1. Melanie Ann Safka-Schekeryk (b. 1947, d. 2024; known professionally as M… Read Full Bio ↴1. Melanie Ann Safka-Schekeryk (b. 1947, d. 2024; known professionally as Melanie) was a U.S. singer-songwriter.
2. Melanie: Midwest Auckland emo four piece Melanie released their full length album 42 Losers in May 2020 and have been playing a fine selection of gigs and house parties since
1. Born on the 3rd February 1947 in Astoria, New York deceased 23rd January 2024, Melanie made her first recording, "Gimme a Little Kiss", when she was five.
She first found chart success in Europe. Her 1969 song "Bobo's Party" reached number one in France. Later that year she had a hit in the Netherlands with "Beautiful People" before performing at Woodstock. Apparently, she was inspired to write "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" by the audience lighting candles during her set; the song became a hit in both Europe and the USA. Her biggest hit in the USA was "Brand New Key", also known as "The Roller Skate Song". She has been awarded three gold albums.
Three of Melanie's compositions were hits for The New Seekers: "Look What They've Done to My Song Ma", "Beautiful People", and "The Nickel Song".
With one exception her albums have been produced by her husband, Peter Schekeryk. Her three children - Leilah, Jeordie and Beau-Jarred -are also musicians. Beau-Jarred is a guitarist and accompanies his mother on The 2003 Australian hip-hop track "The Nosebleed Section" by The Hilltop Hoods sampled Melanie's "People in the Front Row".
In 2004 Melanie released Paled by Dimmer Light, which is co-produced by Peter and Beau-Jarred Schekeryk.
In 2010 the last album co- produced by her now late husband Peter Schekeryj and their son Beau Jarred Schekeryk was released: Ever Since You Never Heard Of Me
Melanie, who became the voice of an era in one magical instant onstage at Woodstock, has been putting the pieces in order.
Pieces of a career, scattered by the winds of experience and assembled again by the force of love into the most personal and brilliant moments of her musical journey.
Melanie is poised to enlighten new generations about what it means to sing with both passion and eloquence, to write at once with intelligence and emotion, and to inspire through song… and nobody does this better than Melanie.
Others learned this that night at Woodstock, where as a New York kid barely known outside of the coffeehouse circuit in Greenwich Village, she sang her song "Beautiful People" and inspired the first panorama of candles and cigarette lighters ever raised at a concert event. That, in turn, moved the young singer to write "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain"), which sold more than one million copies in 1970 and
prompted Billboard, Cashbox, Melody Maker, Record World, and Bravo to anoint her
as female vocalist of the year. Her single "Brand New Key," an infectious romp about
freedom and roller skates, topped the charts in 1971.
And so her story began.
With guitar in hand and a talent that combined amazing vocal equipment, disarming
humor, and a vibrant engagement with life, she was booked as the first solo pop/rock
artist ever to appear from the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan
Opera House, and later opened the New Metropolitan Opera House in New York, the
Sydney Opera House, and in the General Assembly of the United Nations, where she
was invited to perform on many occasions as delegates greeted her performances
with standing ovations.
The top television hosts of all time -- Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, and Dick Cavett --
battled to book her. (After her stunning performance on his show, Sullivan goggled
that he had not seen such a "dedicated and responsive audience since ElvisPresley.")
Accolades rolled in, from critics ("Melanie's cult has long been famous, but it's a cult
that's responding to something genuine and powerful -- which is maybe another way
of saying that this writer counts himself as part of the cult too," wrote John Rockwell
in The New York Times) as well as peers ("Melanie," insisted jazz piano virtuoso
Roger Kellaway, "is extraordinary to the point that she could be sitting in front of us in
this room and sing something like 'Momma Momma' right to us, and it would just go
right through your entire being.")
In the years that followed Melanie continued to record, continued to tour.
UNICEF made her its spokesperson; Jimi Hendrix's father introduced her to the
multitude assembled for the twentieth anniversary of Woodstock. Her records
continued to sell -- more than eighty million to date. She's had her songs covered by
singers as diverse as Cher, Dolly Parton, and Macy Gray. She's raised a family, won
an Emmy, opened a restaurant, written a musical about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity
Jane…
She has, in short, lived a rare life. But all of it was just a prelude to what's about to
come.
