— by Dawn Ross
Vicci Martinez may live on the other side of the country now, but she likes to share that her Tacoma roots run deep, being the first baby to be born in her mother’s delivery room at the new (in 1984) Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. Martinez discovered a love of playing and singing at a young age, starting with the violin at age five. These days, her instrument of choice is the guitar – although it’s often her singing voice that most impresses; Martinez, petite at just 5’1”, is a mezzo-soprano who belts out tunes with surprising power and range.
One can’t help but be impressed with Martinez’ raw talent and self-confidence; from a recent interview, “…when I first met her, she was a twelve-year-old girl performing at the Antique Sandwich Company’s weekly open mic with a big guitar, a big voice, and an even bigger heart.”. While still a student at Tacoma’s iconic Stadium High School, Martinez was moonlighting as a professional musician. Over the better part of the next decade, she was a fixture on the local festival and club circuit, which is when she developed her very faithful fanbase.
Martinez is a competitive person by nature, which allows her to challenge herself and constantly develop her talents by sharing the stage with other talented musicians. When she was only 16, Martinez edged out 4,000 Washingtonians to win first place in Believe, a statewide singing competition. In 2002, at age 17, she won the regional tryouts and the opportunity to advance to the next round during the first season of American Idol; however, she removed herself from the competition after deciding that their contract (with strict conditions about songwriting and recording) was too restrictive. The following year, she competed on and won a round of Star Search.
In the earlier part of her music career, Martinez could reliably be found performing in local clubs and festivals throughout the Puget Sound region (to include Seattle’s beloved annual Bumbershoot), and making the leap to appear in concerts in Oregon, New Mexico, Michigan, and Mexico. She recorded and released several full-length records in the “early years”, most notably with “Sleep to Dream” in 2003 and “On My Way” in 2005; Martinez is credited with writing and composing all of the songs. She experimented a bit more by releasing a concert documentary called “Vicci Martinez Live” in 2006, and recording “Live at Jazzbones” from the popular Tacoma nightclub in 2007.
Martinez introduced herself to her largest audience to date when she competed in the first season of The Voice in 2011, ultimately finishing out the contest in a respectable tie for third place. During the blind audition round, she performed a spellbinding rendition of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”, earning a two-chair turn; while Christina Aguilera made a pitch for her, she opted to join CeeLo Green’s team. Martinez stood out from the crowd with her husky voice and powerful control of a challenging song; in later rounds of the competition, she similarly had strong performances of Florence and the Machine’s “Dog Days are Over” and Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”.
Martinez built on the success of her season on The Voice, releasing an EP called “Come Along” in 2012; the title track featured CeeLo, her former mentor and respected front man of Goodie Mob and Gnarls Barkley. She noted his continued support the following year, saying, “He’s definitely kept in touch with me […] he’s really open to wanting to help me launch this career.”. Martinez’ next album, “Vicci” was also released in 2012, and then came “I am Vicci Martinez” in 2015.
From her days as an impressive teenage singer and guitar player, right into her current era as an energetic but polished performer, Martinez has been fortunate to share the spotlight with a wide range of talented artists – sometimes opening for them, and at other times onstage together. Martinez has performed alongside many famous and respected musicians, to include B.B. King, Brandi Carlile, Sting, Annie Lennox, Christopher Cross, and Jonny Lang. She has been backed up by the well-regarded Vicci Martinez Band (VMB) since she was 16 years old; although that relationship ended when she relocated to New York City, they were recently reunited at a show in Tacoma. In anticipation of that upcoming show, Martinez gushed, “I haven’t done a Tacoma show with my OG band in over 10 years. We really just want to have a blast and do what we used to do – jam out.”.
Although she did not have a background in acting, Martinez’ onstage presence and her striking youthful looks on “The Voice” led showrunners to offer her the role of prison drug dealer “Daddy” on the Netflix original series “Orange is the New Black”. Her performance was so popular that it motivated the showrunners to expand her originally-planned story arc from three episodes to six, before ending with the character’s brutal death.
Martinez laughingly refers to herself as an “out of work actor”, it was recently canceled, but for two seasons, she provided the voice of “Frida Kahlo” in the rebooted animated series, “Clone High”. She has also appeared in TV commercials for Crest 3D White toothpaste and Bud Light beer, among others.
An openly gay woman, Martinez is an advocate for LGBTQ+ causes and has posted to her social media in support of Pride Month. She connected with fellow “Orange is the New Black” cast member Emily Tarver at the show’s wrap party, and they have been in a relationship since 2018. Referring to the iconic love story of musicians Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, Martinez said that she “…had dreams of one day finding my June, and there she was…”. Martinez and Tarver have collaborated on songwriting and performing, and are taking steps to record an album together in the future.
Martinez has occasionally released single tracks and confirmed that she is working on a new album to be released “someday”, revealing an intentionality that comes with maturing. Although she lives primarily in New York City now, Martinez returns to her hometown to visit with family and friends often, and may occasionally be found performing at the Airport Tavern or other local venues in and around the City of Destiny. You can follow her latest projects and watch for upcoming shows on Instagram (@viccimartinez).
About the Author
Dawn Ross prepared this blog entry as a final project for T ARTS 225: Musical History of Tacoma, taught by Professor Kim Davenport at the University of Washington Tacoma in the Spring 2025 academic quarter; at the time, she was a post-baccalaureate student in the Arts, Media, and Culture degree program.
Tacoma Music History 
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