THE HISTORY OF LENE
Timeline Of Historic Events
1998 - 2008
Period 1: The Road To Playing My Game
15.08.98: The very first airplay of Unforgivable Sinner is broadcasted on Norwegian radio. Lene gets recognized over night, and her life will never be the same again.
28.09.98: "A new Arctic star", VG writes in its first article about Lene Marlin Pedersen. The 18-year-old from Tromsø scorches into the radio lists with her self-composed Unforgivable Sinner, and has written a contract with the record company Virgin Records.
16.10.98: The movie Schpaaa has premiére - Lene Marlin's Unforgivable Sinner is the movie's score, and the music video is made for the movie.
21.10.98: Unforgivable Sinner goes straight to the first position on the VG list in its first sales week. This is historic - no other Norwegian beginner has done this before her.
22.01.99: Virgin writes in its news letter that Lene Marlin is now an international top priority. The video of Unforgivable Sinner is being sent to European TV stations.
19.02.99: Lene Marlin wins a Spellemann award for song of the year, with Unforgivable Sinner.
20.03.99: Lene Marlin's debut album Playing My Game gets a dice roll of 6 in VG by the heading The Norwegian beginner of the 90-ies.
Period 2: The Breakthrough
31.03.99: Lene Marlin's album Playing My Game goes straight to the top on VG Top 40 album sales list.
17.05.99: Lene Marlin closes her celebration of sixth formers in Tromsø.
30.05.99: Playing My Game has reached a sale of 100.000 copies in Norway. She is getting launched in Japan and Sweden.
22.06.99: The Italians have taken off. Lene Marlin is in first place on the lists after three weeks. She stands on the same stage as Britney Spears and Ricky Martin on an Italian TV show. The summer is scheduled with performances among other places in France, Germany, England, and Japan.
11.09.99: Lene Marlin wins four prizes at the Hit Awards in Oslo.
23.09.99: Lene Marlin is on stage in London, in front of 200 selected ones from the British musical press. However, the launch of the single Unforgivable Sinner does not go as expected by the first attempt. This is the famous Sound Republic live performance.
24.10.99: Playing My Game has sold 600.000 copies in all, and she is the fastest climbing artist on the European lists.
11.11.99: Lene Marlin is elected best Nordic Artist Of The Year, before the greater favourites The Cardigans, during the MTV Music Awards in Dublin, in front of several hundred million TV viewers.
12.01.00: Lene Marlin performs before 8 million viewers in England, in The National Lottery Show.
25.02.00: Lene Marlin wins three Spellemann prizes and the distinction as Artist of the Year, and announces that she is about to take a vacation. The album Playing My Game exceeds 1 million copies sold.
Period 3: The Disappearance
06.03.00: Finally, a breakthrough in England. Sitting Down Here goes straight into a sensational 6th place in England, and beats knock-out on, among others, Aqua.
13.03.00: Sitting Down Here goes from 6th and up to a 5th place on the UK single chart.
18.03.00: The full album is released in England. Lene Marlin climbs the same week a whole 25 positions with her album Playing My Game on the common European hit list.
22.07.00: Lene Marlin has sold to 3 x platinum in Norway, 2 x platinum in Italy, and platinum in Denmark and Taiwan. She has sold to double gold in France, and to gold in Japan, New Zealand, and Sweden.
29.12.00: Playing My Game has sold 230.000 copies in England. The pop star from Tromsø gets nominated as the international newcomer of the year during the NRJ Music Awards in Cannes, being held on January 20, 2001.
26.02.01: Lene Marlin is nominated for the 2001 Brit Awards in London, as Best International Newcomer, but she does not win the award.
22.11.01: During Lene's absence from the limelight, a debate rises in the Norwegian press about an award from Tromsø that she is not willing to receive in public. A heated discussion between Arne Svare, Lene's manager, and Ynge Nilsen, editor of Bladet Tromsø, is being broadcasted on national radio (P4).
Period 4: The Return Of Lene
10.07.03: Norwegian newspapers begin to pick up the news on lene.it, Lene's devoted fans in Italy, that a new Lene single will be aired on July 14, and with a new album being planned for release on September 22. Hans Olav Grøttheim at Virgin confirms to the newspapers that a new single will be sent out to many radio stations in several countries on July 28, and that the album is in its final stages of refinement. Also, remarkable news about a full Lene DVD containg live versions and documentary material being released simultanously with the new album is strongly hinted at by Grøttheim, although nothing is certain at this point.
