Melody Castellari

Melody Castellari is an Italian female singer and producer. Born on 10 June, 1975 in Bologna (BO), she is the daughter of Corrado Castellari and Norina Piras.

Castellari began her career in the 80s as a child, interpreting cartoon songs. At 15 she started working as a backing vocalist and in addition to working on unreleased solo projects, she also lent her voice to various dance music projects. As confirmed in an interview, her vocal contributions were mostly uncredited and she would almost never appear publicly. Notable exceptions are early works like “Zombie” by A.D.A.M. and “Talk to Me” by D.E.A.R., where she is seen dancing and singing in the music videos. As a studio vocalist she recorded tracks for multiple projects on New Music International and under the S.A.I.F.A.M. umbrella, some of them partially or completely in French (examples include two singles by Labelle and “Tango” by Zivago). For New Music International she also recorded the international hit “Inside to Outside” by the Lady Violet project, but Francesca Messina was chosen to be the public Lady Violet persona. As Messina recorded the rest of the Lady Violet songs herself, Melody Castellari became the new voice of Noemi Dee, Messina’s original alter ego.

As a songwriter, Melody Castellari has written music for artists like Fabrizio De André, Mina, Milva and Ornella Vanoni. As a solo artist she has released an album called “Vorrei” in the pop genre (in 1998) and a couple of singles in various genres. In 2002 she played “Princess Nefertari” in the musical “The Ten Commandments”, produced by Guido and Maurizio de Angelis. On 4 August the same year she performed at Castel Gandolfo in memory of Pope John Paul II. In recent years she has also started working as a producer, while also continuing her work as backing vocalist for both Italian and International artists (Elio e le Storie Tese, Brazilian Love Affair, Nick the Nightfly, Fiordaliso, Flubby, Time Machine etc.) and as lead vocalist for dance projects. In addition to her solo career, Melody Castellari has her own band in the alternative rock genre, called Melody Squad.