Downunda Thunda Radio ~ Featured ArtistS

MADELINA
'Be Sweet'

Since Madelina was born she always had a devotion to music, from an early age she was exposed to the music of some of the world’s greatest musicians such as Nina Simone, Nat King Cole and Grace Jones. She would be sitting under her mother’s easel, just happy to listen as her mother (An artist) would spend hours painting away quietly. As a young girl she showed signs of becoming a performer, often nominating her self as stage manager, choreographer, musical director and main actress in all of her in house productions. Through her early formative years, her parents encouraged her to take classical violin lessons, which she did for eight years, starting on a 1/8 sized violin. She progressed to being called a gifted violinist and most of the gift was in her interpretation of the music she was given to play. It was also discovered that she had a perfect ear. But really in her heart, she just wanted to sing and play the piano. So this is when the perfect ear enabled her to begin teaching herself to play the piano. She eventually, in her later secondary school years, followed this with formal piano lessons and voice training, predominately in the style of jazz.

Madelina had a stellar musical carrier at Geelong Grammar School, where she took Jazz as a subject in years eleven and twelve. In 2005, she was entered into the “Kool Skools” competition and was awarded best original Jazz Composition for her song “Smoke in the City”, along with “Best Jazz band” in Victoria; she was then selected to perform on the awards night. Also in 2005 Madelina entered the Musicoz Awards: Australia’s premier music awards for unsigned and independent artists and made it into the top 5. Along with this she also received a perfect score in VCE music and was invited to perform at Top Acts, also in 2005. Madelina’s former teacher and Head of Jazz Studies at Geelong Grammar School, Paul Rettke believes that her songs are some of the strongest he has ever heard from a year 12 student and that she “deserves all the success she can achieve”.

One of Madelina’s memorable moments was getting the chance to perform her rendition of S’wonderful (her favorite cover song), with Australia’s very own Don Burrows AO, MBE at a school concert in her final year.

Since finishing school Madelina has focused more on her songwriting and has branched out and broadened her style of singing, from traditional Jazz, to a more alternative and contemporary styles, which she describes as very “Chilled”, just like her. Madelina has performed at a number of Public events over the past few years, including charity and open garden events as well as in hotels and Jazz clubs, both in Australia and China.

In late 2007 Madelina spent time in New York to explore the Jazz scene and has recently returned back home feeling more inspired than ever. She just completed recording a Cd which she entitled “Pink Sky at Night”. This Cd consists of six her own compositions, most of them written over the past 6 months. It has a soulful feel to it and as Madelina says “it’s from the heart”.

Madelina is currently attending Aus Music College (in her home town of Melbourne), which operates in conjunction with the Music Factory. She is also listed as an artist on triple j unearthed and has had all three entered songs in the top 20 of the Indie charts and also on the top 100 charts. Madelina was also a featured artist of the week on the Sydney based 2SER’s radio program ‘Departure Lounge’ in mid March.