Lalana

Lalana Martin Biography:
Introducing A Rare Musical Gem….

Nowadays it’s becoming ever harder to find genuine, heart-fluttering, awe-inspiring vocalists. You know the type of singers we are talking about; the ones who give listeners chills and goose bumps with their incredible singing ability. But worry not, there are still a few real ones left carrying the torch high and bright, and we’d love to present one of those special artists to you right now. Her name is Lalana Martin and she is an extraordinary vocalist with distinct, jaw-dropping talent. Not only does she have the most ground-shaking and sonorous voice, she also has a career that reads like a performer’s dream. She has dabbled in theater, toured the globe with greats like Patti Labelle & Barry White, and she’s also the accomplished owner of her own vocalist training school in NYC.

For the California native Lalana, music has always been embedded deep in her very soul. She’s one of those unique individuals for whom the phrase “musical prodigy” certainly applies. At 6-months-old, she was already speaking in full sentences, and by the time she was a year old, she could sing tunes playing on radio from beginning to end. Her first singing “Aha! moment” came at the age of eight. “It was at a piano recital,” she beamingly recalls. “There were about 300 people there watching me perform, and my mother sewed me a lovely dress for me to sing in. I performed two songs that day and it was just so wonderful. At that point, I knew that this was what I was meant to do.” Her debut outing was such a well-received triumph that she went on to do 13 musicals in a row. Now how’s that for some veritable beginner’s zeal?

Her accelerated musical development continued unabated and she was accepted into Berklee Musical College in Boston at the sprightly age of sixteen. If that feat wasn’t astounding enough, she was granted a full scholarship on top of that, something that Berklee rarely did for pure vocalists. She stayed there for a year and a half until an unbelievable opportunity came a-knocking. It was a call from the legendary Barry White asking her to join his touring ensemble, and it was an offer she couldn’t refuse. “I toured with Barry White for 2 ½ years, and those were some of the best times of my life,” she joyfully recounts. “We travelled the world, Dubai, Europe – I even sang at the birthday party for the richest man in the world, and had some really amazing times in Paris too.”
When that life-changing experience wound down, Lalana took some time off to refocus and plan the coming years. She ended up relocating to NYC, continued her performing and delved deeper into recording and songwriting. She also accomplished another of her life goals. She started and still runs a highly esteemed vocal training school which has proven to be a truly rewarding spiritual endeavor. Over the years, she has trained popular personalities like India Arie , Sean Garrett and Diddy Dirty Money.

The Progression:
Lalana’s current labor of love is a crispy new LP entitled Mood Swings - a remarkable collection of original soulful, bluesy, jazzy and upbeat tracks conceived, recorded and mastered over a collective period of about two years. She mentions respected names like Yolanda Adams, Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, Angie Stone, Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonders as prime musical influences, and shades of all these splendid artists are embodied in her impressive debut. The overarching theme of the disc was to encapsulate all the “different lessons she’s learnt about life and love” in order to put a closure on the past and bravely look ahead to her exciting future. Quality songs abound on the disc: “Waitin’ (6 O’Clock),” and “Operating at the Cost of Love” are soothing, honest and perfectly-executed tracks that immediately induce a sense of ease, relaxation and content within the listener. Elsewhere on the album, upbeat tracks like “Lady Freak” and “You Pester Me” make you want to put on your best threads and dance till the sun comes up. There are no filler tracks whatsoever on this collection, and that’s extremely impressive in this current time of plastic, cookie-cutter, top 40 driven music.

As Lalana explains, the disc was a major collaborative effort between the extended musical family she has accrued all through the years - most especially her writing and producing partners, Sam Barsh and Illana Martin. For the immediate future, her main aim is to get her music out to the masses, put out a couple of singles and knock out some fun remixes while she’s at it. Basically she intends to use this debut opus as a vehicle for letting the world now that she has the talent, drive and credibility, and she’s out to stake her claim in the industry.

The Future:
Going forward, Lalana’s goals are two-fold. The first is to continue growing her vocal school, initially to all the different boroughs of NYC and ultimately nationwide. Secondly and just as importantly, she want