Melanie Janine Brown is an English singer-songwriter, rapper, actress, dancer, producer, model, television personality, and author. Brown is the daughter of Andrea (née Dixon) and Martin Brown. Her father is from the Caribbean island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis; her mother is British. Through her mother, Brown is a first cousin of actor and director Christian Cooke. Cooke's mother, Di, and Brown's mother, Andrea, are sisters. Brown studied performing arts at Intake High School in Leeds before entering the entertainment industry. For a time, she worked as a dancer in Blackpool, Lancashire. After seeing an advertisement for an audition in a newspaper, Brown started her music career in a band known as Touch. The group left the original management team and eventually teamed up with music manager Simon Fuller.

 

Brown rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Scary Spice. With over 85 million records sold worldwide, the group became the best-selling female group of all time.

 

During the group's hiatus, Brown released her debut solo album Hot. The album's lead single, "I Want You Back" charted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, and was included on the soundtrack for the 1998 film Why Do Fools Fall in Love. Other singles from the album such as "Tell Me" and "Feels So Good" both charted within the top 10 in the UK. After signing with the independent label Amber Café, she released her second solo album L.A. State of Mind, which spawned the release of one single "Today". Brown released "For Once in My Life" in 2013, her first single in eight years.

​

Brown has since made appearances on television. In 2007, she participated on the fifth season of the American dance competition series Dancing with the Stars, finishing in second place with her professional partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy. Between 2011 and 2016, she served as a guest and main judge on the Australian and British versions of The X Factor. She also co-presented the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars for one season in 2012. From 2013 until 2019, Brown served as a judge on the NBC reality show America's Got Talent and America's Got Talent: The Champions. She served as a coach and mentor on The Voice Kids Australia in 2014. Since 2016, she has also presented the British edition of Lip Sync Battle, alongside rapper Professor Green.

​

In March 2017, Brown filed for divorce from Belafonte. They separated in December 2016. Brown accused Belafonte of "emotional and physical abuse". In court, Belafonte's representative said that due to the couple's "extravagant and affluent" lifestyle, Brown had "wiped out all her Spice Girls money – approximately $50 million (£38.3 million), if not more". The divorce was finalised on 15 December 2017. She cited her divorce from Belafonte and her father's death as her reasons for seeking treatment for PTSD.

​

In December 2018, Brown fell down some stairs, breaking several ribs and suffering a serious cut to her hand, for which she underwent emergency surgery.  Source.