Melanie Janine Brown was born on 29th May 1975 to parents Andrea and Martin. She grew up in Leeds along with
younger sister Danielle, and attended Intake High School. She was always interested in the entertainment industry, and worked
in Blackpool for a time as a dancer as well as being crowned 'Miss Leeds Weekly News' at the age of 17.
She had many jobs (office, an aerobics teacher among them) and attended many auditions as a teenager and
eventually came across the one in 'The Stage' newspaper after her mum circled it (along with an audition for a cruise ship!).
She got the bus down to London and auditionned and got into the band! They spent time bulding their library of songs in the
beginning before going on to have a successful 5 year career. She married dancer Jimmy Gulzar in September 1998 and they has a daughter in February 1999, Phoenix Chi. However,
the couple soon divorced due to an unhappy marriage.
Melanie has had solo releases too - a duet with Missy Elliot 'I Want You Back' was her first solo while the band
were at the top of their game and it did well, giving Melanie a solo Number 1. She then released a cover of Cameo's 'Word
Up' which didn't do so well and spent time writing for her debut album while continuing with Spice Girl commitments and presenting
various shows.
In September 2000, 'Tell Me' was released and got to Number 4 in the UK and soon afterwards album 'Hot' was released
which had songs 'Lullaby' and 'Feels So Good'.
Melanie has done lots of presenting work, written a bestselling autobiography, and been in various TV shows
and films. In 2004 she took a role in musical 'Rent' and did well, and then released 'LA State Of Mind' her second album.
She released one single from it, 'Today'.
In 2007 she had a second child, Angel Iris (Eddie Murphy's daughter) and married long-term friend and partner
Stephen Belafonte in June 2007. They live in LA. Mel also competed in 'Dancing With The Stars' and did amazingly
well, coming in 2nd place with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy. She gained many perfect scores, and looked set to win but was
pipped to the post at the finals.
In 2007, she began rehearsals for the reunion tour, running from December 2007 to February 2008.
