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biography / portrait

BIOGRAPHY Lena ' s story is the story of a natural born singer who has developed into a prolific songwriter, writing melodic pop with the personal edge of the true singer-songwriter. With her warm voice and no-frills singing, she is an evocative and intense performer. Although she was born in the remote Faroe Islands , Lena grew up in Canada from the age of two to the age of seventeen, so she is unique - a Faroese-Canadian with strong Scandinavian roots, fluent in English, Faroese and Danish. Her father is a Canadian and her mother Faroese. Her paternal grandfather was renowned in Norway for his Resistance activities during the 2nd World War and her paternal grandmother still teaches Norwegian at the University of Victoria in Western Canada . In the spring of 1996, Norwegian drummer Remi Fagereng discovered 17 year-old Lena when he overheard her singing to herself at a coffee shop where she worked in Torshavn , having recently moved back to the land of her birth from Canada . A couple of weeks later she joined Remi’s “covers” band “Next Step”. In 1997 Lena was invited to play one of the main characters in the very successful Faroese Musical “Skeyk”, with music written by Niclas Johannesen - Lena soon started collaborating with Niclas. Utilising songs they had written together Lena released her debut album ‘Long Distance’ in 1998. In 2000 Lena and Niclas recorded three songs with Danish Grammy Award-winning producer, Óli Poulsen. The single I Still Love You became an immediate hit in the Faroes. Building on that success, Lena decided to record a whole new album in Denmark with Oli producing. The Album "Can't Erase It" was released in the Faroe Islands last year. But Lena is not just a recording artist. She has developed a formidable writing partnership with Niclas, merging her North American heritage with his Scandinavian upbringing, and together they have written more countless songs in the past three years. They wrote the breakthrough hit ‘Waiting In The Moonlight’ for Faroese teen-sensation Brandur Enni and in October 2002 they wrote ten songs for a Christmas Radio play (‘Stjørnan ið Hvarv’) for the Faroese National Radio. It was later made into an album and released at Christmas 2003. Lena is also an accomplished jazz singer and has performed regularly at the Tórshavn Jazz Festival and was guest singer with the Torshavn Big Band when American composer/arranger Butch Lacey was the guest conductor. Now LENA is having her first International release, which will be with the exciting new Danish Independent Label ArtPeople, who have scheduled a new, improved version of "Can't Erase It" for October 2005 release, preceded by the proven hit, “I Still Love You” and now the opening track “Step On The Gas” which in October 2005 is gaining more and more radio airplay in Denmark. Lena has been signed by the Skandinavian booking Agency and will be supporting the Danish Album release with a series of live shows including support tour for American singer Beth Hart. Up to the release she's played to the acclaimed SPOT11 Festival in Denmark , and LENA was chosen to open for legendary English band Roxy Music when they visited Denmark in June 2005. (Source: www.lenamusic.com)