Melanie Martinez

Melanie Martinez
Information
Labels	Atlantic Records Warner/Chappell Music
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, Actress, Director, Photographer, Screenwriter, Clothing Designer, Choreographer
Genres	Pop • alternative pop • electropop
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, kazoo, keyboard, tambourine, banjo, harp, harmonica
Pronouns	She/They
Accounts
Website	https://www.melaniemartinezmusic.com
Instagram	littlebodybigheart
Tiktok	@littlebodybigheart
Twitter	@MelanieLBBH
Facebook	melaniemartinezmusic
YouTube	Melmartinezx3
Tumblr	melaniemartinezmusic

Melanie Adele Martinez (born April 28, 1995) is an American singer-songwriter, screenwriter, director, actress, and photographer of Dominican & Puerto Rican descent. She first auditioned for the American television vocal talent show The Voice and became a member of Team Adam, where their popularity rapidly grew within fans. Within the fifth week, they were eliminated which subsequently led to her beginning independent work on original material.

Early Life

Melanie was born in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York City, New York and raised in Baldwin, Long Island, New York. At the age of 3, she realized that they enjoyed singing. She taught herself how to play the guitar a year later at four years old since her parents couldn't afford guitar lessons for them. She became a lyricist at age 9.

As a sophomore in high school, they won the Baldwin Senior High School, Talent Show. She began writing songs and releasing them onto YouTube, the oldest ones being Hey Alice, Go On Away, and Smoke. They also covered many songs, such as The One That Got Away by Katy Perry, before joining The Voice.

Career

2012: Career Beginnings and The Voice

Melanie Martinez appeared on The Voice during season 3. She sang Toxic by Britney Spears for her Blind Audition and turned three chairs: Adam Levine, Ceelo Green, and Blake Shelton. Melanie chose Adam Levine as their coach and then moved on to the battle rounds. They competed against Caitlin Michele with the song Lights by Ellie Goulding. Adam chose Melanie, who moved on to the knockout rounds.

During the knockout rounds, Melanie was paired with Sam James, and she chose to sing Bulletproof by La Roux. Again, Adam chose them, who moved on to the live rounds. She chose to sing Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles for the first week of the live rounds. The public vote did not save her, but Adam picked them to keep on his team. She went on to the second week of the live rounds, where they sang Cough Syrup by Young The Giant. This time, the public vote did save her, so they moved on to week three with Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. Seven Nation Army was in the top ten on iTunes, so Martinez got her iTunes votes multiplied by ten. Martinez got to move on to the fourth week of the live rounds, where her song was Too Close by Alex Clare. Again, the song moved into the top ten on iTunes, so they had her iTunes votes multiplied by ten. Melanie then moved into week 5, which is the top 6.

Starting in week 5, singers of The Voice have to sing two songs, one picked by them, and another picked by their coach. For those songs, Melanie picked Crazy by Gnarls Barkley and Adam picked The Show by Lenka for her. Neither of her songs appeared in the top ten on iTunes, resulting in Melanie being eliminated.

2014-15: Dollhouse and American Horror Story

After being eliminated from the Top 6 on The Voice, Melanie began working independently on original material. On April 7^th, 2014, she announced that they signed on Atlantic Records and that she would go on tour. They released a new hit single titled Dollhouse on February 9^th, 2014, along with a music video. The song was said to be about a family that looks perfect from the outside but has many problems going on inside. Soon after, they released her debut extended play (EP) Dollhouse on May 19^th, 2014 which included the singles Dollhouse and Carousel, which later received a music video in October of that year. Dead to Me and Bittersweet Tragedy were also featured on the EP. The EP is mostly about a relationship that doesn't work out, excluding Dollhouse.

When the American Horror Story trailer was released, Melanie's song Carousel was featured in it. This helped Carousel become popular, and Melanie released a music video for it, which was released on October 15^th, 2014.

