Musical journey
AT 17, MAPALO MARTIN IS POLISHED ENOUGH TO BE THE NEXT BIG NAME IN POP
Mapalo Martin wants you to take you on a musical journey. The teenage musician from Torrington welcomes visitors to his website with a simple question: “Need a brand new artist to vibe to?” Future fans can sample Mapalo’s vibe by checking out the pop, rap, and indie-pop styled originals he’s uploaded to his site which include three new singles he released last month. His music is also on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play, and he has videos planned plus a full album called “Melancholic” set for later this year.
The young songwriter notes that he’s been drawn to music for most of his life. “When I was 7 or 8, I liked listening to music, like every other
kid,” said Mapalo, who uses only his first name in his music career. “But later on, when I was about 14, I started listening to deeper music and things that actually had meaning. And then I started playing instruments and realized that I can create something that no one’s ever heard before by myself. And that, honestly, meant a lot.”
By using Mapalo as his music ID, the 17-year-old also keeps himself connected to his African roots. Mapalo was born in Zambia in 2002. His mother died when he was three months old, and his twin sister died at five months.
His father decided to put him in a home for orphaned children, which later became the Buseko Children’s Home started by Seeds of Hope Children’s Ministry. Eventually Mapalo was adopted and brought to the United States by a Connecticut resident, Heidi Martin, who was a licensed practical nurse and first went to Zambia as a volunteer.
“Mapalo’s birth name was actually Blessing,” said Martin, in a recent conversation. “I wanted to keep the name that his parents had given him. When I went back for him, they told me that ‘mapalo’ meant ‘blessing’ in their language, the Bemba language. So I got his father’s permission to change his name to Mapalo. This way, we still keep Blessing, but he’s got a little bit of his heritage.”
Mapalo was homeschooled by Martin in Torrington through his elementary and middle school years. He attended and graduated from Explorations Charter High School in Winsted last year. Along the way, he taught himself to play four instruments, electric guitar, bass, ukulele and piano, and he also sings, but he was reluctant to share his musical talents in public.
“I kept the whole music thing quiet for a while, and not many people really knew that I was trying to do it,” he said. “They knew I played piano but they didn’t know I was actually making songs. That was a vulnerable thing at the time.”
He worked on developing his sound and fine-tuning his craft and is now at a point where he’s comfortable sharing his songs with a wider audience.
“He puts in a lot of time on his music,” said his mother. “I hear him constantly playing music and singing. During COVID, when he wasn’t working, he sold his Xbox so he could buy more equipment. He’s a go-getter, and I’m very proud of him for that. He’s not waiting for opportunities. I feel like he’s really trying.”
Mapalo listened to bands like My Chemical Romance and Twenty One Pilots when he was growing up. “Those were some of my influences in my earlier teens. Now it’s artists like Lil Peep and the
“MAKING MUSIC HAS ALWAYS BEEN LIKE AN ESCAPE FOR ME, BUT I WANT IT TO BE AN ESCAPE FOR OTHER PEOPLE, TOO.”
Wallows.” He doesn’t like comparing himself to other artists, but he’s been told his music has similarities to indie bands like The Weeknd, which is another influence, and the late rapper XxxTentacion.
“When I put myself out there, I always think of what I would like to hear, what I would want to see in other people,” he explained. “Making music has always been like an escape for me, but I want it to be an escape for other people, too.”
He compares writing songs to using an extended voice. One of
his songs, “I Need You Now,” for example, is about communicating to someone. “It’s about wanting to say something to a person, but you don’t want to sound like you’re needy or just weird or awkward. That’s why I write music, basically to stay things that I wouldn’t say in an actual conversation.”
He’s on Twitter using an account he started in May but barely uses Facebook. “It’s kind of a confusing app,” he said. His go-to social media site is Instagram, where he’s got over 3,000 followers. “It’s one of those things where there are people that do better. So I need to
try harder,” he said. “I want to reach 10K by November.”
Throughout it all, Mapalo’s mother in Torrington remains supportive. “I know that the music business is a very tough field to get into,” she said. “But, he’s 17 years old. He has to follow his dreams.”