Electra Heart Timeline

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The "Electra Heart era" roughly spans from 2011 to August 2013, when she officially ended the era.

However, before Electra Heart there was die Life a "dark electronic pop record", produced by one producer, (Greg Kurstin). Marina thought it would see her become "less commercial", with the album potentially having "no singles". She then thought of a concept album, which would be a side project under the name "Electra Heart," when she was told by her manager it wasn't possible she merged the projects.

As a result this timeline covers both die Life and Electra Heart's creation; the star symbol (★) is in specific reference to die Life's creation, where as the heart symbol (♥) is in specific reference to Electra Heart's creation; as die Life was scrapped in early 2011, everything after 2010 is in reference to Electra Heart.

For more in depth information on die Life go to it's page. This timeline uses UK release dates, and also includes some events that occurred "out of era" but relate to the album.

Timeline

• 2010
• 2011
• 2012
• 2013
• 2014
• 2019
• 2021
• 2022
• 2024

2010

January

★ In an interview published on the 7th, Marina expressed the desire to do a 6 track EP every year instead of a full album. However this idea would be scrapped due to how much she was writing.

February

★ On the 27th, Dirty Sheets, a home demo was posted by Marina, however it was deleted at some point and the only "record" is Rockabilly's song timeline.

Dirty Sheets fits the definition Marina gave the album: "[it's] about sex in a lot of different ways: it’s about actual sex, it’s about being a female, being a feminist." No Greg Kurstin produced version of the track has ever leaked, and likely does not exist, as it should have leaked with the other die Life tracks. This means either the song was scrapped or simply wasn't produced before she switched to Electra Heart.

♥ Marina started writing new songs for the new album a month after The Family Jewels came out, from a February 2010 interview:

❝ [Marina has already started writing for the second album – she thinks it’s going to be based around Greek mythology – and is hoping to find space in her diary to spend more time there researching it – so far she’s booked up until the end of the summer.]
I need to learn more about it, [...] It's so full of poetry and amazing ideas and characters and the morals are so inspirational. ❞

Later Marina would go on to call the album Electra Heart: "An Ancient Greek tragedy, old Hollywood fantasy…"

March

★ After SXSW, Marina writes (and possibly records) Living Dead, which "signalled the direction" for the album.

April

★ On the 6th, Marina posted a blogpost called "CHARGRILLED EYES & A LIQUOR PINK SMILE."

❝ I went to LA to do business [..] I am just interested in people and in finding out how to start 'living life' and what have you. [..] I have a lot to do but it's going to happen. Whatever 'it' is. Forever waiting for 'it', right? ❞

The producer of Living Dead, Greg Kurstin is based in L.A., in which it can be assumed that the demo was made around this time due to Marina dropping various themes in the blogpost seen in Living Dead's lyrics. At the end of the month on the 24th, she makes another blogpost named "MY MOUSTACHE CAUSES HAVOC." where she name drops the song: Sick of not being free. Living dead.

May

On the 3rd, in a blogpost, Marina said she was "preparing the next 2 albums."

★ On the 26th, Marina tweeted: May have to scrap germanic 2nd album title*"die Life".

Note:

*Just the album title, not the album itself.

July

♥ On the 6th, an interview with Marina was posted on LAist:

❝ [I read one interview where you said you'd like to incorporate some Greek mythology into your next album. Is that still part of the plan?]

Not the next one, but maybe the one after that. I really want to learn more about my culture and its mythology. It's such a rich source of inspiration. I think it would be a wonderful thing to take something so worthy like Greek mythology and bring it into pop culture again, because stuff like that isn't really read as much anymore. We're surrounded by crappy pop songs about dancing in clubs and getting drunk. Surely pop music needs more than that! ❞

Elektra is a Greek mythological character, in her story she helps her brother kill their mother and their mother's lover to avenge their father. Marina references the 'Electra Heart Complex' in a caption on the Electra Heart Tumblr, the proposed theory is about daughter–mother conflict for the attention of the father. Hippocrates (Hypocrates) is a Greek philosopher. In relation to this topic, Marina would go on to call Electra Heart: "An Ancient Greek tragedy, old Hollywood fantasy…"

In a separate interview:

❝ [Where and when did the ideas for the "Electra Heart" campaign imagery start for you?]

