CALGARY -- Two words, five women and more baggage than a carousel at O'Hare on December 24: Spice Girls.
The music, the movie, the tours, the hit records, the magazine covers -- the mind reels at everything they accomplished and experienced in the past five years.
"On days when I do think about everything we've achieved, it does freak you out a little bit," says Melanie Chisholm (a.k.a. Sporty Spice, a.k.a. Melanie C), one of the four remaining Spice Girls.
"But when it becomes distant and it's further away since those crazy Spice Girls days in '96, '97, it's like, it feels like it didn't really happen."
But it did happen, for better or for worse, and now Chisholm and her mates are left to deal with the repercussions of being associated with one of the most famous pop music acts ever, even when they're doing something that's out from under the umbrella of the Spice Girls name.
Or maybe, as Chisholm found when she released her debut solo record Northern Star, that's especially when doing something non-Spice.
"I really didn't know what reaction I was going to get," Chisholm says from her London flat. "I think I was quite naive when I first embarked on releasing a solo record, because I thought people would give me a fair listening.
"I thought they'd listen and be quite open-minded, and I got the feeling that people were quite excited to hear what I'd done.
"But I forgot that a lot of people were very cynical, and it took quite a long time for people to realize that there is actually more to me than Sporty Spice. And I'm not a one-dimensional character."
Since its release in 1999, the eclectic and musically diverse Northern Star has now gone on to sell quite well at home and abroad for Chisholm, who performs tomorrow night at the Jack Singer Concert Hall.
And more importantly, it's also helped reach a new section of the population who might not have liked where she came from but could appreciate where she was going.
"As time has gone on people are very positive. I've won over a lot more fans and I've got a much wider audience," she says.
"I'm just pleased and I think now the album is getting the recognition it deserves."
Part of the reason for that could be because of the people she chose to collaborate with on her debut.
The immense list of producers, mixers and co-writers, includes everyone from electronic superstar William Orbit, who breathed new life into Madonna's career on her Ray of Light disc, to Def Jam mastermind Rick Rubin, who has worked with such diverse artists as Johnny Cash, Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Slayer.
It says something about Chisholm's talent -- and clout -- that she could gather such a respected group of artists.
So too does it reveal a great deal about her that she saw the need to rely on so many others. "I think it's great, and I've got a lot of admiration for people who produce their own tracks, and they write them and they play all their instruments -- there are some amazing artists who do things like that," she says. "But I think I always like to use a collaboration because it brings something new and brings something out of you that you couldn't achieve on your own.
"So I'm the kind of person who likes to work with other people ... because I'm still quite young and I've still got a lot to learn in music."
What she's learned since the release of Northern Star will probably see the light of day early next year. As to what fans, new and old, can expect from her next outing, Chisholm says it will follow the path of her first -- the unexpected.
"It's really difficult to define what musical style I want to do because I'm really enjoying experimenting and doing different things at the moment."
Send in questions for the Mel C chat on March 29 @1p.m. (ET). Ask questions here.
