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"facebook dialogPinterest\n\nMarina Diamandis is restless. When I meet her in the lobby of the Austin Hyatt a few hours before she plays her first of four shows at the SXSW music festival, she quickly laments her excess of afternoon downtime. \"I hate relaxing,\" she says. \"I just feel bored.\" It turns out the 24-year-old synthpop singer, who performs under the moniker MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS, has been hustling for so long, she's not used to just . . . being.\n\n The Welsh-Greek beauty--who, based on her looks, is often compared (as she sings in her cheeky kiss-off tune \"Hollywood\") to Catherine Zeta-Jones and SHAKIRA--says she's dreamed of being a celebrity since she was young. Early idols included BRITNEY SPREARS and MADONNA--\" more because of their personalities than their music.\" She enjoyed singing but only did so in private. \"I was quite academic in school,\" she says. \"I think people expected me to be like that. I felt guilty looking toward a career that's seen as frivolous. But it isn't--music is important and valid.\"\n\n In her late teens, Marina started pursuing stardom full stop. \"I threw myself into the manufactured pop route at first,\" she says. \"I did a lot of dance-pop group auditions.\" She met with eighteen different A&amp;amp;R representatives, many of whom wanted to mold her into another generic bubblegum star. But the songs Marina wrote drew inspiration from KATE BUSH, ABBA, and BAT FOR LASHES--in other words, they sounded nothing like Britney.\n\n \"I eventually negotiated both my record and publishing deals on my own,\" she says of inking a contract with Warners in the U.K. in 2008. Marina then released a few singles through indie label Neon Gold that became radio hits in London. Her debut album, THE FAMILY JEWELS, charted in the top five in the U.K. earlier this year. (The album drops in the U.S. on May 25.)\n\n \"In the beginning I expressed it as 'I want to be a famous performer,'\" she says. \"Now I say: 'I want to be an artist.'\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/marina-and-the-diamonds>