2015-2016: Cry Baby

Melanie released her debut album, Cry Baby, on August 14^th, 2015. It was made available to pre-order on July 24^th.

The lead single, Pity Party, was released on June 1^st, 2015. The second single, Soap, was released on July 10^th, 2015. The third single, Sippy Cup, was released on July 31st, 2015. Cry Baby was released on August 14^th, 2015, to critical acclaim. The album debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200. They released a special Christmas single, titled Gingerbread Man on December 23^rd, 2015. The music video for her song Cry Baby was released on March 14^th, 2016. Melanie said she planned on making music videos for every song on the standard edition of the album, all of which ended up being released by September 2017.

2016-2019: K-12 Album + Film

Melanie released their sophomore album, K-12, accompanied by a full-length film of the same name, on September 6^th, 2019. It had previously been made available to pre-order on July 23^rd.

Melanie began recording the album in 2015 and finished in 2017, with producer Michael Keenan confirming that it was completed in January 2018. On April 13^th and May 17^th, 2016, she posted two different photos on Instagram with lyrics in both captions. These songs, which were later revealed to be High School Sweethearts and Lunchbox Friends respectively, were confirmed to be on the album by Melanie herself, although they had stated then that they would not come out for a while.

In an interview in March of 2017, Melanie confirmed that she would be working on a film to tell the story of their sophomore album. It is described as a surrealist dark comedy musical. Melanie worked on the hair, costumes, direction, and editing. The movie was filmed in Europe from beginning in October and ending in December of 2018.

On May 15^th, 2019, a teaser trailer was released, revealing the album and film's titles to be K-12. Within the next two weeks, she released two more teasers. Alongside the third teaser, they announced that the album and film would be released on September 6^th, 2019.

On June 17^th, 2019, a preview featuring clips of the movie and a snippet of a new song was premiered at the MTV Movie Awards. She began promoting the album with assignments on June 24^th, 2019. The film's official trailer was released along with the album track-list and pre-order on July 23^rd, 2019. It was also announced that the film would be shown in theaters on September 5^th, a day before the official release. Melanie attended the film's premiere in Los Angeles, California on September 3^rd, 2019.

2020-present: After School and Billboard Nomination

In an interview with V Magazine, Melanie stated that they would release songs that were in-line with K-12, but were "more personal and more vulnerable".

When the K-12 Tour began, fans began to speculate that Melanie would be releasing an EP because the image displayed on the video screen during Fire Drill would show a pink composition notebook with the words "After School" written on the front.

During the concert at O2 City Hall in Newcastle, Melanie announced that Fire Drill would be officially released at some point in 2020. It was later confirmed through Melanie's Instagram story that the song would be a track on her new extended play (EP), After School. On February 10^th, 2020, Melanie released a single from After School titled Copy Cat, featuring American rapper Tierra Whack. On June 26th, 2020, Melanie released the second single from After School, titled Fire Drill, four months after its original release date. In October 2020, Melanie was nominated for Top Soundtrack for The Billboard Music Awards for her Album/Film K-12. This was her first big nomination in the music industry. 

For now, Melanie is working on her upcoming third studio album along with the second feature film that will accompany it, both scheduled to be release sometime in 2022. The recording sessions of the album started in late 2020 being intensified in January 2021 and are still on until now.

Personal Life

Melanie's earliest memory was her third birthday when her parents hired a "sketchy" Barney for their birthday party. However, due to how "sketchy" it was, she stated it was her "worst birthday party ever". They have been afraid of the dark ever since she was a child. Her hair is naturally brown, and they began experimenting with different colors when she was sixteen, after watching One Hundred and One Dalmatians and going off on her own despite not being allowed to. Melanie only changes the color of the right side of their hair, always leaving the left side a solid color. 

Melanie is very shy. She is known to smoke marijuana to calm their nerves and reduce her anxiety before shows. She also stated that she drinks occasionally. They recently said that she found other alternatives to calm her anxiety.

