Race Across the World Melanie Blatt's dark confession about All Saints split

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Melanie Blatt rose to fame with All Saints and has since featured on many well-known TV shows (Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Melanie Blatt rose to fame with All Saints and has since featured on many well-known TV shows (Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)

Singer and DJ Melanie Blatt has joined the star-studded line-up of famous faces travelling across the world without phones or credit cards, as she takes part in BBC One's Celebrity Race Across the World. But before her reality TV stint, Mel was famed for being one of the first members of All Saints, who broke mainstream music charts in the nineties with their single I Know Where It's At.

In 1998, Mel welcomed her daughter Lilyella into the world during the height of her fame, and managed to juggle motherhood and her pop career well until the band's split in 2001. She later embarked on a solo career and appeared on many TV shows, even starring as a judge on New Zealand's X Factor from 2013 to 2015. While the group are back friends now, it was a rough split for them two decades ago.

Race Across the World Melanie Blatt's dark confession about All Saints split eiqrridzixxinvEnglish-Canadian girl group All Saints split after their raging hangovers from partying caused them to fight (Getty Images)

On Alan Carr: Chatty Man in 2016, the band revealed why their success came to an end, and blamed it on being hungover. Mel admitted that they "just weren't really getting on any more and we kind of hated each other so we just thought, 'f*ck it, let's stop'." Nicole Appleton explained that they were always fighting because of the raging hangovers they'd get from partying.

"We are very honest with each other that's the thing," Nicole explained. And Shazney Lewis said: "But we didn't take the honesty very well back then. That's what it was. And understandably so, we were so young. Now we're honest and it's cool." While Mel added: "We didn't do it for the money. We didn't carry on for the money like some bands even though they hated each other."

Since then, All Saints have reunited several times - the first of which was in 2006 when they released their third album, Studio 1 along with the song Rock Steady. However, things once again came crumbling down for them as they parted ways with their record label Parlophone and cancelled their planned UK tour. Melanie told i-D magazine in 2012 that she didn't think the reunion happened for the "right reasons" which is why it likely didn't work.

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"I don't think it was done for the right reasons... I know that I did it for the money. We got signed before we had even made music again, it wasn't like we felt we had something to give back to the world... we were given an opportunity and took it, without really thinking about it too hard," she said. The singer went on to say that she had never felt comfortable with the success the band had.

Despite this, the quartet got back together once more in 2013, to support the Backstreet Boys on tour. Speaking at the time, Melanie claimed they had no plans to record new music together, but were "just taking each day as it comes and doing it for pure enjoyment". The group has since worked on music together, going on to release several more albums, and most recently in 2020 they covered Message in a Bottle with Sting.

Celebrity Race Across the World airs tonight at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer

Nia Dalton

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