Girlfriends-June 2000

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Please, if you are offended by people talking about or questioning Mel's sexuality or that of anybody else please do not continue reading this article. I find myself being very picky about this subject but I find that this article does Mel more good than bad by allowing her to defend her choice of words and actions. Plus it allowing her to see why people assume things about her that are not true. I didn't have a problem with the article and that is why I posted it up here. I believe the article was done in good taste and is more of a dialogue than an interrogation. If you still find offense in these kinds or topics please don't continue reading. Thank you. Now the article:

Melanie C-code name Sporty Spice, real name Chisholm-is the Spice Girl with the lowest profile, funkiest dancing and save-the-day voice. Recently, with her more emotionally complex solo record, Northern Star, she's exposed herself to the possibility of wider scrutiny. Premiering her rocker chops at the indie U.K. rock festivals last summer, she fielded some knocks from the press and some cups from the audience. But the Girl some say is the quartet's most talented has also received accolades for her vocals and her dedication to perfection. The new record is a healthy mix of genres and styles, cooked up with help from famous collaborators such Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys), William Orbit (Madonna), and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of TLC.

As with many female musicians, the songs often take a backseat to questions about the way she looks and whom she dates. Because she describes her album as "autobiographical," it's hard not to wonder who she's talking about. Although she's always been dubbed the "tomboy" of the Spice Girls, her new short hair, hard delts, and indifference toward her long-term boyfriendlessness have turned up the heat on the lesbian rumors. From her flat in the Hampstead area of London, with a lilting Liverpudlian accent and a bit of humor about girlpower, Melanie talked to me about her career, feminism, and queer baiting.

Girlfriends: You became one of the world's best-known performers as a Spice Girl. Now you're promoting your solo album. Where will Melanie C be in five years?

Melanie C: I like to think that I'm still going to be working as a solo artist-as well as with the Spice Girls. I'm really happy the way things are going right now; I'm excited about my record and about touring solo. It's something I want to be doing not only for the next five years but for the rest of my life.

Girlfriends: Your solo band is unusual in that you've included women. Lots of other female artists don't seem to make this a priority; their bands are all male. How did you do it?

Melanie C: It was something that I really wanted, but when it came down to auditioning for the band, it was difficult. You can't just take women because that's what you want; you have to take people who are best for the job. I was very fortunate to get a great rhythm guitarist and bass guitarist.

Girlfriends: Melissa Etheridge said recently that a lot of people think it's okay for female artists to do pop music, but they aren't supposed to rock. Do you think this sort of attitude is behind some of the criticism your solo project has taken in the rock press?

Melanie C: No. I think really all the criticism I've taken is just because people are very narrow-minded and cynical. Because I've come from a very pop background with the Spice Girls, they're just not willing to accept me as serious or as an artist in any other genre. But you know, I'll show them. In England-and it's mainly the rock and indie press-it takes a long time to gain your credibility, which is sad because they should listen without prejudice really.

Girlfriends: As George Michael once said.

Melanie C: Yes.

Girlfriends: Do you think being a man is tied into being accepted as a rocker? Would it make them listen more carefully?

Melanie C: I think for a long time it was a very male-dominated industry-as are a lot of industries in the world. But here in England the charts now are so female dominated. It's really really cool. I w as actually watching an interview with No Doubt today and women like Gwen Stefani. There are some really strong females out there, like Skin in Skunk Anansie. So I think it's becoming more accepted.

Girlfriends: In a recent Web chat you talked about your next single, called "Never Be the Same Again." It includes a rap from Left Eye of TLC. I think you can read that song as a love song with a very familiar theme in queer stories and films: "forbidden" gay love catching two friends off guard. Have you thought about this interpretation?

Melanie C: Not really, because when I sing the song it's about a friend of mine. Whenever I sing the song, he's all that I think about. But a lot of people have questioned if it's about the Spice Girls, which I find completely bizarre! They think every single song of mine is about the Spice Girls [laughs].

Girlfriends: I'm not gonna go there!

Melanie C: Yeah, that's very strange.

Girlfriends: Do you have any plans to perform the song with Left Eye when you're touring in the States?

Melanie C: Hopefully. We've been talking, and you know TLC finished their tour recently, and Left Eye was maybe going to come to Europe and do some stuff. I'm going to be in America throughout the summer, so hopefully we're going be able to get together and do it, because we both would really love to.

Girlfriends: I'd like to talk about some of the stink the press has been giving you about your sexuality. It seems like you're very candid in responding that you're straight, but it's never enough proof. Why do you think the media care so much?

Melanie C: The British media have got a fascination with celebrities-the world in general has. But you know, with other members in my band, they've got quite public lives, and I'm more of a private person, really. I don't tend to go to many celebrity bashes. Any affairs that I do have I've luckily kept quite secret. So it just really baffles them. I think it quite annoys them that I elude them.

Girlfriends: Is the press's assertion that you're a lesbian a way to try to "shame" you into being a more conventional female star: less athletic, less buff, less short hair?

Melanie C: You know, it's men who write these articles and they don't like seeing strong, successful women, do they? They'll do anything to get us back in the kitchen! No one could ever stop me from the path that I want to take. I'm very true to myself and I'm on a bit of a mission, [jokingly] for myself and womankind!

Girlfriends: An interviewer recently asked you when you were going to settle down and have babies. You said your career is your baby right now. What's your reaction to this kind of question? They want you to be a lesbian and married with kids too.

