Marion Raven

Marion Raven
Background information
Birth name	Marion Elise Ravn
Also known as	Marion Ravn (in Norway)
Born	(1984-05-25) 25 May 1984 Lørenskog, Norway
Genres	Pop, pop rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, musician, presenter, voice actress, actress
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Atlantic Eleven Seven Playroom Music Sony Music RCA Epic
Associated acts	M2M, Marit Larsen
Website	marionravn.no
Notable instruments
Vocals, electric guitar, piano, acoustic guitar

Marion Elise Ravn (born 25 May 1984), known as Marion Raven, is a Norwegian singer and songwriter. She was one-half of the now-defunct pop duo M2M, along with Marit Larsen. Raven was later signed as a solo artist by Atlantic Records with the release of her solo debut album, Here I Am in 2005. In 2006, Raven was signed to the indie record label, Eleven Seven, and re-released her debut album with a few new songs, Set Me Free, in 2007. In 2012, Raven began production of her second album titled Songs from a Blackbird, which was released in her home country, Norway on 8 April 2013.

Raven has also written tracks for other artists such as Pixie Lott. She has also lent her voice for the Norwegian version of Tangled. Raven married professional snowboarder Andreas Wiig in 2013 and separated in 2015.

Early life

Raven was born in Lørenskog, Norway; her father is a teacher. She has an older brother and two younger sisters.^[1] Her surname is of Norse origin, with Ravn meaning Raven, which she adopted as her stage name Marion Raven as well as her trademark raven logo. Raven enjoyed singing from a young age, sometimes writing lyrics for the songs she sang. Raven joined the gospel choir in a local church at the age of 5. At age 7, she went on to be part of the St. Laurentius choir, which has many historical links in Lørenskog, and was started in 1965 by, and is still being run by her vocal coach for several years, Kjell Walther Christensen. By the time she was eight, Raven began playing the piano and took piano lessons from Sif Anna Lisa Ødegård, married to Kjell walther Christensen. She also attended ballet lessons, as well as performing ballet on stage. In 1993, she acted in the musical "Sound of Music", on the "Norwegian Broadway". She recorded a children's musical titled, "Vettene Vinner" (Vettene Wins), with the musical group, "Vettene", meaning "small trolls that protect nature", and was part of the group's record "Vettene på gamlespor" (Vettene on Old Tracks). At age 10, Raven acted in stage productions of Bugsy Malone and The Wizard of Oz

M2M and international success

In 1995, Raven's father arranged for her to make a demo in a studio in Oslo, together with her childhood friend, Marit Larsen. The duo got a record deal with EMI Norway and formed M2M. A year later, they produced children album titled, "Marit og Marion synger kjente barnesanger" which means "Marit and Marion Sing Well-Known Children Songs". M2M was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy, Spellemannprisen, the following year.

In 1998, M2M started recording pop demos in English and struck a record deal with Atlantic Records. The two collaborated with many songwriters from around the world and produced their multi-platinum debut album, Shades of Purple, that was released in 2000, with the lead single, "Don't Say You Love Me" featuring on the soundtrack of Pokémon: The First Movie. The song was co-produced by Jimmy Bralower and Peter Zizzo (Celine Dion), and mixed by Tom Lord-Alge. It peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 21, selling 39,000 units in a week, according to SoundScan.^[2] Their second album, The Big Room, which was recorded in a studio in Bearsville in Woodstock, New York, was released in 2002. After world tours to promote The Big Room ended, M2M joined Jewel on her world tour as an opening act. M2M later disbanded in September 2002.

Raven was offered a recording contract^[3] with Atlantic Records, though the offer was later revoked.^[4] She co-wrote "Pointless Relationship" that was the lead single of Australian singer, Tammin Sursok's debut album, 'Whatever Will Be'. She also collaborated on the track "That Day", a song released by Norwegian pop singer, Maria Arredondo, from Arredondo's 2004 follow-up album Not Going Under, and co-wrote the song "Disconnected", a song included on Lindsay Lohan's debut album "Speak" in 2004.

Solo career

2005: Here I Am

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 from 2003 to 2005. Initially, the record company was not confident of Raven's switch to a more rock image and a darker, more personal style of songwriting.^[5] Raven had to fight to record her kind of music, rock music with a pop element. The resulting 14-track list, including 2 bonus tracks, cultivated a more rock/pop sound and was titled Here I Am. The album saw Raven's transformation from the candy-pop music of M2M to a more angsty, rock-oriented singer, and was released in Scandinavia, Japan, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Here I Am spawned three singles, "End of Me", "Break You" and "Here I Am". Break You holds the record as Raven's top-selling single internationally. All three singles were successful in the Asian region where she further promoted the album with a tour. The album was released in Raven's home country, Norway, on 10 August 2005 debuting at No. 6, alongside Sweden. It was well received in Asia, with over 135,000 copies sold in three months upon release.^[6] Raven met with huge commercial success in the Asian region. Here I Am was promoted with a tour in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and among others.

2006–07: Set Me Free

In early 2006, it was announced that Raven quit her contract with Atlantic Records due to "artistic differences". Raven later confirmed that she was now signed to indie label Eleven Seven Music, which was created by her management 10th Street Entertainment.

World Idol winner Kurt Nilsen and Raven performing "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" at Tusenfryd amusement park in StatoilHydro on 22 August 2007.