It started in July 2010. I went to L.A. for some promo and I was writing my second album at the same time. I was a bit obsessed with death for a while. I think because I was depressed. [...] And I was reading books like [Kenneth Anger’s] “Hollywood Babylon”, which focuses on 1930s and 1940s Hollywood and I don’t know why but I was just obsessed with suicidal stars. And, in quite a clichéd way I suppose, Marilyn Monroe. I have always been obsessed with her, like many other women have. So the theme started off based around Hollywood and it then left that. I started watching American movies like “Paris”, “Texas”, “Valley of the Dolls”, “Sixteen Candles and Mulholland Drive” and I was reading a lot about American writers – Chuck Palahniuk is one of my favourite writers ever. I actually feel sad every time I read one of his books because it’s, like, one less left for me to read. [...] I like the camp theatrical style of stardom. And that culture. And so the ideas kind of evolved from that. More of an exploration of female archetypes and female identity. So I started doing these self-portraits and adding a dualistic nature to them. A few months after that I was directed towards [American photographer] Cindy Sherman and it all made sense. [...] I think they [American audiences] sense the irony and I think they also sense the irony of me masquerading as a pop star. So I’ve never felt uncomfortable with that. And also, I would hope they may view it as an outsider’s perspective of their culture. ❞

★ On the 7th, "die Life" was supposed to be played as an encore at Marina's Troubadour show, for an unknown reason it wasn't played, and the song is unknown, but speculated to be Living Dead.

★ On the 16th, Marina tweeted lyrics to Scab and Plaster: "You keep picking the scab and i'll keep selling the plaster". She would later call the song a "The Family Jewels" throwback.

August

★ On the 11th, in a blogpost called "HARD GRAFT" she states that she is not doing a repackage for The Family Jewels (despite hinting at it before) but is "working on a new, separate work which you will hear in 2011. I don't know if it will be in a traditional album format or as something else." Here she only mentions one separate work, and throughout 2010 interviews she only mentions one album, never two.

♥ On the 25th, Marina tweeted lyrics to Starring Role: "You never sing for love, you never have a heart to mend, because before the start begins, you always see the end". In her track by track interview for Electra Heart Marina stated:

❝ Starring Role was quite a ground-breaking song for me as it was one of the first written for the new record and it signalled the direction I was going sonically. It's kind of a cold and emotive song and production, and I think that style followed on the rest of the album. ❞

However, as we know Living Dead was the first to be written for die Life and signalled the direction for that album, Starring Role is likely the first song actually written for Electra Heart.

September

★ On the 17th, in an inverview with PopBytes Marina said she was onto the next album, the vision would be much more purer than The Family Jewels which would potentially see her becoming "less commercial". She wanted one producer (Greg Kurstin) and had started writing, however was unsure how much time it would take her to do so.

★ On the 23rd, she said wanted to change the way that musicians put out music, as usually they spend two years touring, a year recovering and writing meanwhile new music has not been put out for three years. She wanted to put out music every year, like a 5 track EP, but for the moment she was writing a lot so she was thinking about putting out another full album.

October

★ On the 3rd, Marina was interviewed by a German radio station and was asked if she would ever scale down the production, she responded:

❝ For the second record I was so tempted to do an absolutely backwards record, which is very stripped but almost just piano based but that's too easy for me, it's not time for me to do that yet so yeah I'm doing something else. ❞

She also said she was not apprehensive about the second record because she has not stopped writing and went into a new direction very naturally, which was darker and heavier, but she was still writing songs that were "like 70s folk."

Later that day, Marina posted: Night time is magic. I work better in the dark. A song has been written + exciting news coming soon.

★ On the 4th, in a post called "BLINDING FUTURE":And at last you know. The melting of the snow.. Power & Control's demo had lyrics relating to snow.

★ On the 28th: "THE SILENCE OF SNOW"

★ On the 29th, Marina teased Radioactive lyrics posting a blog entitled: "IN THE NIGHT YOUR THE HEART IS FULL." with the caption: "And by the morning, empty."

★ Marina has stated in the past she can "hold on" to lyrics for months, and it's worth noting her heavy European touring schedule over October-December 2010 on The Family Jewels Tour, it's likely she simply didn't have the time to finish and produce the song with Greg before she switched to Electra Heart. The song was ultimately co-written and produced by Stargate in June 2011, long after the die Life was scrapped. The original demo of Radioactive is similar in production to some of the die Life tracks, and perhaps would be how the die Life version of the song would've sounded, though this is just speculation.

November

★ On the 1st, Marina posted a blog entitled "WELCOME TO THE FAMILY GHOULS." in which she said:

❝ I have now outgrown the Family Jewels era. It's good to be touring it for one last time but the next era has just begun. I started writing the previously mentioned blog on "Female Sexuality and the Politics of Image" around a month ago. It turned into something so mammoth and unmanageable that I am unable to post it as one blog. So I decided to do something else.

