⚡MINI: The Spice Girls' Melanie C 🎙️ Joins Hayley & Max! (ADELAIDE EXCLUSIVE)

Melanie C AKA Sporty Spice dishes on The Voice, her time with the Spice Girls, and what the iconic girl group was really like behind-the-scenes.

Melanie C joins us for a juicy interview covering her experience on The Voice Australia mentoring contestant Lily, the competitive dynamic between the judges, and advice she wishes she had received when she first shot to fame with the Spice Girls in the 90s. Mel gets candid about the relationships between the bandmembers, whether they still keep in touch today, and if they felt any rivalry with their pop contemporaries like the Sugababes. She also reminisces about the Spice Girls' groundbreaking impact on the music industry as the best-selling girl group of all time, paving the way for future girl bands.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
I heard podcasts here more mixed one or two point
three podcasts, playlists and listen live on the free iHeart app.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Mix one or two point three. Haleya Max in the morning.
You know her as a charge on the voice, but
you more than that know her as sporty spice, a
Spice girl, the one with the best voice.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Melse so much. Oh my god, I just got to say, like,
seventeen year old Hailey right now is absolutely fizzing about.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Forty three year old Hailey is fizzing out.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Three year old Hailey is fizzing out. I just you
were always my favorite and I just think you're amazing.
I know you're probably seeing with Spice Girls questions, but
we will get to some Spice Girls questions because we
love the Spice Girls, but we'll start with a voice
because we're so excited that you are looking after. Lily
is one of the girls you're looking after, and she's
an Adelaide girl. We met her yesterday. She loves you.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
Oh she's great.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Are you giving advice the advice I guess you were
given when you first started out, or advice that you
wish you were given?

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Oh my goodness, I wish I was given. I wish
I had somebody. I mean, this sounds this sounds very egotistical,
but I wish I'd had somebody who'd had the experience
that I'd had. But I've had, you know, being a
Spice Girl, it's insane. We have literally done most of

(01:26):
the things that are possible to do. It's you know,
to work at that level as an artist is insane,
and I'm very very grateful, and I think it's also
spent a lot of time not appreciating the magnitude of it,
you know, and then working on a show like The Voice,
you know, you're just literally said, oh, you know, like

(01:47):
if you're playing in the stadium, then you go, I
got a minute. You've played a stadium. And so there's
just all of these things. I think, because sometimes you're
so busy and everything happens so quickly, you don't give
the things a credence they deserve. So it's beautiful to
be able to impart those experiences and that wisdom to

(02:08):
other arts that they can benefit from it.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
How competitive do you get, Melanie, Like we see some
competition and I know you like debate Ronan Kating, but internally,
is it actually a really big deal for you to
beat these other judges.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
Do you know what? Yeah, the yes, it's real. Yeah,
the competitive streak is real. And they don't call me
sports for nothing, you know. I think as we get older,
we're more allowing to let things go. I want my
artists to have the best time, the best experience, you know,

(02:41):
to come out of it feeling like they've learned the most.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
If you were to go back in time, do you
think that, because it always seems that we always hear
about you girls, but baby is really in the news.
Are you still friends with Baby Spice? I still go
her Baby SPEs.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
Do you know what we all talk? We all have,
you know obviously since the beginning. We all have quite
different relationships with each other. Yeah, but it depends what's
going on, you know, in people's lives. I was recently
at Melanie's wedding in Marrakesh, but unfortunately I couldn't make
her wedding in London, but Emma was there. So it's

(03:18):
always like, you know, it's hard to turn up for everything.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Always did you guys have when you were going around
at the height of this and you're the biggest, biggest
act on the planet, did you have a rivalry with
like the Sugar Babes or Atomic Kitten or any of
the other girls.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
Well, the bond you've mentioned kind of came after us,
But I think what's so beautiful. I did this panel
with Chasna from or Saints Is Shift from Sugar Babes,
Nikola from Girls Allowed, and yes, it was, honestly, it
was so beautiful and it was it was like for
women in music. So we had this incredible audience of

(04:00):
women who worked in loads of different areas of the
music industry. And what's so incredible about being a Spice
Girl is we changed a lot within the industry because
when we first were out there, you know, trying to
get a deal and trying to release music, we would
tell that girl bands don't sell records. It's all about
the boys, because before us it was Take That and

