- Born
- Birth nameMarina Diamandis
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Marina Diamandis is a Welsh singer-songwriter was born on October 10, 1985, in Brynmawr, Monmouthshire, Wales, known by her stage name 'Marina and the Diamonds', in which, 'Diamonds' refers to her fans, as she clarified. An "indie artist with pop goals", she is often compared to Kate Bush, even though she was not influenced by her during her early years. Rather, she grew up listening to albums by Dolly Parton, Enya and George Michael from her mother's collection. Interestingly, her father was more of a conservative who despised the pop culture and listened to Greek classical songs and to Haris Alexiou. Revealing that Madonna inspired her to be a pop star, she also admitted that she admires pop icons such as Spice Girls, Britney Spears and S Club 7. A 'pop enigma' as she 'never felt like she belonged to the masses', she has still managed to gain a massive cult following among her fans. She is also recognized for her unconventional retro fashion sense, and turned a few heads for subverting "the norm" in her 'How to be a Heartbreaker' music video by wearing more clothes than male models.
While attending Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls, she often skipped singing in the choir, but her music teacher convinced her that she had musical talent. She moved to Greece at the age of 16 to complete her final two years of schooling, and earned an International Baccalaureate from St. Catherine's British Embassy School in Athens two years later. Since she was 9 years old, she wanted to be a performer, and after completing school, she moved to Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, with her mother because it offered the best paid jobs. She worked at a petrol station for two months, taking as many shifts as she could, and moved to London with her saved money to pursue a singing career. In London, she attended a dance school for two months, took a one-year singing course at Tech Music Schools in 2005, and studied music and culture at the University of East London. She then transferred to Middlesex University, where she started taking a musical composition course, but left after three months as she wanted to learn everything first hand.
Marina Diamandis started writing songs at the age 18, even though she was terrified to sing in public. She later started applying for auditions listed in 'The Stage' newspaper, which had a hand in forming the Spice Girls, but stopped auditioning eventually to compose her own music, following the example of Daniel Johnston. In 2007, she independently released her first EP, 'Mermaid vs. Sailor', which she herself produced and composed with the help of GarageBand software. The following year, she was spotted by Derek Davies from Neon Gold Records, which booked her to open for the Australian singer Gotye. She signed a recording deal with 679 Recordings, a subdivision of Warner Music Group, in October 2008. However, her debut single, 'Obsessions', was released from Neon Gold Records on February 14, 2009, followed by her debut EP 'The Crown Jewels', which released on June 1st. Her popularity in the UK skyrocketed after she ranked second on the BBC 'Sound of 2010' poll and was nominated for the 'BRIT Awards' that year, even though both honors went to singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding. She released her next single, 'Mowgli's Road', on November 13, 2009, and in February next year released the track 'Hollywood', which peaked at No.12 on the 'UK Singles Chart'. On February 15, 2010, she released her debut studio album, 'The Family Jewels', which charted at No.5 in the UK. The success of the album helped her sign a deal with Chop Shop Records which released her third EP, 'The American Jewels', in the US on March 23. She release three more singles, 'I Am Not a Robot', 'Oh No!' and 'Shampain', for her debut album in the next few months. To support the album, she toured Europe, North America and Australia during 2010-11, but failed to attract the American audience. In 2011, she opened for American pop icon Katy Perry during her 'California Dreams Tour', along with Swedish artist Robyn. For her next studio album, 'Electra Heart', she depicted stereotypical female archetypes through the eponymous protagonist. The concept album, released on April 27, 2012, portrayed four distinct female personas: 'Teen Idle', 'Primadonna', 'Homewrecker', and 'Housewife'. It became her first chart-topping album in the UK, and peaked at 31 on the US 'Billboard 200' chart. "Froot", the lead single from her eponymous third studio album, released on October 10, 2014. The album, which released on March 13, 2015, became her highest charting album in the US, debuting at No.8 on 'Billboard 200'. She performed the song 'Disconnect' with electronic group Clean Bandit at the 2015 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. It was later revealed that the song would be included in the next studio album she is working on.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Sam013024
- A small black heart drawn with eyeliner on her left cheek bone in the Electra Heart era.
- She has a neurological phenomenon called synesthesia which causes her to see notes and the days of the week as different colours.
- Electra Heart is not an alter ego, she is a fictional character used to portray four different character types. In fact, she hates when people say it's an alter ego.
- When explaining her stage name Marina and the Diamonds, she has stated: "I'm Marina. You [her fans] are the diamonds.".
- Her grandmother is singing a Greek folk song on the outro of "Fear and Loathing".
- On Diamandis's first album "The Family Jewels", she released a song on the birthday of a man dear to her, but he told her the wrong date to protect his identity, which resulted in a ruptured vocal cord because of her anger. She was only allowed to talk for television appearances. The song was back-dated and Google information was changed. The argument she had was with lead singer of AFI and his wife, who knew the correct birthday. The melody towards the end of the song Obsessions is similar to music Style Shiny Toy Guns in which lead singer of AFI worked with the group.
- [2014, on her song "Immortal"] It's a really universal issue discussing how you leave your mark and how it's really important to preserve memories and remember people. I started writing that song when I went to a war memorial in Poland. Something that somebody I was with just struck me... they said 'It's not a very beautiful memorial, but it deserves to be visited to keep their memory alive.' That's how the song - well, the lyrics - started.
- [2014] It was almost like I had been burdened by something my whole life and then suddenly that went away... I can't even describe how amazing it is... you suddenly realise why people are happy and why people enjoy things. I think I used to believe that being depressed was part of my personality or that I was born like that, but it's quite shocking to realise that perhaps that isn't the case.
- [2014] I feel like the songs I identify with most - not the ones I think are the best, but the ones that speak to me - are "I Am Not A Robot", "Mowgli's Road" and "Hollywood", which are kind of like these fusions of alternative and rock music. I don't think there was a concerted effort to go back to that... that is just my sound. That's what I'm interested in. It's not about being pop or not pop, or electronic or not electronic, it's more about feeling the groove in the music and knowing there are real musicians playing it. I think it's something that I've been trying translate for a long time.
- [2014, on her songs "Immortal" and "Are You Satisfied?"] They're not consciously related, but it's a good point. I guess both are talking about that need to feel fulfilled or live that kind of life that you would want to. It's hard. It's hard to be happy all the time - it's not natural - but that's what people want to be.
- [2014] I felt like I hadn't changed between 18 and 27, which is a really long fucking time to not grow up or not deal with certain issues. I feel lighter now. I feel very different. The weirdest thing was that it was almost overnight. I'm 29 and I've not experienced this in my life before. I think it was something that I was looking for. The previous years when I was projecting cynicism, or when I was being snarky or whatever, I was myself all the time.
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