Nellie was born Helen Mitchell. She later took the stage name of Melba from her birthplace, Melbourne, Australia, named after the gluttonous British Minister, Lord Melbourne. Nellie married Charles Nisbett Frederick Armstrong, the son of a baronet, and had one son. Unfortunately for her husband and son. Nellie was a free spirit and motherhood and social conventions did not suit her. Her mother-in-law helped Melba with introductions during her early career. Later, when famous she caused a scandal after the news of her secret affair with the pretender to the French throne, and their trip across Europe to St Petersburg in a private train carriage, became public.

Her first starring role was at the Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels after which she appeared to great acclaim at Covent Garden in London. Thus began a professional career in Australia and England that saw her as the prima donna at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden through to the 1920s.

Melba was one of the greatest prima donnas in opera history. In the true style of a prima donna, she was imperious, cuttingly direct in her evaluation of her contemporaries (an attitude now more properly called "bitchy"), and inhospitable to any real or potential rival for adoration. Her interpretations of Gilda in Rigoletto, Violetta in La Traviata and Mimi in La Boheme set new standards of operatic performance.

Although Nellie favored dry toast as a snack which led to the creation of Melba Toast, she was an ice-cream-aholic. Auguste Escoffier  created the legendary peche Melba to commemorate her performance in Lohengrin and called it peche au cygne. In this original manifestation, the peaches and vanilla ice cream were served between the wings of a swan sculpted from ice, representing the swan in Lohengrin. The wings were eventually dropped and the raspberry puree was added to create the final transformation of the beautiful swan. In his recipe for the dessert, Escoffier specified that it must always be served in a silver dish.

Although the dessert was served to Nellie at nearly every meal, she never grew tired of it. In fact, she usually insisted that her dinner partners also be served he same dish and anyone who refused her culinary was banished from the table and in many cases was spoken to again. So Peche Melba is only one way to celebrate the celebrated diva's birthday which you can enjoy while watching
Patrice Munsel portray her in the biopic Melba (1953).