Events

755 – An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China.

1392 – Nanboku-chō: Emperor Go-Kameyama abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu.

1431 – Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.

1497 – Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

1575 – The 1575 Valdivia earthquake takes place.

1598 – Seven Year War: Battle of Noryang Point – The final battle of the Seven Year War is fought between the China and the Korean Allied Forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive Allied Forces victory.

1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate – Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.

1707 – Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.

1761 – Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kolobrzeg.

1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.

1811 – The first two in a series of severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri. These three so-called mega-quakes are believed to be an ongoing cataclysmic danger that could reprise the 1811-12 series of 2,000 quakes that affected the lands of what would be eight of today's heartland states of the United States.

1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.

1838 – Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius defeat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

1850 – History of New Zealand: The Charlotte-Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.

1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee.

1864 – American Civil War: Franklin-Nashville Campaign – Battle of Nashville – Major General George H. Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.

1907 – The Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world

1914 – World War I: German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.

1920 – The Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5, rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.

1922 – President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.

1930 – Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a posse of 200, following a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana.

1937 – Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.

1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honor of the German Mother

1941 – World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak

1942 – Holocaust: Porajmos – Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.

1946 – Thailand joins the United Nations.

1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.

1950 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight with communist North Korea in the Korean War.

1957 – Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.

1960 – 1960 New York air disaster: While approaching New York's Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collides with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.

1965 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.

1971 – Bangladesh War of Independence and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan army brings an end to both conflicts.

1971 – "National Day" of the Kingdom of Bahrain is celebrated. Not to be confused with Bahrain Independence Day which took place on August 15, 1971.

1972 – Vietnam War: Henry Kissinger announces that North Vietnam has left private peace negotiations, in Paris.

1978 – Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first post-Depression era city to default on its loans, owing $14,000,000 to local banks.

1979 – Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, having an immediate dramatic effect on the United States.

1985 – Mafia: In New York City, Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of the Gambino family.

1986 – Revolt in Kazakhstan against Communist party, known as Zheltoksan, which becomes the first sign of ethnic strife during Gorbachev's tenure

1989 – Protests break out in Timişoara in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.

1989 – Walter LeRoy Moody begins his terrorist bombing streak when he sends Judge Robert Smith Vance a bomb in the mail, instantly killing him near his house in Birmingham, Alabama.

1991 – Independence of The Republic of Kazakhstan.

1997 – An episode of Pokémon, "Dennō Senshi Porygon", aired in Japan induces seizures in 685 Japanese children.

1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Operation Desert Fox – The United States and United Kingdom bomb targets in Iraq.

2003 – President George W. Bush signs the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 into law. The law establishes the United States' first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission to enforce its provisions.

Births

1485 – Catherine of Aragon, Queen consort of England (d. 1536)

1584 – John Selden, English jurist and oriental scholar (d. 1654)

1614 – Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1674)

1714 – George Whitefield, English-born Methodist leader (d. 1770)

1716 – Louis-Jules Mancini-Mazarini, Duc de Nivernais, French diplomat and writer (d. 1798)

1717 – Elizabeth Carter, English writer (d. 1806)

1742 – Gebhard Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt, German Field Marshal (d. 1819)

1770 – Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist (d. 1827)

1775 – Jane Austen, English writer (d. 1817)

1775 – François-Adrien Boïeldieu, French composer (d. 1834)

1776 – Johann Wilhelm Ritter, German physicist (d. 1810)

1778 – John Ordronaux, privateer of the War of 1812 (d. 1841)

1787 – Mary Russell Mitford, English writer (d. 1855)

1790 – King Leopold I of Belgium (d. 1865)

1804 – Viktor Bunyakovsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1889)

1834 – Léon Walras, French economist (d. 1910)

1861 – Antonio de La Gandara, French painter (d. 1917)

1863 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher and writer (d. 1952)

1865 – Olavo Bilac, Brazilian poet (d. 1918)

1866 – Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-born French abstract painter (d. 1944)

1867 – Amy Carmichael, missionary in Dohnavur, India (d. 1951)

1869 – Hristo Tatarchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1952)

1872 – Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Russian general (d. 1947)

1882 – Sir Jack Hobbs, English cricketer (d. 1963)

1882 – Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer (d. 1967)

1882 – Walther Meissner, German physicist (d. 1974)

1883 – Max Linder, French pioneer of silent film (d. 1925)

1888 – King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (d. 1934)

1888 – Alphonse Juin, marshal of France (d. 1967)

1889 – Kim Jwa-jin, played an important role in the Korean Anarchist Movement (d. 1930)

1899 – Sir Noel Coward, English playwright, actor and composer (d. 1973)

