Lene

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Lene
Lene in the 2003 music video for "Pretty Young Thing".
Background information
Birth name	Lene Grawford Nystrøm
Born	October 2, 1973
Origin	Tønsberg, Norway
Genre(s)	Pop, dance
Years active	1994–2001 (Aqua) 2002–2003 (solo)
Label(s)	PolyGram
Website	Official website

Lene (born Lene Grawford Nystrøm on 2 October 1973 in Tønsberg, Norway) is best known as the former lead vocalist for pop-dance group Aqua.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Aqua (1994-2001) 3 Solo career 4 Writer 5 Discography 5.1 Albums 5.2 Singles 5.3 Other 6 External links

[edit] Biography

During her teenage years Lene developed an interest in performing and began her adult life as a barmaid and model. While singer of Aqua, she began a relationship with Søren Rasted, and married him soon after. In 2004, she became pregnant with Søren's child and on 6 November, 2004, she gave birth to a baby girl named India, and in 2006 they had their second child, a boy named Billy.

[edit] Aqua (1994-2001)

In 1994 Lene was spotted by René Dif singing on a cruise ship. He approached her and she became the lead vocalist for the group which was initially called Joyspeed, later re-named Aqua. The group consisted of Lene, René Dif, Søren Rasted and Claus Norreen. In their prime, Aqua managed to make the singles chart top ten in a number of countries where European pop acts would not normally succeed, including the United States, Australia and Japan. The group also caused controversy with the double entendres in their "Barbie Girl" single, with the Barbie doll makers Mattel filing a lawsuit against the group. The lawsuit was finally rejected in 2002. She would remain with the group until 2001 when they split up due to personal differences, mainly between Lene and René.

[edit] Solo career

In 2003 Lene released her first and (so far) only album, Play With Me, which performed poorly in Scandinavia, making only made number 74 in the Norwegian charts. This lackluster performance did not affect her single sales, though, with "It's Your Duty" peaking at number 3 in Denmark followed by "Pretty Young Thing", the follow-up single in 2004, which was another potential hit. Two of Lene's songs of her album are covers of songs. Pretty Young Thing is a cover of Stella Soleil's song, and Here We Go is a cover of Moonbaby's song. Lene's most recent release was in early 2005, when she performed vocals on the Danish tsunami 2004 single, which made number one in Denmark. She also contributed to husband Søren Rasted's Lazyboy TV album on the song "I Love New York". In 2006 she released the Parfait Armour EP.

[edit] Writer

Lene then turned her hand to writing pop songs for other groups, writing No Good Advice and You Freak Me Out for Girls Aloud's first album Sound of the Underground. No Good Advice was a huge hit, and cemented Girls Aloud into mainstream pop, while You Freak Me Out went on to feature in the Disney movie Freaky Friday. Meanwhile, Pretty Young Thing was covered by Tina Cousins, and Here We Go (Lene's Version) was covered by Girls Aloud on their second album What Will The Neighbours Say?.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

• "Play With Me" (2003)

[edit] Singles

• "It's Your Duty" (2003) - used in a car commercial
• "Pretty Young Thing" (2004)
• "Here we go" (2004) - only as promo DJ release
• Scream - Promo

[edit] Other

• Queen For A Day [It's Your Duty B-Side]
• As Good As It Gets [rare recording from the Play With Me sessions]
• "Two Directions" (1992) (Lene's first recording)
• "Hvor Små Vi Er" (2005) (Benefic Single featuring Lene)
• "I Love New York" (2005) (Lazyboy song featuring Lene)

[edit] External links

• Aqua (Lene's Band)
• Play With Lene
• Lene Nystrøm Rasted at the Internet Movie Database