Native Norwegian Maria Mena rose to teen signing sensation status in 2001 once her single "My Lullaby" ignited across Norway via ringtone and radio airplay. Additional singles arrived alongside the commercially successful album Another Phase, allowing her reputation to extend across Europe. By 2004, at age 18, Mena prepared to export her dark-eyed glamour and smooth, faintly-alternative pop—shaped with assistance from Norwegian songwriter/producer Arvid Solvang—to wider international audiences. Her Mellow LP received Scandinavian and European release first in January of that year. The project gained support from the single "You're the Only One," a sonic sister to Alanis Morissette's "Hands Clean" that likewise delivered first-person confessionals, including the line "You're the only one who holds my hair back when I'm drunk and get sick." The track then reached U.S. shores in spring, earning quick additions at influential Top 40 stations. By May the video for "You're the Only One"—evoking a Noxema ad through its imagery of squeaky-clean teens horsing around while projecting vibrant, attractive energy—had secured rotation on MTV's TRL. Mena next joined the Teen People Rock 'n' Shop Mall Tour. Though the booking seemed unconventional, comparable direct-to-audience efforts had long helped launch teen pop acts stretching from the hair spray era of Tiffany through the neckties and scowls of Avril Lavigne. White Turns Blue, her full-length domestic debut, arrived in July 2004. The set incorporated modestly revised selections from her prior European material and underscored her precisely timed U.S. pop breakthrough.
