By Sam Merricks
Melanie Martinez first came onto our screens when she auditioned for The Voice US in 2012 where she chose Adam Levine as her coach for the 3rd season of the show and made it through to the top 6 but sadly got eliminated before she could reach the semi finals, shortly after, her career took off with her EP Dollhouse in 2014 which later featured into her first debut album Crybaby released in 2015.
After a 4 year hiatus, Martinez is back with her new album K-12 which is paired with a theatrical film where her alter-ego of Crybaby is sent off to a boarding school in where not everything is what it seems for Crybaby and her best friend Angelita.
Who/What is Crybaby?
Crybaby is a strong and sensitive girl who we first meet in Martinez’s first album entitled Crybaby back in 2015 where Crybaby is just a young girl who is vulnerable and the album provides us of the narrative of who ‘Crybaby’ is and her home life in ‘Dollhouse’ to her love experiences with boys in singles such as ‘Carousel’, ‘Soap’ and ‘Training Wheels’ as well as self-love and acceptance in ‘Mad Hatter’.
We next follow Crybaby into a boarding school named K-12 Sleepaway School in her next album and feature film named K-12, where she faces bullies, villainous teachers and a dastardly principal who control the school and its students.
K-12
The K-12 album, released 6th September 2019, highlights Crybaby in her school days as the cleverly school based song titles are used to highlight an issue, the best case is through the song, ‘The Principal’ potentially criticises Donald Trump who is arguably the Principal of USA and based off of Martinez’s Latin origin, she has publicly shown her dismay over President Trump being elected.
K-12 most importantly takes a look at Martinez’ darkest vulnerabilities as we further explore power struggle in ‘Teacher’s Pe’t, being in the face of criticism in ‘Show and Tell’ as well as body issues in ‘Orange Juice’ and ‘Strawberry Shortcake’, which Martinez performed for Jimmy Kimmel Live on the 16thSeptember which stands as her first performance for the new album.
What’s in store next for Melanie?
Martinez announced a tour for K-12, which starts on the 13th October in Washington, DC and finishes on the 17th December in Hamburg, Germany, More tour dates are to be expected after the Christmas break.
Feel free to check out Melanie’s film K-12 which is free to watch on YouTube.