(04:21):
New Kids on the Block and the Beatles the deals.
But you know, it kind of in that genre, in
that world in pop music in the nineties, of course
there was girl bands, but we were just we were
getting told it wasn't going to work, it wasn't going
to happen for us, and that just made us like
really really determined to succeed, and when we did to

(04:44):
help me did it on such a huge scale. It
did open the door for a lot of other girl bands,
So girls like All Saints and Sugar Babes and you know,
and all the bands that you've mentioned. So whenever I'm
with those girls, I think there's there's a massive respect
for the Spice girls because you know, I think they
feel that potentially without us, they might not have had

(05:05):
the opportunity.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
To do that paved the wif you were part of
our coming of age. I used to stand on the
top of a beach in Adelaide called Boomer Beach with
my other friends and perform stop right now to everybody
on the beach like you literally.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, but it lives on now. My four year old
daughter sings your songs now, sings stop and yet all
the songs. Hey, Melcy, what Spice girl out of the
other four would guaranteed answer their phone if you were
to call it right now?

Speaker 4 (05:33):
Ah, oh it's a bit late, it's a bit late,
it's back at school. On now. I'm sure Emma would do.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Let's see if we can get em to answer our phone.
Next mixed one or two point three, How do you
Max in the morning. We are still hanging out with
royalty Sporty Spice Melcy from the Spice Girl.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yes, we love you.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
We love you on the Spice Girls, we love your
solo career, we love you on the Voice. You're just
but You're always going to be Sporty Spices to us
because I just, yeah, you just that's how you came
into the world. But you are Melanie c now as well.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
You know I will always be Sporty Space. All of
the Spice Girls. We love our nicknames and we really
embrace that, you know, and we know that that is
that is how the world knows us so and we
love it.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
So we want to put you in a what we
call the Wall of Truth. It's a famous wall of truth.
All our celebrity guests go on our Wall of truth
and ask a little sticky question that we're burning to
ask you.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Are you willing?

Speaker 4 (06:30):
Okay? Of course, Kayley hand matches. If this is ask
world famous wall all truths one or two three.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
As much as we want to, we won't get you
to call the other Spice Girls because it's quite loud
at night and we know that they've got school drop
off in the morning. So Melanie said your wall of
truth question, and you have to answer it truthfully. We
all know the answer to this over here in the studio,
but I want to hear from you. Were you the
best singer in the group? Melanie C.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
Now recently I thought about this because this has come
up quite a lot over the years, and I never
know how to respect to it because being a coach
on the voice, obviously it's is it subjective? Is that
the correct word?

Speaker 1 (07:20):
And absolutely?

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Because you know it depends what your taste is, right, yeah?
So technically because okay, technically, are you the best singer?
I don't know how do we gauge? How do we
judge that? But this is what I want you and
your listeners to do today. I want you, if you
get a minute or four minutes, we get headphones in,

(07:42):
listen to Viva Forever. Okay, and Viva Forever. You hear
every single Spice Girl, right, we each have a moment
and then even when we sing together, you can hear
everybody individually, but also the blend, and that is the
Spice Girls. So no matter who is officially the best singer,

(08:03):
the Spice Girls wouldn't be the Spice Girls without the
five voices.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Of course that was very diplomatic.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
It is that's how great works. But if you were
to then ask us the same question in reverse, Melanie see,
I'll tell you what my answer is, and then how
they can tell you what her answer is, and then
Burgie can tell you what his answer is. All right,
Melanie see Melanie, Melanie s.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
Yes, thank you very much. I think that that's me,
my my big red shair run. Yeah, appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
We love you.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
We are absolutely loving you on the voice, loving you
back on the TV in Australia and I'm just I
just can't believe I'm talking to you right now.

Speaker 4 (08:46):
Thank you, thank you for the love.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
We love you. You can see the voice on Channel seven.
Lily who's twenty two from right here in Adelaide. You
are her coach, so we're hearing you guys on as always.
We love you so much. What an honor to talk
to you, Melsie Sporty spies, grat to

Speaker 4 (09:03):
Speak to you.