Melanie Chisholm, known to millions as Sporty Spice, is channelling her pre-fame love for dance music into her ninth solo album, "Sweat." The new record finds the artist embracing the joy and release of the club, a space she notes has long been important to her and her LGBTQ+ audience.
The album's title track and lead single immediately sets the tone. Built on a sample of Diana Ross’s 1982 track “Work That Body,” the song is a sleek house-pop anthem designed for both the dance floor and a high-energy workout. It's a sound that comes naturally to Chisholm, who has spent the better part of the last decade performing as a DJ.
"Deejaying is so much fun, and it’s brought so much joy into my life that it made it really important that this album, as an artist, was a lot closer to what I love to play as a DJ,” she explained in an interview with The Associated Press.
A Return to Rave Roots
While some may see the album's sound as a new direction, Chisholm describes it as a return to her roots. “Before I was part of the Spice Girls, I discovered rave culture,” she said. “I was 19. I went into this nightclub... I heard this music. I saw people dancing. It was like this utopia I’d never experienced.”
That global superstardom with the Spice Girls followed soon after meant that this early musical influence was largely set aside. With "Sweat," she feels she is connecting with a part of her life that predates her public persona. “I feel like I brought some of my life pre-Spice Girls into this album,” she noted. “Which is something I haven’t really done before.”
An Unwavering Ally
The connection between dance music, club culture, and the queer community is a foundational part of modern music history. For Melanie C, honouring that connection is a key part of her work. She has long been recognised as a vocal ally, a role she continues to embrace.
“It’s a community that’s been important to myself and the Spice Girls for such a long time,” she stated. “It’s always going to be a big part of the music that I make.”
The album's themes of catharsis and release are likely to resonate. Created over a two-and-a-half-year period that saw significant personal changes for the artist, including the end of a long-term relationship, the music explores finding freedom through movement. On the track “Pressure,” she sings of the need to “release” from the weight of modern life. “We’re under such incredible pressure and I think we put ourselves under it, too," she said. "For me, as a human, that is the release.”
Now three decades on from the Spice Girls' debut, Chisholm is comfortable with her dual identity. “I’m not Sporty Spice or Melanie C; I’m both of those things. And not just some of the time, but all of the time,” she reflected. Her goal with this new musical era is to empower and motivate, but also to offer a space for escape and, true to her name, recovery. “Recovery is a really important part of working out,” she added.