On July 21^st, 2018, Melanie came out as bisexual through their Instagram story. On January 20^th, 2021, Melanie came out as nonbinary through her Instagram story and confirmed their pronouns are she/they.

Relationships

Melanie with her alleged current boyfriend, Oliver Tree.

Melanie's earliest known boyfriend was Kenyon Parks, whom she met while she was studying photography in 2011. But, in 2012, she began to date Vinnie DiCarlo. During the relationship, she wrote I Think I'm Crazy along with The One to represent her love for him. At the end of 2012, Melanie broke-up with Vinnie and started a new relationship with Jared Dylan. Jared has helped Melanie in the process of Wicked Words, and continued to date Melanie until mid-2013. During the end of 2013, Melanie undertook dating Edwin Zabala, whom also starred in the music video fo Dollhouse (Song) as Cry Baby's older brother. Eventually, after a supposed bad break-up, Edwin leaked Melanie's nudes to fans on the VOIP platform Omegle in 2014. Also in 2014, Melanie was introduced to Miles Nasta, who, eventually, became her boyfriend and drummer. He worked on the track Half Hearted with Melanie and is still good friends with her to this day. After some time, Melanie started a relationship with Michael Keenan, whom has been her producer since. Currently, Melanie is allegedly dating Oliver Tree. On October 28th, 2019, Melanie and Oliver had both posted a set of four photos; one of which showed the two kissing, implying that they are dating. In June of 2020, rumors started that the two had broken up, as they deleted all photos of each other, all comments on their posts, and Melanie unfollowed Oliver.

Tattoos

Main Article: Melanie Martinez/Tattoos

Hair Colors

Main Article: Melanie Martinez/Hair Colors

Controversies

• Melanie has been accused of rape by her ex-friend Timothy Heller. Melanie later explained "I would never be intimate with someone without their absolute consent" and that Timothy "never said no to what [they] chose to do together" and says that Timothy's statements are false. During this time, many fans ripped up and destroyed Melanie's merchandise.

