Marina and the Diamonds; Primadonna

Michael Rose

After initially taking the spotlight by earning 2nd place on the BBC Sound of 2010 poll list, Marina and the Diamonds soon established herself as an indie/new wave artist with self-confessed pop aspirations through tracks such as ‘Hollywood’ and ‘I Am Not A Robot’ for much of the following year. Now it seems Marina Diamandis has well and truly taken advantage of her previous successes and is diving head first into the mainstream through new single ‘Primadonna’.

With the regal nature and soulful vocals of debut album The Family Jewels well and truly behind her, it seems Diamandis has also dropped the bland tendencies present through a significant part of her previous work which heightens the movement her sound has made into mainstream pop – something also helped by the single’s remixes provided by the likes of Benny Benassi and Evian Christ.

At first the idea of losing the intimacy that can be seen in Marina’s previous tracks (which, admit it, did charm a great deal of us) for it to be replaced with the sounds of a Calvin Harris-esque dancefloor filler seems nothing but a shame. Yet given the achievements of Marina and the Diamonds, wouldn’t you do the same? The often overt desire for stardom and fame that has dominated much of Marina’s work over the past two years is also now clearer than ever with lyrics and vocals which might make some of us think we have a ‘wannabe Katy Perry’ on our hands.

That is not to say however that this track, despite the place it will no doubt hold in many club DJ’s playlists across the country, has the substance to go changing the face of contemporary pop music. This is undoubtedly a track suitable enough for the place it will maintain through the coming weeks, yes. But don’t expect any of us to be remembering it this time next year.

With Marina’s second album Electra Heart expected to land 30th April 2012, you can catch the video for ‘Primadonna’ below while you wait;