Melanie Martinez announces plans for four-year hiatus from music

Melanie Martinez has announced that she will be taking a four-year hiatus from music after promoting her recent album.

The singer, 28, rose to fame in 2012 after appearing on the US version of The Voice. In March, she released her third studio album, titled Portals.

Despite having spent more than a decade in the industry, Martinez – who is known for her quirky aesthetic – has recently found a new audience on TikTok, where she boasts more than eight million followers.

In a recent interview, however, Martinez announced that once her promo cycle and tour are completed for Portals, she will be taking a break from music.

Appearing on SiriusXM, she explained: “After this leg of the tour I will be trying to shoot as many [music videos] as possible.

“Ideally for me, shooting all 11 of them together in these three months before I go back out on tour would be nice, because then I can take time to edit them and roll them out. That’s my plan, I’m hoping to achieve that.”

Asked if she planned to take any time off, Martinez explained: “After the end of next year will be the time where I’m like, ‘OK, now I’m off cycle again’ and I can just chill and make music and make sculptures and paint and just create, hang out with my dogs.”

She continued: “I take a long time to create my projects, so I’ll usually have four years where I’m just MIA. Not anywhere to be found, just literally at my house making art.”

Martinez has previously left four-year breaks between her albums. Her debut record, Cry Baby, was released in 2015, with K-12 following in 2019.

On social media, fans praised Martinez for taking a break to work on herself, while also questioning how they would handle four years without new music.

“I just realised that if Melanie Martinez will be on hiatus and her comeback will be in 2028 I will be 27 by then. I’m 21,” one fan wrote.

“Melanie Martinez going on a four year hiatus will actually make me lose my mind,” another tweet read.

Last month, Martinez’s fans claimed that the singer had created the music video of the year as she released visuals for her single “Void”.

In the video, Martinez goes on a journey through various parts of the human body, starting with her emerging from a beating heart, before dancing in front of the iris of an eye.

Martinez’s face is adorned with additional eyes and ears, giving her a startling and otherworldly appearance.

Portals features the song “Battle of the Larynx”, which many fans have interpreted as Martinez commenting on allegations made against her in 2017.

At the time, Timothy Heller, a female friend of the singer, alleged on Twitter that Martinez sexually assaulted her. The singer denied the allegations repeatedly, stating that she “would never be intimate with someone without their absolute consent”.

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