PORTALS (stylized in all uppercase) is the third studio album by Melanie Martinez. The standard version of the album was released on March 31st, 2023, with the deluxe version being released on April 5th, 2023, featuring three bonus tracks. This album marks Melanie's first release to be credited under the role of music producer. Originally, it was planned to be accompanied by a feature film, however, it is currently postponed due to lack of funding. [2]            Background

2018-2019

In 2018 (she was turning 23), Melanie encountered a paranormal experience at her former house, there was a massive tree in her front yard with no markings on it. One night, while watering the grass outside, she caught a glimpse of the tree and was astonished to see a giant carved writing '23' on it. She went more on details that It looked like growing out from the tree, curly, and font-like. Melanie interpreted this mysterious sighting as a sign that the year 2023 ahead would hold special significance for her.[3]

Coinciding with the release of K-12 in September 2019, during an interview with People Magazine Melanie announced how she had planned out her next two films after K-12, "I have my next film planned out, as far as what I want to do – and the film after that and they both have albums attached to them."[4]

Around October-December of 2019, Melanie began reading into past-life regression therapy such as hypnotherapy books during the K-12 Tour; this is where she got the idea for PORTALS.[5]

2020

During an Instagram Q&A on January 8th, 2020, where Melanie asked fans for questions relating to her musical future in the new year, a fan asked "Will we have a new film?" and Melanie replied, "I'm planning on putting out music videos for this year. As for the next film I make, it will be attached to my third album and that will probably take a while to conjure up."

In an interview with The KnockTurnal, Melanie touched on Cry Baby's growth in her upcoming projects: "She's gonna be evolving and transforming as a being. Her growth isn’t going to be as literal. She’s not gonna go to college, you know, it’s not going to be like that. But she’s definitely going to transform and evolve, but I can’t say anything or else it’ll be a spoiler".[6]

In an interview with Billboard, Melanie was asked "What can fans expect from your in-the-works music?" and she responded, "A completely new dimension of the world I've created thus far," stating how her future music would be different from her past work.[7]

On November 9th, 2020, Melanie revealed on the Travis Mills Show that she would be making the album with the same producers who helped on her debut album, Cry Baby, commenting on her session with Kinetics and One Love that was already booked. In the same interview, she also stated that the movie would "ratio out" to have "more film than musical scenes".[8]

On December 16th, 2020, during an interview with Hollywood Life, Melanie revealed that the second film will "pick up" where the first one “left off” with a cliffhanger, saying that: “You’re not going to see like a clip from K-12 in the next movie, it’s not gonna be like that type of picking up, but it will be technically picking up from where it left off.”[9]

2021

On January 7th, 2021, during an interview with the Grammy Museum, Melanie confirmed that there will be 13 tracks on the album just like her previous two albums.[10] Within the same interview, Melanie once again stated that Cry Baby would "evolve". Also around January 2021, Melanie was seen on an Instagram story dancing, recording, and singing to an unknown song from her third album. The song was later confirmed to be "FAERIE SOIRÉE".[11]

On February 11th, 2021, Melanie posted multiple Instagram photos sharing her experience in Hawaii in regards to the creation of the album, with a caption writing[12]:

🍄💕🌙

In my little cave of creation, isolated for a month in Hawaii. Writing a film and album I feel destined to make. No human interaction, just killing dead parts of myself to make room for the new. ✨✨✨✨ When I create it is the only time the past, present and future all meet me at once. Releasing past feelings from past moments and past lives, by keeping the channel open/antenna out in the present, to be able to co-create with the universe something that will be felt, seen, and heard in the future.

Until then 🧚🏼‍♀️

Additionally, in one of the slides of the Instagram post, she was seen performing/singing an unknown song. This was later confirmed as "TUNNEL VISION". She then proceeded to post multiple Instagram stories describing the process of PORTALS:

I died here, was rebirthed and transformed. The amount of synchronicities I've experienced in this house is staggering. Couldn't have dreamt of a more sacred space to create this album. Only ever coming here to finish this project. 🌻🌷💕

So many deep layers of this album/film were unlocked here🥺 I feel beyond tapped in with my angels and ancestors and truly believe that every melody and every lyric on this record came straight from them.

On September 14th, 2021, Melanie replied to a comment on TikTok saying that the album would be released in 2022. [13]

2022

On January 24th, 2022, Melanie stated she would try to release the album's first single in March or April.[14] On February 21st, 2022, during a meet and greet, Melanie confirmed that the album would have 13 songs and some form of a deluxe. She also stated that the lead single would be released sometime in spring 2022 along with a music video, and there would be no featured artists on the album. Additionally, she said that she would like to create music videos for her favorite songs on the album, and release the film separate from the album.

