american singer-songwriter ( bear 1995 )

Melanie Adele Martinez ( born April 28, 1995 ) is an american english singer, songwriter, actress, film director, photographer, screenwriter, and ocular artist. Born in Astoria, Queens, and raised in Baldwin, New York, Martinez rose to prominence in 2012 after appearing on the american television song talent display The Voice. Following the show, she [ a ] released her debut unmarried “ Dollhouse “, followed by her introduction EP of the lapp name ( 2014 ), through Atlantic Records.

Reading: Melanie Martinez

Martinez late released her introduction studio apartment album, Cry Baby ( 2015 ), which went on to be certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America ( RIAA ). [ 1 ] Martinez ‘s songs “ Sippy Cup “, “ Mad Hatter ”, “ Mrs. Potato Head “, “ Cry Baby “, [ 2 ] “ Pacify Her “ [ 3 ] and “ Soap “, [ 4 ] were all certified gold in the U.S., and her songs “ Dollhouse “ [ 5 ] and “ Pity Party “ [ 6 ] received platinum certificate from the RIAA. Martinez released her second studio album, K-12 ( 2019 ), aboard its company film, as a be up to the storyline of Cry Baby. Her EP was released a class subsequently in 2020, called After School .

early life

Melanie Adele Martinez [ 7 ] was born on April 28, 1995 [ 8 ] in Astoria, Queens, [ 9 ] to parents Mery and Jose Martinez, [ 10 ] who are of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] Her class moved to Baldwin, New York, on Long Island, when Martinez was four. [ 9 ] She listened to Brandy, Britney Spears, Shakira, The Beatles, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls and Christina Aguilera growing up, [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] and wanted to be a singer from a young old age. [ 16 ] Martinez attended Plaza Elementary School, crediting her teacher Mr. Nadien with teaching her how to sing, [ 9 ] and in kindergarten, Martinez began writing poetry. [ 17 ] Martinez says she had few friends growing up and was a stay-at-home, as she was “ very emotional ” and found it unmanageable to explain her feelings, crying when overwhelmed. [ 18 ] She practiced photography and painting. [ 19 ] ascribable to her emotionality as a child, [ 18 ] she says that others referred to her as a “ war cry baby ”, which sparked the creation of the titular quality of her debut album, Cry Baby. [ 20 ] [ 21 ] [ 22 ] Martinez grew up in a “ traditional latin family ” where she was made to feel black about talking about her sex and felt as if she would not be accepted if she came out as bisexual. She says that her class is immediately fully accepting of her sex. [ 23 ] At fourteen, Martinez taught herself how to play guitar by studying chord diagrams of songs she enjoyed, which she found on-line, and wrote her first base song by adding her poetry to one of the harmonize diagram, [ 18 ] [ 24 ] but says that playing guitar “ finally got cold ”. [ 19 ] [ 21 ] [ 22 ] [ 25 ] Martinez graduated from Baldwin High School. [ 26 ] [ 27 ]

