Melanie Fiona

Guyanese-Canadian singer and songwriter Melanie Fiona complements her rich soprano voice with a throwback sound rooted primarily in classic R&B. Although she started with house and reggae singles under the alias Syren, she quickly settled into mature contemporary R&B material with "Give It to Me Right" (2009), a Top 20 pop hit in Canada. That and the Top 40, Grammy-nominated follow-up "It Kills Me" highlighted The Bridge, Fiona's first album. "Fool for You," a subsequent duet with Cee Lo Green, made her a winner of multiple Grammys before she issued her second album The MF Life (2012), featuring the hit "4 AM" (which went gold in the U.S.) and the Grammy-nominated "Wrong Side of a Love Song." Fiona went on hiatus after plans for her third album were abandoned, but she returned the next decade with the retro-contemporary soul ballad "Say Yes" and the lilting, reggae-flavored "I Choose You."

Born Melanie Fiona Hallim, the singer grew up in inner-city Toronto. She developed a passion for music at an early age, influenced by groups and artists such as the Ronettes and Whitney Houston. Though she was active as a performer as early as 2002 -- she was a member of the groups X-Quisite and the Renaissance, the latter of which featured Drake -- her first recordings didn't arrive until 2007-2008. "Somebody Come Get Me," a reggae single issued under the alias Syren on the Black Chiney label, was featured on the Reggae Gold 2008 compilation, and it helped her get signed to Universal Motown. The same year, she was an opening act on Kanye West's European tour, which was especially notable because she had yet to release an album.

In 2009, Fiona released her debut single, "Give It to Me Right," which sampled "Time of the Season" by the Zombies years before Miguel referred to it. Fiona's melismatic and dynamic vocal propelled the single to number 20 on the Canadian Hot 100, in addition to a placement on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart. Her debut album, The Bridge, was released in May 2009, and went Top Five R&B/Hip-Hop (number 25 on the main Canadian album chart). Its greatest success was the follow-up to "Give It to Me Right," "It Kills Me," which topped the R&B/hip-hop chart, went Top 40 in Canada, and earned Fiona her first Grammy nomination (for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance).

Subsequent collaborations included a featured role on John Legend and the Roots' update of "Wake Up Everybody," which was Grammy-nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, and a co-written duet with Cee Lo Green, "Fool for You," which won Grammys for Best R&B Song and Traditional R&B Performance. On the heels of that success, Fiona's second album, The MF Life, was released in March 2012. It debuted in the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 and was highlighted by the RIAA-certified gold single "4 AM." "Gone and Never Coming Back," another song of heartache, won a Juno Award, while "Wrong Side of a Love Song" earned the singer her fifth Grammy nomination. Over the next few years, Fiona worked on a third album, but it was ultimately scrapped. She took a lengthy hiatus from the music industry and reappeared in 2024 with the independently issued "Say Yes" and "I Choose You." ~ Matthew Chisling & Andy Kellman