Marit Elisabeth Larsen is a Norwegian singer and songwriter. She began playing violin aged five and played it until the age of eight. She gained international fame during her teenage years as a member of the pop duo M2M with childhood friend Marion Raven. She then pursued her own music career, releasing her debut solo album Under the Surface in 2006. Her second album, The Chase, was released in Norway in October 2008. Her third album, titled Spark was released in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland on 18 November 2011, and in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on 16 December 2011. Her fourth studio album When the Morning Comes was released on 20 October 2014. Larsen toured in its support within Norway with her own concerts, played songs from the album in Germany and Switzerland at public festivals and was the opening act at two of Johannes Oerding's concerts in November 2015.
M2M were a Norwegian pop duo comprising Marit Larsen and Marion Raven. Larsen and Raven had been friends since the age of five, and formed a music duo when they were eight. They released a children's album in 1996 when Larsen was 12 and Raven was 11, under the name "Marit & Marion". The album was nominated for a Spellemannprisen award and the band changed their name to M2M after signing a record deal with Atlantic Records in 1998. M2M were frequently praised for writing most of their songs and performing their own instruments, something which was considered to set them aside from the majority of teen pop music artists.
Here I Am is the debut solo album by M2M member, Marion Ravn, released on June 6, 2005. Ravn co-wrote all but one of the songs with several well-known musicians. She played both acoustic and electric guitars as well as the piano and provided background vocals on a number of songs. The album showed her transition from her past M2M pop sound to a dark hard-rock sound. Her musical transition was well received by critics internationally.
"Don't Save Me" is the first single by Norwegian pop music singer and M2M member Marit Larsen released from her debut album Under the Surface. The single was released on 2 February 2006 in Norway. After debuting at No. 3, the single climbed to No. 1 and stayed at the top for five consecutive weeks.
The Day You Went Away: The Best of M2M is a greatest hits compilation album by Norwegian teen-pop duo M2M. It was released in 2003, a year after the group's disbandment.
Shades of Purple is the debut studio album by Norwegian pop duo M2M. It was released in the US on 7 March 2000 by Atlantic Records. It reached No. 7 in Norway, No. 89 on the US Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the US Top Heatseekers chart. The single "Don't Say You Love Me", which had already been released as the lead single of the Pokémon: The First Movie soundtrack in October 1999, appears on the album. A further two singles, "Mirror Mirror" and "Everything You Do" were released throughout 2000.
The Big Room is the second and final studio album by Norwegian pop music duo M2M. It was released in Asia in November 2001 and in the rest of the world in early 2002. It reached No. 16 in Norway and No. 61 in Australia. Two singles were released worldwide from the album, "Everything", which peaked at No. 6 in Norway and No. 27 in Australia, and "What You Do About Me", which reached No. 46 in Australia.
"It's All Coming Back to Me Now" is a power ballad written by Jim Steinman. According to Steinman, the song was inspired by Wuthering Heights, and was an attempt to write "the most passionate, romantic song" he could ever create. The Sunday Times posits that "Steinman protects his songs as if they were his children". Meat Loaf had wanted to record the song for years, but Steinman saw it as a "woman's song". Steinman won a court case, which prevented Meat Loaf from recording it. Girl group Pandora's Box went on to record it, and it was subsequently made famous through a cover by Celine Dion, which upset Meat Loaf because he was going to use it for a planned album with the working title Bat Out of Hell III.
"Don't Say You Love Me" is the debut single of M2M, a Norwegian pop duo consisting of singers Marion Raven and Marit Larsen. The song first appeared on Radio Disney before its official US radio and single release in October 1999. It was released on the soundtrack to the film Pokémon: The First Movie in November 1999 and appears in the film's closing credits. The song was featured on M2M's debut album, Shades of Purple (2000), and also appeared on their compilation album The Day You Went Away: The Best of M2M (2003).
Maria Sødal Arredondo is a Norwegian pop singer. Her surname Arredondo comes from her Chilean stepfather.
Set Me Free is Marion Raven's North American and European debut album released under indie label Eleven Seven Music. The album incorporates a mixture of fresh tracks and previously released tracks, with some revised versions, from her Asian and Scandinavian debut album, Here I Am. She also played the piano, acoustic and electric guitars on the record. Set Me Free headlines Raven's inclination to harder rocking songs and a darker lyrical scope. The album has been released in Germany and the U.K. with a digital release on the Dutch and US versions of iTunes. Interscope released the album in Canada, where Raven performed in ten Canadian cities as the opening act on Meat Loaf's March 2007 Arena tour.
Heads Will Roll EP is Marion Raven's first EP that was released on October 31, 2006. All of the songs were written by Raven in collaboration with numerous artists including Nikki Sixx, Scott Stevens and Freddy Herrera, Keith Nelson and Xavier Muriel (Buckcherry), and Raine Maida. The EP was made available for downloading from iTunes while the hard copy was exclusively released in the US. In Raven's own words, the tracks on the EP are fun rock songs that are meant for jumping around to.
"End Of Me" is a pop rock song written by Marion Raven, Max Martin and Rami for Raven's internationally released album Here I Am (2005). It was released as the album's lead single in Southeast Asia in 2005 and was very successful in the region, reaching the top ten in many countries that include Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore.
"Break You" is a pop rock song recorded by Marion Raven and written and produced by Max Martin and Lukasz Gottwald, a.k.a. "Dr. Luke", for Raven's international debut studio album Here I Am (2005). The track was released as the lead single in Japan and Norway and was the second single from the album that was released in Southeast Asia in 2005. The single was highly successful and was well received by critics. The single was released after Raven left Atlantic Records, due to "artistic differences" and joined Eleven Seven Music.
"Everything You Do" is a single by Norwegian pop duo M2M, composed of singers Marion Raven and Marit Larsen. It was the third and final single from their debut album Shades of Purple. It peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales.
"Mirror Mirror" is a song recorded by Norwegian pop duo M2M, composed of singers Marion Raven and Marit Larsen. It was the second single from their debut album, Shades of Purple. The song reached No. 13 in Canada, No. 30 in Australia, and No. 62 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was certified gold in the US, selling over 600,000 units.
Hver gang vi møtes is a Norwegian reality television show broadcast on the Norwegian TV 2 television station in 2012. It is structured in similar format to the Swedish series Så mycket bättre that had been launched in 2010.
Songs from a Blackbird is the second studio album by Norwegian singer-songwriter Marion Raven, first released in Norway on April 5, 2013. This album marks her first release in six years since 2007's Set Me Free and her first studio album in eight years composed entirely of brand new songs since 2005's Here I Am. Songs from a Blackbird also showcased Marion's musical transition from her past hard rock style into a softer folk-rock music.
Simone Eriksrud is a Norwegian musician, singer and composer from Volda, and a member of D'Sound. She was earlier in her career known as Simone Larsen or just with the mononym Simone.
"Everything" is a single by Norwegian pop duo M2M, composed of singers Marion Raven and Marit Larsen. It was the first single from the duo's second album, The Big Room. The single was released worldwide between October 2001 and March 2002. It was well received critically, and reached No. 6 in Norway in addition to being a minor hit in Australia, Italy and New Zealand. A music video directed by Chris Applebaum was released for the single. M2M performed the song on the 100th episode of Dawson's Creek and live at the 2002 Spellemannprisen awards. The song earned M2M a nomination for "Best International Artist" at the 2001 Mnet Asian Music Awards.
