Marlena Shaw (born Marlina Burgess) is an American jazz, blues and soul singer. Shaw began her singing career in the 1960s and is still singing today. Her music has often been sampled in hip hop music, and used in television commercials.
Throughout the Italian rock band Måneskin’s album “Il ballo della vita,” the lyrics make frequent reference to “Marlena.” According to the band, Marlena represents them, their fans, beauty, love, etc. In their songs, it is pronounced mar-LEH-nah (mar.ˈlɛ̃.na).
There's a song by The Wallflowers called "Three Marlenas" on their 1996 album Bringing Down the Horse. In the song, the name is pronounced "mar-LAY-na." That's how I've always pronounced it as well. A beautiful name and a beautiful song!
― Anonymous User 2/12/2016
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Marlena is currently my second favorite name. Marlena Diamond was Lizzy Caplan's character in Cloverfield, and Marlena was also a character in Sara Gruen's bestseller "Water for Elephants".