Norma Jean Martine

An American singer and songwriter whose trajectory diverged from the typical route, Norma Jean Martine achieved her initial breakthrough during the mid-2010s by penning material for prominent acts across Italy, Germany, and England, the country where she eventually settled. At the same time she cultivated a parallel solo identity as a soulful pop performer, delivering live performances at major European festivals and issuing her 2016 album Only in My Mind. Additional notice arrived through featured appearances alongside EDM producers including Lost Kings.

Born in Middletown, New York, she relocated to London in 2011 at age twenty to enroll at Queen Mary University. She chose to pursue what she termed “the Lady Gaga plan,” pausing her coursework for a year so she could focus on launching her recording career, a move that yielded a publishing agreement with BMG/Chrysalis precisely twelve months afterward. Early visits to upstate New York blues clubs alongside her mother shaped an emotive, blues-inflected approach informed by Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Etta James; when merged with pop instincts, this style prompted comparisons to Amy Winehouse and Adele.

After leaving university, she accumulated extensive songwriting credits while refining her own stage presence. Among them were co-writing duties on Italian singer Giorgia’s 2013 Top Ten single “Quando una Stella Muore,” taken from the Italian number-one double-platinum album Senza Paura, and on “Lonely Nights (Hey You)” from former Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts’ 2014 release Butterfly Effect. She also contributed two tracks to Marco Mengoni’s 2014 triple-platinum album Parole in Circolo and supplied “In the Light” for German Eurovision winner Lena’s 2015 set Crystal Sky.

Appearances at festivals such as Montreux in 2013 and 2014, Latitude, and the Calling Festival in 2014, together with support tours alongside Gaz Coombs, Lissie, and Tom Odell, further sharpened her solo craft. The 2014 single “No Gold,” written with Joel Pott of Athlete, later served as theme music for The CW Network in the United States and Fox 8 in Australia. September 2015 brought the release of “Animals,” followed almost exactly one year later by her debut full-length Only in My Mind, produced with Coldplay’s X&Y engineer Danton Supple. Subsequent years found her again in demand as a featured vocalist on the 2018 Lost Kings hit “When We Were Young” and on “In My Arms” by Dutch EDM duo the Him, before she resumed solo activity with the 2020 track “Basketball.”