1900 – V. S. Pritchett, English author and critic (d. 1997)

1901 – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (d. 1978)

1902 – Rafael Alberti, Spanish poet (d. 1999)

1905 – Piet Hein, Danish mathematician and inventor (d. 1996)

1906 – Barbara Kent, Canadian actress

1913 – George Ignatieff, Russian-born Canadian diplomat (d. 1989)

1915 – Turk Murphy, American trombonist (d. 1987)

1916 – Birgitta Valberg, Swedish actress

1917 – Nabi Bux Khan Baloch, Sindhi scholar

1917 – Sir Arthur C. Clarke, English writer (d. 2008)

1918 – Pierre Delanoë, French songwriter and lyricist (d. 2006)

1922 – Cy Leslie, American music and video executive (d. 2008)

1923 – Menahem Pressler, German-Israeli pianist.

1926 – James McCracken, American tenor (d. 1988)

1927 – Randall Garrett, American writer (d. 1987)

1928 – Philip K. Dick, American writer (d. 1982)

1929 – Nicholas Courtney, English actor

1932 – Rodion Shchedrin, Soviet/Russian composer

1936 – Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center

1937 – Joyce Bulifant, American actress

1938 – Frank Deford, American sportswriter

1938 – Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress

1939 – Philip Langridge, English opera singer

1941 – Lesley Stahl, American journalist

1942 – Donald Carcieri, American politician, governor of Rhode Island

1943 – Steven Bochco, American television producer and writer

1943 – Tony Hicks, English guitarist (The Hollies)

1944 – Don Meyer Basketball coach Northern State, Lipscomb, and Hamline

1945 – Patti Deutsch, American actress and Match Game panelist

1945 – Bobby George, English professional darts player

1945 – Yukio Hattori, Japanese television commentator

1946 – Benny Andersson, Swedish musician, singer and songwriter (ABBA)

1946 – Trevor Pinnock, English conductor and harpsichordist

1947 – Ben Cross, English actor

1947 – Vincent Matthews, American sprinter

1948 – Christopher Biggins, English actor

1949 – Billy Gibbons, American guitarist (ZZ Top)

1950 – Claudia Cohen, American gossip columnist and socialite (d. 2007)

1950 – Roy Schuiten, Dutch cyclist (d. 2006)

1951 – Robben Ford, American guitarist

1952 – Joel Garner, Barbadian cricketer

1952 – Francesco Graziani, Italian footballer

1953 – Rebecca Forstadt, American voice actor

1955 – Xander Berkeley, American actor

1955 – Carol Browner, American environmentalist and government official

1955 – Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este

1957 – Antonio Vega, Spanish pop singer/songwriter (d. 2009)

1958 – Katie Leigh, American voice actress

1959 – Alison LaPlaca, American actress

1960 – Pat Van Den Hauwe, Belgian footballer

1960 – Canuto Kallan, Danish visual artist

1961 – Bill Hicks, American comedian (d. 1994)

1961 – Jon Tenney, American actor

1961 – Andre Andersen, Russian/Danish multi-instrumentalist and composer

1962 – Maruschka Detmers, Dutch actress

1962 – William Perry, American football player

1963 – Benjamin Bratt, American actor

1963 – Jeff Carson, American singer

1963 – James Mangold, American film director and screenwriter

1964 – Heike Drechsler, East German sprinter

1964 – Georgie Parker, Australian actress

1964 – Billy Ripken, American baseball player

1965 – Chris Jones, American baseball player

1965 – Melanie Sloan, American attorney

1965 – Nancy Valen, American actress

1966 – Clifford Robinson, American basketball player

1966 – Dennis Wise, English footballer

1967 – Donovan Bailey, Jamaican/Canadian sprinter,

1967 – Mark Palmer, American ambassador

1967 – Miranda Otto, Australian actress

1968 – Lalah Hathaway, American singer

1970 – Daniel Cosgrove, American actor

1971 – Michael McCary, American singer (Boyz II Men)

1971 – Seyhan Kurt, French/Turkish poet,writer

1971 – Paul van Dyk, German DJ

1972 – Angela Bloomfield, New Zealand actress

1972 – Charles Gipson, American baseball player

1972 – Željko Kalac, Australian footballer

1973 – Themba Mnguni, South African footballer

1973 – Scott Storch, Canadian/American hip-hop producer

1974 – Frida Hallgren, Swedish actress

1975 – Valentin Bădoi, Romanian footballer

1975 – Nawo Kawakita, Japanese drummer (Maximum the Hormone)

1975 – Benjamin Kowalewicz, Canadian musician (Billy Talent)

