VANESSA PALM


Vocalist Vanessa Palm trained as a singer in the Natal Youth Choir, the South African Choir and studied opera with South African sopranos Colleen Philp and Mim Erasmus. She has been singing professionally since 1998, when she sang at Pierre Café in Centurion for six months as part of a two-piece band. Vanessa joined Gavin Langeveldt, Joe Humpsch and JJ Brown of the band Tradewinds, which performed at various corporate functions for clients Revlon and Justine Cosmetics, in Maputo, Mozambique for the 1999 New Year's Eve function at the Alexander Forbes year-end function and for Standard Bank at Glenburn Lodge, as well as at various weddings and private parties.

Vanessa played with Gavin and Cecil Mitchell of Lemon and Limelight for various corporate and club/bar functions, and every Friday night for six months at Tovey's. As a solo artist, Vanessa performed at Sappi's 1999 and 2000 year-end functions at Sun City. She sang with Cecil Mitchell and Sean Butler for the launch of the media company TBM Communications. Vanessa joined McCain for the national launch of their brand in Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg as the singer during their presentation and for the party afterwards. In September 2000 Vanessa joined Vicky Sampson, Robin Walsh and Coleske, and the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Richard Cox for the Jacaranda Pops Concert attended by an audience of 9000 people at Kyalami.

Vanessa's extensive repertoire meets the demands of barmitzvahs, weddings, corporate functions and clubs or pubs. She can sing anything from background music to party, dance and opera numbers including Sarah Brighman's Con te Partiro, Les Miserables' On My Own and Shirley Bassey's Diamond's are Forever. Amongst her classic laid back tunes are Natalie Cole's L-O-V-E, Patsy Cline's Crazy and more currently, Alana Myles' Black Velvet and Paula Cole's Don't Want to Wait. Vanessa performs dance songs from the '80's and specialises in 90's to current music covering Madonna, Shania Twain, Alanis Morisette, Cher, Desiré, Macy Gray, The Corrs, Shakira, Natalie Umbruglia, Nellie Furtada, as well as all of the basics including Gloria Gaynor's I will Survive, the Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams and The Weather Girls It's Raining Men. Vanessa also sings a'capela and in intimate venues and halls her strong vocals carry without a microphone.