Arts
Finding her true voice
Giving it her all : Melissa performing at ‘Beyond the Song’. Pic by Sameera Weerasekera
Melissa Pereira has a voice that keeps audiences enraptured as she does it her way. Coming from a musical background with her mother being a vocal training coach, 29-year-old Melissa’s first musical notes were on the piano which she started playing quite young.
It was always classical music though, even on the few occasions that she did sing, as her mother Lucille taught the genre. All that changed when at the age of 13 she took part in the pop category at a Festival of Music and Dance competition organised by the British Federation.
“I discovered Mariah Carey’s ‘Hero’ and things kind of changed for me,” she says. “My voice suited this type of song more than the classical.”
Her journey continued as she went into pop, soul and R&B experimenting with singing and playing the piano at the same time, composing her own arrangements and figuring out what type of musician she wanted to become.
Her favourite part about being a musician is that she is able to be herself when she performs and be as creative as she likes. “Whenever I choose any song to perform my biggest priority is to connect with it and figure out if it suits my voice,” she says.
Her big break came in 2012, when she won the solo category at TNL Onstage performing an original for the first time to an audience. Soon after she scored another win at Spirit (the Music Competition of Senses and Soul organised by the Colombo Music Festival).
With those confidence-boosting wins came new opportunities, and Melissa began performing at events in a professional capacity. She is quick to trace back her growth as an artist to being part of several choirs – Soul Sounds (from her schooling at Holy Family Convent Bambalapitiya) and Camerati, voice training with renowned teacher Mary Anne David and piano training with Salome Fernando. She performed for a while with violinist Lydia Goonetilleke as a duet act and is now firmly established as a solo artist.
“I am most passionate about writing and performing my own songs. One of my first ‘Blindsided’ was released on an album created by TNL Onstage and my most recent is ‘Sanda Soyala’ in collaboration with Asanka Sahabandu,” she shares.
Giving her own flavour to local music is something she would like to develop further with those she collaborates with such as Asanka.
Working in real estate and being a musician has meanwhile kept her quite occupied this year through lockdowns, notably wowing the audience at the ‘Beyond the Song’ concert presented by Sound Scope in September. While the COVID-19 situation has been quite tough on musicians overall, she has used this time to really figure out what she would like to do to further her career in the music industry.
One thing’s for sure – we’re going to be hearing more from Melissa.