Melanie Jayne Chisholm, professionally known as Melanie C, is an English singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, actress and television personality. She is one of the five members of the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Sporty Spice. Chisholm began her solo career in late 1998 by singing with Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams on the worldwide hit "When You're Gone". Melanie was born in Whiston, Merseyside, as the only child in the family. She later moved to Widnes, Cheshire, at a young age. Her parents married on 12 January 1971 and separated in 1978, when young Chisholm was four-and-a-half years old. Her father, Alan Chisholm, worked as a fitter at the Otis Elevator Company. Her mother, Joan O'Neill, worked as a secretary and PA and has been singing in music bands since she was 14. Chisholm was raised at Widnes, Cheshire, where she attended Brookvale Junior School and Fairfield High School. Following school, she studied for a diploma course in dance, singing, drama, and musical theatre at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts in Sidcup, Southeast London. During college, she replied to an advert in The Stage by Chris and Bob Herbert, who were looking to form a new girl group, later to become the Spice Girls. She left college just short of completing her three-year course and gained teaching qualifications in tap and modern theatre dance with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.