Community & Business
16 September, 2025
Perfectly imperfect steal hearts
Schoolkids from Oakey, Dalby and Pittsworth performed in a massed choir, at the Oakey Cultural Centre recently, but it was Perfectly Imperfect duo Julee-anne Bell and Melissa Bucholz who produced tears and cheers from the audience.
Music teachers and stars of the show Melissa Bucholz and Julee-anne Bell started the concert, leading the children in renditions of heart-moving 1960s hits “Make Your Own Kind of Music” and Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want to Be with You”.
Julee-anne had stunned Australian television viewers in 2021 with her rendition of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, on The Voice Australia and repeated the dose here in Oakey.
The pair performed popular songs from different periods of their lives, intermingling beautiful music with personal stories about what they were doing when the hits, such as “Hooked on a Feeling” from Ally McBeal, came out.
Julee-anne spoke movingly about the bullying she had experienced growing up as a blind person with perfect pitch at high school in Brisbane.
Melissa, originally from Grafton, by contrast had a much more comfortable upbringing, but came to Toowoomba after a diagnosis of breast cancer.
In 2024, she visited Oakey with vocalist and fellow Graftonite Meg Kiddle for a vocal workshop and concert.
The instrumentalists from that concert “the Fab Five” George, Nick, Hamish, Sam and Harry were back for this performance, showing off their musical talents.
Mel played her parts on a mock piano, which had been constructed by an Oakey local Lucas Kummerow last year using a hollow timber frame coated with an automotive finish, with the music stand base, and the brass lid fittings 3D printed at home.
The massed school choir came back on stage for a strong finale, singing Pink’s “Cover Me in Sunshine” and Guy Sebastian’s “Standing With You”.
