Maria Mena

Maria Mena
Background information
Birth name	Maria Viktoria Mena
Born	February 19, 1986 (1986-02-19) (age 25) Oslo, Norway
Genres	Alternative rock, pop, folk-pop, alt-country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Voice
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Sony Music Norway, Columbia
Website	mariamena.no

Maria Viktoria Mena (born February 19, 1986) is a Norwegian pop artist.

Biography

Maria Mena was born into an artistic family, her mother, a playwright and her father, a drummer. Both Maria and her brother, Tony, are named after characters from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. Her mother is Norwegian and her father is Nicaraguan (Afro-Nicaraguan).

Her father played in several bands in Oslo, which influenced Mena to write and record her own music. When Mena was nine years old, her parents divorced. She suffered from depression and developed an eating disorder.^[1]

When Mena was 13 years old, she moved to live with her father. She sang and wrote lyrics as a form of self-soothing. "My Lullaby", a song from Mena's diary, expresses her pain from her parents' divorce. After pleading with her father to make a demo, he contacted some acquaintances in the music industry to record the demo. Presenting his daughter's demo to several record companies, Sony Music signed Mena to their label.

In 2002, she released her debut single "Fragile (Free)" in Norway, however it did not manage to chart there. "My Lullaby" was released as the second single and the song reached #5 on the Norwegian Singles Chart. It received heavy rotation on NRK P1, P3, P4, Radio 1, and Radio Oslo. The young singer quickly gained fans and soon earned her first platinum record. After the success of "My Lullaby", she released her debut album, Another Phase in Norway which reached #6 on the Norwegian Albums Chart.

On July 20, 2004, Mena made an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote her first international album, White Turns Blue, which debuted at the top position on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart a week later and at #102 on the Billboard 200. She made a breakthrough into the worldwide singles charts that year with "You're the Only One", a single successful in multiple countries. The song was her only single to appear on a Billboard chart, making #25 on the U.S. Top 40 Mainstream. "You're the Only One" peaked at #30 on the Dutch Top 40 and #19 on the Dutch Mega Single Top 100. Two months earlier, in March 2004, Mena had released her second album in Norway. Mellow. Less successful than her 2002 debut, it still managed to peak at #7 in Norway. The second single from both albums was "Just a Little Bit", which was a commercial flop, not managing to chart anywhere.

2005 saw the release of Apparently Unaffected in Norway and several other European countries, fronted by singles "Miss You Love", and "Just Hold Me". A significant success in Norway, the album has earned her three Spellemann nominations, Best Female Artist, Best Hit, and Best Music Video. In the Netherlands, the album was released in June 2006 and charted at #82. It slowly climbed the chart to reach its peak position in its 27th week at #11, as "Just Hold Me" was getting airplay again. "Just Hold Me" was released in May 2006, but then did not chart in the official Dutch Top 40, but did chart in the country's physical singles chart, the Mega Single Top 100, at #27. In October 2006, the song started getting heavy airplay again and this time it did managed to reach the official Dutch Top 40 and peaked at #26. In the Mega Single Top 100, it peaked at #7 in the beginning of November 2006. Mena performed at sold-out concerts in Utrecht and Amsterdam, following the success of "Just Hold Me". The album was at #48 at the Dutch year-end chart, outselling major artists such as Pink's I'm Not Dead, Nelly Furtado's Loose, and Beyoncé Knowles' B'Day. "Miss You Love" was released as the album's second single in the Netherlands and reached #61 on the Mega Singles Top 100.

Maria Mena 2008

On July 7, 2007, she performed at the German leg of Live Earth in Hamburg.

Having worked on her three first studio albums with Norwegian producer Arvid Solvang, Mena started collaborating with Martin Sjølie in early 2008 on what would become her fourth studio album, Cause and Effect. The album's first single, "Belly Up" had its radio premiere mid-June 2008 on Norwegian radio. Cause and Effect was released on September 17 in Norway. The first international single was "All This Time". The album was internationally released on September 26, 2008. This album garnered her a Spellemann for Best Female Artist.

Mena's song "Sorry" was featured on the third season of US So You Think You Can Dance and "What's Another Day" was featured during the fourth season. She released "All This Time" in the UK on April 11, 2010.

In 2011 Mena recorded her version of "Mitt Lille Land" (My Little Country) by Ole Paus as part of a project by the Norwegian TV channel TV2. On July 23, the day after the Norway terrorist attacks and after requests from her Norwegian audience, Mena uploaded her version the song to the streaming site SoundCloud. It quickly became an anthem in memory of the victims of the attacks.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Chart positions								Certifications
		NOR [2]	NL [3]	US [4]	US Heatseekers [4]	GER	PL	CH	AU
2002	Another Phase Debut album Released: April 22, 2002	6	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	NO: Platinum (30,000+)[5]
2004	Mellow 2nd studio album Released: March 1, 2004	7	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	NO: Gold (20,000)+[6]
2004	White Turns Blue International debut album Released: July 20, 2004	—	—	102	1	—	—	—	—
2005	Apparently Unaffected 3rd studio album Released: November 14, 2005	6	11	—	—	22	—	56	40	GER: Gold (100,000+)[7] NL : Platinum (50,000+)[8] NO : Platinum (30,000+)[5]
2008	Cause and Effect 4th studio album Released: September 15, 2008	4	8	—	—	20	43 [9]	13	23	GER: Gold (100,000+)[7] NL : Gold (25,000+)[8] NO : Gold (23,000+)[10] SWI : Gold (15,000+)[11]
2011	Viktoria 5th studio album Released: September 23, 2011	2	17	—	—	18	—	13	29

