Melissa started performing with Scarlett last year at our performance for Action for AIDS at Fort Canning Park. She is no stranger to the stage, having been a frequent singer at weddings and at church where she is an active member. Supported by her distinct and strong vocal process, she has a penchant for indie, folk and soft rock music.
Melissa is what we will call an all-rounder. Professionally, she is a program producer with Asia’s most prominent and well respected news channel (guess which one?). To bring educational and worldly programs to you and me, she has traveled to exotic destinations such as Uzbekistan (how many of you know someone who’s actually been there??), India, China and Japan. A keen athlete, Melissa is also a force to reckon with on the tennis courts. She brings to the courts her determination, focus, competitiveness and sportsmanship that has been honed over most of her life.
The most intriguing thing about Melissa is her split-personality. One moment, she is conversing in the most impeccable and proper American English; the next moment, she is propping up her leg and rambling in Hokkien (a form of Chinese dialect, preferred by a large majority of Straits Chinese and taxi drivers/gangsters/hawkers). This streak in nature has earned her the irrefutable title of “Ang Moh Lian” (not to be confused with “Ang Moh Liu Lian”, which is a local slang for Soursop, the fruit) - a Foreign Ah-Lian. Having come out of the closet (one disputes that she’s ever been in the closet), she is proud to inject a shot of “Ah-Lian-ness” into Scarlett.
(“Ang Moh” is a local slang reserved for foreigners, typically westerners; and an Ah-Lians are… typically ethnic Chinese girls with the tendency to dye their hair copper brown, invest in Jap street fashion, pose for pictures with a “peace sign” and speak Hokkien with a high pitched voice).
Watch Melissa bring on the grooves and the rock factor at Concert for a Cause: Scarlett Rocks for aidha at TAB on April 8, Friday!
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