Angella Marie’s life has been filled with many obstacles.
From battling obesity to at one point being homeless, she has overcome the many hurdles in her life that have stood in the way.
She’s gotten through it with her passion for music.
Marie, who has for years been a singer, has traveled all over the country and competed in various different karaoke contests, talent shows, festivals and fairs.
But it wasn’t until a few years ago when she realized that she had to make a lifestyle choice when it came to dealing with her weight.
“I’ve always been bigger. Genetics didn’t work in my favor,” Marie said. “I had to make a lifestyle change. When I hit 400 pounds, everyone was asking me if I loved my daughter and I was like ‘yeah of course’ and they said that if I didn’t get the weight off soon, I wasn’t going to be around to see her grow up. That was pretty harsh for me.”
Marie also said she didn’t feel like people pay much attention to her or her singing when she was overweight.
“It was also being a big person, people didn’t really hear me,” Marie said. “They saw me but they didn’t hear me so they didn’t take me for face value. I went through a lot of different things. I got depressed because of my weight so that made me eat more.”
It wasn’t long until she consulted a doctor and she soon started making a lifestyle change, eating healthier and joining a gym.
“One, I stopped drinking soda,” Marie said. “That was the first 50 pounds that I lost. Every now and then, I’ll still drink soda but sometimes it’s OK. I had a lot more salads and a lot more vegetables. People crack me up when they tell me ‘oh you can do this and not have to exercise’ and I’m like ‘no, you have to exercise’. The way your body is made up, if you don’t burn more calories, you’re going to gain weight. Anyone who says you don’t have to exercise is full of crap.”
She’s now down to 166 pounds and through her music, she tries to connect with people on different levels.
“Music has always been a big thing for me,” Marie said. “Losing the weight made me feel different. Now people would hear me and see me. …There are a few similarities that I feel like with my music I can use that to connect with people.”
But that wasn’t the only issue in her life.
Marie, who is a single mom with four kids, has had other struggles.
She was in an abusive relationship when she was still living in Colorado.
“During the time I was bigger, I couldn’t trust people,” Marie said. “I was going through domestic violence. I was with someone who hit me and was never faithful and I would eat and be depressed and it got the best of me. But then I found my inner strength and lost the weight.”
It wasn’t long before she had no place to live.
“During that time, my husband ran around a lot and didn’t pay the bills and we lost our apartment because I would work and while I was at work and he would have friends over. We lost our apartment and at the time that we lost the apartment, he took off.”
Marie said she tried to get back on her feet, but had no money at the time.
“I had to more-or-less make a promise that I wouldn’t rely on anyone else if I couldn’t do it myself,” Marie said.
For a short time, she and her daughter had to endure a short period of being homeless, during the unforgiving winter in the Rocky Mountain State.
“We had nowhere to go except my car so I wrapped her in a blanket and we slept in a bathroom stall. I slept with her in my arms to keep her warm and to stay safe and have some type of shelter over us. I was able to save my fuel that way. I eventually got my own townhome to where I had a place for her and I.”
Now she has lost the negative people in her life and is striving as a recording artist.
Music has always been her go-to thing. However, she didn’t know how to put lyrics to music until one day when it started to come together while in her car.
“I was driving up the road and heard a song and got a few ideas and wrote a few lyrics down,” Marie said. “I travel across the country and do karaoke and I would drive to each different competition. It was pretty crazy. Now, I’m writing my own stuff and everything seems so surreal because everything is happening so fast. It’s a lot different than singing karaoke.”
Her first album in which she is currently working on is called “Life” and she says she wants every message that comes from every song to represent something.
“I want every individual to relate to the song. It’s going to hit everyone and connect with them,” Marie said. “There’s a positive message and lesson that comes from the album. That’s what makes everyone better. Throughout life’s greatest struggles, we find our greatest strengths.”
She tries to help people who have been through similar situations.
“I put my energy now between my kids and my job and my music,” Marie said. “I push to try and help people who are walking through the same thing and help where I can.”
With her style of music, Marie says she’s been compared a lot to either a cross between Fleetwood Mac or Gwen Stefanie with a “country twist.”
“Some people say I have a country twang, even though I don’t hear it,” Marie said. “I sing all across Midland and Odessa, I’ve sung at Lone Star and Black Gold and karaoke shows. … I like all different styles of music. I listen to everything. I don’t limit myself on my styles of music because I think when you get into that, that realm of just one type of music, you lose that sense of what’s evolving. The world is constantly evolving. We’re constantly changing (and) you can’t close that door of opportunities to experience something new because you never know what could come of it.”
Looking back on her past, Marie knows not to take anything for granted.
“By the grace of God, I’m still standing here and I try to stay humble and sometimes it’s difficult because you get excited about things but what can be given can be taken away,” Marie said. “But at the same time, you want to celebrate and be happy.”
She says the goal of her music is to reach out and touch a life with what she’s putting out there.
“I’ve got some deep emotional hard-hitting songs,” Marie said. “Nothing that I write is a basic story. Everything I write is coming from the heart. It’s coming from my experiences, or putting into perspective the specific situations that I have walked through, so everything is not about me so to speak. It’s about a situation or a feeling. You have to let that emotion with what you’re singing about. If I can touch one life with my song, then I’ve done my job.”
