| Lena Anderssen | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lena Anderssen |
| Origin | Tórshavn, Faroe Islands |
| Genres | Rock Pop |
| Instruments | Vocals, Guitar |
| Years active | 1996—present |
| Labels | ArtPeople |
| Website | Official Website |
Lena Anderssen is a Faroese-Canadian singer-songwriter best known for her award winning album "Let Your Scars Dance." Although the lyrics to her songs are all written in English, she is also fluent in both Faroese and Danish.
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Anderssen was born in the Faroe Islands to a Canadian-Norwegian father and a Faroese mother but moved to Canada when she was 2 years old. Her family relocated numerous times in the following years to Victoria and Vancouver in British Columbia; Thunder Bay, Ontario; and Montreal, Quebec. As a young teenager, she moved back to the land of her birth. Norwegian drummer Remi Fagereng was visiting a coffee shop in the Faroese capital of Tórshavn, where Anderssen worked, when he overheard her singing to herself and realized her talent. Weeks later, she joined his cover band, Next Step.
After playing one of the main characters in the successful Faroese musical "Skeyk," Anderssen began collaborating with its musical composer, Niclas Johannesen. Together, they wrote the songs that comprised her debut album Long Distance, which was produced by Johannesen and released in the Faroe Islands only.
At the beginning of the new millennium, Anderssen and Johannesen partnered with Danish Grammy Award-winning producer, Óli Poulsen, to produce three songs. One song, "I Still Love You," became a hit when it was released as a radio single in the Faroe Islands.
During their first three years of collaborative work, the songwriting team of Anderssen and Johannesen penned more than 100 songs, including "Waiting In The Moonlight," which became a breakthrough hit for Faroese vocalist Brandur Enni in 2002. That same year they wrote 10 songs for the Faroese National Radio for use in a Christmas radio play entitled "Stjørnan í Hvarv." The songs were later included in an album of the program, which was released during the Christmas season of 2003. She also sang on singer-songwriter Teitur Lassen's Faroese album Sólin og Regnið, which was exclusively released in the Faroe Islands in 2002 and produced by Johannesen.
Throughout her successful songwriting career, Anderssen, also an accomplished jazz singer, performed regularly at the Tórshavn Jazz Festival and was a guest singer with the Tórshavn Big Band when American composer/arranger Butch Lacey was guest conductor.
Anderssen worked with Johannesen and Poulsen again on her next album, Can't Erase It, which was released in Denmark under Danish independent label ArtPeople. The album has been chosen as Album of the Week on Danmarks Radio's Programme 4 (P4) as well as on the commercial station Sky Radio. Anderssen promoted the album while touring with American singer-songwriter Beth Hart. Notably, the title track was offered as a free MP3 download on a music website sponsored by Coca-Cola and Paste Magazine. It was one of ten songs in the "European Beats" category of a joint-venture podcast program called "For the Love of Music".[1]
In 2006, Anderssen began work on her third album, Let Your Scars Dance. She traveled to the famous Abbey Road Studios in London, England, to record a live performance of the song "Stones in My Pocket" and put finishing touches on several other tracks. The album was released in the Faroe Islands on April 30, 2007 and in Denmark on October 27, 2008. Let Your Scars Dance was chosen as Album Of The Year at the Planet Awards in December 2007. In February 2008, readers of Dimmalætting, the oldest and most acclaimed newspaper of the Faroe Islands, voted Let Your Scars Dance as Album of The Year.
Anderssen continues to work on new material. She has plans to relocate to North America as well.