In this fortnight of the Tay-Tay invasion, it’s vital to remember that for most, it’s tough in the arts. Melanie Gall is typical of those performers on the margins, working hard to make a buck. A French-Canadian opera trained singer based in New York, Gall has relied on Canadian Government subsidies and tours of African countries and the Caribbean to keep herself afloat. Gall’s Fringe show, Piaf and Brel – The Impossible Concert(one of several she has developed) is a one-woman show that used to be a two-hander until Gall split with her Brel and decided to continue the show herself. As an illustration of the challenges, Gall was handing out the programs to the punters on arrival. She was also in charge of sound and tech and doing the promotion and cross-selling of her other shows. Gall’s recordings focus on songwriters such as Brel and Gershwin and legendary singers of a bygone era such as Piaf but she’s no mere imitator. She has a light and delightful voice more suited to a Gilbert and Sullivan ingénue than a chanson from the streets. As such, it’s worlds away from Piaf’s guttural voice, one that always sounded like it came from her boots. But the pairing of Brel and Piaf works. Both soared from the peasant class of their day to superstardom and both were dead by their 50th birthdays. Great artists are not always great people. Brel’s greatest song, Ne Me Quitte Pas,in which he begged his lover to take him back, actually did its job – only for Brel to cheat on the lover again. Gall’s set of 13 songs (eight Brel; five Piaf) was mostly the chestnuts people expect, with one or two exceptions that are close to the artist’s heart. From Piaf, we got La Vien en Rose, Milordand the Hymne to Love; from Brel, AmsterdamandVesoul.In between songs, Gall related compelling tales of her connection to the music, including how she began her journey with this music trading a free concert for a restaurant meal in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The show was well executed, and the audience very much appreciated what they had experienced. It was a reminder that for every Tay-Tay, there are millions of equally heroic independent artists persevering in the hope that their ship will come in.