News: Ballerina Has Fins That You'll Never Find

Following up on our previous article about Leona Naess’s song “Ballerina”, here’s what we have (and haven’t) been able to sort out…

First, as several have pointed out, this isn’t “new” news. This song was first offered on Leona’s website back in August of 2004. The Dent covered it at the time:

I earlier reported that Tori produced and played keyboards on a new version of the song Ballerina, from artist Leona Naess. (The original version of Ballerina appears on Leona’s self-titled album Leona Naess, but that older version did not involve Tori.) There were plans to release this new version as a single, but Leona herself has posted in the Diary section of her web site that her record company has scrapped plans to release it. However, you can now download for free this new version of Ballerina exclusively at leonanaess.com. Leona posted this in response to the requests of her fans. Once again, Tori produced the tracks and plays keyboards, but does not sing.

However, as recently as last Friday, “Ballerina” was heavily featured and promoted on the front page of Leona’s website. We don’t know if this was a “mistake” or not. It does seem possible given that the song was previously promoted and, as fan-site leonanaess.org indicates, Leona’s website was updated on Wednesday, December 6th, so they were making changes on the site last week. But then, it might also have been an intentional re-announcement of the song. As the second (above) Dent article mentioned, Leona posted in her diary at the time that her record company had scrapped plans to release this version of “Ballerina” as a single. But it’s been two years, and circumstances – and minds – do sometimes change. It’s possible this song might be released as a single, bonus song, or b-side after all. We’ll have to wait and see.

That said, “Ballerina” still turned out to be news to many Toriphiles. If you haven’t heard the song, you can download a copy here. And the non-Tori-produced album version of the song is streaming on Leona’s website if you skip ahead four or five songs on the site’s player. Thanks to the many (many!) kind folks who sent us info about where to find the Tori-produced version (*Joshua*, Jeff, Eric/CosmicSquirt, Hunter, Michele, Lilly, Christopher, Adrian, Phil, and Amy).

And once again, as per the original item posted on the Dent, the version of “Ballerina” that appears on Leona’s self-titled 2003 album is NOT the version that Tori produced. To date, the Tori-produced version has only been made available as an MP3 through leonanaess.com.