1975 – Jonathan Scarfe, Canadian actor

1977 – Éric Bélanger, Canadian ice hockey player

1977 – Sylvain Distin, French footballer

1978 – Gunter Van Handenhoven, Belgian footballer

1978 – Kaine, American rapper (Ying Yang Twins)

1979 – Mihai Trăistariu, Romanian singer

1979 – Jessie Ward, American professional wrestler

1979 – Trevor Immelman, South African golfer

1979 – Flo Rida, American rapper

1981 – Anna Sedokova, Ukrainian singer

1981 – Gareth Williams, Scottish footballer

1982 – Garnon Davies, Welsh actor

1982 – Antrel Rolle, American football player

1983 – Kelenna Azubuike, American basketball player

1983 – Danielle Lloyd, English model

1985 – Keita Tachibana, Japanese singer (w-inds.)

1986 – Alcides Escobar, Venezuelan baseball player

1987 – Beau Dowler, Australian footballer

1987 – Hallee Hirsh, American actress

1988 – Anna Popplewell, English actress

Deaths

705 – Empress Wu of Zhou (b. 625)

714 – Pippin of Herstal, Frankish noble

867 – Eberhard of Friuli

999 – Saint Adelaide of Italy (b. 931)

1325 – Charles of Valois, son of Philip III of France (b. 1270)

1378 – Otto III of Montferrat

1379 – John FitzAlan, 1st Baron Arundel, British noble and naval commander

1470 – John II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1425)

1515 – Afonso de Albuquerque Portuguese naval commander (b. 1453)

1598 – Yi Sun-sin, Korean admiral (b. 1545)

1669 – Nathaniel Fiennes, English politician (b. c. 1608)

1687 – William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (b. 1623)

1751 – Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian general (b. 1700)

1765 – Peter Frederick Haldimand, Swiss military officer and surveyor (b. 1741/42)

1774 – François Quesnay, French economist (b. 1694)

1783 – Johann A. Hasse, German composer (b. 1699)

1783 – Sir William James, British naval commander (b. 1720)

1809 – Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, French chemist (b. 1755)

1859 – Wilhelm Grimm, German writer and folklorist (b. 1786)

1892 – Henry Yesler, American entrepreneur and politician (b. 1810)

1897 – Alphonse Daudet, French novelist and short story writer (b. 1840)

1898 – Pavel Tretyakov, Russian businessman and art collector (b. 1832)

1914 – Ivan Zajc, Croatian composer (b. 1832)

1916 – Ognjeslav Kostović Stepanović, Serbian inventor (b. 1851)

1921 – Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (b. 1835)

1922 – Gabriel Narutowicz, Polish politician (b. 1865)

1928 – Elinor Wylie, American poet and writer (b. 1885)

1930 – Herman Lamm, German-born American bank robber (b. 1890)

1935 – Thelma Todd, American actress (b. 1905)

1940 – Billy Hamilton, American baseball player (b. 1866)

1944 – Betsie ten Boom, sister of Corrie ten Boom and Holocaust victim (b. 1885)

1945 – Giovanni Agnelli, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1866)

1945 – Fumimaro Konoye, Japanese politician (b. 1891)

1948 – Denham Fouts, American gigolo and socialite (b. 1914)

1949 – Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (b. 1873)

1956 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)

1965 – W. Somerset Maugham, English writer (b. 1874)

1968 – Futabayama Sadaji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 35^th Yokozuna (b. 1912)

1968 – General Muhammad Suheimat, Jordanian military commander and statesman (b.1916)

1976 – Réal Caouette, French-Canadian politician (b. 1917)

1977 – Risto Jarva, Finnish filmmaker (b. 1934)

1980 – Colonel Sanders, American fast food entrepreneur (b. 1890)

1980 – Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (b. 1900)

1982 – Colin Chapman, English engineer and automobile manufacturer (b. 1928)

1983 – Debs Garms, American baseball player (b. 1907)

1985 – Thomas Bilotti, American organizied crime figure (b. 1940)

1985 – Paul Castellano, American organizied crime figure (b. 1915)

1988 – Sylvester James, American singer (b. 1948)

1989 – Óscar Alfredo Gálvez, Argentine racing driver (b. 1913)

1989 – Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (b. 1930)

1989 – Aileen Pringle, American actress (b. 1895)

1989 – Lee Van Cleef, American actor (b. 1925)

1990 – Douglas Campbell, American aviator (b. 1896)

1993 – Moses Gunn, American actor (b. 1929)

1993 – Tanaka Kakuei, Japanese politician (b. 1918)

