http://www.themusicnetwork.com/music...ritney-spears/
Marina and The Diamonds: “I’m not ashamed to admit I like Britney Spears"
11 November 2010
by Nina Bertok
On the one hand it’s cutesy and commercial, at the same time it walks the line of the weird and left-field. A little riot-girrrl and a little Britney Spear-ish, Marina And The Diamonds is proving to be quite a brain-**** for industry types trying to neatly box in this latest UK alt-pop sensation. Nevertheless, come Australia’s summer festival season, we’ll get to make up our own minds about the elusive Marina Diamandis and her eclectic treasure-chest of finger-snapping tunes.
“It’s like a mini-explosion of theatrical goodness!” she says of her live show. “It’s also a very rough performance in the flesh. I love the whole riot-girrrl era and all the girl punk bands, so it’s definitely not tame on the stage. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I can bring my complete show to Australia the way that I do it around the UK, just because it’s very expensive. Usually it’s quite cinematic and there’s lots of amazing lights and photography, it’s just too bad.”
Diamandis is definitely bringing her chart-topping debut album The Family Jewels to our shores, however, following on from her first headlining, 70-date tour around Europe, America and Canada. Days before its release, the album peaked at number five in the UK Album Charts and was certified silver shortly after, largely thanks to singles Mowgli’s Road and Hollywood.
“It speaks volumes about spending habits of the youth,” suggests Diamandis. “The fact that it’s done so well in the UK means that even despite the recession music is still so important to people. I get the best feedback for I Am Not A Robot, that’s my favourite song too. It’s the purest track on there, it’s the most open lyrically. I don’t want to compromise in any way with my songs and I’ve been lucky and grateful so far that I haven’t had to. I always pause before critiquing another artists but I have to say that even Lady Gaga, for all her talent, the way she started off was to definitely compromise and give in. She’s a very talented musician but she went into an area that was unexpected for a classical pianist. I guess you have to do what you have to do to get where you want to be, but I didn’t want to change to be accepted. Compromise for me is a very gritty issue.”
No, instead Diamandis is on a mission to put her own unique, original stamp on culture and make an impact on her generation the way that Britney Spears did on hers. And while Diamandis draws some influence from Miss Spears, she claims it’s more about what the pop princess stood for rather than her sugary brand of pop per se.
“I’m not ashamed to admit I like Britney Spears, no way!” she giggles. “For me, it was something about her personality that appealed to me. She was this delicious package of weird wrongness on a lot of levels. People didn’t really know how to handle her because the media displayed her as a little girl who didn’t know what was going on when Britney was actually very educated and intellectual. She is smart and I genuinely think she had amazing social skills because she seriously pulled off the whole circus of her life for a long time. It takes skill to work from eight years old up until 25 and not go completely crazy. I’m more in awe of her determination and I admire her in the same way that I admire Madonna.”
Because ultimately, according to Diamandis every young girl dreams of one day becoming Madonna. An artist with courage and power, not to mention the ability to make people sit up and take notice, Diamandis says it’s the Material Girl whom she relates to the most.
“A lot of the work has already been done because of artists like Madonna,” she offers. “I’m getting a bit sick of provocation and the shock value – there’s no such thing as that anymore. A lot of women and female pop artists are trying too hard. Being overtly sexual is not necessarily empowering or liberating, it’s more liberating to pose and display yourself in your natural way.
“Ever since I can remember I’ve always been very aware of my sex, as weird as that sounds, I’m very conscious of being female. I grew up with an independent single mother and a sister so I was taught to not make my sexuality my main identity. To me, it’s interesting being a female but I don’t let it consume me.”
MARINA.
Purely amazing, love her music so much.
Marina & The Diamonds likes Britney... 
