Lene WorldPosted by Tef Johs Thu, July 08, 2010 16:00:37As far as the fans of Lene Marlin goes, 2010 has given us nothing new. It seems like we are in for another long period of darkness.
In April 2009, immediately following the release of "Twist The Truth", I wrote a blog which I entitled: "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: The Lene Way". You can read that blog today, writing July 8, 2010, and it could seem I would have my projection quite in order.
Lene seems to be gone. In 2010, she has done next to nothing in regards to visibility to her fans. It's nothing surprising to me. It's not even anything new. It's just her way. The Lene way, as I wrote in that aforementioned blog over one year ago.
In 2010, Lene has evidently been on Norwegian TV2 one time, the "Friday" show with Stål Talsnes on April 16. That is indeed true, but I'm still wondering why she decided to visit that show. What was the purpose of her coming to the show on that particular evening?
As far as I could tell, Lene had nothing new in the way of career plans, a new album, a new single, or even another co-operation going on. We know she has just been working with Aleksander With, but those recordings were completed last year some time, "Worth It" being relased already back in October 2009, and the second song "It's About Time" being included on an album released in early March.
So - besides the April 16 sudden appearance on TV2 - we can't say what Lene's plans have been for 2010, and there is no way of telling if she is going to do some more live concert performances. I guess she won't bother being much inspired by our little recent overview on her tallied 28 live appearances either (not that this was expected, mind you).
Lene is Here Today, but very much Gone Tomorrow. History told me that, and history has its way of repeating itself. Therefore, the seemingly long period of darkness we're heading for now does not come as a big surprise. It is just what we should have projected based on earlier experience - and sadly I seem to be correct in my April 2009 blog entry.
Lene WorldPosted by Tef Johs Sat, February 06, 2010 18:38:44In a month, on Saturday, March 6, 2010, the 2009 Spellemann Awards will be staged in Oslo Spektrum. Whatever happens there, we know for sure that Lene Marlin probably won't get any awards.
A few days ago we learned that Lene's "Twist The Truth" was reported in as a candidate for a Spellemann award, but didn't make the final cut as a nominee. This would mean that the jury could not find the quality of Lene's latest album such that it could be justified making her a worthy candidate to receive the award.
What should we say about this? Is this a fair and justified decision, or is there something we should complain about, speaking as an above-average Lene follower?
It's my opinion that even though "Twist The Truth" is a great Lene Marlin album, and has lots of songs on it that would clearly justify receiving an award for 2009, there might be reasons one could state that would support the jury in their final decision of excluding Lene from the greater company this year.
The largest reason to say that Lene "gets what she deserves" is that she isn't behaving lot like a true artist. You could say she's "unconventional" or "going her own ways", but I'm not sure these are proper characterizations anymore. The question that first and foremost comes to mind in this regard is her obvious distaste or fear of giving live concert performances. This fact, Lene's total absence from the concert scene, is beginning to go from "cute and different" to becoming a huge and quite irritating problem for Lene, but most of all for all of her fans.
Last August (2009), I wrote a blog about how it was already one year since Lene's Karlstad performance. To this day, we are now writing February 2010, it's still her one and only 90-minute true live solo-artist concert performance in front of a paying audience. Eleven years into her artist career, one must begin to ask: Does Lene actually deserve the title "artist" at all?
Most, if not all, artists seem to love appearing on stage in front of an audience, not to mention in front of their own fans. Lene Marlin, on the other hand, makes it her job to stay away as much as possible. Why giving live concerts when she doesn't want to? If I'm going to be really cruel to my huge female idol, I could ask: Why giving live concerts when she doesn't need to because she's so rich she doesn't have to work at all.
Lene released an album in 2009, after what I can suspect was a lot of hard work. After that, she has done close to nothing when it comes to promoting it. Almost a year after the album's release, there has been not ONE single live appearance, of ANY kind. No opportunity to even get our copies of the album signed. Not even a smaller 20-minute promotion set in front of her fans. No concert. No signing of album. No nothing.
