Melinda Hughes interview

Opera singer and cabaret star Melinda Hughes is heading to the Fringe accompanied by a live jazz trio. Her show Off The Scale is billed as "a sophisticated romp through social and political satire, packed with provocative original songs." What's not to love?

Let's get a few details from the star herself:

What can we expect from your show?

Off The Scale is a musical hour of social and political satire. Expect some great music and lots of laughs, a range of different style of music, a curveball story and of course a rousing sing-a-long at the end!

We love a good sing-a-long! Will there be any improvised jamming with your live jazz trio?

Most of the songs are set, but there are two opportunities for the band to shine. Our last song is a big rousing number where the band actually turn on me (I don't want to give too much away).

There will be plenty of musical jokes in the show too and the links are substantial stand-up. Many of our songs are in different in style like jazz, country, classical, rock ballad, so you'll certainly hear how talented and versatile they are. I imagine once we relax into the show that more musical jokes and improvisation will creep in. It always does!

What is your inspiration behind the show?

Politics, life and people. As a satirist we've never had it so good; there's no end of material; Trump, Brexit, Boris Johnson - all easy targets of course, so I write plenty of social satire; making fun of cultural trends like taking selfies, hipsters, internet trolls and TV programmes such as Love Island. I basically sing about everything that really annoys me and that's quite a long list! Satire is a musical or comic way of taking a mirror to politics and society declaring 'isn't this mad? Aren't we being ridiculous?' Satire should certainly make you laugh but it should also be thought-provoking.

So what type of political satire can we be expecting?

Apart from the political satire, which is a given, I do a few characters; I have a song called Old Fashioned Guy about a sex-pest cowboy and my Melania Trump character has become a regular feature in my London shows. I never meant for it to happen really but she's so easy and fun to do.

Melania's diary snippets are also a more novel way of attacking the Trump regime. Since we don't know her so well, there's more scope to imagine anything we want about her.

In my show she's trying to kill Donald off with various ingenious methods, all of which inevitably fail. The other main inspiration is music, of course. I have been an opera singer for twenty years but I had an accident about 12 years ago which forced me to take a different direction so I turned more to cabaret and comedy incorporating my first love which is jazz. I still sing opera and love to write about the operatic world. There's lots to make fun of there but its probably too niche for the Fringe.

What's your go-to karaoke song?

It has to be Respect by Aretha Franklin! Anything that I wouldn't normally sing myself. I try to stay away from karaoke as you just can't take me off that microphone!

See Melinda Hughes: Off the Scale at Assembly George Street throughout the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 1st - 25th August at 4:50pm. Info & Tickets