15 unforgettable songs by the Black woman whose words helped shape generations of R&B There is something remarkable about a woman whose words b
15 unforgettable songs by the Black woman whose words helped shape generations of R&B
There is something remarkable about a woman whose words become part of millions of people’s memories, even when those people never learn her name.
That was part of the gift of Andrea Martin (1972–2021).
We knew the voices of the artists who sang her songs. We knew the melodies, the heartbreak, the longing, and the joy. Some of us can still sing those songs without missing a word.
Andrea was helping tell our stories all along.
When I began looking at her songwriting credits, I kept recognizing songs. Monica. SWV. En Vogue. Angie Stone. Toni Braxton. Leona Lewis. Melanie Fiona. These weren’t little-known recordings tucked away somewhere. These were songs we played in our cars, heard on the radio, shared with friends, and carried through different seasons of our lives.
And behind so many of them was this remarkably gifted Black woman from Brooklyn.
Andrea Martin died on September 27, 2021, at only 49 years old. For many listeners, the news of her death was also an introduction to the woman behind music they had loved for decades.
That is quite a legacy. And it deserves to be celebrated.
15 Songs That Show Andrea Martin’s Extraordinary Gift
Andrea frequently worked with other talented songwriters, including her longtime friend and collaborator Ivan Matias. These songs represent some of her best-known writing contributions, not a ranking by record sales.
1. Monica: Before You Walk Out of My Life (1995)
Listen to Monica’s Before You Walk Out of My Life
Oh, this one takes you right back to the 1990s.
Monica was young, but she delivered the song with the emotional weight of someone who understood heartbreak. Andrea helped write a song that reached No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart.
Decades later, the opening notes can still take listeners back to a particular person, place, or moment in their lives.
2. SWV: You’re the One (1996)
Listen to SWV’s You’re the One
If you remember ’90s R&B, you remember this one.
SWV already had a distinctive sound, but Andrea and her collaborators helped give the group another major hit. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart.
It is the kind of recording that makes people smile before they even realize they’re smiling.
3. En Vogue: Don’t Let Go (Love) (1996)
Listen to En Vogue’s Don’t Let Go (Love)
What a record.
The harmonies, the urgency, the emotion. En Vogue delivered a performance that helped make this one of the most recognizable R&B songs of the decade.
The song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Andrea Martin was one of the writers who helped create it. Think about the number of people who have sung along to this song without ever knowing her name.
4. Toni Braxton: I Love Me Some Him (1996)
Listen to Toni Braxton’s I Love Me Some Him
Toni Braxton’s rich voice was a beautiful match for this song.
It appeared on her enormously successful Secrets album, which gave listeners some of the most memorable R&B recordings of that era.
Andrea’s contribution reminds us that not every beloved song needs to become a major standalone single to leave an impression.
5. Angie Stone: Wish I Didn’t Miss You (2002)
Listen to Angie Stone’s Wish I Didn’t Miss You
Now, this is grown-folks music.
Angie Stone brought a beautiful mixture of soul, regret, and emotional honesty to this recording. The song also draws from an earlier soul classic, connecting generations of Black musical creativity.
Andrea and Ivan Matias were among its writers.
The song has continued finding listeners long after its original release.
6. Blu Cantrell Featuring Sean Paul: Breathe (2003)
Listen to Blu Cantrell and Sean Paul’s Breathe
Andrea’s songwriting wasn’t confined to traditional American R&B.
This international hit blended R&B with dancehall influences and reached audiences across the world.
It is another reminder that a writer’s words can travel far beyond the neighborhood, city, or country where they were created.
7. Leona Lewis: Better in Time (2008)
Listen to Leona Lewis’s Better in Time
This one belongs in a Survivor Affirmations collection for another reason.
It speaks to the experience of living through heartbreak and gradually finding your footing again.
There are people who heard this song during painful periods of their lives and found comfort in the possibility that tomorrow might feel different.
Andrea helped give that hope a melody.
8. Melanie Fiona: It Kills Me (2009)
Listen to Melanie Fiona’s It Kills Me
Melanie Fiona delivered a powerful performance about the emotional struggle of a difficult relationship.
The song became a major R&B hit and introduced another generation of listeners to Andrea’s songwriting.
Different singer. Different decade. Still that ability to recognize emotions people struggle to explain.
9. Melanie Fiona: Give It to Me Right (2009)
Listen to Melanie Fiona’s Give It to Me Right
Here was a woman singing about knowing what she wanted and refusing to pretend otherwise.
The song brought confidence, attitude, and a strong sense of personal choice.
It also showed Andrea’s versatility. She could write tenderness, longing, frustration, and boldness.
10. Fantasia: Lose to Win (2013)
Listen to Fantasia’s Lose to Win
There is a lesson in the title alone.
Sometimes what looks like losing is actually the beginning of getting your life back.
Fantasia’s emotional delivery helped make this song especially memorable. It speaks to people who have had to reconsider what they were holding on to and what staying might cost them.
For Survivors and anyone rebuilding after a painful relationship, that is a conversation worth having.
11. Leela James: Tell Me You Love Me (2010)
Listen to Leela James’s Tell Me You Love Me
Leela James has one of those voices that can make a song sound as though it has been lived.
Andrea’s writing found another beautiful home in this soulful recording.
It is worth revisiting, especially for listeners who appreciate the connection between classic soul and contemporary R&B.