From these facts, I have no other choice than to conclude that "Twist The Truth" is not important to Lene. It doesn't matter to her if it gets promoted or signed or sold. Why care? This seems to be her current motto. Sadly enough, it also means that all her fans are left with their beards in the mailbox. Norwegian fans as well as Italian fans. I won't even bother mentioning the chances for other countries to see her live in person anytime soon (UK, France, Spain, Holland). You don't get any further in your artist career by only showing up on promo videos and shorter radio interviews, if she cares about showing up at all.
When Lene doesn't seem to care about her latest album or doing any sort of live activity for promoting its existence to the music loving public, in Norway or abroad, why should the jury of the 2009 Spellemann Awards care?
The fact is, as we now know, they don't care. And in this way, Lene gets what she deserves.
Lene WorldPosted by Tef Johs Sun, December 13, 2009 14:26:25Nearing the end of this year, it's fair to say that there has been a quite busy 2009 for Lene Marlin.
The greatest event, of course, being the the release of "Twist The Truth" on March 30, her fourth full-length contemporary album.
Having passed over 8 months since the release, the album has grown in the same way that all of her albums have done. The clearly defined and wonderfully executed songs are the treasured diamonds that we will bring with us for many years to come.
We can only wish that in 2010, Lene Marlin will be writing even more songs on her own, as her talent for songwriting is almost unlimited and unsurpassed.
And let us wish that she will bring with her the imaginative ideas and conceptual inspiration she will be needing for recording a fifth Lene Marlin album sometime in the near future.
With these simple words, I wish Lene and all of her devoted fans a Merry Christmas 2009, and a Happy New Year 2010!
Lene WorldPosted by Tef Johs Sun, August 23, 2009 15:54:12Next Saturday, on August 29, 2009, there will be exactly one year since Lene and her band performed a full live concert at the Varmland's Opera in Karlstad, Sweden.
Since that time, Lene has indeed released her then promised fourth album, "Twist The Truth", which came out on March 30 this year. Even though there have been some mixed feelings about the album, it has in general been well received by most fans and the press. And not least the album has spawned yet another no. 1 hit single for Lene, as "Here We Are" became a smash hit on radio in Norway, and entered the Hit40 no. 1 spot for two weeks back in May. In late June, Lene chose "You Could Have" to be the second single from her latest album.
Lene also participated in the 2009 Rådhusplassen NRK/VG Top 20 concert in Oslo, on June 19. The last time she performed on that particular stage was with Lovebugs the year before. Before this, she had the shorter visit to Italy on May 15 - 16. On July 31st, she was a guest at the TV2 summer show "Sommertid", performing a live version of "Here We Are" with two members from her TTT studio band. At the time of album release, she also performed a live version of "You Will Cry No More" at TV2's "Senkveld" in March. These have been her recent activities, quickly summed up in a few lines.
However, there has been no real live or concert performances in Norway this spring or summer. No real live appearances of any kind, besides the shorter promotional activities for TV, some of which are not even live performances, like the Rådhusplassen show. In Norway, Lene has not given her fans any opportunities of having their copies of "Twist The Truth" signed. There have been no release concerts in front of a live audience. The 6-track "release concert" video released through VG TV cannot be counted as a true release concert, as no live audience was present at the time of recording the concert!
One whole year since the Karlstad concert, and since that time no new concerts have been performed at all by Lene. This only shows how important it was travelling to Karlstad for that show in August of 2008. if I had missed that particular concert, I'd probably have regreted it for years!
Yes, this is somewhat disappointing to me and probably to many of her fans in Norway. We would have liked to have our copies of her latest album signed, and we would have liked to have the chance to meet her and hear her be playing live again - with the new songs from "Twist The Truth". Especially songs we haven't heard her perform previously, for instance the wonderful "I'll Follow", the pearl "Story Of A Life", or the gentle "Everything's Good".
I wish for Lene to please come back for another round of concerts or at least give us the chance of having our "Twist The Truth" album copies signed.
