Melanie Blatt now - from All Saints star and X Factor judge to motherhood

25 August 2023 , 18:00

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Melanie is back on MasterChef to help the judges (Image: BBC)

Melanie Blatt previously wowed the judges on Celebrity MasterChef in 2022 - so much so that she became a finalist, alongside Lisa Snowdon and Danny Jones.

Tonight, the singer is returning to the BBC cooking show with other champions to help out judges John Torode and Greg Wallace.

But while she might not have taken home the victory last year, the 48-year-old doesn't need to worry as she already has an impressive number of achievements under her belt. Melanie is best known as one of the founding members of the band All Saints in the late 90s.

The band, which also featured Nicole and Natalie Appleton and Shaznay Lewis, released their debut single 'I Know Where It's At' in 1997, but it was their hit 'Never Ever' which came later that year that rocketed them to success.

Melanie rose to fame with All Saints (Pat Pope/REX)

The song topped the charts in the UK and Australia and sold over 1.2million copies. Their self-titled album reached number two and was certified platinum five times. However, the group's success was short-lived as they split in early 2001. During an appearance on Alan Carr's chat show in 2016, Shaznay explained the reason for the disbanding, claiming they had all started to "hate" each other. She said: "We just weren't getting on anymore and we kind of hated each other, so we just thought… let's stop. Which was the right thing to do, I think."

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However, since then the girl group, who won two BRIT Awards, 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.

She was very young when the band became a success (Press Association)

She's gone on to work as an actress and TV presenter (Dave Benett/Getty Images)

"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".

Since then the group has been working on music together, going on to release several more albums, and most recently in 2020 they covered Message in a Bottle with Sting. Outside of this, the girls have had their own solo careers, with Melanie being the first member of the band to record her own music after they originally broke up in 2001. She collaborated with Artful Dodger on the song TwentyFourSeven, before replacing Kelis on the song I'm Leavin by Outsidaz and Rah Digga. She was later dropped by her record label due to low sales but went on to release more music in 2005.

Since then, she's also worked as an actress and TV presenter, appearing in Leigh Francis' sketch show Bo' Selecta, as well as The F Word, Angela and Friends, The Hot Desk, and I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here NOW. She was also a judge on The X Factor New Zealand between 2013 and 2015 and has been a DJ.

Outside of her career, the singer has a lookalike daughter named Lilyella, who was born in 1998. She shares her with Stuart Zender, Jamiroquai's former bass player, whom she was married to until 2006. It is not known if she is in a relationship at this time.

Throughout the last few years, the proud mum has unveiled countless pics of Lilyella - who is a spitting image of her famous mum. She also spoke fondly of her only daughter in the posts and also revealed some epic throwback pics of her now-grown daughter.

Courtney Pochin