Marina Diamandis

At 39 years old, Marina Diamandis has this physical status:

Knowing that the Spice Girls were formed by an advertisement in The Stage, Diamandis applied for auditions listed in that newspaper. She travelled for several unsuccessful auditions, including opportunities with the musical for The Lion King and a boy band organized by Virgin Records. It was during this time that she managed to leave her CV with an A&R representative, but was unable to audition at the time of the appointment as she felt sick. In 2005, she created the stage name "Marina and the Diamonds". After she came to prominence, "the Diamonds" was established as a reference to her fans instead of her backing band.

Inspired by the example of self-produced outsider musician Daniel Johnston, Diamandis decided to compose her own music and stop going to auditions. She taught herself how to play the piano. She self-composed and produced her earlier demos with GarageBand, and independently released her debut extended play Mermaid vs Sailor through Myspace in 2007. She met with fourteen music labels, rejecting all but one, as she believed it was the only one which would not dictate her image. She came to the attention of Neon Gold Records' Derek Davies in 2008, which managed her for six months, and was hired as the supporting act for Australian recording artist Gotye. Davies reflected "She just had something that really resonated with me. Even with the quite limited production of her early bedroom demos, she had this powerful yet vulnerable vocal and writing style that didn't sound like anyone else at the time". In October, Diamandis finalized a recording contract with 679 Recordings (eventually renamed 679 Artists), a subdivision of Warner Music Group.

Diamandis's debut single "Obsessions" was released on 14 February 2009 through Neon Gold Records, while her first extended play The Crown Jewels EP followed on 1 June. That summer, she performed at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, the Glastonbury Festival, and the Reading and Leeds Festivals. She also performed at iTunes Live, releasing a second EP in July 2009 of performances from that festival. In December 2009, Diamandis was ranked in second place on the Sound of 2010 poll organized by BBC, behind Ellie Goulding. She was one of three nominees for the Critics' Choice Award at the 2010 BRIT Awards, which also went to Goulding. "Mowgli's Road" was released on 13 November 2009, with Diamandis describing it as "uncommercial". Despite this, it received attention after its video was shared by the likes of Perez Hilton and Kanye West.

"Mowgli's Road" was followed by "Hollywood" on 1 February 2010, which reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart, and was eventually certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Diamandis's debut studio album The Family Jewels was released on 15 February 2010. It debuted at number five on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 27,618 copies, and was eventually certified gold by the BPI. A 2012 press release from Atlantic Records noted that the album had sold 300,000 copies.

Atlantic Records signed Diamandis to Chop Shop Records in the United States in March 2010. Through the label, she released her third extended play The American Jewels EP, and The Family Jewels in the United States. The latter project debuted at number 138 on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 4,000 copies, and on Billboard's Top Heatseekers and Top Rock Albums charts, where it peaked at number 2 and 49 respectively.

Later in 2010, Diamandis released three more singles from the album; "I Am Not a Robot", "Oh No!" and "Shampain", which peaked at 26, 38 and 141 in the UK charts. In October 2010, she won Best UK & Ireland Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards. To further promote The Family Jewels, Diamandis embarked on The Family Jewels Tour, which visited Europe, North America and Australia throughout 2010 and 2011. In January 2011, in an Australian radio interview, she expressed disappointment at her career, particularly in her failure to attract an American audience. She put this down to inaction by her label and American listeners' contemporary taste for "pumping beats" by artists such as Lady Gaga.

In the summer of 2011, Diamandis and Swedish recording artist Robyn performed as the opening acts for American recording artist Katy Perry's California Dreams Tour. On 30 September, Diamandis released the track "Radioactive" through the iTunes Store. It peaked at number 25 on the UK Singles Chart. Her second studio album was preceded by its lead single "Primadonna" in April 2012. The song is notable for being Diamandis's highest-charting track on the UK Singles Chart, where it reached number 11. It is certified Silver by the BPI, gold in Austria and the United States, and platinum by the respective authorities in Australia, Denmark and New Zealand.

The final product Electra Heart is a concept album lyrically united by the ideas of "female identity" and "a recent breakup". Diamandis created the titular character "Electra Heart" as a protagonist for the project. She portrays the personas "Teen Idle", "Primadonna", "Homewrecker", and "Housewife", which represent several female archetypes of stereotypical American culture. The project was released on 27 April 2012, and debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 21,358 copies. It became Diamandis's first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom, although at the time it was additionally distinguished as the lowest-selling number-one record of the 21st century in the country. The album was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry and the Irish Recorded Music Association. Electra Heart debuted at 31 on the US Billboard 200 with 12,000 copies sold its first week, and as of May 2015 has sold 150,000 copies in that country.

