My Story

I was born in 1986 in the stunning city of Riga, capital of Latvia, often called the little Paris as we have a great amount of Art Nuveau buildings in the city centre. At the time my destiny might have been already decided as we were under suppression of Soviet Union and sometimes when I look back at my life so far I am just grateful for the change that the World saw in late 1980s and early 1990s as my career and life has been solely depending on my family’s blessing and political change that allowed me to travel freely, gain education and work with numerous wonderful people. It is something that we can often take for granted, but in just very recent past people in certain parts of Europe were not allowed to leave the country, express their actual opinion, dream big and attempt to achieve.

Having played various roles in the music and media industries from a young age, I have a wealth of experience from both the ups and downs that anyone working hard experience in their careers. I started my career in music at the age of 12 by taking part in singing competitions and later forming my own self titled teen rock band where I was writing, singing and performing on a national scale. By the age of 15 whilst managing my own career without representation, I had become a household name in my native Latvia, gracing the covers of various magazines such as Cosmopolitan and FHM whilst my songs stayed on rotation on all the major radio and TV stations.

At the age of 16, Meldra joined forces with my guitar virtuoso dad and Latvian rock legend Johnny Salamander. We got to perform with the Liepaja Symphonic orchestra and Latvian National Opera Choir and headlining shows in front of up to 12,000 people at a time. We also worked with Multi Platinum selling Songwriter Producer Robert Wells (Arianna Grande) and Mats Leven (Singer at the Therion, Yngwie Malmsteen).

At the age of 19, I had graduated from Riga French Lyceum and it was time to move to UK to study music at the Academy of Contemporary Music. I ended up taking on a session musician role and working with artists such as Rod Steward, Ce Lo Green and Dappy performing at the Wembley Stadium, Graham Norton Show, Good Morning Britain to name a few.

Following the release of my debut solo album in 2011, the self titled LP received a nomination for the Best Pop Album at the Latvian National Music Awards which opened new doors in the songwriting world.

In 2012, I was signed as a TV Sync Songwriter by US manager Joey Minkes and subsequently spent the next 2 years in Los Angeles during which time I successfully placed songs for various TV shows such as “Hollywood Makeover”, “Cooking California Style”, “Fitness California Style” and “Relax” whilst collaborating constantly with Writers and Producers such as Platinum selling Dale Everingham (Destiny’s Child, E40).

In 2014 I returned to the UK and co-founded Pop Production Company The SongLab where I have taken on the role Managing Director. For the last 10 years I have also been the voice of Fisher Price Toys kids products for the Latvian market working in the Mattel Studios in UK and USA.

From my first interview at the age of 14 for Cosmopolitan, I have done over 300 press, radio and TV interviews to date and have been cover model of 17 major magazines, have performed at over 600 concerts throughout the world and has a wealth of knowledge of running a music career.

My main passion nowadays is songwriting and helping young up and coming artists to find their niche in this ever changing modern day music business. Vocal production is also one of my passions, so there are many productions where I will guide our clients through the performance delivery on recording, will help them/record for them the vocals and backing vocals.