Trine Rein - Beneath My Skin (1996) {1998, Japanese Edition}

Trine Rein is an American-Norwegian singer, who belongs to the exclusive group of Norwegian artists who have sold more than a million records. 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 Lillehammer February 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.

Her runner-up album came in 1996, called Beneath My Skin, and also enjoyed 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 channel MTV.