Melanie Wehbe: Tiny Woman With A Big Voice

I was walking through a clothes shop today in Rome and heard "Rolling In The Deep" (Adele) booming through the speakers. The lack of great music pushed by the major record labels these days creates such an imbalance when a great artist manages to get a great song through the label. A lot of people dislike the song now because it's "overplayed", but honestly, if it's a good song, play it as much as you like. If you don't like it, no one's forcing you to listen to it

Well, where does Melanie Wehbe come in? Hearing the song reminded me of the cover I did on youtube some time in August, 2011. When I managed to upload it I checked out the suggestions that came up on the side of my video and amongst them Melanie Wehbe's cover of "Rolling In The Deep". It had about the same amount of views as mine at the time and I liked her cover so much that I checked it out again the next day, and the day after that and so on. Today, my video has a little over one thousand views, and hers has nearly fifty thousand views. Sometimes views are no indicator of how good a video is but in this situation I have to say that her cover is phenomenal and absolutely blows mine out of the water. Check it out and enjoy her great cover!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ_W7LdJD7w

What adds to the magnificence of Melanie Wehbe is that her guitar seems almost bigger than her, and despite how small she looks and sounds when she speaks, the minute she starts singing, a large and powerful voice explodes from within her. The way she maintains her voice with such stability when she sings the verse of "Rolling In The Deep" only adds to the explosion of the chorus that she performs with such perfection. 

The next cover of hers that I checked out was of Lady Gaga's "Edge Of Glory". She had a few covers up at the time but hearing how incredibly powerful her voice was in "Rolling In The Deep", I wanted to see how strong she could go with the vocal acrobatics of "Edge Of Glory". The introduction to the video is so fantastic and realistic that it only adds to greatness of the cover. So many youtube artists try to cover up their "tricks" through the magic of video editing but Melanie Wehbe avoids the whole issue by just presenting her "trick" (which is of course, the papers with all the lyrics to the song spread across the floor).  Once again, the contrast between Melanie talking and Melanie singing is massive. She turns from a tiny little woman to a huge force of nature the minute she starts singing. My favourite part of the song is when you can hear Melanie's vocal chords pressing against the "edge". Listen to this simplified, beautiful cover of Lady Gaga's masterpiece!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cYjqM9YZpI

Beyond Melanie Wehbe's great covers, she's got a bunch of fantastic originals too. I only wish they'd get as much attention as her covers. Well, as anyone knows I love and admire performances that are stripped down to their core, which is why one of my personal favourites is her song called "Two Little Birds". I was nervous that it would sound like a copy of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" but luckily the only resemblance is in the name. It's a fantastically sweet little song and I recommend it so you can so how pure and simple Melanie Wehbe is with her originals at the core of her sound. But, for anyone who loves a good beat, check out her song called "Irresistible". For now, check out her out on Youtube (MellaBellaMoi) and look her up on Facebook because she's definitely one to follow. Here's her song "Two Little Birds"! Check back tomorrow for another fantastic artist! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmDbc5mYjTw

Alex Hamel