While Christmas is a day off for most people, it’s just another day at work for Grammy-nominated R&B singer Melanie Fiona.

“I’m working on Christmas Day, which sounds crappy,” Fiona tells staging-rapup.kinsta.cloud about performing on the holiday. “But it’s just one day, and if that’s the day my fans want to see me on, then I’m there.”

Despite being booked on December 25, the “It Kills Me” songstress still plans to spend time with her loved ones during the holiday season while at a family reunion in Florida, and hopes to incorporate some of her favorite family traditions.

“My family is Guyanese, so every Christmas morning we have pepperpot and garlic beef or garlic pork, and my mom makes homemade bread,” the Toronto native says. “Anything to do with my heritage is what is my fondest memory… All the crazy stuff that comes with being West Indian, I love it.”

In addition to spending time with her family, who will come see her perform on Christmas, Fiona also likes to listen to Christmas music, her favorite song being Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire).”

Christmas, however, isn’t the only important part of this holiday season for Fiona. Alongside her yearly resolution to exercise more, she has a big resolution to fulfill in 2010. “I want to be better than I was this year.”

–Arianna Davis