I was a nineties pop legend working with Prince and Eminem but I quit fame after burning out
NINETIES pop legend Martika was a successful artist who sold over four million copies of her two successful albums at the height of her career.
But she ended up walking away from the music industry due to burnout, and feeling overwhelmed by fame.
Martika’s biggest hit during her fame was Toy Soldiers which was number one for two weeks on the American chart in mid-1989.
She also had a dance cover of Carole King’s I Feel The Earth Move which reached number two in Australia in 1989.
Martika then wrote her second album with Prince and it included hits such as Love Thy Will Be Done.
As well as her music, the pop star was known for her role as Gloria on Kids Incorporated.
Despite her success, Martika closed the door on showbiz four years after her pop career began.
In an interview back in 2016 she explained why, saying she simply “didn’t want to be in the public eye.”
Martika added: “The music industry is extremely self indulgent and egocentric and narcissistic. If all you ever do is talk about yourself what kind of person do you become?
“The pressures of the music industry, of that life, I backed away from that. It’s much better for your sanity and the human side of one’s self.”
She continued to tell News.com.au: “It can be a little bit overwhelming to try and make everyone happy. I didn’t really have a business perspective. Now, all these young acts know it’s a business, they know you’re a brand. And that’s what it is, you’re an artist but you’re really a product.
“But we’re human beings, we’re not a can of soup. It’s not like you’re on the shelf for sale, but yet you’re made to feel like that.
“All of that was confusing for a young mind. I’m just a person. So I took the scenic route of my life. I went ‘Hey, I think I wanna do my life away from that world’.”
In 2010, she left fans confused when going under the name of Vida Edit to take part in a web-based series named J8ded.
Explaining the move behind it, she said: “I was working as an actor on a project. The name ‘Martika’ clicks with the Toy Soldiers girl and that persona. Honestly I thought it was distracting from being able to immerse into this project.”
Now 54, the singer is married to husband Michael Mozart, who she wed in 2001.
In 2012, she appeared to return to the music world and released a dance track named Flow With The Go, but the tour she then announced was mysteriously cancelled.
She explained: “I was ready to go. I was going, then I wasn’t going. It wasn’t me, that’s all I can say.”
Martika may well have disappeared from the spotlight, but the success of her Toy Soldiers song has helped pay her bills.
“My music catalogue has financed my adult life. It’s amazing you can even make a living in music at all,” she shared.
It was no doubt helped along by the song’s second wind, after super star Eminem sampled Toy Soldiers for his Like Toy Soldiers.