- Noted pop and folk singer, performed at the original Woodstock rock festival in 1969.
- Recorded several hit records in the late 1960s and early 1970s including "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) which peaked at # six on the Billboard charts and "Brand New Key" which hit # one.
- Melanie resided in the Nashville, Tennessee area.
- Her favorite songs are "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay" by Otis Redding, "Down To Zero" by Joan Armatrading, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" by The Shirelles, "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood, "Avalon" by Roxy Music, "Sea Of Love" by Marty Wilde, "I'm Going To Make You Love Me" by Diana Ross /The Supremes/The Temptations, "God Bless The Child" by Billie Holiday, "Fairytale Of New York" by Kirsty MacColl & The Pogues and "I Think It's Going To Rain Today" by Randy Newman. (Source: BBC Radio 2 "Tracks of My Years").
- In the 1960s, Melanie started performing at The Inkwell, a coffee house in the West End section of Long Branch.
- Melanie identified herself politically as a libertarian, stating: "I'm a total Libertarian, and I am not a Democrat, a Socialist, or a Republican.".
- Melanie Safka attended Long Branch High School. Bothered by being pegged by her classmates as a "beatnik" in school, she ran away to California and, after her return to New Jersey, transferred to Red Bank High School in Red Bank, New Jerse.
- After high school, her parents insisted that she go to college, so she studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, where she began singing in the folk clubs of Greenwich Village, such as The Bitter End, and signed her first recording contract.
- In 1989 Melanie won an Emmy Award for writing the lyrics to "The First Time I Loved Forever", the theme song for the TV series Beauty and the Beast.
- She graduated in 1964, though she was blocked from attending her commencement exercise due to an overdue library book.
- She recorded "Psychotherapy", sung to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", which parodies aspects of Freudian psychoanalysis. It has been played on The Dr. Demento Show.
- She has two daughters, Leilah (born October 3, 1973) and Jeordie (born March 27, 1975), and a son, Beau Jarred (born September 11, 1981).
- She has two grandchildren.
- Melanie Safka was an American singer-songwriter.
- In 1976 Melanie released one album on Atlantic Records, Photograph, which was overseen by Ahmet Ertegun. The album was praised by The New York Times as one of the year's best, although it was largely ignored by the public. It was re-issued on CD in 2005 with an additional disc of unreleased material.
- Melanie had a top-40 hit single in 1973 with "Bitter Bad", a song that marked a slight departure from the hippie sentiments of earlier hits (with lyrics such as "If you do me wrong I'll put your first and last name in my rock n' roll song"). Other chart hits during this period were the self-penned "Together Alone" and a cover of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow". In 1973, Melanie started to retreat from the spotlight to begin a family.
- In 1976 Melanie appeared at the tribute concert for Phil Ochs, who had committed suicide on April 9 that year. Held on May 28 at New York City's Felt Forum, Melanie performed an emotional version of Ochs' song "Chords of Fame" and his "Miranda". She had appeared with Ochs on stage in 1974 at his Evening with Salvador Allende concert (also held at the Felt Forum), along with Dave Van Ronk, Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan and others.
- On New Year's Eve 2019, she performed on the BBC's Jools' Annual Hootenanny.
- Her father, Frederick M. Safka (1924-2009), was of Ukrainian ancestry, and her mother, jazz singer Pauline "Polly" Altomare (1926-2003), was of Italian heritage.
- With one exception, her albums were produced by her husband, Peter Schekeryk, who died suddenly in 2010.
- She is widely known for the 1971-72 global hit "Brand New Key"; her 1970 version of "Ruby Tuesday", which was originally written and recorded by the Rolling Stones, her composition "What Have They Done to My Song Ma"; and her 1970 international breakthrough hit "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" (inspired by her experience of performing at the 1969 Woodstock music festival).
- Melanie was a vegetarian in the early 1970s; she also practiced fasting.
- Melanie received the Sandy Hosey Lifetime Achievement Award at the Artists Music Guild's 2015 AMG Heritage Awards on November 14, 2015, in Monroe, North Carolina.
- Melanie identified herself politically as a libertarian, stating: "I'm a total Libertarian, and I am not a Democrat, a Socialist, or a Republican." For a time, at the beginning of her career, Melanie was a follower of Meher Baba and this influenced some of her songs (such as "Love to Lose Again" and "Candles in the Rain"). She stated that, in 2006, she underwent a life-altering experience with Mata Amritanandamayi or Amma ("Mother") as she is also known, or as the "hugging saint" from India, which inspired Melanie to write "Motherhood of Love".
- Melanie made her first public singing appearance at age four on the radio show Live Like A Millionaire, performing the song "Gimme a Little Kiss".
- She was one of only three solo women who performed at the Woodstock festival in 1969 and the inspiration for her first hit song, "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)", apparently arose from the Woodstock audience lighting candles during her set.
- When she became an official UNICEF ambassador in 1972, she agreed to forego a world tour in favor of raising money for the organization.
- In 1983 Melanie wrote the music and lyrics for a theatrical musical, Ace of Diamonds, with a book by Ed Kelleher and Seymour Vall, based on a series of letters written by Annie Oakley. Though never fully produced, several staged readings were performed at the Lincoln Center starring Melanie as the narrator and pop singer and actress Annie Golden as Oakley.
- She was awarded Billboard's No. 1 Top Female Vocalist award for 1972.
- In 2012, Melanie headlined at the 15th annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, along with Arlo Guthrie and Judy Collins. The festival is held annually in mid-July to celebrate the life and music of legendary singer-songwriter and folk musician Woody Guthrie.
- In 2007 Melanie was invited by Jarvis Cocker to perform at the Meltdown Festival at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Her sold-out performance received critical acclaim, with The Independent saying, "it was hard to disagree that Melanie has earned her place alongside Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell and Marianne Faithfull in the pantheon of iconic female singers. Meltdown was all the better for her presence." The concert was filmed for a DVD titled Melanie: For One Night Only, which was released in October 2007.
- She was awarded two gold albums (and a gold single for "Brand New Key"), and three of her compositions were hits for The New Seekers.
- In June 2014, she toured Australia for the first time since 1977.
- Member of the Libertarian Party.
- Initially signed to Columbia Records in the United States, Melanie released two singles on the label. Subsequently, she signed with Buddah Records and first found chart success in Europe in 1969 with "Bobo's Party" which reached No. 1 in France.
- Melanie Safka is also well known for her musical adaptations of children's songs, including "Alexander Beetle" and "Christopher Robin".
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