter Melanie Chisholm, better known as Melanie C.
0:50.0	She's won fifth of the 100 million selling pop phenomenon that is the spice girls.
0:55.1	In the 90s they struck gold with girl power, scoring nine number one singles and
0:59.4	becoming the most commercially successful female group of all time.
1:03.6	Melanie was sporty spice but plenty of other adjectives work equally well to describe her,
1:08.4	talented and determined for example.
1:10.4	After the group imploded she overcame depression to carve out a successful solo career
1:15.1	and earned five star reviews from the toughest theatre critics in the business
1:19.0	for her role in the musical Blood Brothers.
1:21.4	Recently she's been back on stage with the spice girls on their spice world stadium tour,
1:26.3	receiving a rapturous response from fans.
1:29.0	She says, being part of something as huge as the spice girls, first of all,
1:32.9	you have to get your head around it, then it stops and then you've got to get your head around that.
1:37.8	Melanie Chisholm welcome to desert island discs.
1:40.2	Thank you very much. Now I've promised myself that I'm not going to cry but I feel emotional
	...

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