Your Music
Up and Coming Artist Profile: Melisa Prestianni-Tully
Inspiration and compassion is a normal part of Melisa Prestianni-Tully’s everyday life. When she’s not inspiring and enchanting her audience through her music, she works as a service coordinator for the elderly. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Melisa showed her musical abilities at an early age, strumming her first guitar at the age of four.
She spent her teenage years growing up in New Jersey, where she lived next door to her grandfather, George Ourganian, who helped Melisa build her spiritual foundation. In addition to passing down his musical genes, she recalls how her grandfather read and preached the Word to her. As with most teenagers, his teachings seemed like a burden at the time, but Melisa understands that it was her grandfather’s steadfast prayers and love for her that led her to the very place she is today. She will always be grateful for him, and her prayer is that she could give the joy, peace and love she found in Christ to others as her grandfather had so lovingly shared with her.
As Melisa grew in her faith, she realized that the musical talents she possessed were a gift from God, and felt a calling in her heart to use this gift to glorify Him. She made her singing debut in her family’s coffee shop and, while in her late twenties, started playing at coffee houses and restaurants across the NY/NJ/PA area.
She recalls praying and asking God to fill her with the exact words that He would want her to sing. Melisa had the conviction that God was using her music to bring forth His unconditional and perfect love to those who had ears to hear. With God’s grace and the help of her then fiancé and a close friend, she wrote, composed, recorded and released her first album, Overwhelmed With Love, in 2006.
“My prayer was to touch everyone,” she states simply, “but especially the non-believer. I named this album ‘Overwhelmed With Love’ because that’s exactly what I felt… overwhelmed and flooded with the Lord’s love and it changed my whole life.”
Rather than aiming to conform to current contemporary Christian music trends, Melisa’s music has an “old school” feel, beautiful in its simplicity and honesty. Her vocals resonate with compassion and are complimented by a modest arrangement of acoustic guitars, strings, keys and occasional wind and horn instruments. Her music has a timeless quality that transcends the boundaries of the Christian music genre. In some parts of the country, you’re more likely to hear her music on a secular adult contemporary music station than on one of today’s Christian rock stations. The passion and strength in her voice and the accessibility of her music made it appealing to mainstream radio in other parts of the world as well. Shortly after being available for online sales at CDBaby, Overwhelmed With Love received extremely favorable reviews from Christian and secular music critics alike. Before long, Melisa had become an international minister of love, as her music was making waves overseas in Europe and Asia. The album received much attention in places like Australia, London, France, Spain, Germany, and the Philippines, among other places.
Believing that God was using her music to bring forth His unconditional and perfect love to listeners, she was inspired to record her sophomore album, Reign Down, which was released in 2007. “God truly led me with this album and every note, every chord and every word was inspired by Him,” says Melisa. “Each song is an individual testimony and it's my prayer that you share this collection of music with those in need of comfort, healing and peace.” Melisa is currently back in the studio recording her third album, which is due to release in the spring of 2010.
Melisa has many hopes for the upcoming years. “All you have to do is look around you. Who’s hurting, who feels not loved, who feels depressed and alone, who’s having financial difficulties, health problems, the list goes on and on. I always knew the Lord had a purpose behind all of it, from the release of the albums, down to every last word we wrote. This is the perfect time for these albums to come out. The time is NOW! It’s time to bring restoration and hope to all people and most importantly bring the message of God’s love.” 
www.melisaprestianni.com