MARTINEZ, MELANIE - HADES - AURA BLUE MARBLED VINYL + BOOKLET + PUZZLE

Melanie Adele Martinez (born April 28, 1995) is an American singer-songwriter, visual artist, director, actress, dancer, fashion designer, producer, photographer, and screenwriter of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent. Born in Astoria, Queens, and raised in Baldwin, New York, she first participated in the MSG Varsity Talent Show during her junior year of high school and subsequently rose to prominence in 2012 after appearing on the American television vocal talent show The Voice. She auditioned singing Britney Spears' "Toxic" and made it to the Top 6 before being eliminated in the fifth week of live shows. Immediately following her departure from the show, she began independent work on original material. She began recording for a (later-scrapped) EP in 2013 with acts such as John Feldmann and Doveman. Eventually becoming tired of that sound and wanting to experiment, she wrote "Dollhouse" at a session with Kinetics & One Love in September of that year. This song kickstarted the Cry Baby theme and sound. Signing to Atlantic Records soon after, Melanie released her debut EP, Dollhouse (2014). The EP had two singles, "Dollhouse" and "Carousel", and included songs that were recorded during sessions for her then-upcoming debut album. Martinez later released her debut studio album, Cry Baby (2015), which debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum by the RIAA. It currently has over 6.2 billion streams on Spotify and all of the album tracks are certified by the RIAA. Martinez released her second studio album, K-12, along with an hour-and-a-half-long film of the same name on September 6, 2019. She then released the accompanying After School EP on September 25, 2020. The deluxe album currently has over 2.7 billion streams on Spotify. The album also became the first album to have every track certified by the RIAA without producing an official single. In 2020, "Play Date" gained major popularity due to trends on TikTok along with many other songs after it. Due to its success, "Play Date" now has over 1 billion streams on Spotify, making it her most streamed song to date. Martinez's third studio album, PORTALS, was released on March 31, 2023, with the deluxe version being released on April 5, 2023, including fan favourite "MILK OF THE SIREN", which leaked in 2021. The album debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and currently has over 1.2 billion streams on Spotify. Following her PORTALS World Tour in 2023, Martinez toured North America and Europe in 2024 with the TRILOGY TOUR, featuring all three albums of the Cry Baby trilogy. The tour became her first arena tour and included multiple sold-out arena dates, including consecutive sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden. Despite not releasing an album that year, she made the Top 10 best-selling female artists of 2024 and was one of the most successful alternative female touring artists of the year. In 2026, Martinez returned with her single "POSSESSION" on January 28, introducing her new character, Circle. The era's second single, "DISNEY PRINCESS", followed in February. She then released her fourth studio album, HADES, on March 27, 2026. "UNCANNY VALLEY" was released as a single alongside the album, while "THE VATICAN" was later promoted as an additional single. Through the perspective of Circle, HADES explores corruption, capitalism, artificial intelligence, environmental destruction, religion, celebrity culture, and other social issues through a dark dystopian lens. Rather than imagining a completely fictional future, the album amplifies real-world problems into a harsher and more apocalyptic reflection of modern society. Martinez has also confirmed that a second album connected to the HADES era is currently in development. While HADES represents the dystopian side of the story, the upcoming project is expected to explore a utopian perspective, serving as a thematic counterpart and further expanding the story of Circle. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.