Version of Me is the seventh studio album by English recording artist Melanie C. It was released on 21 October 2016 by Red Girl Records to highly positive reviews. It became her highest charting album in the United Kingdom since 2005's Beautiful Intentions, debuting at number 25 on the UK Album Chart and number two on the UK Independent Album Chart. After an extensive promotional tour of Brazil, the album reached number one on the country's main album chart.[3][4]
Chisholm started recording the album in 2014 and it was not her only focus at the time. In an interview with Paper, she elaborated: "In the past, I've gone "Right. It's album time" with back-to-back writing sessions. But, with this record, I had other stuff going on. And actually, I think it's really benefited the record because I never got stale, you know? It just felt like life kept on happening and all of these scenarios kept coming up, and it was really inspiring [...] Each record has been me at that moment in time, and this is really an expression of what's going on in my life in the last five years. So, that felt really good. I also like the thought that we all do this, we all have versions of ourselves. We're very different speaking to our friends than to our boss, or when we're in school with a teacher. We are this person, but there's so many versions of us".[12]
Promotion
Singles
In support of the album, several singles were released. On 29 July 2016, Chisholm released "Numb" as the first promotional single for the album. "Anymore" was released as the album's lead single on 6 September 2016.[4] It reached number one on the UK Physical Sales chart.[4] "Dear Life" was released as the second single on 16 December.[13] On 17 March 2017, deluxe-edition album track "Hold On", featuring Alex Francis, was released as the third single.[14] "Room for Love" was released as the fourth and final single from the album. The video was largely made up of video clips of fans miming to the song and Chisholm performing. It notably featured brief appearances from Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham, respectively.
Live performances
During two An Intimate Evening with Melanie C special events at Under the Bridge in London, Melanie C performed some songs from Version of Me as well as her old hits. She also performed a set of songs acoustically at her show at G-A-Y on 2 October 2016. On 10 November 2016, Melanie appeared on Celebrity Juice, on what was the last episode of the sixteenth series. Chisholm performed the single "Dear Life" on Graham Norton's BBC Radio 2 show on 16 November 2016.
Tour
Melanie embarked on the Version of Me Tour in April 2017. She visited fourteen cities, starting in Glasgow on 4 April and finishing in Stuttgart on 9 May.[15][16]