Gallery

Main Article: Melanie Martinez/Gallery

Videos

Main Article: Music Videos

Trivia

• Melanie's pronouns are she/they.
• Melanie's net worth is estimated to be $8 million.
• Melanie's height is 5'2", which is around 1.57 meters.
• Melanie's zodiac sign is Taurus.
  • She once posted their astrology chart on Instagram; however, the post has since been deleted.
• Melanie's first word was "mine."
  • When describing one of her tattoos, Melanie states that she said it after her father snatched their ice cream from her hand.
• When Melanie was younger, their favorite show was Ren & Stimpy.
• Melanie's first celebrity crush was Dylan Sprouse.
• Melanie is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent, but she doesn't know much Spanish.
• Melanie's first pet was Whinnie
• Melanie still has two baby teeth.
• Melanie has really vivid dreams.
• Melanie has stitches on her chin and hand.
• Melanie is allergic to red apples.
• Melanie hates vegetables.
• Melanie eats at least five chocolate chip cookies a day.
• Melanie says that she always needs some sort of chocolate after every meal.
• Melanie's old apartment looked like a baby nursery.
  • At the moment, Melanie lives in a house with pastel walls, a few of her vintage toys are displayed all around, and the home has a heart-shaped pool.
• Melanie's favorite holiday is Christmas.
• Melanie's favorite milk flavor is chocolate.
• Melanie's favorite ice-cream flavor is cookies and cream.
• Melanie is obsessed with American Horror Story.
  • Their favorite character from the show is Dandy.
• Melanie has mentioned that she is a fan of the Netflix TV show Stranger Things.
  • Her favorite character from the show is Eleven.
• Melanie's favorite book is Go Ask Alice.
• Melanie's favorite movie is the 1988 film Alice, directed by Jan Švankmajer, which also inspired the Cry Baby music video.
• Melanie's favorite Tim Burton film is Edward Scissorhands.
• Melanie's favorite visual artists are Mark Ryden and Nicoletta Ceccoli.
• Melanie loves amusement parks and roller coasters.
  • She has been to Disneyland.
• Melanie loves Play-Doh.
• Melanie's lucky numbers are five and three.
• The number Angel Number 222 is also very special to her, as she has a tattoo of it on her right bicep.
  • The Angel Number 222 means, "Right place right time, trust in what you want, don't think of things you don't want."
    • The number 222 is always on top of their birthday cake as a candle.
• Melanie has at least 38 or 39 tattoos.
  • Her favorite tattoo is the one they got in honor of her deceased rabbit, Whinnie.
• Melanie once dyed Whinnie's fur.
• Melanie collects toys from the 50's and 60's.
• Melanie is obsessed with vintage Garbage Pail Kids cards, Animal Rummy cards, and Valentine's Day cards from the 50's.
• Melanie claims to be really good at doing hair and makeup but says that they're terrible at nails.
• Melanie claims she can't really cook.
• Melanie can shoot chocolate milk through the gap between her two front teeth.
  • She can also stick Swedish Fish in her gap.
• Melanie's dad, Jose Martinez, goes on tours with her.
• During the Dollhouse Tour, Melanie had three items stolen from her.
• Melanie's pre-show ritual involves crying and fitting a "million" chocolate chip cookies into her mouth before getting on stage.
• Melanie almost never performs with shoes on and tends to wear lacy socks, however, she has worn boots to perform at festivals.
• When Melanie is alone, she blasts Muddy Waters' music and makes up dances to every song.
• Melanie always loses her phone.
• Melanie has stated that she stumbles or trips at least eight times a day.
• Melanie isn't afraid of anything except for the dark and bees.
• Melanie directs their own music videos.
• Melanie produced some of her old acoustic songs between 2009 and 2011 before getting famous.
• In the past, Melanie said that she didn't own a pair of jeans or sweatpants; however, this is no longer true.
• Melanie said if they weren't a singer they'd be a tattoo artist
• Melanie often wears their 'Crybaby' necklace.
• Melanie previously owned a Vine account, however, they weren't active on it.
• Melanie's favorite songs from Cry Baby, K-12, and After School are Mrs. Potato Head, Nurse's Office, and Test Me respectively.
• Melanie thinks that the video for Mrs. Potato Head was the hardest to film and write because she had to be careful to not portray a misunderstanding on this song.
• Melanie said she'd like to write a short story told by poetry.
• Melanie stated they would like to release a clothing line one day.
  • In an interview from September of 2019, however, she instead stated that she would be a poet.
    • In an October 2020 interview with Billboard, she stated that if they wasn't a musician, she would be a designer, a photographer, a film maker, or a tarot card reader, as those are the only other things that she says she does.
• Melanie wants to collaborate with The Weeknd.
• When asked what song by another artist she had wished she wrote, Melanie chose Teen Idle by MARINA, stating, "I think Marina's a brilliant songwriter. There's this one song she has called Teen Idle, it's just perfect. The lyrics are perfect. The melodies are insane."
• Melanie has donated to The Trevor Project, an LGBT+ suicide prevention non-profit organization.
• Her MBTI personality type is INFJ.
• In a September 2020 Instagram post about After School, Melanie revealed that her mother was planning on naming her, "Katarina" which means pure light, while they were in the womb, but then decided to name them "Melanie", which means darkness, which reminds her that, "whatever imaginary box people put [her] in, [she] will always find a way out."
  • In the lyrics of Field Trip the line "Katarina in the womb for nine months, 'til she birthed me" can be found.
• Melanie peels her cuticles when she is anxious.
• Melanie holds their nose whenever she swims underwater.
• She loves psychological thrillers and scary movies, but will become very nauseous if there is too much gore, as she is a highly sensitive person.