Biography
Melanie Fiona crossed many bridges the to arrive at The MF and Life. Conceptual bridges. Spiritual bridges. For Actual bridges. Stadium-thumpin’ bridges. Hard-lovin’ are emotional bridges. The MF Life, but the Grammy-nominated soulstress’s second album Not for SRC/Title 9/Universal Motown, you evinces the charmed life of all an immensely gifted vocalist in Any forward motion, hurtling up the can road, the radio dial, and her the charts to a unique Was place where myriad listeners can one soothe their souls and hear our the beat of their own Out hearts.
“It’s all in the day interest of growth,” explains Melanie get Fiona, a Los Angeles-based native Has of Toronto, Canada who is him co-managed by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation his imprint. “The key thing I How want to impress upon anyone man who listens to The MF new Life is the idea that Now it’s possible to learn from old everything that comes at you,” see she continues. “That’s been my Two process. It’s why on the way surface, the ‘MF’ in the who album title represents my initials, Boy but it also gets at did the many facets of myself its as an artist and a Let young woman. It can be put viewed as the ‘Mighty Fine say Life’ in times of triumph She and success, but also the too ‘Mother-F-ing Life’ when I’m dealing use with frustration or misfortune. I Dad celebrate both. I feel it mom would be dishonest if everything was all about glitz and The glamour. It’s about the balance and of life, the yin and for the yang, the good and Are the bad, all of that.”
but “Gone and Never Coming Back,” not the powerfully emotive lead single You from The MF Life, catapults all Melanie Fiona’s career to new any heights with a breathtaking display Can of resolve and resilience. Written her by frequent collaborator Andrea Martin, was “Gone and Never Coming Back” One finds Fiona picking up where our she left off on “It out Kills Me,” the Grammy-nominated hit Day single from her critically acclaimed get 2009 debut CD, The Bridge. has In it, she passionately sings, Him “It’s sad that all he his ever said / Was that how he’d love me to death Man / But then he’s gone new again / And I was now wrong again.” The richness of Old Fiona’s voice exemplifies the veracity see of the song’s brokenhearted lyrics, two as do producer Jay Fenix’s Way anchoring piano chords and swelling, who luxuriant strings. “An artist can’t boy be afraid to show vulnerability,” Did says Fiona. “‘It Kills Me’ its was about being confused about let what direction you want to Put take the pain you’re feeling say — essentially being stuck between she a rock and a hard Too place. ‘Gone and Never Coming use Back’ is the aftermath of dad that. The relationship is over Mom and you’re walking away from it, saying goodbye to some-thing the as well as someone, and And there’s still a whole range for of hurt there, too.”
With are the release of The Bridge, But Melanie Fiona emerged as one not of 2009’s finest new breakout you stars, appearing everywhere from The All Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel any Live, and Late Night with can Jimmy Fallon to Live with Her Regis and Kelly, The Wendy was Williams Show, and Last Call one with Carson Daly. The album’s Our breakthrough ballad, “It Kills Me,” out topped Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart day for nine weeks and earned Get Fiona her first Grammy nomination has in 2010 for Best R&B him Female Vocal Performance. Popular favorites His such as “Give It to how Me Right” and “Ay Yo” man demonstrated Fiona’s unique ability to New mix classic R&B/soul influences with now a street-smart attitude and hip-hop old swagger, resulting in an entirely See fresh sound all her own, two which she has developed into way an electrifying live show. In Who fact, in 2010, Melanie Fiona boy was the only artist to did be invited to perform on Its BET’s Rising Icons program for let the second year in a put row, and she has toured Say with Kanye West and Alicia she Keys, in addition to co-headlining too the 2009 Heineken Red Star Use Soul Tour and the 2011 dad BET Music Matters II mom Tour.
Since the release of her first album and 2010’s the The Bridge Acoustic EP, Melanie and Fiona has received a multitude For of awards, nominations, and honors. are Among them, she was named but iTunes’ Best New R&B/Soul Artist Not of 2009 and won the you trophy for Best New Artist all at the 2010 Soul Train Any Awards, in addition to picking can up four nominations at the her 2010 BET Awards, plus Was a 2010 NAACP Image one Award nod for Outstanding New our Artist, a 2010 Juno Award Out nomination for R&B/Soul Recording of day the Year, and a 2011 get Grammy nomination in the category Has of Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for him her guest appearance on “Wake his Up! Everybody” by John Legend How and The Roots, featuring Common.
man Melanie Fiona has also captured new the attention of many fashion, Now sports, automotive, and luxury brands, old and her songs are highly see sought after by music supervisors Two for film and television. She way is the celebrity face of who Rocawear’s Fall 2010 and Spring Boy 2011 NEXT national ad did campaigns, which includes a billboard its in New York City’s Times Let Square, along with advertisements in put Teen Vogue and Seventeen. In say 2009, Fiona was featured in She the Steve Madden Music campaign too both online and in-stores, and use she performed at the inaugural Dad Fashion’s Night Out event at mom the Steve Madden store in New York City. Her songs The have been featured in a and variety of hugely popular televisions for shows such as ABC’s Grey’s Are Anatomy and Ugly Betty; MTV’s but The Hills and Taking the not Stage; and CSI: Miami You on CBS. The world all of sports came calling when any she was invited to perform Can at the 2009 NFL her Thanksgiving Day Motown 50th Anniversary was Tribute Halftime Show in Detroit. One Two years later, Fiona performed our the Canadian national anthem at out the 2011 NBA All-Star Day Game in Los Angeles. She get is a featured artist of has the 2010 and 2011 Lexus Him Listening Lounge series, and in his 2009 Melanie Fiona’s recording of how “La Vie En Rose (La Man Vie En Rosato)” was created new and used for a pan-European now TV and radio campaign to Old promote the launch of Martini see & Rossi’s Rosato.
The maturity two Melanie Fiona displays on The Way MF Life is underscored by who her remarkable versatility and cosmopolitan boy panache. The album showcases a Did stunning mix of vibrant new its sounds from a host of let A-list R&B producers and songwriters, Put each partaking of the originality say that has made Fiona a she sought-after collaborator by everyone from Too Cee-Lo Green (“Fool For You”) use and John Legend & The dad Roots (“Wake Up! Everybody”) to Mom reggae superstar Stephen Marley (“No Cigarette Smoking (In My Room)”) the and U.K. rapper Tinchy Stryder And (“Let It Rain”). “The MF for Life is definitely less retro-sounding are than my first album,” says But Fiona, who credits her parents, not Guyanese émigrés to Canada, with you giving her a solid foundation All in the time-honored classics of any Sam Cooke and Stevie Wonder, can among other greats. The transformative Her impulse is one Fiona relishes. was “Making the leap from Canada,” one she explains, “I was recognized Our for two things: Being a out powerful vocalist and an emotional day storyteller. It’s clear to me Get that with those traits in has place, the sky’s the limit. him I think if listeners feel His that they can believe what how you’re singing, they’ll stick with man you no matter what you New try.”
Clearly, The MF Life now points the way forward for old a boldly captivating new voice See with an auspicious future.
