Who is Melanie Rutherford?

I found out about this article from an email alert and I'd never heard of this sister or her story. It's an interesting read and because she's a curvy girl...ya KNOW I gotta spread the word....

This excerpt is from an article in The Metro Times:

"Though Melanie doesn't yet have so much as a Wikipedia page, let alone a chart-topping hit under her belt, she has an impressive list of completed projects in the pipe for 2009 that include vocal and writing work for Black Milk, Vesta Williams, Redman, Rahzel of the Roots, Dru Hill, Pharoahe Monch, Day 26, LeToya and American Idol finalist Lakisha Jones. It's probably premature to call her Warren's chocolate nemesis, but there's no denying her rising influence."

"With a voice that's a golden ticket and a knack for hookcraft that has established artists nationwide seeking out an unknown from Pontiac, what, if anything, is blocking Melanie Rutherford from being the next Keri Hilson or Beyoncé — supra-glam diva beings as comfortable writing their own hits as dolling it up for their magazine cover?

Is it as simple as the impossible standards of a weight- and youth-obsessed buying public holding a true beauty down?

(Rutherford recalls that when she was first discovered and flown to New York, the label execs she met with "didn't know what to do with me. You know, 'cause I'm plus-sized.")

Or is it simply an issue of finding peace with herself?

Of Rutherford becoming comfortable in herself akin to the way that a starlet like Jennifer Hudson or a hip-hop mogul like Missy Elliott can have it all and keep those curves?

Seeing her at ease within the familiar walls of Bravo Coney Island is a glimpse of a Melanie Rutherford at her most relaxed, and therefore most powerful. But the real revelation comes whenever she opens her mouth to sing that melody that just popped into her head, and everything else melts away before the completeness of her talent. She knows her gift is her refuge. "The only place I feel free at is onstage," she says. "That's the realest place."

To read the Metro Times article in full: Click here

To hear Melanie Rutherford's music: Click here

"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." - Confucius