(Jazz Vocals) Marlena - My Heart to Yours - 2015, MP3, 320 kbps

Marlena’s musical influences, in part, arose from her early life growing up in the “melting pot” of Jamaica Queens, NY (the same neighborhood of Fifty Cent’s youth). As a young child, she would hear, late into the summer evenings, the soulful sounds of Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Donna Summer, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, and Etta James, as they wafted through her bedroom window, from the nearby park. Marlena irritated her sister as she would pick up a hairbrush and sing at the top of her lungs – the beginnings of her soulful sound and her desire to perform. Starting at the age of 10, Marlena, the daughter of a minister, sang gospel in church, and on Saturdays performed a cappella versions of the same on the streets of New York, drawing a crowd to whom her father preached. These experiences honed her voice, enabling her to emote and greatly connect with all that have the pleasure to hear her sing. She attended the prestigious School of Art and Design in Manhattan. Eventually, she worked, modeled, and sang, while l