WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Lena Fiagbe

Like all new artists, Lena Fiagbe HAD to get it right the first time, or else…

…so, what went wrong?

The Lena Fiagbe story is a short one. The British born singer and songwriter (b.1972) was signed to Mother Records in 1993 in the wake of fellow successful female artists, Dina Carroll and Gabrielle. Her debut single, “You Come From Earth”, only scratched the UK singles chart, but the follow up did far more. “Gotta Get It Right” was released in October and peaked at No.20. Her one and only top 40 chart hit. After that, it was all downhill with her third single, “What’s It Like To Be Beautiful?”, halting just before the all important forty and “Visions” following the same course.

“Visions” was also the title of her debut album, released in early 1994, although this too flopped. “Is It Because?” was the final installment, but that returned Lena to the depths her first achieved. She did, however, record a cover of Barry Manilow’s “Can’t Smile Without You” for the soundtrack album to the hit film of the year, ‘Four Weddings And A Funeral’, although this was unreleased commercially on its own, unlike a song by Wet Wet Wet. She hooked up with Senegalese artist Wasis Diop in 1996 for the song “African Dream”. This managed to make it to No.44 in the UK, her highest charted position since the better known “Gotta Get It Right”. Fiagbe re-recorded “Can’t Smile Without You” in 1998 and released it through Curb Records, although this was only limited and it didn’t register on any chart, commercial or otherwise.

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Lena has pretty much called it a day with recording and, although having made rare live appearances in the twenty odd years since, has largely kept herself to herself. She comments through her social media pages regular and acknowledges her five seconds of fame as the years trickle by. Shame, as there was so much hope for this individual talent that perhaps was consumed by those more media savvy artists around her at the time. Lena got it right for a few weeks in late 1993, sadly the next courses remain out of the public light.