Raven later performed a duet with rock musician Meat Loaf on a cover of the song "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", released as the lead single from Loaf's tenth studio album Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose in October 2006. The track peaked at No. 1 in Norway and reached the top ten in Germany and the United Kingdom.^[7] Raven later joined Loaf on an extensive tour through Canada and Europe in February 2007.^[8]

Raven later confirmed that her new album would contain new and old tracks from her Norwegian debut as well as re-recorded tracks such as "Heads Will Roll", which received the help of American musician Nikki Sixx and was released as an EP in October 2006.^[9] Prior to the release of Raven's album Set Me Free in March 2007, she toured around The Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom to help promote it. Raven later embarked on another promotional tour across the UK and performed in British schools. Later between later July and August, she became a supporting act on American singer-songwriter Pink's I'm Not Dead Tour in Germany.^[10] The album was later released in June 2007 and sprawled two singles; "Falling Away" and a re-release of her previous single "Break You" from her Norwegian debut album.

2008–2010: Nevermore

In 2008, Raven made a cameo appearance in the music video for the song "Saints of Los Angeles" by American heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. In 2010 she became a panellist judge on the Norwegian version of the talent show The X Factor and later on Norwegian Idol.

Originally, Raven recorded her third studio album Nevermore in 2009 and penned it for a 2010 release, but due to the internal issues with her record label Eleven Seven Music, it was never released.

2012–2014: Songs from a Blackbird

Marion later released the single "Colors Turn to Grey" in March 2012 and stated in October 2012 that she is working on material for a new album. In March 2013, Marion released the single "The Minute" from her second album Songs from a Blackbird, which was released on 5 April 2013 in Norway. Being her first album in eight years, Songs from a Blackbird managed to peak at No. 3 in Norway.^[11] The album was further promoted with a third single – the track "Driving" – and a Norwegian Tour in 2013.

International Version

Before an international version released, Marion re-released "The Minute" for an international single via iTunes on 25 July 2014. In August and 31 October 2014, an international version of Songs from a Blackbird released worldwide and Australia, respectively. It incorporates a mixture of Norwegian version and three new songs from both Scandal Vol. 1 and Scandal Vol. 2. For Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Australia, it released physically whereas the worldwide, including Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Australia, it was only released via the iTunes Store.

2014–2015: Scandal Vol. 1 and Scandal Vol. 2

In January 2014, Marion announced plans to record her third studio album after signing with Sony Music Norway. The album's title was later announced as Scandal while its release date was confirmed as 22 September 2014.^[12]

Hver gang vi møtes

Raven also starred the second season of Norwegian reality TV show Hver gang vi møtes, alongside other Norwegian music artists Morten Abel, Ole Paus, Anita Skorgan, Magnus Grønneberg, Kurt Nilsen and Lene Marlin.^[13]

Marion Raven performances from other guest artists during the series were:

• "Casanova" (Originally recorded by Anita Skorgan)
• "Bullet Me" (Originally recorded by Morten Abel)
• "Unforgivable Sinner" (Originally recorded by Lene Marlin)
• "Never Easy" (Originally recorded by Kurt Nilsen)
• "Når Du Sover" (Originally recorded by Magnus Gronneberg)
• "Nerven I Min Sang" (Originally recorded by Ole Paus)

Fellow artists who sang Raven / M2m songs on Hver gang vi møtes – Marion Raven's Day were:

• "Found Someone" Covered by: Lene Marlin
• "For You I'll Die" Covered by: Anita Skorgan
• "Here I Am" Covered by: Magnus Gronneberg
• "Don't Say you Love Me" was originally recorded by M2M and Covered by: Ole Paus
• "Girl In your Dreams" was originally recorded by M2M and Covered by: Morten Abel
• "Everything" was originally recorded by M2M and Covered by: Kurt Nilsen

Other projects

Raven has written several songs for other artists including:

• (2004) "Completely In Love" for Norwegian pop-rock singer Tommy Michaelsen's album Completely in Love.
• (2004) "That Day" for Norwegian pop singer Maria Arredondo's album, Not Going Under.
• (2004) "Pointless Relationship" for Australian singer Tammin Sursok's album, Whatever Will Be.
• (2004) "Disconnected" for American singer Lindsay Lohan's album Speak
• (2007) "Jack" for British singer Pixie Lott's debut album, Turn It Up.
• (2009) "Forgot His Name" recorded by Tanita Kolsås for the X-Factor Norway Series.
• (2009) "It's Not Over" recorded by May Kronfeld also known as May K, a music video is available for this song.

Her song In Spite of Me included on her debut album Here I Am were covered by Swedish pop singer Erik Grönwall for his second album Somewhere Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

In 2011, she also voiced the role of Rapunzel in the Norwegian dub of Tangled .

Awards and nominations

• In 2005 Raven was nominated for the Nordic Music Award with her album 'Here I Am' held in Norway.
• Raven was nominated for the "Best Norwegian Act" at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006.^[14]
• In 2015 Raven won the award for 'Best International Act' at the "Musik Fach-Awards" 2015, Raven was also nominated in the category of

"Album of the Year" and performed an acoustic version of her single The Minute during the ceremony.

Tours

Charity appearances

• Raven performed in the President Star Charity Concert in Singapore while on tour in mid-late 2005.
• Raven performed at the Norwegian Salvation Army, Lillestrøm Charity Concert and the Pink ribbon Show in Oslo, Norway in late 2005.
• Raven performed in Mainz-Kastel, Reduit for the UNICEF benefit show to raise funds to support Africa in September 2007.
• Raven performed alongside 2006 winner of Idol Norway, Aleksander Denstad With, at the Norwegian "Idol Gives Back" show in December 2007.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Other appearances

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marion Raven.

• Official website