career

2012 : Beginnings and The Voice

In 2012, during her junior year of high school, Martinez participated in the MSG Varsity Talent Show, a telecast endowment competition. She sang The Beatles ‘ rendition of “ Money ( That ‘s What I Want ) “ by Barrett Strong and “ Shake Me, Wake Me ( When It ‘s Over ) “ by The Four Tops. She was eliminated in the second round. [ 28 ] subsequently in 2012, Martinez auditioned for the third season of The Voice. She had not watched the testify herself prior to the hearing. [ 18 ] The initial, untelevised hearing was an exposed call, held at Javits Center. She recalls that while she and her mother were driving to the audition, her mother ‘s car broke down before they reached the Queens–Midtown Tunnel, and the two were forced to “ hitchhike ” a cab in rate to get there. several months after the initial audition, while at Roosevelt Field Mall, Martinez received news that she had advanced to the “ second gear round ”. She then received multiple callbacks until she was last selected to audition on the picture itself. [ 9 ] Martinez auditioned singing Britney Spears ‘s “ Toxic “. Three of the four judges, Adam Levine, CeeLo Green and Blake Shelton, hit the “ I Want You ” button for her. Martinez chose Adam Levine to be her coach. [ 29 ] In the Battle Round, Martinez competed against Caitlin Michele. They performed a pas de deux of the Ellie Goulding sung “ Lights “. Martinez won and moved on to the Knockout Round. Michele was stolen by Cee Lo Green and besides moved on. In the Knockout Round, Martinez was paired with Sam James. She chose to sing La Roux ‘s “ Bulletproof “. Levine eliminated James, and Martinez moved on to the Live Rounds as one of the five remaining members of Team Adam. In week one of the Live Rounds, Martinez sang “ Hit the Road Jack “. populace vote saved Team Adam members Amanda Brown and Bryan Keith. Levine then chose Martinez over Loren Allred and Joselyn Rivera to remain in the contest. In week three, Martinez ‘s performance of “ Seven Nation Army “ finished the vote period at # 10 on the iTunes Top 200 Single Chart, causing her iTunes votes to be multiplied by ten. [ 30 ] This occurred again in week four, when “ Too Close “ ended the vote period at # 6. [ 31 ] Martinez was eliminated by audience right to vote in workweek five, along with the colleague Team Adam member Amanda Brown, leaving Levine with no artists. In reception, Martinez said, “ I never expected to get this army for the liberation of rwanda and this is beyond what I ‘ve always dreamed of. I ‘m good sol gladiolus I got to express who I am as an artist and actually touch people ‘s hearts because that was the ultimate finish. ” [ 32 ]

– Studio version of performance reached the top 10 on iTunes

2013–2014 : Dollhouse

Martinez in February 2014 After the show, Martinez began working independently on original substantial, which she says she spent the majority of 2013 write. She released her debut single, “ Dollhouse ”, on February 9, 2014. [ 33 ] She later compared the song ‘s report to Edward Scissorhands, saying “ [ It ‘s ] the perfect home with the perfect lawn and they all look the lapp. But behind each theater there ‘s a screwed up group of people who are hiding behind wealth and perfection. ” [ 34 ] Martinez besides released a music television for the track, which was fan-funded by an Indiegogo page created by Martinez, and hair’s-breadth, makeup, and shooting were all done by friends of hers. [ 11 ] [ 35 ] [ 36 ] The song was produced and cowritten by NYC songwriting duet Kinetics & One Love. [ 37 ] On April 7, 2014, Martinez signed to Atlantic Records and announced she would tour. She released her debut EP, Dollhouse, on May 19, 2014. [ 38 ] [ 39 ] [ 40 ] The only individual from the EP, “ Carousel ”, was besides certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America ( RIAA ), and featured in a preview for FX ‘s miniseries American Horror Story: Freak Show. [ 38 ] [ 41 ] The song reached number nine on the Alternative Digital Songs chart. [ 42 ] A video recording for the path was besides released .

2015–2017 : Cry Baby

On June 1, 2015, Martinez released the single “ Pity Party “, which was certified gold by the RIAA, and the refrain of which samples Lesley Gore ‘s “ It ‘s My Party “. [ 43 ] On July 10, 2015, Martinez released the album ‘s second one “ Soap “. [ 44 ] The official music video has over thirty million views on YouTube. It reached issue twelve on the Alternative Digital Songs chart, and act sixteen on the Pop Digital Songs chart. [ 42 ] “ Sippy Cup ” followed on July 31, followed by the album fourteen days late. [ 45 ] [ 46 ] Cry Baby was released on August 14, 2015, to moderate critical acclaim. [ 47 ] [ 48 ] [ 49 ] The album debuted at issue 6 on the Billboard 200. [ 42 ] Martinez released a Christmas-themed single, “ Gingerbread man ”, in December 2015. She initially released the sung on SoundCloud on December 21, 2015 as a “ endow for her fans ”, but late released the track on iTunes in January 2016 as a single. [ 20 ] [ 50 ] The music video of her birdcall “ Cry Baby ” was released on March 14, 2016. [ 51 ] [ 52 ] The karaoke-style music video for “ Alphabet Boy ”, which Martinez directed, was released on June 2, 2016. Martinez released double have video recording for “ Soap ” and “ education Wheels ” together, vitamin a well as “ Tag, You ‘re It ” and “ Milk and Cookies. ” [ 53 ] [ 54 ] Martinez finished recording her moment album, describing it as the stories of characters living in Cry Baby ‘s neighborhood. [ 21 ] In October 2016, she released a commercial for her bouquet called Cry Baby Perfume Milk, adding that the “ estimate for this perfume has been cultivating in my genius since the consequence I finished writing my album. ” It was immediately distributed by Martinez ‘s record tag, Atlantic, making them the first criminal record label to distribute a bouquet. [ 55 ] In November 2016, Martinez released her third base EP, Cry Baby’s Extra Clutter, a physical vinyl turn of the bonus tracks from Cry Baby deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as Martinez ‘s single, “ Gingerbread world ”. She released the music television for her song “ Pacify Her ” followed in December 2016 by a video for “ Mrs. Potato Head ”. [ 56 ] [ 57 ] The video for “ Mad Hatter ” was released September 23, 2017. Cry Baby was certified Platinum on February 24, 2017. [ 58 ] [ 59 ]

