Melanie Adele Martinez (born April 28th, 1995) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, director, actress, dancer, clothing designer, producer, photographer. 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's 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/sound. Signing to Atlantic Records soon after, Melanie released her debut EP, Dollhouse (2014). The EP had 2 singles, Dollhouse and Carousel, and included songs that were recorded during sessions for her then-upcoming debut. 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 with the same name on September 6, 2019, featuring hits such as "Show & Tell," "Nurse’s Office," and "Strawberry Shortcake". She then released the accompanying After School EP on September 25, 2020. The deluxe album currently has over 2.7 billion streams on Spotify. 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 currently has 900+ million streams on Spotify, making it their 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 5th, 2023, including the fan favourite MILK OF THE SIREN which leaked in 2021. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and 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 of her “Crybaby” trilogy. Despite not releasing an album that year, she made the top 10 best selling female artists of 2024. In 2026, Martinez came back with her single POSSESSION on January 28th with the debut of her new character ‘Circle’, and announced her fourth studio album HADES, set to release on March 27th, with another album set to release later in the year that has yet to be announced.