Marion Raven

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Marion Raven
2006-2007 press promotional picture
Background information
Birth name	Marion Elise Ravn
Born	May 25, 1984 (age 22)
Origin	Lørenskog, Norway
Genre(s)	Pop/Rock/Alternative
Occupation(s)	Singer/Songwriter
Instrument(s)	Piano, Guitar
Years active	2005-Present
Label(s)	Atlantic Records 2004-2005, Eleven Seven Music 2005-2007
Associated acts	M2M 1999-2002, Duet with Meat Loaf 2006-2007
Website	http://www.marion-raven.com

Marion Elise Ravn (born on May 25, 1984 in Lørenskog, Norway) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and is a former child actress. Her surname is of Viking origin, with Ravn meaning Raven, which she adopted as her stage name Marion Raven. She was one-half of the now defunct pop duo M2M, along with Marit Larsen. Raven was later marketed as a pop-rock artist with her 2005 international debut album, Here I Am.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Solo Career 2.1 Here I Am (2005) 2.2 Heads Will Roll EP (2006) 2.3 Duet with Meat Loaf and World Tours (2007-Present) 3 Albums 3.1 As Part Of M2M 3.2 Solo 4 Singles 4.1 As part of M2M 4.2 Solo 5 Trivia 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Biography

Marion Raven was born on May 25, 1984 in Lørenskog, Norway. Raven began singing in a gospel choir in her town's local church at the age of 5. At 7, she went on to be part of the St. Laurentsius choir, which has many historical links in Lørenskog. By the time she was 8, Raven began playing the piano and attended ballet lessons, as well as performing ballet on stage. In 1993, she acted in the musical, "Sound Of Music", organised by the Norwegian Broadway. She recorded a children's musical, "Vettene Vinner" (Vettene Wins), with the musical group, "Vettene", meaning small trolls and was part of a following record, "Vettene på gamlespor" (Vettene On Old Tracks).

At 10, Raven acted in Bugsy Malone and The Wizard of Oz at the age of 11, both plays were on the Norwegian Broadway. In 1995, Raven's father arranged for her to make a demo in a studio in Oslo but not before Raven asked her childhood friend, Marit Larsen, to join her. The duo got a record deal with EMI Norway and formed M2M. In 1996, they produced an album titled, "Marit og Marion synger kjente barnesanger" which means, M2M Sings Renowned Children Songs. M2M was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy, Spellemannsprisen, the following year. Later, Raven had a part as one of the children in the Shakespearen play, Othello.

In 1998, M2M started recording pop demos in English and had a record deal with Atlantic Records. The two collaborated with many songwriters and produced their multi-platinum year 2000 debut album, Shades Of Purple, with the lead single, "Don't Say You Love Me". Their sophomore effort, The Big Room, was released in 2002. When M2M disbanded in September 2002, Raven was offered a million dollar recording contract^[1] with Atlantic Records.

[edit] Solo Career

[edit] Here I Am (2005)

Upon signing her deal with Atlantic Records, Marion Raven set about recording her debut album, and worked with Swedish songwriters/producers Max Martin and Rami, as well as Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk and her husband Raine Maida. The resulting 14-track list cultivates a more manufactured rock/pop sound, similar to artists such as Avril Lavigne and Evanescence and was titled Here I Am. The album was preceded by the Max Martin and Dr. Luke collaboration tracks that had leaked out earlier on and sparked fan interest. Raven's collaboration with Max Martin, "Break You", was released to radio on April 2005 (in Japan) while "End Of Me" was the first single that was released in Southeast Asia. Following that, the album was released in June in the same year. Videos for "Break You" and the album's title track, "Here I Am', were shot in March 2005 in Los Angeles, by director Brett Simon.

Internal debate at Atlantic Records led to delays for the various international releases of Here I Am, releases which were part of her million dollar contract. The album was finally released in Raven's home country, Norway, on August 10, 2005 debuting at #6, alongside Sweden. It was well received in Asia, spending many weeks at #1 on Japanese charts with Raven touring various venues throughout June and July 2005 in countries including the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan. The music videos for "End Of Me" and "Break You" received massive rotation on MTV Asia and the songs went top 10 on many radio charts throughout Asia and Norway. However, the lack of promotion in certain countries sparked controversy and suspicion that Atlantic was unhappy with the album. At that time, less challenging rap acts were favoured as they were more commercially viable.

[edit] Heads Will Roll EP (2006)

In early 2006, it was announced that Raven had been released from her contract with Atlantic Records due to "artistic differences", with Raven herself saying that she wanted a quicker release in countries such as the US. Soon after this, she announced that she was to record and release her US debut album under the indie label, Eleven Seven Music created by her management company 10th street entertainment, home to Everclear and Nikki Sixx, who both sang and collaborated on Here I Am respectively. In July 2006, Raven announced on her official MySpace page that a re-recorded version of "Heads Will Roll", co-written by James Michael and Nikki Sixx was set to be her debut single in the US. The track was part of an EP that was released on October 31, 2006. The Heads Will Roll EP contained new songs, "Spit You Out," "Good 4 Sex" and "All I Wanna Do Is You", alongside songs from Here I Am, "13 Days," her collaboration with Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk, an acoustic version of "Let Me Introduce Myself" and the re-recorded version of "Heads Will Roll" with Raven citing that the songs slanted towards fun-rock. ^[2] "Heads Will Roll" was featured on the "Van Wilder 2: Rise of the Taj" movie soundtrack.