2017–2019 : K-12 album and film

In March 2017, Martinez expressed her wishes to produce a film telling the narrative of each song from her second album, explaining “ I ‘m presently writing a film … I ‘m going to spend the class working on it, directing, shooting, make up and everything so it ‘s a lot of employment ”. [ 60 ] [ 61 ] On May 15, 2019, Martinez released the first teaser dawdler for the album revealing the title K-12, [ 62 ] released on September 6, [ 63 ] with the album cover unveiled a day later through Instagram. [ 64 ] While the film was available in choice theaters worldwide, Martinez besides posted the movie to YouTube and included it in a version of the downloadable K-12 album. In an interview with PeopleTV, Melanie mentioned that she has two sequels and two ocular albums planned to follow on from the K-12 album and film. She said, “ I have my following film planned out, a far as what I want to do, and the film after that and they both have albums attached to them … hopefully [ the procedure ] will be faster this time and it wo n’t be like four years because I ‘ve done it at least once and I ‘m past all those learning curves that I had to kind of reach and calculate out. ” [ 65 ]

2020–present : After School

In January 2020, Martinez announced an EP titled After School, revealing the title through her Instagram stories. The EP would serve as a deluxe edition of K-12, however is not connected to K-12 in terms of timeline. [ 66 ] On February 10, 2020, Martinez ‘s management issued the first single from After School, titled “ Copy Cat ”. [ 67 ] The birdcall features American rapper and songwriter Tierra Whack. This marks the first prison term that Whack has worked in a professional capability with Melanie Martinez, and the foremost clock that Melanie Martinez has featured another artist in one of her songs. [ 68 ] Martinez subsequently released a second individual from the EP, “ ardor Drill ”, on June 26, 2020. The song had previously been featured in the credits sequence of her movie, K-12. [ 69 ] Her song “ Play Date “, in the first place released on the deluxe edition of Cry Baby in 2015, became one of the top 100 most-played songs on Spotify in the US after gaining popularity on the video-sharing application, TikTok. [ 70 ] Martinez is presently writing a music video recording for “ Play Date ”, which she plans to shoot at her home. [ 71 ]

art

melodious style

Martinez ‘s music has been described as pop, [ 14 ] [ 72 ] [ 73 ] alternative pop music, [ 74 ] art pop, [ 75 ] electropop, [ 76 ] emo pop, [ 77 ] and dark-pop. [ 78 ] Her debut album Cry Baby and second album K-12 were seen to have hip hop and R & B undertones. [ 79 ] [ 80 ] The subjugate topic of Martinez ‘s songs are typically based on personal experiences. [ 81 ] Martinez describes her own music as “ very darkness and honest ” and “ hip hop/trap inspired beats with creepy nostalgic childlike sounds such as baby pianos, music boxes, and toys ”. [ 82 ] Martinez ‘s music has been described by The Guardian as “ off-kilter, sweary electropop “. [ 76 ] Rolling Stone described Martinez ‘s music as “ flex lullabies about beloved, danger and madness ”, and compared her music to that of “ ‘ coin-operated Boy ‘-era Dresden Dolls “ and Lana Del Rey. [ 22 ] The New York Times ‘s Jon Pareles described her music as “ perch [ ing ] prettily tinkling keyboards and concise crop up choruses amid the behind, ill basslines and twitchy percussion of southerly hip-hop – a candy-coated variation on the dirges of Lorde and Lana Del Rey “, and described her voice, which has been classified as mezzo-soprano by Keaton Bell of the Red Dirt Report, [ 83 ] as “ whispery, sardonic, tearful, [ and ] ferocious ”. [ 84 ] Billboard ‘s Jason Lipshutz besides compared Martinez to Del Rey and Lorde, saying, “ Martinez is distinctly cribbing from the dimly lit crop up stylings of Lorde and Lana Del Rey, but while her dim pitch strikes the like femme fatale poses, she lacks the subtlety of her influences ”, and that “ Martinez is admirably ambitious, but her insistence on sticking to Cry Baby ‘s central estimate leaves her contort into uncomfortable positions ”. [ 85 ] The Guardian called her image “ doll-like and decidedly emo … hyperreal ”, and described her music as “ part- nursery rhyme, separate tragic life history ”. [ 76 ] Martinez describes her alter self and the protagonist of her debut album, Cry Baby, as a “ fairy narrative “ version of herself. [ 86 ]

