Melanie revealed in an interview for Apple Music that this album marks the end of Cry Baby's trilogy. While the first two albums, Cry Baby and K-12 told the story of Cry Baby's life, PORTALS delved into Cry Baby's afterlife, right before her rebirth. Lista prodaje 15. tjedan 2023. (03.04.2023. – 09.04.2023.)" (in Croatian). HDU. April 22, 2023 . Retrieved April 22, 2023. Before the album's release, demos of " TUNNEL VISION", " FAERIE SOIRÉE", " LEECHES", " MOON CYCLE", a snippet of " WOMB", and " MILK OF THE SIREN" were surfaced. There is both an explicit version of the album and a clean version. The standard album contains overall five explicit songs, and eight non-explicit songs, while the deluxe version contains six explicit songs, and ten non-explicit songs. Although, "POWDER" is explicit, it is listed as non-explicit on most platforms like Spotify. This is Melanie's least explicit deluxe album; while tied with Cry Baby on the standard version.

Melanie Martinez Gives a Glimpse of Her 2023 Single; Singer Releases 12 Seconds Audio of Her New Song on Spotify". Latestly. February 18, 2023. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023 . Retrieved March 16, 2023. Tónlistinn – Plötur – Vika 14 – 2023"[The Music – Albums – Week 14 – 2023] (in Icelandic). Plötutíðindi . Retrieved April 15, 2023. The album yielded three singles, " Death", " Void" and " Evil". They marked her first original appearances on the chart, respectively reaching number 95 and 61 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 142,000 units.Rivera, Kelsey (February 22, 2023). "A look into Melanie Martinez's alien-inspired new album 'Portals' ". Diario AS. Archived from the original on March 10, 2023 . Retrieved March 10, 2023. Advanced physics: This allows for the creation of a whole new range of interesting challenges, producing a much larger but not harder game. Br, Lars; le (April 7, 2023). "Melanie Martinez Defeats DMA'S For Australian Chart Crown". Billboard . Retrieved April 15, 2023.

a b Herold, Emma (April 17, 2023). "Melanie Martinez is reborn in her new concept album "PORTALS" ". The Cavalier Daily . Retrieved June 30, 2023. Alternative Future Releases". All Access Music Group. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023 . Retrieved April 7, 2023. Around October-December of 2019, Melanie began reading into past-life regression therapy such as hypnotherapy books during the K-12 Tour; this is where she got the idea for PORTALS. [4] 2020 On August 21 st, 2023, Melanie announced during her Q&A takeover on a radio, America Top 40, that she is working on the "special fragrances" for this album era, implying that she is set to release more than one. [43]On March 23 rd, 2023, a PORTALS Global Listening Event was hosted in local indie record stores around the world. It was announced on the same day " DEATH" audio version was released. People got to listen to the album before its release, including exclusive giveaways for the album. All events were free. A few hours later, Melanie announced that the "DEATH" music video would be released the next day on March 24 th. Melanie Martinez looks terrifying at Lollapalooza Argentina | 103.5 KISS FM". The Fred Show. Archived from the original on April 1, 2023 . Retrieved April 1, 2023. Martinez lifted the curtain on PORTALS earlier this week with an instantly viral TikTok video confirming the death of her notorious alter-ego “Cry Baby,” last seen considering whether to walk into the light at the beguiling conclusion of 2019’s internationally acclaimed full-length film, K-12. Today’s exclusive trailer – directed by Martinez and streaming now - now sees the appearance of a mysterious egg from which an enigmatic figure emerges. In my little cave of creation, isolated for a month in Hawaii. Writing a film and album I feel destined to make. No human interaction, just killing dead parts of myself to make room for the new. ✨✨✨✨ When I create it is the only time the past, present and future all meet me at once. Releasing past feelings from past moments and past lives, by keeping the channel open/antenna out in the present, to be able to co-create with the universe something that will be felt, seen, and heard in the future.

Austriancharts.at – Melanie Martinez – Portals" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 12, 2023.

For unknown reasons, the streaming versions of PORTALS differ from the physical releases. In these versions, the outro of "VOID" seamlessly transitions into the intro of "TUNNEL VISION," while the outro of "EVIL" smoothly transitions into the intro of "WOMB." Melanie Martinez talks PORTALS, Crybaby trilogy, K-12 Movie, PORTALS tour, music videos and next album". SiriusXM. July 19 th, 2023. On November 21 st, 2023, the song "EVIL" was re-released as a promotional single due to the visualizer being released.

On April 3 rd, people from United States began to notice posters of Cry Baby displayed in some places. The poster contains a large text asking: " HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CREATURE?", and a phone number, "TEXT (917) 810-3395". After texting, it will send an automated message saying: "THIS IS NOT A JOKE! If you're reading this I'm so sorry :(( 4 years ago a girl named Crybaby died after escaping a boarding school her mother sent her away to. If you don't send this album to 10 people she will come to your house at 2:22 AM and bring you into the after-life with her 4 hypnotizing eyes and razor sharp teeth!!!". Portal 2 is a game sequel to the award-winning game, Portal. Featuring an innovative single-player puzzle game, with new and fresh puzzle elements as well as a much bigger set of devious test chambers. Everything you though you know from the previous game will be debunked in this game. Act competitively, but think cooperatively, TWO-PERSON MULTIPLAYER MODE: A new mode adding a whole new twist to the game with a different campaign from the single-player mode On March 29 th, Melanie released " VOID" as the second single, just two days before the album was released.

Hernandez, Jeanette (October 11, 2022). "Estéreo Picnic Festival's Lineup Just Dropped & It's Epic". Remezcla. Archived from the original on April 1, 2023 . Retrieved April 1, 2023. Melanie stated that she would not include songs that had leaked before the album's release. However, despite several songs being leaked prior to the album's release, they still made it onto the album. I wanted to challenge my listeners’ perspective by essentially saying: Just like us, after Cry Baby’s vessel on earth has died, she lives on as a spirit in the cosmos. It was important for me to show the immortality of being a human with this record—to give people hope that there’s life after death. Fabris, Andres (March 29, 2023). "Melanie Martinez releases 'Void' ". The Music Universe . Retrieved April 15, 2023. Upon the shell's dissemblance, a USB drive is revealed. The drive contained a hard copy of a particular snippet in M4A format. Traditionally, Melanie would always post a promotional video with an extended version of the snippet into all of her socials, but in some cases like " SPIDER WEB" the promotional video were shorter than the snippet sent from the fan.