1983–2006: Early life and career beginnings

Melanie Fiona Hallim (who goes by Melanie Fiona professionally) was born on July 4, 1983, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.^[3][4] She is the daughter and second child of Guyanese immigrant parents, who immigrated to Canada in the late 1970s.^[3][5] Her parents are of Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese, and Portuguese descent.^[1] Her father was a janitor before working in finance, and her mother worked in banking.^[3] Fiona began writing songs at age 16.^[6] Living in a music-filled household, Fiona says she always knew music was her passion. Her father was a guitarist in a band and would allow her to sit on the stage when she was younger as he would play. In 2002, Fiona was part of a girl group called X-Quisite^[7] alongside Nicole Holness and Nirvana Savoury. Signed to Warner Music Canada, the group released their self-titled debut studio album X-Quisite in 2003. At the 2004 Juno Awards, the group was nominated as one of five finalists for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year for the album X-Quisite. The group had a number of singles from the album, notably "Bad Girl" and "No Regrets". The group disbanded in 2005.

She was also in a group called The Renaissance with rapper Drake. Early in her career, she would perform at nightclubs in Toronto.^[8] In 2005, Fiona traveled to Los Angeles, in search of a recording contract. According to Fiona, record labels "loved" the way she looked and sung, but she "knew that the minute I worked with them or would have signed with them, they would have tried to change me into someone else completely different. That was something that I didn't want to do."^[7] She went on to co-write songs for recording artists Rihanna and Kardinal Offishall,^[7] working with, amongst others, super producer Mike City.^[9] Fiona also recorded the reggae song "Somebody Come Get Me" under the stage name Syren Hall, which was included in the Reggae Gold 2008 compilation album.^[10][11]

2007–2010: The Bridge

Fiona performs in Bern, Switzerland at the club Bierhübeli in 2009.

Entrepreneur Steve Rifkind discovered and signed Fiona to SRC Records and Universal Motown through Title 9 Productions in 2007.^[3][7] She went on to tour with Kanye West in his Glow in the Dark Tour^[10] Prior to completing her debut album, Fiona met with recording artist Jay-Z and his friend Tyty. She played them some of her music and was then signed to be managed by Roc Nation.^[12] She released her debut album, The Bridge, in June 2009, which has sold 248,000 copies in the United States.^[10] Beyond Race Magazine ranked Fiona among "50 Emerging Artists" of 2009.^[13] Several singles were released from the album, including "It Kills Me", which topped the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for 10 weeks and earned her a Grammy Award nomination at the 52nd Grammy Awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.^[7][8] Other singles that were released were "Sad Songs" was released in April 2009 in the UK only as a digital download, with the reggae-tinged songs "Somebody Come Get Me" and "Island Boy" as B-sides. "Sad Songs" did not chart in the UK. "Give It to Me Right" was the first official single from The Bridge. The song peaked at #41 in the UK but failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. It did, however, reach #57 on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

"Monday Morning" charted in Switzerland and Poland at number 1 and in Austria at number 5. It was released as the third U.S. single, however, "Bang Bang"^[14] was sent to radio as the second Canadian single for Canadian top 40 & hot AC play. Due to "Priceless" not being released in Canada, "Monday Morning" served as the fifth single in Canada, due to hot adult contemporary radio station CKZZ-FM (Virgin Radio 953) in Vancouver having the song on its playlist. "Ay Yo" was released as the fourth official single from The Bridge, according to Fiona's website and Twitter. The music video for the song premiered on April 12, 2010. "Priceless" would be the fifth U.S. single, due to airplay on urban adult contemporary stations. Due to "Priceless" not being released in Canada, "Monday Morning" was released to Canadian stations as the fifth single, even though "Monday Morning" appeared as the third American single. The album spawned six singles including "It Kills Me", which landed at number 47 on the top 100 charts and reached the top spot on US R&B chart.

Fiona participated in "We Are the World 25 for Haiti" to benefit after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. She also began touring with Alicia Keys as an opening act on The Freedom Tour in 2010.^[15]

2011–present: The MF Life and Awake

In 2011, Fiona began recording her second studio album. The lead single was titled "Gone and Never Coming Back." It peaked at 37 on the US R&B chart becoming her second highest peaking song on the R&B chart so far. Later on that year, Fiona released her second single, "4 AM", which was sent to urban stations on August 30, 2011.^[16] "4 AM", a song about a lover who had gone out and was cheating on her, peaked on the US R&B chart at #8. It also made the top 100 charts. Fiona's album, The MF Life, was released on March 20, 2012.^[17][18][19]

On January 2, 2012, she performed "O Canada" at the NHL Winter Classic between the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers at Citizens Bank Park.^[20]

As a newly independent artist, Fiona announced she was working on her third album Awake in October 2013. During this time, she released the single "Cold Piece". On May 12, 2015, she premiered a new song and lyric video "Bite the Bullet", which was set to appear on her new album in 2016.^[21][22] "I feel like sometimes people know my songs but haven’t gotten the opportunity to know me" Fiona told the VIBE. "I want to make people feel good and I want people to feel that they are not alone, that this album and me as an artist represent a voice for people to feel like 'Yeah, that is the life we’re living and we’re living it together so let’s do our part to move forward positively, and do some really great things while we are alive here" she added. In September 2015, Fiona announced two more tracks for the album: "I Tried" – the first song written for the album, and "Killing Time", which she wrote after a break up with her boyfriend. As of 2024, Awake has yet to be released.

Voice

Fiona is a dramatic soprano.^[27] Her voice has been referred to as being both "soulful" and "sassy."^[27] Some have praised her vocals for being "very passionate, but clean and controlled, and not over-the-top singing."^[28]

Musical style and influences

Fiona cites Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, Sam Cooke, Sade, Amy Winehouse, India.Arie, Patsy Cline and Bob Marley as her musical influences.^[5][6][11] Furthermore, she mentioned Brandy as major inspiration,^[29] naming her the only artist that had her starstruck next to Prince.^[30] She also cited Janet Jackson's career as inspirational, who she called an icon.^[31] She called Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill the album that changed her perspective, calling it an "amazing body of work".^[6] She attributes her parents for her vintage sound. Her father was a guitarist in a band, while her mother would sing around the house. She explained that "[m]y parents were big music lovers and played soul music all the time", who would play The Supremes, The Ronettes and Cooke, as well as Caribbean music like soca, calypso and reggae.^[3][32]

Fiona's occasional songwriting revolves around her personal experiences. She stated that she attempts to "keep [the songs] as universal as possible, unless I am writing about something very personal, even then the themes are universal".^[5] She has received comparisons to Amy Winehouse, Lauryn Hill, Macy Gray, Chrisette Michele, Marsha Ambrosius and Jill Scott.^[33]