With a unique fashion sense and powerful messages in her music, Melanie Martinez is an influential but underrated artist. Martinez made her debut to the world when she auditioned for season 3 of The Voice in 2012. She was on Adam’s team but was eliminated in the top 6 round. Although she was eliminated, has come out to be one of the biggest stars of the show.

Following her elimination, she released her first album “Cry Baby” in 2015. 6 of the songs were certified gold in the U.S. and 2 received platinum certification from the RIAA. With song titles such as “Cry Baby,” “Dollhouse,” “Alphabet Boy,” and “Mrs.Potato Head” the album, and all of her music, carry a child-like look from the outside view. If you dive deeper into these songs, they have powerful messages of a child going through society’s beauty standards, rape, abuse, to love. She heavily touches on many messages.

A personal favorite on the album is “Mrs.Potato Head.” Martinez sings on the struggles of the beauty standards that women are upheld to and how they need them to be loved. “Don’t be dramatic, it’s only some plastic, no one will love you if you’re unattractive.” It makes you rethink when it will ever be enough. Our society holds women to such a high and achievable standard which leads to many young women being insecure in themselves.

Martinez’s music is brought to the next level with her music videos. She has memorable and captivating music videos. Her costumes and film sets fit her childlike music theme but throw in a touch of a vintage look. Unlike most artists, she has released a music video for almost all of her songs.

If that is not enough talent, Martinez is also a deviant screenwriter and actress. After the release of her second album “K-12” in 2019, she released a movie she directed and starred in. Her second album accompanied the movie. The movie follows a plot of two girls taking down an oppressive school system. You can stream it on Youtube, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV.