Want to turn Melanie C’s head on The Voice? It takes more than talent

Even with a career break like the Spice Girls, which jettisoned five unknown British singers in 1996 to international stardom with the single Wannabe, Melanie Chisholm, aka Sporty Spice, knows success is hard won, and not easy to sustain. Since the highest-selling female pop group of all time disbanded in 2001, she has – under her stage name of Melanie C – recorded nine albums, trod the West End boards and enjoyed a side hustle as a DJ, the latter marking a return to the rave scene she adored as a 17-year-old, before fame got in the way. As she prepares for her second season as a judge/coach on The Voice Australia, returning alongside former boyband member Ronan Keating, veteran US singer-songwriter Richard Marx and Australian pop-operatic sensation, Kate Miller-Heidke, plus new fifth coach Tones and I (aka the Australian pop sensation Toni Watson), Chisholm is on the lookout for much more than raw vocal talent.

“The landscape has changed so much,” says Chisholm, during a break in filming the “blind” auditions, during which the judges turn their swivelling chairs only for the most promising vocals. “We have so many artists coming to the show now who [already] have a profile on social media. “Kids, they just seem to be so much more savvy.

And this is a great platform for them to elevate what they’re doing. An artist I was lucky enough to work with last year, [New Zealand’s], Cassie Henderson, who was my finalist, is brilliant. And she already had a career.”

Henderson is the support act for the Australian leg of Chisholm’s world tour in November, which features songs from her workout album, Sweat. “Cassie’s an incredible singer, musician and a great person. So I’m really happy to be having her come on the road with me.”

This 15th season of The Voice promises format twists, original lyrics, and, if Chisholm has her way, a greater diversity of genres. “We have so many incredible, what we would traditionally think of as ‘voice’ singers – someone who is like one of the great divas, like a Whitney [Houston] or a Mariah [Carey], or, for a younger generation, someone like Ariana [Grande]. We see a lot of that.

Personally, I always think about what’s really happening in the music industry. That has to be represented. So I’m listening out for someone with a more current style – hip-hop, rap.

Because we want to appeal to a huge demographic. So that’s somebody I will definitely be turning for.” While in Australia, Chisholm is based in “very sporty” Bondi with her husband, Sydney actor and screenwriter Chris Dingwall, who she married this month in the UK.

“Bondi is perfect for me. There’s lots of walking and gymming and juicing and all those fabulous things. It very much feels like a second home.”

Her 17-year-old daughter, Scarlett Starr, has visited the set of The Voice. “We have people who come on the show and their parents are nervous about them stepping into this world as a career, which is very understandable. My daughter doesn’t want to perform, which in some ways makes me feel quite relieved.”

And she isn’t ruling out the return of the supergroup to Western pop. “It’s been interesting watching how K-pop has exploded … Music is forever going around this cycle,” she says.

“We’ve had so much pop music and dance music, but guitar bands are coming back as well. There’s always a thirst for something else. I think we will see some big girl and boy bands again in the not-too-distant future.”

That may or may not include another reunion of the Spice Girls, following their 2019 tour of Ireland and the UK. “We’re talking. We want to do something.

We’re trying to figure it out. But we are very much in communication. Spice Girls is just so precious to all of us.

We have our ups and downs, but what we experienced together was so unique. It’s a bond that’s never going to be broken.” The Voice Australia returns at 7pm on Sunday, August 2, on Seven and 7Plus.

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