Melanie C: How am I supposed to know when-or if-I'm gonna meet somebody? People say to me, "Do you think it's because you're so successful you haven't had a relationship?" I think it's just difficult no matter who you are to find that right person. And it starts you thinking, "Is there something wrong with me?" You know what I mean? They shouldn't make a big deal out of me, because, you know, there are thousands of people out there who are in the same position.

Girlfriends: The press keeps hinting that you're closeted. But in Britain there are so many openly gay performers: Elton John, Stephen Fry, George Michael....They're part of the national culture in a big way, very beloved. It seems like it's not that shocking to come out. Do you think it's a big deal for people to come out anymore?

Melanie C: No, I don't think here in England. In fact there was a young lad in one of our boy bands-do you know the band Boyzone? Stephen, I've been a friend of his for years and actually I never knew he was gay. But unfortunately the media got onto the story about him having a boyfriend. And it put him in a really difficult situation because he hadn't told his parents. He had no choice in the end. I think it's really sad for him to have that taken away from him because it should have been when he felt the time was right.

Girlfriends: I thought it was beautiful that the readers of Smash Hits [UK teen pop magazine] voted him Hero of the Year last year.

Melanie C: I think that's a great thing. Hopefully, we're bringing up children who are less ignorant to the way the world really is.

Girlfriends: Having said that though, when I was drawing up the list of queer British performers, I had a harder time trying to think of women. Do you think it's different for women in the UK?

Melanie C: Possibly. There's a huge gay scene, but you're quite right, there's not that many openly gay females. I've never really thought about that before. Maybe that's the next frontier! [laughter]

Girlfriends: Let's talk about your fans. The web is full of stories of how far they went to support you. Somebody popped your CD into all the shopping carts she could find at the record store hoping that people would buy it without realizing.

Melanie C: [laughs] Oh my God!

Girlfriends: So she said! Is there anything crazy you've ever done as a fan of someone?

Melanie C: As a child growing up I was a really big fan of Madonna and Michael Jackson and Wham! and Duran Duran, people like that. But I never stood out in the rain or went to airports or anything like that. I find it all quite weird when people do that, especially because some of my fans are in their early twenties, and it's like, "Haven't you got anything better to do?"

Girlfriends: Have your fans ever surprised or shocked you? Have you ever gone to a club and opened the bathroom door and found a fan inside?

Melanie C: There's quite a few fans, actually, that we know here in England by name, and when I go around the world I recognize faces. There's a young girl who I saw yesterday, and she actually made a false pass for the Brits [the UK equivalent of the Grammys] on a computer. She blagged her way backstage and everything! It is amazing, the things that they do!

Girlfriends: You have to admire that ingenuity. What about the Spice Girls? The lyrics from your upcoming album, which you showcased in your December UK concerts, are getting more adult, like the song "Holler Holler." That one sounds like an SM dungeon to me, maybe I've been in the San Francisco area too long.

Melanie C: [laughs] I think it is just we're all a little bit older now. There's still gonna be a load of sugar and spice on there. But we can't deny we're all getting well into our twenties, we can't keep talking about school anymore.

Girlfriends: You've said in the past that you're not really a particularly sexual person; maybe you've changed your mind since then. What about reports that the Spice Girls are getting more sexual and the dancing, especially yours, has been getting more raunchy?

Melanie C: Has it?

Girlfriends: Is it weird to perform like that in concert?

Melanie C: [Laughs] Not at all. I think it's quite funny. I am a very sexual person at the right time. It's just that I've been "without partner" for such a long time, that you sort of forget what it's like! But you know, onstage I can be a bit raunchy. And it feels good, you know, it's like you're losing your inhibitions on stage. You're getting in that high state, as if you're on drugs.

Girlfriends: Are you aware that you wind up in some of the queer rumors that happen in the queer community? The raunchy dancing, pinching your bandmates' butts, the dual interpretation that people make of "Never Be the Same Again".... People go so far as to read the pronouns of your songs and say, "She didn't say him, she said they or them." You set off some people's gaydar.

Melanie C: That is something that I'm not really aware of. I'm just expressing myself in the only way I know how. I've never used my music to wind anybody up. It's just an expression of me.

Girlfriends: Is it difficult to have everything you do picked apart, down to what shirt you were wearing when?

Melanie C: It is quite funny that people want to analyze everything so much. It's like being in constant therapy [laughs]! I was a bit nervous about releasing this record because it is very personal. I thought, "Oh my God, everyone's gonna know exactly how I tick and exactly what I'm thinking." But really, everybody makes the song relevant to their own situation. Like, when you break up with somebody and every song on the radio applies to you. You know what I mean? So I think I'm safe for now [laughs].

Girlfriends: As long as we all stay self-centered, you're cool.

Melanie C: Yeah.

Girlfriends: In the history of women and rock music, all kinds of girl bands have been gay baited. For example, the Runaways: Joan Jett endured a lot of taunts back then. Now, 25 years later, she has come out.

Melanie C: Really? Wow!

Girlfriends: In 25 years do you think it's possible that someone who was once a Spice Girl will come out?

Melanie C: As far as I know, all the Spice Girls are straight; two are married or have been married, with babies, and it's something that we've often talked about because we all are friends. Some members of the band have had certain experiences or whatever But, you know, I'm not really one of those people.