- 2025-06-10
-
MUSIC
-
MARINA Releases New Album “PRINCESS OF POWER”
Los Angeles-based Welsh singer-songwriter MARINA, formerly Marina and the Diamonds, released her sixth studio album “PRINCESS OF POWER” on June 6, 2025 via her own label Queenie Records.
It marks her first album in four years since the 2021 album “Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land”.
Also, it is the first release as an independent artist after she left Atlantic Records.
The album comprises 13 tracks, which were written and co-produced by MARINA with American record producer CJ Baran.
MARINA told Zane Lowe of Apple Music about the album, “I feel like a new artist. It's definitely a new chapter for me. A lot of this album has been powered by a feeling of reclaiming parts of myself. And also really thinking deeply about what power means. We live in a very inflammatory political climate and, on a personal level for me now, power is about your ability to love. It feels really refreshing and energizing and very different to how I might have felt like 15 years ago.”- She said of working with producer CJ Baran in an interview on ABC News Live, “It's been fun mainly because I have an amazing collaborator called CJ Baran and I've kind of, like, been looking my whole career for someone who I could feel that creative partnership with. But he is amazing and he's made this process incredible.”
She shared on social media, “Eternal gratitude to CJ Baran - CJ, you are my long lost brother from a galaxy far, far away. I've never laughed so much in the studio in my life. Every day felt like play time. Just the best, most enriching musical experience EVER! Pure fun. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being an insane workaholic who is always one step ahead on production. You're the most humble guy I know and I hope your talent receives all the flowers it deserves.” -
MARINA explained some tracks for the album.
“PRINCESS OF POWER” via Zach Sang Show
“That's the mission statement for the record. It's like you can teach yourself about what love is or redifine love for yourself regardless of your past and I think that's something that so many of us struggle with. Love is the most normal, common thing in the world but no one teaches us about what it is and we're all taught differently, we all have different models growing up.”
“BUTTERFLY” via ABC News Live
“For 'BUTTERFLY,' that was one of the earliest songs I wrote and it was, lile, one of the first songs that felt playful again. So I wrote that chorus and put like these very choral, like angelic vocals on top of it, and then, yeah, I started writing more of the record.”
“CUNTISSIMO”
“So often, women don't think they're allowed to feel their sexuality in a way that doesn't involve how it looks for men. They feel that it's been co-opted - I would love to be able to free younger women of that, the feeling that our bodies don't quite belong to us.”
“DIGITAL FANTASY” via Zach Sang Show
“Yeah [it's inspired by dating apps]. Well, dating in general, I think. I mean it could be very much about dating apps but I think it's more like, a lot of people say they are looking for love but they're not really. I was probably one of those people at some point in the last two or three years but I think people are looking for validation, they're looking for connection without having to like give anything of themselves back or like be vulnerable or open up, so as soon as it gets to that point where it looks like you might get close it's like… It's scary, yeah. But also we now have Instagram, etc, where you can get an idea for who someone is and actually is nothing to do with who they are in reality. You think you're going to meet a certain type of energy and you're like, 'Oh, that was that's nothing like what you're really like.' I think that's really what's fucking up connection actually. It's that there's this gap between our digital selves and actual selves.”
“HELLO KITTY” via Zach Sang Show
“It's not but it is [about being a cat lady]. There's a little bit of humor in there, it's really, it's a very romantic song it's about a love interest and approaching them from afar but it's kind of the push and pulls of connection that we experience when we're getting to know someone and there is a bit of cat ladiness in there but only because I know there's such a misogynistic thing in culture about like women and cats and so like I like to pull it out, like with 'CUNTISSIMO,' older women, I'm making it a thing, I'm not cowing to it so I'm like, 'Yeah, you must like cats if you're going to come back and sleep with me or whatever if you're going to date me you got to you got to be catman.' One rule I read somewhere, it was some girl on TikTok asking about what are these red flags that you've seen in men, the most weird ones and one of the comments was like men who don't like cats have consent issues. It might not be truth but it is a kind of fair point like men who just feel weird about cats is because you have to earn a cat's trust and develop a relationship with cat, it's not going to be like a dog that's just like, 'I'll do anything you want,' so men who like cats, I'm like, 'That's a green flag.'”
“I ˂3 YOU”
“The song 'I ˂3 YOU,' when I was writing it I was imagining this dream 70s party that's, like, sexy, beautifully lit, the most outrageous party outfit ever.”
“ADULT GIRL”
“'ADULT GIRL,' as soon as I wrote that song, like, something so major shifted in me after that. It's unapologetic to me because I think it's important to integrate forbidden parts of yourself, or parts that you feel ashamed about in some way. Kind of healed me. Vulnerability is empowerment. I can be brave enough to share things about myself that are embarrassing.” - source : Apple Music
