Martina Topley-Bird is a British vocalist who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album Maxinquaye (a printing error credited her as "Martine"). She was educated at Clifton College where she sang in the choir.
It was while she was a young precocious teenager at the school that she met trip hop pioneer Tricky. She continued her collaboration with Tricky on his follow-up albums Nearly God, Pre-Millennium Tension and Angels with Dirty Faces. Following a falling-out of their professional and personal relationship in 1998, she began pursuing a solo career. It was not until 2003 that she released her debut album, Quixotic (Independiente Records), mainly produced by Martina and production team AMP9 (Alex McGowan, Steve Crittall, Nick Bird) at Space Eko Recording Studios London. Upon its release, it received rave reviews from critics and was a finalist for the 2003 Mercury Music Prize. The song "Sandpaper Kisses" from the album was featured in the video game, Fahrenheit (released in North America as Indigo Prophecy). The album finally saw a release, of sorts, in the United States in July 2004 when the Palm Pictures label released a re-designed and re-sequenced version with a new title (Anything), a trimmed-down tracklisting and all-new cover art. The following year she appeared on the Starbucks compilation album, Sweetheart 2005: Love Songs, which features contemporary musicians covering classic love songs. She sang "I Only Have Eyes for You", a song originally by The Flamingos. Her second solo album, The Blue God, was released in May 2008. The track "Carnies" was released as the first single on 3 March 2008 & reached No.20 on the UK Indie Charts. "Poison" was released as the second single and reached No.9 on the Indie Charts.
Albums
* Quixotic (2003, Independiente)
* Anything (2004, Palm Pictures)
* The Blue God (2008, Independiente)
Singles
* 2003 "Need One"
* 2003 "Anything"
* 2003 "I Still Feel"
* 2004 "Soul Food"
* 2008 "Carnies"
* 2008 "Poison"
* 2008 "Baby Blue"
Song appearances
* "Need One" was used in a television advertisement for Toyota's Corolla Verso in 2004.
* "Sandpaper Kisses" appears on the soundtrack of the 2005 videogame Fahrenheit.
* In 2007, her song "Da Da Da Da" was used in the film Virgin Territory.
* "Need One" was featured in an advertisement for H&M on Swedish and Dutch television during autumn of 2008.
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