Biography
Singer/songwriter Marli Harwood endured repeated rejections from labels before finally landing her breakthrough opportunity half a year after she had already given up on a music career. Born Marilena Buck in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, the half-Italian/half-Welsh vocalist studied first at Blackpool Performing Arts college and later earned admission to the Guildford School of Acting. During her teenage years she inked a deal with Island Records, yet the resulting debut album remained shelved, just like the follow-up she cut in the U.S. for Richard Branson’s V2 imprint. Following a collaboration in New York with Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, she supported herself through assorted jobs, among them a stint at a hospital treating eating disorders, all to keep financing her musical pursuits. In 2002 she tried out for the inaugural season of Fame Academy, advanced to the live broadcasts, and reached the fifth week before elimination, only to receive a recording contract from Sony anyway. Once more the project, helmed by future husband Michael Harwood, failed to surface, and the same outcome met two subsequent efforts cut for modest independent labels. Discouraged by the endless obstacles, she chose to set her ambitions aside and start a family, yet in 2010 Radio 2’s head Jeff Smith discovered her song “It’s Called a Heart” and named her the second unsigned act to receive Single of the Week honors, after Lisa Loeb had earned the same accolade for “Stay (I Miss You)” in 1994.