Biography

Hello, I’m Mela. Melanie Dekker. A Canadian roots musician. A Singer-songwriter, from Deep Cove, BC, Canada. I wanted to be a musician after hearing a girl in my high school sing “The Power of Love” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. She elevated me, and from that moment I really wanted to sing with a guitar and feel that way again, and give that ‘gift’ the way she did. My rain or shine North Vancouver paper route earned pennies and dollars which got me my first K.Yairi guitar and subsequently with my University school scholarship $$$, I bought my first piano.

Next…with a music diploma (Capilano University Jazz&Pop Program) in hand, I hit the country bars. You could perform 6 nights a week almost anywhere in BC and Alberta. That schedule ended with nodes (aka Vocal Nodules) and time off from singing, and for a time…even talking. Steroids and months of TLC were successful in that I avoided surgery and gently I began to sing again. Meanwhile I’d delved into writing some of my own songs…which is good for not pushing your range into places it doesn’t naturally go (aka screaming at the top of your lungs for a bar full of inebriated line-dancers). 

Yes, I had hundreds of singing lessons and guitar lessons, but at 3am when people are shouting encore, and the light haven’t turned on yet, it’s hard to stay disciplined as the Bruce Springsteen and Janis Joplin fans freak out.

Between ski-resorts, swanky hotels, house parties, and venues who liked to hear original Canadiana…I began to carve out a living more and more with ‘Melanie Dekker’ music.

Then there was press and in 2003 a radio hit. “I Said I”. I was then Nashville Bound and LA Bound. Go where music is ‘serious’, and ‘seriously good’. And it was. I came back to Vancouver and was serious about staying in music.

When my parents, friends and fans would direct me proudly to the press…I went from awkwardly sort of embarrassed and laughing to proud (eventually), though that would take months. They were always a thousand times more excited about it that me.  “…enthusiastic persona, with a warm voice where her fans experience a true sense of connection…” Melanie has a special tangible emotive flare and she will move you and laugh with you as her songs tug on your heart”, or “better than coffee and cake”. I was lucky to have so much positive press, without an agent or manager, as in turn it would fuel my fans and my fans help fuel my performance which then trickles down to my music.

So now I am 11 albums deep. I haven’t written much since 2020 so I created recordings of songs and era’s I like. The Christmas album ‘The New Old Fashioned Way” released in 2020 was recorded in North Vancouver in one day, OMG! I worked with the best musicians and friends on that! Next, A Roaring 20’s album called “Barnstormer, Take one”, most of that was live off the floor too. It was like being in and from another era, I ‘felt’ like a flapper. Don’t ask me for too many moves though!

Recently I was asked, what my favourite collections of songs are.  It is the 2015 Release of ‘Lekker Eh’ which is a collection of live recordings from a few combined European concerts and features guitarist David Sinclair. It wasn’t intended to be an album, but he really liked how we sounded on those live show recordings and with  shrug and sly smile say…”Hey, this could be an album you know?”. Years of touring together. I miss him. Cancer cut his life short.

The rest is a world wind! It’s been good fortune, timing, and support from friends that lead to opening for Bryan Adams, Diana Krall, Faith Hill, and for comedian Russell Peters, as well as a concert for President William J. Clinton. 

The Medal of Honour was presented by the Chief of Defence Staff for Canada for the “Wounded Soldier (Fall in )” and my concerts in Afghanistan in 2009. And me? being named Ambassador? Yes 🙂 for the Kinder Hospiz in Germany for presenting and donating sold-out concerts. Making music feels good and it has an infectious power to heal. It’s more than just frequencies.

I work on keeping a good, loving relationship with music. I present a ‘feel-good’ concert perhaps because my guitar playing has a style that digs in when I do, my voice chooses melodies that I like listening too, and I’ve written something that resonates the reflection of human kind.