The article will now be released in 3 separate parts over a month. The first entitled as above, the second and third on "Pornography" and "Beauty". There are a few things I've been waiting a while to say. And the time is almost nigh!

I feel incredibly strongly about where the next year leads and these articles will serve as a pre-cursor to the next chapter. It has a name..

October 2011, diamonds! ❞

However, these blogposts are never published.

★ On the 22nd, Marina tweeted the song title: "Power & Control..."

★ On the 25th, in an interview with X3M Radio, Marina called herself "not some squeaky clean pop queen", later saying she hated "shitty American pop" and specifically named Dr. Luke and his "hit factory", in which "good pop songs come out but have no originality", she stated that none of the female artists she named (in the interview) lacked talent, but she disliked the boring production.

She discussed how she was "massively aware" about being "too weird for the mainstream, and too pop for the hipsters", joking that it was all she thought about "an hour of every day for the past five years."

Marina said she was so focused on her next record, as it was really important to her, and had socially and culturally important messages with a strong point of view. She was reading "The Second Sex" at the time, and other books on psychology, women and sex.

The same day, in an interview with Studio B she stated was working "furiously" on the album, and when asked how far along it was she said: "actually nothing has been officially recorded, [meaning demos] but there are like, there are about seven or eight tracks that are done."

December

'I am afraid of nothing'

★ On the 1st, Marina made a Tumblr blog called "marinaandthefeminists.tumblr.com" which would most likely have been the blog for the die Life era, the first post was "a crushed barbie doll in a graveyard". The blog was changed to 'Electra Heart' on an unknown date, one post can be found via a reblog:

❝ Too much importance is put upon reinvention. It has become almost a prerequisite to indicate growth/ success/ “innovation” as an artist these days.

You can change your mask a million times, but your truth, and your lies, will remain the same. ❞

★ On the 16th, Marina said: "I don't care if there are no singles off this album, I just want it to be really thought provoking;" and that she learnt that a "small voice is just as powerful", explaining her new works weren't calmer but different vocally, and more dynamic.

Marina wouldn't say how many songs she had written but enough that she "could have written the whole album" and she was "going to keep on writing in case I write better songs or songs that are more relevant culturally."

She expressed she was enjoying writing it and had lots of ideas, initially she wanted to release it in July 2011 but her label told her she wasn't going to manage writing more and getting it produced with her touring schedule, so the release date would likely be September 2011, and called the title "very symbolic of starting something new". When asked what was a key song from the album, Marina replied "yeah there's a song called Free Sex [...] Free Sex as in women, it's a pop song but it's definitely not a standard pop song by any means."

★ In another interview that month she said: "The second record will be all about the lyrics. It's quite political and it’s about feminism and sex. It's an abrasive pop record." Saying a similar thing for the Telegraph: "[it's] about sex in a lot of different ways: it’s about actual sex, it’s about being a female, being a feminist. I’m so in love with it at the moment. It’s exactly how I thought I should progress."

2011

January

On the 19th Marina said in "BE YOUR OWN PET.": I only hate in others what I hate in myself. Which was likely the shift in her mindset that she wanted to be apart of pop so was complaining about it.

February

On the 2nd Marina tweeted: Perhaps a leopard can change her spots after all.

On the 9th in a blogpost called "SEWER PIPES BE LEAKIN'."

The new album is not going to be out this year. I don't know when it will be out because I don't know when I will finish it. It could be 1 or 5 years. The more leaks that happen, the slower I go. As you can imagine, the thought of people invading my privacy and listening to half-assed unfinished songs that I write at 3am on a tour bus does not make me feel too relaxed or creative.

On the 11th in a blogpost called "EPIPHANY IN TRANNY BAR."

Realised [...] there was not much of a reason to be cynical/ permanently riding my phantom high-horse anymore. Pop music is in such amazing shape. And what have I got to say? There are many great artists, communicating interesting things. I have wasted my time 100% trying my best not to acknowledge anyone. Lest, shock horror, my own dumb-arse value be lessened. Cringe. :( [...] Note to self: No crime in being kind. Not everyone is out to screw you over. [...] Repeat to self, whilst looking dramatically into mirror, one million times

Further saying in her track by track album interview that:

It was a turning point for me, that I stopped being a slightly bitter person and that was actually the time where I started to work with other people. Fear and Loathing I wrote on my own in my bedroom in London and I started to try new things and open up my mind a little bit, and so it's kinda a letting go song.

