Mel B

• 1. Introduction

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  Mel B performed with the Spice Girls at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and the reunion set a record of its own. Twitter users sent more than 116,000 messages a minute during the show, making it the most tweeted moment of the entire Games. The set was a one-off performance of two hits, Wannabe and Spice Up Your Life.

  The woman in that spotlight had already lived through dramatic highs and lows. She had sold records by the millions as part of a group, then watched her own debut album sell only a few thousand copies in its first week. She had faced a television network in court and later spoke openly about trauma and survival.

  How did a dancer from Leeds end up on one of the biggest stages in the world? And what did she build once the group stopped recording and the cameras turned elsewhere?

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• 2. Leeds Beginnings

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  Harehills, in Leeds, is where Melanie Janine Brown was born, and the nearby Burley area is where she grew up. Her father, Martin Brown, came from Saint Kitts and Nevis. Her mother, Andrea Dixon, is English.

  The family tree reaches into surprising places. Through her mother, the actor and director Christian Cooke is her first cousin, because their mothers are sisters. On her father's side, Carlisle Powell, a former government minister in Nevis, is a cousin, and his son Kieran Powell plays cricket.

  Football fans may know another Leeds connection. Micah Richards, who became a professional footballer and played for England, said she babysat him when they were young. He told the story on the podcast The Rest Is Football, which he co-hosts with Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker.

  Kirkstall Road Primary School in Kirkstall was her first school. She then studied performing arts at Intake High School in Rodley, also in Leeds. Blackpool, in Lancashire, came next, where she worked as a dancer before any record deal appeared.

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• 3. Becoming Scary Spice

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  In 1994, an advertisement in The Stage magazine drew Mel B, Melanie C, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Adams to the same audition. Around 400 women answered it and attended auditions at Danceworks Studios in Mayfair, London.

  Halliwell, Melanie C, Adams, Mel B and Michelle Stephenson were first picked for a group called Touch. Stephenson left, and Emma Bunton took her place. The group grew unhappy with its first management, Heart Management, and broke away.

  In 1995, the women toured record labels in London and Los Angeles. They then teamed up with the manager Simon Fuller and signed with Virgin Records. The group name changed to Spice Girls, and Mel B received the nickname Scary Spice.

  Their debut album, Spice, topped the charts in more than 17 countries and went multi-platinum in 27. It sold 30 million copies, and the sudden frenzy was compared to Beatlemania. The first single, Wannabe, reached number one in 37 countries. Say You'll Be There, 2 Become 1, Who Do You Think You Are and Mama all hit number one in the United Kingdom.

  Spiceworld arrived in 1997 and sold 20 million copies. Its first two singles, Spice Up Your Life and Too Much, gave the group seven consecutive number ones, an all-time record for a musical group. The film Spiceworld: The Movie grossed $100 million worldwide. Then Stop peaked at number two, which ended the streak.

  Halliwell left in May 1998. Viva Forever followed in July as the first single without her, and it reached number one. Over its career the group sold more than 100 million records, which makes the Spice Girls the best-selling female group of all time.

  In late 1998, the remaining four released Goodbye. It topped the UK Singles Chart and became their third consecutive Christmas number one, equalling a record set by The Beatles.

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• 4. Going Solo

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  September 1998 brought Mel B's first solo single, I Want You Back, recorded for the soundtrack of the film Why Do Fools Fall in Love. It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart. It sold 218,000 copies and ranked as the 82nd bestselling British single of the year.

  In 1999 she began work on a debut album with producers Sisqo, Teddy Riley, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Jam and Lewis were also working on the Spice Girls' third album, Forever. Her then-husband Jimmy Gulzar suggested she cover Word Up, a 1986 hit by Cameo, for the soundtrack of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. It peaked at number 14 in the UK and became the lowest-charting Spice Girls-related single of the 1990s.

  Hot came out in October 2000, a month before Forever. Her lead single, Tell Me, had debuted at number four in September with about 40,000 copies sold in its first week. It eventually sold about 100,000. The album did far worse, with reviews that were mediocre and first-week sales of just 7,419 copies. It charted at number 28.

  Feels So Good followed in February 2001 and reached number five. Lullaby came out in June as a song dedicated to her daughter. Its video was shot in Morocco and featured Mel B with Phoenix Chi. Critics attacked her for putting her child in the video and on the artwork, nicknaming her Desperate Spice and suggesting she used the girl as a marketing tool. The single peaked at number 13, and Mel B left Virgin Records in July 2001.