"For the first time, I'm not afraid to voice exactly what I feel. I used to feel that I didn't
want to say too much, but now I can say anything. I feel like a person who's never
been heard. Maybe people think they've heard me, but they never really have. I'm a
new artist who is having so much fun with my voice -- a person shouldn't be allowed
to have so much fun. I'm the woman I wanted to be when I was sixteen and going for
Edith Piaf. It's me -- I'm back."
(Written by Robert L. Doerschuk)
2. Melanie: Midwest Auckland emo four piece Melanie released their full length album 42 Losers in May 2020 and have been playing a fine selection of gigs and house parties since
1. Born on the 3rd February 1947 in Astoria, New York deceased 23rd January 2024, Melanie made her first recording, "Gimme a Little Kiss", when she was five.
She first found chart success in Europe. Her 1969 song "Bobo's Party" reached number one in France. Later that year she had a hit in the Netherlands with "Beautiful People" before performing at Woodstock. Apparently, she was inspired to write "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" by the audience lighting candles during her set; the song became a hit in both Europe and the USA. Her biggest hit in the USA was "Brand New Key", also known as "The Roller Skate Song". She has been awarded three gold albums.
Three of Melanie's compositions were hits for The New Seekers: "Look What They've Done to My Song Ma", "Beautiful People", and "The Nickel Song".
With one exception her albums have been produced by her husband, Peter Schekeryk. Her three children - Leilah, Jeordie and Beau-Jarred -are also musicians. Beau-Jarred is a guitarist and accompanies his mother on The 2003 Australian hip-hop track "The Nosebleed Section" by The Hilltop Hoods sampled Melanie's "People in the Front Row".
In 2004 Melanie released Paled by Dimmer Light, which is co-produced by Peter and Beau-Jarred Schekeryk.
In 2010 the last album co- produced by her now late husband Peter Schekeryj and their son Beau Jarred Schekeryk was released: Ever Since You Never Heard Of Me
Melanie, who became the voice of an era in one magical instant onstage at Woodstock, has been putting the pieces in order.
Pieces of a career, scattered by the winds of experience and assembled again by the force of love into the most personal and brilliant moments of her musical journey.
Melanie is poised to enlighten new generations about what it means to sing with both passion and eloquence, to write at once with intelligence and emotion, and to inspire through song… and nobody does this better than Melanie.
Others learned this that night at Woodstock, where as a New York kid barely known outside of the coffeehouse circuit in Greenwich Village, she sang her song "Beautiful People" and inspired the first panorama of candles and cigarette lighters ever raised at a concert event. That, in turn, moved the young singer to write "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain"), which sold more than one million copies in 1970 and
prompted Billboard, Cashbox, Melody Maker, Record World, and Bravo to anoint her
as female vocalist of the year. Her single "Brand New Key," an infectious romp about
freedom and roller skates, topped the charts in 1971.
And so her story began.
With guitar in hand and a talent that combined amazing vocal equipment, disarming
humor, and a vibrant engagement with life, she was booked as the first solo pop/rock
artist ever to appear from the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan
Opera House, and later opened the New Metropolitan Opera House in New York, the
Sydney Opera House, and in the General Assembly of the United Nations, where she
was invited to perform on many occasions as delegates greeted her performances
with standing ovations.
The top television hosts of all time -- Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, and Dick Cavett --
battled to book her. (After her stunning performance on his show, Sullivan goggled
that he had not seen such a "dedicated and responsive audience since ElvisPresley.")
Accolades rolled in, from critics ("Melanie's cult has long been famous, but it's a cult
that's responding to something genuine and powerful -- which is maybe another way
of saying that this writer counts himself as part of the cult too," wrote John Rockwell
in The New York Times) as well as peers ("Melanie," insisted jazz piano virtuoso
Roger Kellaway, "is extraordinary to the point that she could be sitting in front of us in
this room and sing something like 'Momma Momma' right to us, and it would just go
right through your entire being.")
In the years that followed Melanie continued to record, continued to tour.
UNICEF made her its spokesperson; Jimi Hendrix's father introduced her to the
multitude assembled for the twentieth anniversary of Woodstock. Her records
continued to sell -- more than eighty million to date. She's had her songs covered by
singers as diverse as Cher, Dolly Parton, and Macy Gray. She's raised a family, won
an Emmy, opened a restaurant, written a musical about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity
Jane…
She has, in short, lived a rare life. But all of it was just a prelude to what's about to
come.
"For the first time, I'm not afraid to voice exactly what I feel. I used to feel that I didn't
want to say too much, but now I can say anything. I feel like a person who's never
been heard. Maybe people think they've heard me, but they never really have. I'm a
new artist who is having so much fun with my voice -- a person shouldn't be allowed
to have so much fun. I'm the woman I wanted to be when I was sixteen and going for
Edith Piaf. It's me -- I'm back."
