Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Marie Haddad

RIYL

Roberta Hofer, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Bjork, Sinead O'Connor, Fiona Apple

Influences

Kate Bush, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Leonard Cohen, Jane Siberry, Rufus Wainwright, Emily Haines, Joe Jackson, Jeff Buckley, Depeche Mode, Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel

Discography

Sponsored

Singer-songwriter Marie Haddad was five when she started playing piano, but she drifted into other endeavors a few years later. At one point she had to sell her piano in order to stay in college.

“I discovered a grand piano in one of the local hotels that was unattended most of the time in the evening,” she says. “So I started sneaking in to practice on it.”

After playing with various local cover bands, Haddad joined the San Diego Beat Organization, which was nominated as Best New Artist at the 2002 San Diego Music Awards. When that group split, she began performing and recording solo.

“I play piano and sing sort of à la Kate Bush, one of my favorite musicians,” says Haddad. “Her innovative songwriting and production ideas paired with that unmistakable voice captivated me early on.”

A 2007 and 2009 San Diego Music Awards nominee for Best Acoustic, Haddad cites Leonard Cohen as the biggest influence on her lyrics. “My copy of Stranger Music — his book of poems, writings, and lyrics — has so many pages bunny-eared and phrases underlined that it’s like a lovingly worshipped textbook.”

Haddad can often be found at the Casbah, and not always on stage. She's often seen in the Atari Room in the rear of the club, playing the vintage Ms. Pac-Man game. "I'm a Ms. Pac-Man snob," she says. "Not just any machine will do. It has to be a sit-down table version, and it has to be fast. Sure, there are other Ms. Pac-Man's around town, but the joystick doesn't respond like the Casbah's, or it's a stand-up machine, or it's geriatric slow."

She says her high score is "somewhere in the 95,000s," and her dot-gobbling prowess earns her occasional perks. "I was back there playing between sets, and a guy who'd been playing Galaga turned around to watch me...before I finished my game, he bought me a vodka tonic and called me 'the Eddie Van Halen of Ms. Pac-Man. '" A perfect Pac-Man score is 3,333,360.

In early 2013, a video for her song “Boxing” began streaming online, shot by Gretchen Bayer and Jake Segraves at Kind Films. Her song “Why? Why Not.” was heard June 4, 2013, on the Lifetime TV show Dance Moms. “On the show,” she says, “Brooke and the senior division dance group perform a choreographed routine called Why Not Me to my song.”

Running Up That Hill, a 28-song Kate Bush tribute album released in February 2014, features Haddad's cover of “Night Scented Stock,” along with fellow locals Optiganally Yours and their version of “There Goes a Tenner.”

In early 2016, she was at Singing Serpent Studios with producer Ben Moore working on an album, as well as recording a version of the Hoodoo Gurus' "I Want You Back" for an Australian compilation of 1980s covers.

Her song "Wishing Well" was heard on Lifetime's TV series Dance Moms in autumn 2017, during a season 7 episode 24 routine featuring dancer Lilliana. The track also features drummer Nas Helewa, bassist Jason Hee, and producer Sven-Erik Seaholm.

A video for her song "JDITA" won Best Music Video at the 2019 San Diego Film Week Awards. Another video debuted in January 2020, "The Outskirts of Cool."

Sponsored

Upcoming Local Shows

No shows scheduled

Post a show View show history
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.