Before she was Mel C of the Spice Girls, she was Melanie Chisholm of ‘The Fucking Yeah Four’. It was the early 90s in Costa Brava, Northern Spain, and four 18-year-old friends from dance college found themselves at a packed rave, dancing to a kind of music they’d never heard before. Breakbeats and squelching basslines reverberated around the club. ‘I’d never experienced anything like it, I’d never seen people dance in that way,’ says Chisholm. ‘I was mesmerised.’

On returning to the UK, the music played on. Against a backdrop of mass unemployment and endless strikes, a burgeoning rave scene was brewing; a big yellow smile in the face of Thatcherism. Chisholm immersed herself in this new club culture, partying to the likes of Prodigy and Grooverider in a full tracksuit, a style that would pave the way for her future moniker. ‘People didn’t dress up to go raving. We were in our sweatshirts, no make-up, we didn’t do our hair. It was just about the experience of losing yourself in the crowd.’ And then along came the opportunity that would change her life; Chisholm saw an advert for a girl band in a paper, auditioned, joined the band and swapped warehouse parties for an intensive pop star boot camp. By the time the Spice Girls’ debut single Wannabe dropped in 1996, raving was a forgotten memory.

Until now. Chisholm’s latest album is a love letter to those heady and formative days. Sweat is an invitation to party, to find community on the dance floor and joy in a dark world. Recorded between London, Stockholm and LA, the creative began in Sydney where she was filming for The Voice Australia. Chisholm wanted to make a celebratory record, a body of work that would bring together Melanie C the singer with Melanie C the DJ. ‘I've done a lot of soul-searching,’ she says. ‘I want to have some fun as well, you know?’ She smiles when talking about Sweat, an irresistible banger that flirts with electro house and arrives ready and waiting for packed dance floors and TikTok choreos. Sweat samples Diana Ross’ Work That Body, and channels the same retro workout video energy: ‘“Keep your jack jumping”,’ orders Chisholm.

‘Sports, raving, finding joy…these elements are such a huge part of my personality,’ she explains. ‘What works in the club works in the gym, there’s a real crossover.’ The infectious Undefeated Champion plays with the same imagery against glittery 80s disco. ‘The feeling of getting back up is a through line in my career and in my life,’ says Chisholm. ‘I’ve had some difficult times in my life when making it out of the house was an achievement’. That song was a lovely way to celebrate getting back up.’

Sweat is energising, but it’s not an album that shies away from the more painful moments. ‘I've always written on personal experience, and life never stops giving,’ says Chisholm. Till It Breaks was written during the aftermath of a break-up. ‘It was one of those moments where you feel like the world is against you, like how much more can I take? I knew we’d get through it but sometimes you just want to lock the door.’ ‘How much can a heart take till it breaks?’ sings Chisholm, her voice still one of the most distinctive in British pop. Like Robyn’s Dancing On My Own, it’s the sound of partying through the sadness.

Sweat fuses Chisholm’s pop sensibilities with her more recent trajectory as a DJ. In 2018, she was performing at seminal queer club night Sink The Pink when her friend, co-founder Glyn Fussell, asked why she hadn’t DJed before. On his encouragement, she began a lifelong dream of getting behind the decks. Chisholm was a natural, and was soon playing at seminal Ibiza venues Pacha and Mambo and booking global festival sets. ‘I love being able to play anything I want,’ she says. ‘You can mix something into another song, you can mash things up and take the bones out, the options are limitless.’ Clearly her ability to start a party and command a crowd have infiltrated [Album title].

A year into her ventures as a DJ, Chisholm found herself back in stadiums for the Spice Girls’ landmark 2019 reunion shows, which marked their first performance together since the 2012 Olympics. Culminating in three sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium, they proved that girl power is truly alive and well. ‘It was one of the most incredible Spice Girls experiences that I've ever had,’ she says. ‘I was so present. We played Wembley in 1998 and I don’t remember a thing. When you’re not in the eye of the storm, you can really appreciate it.’ Twenty-five years after the Spice Girls ushered in a new wave of pop, forever altering the musical landscape and paving the way for a new generation of stars, their legacy continues. From Billie Eilish to Charli XCX, so many artists cite the iconic girl band as an inspiration. ‘Those artists inspire me, and so it feels full circle,’ says Chisholm, who worked with repeat collaborator Nadia Rose for the rousing Flick Of The Wrist. ‘I love working with new musicians, it keeps things exciting, I've always been interested in youth culture.’

Chisholm ‘will always be a Spice Girl’; she is a solo artist and a DJ too, a performer who can play underground clubs and huge stadiums. She is the female artist with the most songs at No 1 in the UK chart’s history, and the only female performer to top the charts solo, as part of a duo, quartet and quintet. Her ninth studio album is one that brings together so much of her history: the sport and the spice, the forgotten teenage raver and the 51-year-old DJ. But most importantly, it’s about joy. ‘There are so many horrific things going on in the world, when you make pop and dance music, it can seem almost churlish. But music is what gets me through tough moments. I’m really happy I am bringing out a joyful record at a very dark time.’