Fear and Loathing was produced with Liam Howe a producer from The Family Jewels. As it was a turning point, it was probably the end of die Life. Marina later asked her fans if they would mind product placement in videos for a bigger budget in them.

Betatraxx posted Relic, and Marina contacted him to ask to sing over the instrumental. This would become Electra Heart, the title track.

March

On the 16th Marina tweeted: Sometimes i just go "Marina, why dont you just accept now that your ambition is way stronger than your self respect + integrity." / Sometimes i think "i have so many people in my head, i'm getting confused which one's me & which one's are just extras in my dramatic life."

Which could be a reference with her working with American pop producers that she previously said she would never work with, like Dr. Luke.

Marina was in LA in late March, and on the 25th, Marina was in the studio, the next day she tweeted: ♫ I wish I'd been a, wish I'd been a teen, teen idle ♫ : (Chorus begins. People rejoice)

On the 31st, she was with Greg Kurstin, probably for finalisation of the 2010 die Life demos and also Starsmith. She also tweeted Labrinth and Starsmith which lead her to be connected to both of them in the early development of the album despite them not appearing on Electra Heart.

April

On the 5th Marina tweeted: "I just wrote a happy song. This is either the beginning or the end." It's not not known what song this was.

On the 9th in a blogpost called "WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS?"

I went to Hollywood for 3 weeks for some musical endeavours.

I have decided I want to be the epitome of fluffy wuffy bimbo-brain world at the mo. It is quite the ammunition. "Oh look at her, a lil piece o fluff, walking down the road in her fluffy pink brain". Then one day catch them off guard one day mid- conversation and reveal my true superior levels of intelligence which have become accustomed to.* They will feel almighty embarrassment for judging me too soon. Then, I suppose, they will fall in love with me. Almost immediately.

*In a 2013 Tumblr post Marina captioned it "Gain power by pretending to be weak"

On January 15, 2013, Marina tweeted: Electra Heart was originally a side project, separate from Marina And The Diamonds / I called my manager in April 2011 and said "Hello. Can I pretend to be a totally different person? He said "No. You cannot" / I calmly put the phone down and screamed til eternity

May

On the 28th Dr. Luke tweeted "@MarinasDiamonds singing in the booth !!!! me likey !!!", this was for Lies. (Primadonna was recorded in October and How to be a Heartbreaker was written and recorded later than that so didn't make it on the UK tracklist.)

June

On the 5th she was in the studio with Rick Nowels writing Bubblegum Bitch tweeting ""Electra Heart" ... is a Bubblegum Bitch." Hypocrates was the first song she wrote with Rick, so the song is either from this session or from earlier.

On the 11th Marina tweeted: "At Jay-ZZZ's Roc the Mic studios in New York. With Norway's finest. Magic days ..." This would be for Radioactive, written in New York and produced by Norwegian producers Stargate, Eternity and Bump in the Night, were most likely done in these sessions. Stargate introduced Marina to the work of Cindy Sherman who inspired shots in the Archetype series.

On the 21st Marina tweeted: Oh... that was the 666th tweet. E.V.O.L . (Perfection)

July

On the 2nd, E.V.O.L lyrics were on the Electra Heart Tumblr: ♡ I M Y O U R D Y I N G B E A U T Y Q U E E N ♡ And on her website's blog she posted:

I look at you, you look at me. Milk and roses, squeaky clean. You are the best i’ve ever seen. And I’m your dying beauty queen.

On the 3rd Marina posted to Tumblr: ♡ D E A R  D I A R Y,  M Y  N A M E  I S  E L E C T R A  H E A R T ♡

On the 7th Greg Kurstin tweeted: "Aaaand new @MarinasDiamonds also excited about." Marina had already recorded demos with Greg in 2010, so this is most likely the reproduced versions for Electra Heart as Power and Control has a writing credit from Steve Angello and the lyrics changed drastically from demo one.

August

Behind the Scenes of Fear and Loathing

On the 8th Fear and Loathing was posted to YouTube as "Part 1" of 'The Archetypes'.

On the 15th Marina posted to Tumblr: ♡ M Y  H E A R T  I S  N U C L E A R ♡

On the 22nd Radioactive was posted to YouTube as "Part 2" of 'The Archetypes'.

On the 28th Marina tweeted: I have sold my soul, I have changed beyond recognition + I have sold out too. I am so happy though. I have done everything I said I wouldn't. And am glad I did b/c I'm not a class A bitch anymore. Oh who am I kidding. OF COURSE I STILL AM! A TINY TINY BIT

On the 30th Radioactive (Acoustic) was posted to YouTube.

