"Martika got her start as part of the popular television series Kids Incorporated alongside Fergie and Jennifer Love Hewitt before branching off as a successful pop solo act best known for the single ""Toy Soldiers.""Born Marta Marrero in Whittier, CA in 1969, Martika's parents fled their native Cuba during the revolution and settled in the States, where they raised their would-be pop star daughter. Rather than the normal singer-turned-actor route, Martika started acting before singing; she appeared in the 1982 film version of the famed Broadway musical Annie and starred on Kids Incorporated from 1984 till 1986.Martika embarked on a pop singing career in the late ‘80s, releasing her first single ""More Than You Know"" in 1988. ""More Than You Know"" made its way to the pop charts and was followed by ""Toy Soldiers,"" which was an even bigger success with its anti-drug message. In 1989 Martika issued her eponymous debut album which was followed by a second full-length, Martika's Kitchen, two years later. The album spawned gossip about the singer's personal life as she was romantically linked with Prince, who lent his songwriting talents to Martika's Kitchen. The album wasn't very successful in the U.S., though it solidified Martika's spot as a ""Prince Protégée"" and was very successful abroad.After two pop albums, Martika returned to the small screen by joining the cast of the television cop show Wiseguy in the ‘90s, but returned to music with a best of album in '97. The new millennium saw Martika coupling with her husband Michael Mozart, also a musician, to form Oppera (the duo has since released two albums.) Around the same time the goth pop sound of Oppera started to make waves, rapper Eminem used a sample of ""Toy Soldiers"" for ""Like Toy Soldiers"" on Encore. "