BIOGRAPHY
When Marit Larsen entered the German charts at the top spot a while ago with her single If A Song Could Get Me You and listeners in Germany, Austria and Switzerland took first notice of the lovely Norwegian singer, it seemed to them as if another young and fresh new talent had just begun to conquer the world of music. But little did they know: Marit Larsen has been a superstar for years – in her home country as well as in other large parts of the world. From the mid 90s until 2002 she and her childhood friend Marion Raven formed the chart pop duo M2M, which sold more that two million albums and more than 10 million singles and had chart hits in the US, half of Europe as well as in Japan. So how can it possibly be, that people around here have never heard of Marit Larsen before? “Maybe it was just bad luck. It all happened so quickly”, she recalls. “We were so young, then, and our records were released in more than twenty countries at the same time. Basically, we only had one day in each country to give interviews. And, of course, we focused on the US.”

After the M2M split-up Marit took some time to prepare for her solo career. Finally, in 2006, her first solo album was released in Norway. “It feels like I have been carrying a secret for years, that I now can share with everyone. I have been so excited to let everyone hear my new songs and return as a solo artist”, she said in 2006. Under The Surface had everything a debut album needed to make an impression and achieved gold status within only three weeks. Critics and record buyers received it with unreserved approval. Marit Larsen managed to perform a sensational balancing act: music lovers listed Under The Surface among the best albums of the year, while at the same time the record included several radio and single hits. Her debut single Don’t Save Me claimed the Norwegian #1 chart spot for five weeks and won her numerous music awards (an MTV Europe Music Award for “Best Norwegian artist” among others). The follow-up album The Chase was released in Norway in October 2008. Yet again she entered the charts with huge success and was embraced by both media and her faithful audience. The single If A Song Could Get Me You claimed the top spot of the Norwegian charts for longer than any song had ever done before.

So by 2009 Marit Larsen had an international duo career plus two best selling and critically acclaimed solo albums to back her up. Could there be any reason not to take this girl abroad again? Definitely not! So finally, in May 2009 Sony Music released If A Song Could Get Me You for airplay in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It reached #4 in the German, #6 in the Austrian and #9 in the Swiss airplay-charts. The single was released in July and became an instant hit in all countries: in the German single charts it debuted at #3, climbing up to #1 – and remaining at the top for 5 weeks. In Austria the single took the #1 charts position for two weeks; in Switzerland it reached #2.

Following the release of the single If A Song Could Get Me You, an album with the same title was published in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It went straight to the #3 chart spot in Germany, #2 in Switzerland and #7 in Austria. The new album includes some of the best songs of her previous two albums Under The Surface and The Chase. For Larsen, who carefully chose the right songs, this was both a difficult and very interesting task. “Of course I’m aware that Don’t Save Me and Under The Surface from the first album are the two songs, the audience loves the most. Thus it was only natural to include them on If A Song Could Get Me You. And I also know, that nobody in Germany is familiar with any of my music”, she explains.

But she is definitely going to change that. From all the years in the business she has learned what really matters: “It is so important to be sure about what you really want, as an artist and as a person. All the challenges we are faced with every day come with a great deal of responsibility, because they carry consequences that will have an effect on our whole future.”

Both her first two albums were recorded at Propeller Studios in Oslo, supervised by Kåre Vestrheim, who has already been working with musicians like Hanne Hukkelberg, Morten Harket and Gluecifer. “Kåre and I speak the same musical language”, says Marit Larsen. And just to make sure that everything is done in accordance with her own ideas, Marit does not only sing, but also plays almost all the instruments on her albums: from piano, guitar, mandolin and xylophone to rather exotic ones like the tampura and the domra. “I don’t care about genres, I want to make good music, and writing good melodies is my mission in life.”

Neither does she care too much about the concept of a hit single. “Every song on the finished album is a hit song for me”, she explains. “Not necessarily because I can imagine every track played on the radio, but because during the process of writing and recording every song is my favourite at some point. You compose and you write, you write and you compose, and every now and then you can feel that nobody ever has written lyrics from the same point of view, or you feel you simply can’t get the melody out of your head. That’s what song writing is all about for me.”

A whole album full of favourite songs, recorded by an adorable artist, who knows exactly what she wants. There are so many reasons to be looking forward to Marit Larsen. “Gaining so much response and enthusiasm from people around the world is unbelievable. I can’t wait to tour again this fall and play my music around Europe.” A four-week tour across Germany and Switzerland will start on February 15, 2010.