On March 20th, 2022, Melanie posted a photo shoot she did with Verde. Following this, Verde proceeded to post a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot to his Instagram, captioning the post "Mother of Pearl". After a fan had asked if the song was the album's lead single, Melanie replied with:

no, that was just a random song idea that never got finished that got leaked - the actual songs I will be putting out this year yall haven't even heard yet 💗

On July 31st, 2022, Melanie posted an Instagram story, where she announced that the album is in the mixing stage and that she hopes to release it in the earlier part of 2023. In the same story, she also said that she will put out a couple of songs and music videos in 2022, to start the new era.[citation needed]

Release & promotion

The promotion for PORTALS was somewhat canny to Melanie's previous album, K-12. In February 2023, a selection of snippets were released alongside animated visuals to tease the upcoming project. On February 17th, 2023, a song was distributed among streaming services under Melanie's name, titled "...",[15] which would later turn out to be an edited variant of the song "DEATH", the lead single for the album. With this, another snippet of the same track was posted to her social medias, each titled with cryptic emoticons.[16][17][18][19]

A visual accompanied this snippet, which featured a virtual scene in a forest, with a mushroom as the main subject.[16][17][18][19] The words "R.I.P. Crybaby" can be seen carved into said mushroom,[16][17][18][19] confirming the fictional death of Melanie's most popular character. She had archived all of her previous posts - and even changed most of her YouTube video thumbnails to a screenshot of the visual[20] - furthermore driving the point that her prior work regarding Cry Baby was deprecated. This would be the first fans would know regarding the album.

The following day, a pattern began to emerge. On February 19th, 2023, a new snippet was uploaded to Melanie's social medias, this time captioned "the nucleus of creation", with the snippet in the post later confirmed to be from "THE CONTORTIONIST".[21][22][23][24] Also uploaded with an animation and secondary image, the location "PORTALS" was geotagged onto the Instagram post[21] - just as the first snippet was.[16] Due to this, fans were starting to speculate the album's title. As the next day arrived, a new snippet did as well. On February 20th, 2023, a post captioned "Developing...", which was later confirmed to contain a snippet of "LIGHT SHOWER" was posted on Melanie's social medias, with the post featuring a mutant pink-skinned fetus as its animation, also including a secondary image.[25][26][27][28]

Now that the fanbase knew they could expect a new single each day, they also noticed a story line forming. Each snippet's visualization depicted a new era of this pink-skinned creature, beginning with the death of Cry Baby, then minimal molecular development, and then a significant embryo. The videos were telling a story of the rebirth of Cry Baby. "Incubating..." would be the next snippet to arrive, featuring a video of an animated egg shell.[29][30][31][32] This was assumed to be what encased the prior fetus.

PORTALS Limited Cassette E-Mail from Spotify

On February 21st, 2023, Melanie posted an Instagram story with a timer announcing that the "hatching" of the egg was soon-to-come in the next 12 hours.[33] When the time limit was reached, a live-action video was posted, depicting Melanie, dressed as the same creature as the prior fetus, breaking out of the egg shell.[34][35][36][37] It is somewhat important to note that the date set on the timer on Melanie's Instagram story was February 22nd, which, when formatted, reads as the date 2/22. 222 is a number Melanie has referred to a lot during her career, as it is her favorite angel number.[38][39]

On February 22th, 2023, the title, cover art and release date of PORTALS were announced,[40] as well as some details regarding the album's lead single.[41]

After announcing some of the main details about PORTALS[40], articles started to resurface on the internet with the then just released news. In most of them, Melanie described the album with a phrase, saying: "Portals screams death is life is death is life is death is life. A continuous loop. A circle".[42]

On March 9th, 2023, Spotify sent out an email to Melanie's top fans containing a message from Melanie announcing a limited edition cassette of PORTALS. There were only 3,000 copies of the cassette which were available for fans to purchase until March 16 at 1:00 pm EST or while supplies last.

On March 15th, 2023, Melanie announced the lead single for the album, "DEATH", revealing the cover art on Instagram as well as confirming the release date (March 17th) of the track, with the caption being a poem:

stored in our core.felt over and over again.
we've been here before.
in different vessels, on different planets.
playing different roles.
evolving and learning from one another.
the synchronicities we witness, we've planned them together.
transmuting obstacles into opportunities for growth.
our language as a barrier to communicate.
what is incomprehensible to us as humans, is home to us as souls.

DEATH IS LIFE IS DEATH IS LIFE IS DEATH IS LIFE IS...

Death
3/17
Melanie Martinez via Instagram, 3/15/2023

On March 16th, 2023, a day before the release of "DEATH", Melanie announced the track list on her official website[43]. She shared the link though an Instagram story. The page contained lyric pages to each track on the album, one by one, the tracks' lyrics would be revealed everyday. However, the lyrics of "DEATH" were locked for an unknown reason.

