MELANIE C

Chisholm was born on 12 January 1974 in Whiston, Merseyside, a suburb of Liverpool. Raised in Widnes, she attended Fairfield High School, a specialist college in the performing arts, where she studied singing and dancing. After leaving school at age 15, Chisholm studied for a diploma course in dance, singing, drama and musical theatre at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts in Sidcup, Kent. During college, she replied to an advert in The Stage by Chris and Bob Herbert, who were looking to form a new girl group, later to become the Spice Girls. She left college just short of completing her three-year course and gained teaching qualifications in Tap and Modern Theatre Dance with the ISTD. In 1994, she joined the Spice Girls.