A Post intern tracks down the popular British singer to get the low down on her Dec. 2 concert at Ukraine Palace.
e’s bringing her solo act to Ukraine Palace on Dec. 2. “I look forward to performing so much, in fact – I’d give any excuse to get there.”
Kyiv’s pop fans, hungry as they always are for Western acts, will surely give her a warm welcome, and they’ll be rewarded with a whole batch of new songs, which have been played so far only on the small English tour she and her band did to test out this fresh material.
Prep work for her upcoming as-yet untitled album is in full swing, with a single and video in the works for December – the clip should be on heavy rotation on MTV Europe soon enough. She is coy about what the first single will be, saying only that she’s narrowed it down to a choice between two songs.
Born Melanie Chisholm just outside of Liverpool, England, the singer is bemused by the fact that she’s still known as the former Sporty Spice. It seems living down membership in the huge bubblegum act of the nineties isn’t so easy.
“It’s so funny,” she begins, “the Spice Girls – we haven’t been together or released any music for years now. I have to be realistic, and that’s never going to go away. I just have to be grateful that I was a part of it and it allowed me to go and have myself a career.”
Besides the new album, which is due in early 2005, Mel C has been busy starting her own record label, Red Girl. The name, she says, “comes from my football team,” Liverpool, whose color is red. She adds that “red happens to be my favorite color.
“I also have a tendency to blush quite easily, so I could be seen as the red girl,” she giggles.
When her management brought up the idea of playing Kyiv, Chisholm pounced on the idea: It’s one city she never visited as a Spice Girl. She promises a high-energy, rocking show that mixes new, heavier guitar-based tunes and older songs she’ll throw in so as not to alienate the teenyboppers.
“We just want everyone to leave the show feeling exhausted and happy,” she says.
Mel C (live)
Thursday, Dec. 2, 7 p.m.
Ukraine Palace
103 Chervono-armiyska, 247-2476.
Ticket info TBA.