In mid-2006, Raven recorded a track, entitled "October," for the upcoming Hollywood film, "Cut Off" (originally titled "Taking Charge"), that was meant for release in late 2006.^[3]

[edit] Duet with Meat Loaf and World Tours (2007-Present)

Whilst working with Desmond Child on new songs for her U.S. debut album Set Me Free, Raven met Meat Loaf, who was also working with Child on his latest album, Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose. Child suggested that Raven joined Meat Loaf on a duet for the song, "It's All Coming Back To Me Now", originally written by Jim Steinman for the album, but then given to and released by Celine Dion. The result was picked as the first single from Meat Loaf's latest album, and the video, featuring Raven as a ghost, premiered on VH1 Classic in the U.S. on August 12, 2006. The single was commercially released in the U.K. on 16 October 2006, having been playlisted by BBC Radio 2. The track debuted at #43 based on downloads alone, to make a rather impressive jump to #6 during its second week, becoming Raven's first U.K. Top 10 single^[4], and second charting single in Britain. She had a Top 20 entry as part of M2M when "Don't Say You Love Me" debuted and peaked at #16 in 2000. "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" spent a total of 70 weeks on the charts.

In late February 2007, Raven joined Meat Loaf on an extensive Canada/U.S. tour. Raven performed acoustic ballads and songs from her upcoming album, Set Me Free, as an opening act before joining Meat Loaf for the duet, "It's All Coming Back To Now"^[5]. Raven also announced on her MySpace page that merchandise, including copies of Set Me Free and Raven T-shirts, were made available on tour. The album, which will feature a mixture of tracks from the previous Here I Am as well as new songs, will be officially released in mid-late July 2007^[6].

As of late March 2007, Raven set off on a Europe tour in preparation for her Set Me Free album release in The Netherlands, U.K. and Germany. Tracks from the album were released in these countries around the same time. The lead single, "Falling Away" has been released to radio in Germany and The Netherlands while "Break You" makes its debut in the U.K..^[7].

[edit] Albums

[edit] As Part Of M2M

• Shades of Purple (2000) #89 U.S.; #7 Norway[1] (Platinum); #3 The Philippines (5x Platinum); Thailand (7x Platinum, over 300,000 copies); Indonesia (7x Platinum); Worldwide Sales of over 5,000,000 copies.
• The Big Room (2002) US (failed to chart); #2 The Philippines (3x Platinum); #16 Norway, #98 Australia
• The Day You Went Away: The Best of M2M (2003)

[edit] Solo

• Here I Am (2005) #1 Japan (Gold, sold 100,000 copies); #6 Norway; #4 Malaysia
• Heads Will Roll EP (2006)
• Set Me Free (2007)

[edit] Singles

[edit] As part of M2M

• Don't Say You Love Me (1999/2000) #21 US, #2 Norway, #1 The Philippines, #16 UK, #1 Denmark, #1 South Korea, #4 Australia, #4 New Zealand / Sold Over 2,000,000 copies
• Mirror Mirror (2000) #62 US #1 The Philippines, #30 Australia (Gold)
• The Day You Went Away (2000) #3 The Philippines #1 Thailand
• Pretty Boy (2000)
• Everything You Do (2000) #1 The Philippines
• Girl in Your Dreams (2000)
• Everything (2002) #6 Norway, #27 Australia, #1 Korea
• What You Do About Me (2002) #46 Australia
• Wanna Be Where You Are (released in The Philippines)
• Don't (US Promo Single)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2M_%28band%29"

[edit] Solo

• "End Of Me" #3 Southeast Asia
• "Break You" #1 Japan, #9 Norway
• "Here I Am" #20 Norway
• "Little by Little" (Radio-only)
• "Heads Will Roll" (Internet download and video release)
• "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" (Meat Loaf featuring Marion Raven) #6 U.K., #1 Norway, #9 Germany, #26 Netherlands
• "Falling Away"

[edit] Trivia

Height: 1.72m Chest: 34C

• During her M2M days, Raven made a guest appearance in the American television series, Dawson's Creek, 100 Light Years From Home episode. The episode also featured M2M performing "Everything", "Miss Popular" and "Don't". ^[8]
• Raven has been on the covers of and featured on multiple fashion and pop culture magazines across the world, including ELLE, Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cleo, MTV Ink and the Norwegian Spirit magazine. ^[9] She is the first Norwegian to be on the cover of Cosmopolitan.
• Raven wrote and recorded, "We Are W.I.T.C.H.", the theme song of the television series W.I.T.C.H. (TV series), an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name.
• Raven uses a Korg SP250 Digital Piano. "I love the SP-250, because it's light, and me being a small girl traveling the world, it makes it a lot easier for me." she said in the interview with Korg.com.^[10]
• Raven was a guest host in the fourth season of Norwegian Idol (2006).
• Raven has been praised and set up in the press as the new Joan Jett of Rock 'n' Roll.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Marion Raven at MySpace
• First Marion Raven Fansite
• Heads Will Roll Ecard
• Falling Away Ecard