Angela Martinez- "That's Who I Am"

First of all I would like to introduce myself to everyone before I start telling you my story. Actually it's a continuing story because I am young and I have so much more to experience in life before I leave this earth. Hi. My name is Angela Martinez. I am a country singer songwriter that hails from San Francisco, California. I moved here to beautiful Nashville, TN with my mother and father to pursue my dream of becoming a country singer. I have two pets a dog and a cat although they didn't come along until after I moved here. My dog is a pomeranian and his name is Elvis (and yes he does think he is the KING) My kitten's name is Bella and she was my graduation present for graduating with a Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Studies from Middle Tennessee State University. I am not your typical country singer because of my long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes and my mixed anglo and Latino roots but country music is about what's in your soul and your story not necessarily that you grew up on a farm in a small country town. Although my mom did. She is from a small town in Nebraska so I did grow up with strong country values. My father on the other hand is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is so beautiful there and I think there is a sense of creativity and art that is just in the air there which is where I think I get it. They say that the lighting in New Mexico is the most amazing of all the places in the world. I just loved being in the town square and experiencing all the Native American culture when I went to visit. It was fascinating to me.

Now some people will look at me and say, "You are a country singer. No way." But country music chose me if that makes any sense. Growing up in California country music was not the style of choice. In fact I started singing dance music at the age of 14 thanks to a popular d.j. named Slammin Sam. It was a great experience to get me ready for what I believe the Lord has in store for me. But I am getting ahead of myself. I started my own record label and publishing company at age 15 and before I knew it I was all over the radio and getting e-mails and sales from all over the country and signing autographs everywhere I went. I enjoyed it so much but that life was too much for a girl that was still in high school. It was hard because I was singing which is what I love more than anything but I had to graduate high school because that was the most important thing for me at the time. Education is EXTREMELY important in my book because it not only teaches you things but you also learn how to learn and that is what at the end of the day makes you successful in life. Whether you are learning from other people's experiences or your own experiences either way you will be better off as long as you are growing and learning.

I have always tried to grow and learn and so as I took my hand at songwriting what I thought would come out as a pop song, since that was the most popular style in my area, it kept coming out country. It's like my soul couldn't sing anything but country when it was my actual words and melodies. I have grown up singing country music despite the fact that it wasn't what was popular but it wasn't my main base of music. I was listening to pop and hip hop at the time. It's funny though because favorite song of all time is " I Will Always Love You" plus I won second place at my first competition singing "I Saw The Light." Which is a country song by the Judds. The girl that won was 16 when I was like 8 or 9. Her voice was mature while mine squeaked like a chipmunk. I didn't care though. It got my hunger going. I loved hearing the audience as they witnessed my voice. Even at a young age my emotion and passion was that of someone way beyond my years. My dad always called me an old soul. I knew that singing went far beyond the experience that I felt and that it could touch others even at age 5 when I sang the Little Mermaid song for the first time.
I have always wanted to be a singer because I felt that it was a gift from God that I was meant to share with the world. So that I could do my part to make this world better. In life as songwriters we have moments if we are lucky where our hand becomes the instrument that God uses to speak his words. I had that moment with a song called "Right There." In my next journal I will explain to you what it's about and where it comes from. The one thing that I can say that it is a true blessing for me and I can't wait to share it with ya'll and the rest of the world.