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Reference > Erinsborough News > I Don't Have A Very Good Voice

As Melissa Bell flies into Britain to record her debut single she confesses: I don’t have a very good voice!

When Lucy Robinson waves goodbye to Ramsay Street this month, don’t shed too many tears, because the hot news is that Lucy will return!

“I’m going back for the 2000th episode,” explains Melissa Bell. “That’s one of the great things about playing Lucy, she can always come back.”

Lucy flies out of Erinsborough shortly for a new life in Singapore where she’s landed a contract with a top model agency. “It’s funny,” says Melissa. “But I think that was what she originally said she wanted to do, and then she went through about sixteen career changes before landing that particular job!”

Modelling is just one of the traits Mel shares with her Neighbours character, as she started out in showbusiness by winning a beauty contest. “I’m quite a lot like Lucy,” says Melissa. “I think in any soap you end up putting a lot of yourself into your character. It’s up to you how you act your lines, so your own personality always comes out.”

And like Lucy, Melissa too has a very close relationship with the guy who plays her screen boyfriend, Scott Michaelson. But despite rumours in the Australian press that the two of them have been seen smooching in public, and even though she concedes that “he’s got a good body,” Melissa insists: “Scott and I are just close friends. There’s nothing else.”

Melissa is currently seeing a record industry exec from New York. “But it’s not serious yet,” she says. “There’s no gossip to tell, it’s very early on.”

As well as starting a new relationship, Mel is about to launch two new careers. She’s currently in London where she’s paving the way for a successful move into the world of pop music. “We’re listening to some songs at the moment. I’d like to do something really current. I’m a big fan of Madonna, so I wouldn’t mind doing something like that.”

But even if the songs Melissa chooses are number one material, she still has one major hurdle to overcome. “I don’t have a very good voice,” she confesses.

Melissa is also planning to host her own chat show. “I’m really excited about it,” she says. “When I go back to Australia to film Neighbours at the end of July, I’ll record that too. It sounds like it’s going to be great – we record each show at a different location in Australia.”

Melissa’s the perfect person to host a chat show because she can call on all her mates to be guests. “Yeah, I’ll be having my mates on for a good old chat.”

All this means that Mel hasn’t had a chance to miss E Street, the show she went to after leaving Neighbours. “It’s a real shame,” she says of its axeing. Still, Melissa promises the storylines will keep us hooked until the very last episode. “I can’t tell you exactly what happens, but Max proposes to my character Bonnie, but you’ll have to wait to see if she says ‘Yes’.”

This article originally appeared in Inside Soap magazine, dated July 1993

Article submitted by Steve