On March 18th, 2023, Melanie performed at Lollapalooza in Argentina. She performed twelve songs in total, seven of them being from her upcoming album. Following her performances, several of the song's titles became trending on Twitter, such as "BATTLE OF THE LARYNX" and "TUNNEL VISION".

On March 19th, 2023, Melanie performed at Lollapalooza in Chile at the Axe Stage, She performed twelve songs in total, five of them being from her upcoming album.

On March 23th, 2023, a PORTALS Global Listening Event was hosted in local indie record stores around the world. It was announced on the same day "DEATH" audio version was released. People got to listen to the album before its release, including exclusive giveaways for the album. All events were free. A few hours later, Melanie announced that the "DEATH" music video would be released the following day on March 24th.

On March 29th, Melanie released "VOID" as the second single, just two days before the album was released.

On April 3rd, people from United States began to notice posters of Cry Baby displayed in some places. The poster contains a large text asking: "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CREATURE?", and a phone number, "TEXT (917) 810-3395". After texting, it will send an automated message saying: "THIS IS NOT A JOKE! If you're reading this I'm so sorry :(( 4 years ago a girl named Crybaby died after escaping a boarding school her mother sent her away to. If you don't send this album to 10 people she will come to your house at 2:22 AM and bring you into the after-life with her 4 hypnotizing eyes and razor sharp teeth!!!".

On April 4th, Melanie updated her Instagram bio to include lyrics from a previously leaked song, teasing its release along with the deluxe. The description of "teen beats" playlist on Spotify also hinted the theme of that song. Later on, Melanie posted on Spotify, "stream to unlock dlx🚨", following with a forwarded text to every person who saved the contact from the posters, "🥛🧜‍♀️TONIGHT 9pm PST/12am EST", emojis indicating the song as "MILK OF THE SIREN".

On June 13th, 2023, "VOID" music video was released. Later on August 8th, the music video was announced as a nominee for the Video Music Awards in the category for Best Visual Effects.

On July 27th, 2023, Atlantic Records privately messaged multiple large Melanie Martinez fanpages, including @melspurgatory, @crybabyboiiiii and @falselovin. The message consisted of a link to multiple video files, which can be spliced into one video. The video featured a trailer about "THE CREATURE" on the show Ancient Aliens.

On August 21st, 2023, Melanie announced during her Q&A takeover on a radio, America Top 40, that she is working on the "special fragrances" for this album era, implying that she is set to release more than one.[44]

On November 1st, 2023, Portals Parfums were released to pre order. They were released all along with a 1-foot tall statue. each one of the parfums was in a vial which contained 15ml of parfum.

On November 21st, 2023, "EVIL" was re-released as a promotional single. On the same day, a visualizer was released.

On December 19th, 2023, "TUNNEL VISION" music video was released.

On January 3rd, 2024, the parfums were restocked, with each vial being sold seperately.

On February 9th, 2024, "FAERIE SOIRÉE" music video was released.

On March 25th, 2024, Warner Music U announced on their Instagram and Twitter the Melanie Madness, an event to celebrate the album's 1st anniversary.

On May 11th, 2024, "LIGHT SHOWER" music video was released.

Egg hatching

Main Article: Egg hatching

Starting on March 2nd, 2023, the new promotion strategy was introduced, and implied continuously. The promotion happens when a fan account, usually on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok platforms, is contacted exclusively by Atlantic Records (the label releasing PORTALS), and inquiring them regarding the user's address. It typically takes 2-3 days to receive the expected package, which withheld a synthetic egg adorned by fake moss with an accompanying note.[45] The note read as follows:

Hatch me
A piece of the puzzle has been given to you
Eat the shell, eat the goo
What's inside is important, so please do share
I trust that you'll handle this portal with care

Upon the shell's dissemblance, a USB drive is revealed. The drive contained a hard copy of a particular snippet in M4A format. Traditionally, Melanie would always post a promotional video with an extended version of the snippet into all of her socials, but in some cases like "SPIDER WEB" the promotional video were shorter than the snippet sent from the fan.

Lyric reveal page

The lyric reveal page was a list of all 13 tracks on the album and their lyrics. The lyric reveal page was first announced on March 16th through Melanie Martinez's Instagram stories and it officially confirmed the track list for PORTALS. The page was updated roughly on a daily basis, providing a track's lyrics one at a time for the most part.

• March 17th, 2023: Following the single release of "DEATH", the lyric page link was shared on Martinez's Instagram stories, featuring the lyrics for "DEATH".[46][47]

  • Roughly the next day, the lyric page for "DEATH" was locked with no reasons, but two days later, the lyrics for "VOID" revealed.

