Marina And The Diamonds

Marina Diamandis was born in Abergavenny, Wales to a Greek father and Welsh mother and raised in the village of Pandy with her parents and her older sister. She attended St. Catherine's British Embassy School and Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls, of which she said "I sort of found my talent there... I was the one who always skived off choir, but I had an incredible music teacher who managed to convince me I could do anything."When her parents separated, Diamandis moved to Greece when she was sixteen years old to live with her father but returned to Wales two years later.
 
After dropping out of university, Diamandis moved to London at the age of eighteen where she attended dance school for only two months. Following this, in 2005 she took a one year singing course at the West London Music School, "Vocaltech". She went for many auditions including the West End musical, The Lion King. Diamandis admitted that she auditioned for a reggae boy band, held by Virgin Records, in 2005 to try and make it into the music business.