(Written by Robert L. Doerschuk)
Piece Of My Heart
Melanie Lyrics
I get my romance from old pages
That are living on my shelf
Can't keep waiting here for ages
Like I've been since I was twelve
Maybe I'm a bit poetic
Heart and mind they are at war
I just don't know where to take us
You're so close but yet too far
I know you, but I don't
I want to, but I won't
Can't stop thinking 'bout how you could feel like home
I want you to read between the lines of my heart
I've been trying to make you see it
I don't know where to start
But I'll find my way
And I'll make you stay
When I find the words to write
The lines of my heart
My pillow is your chest
That I hold close to me at night
Like my dreams, it's kind of pointless
I hold on to it just as tight
Maybe I'm a bit poetic
Heart and mind they are at war
I just don't know where to take us
You're so close but yet too far
I know you, but I don't
I want to, but I won't
Can't stop thinking 'bout how you could feel like home
I want you to read between the lines of my heart
I've been trying to make you see it
I don't know where to start
But I'll find my way
And I'll make you stay
When I find the words to write
The lines of my heart
The lines of heart
I want you to read between the lines of my heart
I've been trying to make you see it
I don't know where to start
But I'll find my way
And I'll make you stay
When I find the words to write
The lines of my heart
I want you to read between the lines of my heart
I've been trying to make you see it
I don't know where to start
But I'll find my way
And I'll make you stay
When I find the words to write
The lines of my heart
The lines of my heart
The lines of my heart
I want you to read between the lines of my heart
That are living on my shelf
Can't keep waiting here for ages
Like I've been since I was twelve
Maybe I'm a bit poetic
Heart and mind they are at war
I just don't know where to take us
You're so close but yet too far
I want to, but I won't
Can't stop thinking 'bout how you could feel like home
I want you to read between the lines of my heart
I've been trying to make you see it
I don't know where to start
But I'll find my way
And I'll make you stay
When I find the words to write
The lines of my heart
My pillow is your chest
That I hold close to me at night
Like my dreams, it's kind of pointless
I hold on to it just as tight
Maybe I'm a bit poetic
Heart and mind they are at war
I just don't know where to take us
You're so close but yet too far
I know you, but I don't
I want to, but I won't
Can't stop thinking 'bout how you could feel like home
I want you to read between the lines of my heart
I've been trying to make you see it
I don't know where to start
But I'll find my way
And I'll make you stay
When I find the words to write
The lines of my heart
The lines of heart
I want you to read between the lines of my heart
I've been trying to make you see it
I don't know where to start
But I'll find my way
And I'll make you stay
When I find the words to write
The lines of my heart
I want you to read between the lines of my heart
I've been trying to make you see it
I don't know where to start
But I'll find my way
And I'll make you stay
When I find the words to write
The lines of my heart
The lines of my heart
The lines of my heart
I want you to read between the lines of my heart
Lyrics © O/B/O DistroKid
Written by: Melanie Mertens Polak
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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Kevin Hosking
I have always been a fan of Janis Joplin, never thought anyone would top her for that style of music, then along comes a lass from Scotland. Melanie Masson you are amazing
Karyn Haga
Amazing it's great to hear other women singing and her songs as I always thought they'd be really hard to sing
Linda Wolfe
WOW !! This lady is wonderful . Her voice is incredible.
Ben Schaeffer
She's just INCREDIBLE!
leo
this voice should sell a billion records
Belajadevotchka
How cruel that we've been cheated out of this amazing ROCKSTAR for so long. I watch her and wonder if somehow Janis Joplin had Robert Plant's lovechild. She's positively sublime.
Andy Haldane
there's more to come, don't worry
kellsey huard
i love janis joplin and never watched x factor and came across this..shes amazing !
Maria Ana Bueno Quirino Correia
perfeita !!!! Meu Deus , que voz ! Ela canta tão bem quanto a Janis, não estou dizendo que é igual , pois Janis Joplin é insubstituível !
Cynthia Cox
Would love to see Melanie Masson come to the USA and bring back great music from a singer who knows how to sing raw and emotional music! You got a USA fan here:) Thanks for sharing on Youtube so that I can hear this lady sing. Wow! What vocals & emotions. If only major music industries would take note of what real profits are & where they come from it is because of singers like this that makes music great!