September

On the 23rd Radioactive was released as a single.

On the 25th, E.V.O.L lyrics were on the Electra Heart blog: ♡ E V O L ♡

October

On the 3rd a demo of EVOL was made.

On the 7th, Marina said she had a song called Primadonna, that it wasn't written yet but she was going to LA next week to complete it.

Valley of the Dolls was the final song written for the UK tracklist and likely written around this time.

December

On the 15th The Archetypes (song) was posted to YouTube as "Part 3" of 'The Archetypes'.

2012

January

On the 7th Marina tweeted: I'm here to mix my album (!!!!!!!!)

On the 8th Marina tweeted "Been building a project called "The Archetypes" since March 2011. I shot it myself across North America and Europe over 7 months." and "'The Archetypes' is split into 4 categories: "Su-Barbie-A", "Teen Idles", "The Homewrecker" + "Stars & Queens"..."

How to Be a Heartbreaker was written "about a week" after the physical copies of the UK album were done the song was likely written around this time.

February

On the 23rd Homewrecker was released as a free download for anyone who signed up to her mailing list.

March

On the 12th the music video for Primadonna was posted to YouTube, directed by Casper Balslev in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was "Part 4" of 'The Archetypes'. On the 19th the acoustic music video for Primadonna was posted on YouTube.

On the 20th Primadonna was released as the lead single on all digital platforms, and as a CD.

On the 30th the acoustic music video for Homewrecker was posted on YouTube.

April

On the 12th the acoustic music video for Lies was posted on YouTube.

On the 23rd the acoustic music video for Starring Role was posted on YouTube.

On the 27th the Electra Heart was released.

May

On the 20th the interlude Su-Barbie-A was posted on YouTube, the footage was shot on the set of 'The Archetypes' photoshoot, and served as "Part 5" of 'The Archetypes' and edited by Marina.

On the 30th music video for Power & Control was posted on Youtube, directed by Casper Balslev in London, England. It was "Part 6" of 'The Archetypes'.

July

On the 20th Power & Control was released as a single.

September

On the 28th music video for How to Be a Heartbreaker was posted on Youtube, directed by Marc Hawker & Ishbel Whitaker in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was "Part 7" of 'The Archetypes'.

December

On the 7th How to Be a Heartbreaker was released as a single.

2014

May

On the 4th, the producer Betatraxx released Electra Heart as a single, on Spotify,^{[now unavailable]} Apple Music/iTunes, and SoundCloud, after delays due to changes at Betatraxx's label.

On the 24th, he released a remixed version on SoundCloud only.

June

On the 9th Betatraxx released a "classical" piano based version of Electra Heart, without vocals, for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, and SoundCloud.

August

In August 2014, Betatraxx teased the release of Electra Heart's acapella, asking fans their thoughts. The vocals were released a day after, however, deleted months later due to unknown reasons.

2019

March

On the 13th, Electra Heart was certified RIAA Gold, selling 500,000 units.

July

On the 17th, Marina announced the "Electra Heart retro range" and showed various concept artwork for the merchandise.

September

On the 7th, Electra Heart surpassed half a billion streams.

November

On the 18th, Marina launched the "Electra Heart Collection", a collection of merchandise designed by herself.

2021

March

On the 26th, Bubblegum Bitch was certified RIAA Gold.

June

On the 25th, Primadonna and How to Be a Heartbreaker were certified RIAA Platinum.

October

On the 20th, Electra Heart surpassed a billion streams.

2022

February

On the 3rd, Teen Idle was certified RIAA Gold.

April

On the 20th, Nylon posted an interview with Marina Diamandis, producer Rick Nowels, photographer Casper Balslev and others, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Electra Heart.

On the 29th, for the 10th Anniversary, Marina released Electra Heart (Platinum Blonde Edition), making the title track and E.V.O.L available to stream for the first time. A limited edition 2LP vinyl was also revealed, however Radioactive, Buy the Stars and Sex Yeah were left off due to lack of space.

May

On the 20th, Marina announced Bubblegum Bitch was certified Platinum.

2024

April

On 2nd, Marina reflected on the album, telling the Rolling Stone:

❝ I feel so much more compassion for that version of myself. It feels very far away. It is hard to even watch interviews from that time, because I’m like, "Who is she?" Whenever I hear those records, I love them. I love my past, and it also always helps to listen to them right before I’m doing a new record. Because I want to know where I’ve come from, and what I’d like to bring in, what energy I want to bring in. I think this time, it’s an opportunity to do something really different. ❞