Trivia / Melanie C

• Acclaimed Flop: Her fifth album The Sea was critically acclaimed but didn't chart well, possibly due to Mel also being busy as a mentor assistant on The X Factor Australia around the same time and not being able to promote it as much. She herself expressed disappointment
• Approval of God: French & Saunders parodied her "Goin' Down" video, with Jennifer Saunders playing Mel and Dawn French playing her mother reprimanding her for the song's content. She found it hilarious and tweeted about her love of it years later.
• Author Phobia: "Carolyna" from the This Time album drew from her own fears about homelessness; inspired by a documentary she saw in America about homeless kids.
• Breakthrough Hit: While her initial singles did good numbers, Virgin were about to end promotion of the Northern Star album after only two singles, and just released "Never Be the Same Again" anyway. That went to number one in the UK and multiple other countries, establishing her as a successful solo star.
• California Doubling:
  • The video for "Never Be the Same Again" is set in Iceland, with shots of the famous Blue Lagoon. Most of it however was filmed in Malibu, California.
  • The "Northern Star" video had location shots filmed in South Africa, and Mel was then filmed in front of a green screen in London.
• Creative Differences: She parted ways with Virgin in 2003 after constant disagreements over the direction her career was going in. This resulted in her starting her own label, Red Girl Records
• Creator Breakdown: Her second album Reason had to be postponed for a whole year due to her struggles with clinical depression.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: She's said that she's proudest of her Northern Star album.
• Dye Hard: In the 2000 period she had blonde hair, and kept it when the Spice Girls reformed for the Forever album.
• No Export for You:
  • In some European countries, "Melt" wasn't released as a Double A-side with "Yeh Yeh Yeh", and just the former was on the CD.
  • Inverted with "First Day of My Life", which was released in Europe and Australia, and not the UK. It's her most successful one in continental Europe, staying in the charts for two years!
  • "I Want Candy" from her fourth album was released only in the UK and Italy.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: As she had cut her hair short, she wore extensions for the "I Turn To You" video to fit the 'holiday in Ibiza' theme. She had dyed it blonde in the first place because she was fed up at people not being able to tell her and Victoria apart in the Spice Girls.
• What Could Have Been:
  • "Yeh Yeh Yeh" was meant to be the third single from Reason, but she injured her knee in a celebrity judo match, and couldn't promote such an upbeat song with an injury. "Melt" was easier to promote, so she released it as a Double A-side.
  • In 2009, she was announced as starring in a sequel to The Craft, but the project was scrapped. A sequel/remake was released in 2020 without her involvement.