Monaco goes untamed for gala Warehouse show
Mel Monaco had the dancers. She had the fire and floating dance poles. Now, all she needed for her new video were the horses.
She admits she was asking a lot, but the Niagara singer doesn’t believe in setting the bar low. And just when she was thinking about Plan B, there they were: Three horses delivered from Serenity Range in Fonthill, gallantly strutting down the beach.
Even her director was surprised. “I was getting some strange looks, so I looked at him and went, ‘Look, if you don’t aim for up there, you’re not going to be happy when you land here.’ That’s how it was.
“I was okay if the horses didn’t show up, we were going to make it work, and it was going to be just as magnificent. But I was still aiming for (the horses). Fingers were crossed, toes were crossed.”
It was all for the song Untameable, off Monaco’s third album Falling For the Third Time, filmed in October at Fifty Point Conservation Area near Grimsby. Like most of Monaco’s videos, it was an elaborate shoot involving a small army of friends and supporters. But this one – filmed by local production company Foregrounds Media – was big even by her standards.
She figured it required an equally big video release party. On Feb. 3 at the Warehouse Concert Hall in St. Catharines, she’ll gather her band, special guests Theatre Crisp, illusionist Alex Kazam, MC Jacob Bergsma and aerial artist Shanyn Pollard for a three-hour, vaudevillestyle show unlike anything she’s performed before.
“I wanted to do an untamed show, I guess,” she says. “It would have been great to just get up there with just music, but there’s something to be said when you bring in the musicians, the aerial artists, and you put on a performance.
“In my mind, I want to put on a big production. And we can do that right here, locally.”
Monaco has made a local splash since dropping plans for a teaching career. Her blend of rock, pop and soul has yielded three albums, a Niagara Music Award for Best Video (Single Again), and one of the Niagara music scene’s busiest schedules.
Along the way, she has added to her following with a series of pinup calendars. The 2018 version is her fifth.
Monaco is especially close to Untameable and its message of empowerment, especially after months of harassment stories against women in the entertainment industry.
It’s an issue she isn’t unaffected by.
“I’ve seen things, for sure,” she says. “You support as much as you can, but at the end of the day you’ve got to stay strong and know your worth.
“I think I’m speaking for myself and I’m speaking for a lot of women I know. You hear Oprah (Winfrey, at the Golden Globes), and as much as it happened to me, and as much as it happened to people I know, times are changing. The only way is to keep showing strength.”