12. Tracie Spencer: Still in My Heart (1999)
Listen to Tracie Spencer’s Still in My Heart
Tracie Spencer was another gifted young vocalist whose music became part of the late-’90s R&B landscape.
Andrea contributed to this tender recording about love that remains in someone’s heart.
Sometimes a song doesn’t need to dominate the charts to become meaningful to the people who love it.
13. Adina Howard: It’s All About You (1995)
Listen to Adina Howard’s It’s All About You
This recording takes us back to another corner of 1990s R&B.
Andrea’s work reached artists with very different styles and personalities. Her songwriting could adapt without losing its emotional character.
That kind of versatility is a gift in itself.
14. P!nk: Private Show (2000)
Before P!nk became known for her pop-rock sound, she released the R&B-influenced album Can’t Take Me Home.
Andrea contributed to “Private Show,” demonstrating again how her work reached beyond one group of singers or one musical style.
Many listeners who know P!nk’s later music may be surprised to discover this connection.
15. Sean Kingston: Face Drop (2009)
Listen to Sean Kingston’s Face Drop
By 2009, Andrea’s work was reaching listeners who had been children when some of her earliest hits were released.
Sean Kingston brought a different musical energy and audience to the catalog.
Andrea’s career connected generations, and her songwriting continued finding new places to belong.
Andrea Martin Was Also a Singer
There is another part of her story that deserves attention.
Andrea wasn’t only the woman behind other people’s hits. She was a recording artist herself.
In 1998, she released The Best of Me, an album that included “Let Me Return the Favor” and “Share the Love.”
Listen to Andrea Martin’s Let Me Return the Favor
Listen to Andrea Martin’s Share the Love
She also performed alongside major R&B artists, including Monica, Faith Evans, Deborah Cox, and Shanice, during BET’s Girls Night Out in 1999.
I hope more listeners discover her own recordings while revisiting the songs she wrote for others.
She deserves to be heard in her own voice, too.
The Woman Behind the Words
We may not know everything about Andrea Martin’s private life, and we don’t need to invent a personal story to make her accomplishments meaningful.
What we do know is that she worked, created, collaborated, and helped produce music that reached people across generations.
She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.
She developed a songwriting career that stretched across R&B, pop, soul, and dance music.
And she had something valuable to say about her craft.
During a 2011 ASCAP Expo discussion, Andrea encouraged artists to sing from the heart. She believed that heartfelt expression helped make meaningful records, regardless of musical genre.
Looking at her catalog, you can hear that philosophy at work.
What Andrea Martin’s Life Can Teach Us
One of the things I love about studying women’s lives is discovering how much influence they had beyond what the public recognized.
Andrea Martin was respected within the music industry. She worked with successful artists, and her contributions were known to her collaborators.
But many ordinary listeners didn’t recognize her name.
We knew the songs.
We didn’t always know the woman.
And that makes me think about all the people whose work becomes part of our lives without receiving much public attention.
The teacher whose former students are now teaching children of their own. The nurse whose care made a frightening hospital stay more bearable. The grandmother whose wisdom still guides a family decades after her death.
The church musician who taught generations of children to sing. The seamstress who made beautiful things for people who never thought to ask about her life.
Some people change the world from a stage. Others change it from a classroom, a kitchen, a hospital, a workshop, or a neighborhood.
And some do it with a pen and a melody.
We don’t always get to witness the full reach of what we give to the world.
A songwriter may never meet the person who found comfort in her words. A teacher may never learn that a former student remembered her encouragement 30 years later. A mother may never know which ordinary conversation became a guiding principle in her child’s life.
That doesn’t mean the gift disappeared.
It also reminds us to become more curious about the people whose work enriches our lives while they are still here.
Ask who wrote the song. Learn who made the art. Thank the person who taught you something valuable. Give people their flowers while they can enjoy them.
A Survivor Affirmation Inspired by Andrea Martin
I will not measure the worth of my life only by the recognition I receive. My kindness, my creativity, my work, and the wisdom I share may reach further than I can see.
I will honor what I have to give while I am here. I will also make room to appreciate the gifts of others while they are here, too.
Her Words Are Still Traveling
Andrea Martin was only 49 when she died.
There were undoubtedly more songs she might have written, more collaborations she might have enjoyed, and more music she might have shared.
We cannot know what those years would have brought.
But we can appreciate what she gave us.
Somewhere, somebody is hearing “Before You Walk Out of My Life” for the first time. Someone else is discovering “Better in Time” after a difficult breakup. Another listener is dancing to “You’re the One” without realizing the song is now 30 years old.
And someone who has loved these songs for decades is finally learning Andrea Martin’s name.
I hope they remember it.
Because Andrea Martin didn’t simply help write hit records. She helped give words to moments in people’s lives. And those words are still traveling.
Sources and Further Reading
- AllMusic: Andrea Martin Biography and Credits
- Okayplayer: Andrea Martin, Golden Pen of ’90s and ’00s R&B
- Legacy: Andrea Martin, R&B Singer and Songwriter
- NME: Singer and Songwriter Andrea Martin Dies at 49
- New York State Literary Tree: Andrea Martin
- Black America Web: 15 Classic R&B Hits Written by Andrea Martin
Song links lead to YouTube searches for the named recordings so readers can locate available official releases. Andrea Martin’s songwriting was frequently collaborative, and individual song credits should be read as shared contributions rather than sole authorship.
