Award-winning jazz singer, Melanie Scholtz, says she is still coming back down to earth after scooping all three prizes at the Jazz a Juan Revelation festival in France, earlier this month. Speaking to East Coast Radio’s Anisa Ussuph, Melanie says winning came as a complete surprise and was a completely overwhelming experience.

The 33 year old from Cape Town adds, “I try to represent South Africa whenever I step on a new stage so I feel really proud that I was the only South Africans in the competition and I won.”

“When I sing jazz I feel completely comfortable and completely at home and it’s a natural way for me to express how I feel. I love jazz because of the sense of freedom it offers and the possibility that things can go ant way. And the fact that you have to trust yourself, the music, the people you work with…it really is a collaborative effort.

Melanie has spent an extensive amount of time oversees and says the experience has taught her valuable lessons. “As South Africans we definitely have what it takes to achieve overseas. I think we just need to keep educating ourselves and keep thinking of ourselves as part of the global stage. I think because we come from a small tip of Africa, we seem to think that everything from overseas is naturally better but we actually have a lot going for us South Africans right now, especially the new generation. So we need to see ourselves as equals of people overseas.”

Scholtz has performed at numerous music festivals nationally and internationally and in August 2009 recorded a live album with Inkala in Vadso at the Varager Jazz Festival in Norway. In February 2010, she was invited to perform in Murmansk, Russia as well as in Norway in 2010.

Article courtesy of East Coast Radio.