Stardust (Lena album)

Background

Stardust is Lena's first album without contribution from former mentor, entertainer Stefan Raab. Principal songwriting began in late summer 2011 and during that process Lena made travels to Stockholm, London, and Hamburg. Throughout the sessions, she collaborated with musicians like Matthew Benbrook, Pauline Taylor, Johnny McDaid, James Flannigan, and Sonny Boy Gustafsson, who produced five of the songs. Four titles were written in collaboration with Miss Li of which the song "ASAP" is a duet with the Swedish singer-songwriter. Lena participated on nine songs as co-author. "Better News" and "I'm Black" were composed in collaboration with Ian Dench, who formerly worked with EMF and Florence and the Machine. The idea to "Don't Panic" was inspired by a fire alert in London. "Mr Arrow Key" is about a guide for the things of life. "Pink Elephant" covers the story of a girl who is clumsy like an elephant. "Goosebumps" is a song about homesickness. "To the Moon" is a love song which took Lena, her co-writer Alexander Schroer and producer Swen Meyer seven months to find suitable lyrics for a certain melody. "Neon (Lonely People)" describes the feeling of loneliness despite the fact that someone is among people.

Additionally there is a hidden track called "Lille katt" performed in Swedish language previously known from the Swedish-German children's television series Emil i Lönneberga The iTunes version features a cover version of the title Moonlight previously performed by Mayaeni in 2010.

Production on the album was finished in July 2012. Lena presented eight of the twelve songs from the album during four promotional events in Munich, Cologne, Hamburg, and Berlin in late July and early August 2012 to the press and the radio stations. Stardust was partly produced by Swen Meyer in Hamburg, known by his work with Tomte, Tim Bendzko, and Kettcar. The first single with the eponymous name was released on September 21, 2012, while the music video to this song was first shown on September 7, 2012. On September 20, 2012, Lena previewed the album to a larger audience at the Reeperbahn Festival in the music venue Schmidt's Tivoli in Hamburg.

Promotion

The album's lead single, "Stardust" was released on September 21 and charted at number 2 in the German Singles Chart. From October 5 to October 7, 2012 iTunes pre-released three songs to promote the album. "To the Moon" was the first download, followed by "ASAP" on October 6 and "Pink Elephant" on October 7.

On April, Meyer-Landrut was touring the Germany, while promoting her album. The tour was called 'No One Can Catch Us', and it's the lyrics from her latest's album lead single Stardust. The tour started on April 2, in Stuttgart, and ended on April 21, in Offenbach. Also, Lena was streaming her last show on internet for her fans, who couldn't come to one of her shows. The tour was made of 13 shows in different German cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover and more. Lena also wanted to make a show in Vienna, Austria, but later, the show was cancelled for unknown reasons.

Critical reception

Overall "Stardust" received generally mixed to positive reviews from music critics. Several reviews pointed out that Stefan Raab didn't participate at the production. The German issue of Rolling Stone magazine gave Stardust three out of five stars and wrote that "merely that this time you actually have the feeling that this is really Lena, and not Stefan Raab's idea of Lena." The Neue Presse from Hannover gave four out of five stars and stated: "No Raab anymore, no more under his wing. Lena spread her "pop" wings." The critic site CDStarts gave the album seven out of ten stars and wrote that Lena has grown up.

Release history