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions									Album
		NO[12]	GER	NL 40	NL 100[13]	US Main	SWI	AUT	FIN[14]	EU
2002	"Fragile (Free)"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Another Phase
	"My Lullaby" 1	5	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2004	"You're the Only One"	8	—	32	19	25	—	—	—	—	Mellow / White Turns Blue
	"Just a Little Bit"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2006	"Miss You Love" 2	—	—	19	61	—	—	—	—	—	Apparently Unaffected
	"Just Hold Me" 3	2	14	26	7	—	5	4	—	52
	"Miss You Love (re-release)" 2	2	19	26	7	—	—	—	—	147
	"Our Battles"	—	—	—	—	—	81	—	—	—
2008	"Nevermind Me" 4	—	84	—	76	—	—	—	—	—
	"Belly Up" 5	4	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Cause and Effect
	"All This Time"	7	15	6	7	—	14	7	11	45
2009	"I'm In Love"	—	—	—	54	—	—	—	—	—
	"I Was Made For Lovin' You"	—	91	—	—	—	20	44	—	—
	"Wide Awake" (Sasha ft Maria Mena)	—	63	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Soundtrack: Lila, Lila
2010	"Home for Christmas"	1	—	—	98	—	—	—	—	—	Soundtrack: Hjem Til Jul
2011	"This Too Shall Pass"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Viktoria
	"Homeless"	—	—	—	100	—	65	—	—	—
	"Viktoria"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Notes

• ¹: "My Lullaby" is the only song that certified in Norway, becoming a gold single for selling over 5,000 copies in Norway.^{[citation needed]}
• ²: The single was officially released in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Austria in 2007.
• ³: "Just Hold Me" gets gold in Germany in 2008 for selling more than 150,000 copies.^[7]
• ⁴: The single was officially released in the Netherlands in 2009.
• ⁵: Belly Up was only released in Norway.

References

1. ^ Maria Mena (I) - Biography
2. ^ "Norway Charts". Lista.vg.no. http://lista.vg.no/artist_info.php?ArtistOp=show&artistId=3667. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
3. ^ Steffen Hung. "NL Album Chart & Mega Singles Top 100". Dutchcharts.com. http://dutchcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Maria+Mena&titel=Just+Hold+Me&cat=s. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
4. ^ ^{a b} US Album Charts
5. ^ ^{a b} "Maria Mena | Gratis muziek, tourneedata, foto's, video's". Myspace.com. http://www.myspace.com/mariamena. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
6. ^ "Maria Mena | artistene | Stavernfestivalen 2011". Stavernfestivalen.no. http://www.stavernfestivalen.no/index.php/artistene/maria_mena. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
7. ^ ^{a b c} "German certifications – Maria+Mena" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. http://www.musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_datenbank/?action=suche&strTitel=&strInterpret=Maria%2BMena&strTtArt=alle&strAwards=checked. 
8. ^ ^{a b} "Maria Mena Fanclub Nederland". Mariamena-fanclub.nl. http://mariamena-fanclub.nl/. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
9. ^ "Maria Mena - Cause and Effect - Music Charts". Acharts.us. http://acharts.us/album/37847. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
10. ^ "Nyhet: Maria Mena inn på albumlisten i Nederland". Musikknyheter.no. http://www.musikknyheter.no/news/4463/. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
11. ^ "View topic - Switzerland". Mariamenaforum.com. http://mariamenaforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=33&start=15. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
12. ^ "Maria Mena - VG-lista. Offisielle hitlister fra og med 1958". lista.vg.no. http://lista.vg.no/artist_info.php?ArtistOp=show&artistId=3667. Retrieved 25 December 2010. 
13. ^ "dutchcharts.nl - Dutch charts portal". dutchcharts.nl. http://www.dutchcharts.nl/search.asp?cat=s&artist=Maria+Mena&artist_search=starts&title=&title_search=starts. Retrieved 25 December 2010. 
14. ^ Steffen Hung. "Discography Maria Mena". finnishcharts.com. http://finnishcharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Maria+Mena. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 

External links

• Official website
• Maria's official blog
• Official fanclub Germany, Austria and Switzerland
• Official fanclub Netherlands
• Maria Mena on Myspace
• Last.fm Group
• LiveJournal Community
• Maria Mena at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.scandipop.co.uk/?p=6549
• http://soundcloud.com/maria-mena/maria-mena-mitt-lille-land

Persondata
Name	Mena, Maria
Alternative names	Viktoria
Short description
Date of birth	February 19, 1986
Place of birth	Oslo
Date of death
Place of death