Marina and The Diamonds
Marina Lambrini Diamandis was born in Abergavenny, Wales, to a Greek and Welsh family.
Diamandis entered the music department at the University of East London, then moved to Middlesex University in her sophomore year, but later left. She auditioned for The West End Musical and The Lion King. Diamandis admitted that she auditioned for a male-only reggae group on Virgin Records in 2005 to try and get into the music business. She said it was "delusional drive" and ultimately decided to dress up in menswear to try to entertain the label and eventually sign her, but that was unsuccessful. However, the label called her back a week later. Diamandis is synesthetic, meaning he sees musical notes and days of the week in different colors.
In 2005, Diamandis coined the pseudonym Marina & The Diamonds. Marina released her debut mini-album, Mermaid Vs. Sailor. The recording was sold through Marina's MySpace page.
In January 2008, Diamandis was first discovered by Derek Davis. Davis invited Marina to support Australian artist Gotye on the tour. Later in October 2008, 679 Recordings signed a contract with Marina. Diamandis's debut single consisted of 2 songs: "Obsessions" and "Mowgli's Road". It was released under the direction of Neon Gold Records in the United States on November 19, 2008. The second single, which was released on June 1, 2009, was the song "I Am Not A Robot".
Marina & the Diamonds' debut album, The Family Jewels, was released on February 22, 2010. It peaked at number five on the UK Albums Chart and was awarded silver in the UK just days before its release.
Marina embarked on her first tour on February 14, 2010, with 70 dates across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe, USA and Canada. In March 2010 Atlantic Records recorded Marina and the Diamonds with Chop Shop Records in the United States . Prior to the release of the American version of the album on May 25, 2010, Marina released The American Jewels EP, exclusively for the United States on May 23, 2010.
Marina made her North American debut on March 14, 2010 through several performances. Marina and the Diamonds were nominated for a Critics' Choice at the BRIT Awards in 2010 and were also fifth on the "Ten Artists To Watch in 2010" list of March 2010. The band also won the Best UK & Ireland Act at the 2010 MTV EMA awards, which was classified as Best European Performance, although it did not make it into the group of 5 nominees .
In January 2011, Marina announced that the new album would be about female sexuality and feminism. On August 22 the video for the first single "Radioactive" was released. The single failed in the charts, so this song was promoted as a single, and the first single was the song "Primadonna". The official release of the album "Electra Heart" - April 30, 2012. On August 8, 2013 Marina released the last song of the same name from the album "Electra Heart" and uploaded the video to her Youtube channel.