Influences

Martinez has cited the Beatles, [ 87 ] Neutral Milk Hotel, Feist, Kimbra, [ 9 ] Zooey Deschanel, Regina Spektor, [ 28 ] and CocoRosie as influences of hers. Specific albums which have influenced her music include The Idler Wheel… by Fiona Apple and Ariana Grande ‘s albums Yours Truly and My Everything. [ 11 ] She attributes the “ heavy rap influence ” in her music to her father playing rap music in the family ‘s house much during her childhood. [ 26 ] [ 88 ] The visuals in Martinez ‘s music videos have been influenced by her favorite ocular artists : Mark Ryden, Aleksandra Waliszewska and Nicoletta Ceccoli. [ 12 ] [ 89 ] She named Tim Burton as a boastfully determine of hers, and has said that to make a movie with him would be her “ one dream ”. [ 25 ] [ 90 ]

personal life

Martinez identifies as bisexual. [ 91 ] In 2021, Martinez updated her Instagram bio stating that she uses she/they pronouns. [ 92 ]

Endorsements and products

Martinez collaborated with cosmetics party Lime Crime, Inc. to release two “ single ” lipsticks : a blue lipstick called “ Cry Baby ” on August 17, 2015, and a brown lipstick called “ Teddy Bear ” on March 9, 2016. [ 93 ] On October 25, 2016, she released a commercial for a fresh aroma called Cry Baby Perfume Milk. It was directly distributed by Martinez ‘s label, the first record label to distribute a aroma. [ 55 ]

Public persona

At senesce sixteen, after watching 101 Dalmatians, Martinez dyed half of her hair blond, in the same vein as Cruella de Vil. [ 14 ] [ 90 ] She became known for the look, [ 94 ] arsenic well as her “ baby doll ” -inspired outfits in music videos and when performing. [ 95 ]

sexual assail allegation

On December 4, 2017, Timothy Heller, a charwoman with whom Martinez once shared a friendship, alleged via Twitter that Martinez had sexually assaulted and raped her. [ 96 ] The follow sidereal day, Martinez tweeted a reaction to Heller ‘s accusations, saying the allegations “ horrified and saddened ” her, and that Heller “ never said no to what [ they ] chose to do together ”. [ 97 ] [ 98 ] On December 9, 2017, Martinez released a second statement, thanking her fans for citing Heller ‘s “ false statements ”. She concluded the instruction with : “ … I would never be familiar with person without their absolute accept. ” [ 99 ] [ 100 ] Martinez released the song “ Piggyback “ on SoundCloud, an act believed to be in response to Heller ‘s accusations. [ 101 ] [ 102 ]

discography

Studio albums

Filmography

movie

Year

Title

Role

Notes

2019

K-12

Cry Baby

Also writer, director, costume designer, and composer

television receiver

Year

Title

Role

Notes

2012

The Voice

Herself / Contestant

Season 3

web

Year

Title

Role

Notes

2019–2020

Extra Credit

Herself

YouTube Premium series

Tours

Headlining
Supporting

Awards and nominations

See besides

Notes

  1. ^ Martinez uses she/her and they/them pronouns. This article uses she/her pronouns for consistency .

References