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 On April 5th 2004 Melanie announced on her official website that the name of her record company would actually be Red Girl Records and also that in June she would go out on tour through the Barfly clubs in the United Kingdom. She said: "Although I was sad to leave Virgin after so long it is definitely time to move on. It's been lots of fun working with everybody there and I've made some very good friends, but I'm a big girl now and it's time to take on more responsibility, and how cool to have your own label!"
Mel’s manager, Nancy Phillips, even gave an interview about the setting up of the Record Company: "So we parted on good terms with Virgin Records and still have many friends in the company. We are now working with Melanie to set up her own label, her next album will be released through that. The most obvious challenge is keeping a careful eye on expenditure. Major labels tend to have larger budgets to work with. We need to set recording, video, marketing budgets etc. and stick to them. The other major challenge will be global focus. It is likely we will use an independent distributor in the UK, and license to other independents oversees. But we will have to co-ordinate releases and promotion schedules around the world without the support of a major's international department and I see that being a real challenge."
The tour begins in June and receives the name Barfly Tour. The tickets were sold out very quickly. In all gigs Melanie performed 6 new songs: Beautiful Intentions, Little Piece Of Me, You Will See, Last Night On Earth, Never Say Never and Next Best Superstar (at the time known only as Superstar). T-shirts with the Red Girl Records logo are made available for purchase at the venues and on the official website.
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In August the new official message board is launched and the main page of MelanieC.net enters in temporary version until de release of the new album.
Mel announces a single gig at Islington Academy on September 14th. She leaves a message on the official website informing that her own band was going to play on the album and that it would be produced by Greg Haver.
Also in August Melanie attends Mel B’s musical on Broadway, Rent. While there, she takes Mel B’s daughter, Phoenix Chi, for a walk.
In September, Melanie performs at Islington Academy and sings yet another new song: Better Alone that was soon interpreted by the fans and the media as an answer to Virgin Records for not supporting her.
Rumours start that the new album would be called Better Alone.
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Melanie replies Robbie William’s declaration from the previous year that he had slept with 4 out of the 5 Spice Girls. “In fact, I'd like to ask Robbie about this, because, to my knowledge, there are a few of the Spice Girls he didn't sleep with."
In an interview to Hit FM in March, Mel announces Better Alone as her next single.
On April 4th the single Next Best Superstar is released, receives good reviews and charts at number 10 in the first week. That’s a great position to an independent artist who had paid for all the recording, productions, distribution and promotion of the album.
On April 11th the third solo album, Beautiful Intentions, is released firstly in the United Kingdom.
Two days after the Beautiful Intentions Tour 2005 had started Mel was forced to cancel all her concerts on the next week due to a throat infection. On the next week, one day after restarting the tour Mel had a relapse and had to stop for another whole week. The symptoms had gotten worse and the infection became a strong flu. This way several dates were rescheduled, damaging Beautiful Intention’s performance in the charts as well as the single Next Best Superstar. Mel left the following message on her official website: "I want to say how sorry I am to everyone who had bought tickets. I really hope this hasn't inconvenienced them massively. I am incredibly disappointed myself. But I hope to be fit and well as soon as possible."
The Ukraine gig ends up being cancelled again.
More rumours about the Spice Girls’ come back appear, this time, about a 10 year anniversary tour planned for 2006.
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On July 6th Mel participates on the concert "Thank You London, Thank You UK", celebrating the choice of London as the 2012 Olympic Games’ host. The next day the city suffers terrorist attacks.
In July Mel announces that her next single, Better Alone, would only be available for purchase in mp3 format on iTunes website and in physical copies on her official website, this way, it wouldn’t be chart eligible. Mel talked about the decision of releasing the single only through the internet: "Better Alone hasn't been getting much intrest and we all know it's a fantastic song. I didn't want it to dissapear without a trace. My feelings are this isn't the right time, not enough people have been given the opportunity to hear it, but the formats and the art work are brilliant and we didn't want you missing out."
Melanie performs at several summer Festivals through Europe and starts to focus in the promotion of the album in Germany.
In August Better Alone is normally released in other countries such as Italy and Australia.
Rumours that Pamela Anderson would replace Mel’s vocals in When You’re Gone on Bryan Adam’s greatest hits, Anthology, appear.
On August 21st the official website announces an unknown song, First Day Of My Life, as the next single. First Day Of My Life, written by Guy Chambers and Enrique Iglesias, was not in the Beautiful Intentions album. The new single would only be released in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
First Day Of My Life had already been recorded, only in Italian, by Andrea Bocelli with the name Un Nuovo Giorno.
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On September 21st Melanie attends the Australian premiere of the movie Cinderella Man, by Russell Crowe. He invited her to sing during the event's dinner.
First Day Of My Life is released in Germany, Switzerland and Austria on September 30th and it doesn’t take long until it reaches number 1 in Germany and Switzerland, staying there for 2 weeks.
Beautiful Intentions is re-released to include First Day Of My Life.
In October the When You’re Gone recording with Pamela’s Anderson’s vocals appears on the internet, causing revolt amongst Melanie’s fans. Later Bryan explains that Pamela would only appear on Anthology’s American version, because When You’re Gone featuring Melanie wasn’t released there in 1998.
The British press starts to publish that Melanie would be giving up her singing career to become just Red Girl Records’ boss, releasing new artists in the industry. This information is denied. Another rumour is that she had singed for only 80 people, for free, in a gig at a food square of a shopping mall in Australia; again, untrue.
Melanie starts the promotion for First Day Of My Life in Germany, singing on TV and radio shows and even playing a pregnant woman at the German comedy show Comedy Nacht on RTL!
First Day Of My Life starts to be released in other countries, like Italy.
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On November 18th in a surprise performance, Mel and Bryan Adams appeared at the British TV show Children In Need to sing When You’re Gone.
Louis Walsh begins conflicting with Melanie yet again after having argued with her on CD:UK in 2003. He criticised her performance with Bryan Adams on Children In Need saying that she was “out of tune” and “boring”.
First Day Of My Life became the theme song of the Portuguese soap opera "Dei-te Quase Tudo".
The song First Day Of My Life is played in radios of countries where it hasn’t even been released! Examples: Chum FM in Canada, in Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay and in Brazil, on Transamerica and Energia 97.
On November 28th the fans organised a Melanie’s acoustic gig in Islington, London, to raise money to the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity.
The German tour started and Melanie announced that the next single to be released in Germany would be Better Alone (not released there yet).
With the end of the tour in December, Melanie still had time to appear in TV and radio shows from Italy, and even performed at the Energy Stars For Free in Switzerland!
The single First Day Of My Life was released in the Netherlands and suffered from a few distribution problems, what reflected in the charts.
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