How Martina Andrea turned personal truth into an eleven-track musical diary.
Italian singer-songwriter Martina Andrea Migliore has spent over a decade weaving between genres, from spaghetti western metal to gospel ensembles, but her solo debut marks a defining moment in her artistic journey.
With the release of Songs That You Should Know on June 26 via I Cuochi Music, the Milan-based artist offers an intimate collection of eleven tracks exploring love, loss, healing and transformation.
Her new single ‘Ready To Love,’ accompanied by a visually striking music video inspired by ’80s and ’90s pop culture, captures the essence of her sound: powerful vocals colliding with cinematic pop-rock and electronic textures.
In this interview, Martina discusses the therapeutic nature of songwriting, her creative partnership with producer Marco Evans, and why embracing vulnerability has become central to her identity as an artist.
“I sing for those who feel there is something beyond us,” she explains. “For those who still believe in beauty.”
HAPPY: What’d you get up to today?
MARTINA: It’s been quite a relaxed day. I woke up a little sleepy because I got home late from a gig last night.
One of the many things I do is sing in an ’80s cover band.
I worked from home today. My day job is in marketing, so I spent the morning doing office work.
Then I finally decided it was time to take the penguin out of the cupboard — that’s what we call the portable air conditioner in Italy — because Milan is starting to get unbearably hot.
I also posted a couple of updates on my social media, and now I’m here answering your questions :)
HAPPY: Tell us a little about where you’re from, and what you love about it!
MARTINA: I’m Italian and I live in Milan. What I love most about it is that my home is here, my cats are here, and so are my friends.
But I also love Milan because it feels like a crossroads. A place people pass through. You meet so many travellers here — people arriving from somewhere else, carrying different stories and different ways of seeing the world.
Some of them stay, even while complaining about it. They miss the sea, or the slower pace of life they left behind. Others move on.
But what makes Milan special to me is that, if you’re curious, it gives you the chance to encounter lives very different from your own. It offers variety, movement, and the possibility of constantly discovering something new.
HAPPY: You describe this album as “stories in the night, connected by the light.” Can you elaborate on what that imagery means to you and how it shaped the album’s narrative?
MARTINA: “Stories in the night, connected by the light” is a line from one of the songs on the album, “Night of Strangers.”
It refers to people who are like stars to me, part of a constellation, even when they are not aware of it. We are all “stories in the night.” Every person is a collection of narratives, memories and feelings, and often we feel disconnected or isolated.
But we are not. Whenever you have the blessing of truly opening up to someone, you realise that we are all connected by the same light. Like constellations that don’t know they are constellations.
That hidden connection has always fascinated me: the way we connect to one another through intimacy and vulnerability.
And that’s what this album is about. These are my stories, but they are not only mine. They are deeply personal feelings that, somehow, I think belong to all of us.
HAPPY: The track ‘We Belong To Heaven’ is described as a liberating dance track with a spiritual message. What was it like to lean into that unexpected dance energy in the studio?
MARTINA: I really loved working on this track. It was so much fun searching for the right sounds to create the explosion of love and life that this song represents.
I also loved recording it, it gives the voice a lot of space to reach moments of very intense and fulfilling expression.
As the years go by, I find myself growing more and more fond of dance music.
When I was younger, it was something I enjoyed just for fun, but now I feel it offers a space to explore deep emotions with a lightness that creates a really interesting contrast.
HAPPY: You co-wrote most of the album with Marco Evans. How did that collaborative dynamic work, and how did it push you creatively compared to writing alone?
MARTINA: We’ve been working on this album step by step, song by song. It all started quite simply, with the idea of doing a song together.
Marco was my vocal coach when I met him (and still is), and he was already producing for other artists. He found my voice interesting and suggested we try producing a first track together, which became “The Song That You Should Know.”
I loved the result and we kept going, until we realised there was enough material to start thinking about a full album.
The creative process has always been very spontaneous. There were no strict rules — most of the time we would meet with the intention of creating something new, find the mood of the day, and then Marco would do his magic.
He has this incredible ability to create entire musical worlds out of nothing in seconds.
A lot of our sessions worked in a very specific way: Marco would often build the structure of a track and shape a chorus using improvised, instinctive words — almost like placeholders — just to capture the melody and the energy of the song.
From there, I would usually take everything home and continue developing it, writing the verses and completing the lyrics.
What I find really interesting is that many of those initial “scratch” words he used for the chorus actually ended up staying in the final songs. It feels like those words had their own identity from the beginning.
Other times, I would come to the studio with lyrics that needed music, and we would build the track together from there.
Writing together gives structure and pace. When I write alone, I tend to follow the waves of inspiration more freely. When you write with someone else, you naturally have more of a schedule, and I find that I become more creative because I give the process more time and consistency.
And what I love most about creating together is that it feels like being kids again, inventing worlds. It becomes a very magical space — almost sacred to me. It is something I always find deeply moving.
HAPPY: If a listener only had time for one track on the album to understand who you are as an artist, which one would you recommend and why?
MARTINA: I would probably choose “Ready to Love.” It’s not by chance that it was selected as one of the key singles leading into the album, alongside “We Belong To Heaven.”
Ready to Love feels very representative, because it is a pop-rock track that allows my vocal strength to come through, which I think is one of the most defining elements of my identity as an artist.
At the same time, it has many layers and nuances. On one side, it carries a strong, determined and almost fearless energy; on the other, there is a deep sense of vulnerability running through it.
This combination of strength and vulnerability is something that says a lot about the way I am in this world.
HAPPY: You describe the album as a “musical diary” for processing endings, loss, and healing. Is songwriting a therapeutic process for you, or more of a reflective one after the fact?
MARTINA: Writing and singing are, for me, deeply cathartic — part of a therapeutic process. When I write something, it usually happens because there is an inner world that had no place to exist yet, and songwriting becomes the space where it can finally find its form.
When a new song is born, I always go through a phase of obsession where I keep singing it in my head, because it feels so good. It’s deeply comforting — like something that was once only inside of me is finally able to exist outside.
Writing a song, for me, is like giving birth to a truth, and it is this act of bringing the truth out that feels truly therapeutic.
HAPPY: You sing about transformation and returning to oneself. What is the most important lesson about yourself that you’ve learned while making this record?
MARTINA: That I deserve to be listened to as well. That I deserve to take up space.
It has been a deep wake-up call for me. I’ve always been on the shy side. When I was a child, I wouldn’t talk to strangers.
And even though, at some point, I found my voice and learned how to speak up, I realised there was still a part of me that was hiding.
I was always trying not to disturb anyone, not to be a burden, not to take up too much space. But over time, that became painful because it created a distance between me and the things I truly wanted.
Like being an artist. Like sharing my songs. Like allowing myself to be seen.
HAPPY: Now that ‘Songs That You Should Know’ is finally out, what’s the first thing you want to do to celebrate?
MARTINA: I’ll call my mum and tell her “Look mum, I made it!”
HAPPY: Lastly, what makes you happy?
MARTINA: Singing and writing make me very happy.
Performing on stage and sharing music with an audience gives me a deep sense of meaning.
And then there are the little big things that make my world brighter.
Riding my bike.
The sea.
Flowers.
My friends.
The mountains.
And boats. I love boats in an almost indescribable way.
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