Melanie Martinez

Melanie Adele Martinez is an American singer and songwriter. Melanie Martinez auditioned for the American television vocal talent show The Voice and became a member of Team Adam. Within the fifth week, she was eliminated which subsequently led to her beginning independent work on original material. In 2014, she released Dollhouse, her debut EP featuring the singles "Dollhouse" and "Carousel", which appeared on the trailer for the television series American Horror Story: Freak Show.

In 2015, Martinez released her conceptual debut album titled Cry Baby, featuring the critically acclaimed lead single "Pity Party", along with other singles "Soap" and "Sippy Cup".

Martinez was born on April 28, 1995 in Astoria, Queens to parents of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent. Her family moved to Baldwin, New York on Long Island when Martinez was 4. She listened to Brandy, Britney Spears, Shakira, The Beatles, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls and Christina Aguilera growing up, and claims to have wanted to be a singer from a young age.

Martinez attended Plaza Elementary School, crediting her teacher Mr. Nadien with teaching her how to sing, and in kindergarten, Martinez began writing poetry. Martinez has claimed to have not had many friends growing up and to have been a homebody, as she was "very emotional", and found it difficult to explain her feelings, crying when overwhelmed. She used photography and painting as a means of self-expression. Due to her emotionality as a child, she claims to have been referred to as a "cry baby" by others, which sparked the creation of the titular character of her debut album, Cry Baby.

She attended Baldwin High School. At the age of 14, Martinez taught herself how to play guitar by studying chord diagrams of songs that she enjoyed, which she found online, and wrote her first song by adding her poetry to one of the chord diagrams, but claims that playing guitar "eventually got stale". During her sophomore year, she won the talent show at Baldwin High School and at the age of 16, after watching 101 Dalmatians, dyed half of her hair blonde, in the same vein as Cruella De Vil. She received criticism from her classmates for not returning to school after appearing on The Voice.