Known for his contemporary love ballads and on-stage personality,[5] he is celebrated as one of the most important figures in local Filipino music.

[10] Nievera began his career in 1982 with the release of his debut album Martin… Take One, achieving platinum status in five months.

He became the first artist to win the award for three consecutive years, elevating him to the Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Pilita Corrales and Celeste Legaspi.

[20][21] He was also the first Filipino solo male artist to headline a concert at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre and the Hollywood Bowl.

In their first year in Hawaii, the family resided on the fifteenth floor of the Outrigger Hotel, and the young Nievera "would watch him [his father] perform downstairs with the Society of Seven, and every night I would dream and imagine myself as one of the members of that group, singing for audiences both big and small.

"[28] While working as a burger flipper at a restaurant that his family owned in Hawaii[34][35][36] or at another family-owned restaurant, called Roadrunner Burgers, in Concord, California[28] (where they would eventually move to), Nievera received singing lessons from his father, learning "how and when to belt and how to end the song in a big way.

[37] Nievera said in 2018, "It all happened in the main showroom in that Outrigger Hotel [...] That room is now known as the Blue Note Hawaii, and I still perform there to this day.

I was part of the basketball team, but not a very good one at that, and I intentionally take a shower after everybody else has so it would seem like I had a tough game when I was actually a bench warmer… As I was singing, the wrestling coach passed by and heard me, called out loud and said he should see me at the choir auditions the next day.

[31] He was encouraged by the school's wrestling coach to enter the choir,[26][31] impressed by a rendition of Morris Albert's "Feelings" that Nievera sang while showering in the locker room.

[29] Aside from his father, who always supported his singing,[38] Nievera also credits for his talent his Cebuana maternal grandmother, Lourdes Corrales, a famous mezzo-soprano[39] opera singer[31] and radio personality in 1940s Philippines.

[38] "She knew what she [his grandmother] and my father went through [...] the [show] business takes a lot out of you," Nievera related and said his mother told him.

[38] After graduating from Clayton Valley in 1980,[26] Nievera joined the 1981 California State Talent Competition in Santa Clara, in which he won.

[42][43] In c. 1980[44] – c. 1982,[41] Nievera was chosen to perform with American singer Barry Manilow[31][41] at his three-day concert[26] in Concord Pavilion, singing back-up in a choir to the latter's "One Voice".

In a 2011 television interview with Boy Abunda, he recalled going to church and venting his anger on God, screaming "What the hell is happening?