Trine Rein is an American-Norwegian singer, who belongs to the exclusive group of Norwegian artists whose album sales have exceeded more than a million records. Rein was born in San Francisco in 1970. She is 1.76 meters tall. She is married to Sámi-Norwegian adventurer Lars Monsen.
Biography
Successful debut
Trine Rein released her first solo album in 1993, Finders, Keepers. It peaked at the top of the Norwegian album chart for no less than five weeks. But as she was almost unknown before the release, it took her 14 weeks – more than three months – to finally have the most popular album in Norway. And due to the extensive foreign press coverage of the Olympic Winter Games in LillehammerFebruary 1994, her album was soon a hit in Japan as well. At one time she topped 16 different Japanese radio station charts simultaneously. Due to this immense popularity and interest on the Japanese isles, almost two-thirds of the more than 600,000 albums sold of her first album were bought by Japanese fans. Trine has released two successful singles. The first came with her debut album, called "Just Missed the Train", and has become Trine's trademark song, exposing her great singing ability. The song has later been covered by child star actress Danielle Brisebois, Estonian Eurovision participant Maarja-Liis Ilus, American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, and a pre-American Idol Carly Hennessy, among others.
Declining sales
Her runner-up album came in 1996, called Beneath My Skin, and also enjoyed some success, though "only" selling about half the number of copies as her debut album did. More than 300,000 copies were sold in Norway, Japan and Denmark, which was a new market for Trine. In its first release week, the album went straight to number one in Norwegian album charts. Again a popular single was released in 1996, this time her cover of the alternative rock band Ednaswap's song Torn, which later, in 1997 got its worldwide fame with the Natalie Imbruglia cover, with one of the most broadcast music videos of that time on music channelMTV.
Moving abroad
Her third album To Find The Truth was released in 1998, and sold about 100 000 copies. Shortly afterwards, Trine decided she had got enough of the celebrity life, and searched anonymous refugee existence abroad for a few years. In 2000, Trine settled permanently in San Francisco and Los Angeles where she had a variety of odd jobs, including being a limo driver. She finally moved back to Norway in 2004 and decided to make a comeback to the music scene. She managed two projects simultaneously; firstly she starred in a summer show called "80-tallet beat for beat" with three other artists. She also released her first compilation CD, entitled The Very Best of Trine Rein the same year.
Eurovision ambitions
Trine Rein years ago stated that she would never participate in the Norwegian final and selection method for the Eurovision Song Contest, the so-called Melodi Grand Prix. Trine decided to leave all disputed comments to the past and figured the time was finally right when she was asked by the Norwegian Broadcasting to participate in 2006. On January 13, 2006, Trine entered the stage in Alta to become the first artist to illuminate the northern-most national Eurovision selection in the history of the European contest, and the televoters would send her to Oslo Spektrum and the final of Melodi Grand Prix 2006. Trine's composition, Here for the Show, was written by three experienced Swedish producers/song writers, and was criticized for having similarities to Robbie Williams' firework of a song, "Let Me Entertain You", which the authors also admitted had been their sole inspiration. The song did not qualify for the international finals though. She has recorded "Time After Time" with the Danish singer Flemming "Bamse" Jørgensen.
New album and single in 2010
On May 18, 2010, Trine premiered her first single in twelve years titled I Found Love on her official website, and it became available for digital purchase over iTunes on May 24; the new album is called Seeds of Joy, and released September 20, 2010.
