Lena Martell

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
That Wonderful Sound of Lena Martell
  UK 35 05/25/1974 (2 weeks)
The best of Lena Martell
  UK 13 
gold
gold
01/08/1977 (15 weeks)
The Lena Martell Collection
  UK 12 
gold
gold
May 27, 1978 (20 weeks)
Lena's Music Album
  UK 4th 
platinum
platinum
10/20/1979 (18 weeks)
By request
  UK 9 
gold
gold
April 19, 1980 (9 weeks)
Beautiful Sunday
  UK 23 
gold
gold
11/29/1980 (7 weeks)
Singles
One day at a time
  UK 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 
gold
gold
29.09.1979 (18 weeks)

Lena Martell (born May 15, 1940 in Glasgow ; real name Helen Thomson ) is a Scottish television presenter and singer , best known for her hit One Day at a Time from 1979.

Life

Lena Martell grew up in Glasgow, the city of her birth, and at the age of 11 she sang in her oldest brother's Dixie band. After he died in an accident at the age of 22, she decided to become a singer and got a record deal at the age of 17. In 1961 she had her first hit with Love Can Be , with which she drew attention.

She came to television in the early 1970s. In 1972 she got her own Saturday evening show on the BBC , The Lena Martell Show , which ran successfully for ten years and regularly had up to 12 million viewers.

Over the course of the decade, their records also became successful. She mainly sang easy listening and country classics as well as cover versions . She entered the UK charts for the first time in 1974 with the album That Wonderful Sound of Lena Martell .

After two more hit albums, Lena's Music Album was released in 1979 . Not only did it make it into the top 5 of the UK album charts for the first time, it was also the first time that a single was successfully released. It was the song One Day at a Time . The song was written by Marijohn Wilkin and Kris Kristofferson in the mid-1970s and was a top 40 hit in the US pop charts in 1974 by American country singer Marilyn Sellars . It was named Song of the Year by the Gospel Music Association. Lena Martell's version was so popular in the UK that it hit number 1 on the charts in October 1979 and stayed there for 3 weeks. The song even earned her an entry in the Guinness Book of Records 1979/80.

For the Scottish woman it was the only time that she got into the singles charts. The song One Day at a Time was released the following year by the US country and gospel singer Cristy Lane, it reached number 1 in the US country charts in 1980 and became her biggest hit. There are also several hundred other recordings of the classic worldwide, including Charley Pride, Joan Baez and Judy Collins.

With By Request and Beautiful Sunday , the Scot had two more albums in the charts in 1980. In total she recorded over 30 albums, which found her audience, even if she didn't make it to the top of the charts afterwards. She has given concerts all over the world and has played to a sold-out house at renowned locations such as the London Palladium and Las Vegas . She was also active as a musical singer and played not only in London's West End , but also on New York's Broadway .

After the successful 1970s and 1980s, there were several setbacks for Lena Martell in the 1990s. She went broke in 1992 after engaging in property speculation. In addition, there were own health problems. After her mother contracted Alzheimer's , she retired and looked after her for eight and a half years. Her mother died in 2001.

Then she returned to the record studio and the stage and since 2005 she has been releasing new albums. In her career she has been awarded nine gold and one platinum records .

Discography

  • That Wonderful Sound of Lena Martell (1974)
  • The Best of Lena Martell (1977)
  • The Lena Martell Collection (1978)
  • Lena's Music Album (1979)
  • By Request (1980)
  • Beautiful Sunday (1980)
  • Love Songs (1988)
  • Feelings (1991)
  • My Homeland (2005)
  • Songs from a Woman's Heart (2006)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b UK chart data
  2. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
  3. ↑ http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=14943250&method=full&siteid=89488&headline=--no1-day-at-a-time-name_page.html
  4. ↑ a b http://www.rampantscotland.com/let041211.htm
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.doveawards.com
  6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lancaster.gov.uk
  7. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hsutx.edu
personal data
SURNAME Martell, Lena
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomson, Helen (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish singer
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow , Scotland , United Kingdom