• March 20th, 2023: The lyric page locked "DEATH"[48] and unlocked "VOID", officially revealing lyrics to the song. [49]

  • This cleared up confusion amongst Martinez's fans who speculated the lyrics "VOID" featured "Why hate who I was before...", instead of the actual lyrics: "I hate who I was before...".

• March 21st, 2023: The lyric page locked "VOID" and unlocked "TUNNEL VISION", officially revealing the lyrics to the song.[50]

• March 22nd, 2023: The lyric page locked "TUNNEL VISION" and unlocked "FAERIE SOIRÉE", officially revealing the lyrics to the song.[51]

• March 23rd, 2023: The lyric page locked "FAERIE SOIRÉE" and unlocked "LIGHT SHOWER", officially revealing the lyrics to the song.[52][53]

• March 24th, 2023: The lyric page locked "LIGHT SHOWER" and unlocked "SPIDER WEB", officially revealing the lyrics to the song.[54][55]

• March 27th, 2023: After two dormant days, the lyric page eventually locked "SPIDER WEB" and unlocked "LEECHES, officially revealing the lyrics to the song".[56][57]

• March 28th, 2023: Seemingly returning to the "day-to-day" releases with only 5 tracks left, the lyric page locked "LEECHES" and unlocked "BATTLE OF THE LARYNX".[58][59]

• March 29th, 2023: The lyric page locked "BATTLE OF THE LARYNX" and unlocked "THE CONTORTIONIST", officially revealing the lyrics to the song.[60][1][61]

  • It was the same day as the second single for the album, "VOID" was released.

• March 30th, 2023: One day before the official global release of the album, the lyric page locked "THE CONTORTIONIST" and unlocked two lyrics for the first time: "MOON CYCLE" and "NYMPHOLOGY", revealing the lyrics for the both of the song.[62][63]

• March 31st, 2023: The lyric page released all the track lyrics at once, marking the official global release of the album.[64]

At first, Melanie Martinez was releasing lyrics on a daily basis as perceived with the release of "DEATH" (elapsed by two days) to "SPIDER WEB". However, there was a two day gap before "LEECHES" was revealed. Afterwards, daily releases returned until a day before the album release, where both "MOON CYCLE" and "NYMPHOLOGY" were revealed. Finally, on the album release day, all the lyrics became available at once to the public. It is unknown whether the lyric page was updated in accordance with local time zones.

Commercial, chart performance & critical reception

Globally, the album was a commercial success. It represents Melanie's highest debut week gross, reaching almost 150.000 copies, 2.5 times higher than K-12. The album debuted atop the Australian and New Zealand Charts, becoming her first chart-topper in those countries respectively. The album reached the Top 3 in the UK, Scotland, Ireland and the United States becoming her highest charting album in all of them. Elsewhere, the album reached the Top 10 in The Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania. The album also appeared in the Top 30 in both Belgium regions, Finland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Notably, the album is on track on being Melanie's best selling album to date. The album was entitled to be one of the best albums of 2023 by Rolling Stones. [65] The following table shows various professional source of their critical reception about the album arranged to the best to worst reaction.   Tours

Main article: PORTALS Tour

Starting from 2023, Melanie went on the PORTALS Tour, which consisted mostly of songs from this album. For every show, Melanie dressed up as The Creature, with each show having a different mask and outfit.

Main article: The Trilogy Tour

In 2024, Melanie embarked on The Trilogy Tour, a tour featuring songs from her first 3 albums Cry Baby, K-12 and PORTALS.

Theme

In an interview with Apple Music, Melanie had revealed the theme of the album, stating:

I wanted to challenge my listeners’ perspective by essentially saying: Just like us, after Cry Baby’s vessel on earth has died, she lives on as a spirit in the cosmos. It was important for me to show the immortality of being a human with this record—to give people hope that there’s life after death.

All of the songs on this album are based on past life regression therapy books I’ve been reading for a few years now, particularly the in between phase of death and life. All of them disguised with earthly themes for double/triple meaning, to create a frequency for humans to relate to while still here on earth.
Melanie Martinez

Track list

There are 13 tracks on the standard track list and 3 additional on the deluxe version. There are currently 46 songs that were intended for PORTALS, but only some of them made the final cut, (30 tracks are unreleased, 16 tracks are released).

There is both an explicit version of the album and a clean version. The standard album contains overall five explicit songs, and eight non-explicit songs, while the deluxe version contains six explicit songs, and ten non-explicit songs. Although, "POWDER" is explicit, it is listed as non-explicit on most platforms like Spotify. This is Melanie's least explicit deluxe album; while tied with Cry Baby on the standard version.