December 10, 2024
Wednesday is going to be a big day for Kingaroy singing star Julee-anne Bell … she’ll be debuting a new show in Brisbane with close friend and fellow musician, Melissa Buchholz.
“Perfectly Imperfect” will premiere at the Toucan Club cabaret and live arts festival at the PIP Theatre in Milton, before heading off to the Adelaide Fringe festival in February.
The show is a mix of music and humour, with Julee-anne and Melissa presenting songs that have touched them during their lives plus stories and recollections shared against a backdrop of photos and short videos prepared by Julee-anne’s husband, Thomas.
The one-hour show in Brisbane will be expanded into a two 40-minute halves for the three Adelaide gigs on February 28 and March 1-2.
“We’ll be singing songs that mattered to us as we grew up … including Janis Ian, Olivia Newton-John, Whitney Houston and Heart,” Julee-anne said.
Outside Kingaroy, Julee-anne is probably best known for her star turn on The Voice Australia in 2021 when she wowed the judges and sang an impromptu duet with Guy Sebastian.
She met Melissa while the Toowoomba-based music teacher was adjudicating at the Kingaroy Eisteddfod.
The idea about doing a show together came about by chance when chatting after another show … but was also inspired by some words shared by South Burnett Mayor Kathy Duff.
“She said ‘You have such a beautiful voice and more than Kingaroy needs to hear it’,” Julee-anne said.
Melissa has been a professional pianist for more than 35 years and has worked nationally and internationally as an accompanist for top musicians.
But she also has another skill, creating backing tracks which when played alongside the piano and voice accompaniment adds depth to the pair’s performances.
Melissa and Julee-anne have been doing week-to-week “turnabout” visits, ie. one session in Toowoomba, one session in Kingaroy, to prepare for their upcoming shows.
After the Brisbane show, Julee-anne will be rushing back to perform at the Kingaroy Christmas Carnival on Thursday.
The next performance of “Perfectly Imperfect” will be at Gatton Shire Hall on December 15 and they’ll be back in Brisbane at the PIP Theatre on December 21.
The South Burnett won’t be missing out, either.
Julee-anne and Melissa have booked the Kingaroy Town Hall for a performance on May 25 where they hope to encourage local residents to take part in some vocal workshops in the morning before joining them on stage at night.
