Martika biography
Martika (born as Marta Marrero, May 18, 1969) is an American pop singer-songwriter and actress of Cuban descent. As a singer she released two internationally successful albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s, selling over four million copies worldwide.
Early life and career
Martika was born in 1969 in Whittier, California. She entered mainstream show business in an uncredited role as one of the orphan girls in the 1982 motion picture
Annie. This led to her being cast as Gloria on the long-running kids show
Kids Incorporated as one of a group of neighborhood kids who rise to local fame by singing staged productions at a corner malt shop. Martika and many fellow
Kids Incorporated cast members were featured in the musical numbers from the Mr. T motivational video
Be Somebody... or Be Somebody's Fool! in 1984.
Following her role in Kids Incorporated and Be Somebody, Martika was signed by Columbia Records as a potential Madonna-like pop star. Her first solo release, however, was released only in Japan. "We are Music" was recorded to promote Sony cassette tapes in the Japanese market, where the song was released in the 12", 7" and CD formats.
Rise to prominence
Her first album, 1988's
Martika, spawned the song "Toy Soldiers," which she co-wrote with her producer Michael Jay, and became a top 5 hit in the United Kingdom and many other countries. In the US, "Toy Soldiers" spent two weeks at #1 and was certified Gold by the RIAA. Two additional releases also went Top 40 in the US: "More Than You Know"(#18) and "I Feel the Earth Move"(#25), which was a remake of Carole King's #1 from her album
Tapestry. Both of those tracks also hit the top 20 on the US Dance charts and the UK singles chart. Further releases from the debut album were "Water," a modest hit in the UK and Australia, and "If You're Tarzan I'm Jane." The album was certified Gold in the US in 1989, and sold 3 million copies worldwide.
1990s
Martika was encouraged by her agent to combine her love of film and music by scoring soundtracks and, in 1990, she wrote and recorded the song "Blue Eyes are Sensitive to the Light" for the soundtrack to the film
Arachnophobia. The producers of the album did not like her vocals and so the song was re-recorded by Sara Hickman for the film. The song has also been recorded by Brazilian singers Deborah Blando (on her 1991 debut,
A Different Story), Elba Ramalho and Frances Ruffelle.
In 1991 Martika was approached by Prince to record some of his tracks. Among these was her second (and last) US Top 10 single, Love... Thy Will Be Done, which also became a Top 10 hit in the UK and #1 in Australia. Her second album, Martika's Kitchen, peaked at #111 on the Billboard Top Albums chart, and the title track received only minor airplay and reached #93 on Billboard Hot 100 Chart. However, the album was a bigger success abroad, though on a lesser scale than her debut, spawning further hits with the songs "Coloured Kisses" and "Temptation".
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