Martika's Kitchen

Martika's Kitchen

Martika's Kitchen is the second album released by pop singer and former child actor Martika. Released in 1991, it features four songs written and produced by Prince. The album was a departure in musical styles from Martika's debut album. "Martika's Kitchen" incorporates elements of gospel, jazz, funk, R&B and traditional Cuban music.

The album was critically praised but was a relative commercial failure in the U.S.. The title track barely cracked the Billboard Hot 100, but the Prince-penned gospel song "Love... Thy Will Be Done" went top 10.

The album was highly successful elsewhere in the world and triggered a concert tour that visited over 200 cities. The song "Coloured Kisses" charted internationally.

Building upon such previous efforts as "Toy Soldiers", the album tackled serious topics lyrically. "Broken Heart" is about crack babies; "Pride and Prejudice" deals with racism and homophobia. The Spanglish track "Mi Tierra", which features a guest vocal performance by Celia Cruz, is a lament of a Cuban-American's inability to visit her homeland.

Unknown to many, the four Prince songs (tracks 1, 2, 3 and 10) on the album were recorded by him (the original versions have been circulating on several bootlegs) and then given to Martika to emulate the exact vocal details and style for her own album. It is quite common in the world of Prince associates for Prince to produce songs for the protégé to simply duplicate. Martika co-wrote 10 songs on the album.

Three additional tracks recorded for the album were leaked on bootlegs years later, entitled "Rub U Down", "Beautiful Fabulous" and "The Do".