Trine Rein

Trine Rein is a Norwegian singer, who belongs to the exclusive group of Norwegian artists who have sold more than a million records. Trine was born in San Francisco in 1970, and therefore has both American and Norwegian citizenship.

Biography

uccessful debut

Trine Rein released her first solo album in 1993, "Finders, Keepers". It peaked at the top of the Norwegian album chart for no less than five weeks. [http://lista.vg.no/album_info.php?AlbumOp=show&albumId=6494&albumtype=album&albumtype_id=1] But as she was almost unknown before the release, it took her 14 weeks - more than three months - to finally have the most popular album in Norway. And due to the extensive foreign press coverage of the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer February 1994, her album was soon a hit in Japan as well. At one time she topped 16 different Japanese radio station charts simultaneously. Due to this immense popularity and interest on the Japanese isles, almost two thirds of the more than 600,000 albums sold of her first album, was bought by Japanese fans alone.

Trine has released two successful singles. The first came with her debut album, called "Just Missed The Train", and has become Trine's trademark song, exposing her great singing ability. The song has later been covered by child star actress Danielle Brisebois (who wrote the song with Scott Cutler), Estonian Eurovision participant Maarja-Liis Ilus, "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson, and a pre-American Idol Carly Hennessy (a.k.a. Carly Smithson), among others.

Declining sales

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Moving abroad

Her last album so far was called "To Find The Truth" and released in 1998, and sold about 100 000 copies. [http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2004/07/19/403403.html] Shortly afterwards, Trine decided she had got enough of the celebrity life, and searched anonymous refugee existence abroad for a few years. In 2000 Trine settled permanently in San Francisco and Los Angeles where she had a variety of odd jobs, including being a limo driver.

She finally moved back to Norway in 2004 and decided to make a comeback to the music scene. She managed two projects simultaneously; firstly she starred in a summer show with three singing actors, amongst them Sturla Berg Johansen, who also became her boyfriend. Besides, she also released her first compilation CD, entitled "The Very Best of Trine Rein".

Eurovision ambitions

Trine Rein years ago stated that she would "never" participate in the Norwegian final and selection method for the Eurovision Song Contest, the so-called Melodi Grand Prix. Trine decided to leave all disputed comments to the past and figured the time was finally right when she was asked by the Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) to participate in 2006.

Friday night on January 13th, 2006, Trine entered the stage in Alta to become the first artist to illuminate the northern-most national Eurovision selection in the history of the European contest, and the televoters would send her to Oslo Spektrum and the final of Melodi Grand Prix 2006. Trine's composition, "Here For The Show", was written by three experienced Swedes and had loads of similarities with Robbie Williams' firework of a song, "Let Me Entertain You", which the authors also admitted had been their sole inspiration. The song did not qualify for the international finals though.

Discography

ingles

* "Just Missed The Train" (1993) #4 in Norway
* "Stay With Me Baby" (1994)
* "Torn" (1996) #10 in Norway
* "Do You Really Wanna Leave Me This Way" (1996)
* "The State I'm In" (1996)
* "Never Far Away" (1996)
* "World Without You" (1998)
* "Stars And Angels" (1998)

Albums

* "Finders, Keepers" (1993) #1 in Norway
* "Beneath My Skin" (1996) #1 in Norway
* "To Find The Truth" (1998) #22 in Norway
* (next to be released during 2006)

Collection album

* "The Very Best of Trine Rein" (2004)

ee also

* Melodi Grand Prix 2006

External links

* [http://www.trinerein.com Official website]