  For her second album, she turned to an independent label called Amber Cafe and to acoustic music. L.A. State of Mind was released on the 27th of June 2005 with a bonus DVD documentary directed by Mark McConnell. AllMusic called it one of the worst pop albums of the decade. Its only single, Today, entered the UK chart at number 41 after selling around 1,000 copies in its first week.

  At one point she signed a global partnership with EMI Music Australia for a third album but later broke from the contract. In 2013 she released For Once in My Life, her first single in eight years, and it climbed to number two on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.

  Hot had one more chapter. On the 18th of April 2026 it was released on vinyl for the first time as part of Record Store Day. A week later it reached a new peak of number three on the UK R&B Albums Chart.

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• 5. Stage and Screen

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  Two MOBO Awards ceremonies, in 1998 and 1999, put Mel B on the presenter's podium, first alongside Bill Bellamy and then Wyclef Jean. Around the same time she hosted Pure Naughty, a weekly BBC2 magazine show about black music. She also took part in a BBC-funded short film, Fish.

  Her presenting list kept growing. She hosted a talent show for ITV1 called This Is My Moment and made a Channel 4 documentary, Voodoo Princess. Smaller jobs included Top of the Pops, Party in the Park for The Prince's Trust, and The All Star Animal Awards. She even appeared as herself in an advert for the Yorkshire tourist board, in a series featuring other celebrities from the county.

  In 2002 she published her autobiography, Catch a Fire. It reached number seven in the official books chart, and she toured the UK for a run of signings.

  Acting came in 2003 with Burn It, a British drama and her first movie role. She joined a long run of shows with the cast of The Vagina Monologues and appeared in The Seat Filler, which Will Smith co-produced and Destiny's Child star Kelly Rowland headlined. In April 2004 she played Mimi Marquez in the musical Rent in the Netherlands.

  In April 2009, she and the actress Kelly Monaco, a former Dancing with the Stars champion, became original stars of the Las Vegas revue Peepshow at the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino. That September she spent a week as a visiting panellist on the ITV1 lunchtime show Loose Women.

  The summer of 2010 had her hosting the Oxygen weight loss show Dance Your Ass Off. In September her own reality series, Mel B: It's an Scary World, aired on the Style Network. In November came the console game Get Fit with Mel B, released in North America and Europe.

  In 2017 she returned to Broadway as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago and acted in the movie Chocolate City: Vegas Strip. She also made a cameo in Killing Hasselhoff and in the music video for Spice Girl by Amine. By May 2021 she was working with Fabio D'Andrea on a short music film, Love Should Not Hurt, made in support of Women's Aid.

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• 6. The Judge's Chair

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  Dancing with the Stars gave Mel B her first big television break as a contestant in September 2007. Paired with Maksim Chmerkovskiy for the fifth season, she took second place on the 27th of November 2007. Hélio Castroneves and his partner Julianne Hough beat them.

  Three years later, she mentored acts on the second season of The X Factor in Australia during the quarter-final of the live shows. In the results show she sang Stop, originally by the Spice Girls, with the five remaining acts. In August 2011 she joined the third series as a judge, replacing Kyle Sandilands, beside Ronan Keating, Guy Sebastian and Natalie Bassingthwaighte. She was given the Girls category. In April 2012 she also co-hosted the twelfth season of Dancing with the Stars in Australia.

  On the fourth series, she mentored the Boys. Her contestant Jason Owen reached the final but finished as runner-up to Samantha Jade, who was mentored by Guy Sebastian. That June she guest judged the Manchester auditions of The X Factor UK.

  In March 2013 it was confirmed that she would judge Australia's Got Talent, replacing Dannii Minogue. The Australian network Seven, which aired The X Factor Australia, took her to court to stop her appearing on any rival network. The judge ruled that she was still under contract with Seven until January 2014, which blocked the move.

  There was a bigger prize in the United States. On the 20th of February 2013, NBC announced her as a judge for the eighth season of America's Got Talent, alongside Howie Mandel, Howard Stern and Heidi Klum. Simon Cowell joined the panel in 2016. She judged seasons 8-13 and the first season of America's Got Talent: The Champions. Her departure was announced in February 2019.

  In early 2014 she coached on The Voice Kids in Australia, beside Joel Madden and Delta Goodrem. Later that year she became a permanent judge on the eleventh series of The X Factor UK, replacing Nicole Scherzinger. She missed the Saturday final in December 2014 because of illness. Rita Ora replaced her for the twelfth series. She also co-hosted the breakfast show on the Sydney radio station 2Day FM for a time in 2014.

  From January 2016, she presented Lip Sync Battle UK with the rapper Professor Green until 2018. In 2016 she guest judged the London auditions of the thirteenth series of The X Factor UK in Scherzinger's place and returned to The X Factor Australia to replace Minogue.