30.07.03: Rumours of Lene performing live at a smaller bar, Frognerveien 6, in Oslo reach the public. Lene returns to the limelight with a new radio single, You Weren't There.
31.07.03: Lene appears outside of the premises of EMI Virgin in Oslo, again speaking to the Norwegian press. You Weren't There soon reaches No. 1 on Hit 40 Radio Chart. The single becomes a total hit, and stays 13 consecutive weeks in No. 1 in Hit 40, and the video, directed by Magnus Martens, begins to start rolling on multiple TV channels, including MTV Nordic.
Period 5: The Fate Of Another Day
08.09.03: The CD-single You Weren't There is released in Norway and other countries, including Italy. The single goes on to reach No. 1 on the sales chart in both Norway and Italy. Lene travels to Italy later in the month, appearing before her fans.
22.09.03: Lene's follow-up album, Another Day, is released. Sales are good, and reaches 350.000 copies sold before Christmas time of 2003.
11.12.03: Lene is the only Norwegian artist invited to play at the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo. She appeared with her Another Day Wessex Studio band, and with supporting live orchestra and strings on stage, she performed Sorry and Hope You're Happy.
05.12.04: Lene goes on a joint live tour across Norway with two other Norwegian artists; Bertine Zetlitz and Morten Abel. At the same time, it is reported by the newspaper VG that the Another Day album has exceeded 500.000 copies sold worldwide. Together with Playing My Game having sold 1.7 million, this added up to a total of 2.2 million albums sold.
Period 6: The Fate Of Lost In A Moment
22.04.05: Lene suddenly appears on national television (NRK) on a quiet Friday evening, seemingly out of nowhere, telling the host and the nation that she has recorded a brand new album in total secrecy. The radio single, How Would It Be, is performed live in studio, and the single is being sent out to radio stations nationwide.
13.06.05: The third Lene Marlin album, Lost In A Moment, is released to stores in Norway and many other countries.
16.06.05: Lene begins her Lost In A Moment promotion campaign with a small concert at Oslo City in Oslo, playing four songs from the new album before a crowd of 250 - 300 people.
19.11.05: The newspaper Dagbladet reports that Lost In A Moment has sold 35.000 copies in Norway, only about half of what Lene's previous album, Another Day, had done. Lene admits that she can quickly get irritated by criticism in general, and takes back at the reviewers in her official blog at her own website. After this, Lene concentrates on her promotion.
Period 7: The Road To Twist The Truth
28.01.06: Lene is nominated for the 2005 Spellemann Awards in Oslo for Lost In A Moment, but she does not win the prize.
19.09.06: Lene is doing promotion with Swiss band Lovebugs in Geneva, Switzerland, in connection with their co-operation on the track Avalon, at a TV-show related to the Miss Swiss 2006 event.
16.12.06: Lene returns to Bern, Switzerland, and performs the song Avalon at the Sports Awards 2006 together with Lovebugs, as well as staging a meeting with her European fans.
06.06.07: Lene is in Oslo with members of Lovebugs doing promotion for Avalon in Norway, and she does several main interviews with the Norwegian press. No new Lene album is on the horizon at this time.
25.08.07: Lene performs live with her band at the Døgnvill Festival in Tromsø, playing a set of 8 songs including an entirely new song for the first time since 2005, entitled You Could Have.
27.07.08: The news breaks in the Norwegian press about Lene having spent much time in a recording studio at Askøy outside of Bergen, working on her 4th album. At about the same time, her own composition All Gone, written for German band Marquess, is available through the internet.
16.08.08: Lene performs live with her band at the Sokndal concert during the Dalane Cultural Festival, being a warm-up for Katie Melua. She plays 9 songs, including the brand new Come Home.
22.08.08: Lene performs the same set of 9 songs in Drammen, Norway, during the Elvefestivalen cultural event.
29.08.08: Lene performs for the very first time a full 90-minute live concert containing 15 songs, her full band, and a string quartet from the Varmland's Opera in Karlstad, Sweden.
The Lene Marlin Story Continues
We Will Follow Lene on the Journey that Lies Ahead
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