"Power & Control" and "How to Be a Heartbreaker" were subsequent single releases, with the latter missing the cut-off for initial inclusion on the record. However, it was featured in the revised track listing for the American version. The two songs were minor chart entries in the UK, and the latter was certified gold in the United States for sales over 500,000 copies. Throughout 2012, Diamandis travelled for The Lonely Hearts Club Tour, which her second headlining concert tour, and the Mylo Xyloto Tour headlined by Coldplay, for which she served as an opening act. On 8 August 2013, she released a music video for the previously unreleased title track "Electra Heart". It depicted the death of the character, and symbolically ended the promotional campaign for Electra Heart.

After spending one month in New York City, Diamandis announced in February 2013 that she had begun writing material for an upcoming third studio album. The single "Froot" was released on 10 October 2014, her 29th birthday, and announced as the title track.

The album was announced to be released on 3 April 2015, with a new track from the album being announced each month. However, due to an Internet leak, the release was brought forward. Entirely produced by Diamandis and David Kosten, the album was praised for its cohesive sound. Froot debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200 chart, and is her highest-charting album in the United States. Froot peaked at 10 in the UK.

In early 2015, it was announced that Diamandis would perform at Lollapalooza Brazil, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Boston Calling Music Festival that March, April and May respectively. From October 2015 to the following October, she embarked on the Neon Nature Tour across Europe and the Americas. Each performance was split into three acts; one for each of her albums, with most of the songs coming from Froot. Her performance at the House of Blues in Boston in November of that year was broadcast live by Yahoo. During a question-and-answer video, Diamandis said that subsequent tours would be different, as her usual tours had been "a hard lifestyle". In April 2016, she said she would take a break from music after her tour. She returned to performing two months later, clarifying that she would rather work on a consistent basis than a cycle of touring and resting.

In June 2016, Diamandis told Fuse that she had begun writing new material for upcoming songs. In December 2016, electronic group Clean Bandit confirmed that "Disconnect", a song they had performed with Diamandis at the 2015 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, would be released on their new album. It was released as a single in June 2017, and she performed it with them at Glastonbury.

To mark a new stage in her career, Diamandis announced via Twitter in 2018 that she would be dropping her "and the Diamonds" moniker to release music as simply "Marina". She explained that "It took me well over a year to figure out that a lot of my identity was tied up in who I was as an artist and there wasn't much left of who I was".

In November 2018, a second collaboration with Clean Bandit and Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi, "Baby", was released. It peaked at number 15 in the UK. On 11 December of the same year, Diamandis performed at the Royal Variety Performance alongside Clean Bandit with their song "Baby". On 31 January 2019, Diamandis teased the new album by posting a picture on her Instagram with the caption "8 Days". The day after, she revealed in an interview that the new album would come out sometime in early 2019. On 6 February 2019, it was revealed that the title of the lead single of the album would be "Handmade Heaven", which was subsequently released two days later. Her bipartite fourth studio album Love + Fear was then released in two halves on 4 and 26 April 2019.

On 29 April 2019, Diamandis embarked on her Love + Fear Tour with six UK gigs, including sold-out dates in London and Manchester. In July 2019, she was scheduled to play a number of music festivals across Europe and the UK, before taking the tour to North America with 19 dates across the US and Canada in September and October. This would then be followed by a second run of UK dates and a short European tour. She was featured on Gryffin's song (also featuring Model Child) "If I Left the World", released on 23 October 2019.

On 16 January 2020, Diamandis posted two photos on Instagram with the caption "Writing songs in Paris". On 24 January 2020, she posted a photo on Instagram with the caption "Album 5". On 7 February 2020, Diamandis released "About Love" from the soundtrack for the movie To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You. On 14 February 2020, she announced her upcoming April tour, The Inbetweenie Tour. However, on 16 March 2020, she announced that this tour would be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 8 March 2020, she posted a snippet of a new song named "Man's World" on her Instagram story. The song was released on 18 November 2020. The single debuted at number 99 on the Official UK Singles Sales Chart and at number 96 on the Official UK Singles Download Chart after two days release.

On 12 April 2021, Diamandis announced a new single, "Purge the Poison", alongside a website and a mailing list to accompany it. Later that day, her web team accidentally uploaded the music video onto YouTube, resulting in an early leak of the song and music video. Diamandis released the single cover and release date soon after, possibly as a result of the early leak. Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land was released on 11 June 2021. The album was well received by critics. The album's fifth single, "Happy Loner", was released on 3 December 2021 to coincide with the deluxe version of the album which released on 7 January 2022.

On 1 October 2021, Diamandis announced on Instagram that she started working on her sixth studio album.

On 27 April 2022, Diamandis announced that Electra Heart would be getting an expanded version, which was called Electra Heart: Platinum Blonde Edition. The album was released digitally two days later, with the vinyl release following on 23 September 2022.

On 22 May 2022, Diamandis announced while performing in London that Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land would be her last album with Atlantic Records. She had been signed to the record label for the past 14 years.

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