Marina and the Diamonds, sometimes stylised Marina & the diamonds, is the recording name of Welsh-born London-based singer-songwriter Marina Diamandis.
Marina Diamandis was born in Abergavenny, Wales to a Greek father and Welsh mother. Her musical style ranges from keyboard-based ballads to more up-tempo new wave-style songs with full band backing. After dropping out of university, Diamandis moved to London at the age of eighteen where she attended dance school for only two months. She auditioned for West End musicals and was ultimately cast in The Lion King.
Her eponymous name "Marina and the Diamonds" consists of Diamandis' first name and the translation of her surname which means "Diamonds" in Greek. "The Diamonds" refers to Diamandis' fans but is commonly mistaken for Marina's backing band (similar to Florence + the Machine). This is also suggested on her MySpace page where she says "I'm Marina. You are the diamonds."
Early demos of Diamadis' songs were self composed and produced on the Apple software application Garageband. She also recalls finding someone on Gumtree and paying them £500 to produce a few tracks. These ended up on her debut extended play Mermaid Vs. Sailor EP which was released on November 23, 2007. The record was created on hand-made CD-Rs by Diamondis and sold through her MySpace page. An estimated seventy copies were sold overall.
In January 2008, Diamandis was first discovered by music scouter Derek Davies of Neon Gold Records. Davies booked Diamandis to open for Australian singer Gotye later that year where Warner Music Group first saw her and ended up signing her in October 2008 to SixSeveNine.
Diamandis' debut single was a double a-side consisting of "Obsessions" and "Mowgli's Road" which was issued on Neon Gold Records in the United States, followed by her second extended play The Crown Jewels EP in June 2009 featuring her second single "I Am Not a Robot". She played at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Swindon early in May 2009, Glastonbury Festival in June 2009, and the Reading and Leeds Festivals in August 2009. Her first major label single, a re-recording of "Mowgli's Road", was released on 15th November, 2009 under SixSeveNine in the UK and through Atlantic Records in the USA. On December 7, 2009 she was listed on the longlist for the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, and on January 7, 2010 it was announced that she had taken second place.
She also made an appearance in the last episode of season 1 of BBC teen drama The Cut where she performed one of her songs
Marina and the Diamonds' debut album The Family Jewels is due for release on February 15, 2010. The song "Hollywood" is to be released as the first promotional single from the album on February 1, 2010. She will be embarking on her first headlining touring starting January 26, 2010 which will consist of eleven dates around the United Kingdom.
Diamandis has recently been collaborating with producer Benny Blanco and guitarist Dave Sitek in Los Angeles on new material which she describes to be "a really great opportunity for me as a songwriter. [We are] such a weird threesome - a combination of super pop and really indie". She hinted towards a possible re-release extension of her album in the near future, similar to Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster.
I AM NOT A ROBOT
OBSESSIONS
HOLLYWOOD
MOWGLI'S ROAD
Seventeen
