Melanie Sánchez is a major antagonist in the Disney Channel Argentine series Violetta, serving as the main antagonist of its 2016 follow-up film Tini: The New Life of Violetta.
Melanie is a rising Latin star who starts actively seeing Leon during the recording of his album in L.A. while trying to mislead his current girlfriend, Violetta, into believing they are a couple.
She is portrayed by Sofia Carson, who also portrayed/voiced Evie in the Descendants franchise and voiced Sandgirl in the 2017 animated Spider-Man series.
Biography[]
Background[]
Not much is known about Melanie's early life, only that she is a rising Latin star who has previously dated a celebrity by the name of Pablito Saenz, but the circumstances behind said relationship are not explicitly stated. When Violetta asked Leon for a break in their relationship during her tour, Leon has been in L.A. recording his album and crossing paths with Melanie frequently, acompanying her anywhere, including parties, meetings and the Music Awards, making the press and fans speculate that there was something going on between him and Melanie.
Present[]
Melanie was present in the recording of Leon's music video for his song "Light Your Heart" when she was kissing his forehead and close to a lip lock until they are interrupted by the directors yelling "Cut!", telling Leon that he didn't see passion in his chemistry with Melanie. As the director keeps lecturing Leon about wanting him to feel the passion with Melanie and mean it, she sees Leon's cellphone ringing and picks it up, talking to Violetta who hasn't heard back from him after a long tour over 12 countries as she is being chauffered from the airport to an interview. Seeing Leon with the director asking for a break, Melanie, to keep them apart, tricks Violetta into thinking that Leon is having a shower and asks her on whose behalf is the message, but Violetta can only respond with silence and ends the call, before Melanie erases the contact from Leon's call log, having somehow successfully misled Violetta into doubting Leon's loyalty.
Later on, while Violetta is being interviewed on a talk show Es Así, it is more about Violetta's personal life rather than her musical career. When she is asked her opinion about Melanie and Leon's relationship, Violetta is on the verge of explaining the misunderstanding only to be interrupted when she says "Leon would never--", insisting that "never" is a word that should never be used on their show and share some footage of past reports related to said rumours, branding Violetta as the "culprit" of having neglected her relationship, despite her manager trying to prevent it from being projected. While Leon only wants to talk about his album, Melanie tells a reporter that she and Leon are "more than friends" before she is walked off by a bodyguard, making her assume that it is a confirmed romance. As a result, the saddened Violetta suddenly announces that she is retiring from music, leaving the whole world shocked, also cancelling the recording of her upcoming album and already scheduled tour dates. Violetta then locks herself up inside her dressing room to cry with her already complicated burden of being a singer, seeking solace through new friends in Rome, Italy at a residence from a friend of Violetta's family.
Ludmila calls Leon about Violetta, but his phone is again picked up by Melanie who tells Ludmila that Leon is busy recording his song and asks on whose behalf is the message, at which point Ludmila stands up to Melanie in a very sly intimidating way by lying about being Leon's sister so that he can call her back and get Melanie to stop picking up his calls. Unaware of Melanie's intentions, Leon assumes that Violetta hasn't called him as of now but Melanie just tells him to forget about that and lies that Violetta might have more important things to do (which is not entirely true based on her musical career), but as promised before she lets him know that his "sister" Ludmila was trying to contact him. Leon then calls Ludmila back, and he confirms that with Melanie there is nothing more than friendship. Ludmila informs him about Violetta's sudden retirement from music and departure from Buenos Aires and asks Leon to do something about it, but Leon is busy working on his music video, to which Ludmila makes him choose what is more important: Violetta or his career.
Melanie is seen with Leon when he calls Herman, Violetta's father, trying to convince him into revealing Violetta's whereabouts, to no avail as he had promised her not to tell anyone, and then in a party hosted at a luxurious mansion where Leon doesn't seem to fit in and quickly grows bored, despite Melanie trying to get him to meet a music producer he doesn't even know. While Melanie goes to greet and talk to him, Leon sits on a pool chair starting to reflect on the aftermath of his relationship with Violetta, singing along with her separately while thinking about each other. Melanie does not appear again for the rest of the film but is mentioned by Ludmila to Violetta when she informs her about that Leon and Melanie's relationship was all a lie. Nevertheless, Violetta and Leon finally find their way back to each other like in past seasons of the series. It is unknown what happened to Melanie afterwards but it can be assumed that, after Leon departed L.A. looking for Violetta, she kept on with her facade and using other famous male singers to sabotage their current relationships and create more misunderstandings or her ruse was eventually exposed, causing her image to be tainted, her fans to turn on her and lots of producers to ban her from potential projects originally meant for her. Whether or not either two of these theories ever came true, it remains unclear.
