Marli Harwood (born Marilena Buck, 13 March 1975 in Lytham St Annes) also known as Marli Buck, is a British singer and songwriter. A piano and guitar player, she is of Eritrean, Italian, Welsh and English extraction. In 1995, she was signed by Chris Blackwell to his Island Records label. During the recording of her debut album, Blackwell decided to sell Island Records, and Harwood’s album was never released. In 2002, Harwood appeared on Fame Academy, and finished eighth in the series. She then recorded several albums with various major record labels, which remained unreleased or promoted.
In 2010, the production company she was signed to listened to Marli’s album again and said that they wanted to release it. Marli took this news cautiously. Radio Two were playing the track ‘It’s Called A Heart’ and promptly made it ‘Single of the Week’. Not long afterwards, Heart radio chose the song to soundtrack their ‘Have A Heart’ campaign. After 16 years of trying, just as Marli had all but given up hope, things finally started happening! A flurry of record company offers started to come in. But she had discovered, after two years of trying, that she was expecting her first child. She told her manager she was going to prioritise family over fame and ignored them.
However, with the advent of a unique deal, a key maternity clause being added to her contract, Marli, signed with Island records in April 2011. In that year Harwood’s song “It’s Called a Heart” was played to Jeff Smith, head of music at BBC Radio 2, by her management team and on 25 January it was announced by the Press Association that the track was Record of the Week on Radio 2. Harwood released “It’s Called a Heart” via her website on 21 February 2011. With a final working date of 1 July 2011 before the birth, Island Records were pushing to get her 12-track album Clocks and Full Stops released. The single from the album, “Billy”, was released on 30 May with the album following. Harwood also contributed vocals to the 2012 track Silence, the title track of Tom Tyler’s debut album. She has co-written the Kygo hit single “Stole the Show” and continues to have cuts worldwide, including Kim Hyun Joong in Korea whose album went to number 1 on the Billboard world chart. Marli Harwood is also a writer at Tileyard Studios.
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Text source: Wikipedia and Marli Wood'sBlogspot post
