FERGUS – A song that Fergus musician Mela Bee wrote in her pajamas at two in the morning has her off to Hollywood for an international awards show.
Dance and Cry is the first single from Bee’s upcoming debut album, and it has recently earned her a nomination in the Singer/Songwriter category at the Hollywood Independent Music Awards (HIMAs) set for July 30.
Spawned from the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, the HIMAs nominate artists not signed to a major record label, and awards are fully decided by judges, and not influenced by streams or other numerical metrics.
Dance and Cry is a breakup song. Bee, who is in a relationship with fiance Dakota Buck, said it required some imagination to write authentically.
“I just kind of embodied what it would be like to be breaking up with my current partner. Meanwhile, he’s in the room next door,” Bee said with a laugh.
In fact, Buck performs live with Bee, and is the guitarist on Dance and Cry, as well as her upcoming album.
Bee said she submitted her song to the HIMAs a few months ago, and had forgotten all about it.
Luckily, she checked her junk folder one morning and saw the good news. She was in disbelief at first.
“I made sure it was legit, and then allowed myself to be really excited,” said Bee.
She will be attending the award show in Los Angeles on July 30.
Bee officially released Dance and Cry on June 6, but has been playing the song live for some time now. The song was written a few years ago, and since then Bee said it has become a crowd favourite in her sets.
She frequently plays in Centre Wellington and Guelph. Her frequent gigs in the area, as well as a strong small-town artistic scene, were the reasons she moved to Fergus.
But Bee has also made a name for herself playing live digitally.
Bee performs live on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) using the “Spaces” feature. It allows people to host and participate in live audio broadcasts on X.
She explained there’s a music scene on X Spaces, where people host what are essentially digital open mic nights.
“It feels like a jam circle where each person on the panel … all take turns playing a song, so it’s a great place to practice and to get feedback in real time,” she said.
Bee, who has amassed over 19,000 followers on X, said her goal for the official recording of Dance and Cry was to preserve the raw and acoustic sound that defines her live performances, where many fans heard it for the first time.
“A lot of people expressed to me, like they didn’t want me to forfeit the authenticity of the song for high production quality, because that’s kind of happened in the past,” said Bee.
“I’ve dabbled with different production styles, and I’ve leaned kind of pop. With this song, it’s me kind of getting back to my roots.”
She added, “It was my first release where I felt like I was actually releasing a song that was purely me.”
Bee plans to release a new single titled One Thing (Not You) on July 28, and plans to release her full album in the fall.
She will be performing in Fergus on Aug. 20 as part of the Twilight at Templin concert series.
