"My family was always surrounded by music and singing. My grandmother was teaching me to sing little rounds as soon as I could speak practically, so singing was always second nature."
Malinda Kathleen Reese, also known by her YouTube channel name of simply "Malinda", is an American Singer-Songwriter most famous for her comedy series, Twisted Translations. In addition to her work there, she also produces more serious covers as well as original music.
Her style and genre ranges between videos. While many of them are comedy songs based on a specific gimmick or subject, others are far more serious, often coming with music videos and guest-stars, where her sillier songs tend to just be her singing in front of the camera.
Her first album, Love Letter, was released digitally on September 18th, 2018.
Her channel, "Malinda", can be found here
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Tropes found in her music:
- Disney Villain Death: In "Don't Make Me", the villain is officially killed when he falls off the castle roof mid-swordfight.
- Gloomy Gray: In "An Honest 2020 Christmas Song", there are two Malindas singing: An optimistic one whose segments are in color, and a depressed cynic whose segments are in gray. The video switches color rapidly whenever one of them changes the mood.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: In the music video for "Don't Make Me", the colors of white (heroic) and black (evil) are contrasted throughout. Malinda and her allies are wearing white dresses and undergarments, while the villains are wearing black suits. Meanwhile, whenever the video cuts back to the evil queen version of Malinda, she's wearing a black dress instead, and this morality switch is cemented when she looks in the mirror at the end of the video to see her reflection wearing black.
- Hurricane of Puns: She once wrote a song entirely made up of horrible puns, followed by a sponsor segment also made up of bad puns. The chorus itself said it best:Puns are just like paper, they're tear-ible
Oh, make it stop, they're unbearable - Incompatible Orientation: In her "Embarrassing Facebook Posts" song, one line of the chorus is "Crying because John Mulaney's not gay."
- Innocent Aliens: In one video, Malinda took random suggestions from her audience about a song to create. The song wound up being an "I Want" Song from the perspective of a friendly young alien girl who wants to visit Earth, not as an invader, but as a friend looking to share her knowledge with the humans.
- Interspecies Friendship: One video featured a song about a penguin travelling out of the Arctic in search of a friend, and eventually meeting an Elephant. They're even referred to as "weird cross-species buddies".
- Ms. Fanservice: The video for her original song "How Dare You" has a mild example. The lyrics, and frequent Match Cuts to a more clean-cut persona, suggest that she represents the singer's inner thoughts about a new Love Interest.Youtube commenter: Malinda is the only person who can go from "the girl you saw once in a bookstore and never forgot about" to "speakeasy singer who might have committed a felony" in less than a second.
- Small Start, Big Finish: "More With You" features a chorus and backup band made up of viewers from around the world. At the very start, it's just Malinda singing with some quiet instruments. As the song goes on, more artists join in, culminating in a faster and louder climax with Malinda herself belting the lyrics.
