Singer Melanie De Biasio was born to a Belgian mother and an Italian father. She started learning ballet at age 3, played the flute from age 8 and at twelve enlisted with the Ensemble de l’Harmonie de Charleroi, with which she toured through Canada for a month. After studying at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, she graduated with a distinction degree. Her first album A Stomach Is Burning (2007) and its successor No Deal (2013) both received raving reviews and she was awarded several prestigious Belgian music prizes. But her star also rose abroad: she received the European Border Breakers Award in 2014 and was the very first Belgian artist ever to perform on Later… With Jools Holland. De Biasio’s warm, dark voice has been compared to a mix between Nina Simone and Sade, with a whiff of Velvet Underground. An interesting description for an extraordinary singer. Her new EP Blackened Cities, containing a single track lasting 25 minutes, will be released in May.