Enemies[]
- León Vargas - Former Work Colleague and Former Pawn
- Violetta Castillo - Love Rival, Manipulatee
- Ludmila Ferro
Trivia[]
- Though she is the main antagonist, Melanie has little screen time as the movie focused on Violetta travelling to Rome, Italy in order to find herself after some overwhelming complicated stresses regarding her musical career, including her relationship with Leon, finding allies in the forms of Isabella, a friend of her late mother's, and Caio, a humble farmer and aspiring dancer who had a crush on Violetta. Because of this, Stefano Mario was close to being the main antagonist (though this was due to his conceited attitude when he pestered Violetta into joining his faction of famous people aboard one of his luxurious yachts in which he hosts parties and drives very recklessly whenever he provokes Caio and also nicknames him "Capitán Limones") while Melanie was close to being the secondary antagonist.
- Melanie largely served as a dark parallel to Ludmila Ferro, the main antagonist of the series Violetta. They are both aspiring or professional singers/actresses who long for fame at all costs even if they have to adhere to the saying of "the end justifies the means" to get what they want, which represents the peak of success. Also, they grow jealous of Violetta and attempt to separate her from Leon. However, with the influence she got from Violetta, Angie, Herman and Federico, Ludmila learned humility, compassion, and that there were more important things in life than winning awards, earning lead roles and showing off popularities and ambitions after starting to warm up to Violetta's family and starting a relationship with Federico, whose presence made Ludmila act nicer even when she was still mean to everyone. On the other hand, it is implied that Melanie did not learn the error of her ways because her fate remains unknown. Thus, Melanie serves as an example of what Ludmila would have become if she had allowed her arrogance and selfishness to consume her and had not realized the importance of her vocation.
- However, these traits are less exaggerated in Melanie Sánchez, and often make her more subtle, calm and cautious than her original counterpart is. While Melanie is always bragging about her fame and relationships, Ludmila not only does the same but also intends to cause intentional harm or do cruel things that go against the rules to other people she thinks they deserve, something that Melanie herself would never do because she is a mature professional whereas in the series Ludmila was merely a spoiled teenager misguided by emotions attending the Studio and at the same time behaving in a childish yet irresponsible manner.
- Despite being lied to by Melanie about Leon, that was the first and only time she and Violetta ever interacted with each other, albeit through a phone call and not face-to-face due to the film focusing on Violetta's journey of self-discovery in Italy and both of them being in different countries.
- According to the co-hosts of Es Así interviewing Violetta, Melanie at some point used to date a celebrity known as Pablito Saenz, but little to nothing is revealed about said relationship, although it is probably assumed that Melanie had used him as a pawn just like she did to Leon when making everyone believe that he was her boyfriend only to boost her popularity, which would imply she did not truly love either of them, making her a hypocrite and selfish person.
- Melanie describes Leon in three words as "handsome, talented and an amazing kisser", which serves as another hint to the media about their fake relationship.
- Melanie and Leon's fake relationship mirrors that of Ludmila Ferro and Felipe Diaz in the third season of Violetta, as both Melanie and Felipe are using Leon and Ludmila as pawns to boost their careers, despite the latters' frustrations at being exploited at will. The only differences are that Ludmila publicly tipped off the media about the whole scam (out of spite after catching Felipe and Naty kissing, although resulting in her being fired from YouMix, yet leaving the door open for her to return to the Studio) but Leon instead chose to remain quiet, not to mention that Felipe was following orders from YouMix while Melanie herself was the mastermind behind the deception and made sure no one ever found out as the press and fans were merely speculating.
- Unlike Ludmila Ferro, Gery López, Jade LaFontaine and Priscila Ferro, Melanie is the least evil female villain in the entire series and is only one of the two female villains (alongside Esmeralda Di Pietro) who has never received their deserved comeuppance as the audience does not know what happened to Melanie after the film while Esmeralda ran away from police but it is not confirmed whether or not she was arrested for deceiving Herman and attempting to steal all of his money.