Melanie Adele Martínez is a singer and photographer from the United States. She was born in Baldwin,
New York in April 28th 1995, and grew up with her father José, her mother Murcy, and her
brother Joseph. She has both Puerto Rican and Dominican roots.
Since she was little Melanie has always been interested in music. She would spend her free
time listening to her dad's CDs, specially The Beatles as well as hip hop albums. She
started to sing when she was three years old, and started to play the guitar when she was
four. When she was a teenager she started to upload videos to YouTube, as well as perform
at open mics in Long Island. She was also passionate about photography, specially portraits
and conceptual works. In 2012, when she turned 17 years old, a big
opportunity came to her: She auditioned for the third season of The Voice, and she won
over three of the four judges with her version of "Toxic" by Britney Spears. Adam Levine
became her coach, and although she was eliminated on the fifth week, she didn't give up and
took advantage of her fame from the show to keep working on her music.
In 2013 she went on an acoustic tour where she would sing the songs she sang in The Voice,
as well as her own songs. Finally, in 2014 she signed a contract with Warner and published
her first EP. Her debut single, Dollhouse, which she describes as "heavy child", is a
song filled with somewhat unsettling "baby sounds" – sounds such as the ones made with
pianos for babies, music boxes and other toys. The thing is, Martínez has always said that
she has a very strong connection with her childhood.
After her Dollhouse Tour, and after Carousel was chosen as the soundtrack for the trailer
of American Horror Story: Freak Show, in August of 2015 she released her first studio album
Cry Baby, which also features her "alter ego". Unlike her EP, Cry Baby had a big repercussion,
debuting number 6 of the Billboard ranking. The album has 13 songs, most of them composed
by Melanie herself. For the filming of her first music video Melanie
suggested they should use the song "Soap", but the record company refused. She was so
excited about filming a music video with that song that she didn’t hesitate to find a
camera and film it herself, without Warner's help. When she uploaded the music video to
YouTube, it had a very good reception! In contrast, Sippy Cup, the official single released
by the record label, didn't take off and landed way lower than her previous work in the music
rankings. Melanie's second album came out with a movie
with the same name: K-12. Both were released in September 2019, and the movie was described
as a surreal dark comedy musical that narrates the story of the album itself. Martínez participated
in all the phases of the filming: Direction, makeup, clothing, etc. Six months later she
had accumulated more than 40 million views in her YouTube channel, and on April 2020
she had over 10 million subscribers. In K-12 the girl from Cry Baby becomes an
adult, and it touches upon very important topics such as gender discrimination, insecurities,
and friendship. As always, mystery and darkness play an important role. K-12 was the second
album by Martínez; it got into the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 200 in the US, and also
got to the Number 1 place in the Billboard Top Alternative Albums ranking.
In February 2020, in collaboration with the rapper Tierra Whack, she released the song
Copy Cat, which two months later would accumulate almost 10 million views on YouTube. If everything
goes well she will release her third EP, After School, in 2020.
Her music flows between indie folk, dream pop and alternative pop, and Melanie has also
mentioned influences such as Kimbra, Feist, Regina Spektor and Lana del Rey. She has a
style that flows between childish, unsettling, and dark, with naif touches. That explains
why she likes artists such as Mark Raiden and Nicoletta Ceccoli.
Her aesthetics follow the same line as her music, with her two color hair – it kind
of reminds us of Cruella de Vil or the singer Sia. She calls herself "a lolita from the
50’s", with her pastel-colored dresses, extravagant pendants, stockings, baby bottles,
and a very elaborated makeup that fits with everything else. For Melanie the visual side
of her work plays a crucial role, so she has to highlight the little girl that she has
inside. Melanie Martínez is now an international
alternative pop star. How many crybabies do we have around here, tiktakers?
Please let us know in the comments!