Born to Cuban parents in California in 1969, Martika burst onto the music scene in 1988 with three hit singles off her self-titled debut album, the sassy Madonna-esque "More Than You Know," the international smash, "Toy Soldiers" and a successful cover of Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move" (in fact, in this clip of the song's video, she says Boy George, George Michael and Madonna would be her dream artists to duet with!). Two years later she was "working" with the likes or Prince, and managed to eke out one more Top 10 single, the brilliant and sensual "Love ... Thy Will Be Done," only to see the corresponding album, "Martika's Kitchen," flop. (To this day, my friend Mark swears it's a masterpiece.) Following that disappointment Martika returned to her childhood love of acting, then all but disappeared from the landscape until 2004 when Eminem used a sample of her “Toy Soldiers” for his "Like Toy Soldiers," a track on his album "Encore." (It entered the UK singles chart at Number 1.) In response, Martika’s greatest hits album was repackaged with its title altered to "Toy Soldiers: The Best of Martika." Around that time she also began releasing music as Oppera, a goth pop band she formed with her husband, Michael Mozart. Her new band has now released two albums, but to me she'll always be the authentic "La Isla Bonita" girl. I mean really, that Italian chick isn't even from the Upper Peninsula let alone La Isla Mackinac ...
"Love ... Thy Will Be Done"
"Toy Soldiers"
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Music Box: Martika
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6 comments:
To listen to free streaming music online, I found some incredible website: http://www.deezer.com/en
It's incredible! Free, legal, and it has a huuuuuuuge catalogue!
It shall always be a running joke amongst my friends about ANYTHING Martika. She used to go to the local dance club up here in Ventura (the infamous "Xenon West") back in the day. Needless to say, she was a prat and tried WAY too hard to be popular (sans being a slut- she was one of the few gals running about looking like a prostitute, who DIDN'T "put out", much to my straight friends dismay). I personally thought she was WAY over-rated and a bit dumb myself. She had absolutely no self-style AT ALL. She kept copying whatever "Contempo Casuals" was selling and claiming it was her own. That damn song ("Toy Soldiers") still makes my ears bleed... He-he!
I loved Martika's Kitchen! The fun and funky title track is still on most of my workout mixes. And "Love Thy Will Be Done," is just plain beautiful.
I love "Love ... Thy Will Be Done"!
Thanks for highlighting Martika. She is an amazing singer and I have been a fan of hers since 1984 when she was a star on Kids Inc. All her performances are viewable on youtube. To be quite honest, her versions sometimes sounded better than the originals. Her career could have been managed better, much better than it was.....a true vocalist.
LTWBD is still one of my fav workout/cooldown songs. And MTYK was better than any Debbie Gibson song from the 80's.
The only legit reason to be a Martika hater is that Toy Soldiers kept Madonna's Express Yourself from hitting No. 1. Hindsight being 20/20, that just ain't right.
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