I believe everyone should be equal, and we should all love and support each other and express ourselves the way we want to express ourselves and be whoever we want. That's my motto.
Melanie Martinez
I stay away from the title of 'role model.' I want to be a more realistic role model - not a perfect Barbie role model.
Everyone is allowed to be vulnerable. I think women and men and dogs and cats and ants and aliens can all express themselves and be vulnerable.
Part of the problem with America is that letting go of emotions is viewed as a weakness, but it's my strength. That enabled me to write my songs.
I'm really stubborn, and I'm okay with that.
I think that any female who gets asked if she's a feminist... it's silly... it's so interesting when people ask females if they're a feminist. Of course every female wants to be equal!
My music is like a baby pink frosted cake with sprinkles, but when you cut into it, there's a gooey, dark chocolate center.
I love Sia and how she hides her face. If I could pull off doing that, I totally would.
When I was 16, I was watching '101 Dalmatians,' and my mom never let me bleach my hair, so I told her I was going to dye my hair like Cruella De Vil; she didn't believe me. I came home with my hair like this, and she didn't talk to me for, like, a week. It was really hilarious.
I want to encourage people to be themselves and express themselves however they want.
I only wear vintage clothing. I'm pretty obsessed with things in the '60s, like fashion and music, too.
My whole mission in general, ever since I was fourteen, was to write music that would help people heal.
I have to stop eating so much grilled cheese and chocolate chip cookies and start really working on everything!
I got a lot of very bad hate on social media from some people from my school. I think people thought I changed because they saw me on TV. They weren't close enough to know that I was still the same human being... When I walked at graduation, I got booed. It was kind of stupid.
'Cry Baby' is like this fairytale version of me. A lot of it is based on real events, and some of it is made up to make it more whimsical.
I would love to collab with The Weeknd, for sure.
Remember that I am a human.
I've always been super into photography and the visuals that support my music.
I really like milk. I'm a dairy queen.
I auditioned for 'The Voice' because I really wanted to try and figure out a way to get myself out there. I really couldn't imagine doing anything else - music was the only thing that I really clung to.
I wrote about scenarios that I was going through and then disguised them.
Please understand that I make music to express myself, and if you know anything about me, you know that I'm nothing but honest.
Working on this album has been very emotional and super personal, and creating this character 'Cry Baby' helped me deal with my own insecurities.
I used music as therapy and embraced being a cry baby.
To me, I absolutely cannot stand Twitter. I hate it more than anything.
I was always called a cry baby, and I was one. I cried a lot as a child. In fact, I still cry a few times a day. I'm still a cry baby.
I didn't have any real idea that I was going to be an artist; I had no idea what that meant.
I'll always cling to these little girl dresses at vintage shops, and I can never wear them because they're so tiny!
I've always written the storyboards for the music videos, and it's been hard working with directors trying to get them to understand what I'm thinking.
I'm a perfectionist, and even if something comes out great, it's still not perfect, you know?
I'm just happy I got to express who I am as an artist and touch people's hearts.
I don't like a lot of pop music. But I like the idea of pop music.
I always try, when I'm singing songs, to interpret them the way that I would've arranged them. I think about the melody first, and then I pull out my guitar and start singing it.
My parents were super strict, so I didn't have a lot of freedom to hang out at parties or anything like that. I didn't get invited, and I didn't have many friends.
When I'm done with my last album, I want to make a movie with Tim Burton telling the story of all of the albums connected. That's my biggest dream.
I wanted to play my original music, but it was really hard because a lot of the people who would come out to the shows found out about me through 'The Voice' and wanted to hear covers.
It's one thing to ask for a picture, but to just take a picture of me is kinda weird, guys.
I look at music like an art form, so it's almost like painting for me, you know?
I had been writing songs for awhile - since I was 14 - and playing guitar, but I never really knew how to go about making an actual career.
I have a song called 'Training Wheels,' and it's about being in love with someone and taking it to the next level by taking off the training wheels.
I always cling to things that remind me of being a kid again.
When I started, I was very unsure of who I was. There were a lot of things in the songs that I didn't realize I was saying. But more and more, it fell into place... I got more comfortable in my skin.
I like scaring myself.
Eventually, I started writing down a bunch of titles that related to childhood themes and would pair it with an adult situation that either I was going through or someone else in my life was going through.
My two favorite parts of what I do are definitely writing the music and then writing and directing the videos to support each song. As well as doing my own makeup and styling for the videos.
I feel it's my job as the artist who is making the music to pair it with visuals that I see in my head while writing the music in the first place.
I've always been a fan of telling honest stories.
I wanted people to understand that I have my own music, and I didn't want to sing other people's songs at shows.
I definitely think it's cool being Puerto Rican and Dominican, but I feel it has no influence on my music.
Growing up, I always took things too personal and was very emotional, and I got made fun of for it.
