Lene Marlin (born in August 1980) is a Norwegian acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter who rose to fame with her first album Sitting Down Here in 1999. She is known for writing very personal lyrics without being autographical about it. Her first single, "Unforgivable Sinner", was a #1 hit for eight weeks. She has released four albums.
Grown up in Tromsø in northern Norway, she was gifted a guitar for her fifteenth birthday and proceeded to spend all her free time learning how to play. At eighteen she ran into a music producer in a café and showed him the songs she had written so far. Thus, history was born.
She has admitted to struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts.
She has written songs for other musicians, including Sissel Kyrkjebø. Participated in the Live-Aid style song "Venn" ("Friend") which was made by Norwegian musicians in response to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in which a number of Norwegian tourists perished. In this song she was for the first time heard singing not only in Norwegian, but in her own dialect.
She lives with Norwegian actor Kåre Conradi, who was a friend of late author Ari Behn, ex-husband to former princess Märtha-Louise, and is godfather to their daughter Maud Angelica, the fifth-in-line for the Norwegian throne. They have a child together.
Discography
- Playing My Game (1999) tracklist
- Another Day (2003) tracklist
- Lost in a Moment (2005) tracklist
- Twist the Truth (2009) tracklist
Tropes:
- Album Title Drop:
- "Playing My Game" is named for the second song in its tracklist.
- "Another Day" is the first song on the album with that title.
- "You Could Have" drops the phrase "twist the truth" from the album of that name.
- Arc Number: One year appears to be her standard unit of measurement.
- Break Up Song: "One Year Ago" and "Eyes Closed" are both wistful third-person songs long after the break-up.
- Call-Back:
- Grief Song "A Place Nearby" starts on the same notes as "Flown Away", to the extent that it may be a perspective-shift on the same event.
- "You Could Have" repeats the title phrase as often as "she could have" was repeated in "Eyes Closed", with the same intonation.
- Celebrity Resemblance: To Elisha Cuthbert of 24-fame.
- The Cover Changes the Meaning: Faye Wong's "Hong Dou" is about love and fidelity, "Still Here" is pretty clearly about the end of suicidal ideation.
- Dissonant Serenity: Her voice and singing style are so calm, it's easy to miss the dark topics of her songs.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: She was very popular in Italy (and for that matter Germany) in her heyday.
- Grief Song: "A Place Nearby" is about someone close to you dying, with the parting words:Heaven is a place nearby
So there's no need to say good-bye
I'm gonna ask you not to cry
I'll always be by your side - I Just Want to Be Normal: "You Could Have" asks someone to help a girl who just wants to fit in.
- Improperly Paranoid: The narrator of "Where I'm Headed" acknowledges that it's all in her head, but it doesn't stop her feeling like this.
- Kids Are Cruel: "Sitting Down Here" comes off as being about one or more school bullies of the girl variant.
- Love Forgives All but Lust: "Should It Matter", performed by Sissel Kyrkjebø, has the narrator begging for forgiveness. It's implied to be for infidelity.
- Lyrical Dissonance:
- "Sitting Down Here" is a cheery song about waiting for her chance to take revenge.
- "Playing My Game" sounds serene despite it's cynical lyrics.
- "Maybe I'll Go" is a calm song about how much critics suck.
- Near-Death Clairvoyance: "Flown Away" is about flying high "on borrowed wings".
- Nostalgic Narrator: In "Do You Remember?", the narrator wonders if the listener remembers the happy moments of their childhood.
- Nothing Personal: What "Playing My Game" is all about.
- The One That Got Away: "Another Day" is about never taking your shot and so never finding out where a romance would go.
- Parental Abandonment: The videos for "Unforgivable Sinner" and "You Weren't There" imply they're about this.
- Parental Neglect: "Unforgivable Sinner" calls out an unspecified person for their daughter being a drug addict. Made more explicit in the video.
- Peaceful in Death: "You Will Cry No More" implies that the singer is speaking to someone who is dead after a sad and painful life, and that she is happy for them that it's over.
- Revenge Ballad: "Sitting Down Here" has Lene swearing to get back at a person for their dishonesty and backstabbing someday.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Though she's never said which ones, she has claimed that one source of inspiration for her is news stories.
- Title Drop: Most of her songs are titled for a line in the chorus.
- Translated Cover Version: "Still Here" is this of Faye Wong's song "Hong Dou".
- Word Salad Lyrics: Several of her lyrics seem meaningful, but it's impossible to tell exactly what they are about. In interviews she has implied that this is by design. Take the chorus of "Unforgivable Sinner":You know where you sent her
You sure know where you are
You try to take it easy
But you know you won't get far - You Can't Fight Fate: "Here We Are" is about this in terms of meeting your one true love.
