Spice Girls star Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm has opened up on why Ireland is ‘special’ for the girl band.

The 52-year-old performs at Dublin’s 3Olympia Theatre this weekend — but is no stranger to performing in the Irish capital.

The gig takes place this Sunday, October 18, and comes nearly 30 years after she performed with the Spice Girls at The Point — now known as the 3Arena.

Speaking on The Oliver Callan Show on RTÉ Radio 1 on Tuesday, Mel C said: ‘Ireland is very special. It’s a really special place for the Spice Girls.

‘We spent a lot of time there, we did. We trained for our tour in 1998. We were in Co Kildare and we did our first-ever show at The Point.’

The singer added: ‘I know it’s not called that anymore, but it will always be The Point to me!’

More recently, the Spice Up Your Life singers performed at Croke Park in 2019.

‘We know the audiences in Dublin, in Ireland, are the best,’ Mel C told Oliver Callan.

‘It’s a beautiful place to play, and I’m glad that I’m going to be back there this weekend. I can’t wait, I can’t believe it.”

Some tickets are still available to purchase via Ticketmaster here.

Elsewhere on the radio show, Mel C spoke about her Irish roots, which she traced on BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? in 2024.

She detailed how she had ‘always known’ of her Irish links, with her dad’s mother’s maiden name O’Flaherty.

‘She never really talked about it that much,’ Mel C told Oliver.

After participating in the show, the singer learned that her family emigrated to the UK after The Great Famine.

‘I understand now the hardship that they faced,’ she said. ‘I think their generation just didn’t really want to talk about it, so it kind of breaks my heart I’ve only learned about it after her passing.’