  In 2021 she appeared on the UK Masked Singer as the Seahorse and finished in 11th place. The Spanish version had her as Medusa, and she finished ninth. She later joined the panel of the fourth season of the Australian Masked Singer, again taking Minogue's seat, and stayed for the fifth in the second half of 2023. That June she was announced as a judge on the second season of Queen of the Universe.

  In 2024 she judged the spinoff America's Got Talent: Fantasy League. The next year she competed in the Netflix reality series Celebrity Bear Hunt. On the 3rd of February 2025 NBC announced that she would return to judge the 20th season of the main America's Got Talent, taking Heidi Klum's place.

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• 7. Reunion Years

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  On the 2nd of December 2007, the Spice Girls began a reunion tour, after releasing the compilation Greatest Hits in early November. The group was said to have earned £10 million each, roughly $20 million. They also appeared in Tesco advertisements and were paid £1 million each.

  Back in 2012, the group was part of the premiere of the musical Viva Forever! They appeared in a documentary, Spice Girls' Story: Viva Forever!, which aired on ITV1 on the 24th of December 2012.

  In 2016, Mel B announced that every Spice Girl except Victoria Beckham and Melanie C was working on new material and on a 20th anniversary tour for 2017. The plans were dropped when Halliwell said she was expecting her second child.

  On the 5th of November 2018, Mel B used her Instagram profile to announce another reunion. She, Melanie C, Bunton and Halliwell would play a 13-date stadium tour of the UK and Ireland, called the Spice World tour of 2019. It was their first tour in a decade. Beckham was not part of the lineup.

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• 8. Love, Loss, Recovery

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  From 1996 to 1997, Mel B dated the Icelandic businessman Fjolnir Thorgeirsson. In March 1998 she began a relationship with the Dutch dancer Jimmy Gulzar while on the Spiceworld Tour. They got engaged on the 13th of May 1998, and she became pregnant that June. They married in Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on the 13th of September 1998, and she used the stage name Melanie G while the marriage lasted.

  Their daughter, Phoenix Chi Gulzar, was born on the 19th of February 1999. Mel B filed for divorce in 2000, and it was finalised later that year. She won custody and paid Gulzar a settlement of £1.25m. Gulzar was prosecuted for threatening her and attacking her sister Danielle. In April 2001 a court found him guilty of the assault but later cleared him.

  Actor Max Beesley was her partner from 2000 to 2002. From 2002 to 2006 she lived in Los Angeles with the film producer Christine Crokos. Speaking to Gay Star News, she said: "It wasn't experimentation. I fell in love with a woman for five years. An experiment doesn't last five years."

  Tabloids followed her relationship with the actor Eddie Murphy. Their daughter, Angel Iris Murphy Brown, was born on the 3rd of April 2007. Murphy told a journalist that parentage could not be proven until a paternity test was done. A court-ordered DNA test on the 22nd of June 2007 confirmed him as the father, and the two reached a paternity settlement of $7 million.

  In February 2007 she began dating the film producer Stephen Belafonte, and they secretly married in Las Vegas on the 6th of June 2007. They renewed their vows on the 8th of November 2008 in Hurghada, Egypt. Their daughter, Madison Brown Belafonte, was born on the 1st of September 2011.

  On the 11th of December 2014, Mel B attempted suicide by taking nearly 200 Aspirin pills. She and Belafonte separated in December 2016, and in March 2017 she filed for divorce, accusing him of emotional and physical abuse. In court, his representative said their "extravagant and affluent" lifestyle had "wiped out all her Spice Girls money - approximately $50 million (£38.3 million), if not more". The divorce was finalised on the 15th of December 2017.

  She named that divorce and her father's death as her reasons for seeking treatment for PTSD. In November 2018 she became a patron of the domestic violence survivors' charity Women's Aid. A month later she collapsed, broke several ribs and badly cut her hand, which required emergency surgery. In 2019 she revealed diagnoses of anxiety, dyspraxia, dyslexia and ADHD.

  The 2022 New Year Honours made her a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to charitable causes and vulnerable women. The same year she became a tourism ambassador from the United Kingdom to Nevis. In July 2024, Leeds Beckett University gave her an Honorary Doctorate for her career and her work for Women's Aid.

  In October 2022 she announced her engagement to Rory McPhee, and in January 2024 she said Victoria Beckham would design her wedding dress. On the 5th of July 2025 the couple married at St Paul's Cathedral in London. For this third wedding she wore an ivory custom gown by Josephine Scott.

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