1993 – Charizma, American Hip-Hop MC (b. 1973)

1995 – Johnny Moss, American poker player (b. 1907)

1995 – Mariele Ventre, Italian choir director (b. 1939)

1996 – Quentin Bell, English art historian (b. 1910)

1997 – Lillian Disney, widow of Walt Disney (b. 1899)

1997 – Nicolette Larson, American singer (b. 1952)

1998 – William Gaddis, American writer (b. 1922)

2001 – Stuart Adamson, English-born Scottish musician (The Skids, Big Country) (b. 1958)

2001 – Stefan Heym, German author (b. 1913)

2003 – Robert Stanfield, Canadian politician (b. 1914)

2003 – Gary Stewart, American musician and songwriter (b. 1945)

2004 – Ted Abernathy, American baseball player (b. 1933)

2005 – Kenneth Bulmer, English author (b. 1921)

2005 – Ed Hansen, American film director and editor (b. 1937)

2005 – John Spencer, American actor (b. 1946)

2006 – Don Jardine, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1940)

2006 – Taliep Petersen, South African singer and composer (b. 1950)

2006 – Pnina Salzman, Israeli pianist (b. 1922)

2007 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer/songwriter (b. 1951)

2009 – Roy E. Disney, American film industry executive (b. 1930)

2009 – Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South African physician and politician (b. 1940)

2009 – Yegor Gaidar, Russian politician (b. 1956)

2010 – Melvin E. Biddle, American soldier and Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances

Christian Feast Day:

*Adelaide of Italy

*December 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Day of Reconciliation, formerly celebrated as Day of the Vow by the Afrikaners (South Africa)

Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kazakhstan from the Soviet Union in 1991.

National Day, celebrates the withdrawal of United Kingdom from Bahrain, making Bahrain an independent emirate in 1971. However December 16 is only the date on which the state celebrates the event, while the actual day on which the independence of Bahrain was declared was August 15, 1971 (see Bahrain Independence Day)

National Sports Day (Thailand)

The beginning of the nine-day celebration beginning December 16 and ending December 24, celebrating the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born (Christians of Spanish-origin):

*The first day of Las Posadas (Mexico, other Latin Americans)

*The first day of Simbang Gabi (Philippines)

Victory Day (Bangladesh)

Victory Day (India)

External links

BBC: On This Day

On This Day in Canada

----

Category:Days of the year Category:December

Name	Vybz Kartel
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Adijah Palmer
Alias	Addi Di Teacha, Gaza Thug, Dancehall Hero
Born	January 07, 1975Kingston, Jamaica
Origin	Portmore, Jamaica
Genre	ReggaeDancehallReggae fusion
Occupation	DJ, Entrepreneur, Lyricist, Producer
Years active	2002–Present
Label	Adidjaheim Records, NotNice Production
Wife	Shakeem fisher
Associated acts	Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Aidonia Elephant Man, Ninjaman, Alliance, Portmore Empire, Major Lazer & Popcaan
Url	Vybz Kartel's MySpace

Adijah Palmer (born January 7, 1975), better known as Vybz Kartel, is a Jamaican dancehall artist and lyricist.

Biography

Kartel has had several collaborations with international hip hop and pop stars. He has released two albums for the UK/US based label Greensleeves Records. He was also featured twice on the Def Jamaica project, and nominated for the Source, VIBE and UK MOBO awards, although his 2004 UK MOBO award nomination was withdrawn amidst controversy over allegedly homophobic content of his lyrics.

Towards the end of 2006, due to disagreements and internal rivalries, Vybz Kartel left The Alliance, a group of dancehall artists founded by Bounty Killer(who was once a mentor to Kartel) . Tensions arose following Kartel's continued association with Bounty Killer's longtime enemy, Beenie Man, including Kartel attending Beenie Man's wedding to Bounty Killer's ex-girlfriend, D'Angel.

Following Vybz Kartel's departure from The Alliance, a very public feud arose between him and his former collaborator Mavado. Numerous diss tracks were released, in which each artist verbally attacked the other one and his associates over popular dancehall riddims.

The feud threatened to escalate beyond lyrics in the following months, with shootouts at the popular hangouts of the artists, and on-stage scuffles between members of each camp. This intensification prompted a police-overseen press conference in which both Mavado and Vybz Kartel publicly announced an end to hostilities and apologized to fans.

Education

Adijah Palmer attended Calabar High School in Kingston but was expelled. He completed his studies at Tutorial College, a private school in Kingston, Jamaica and graduated with English, History, Geography, and Literature at CXC levels.

Awards

2003

* Stone Love's 30th Anniversary

** DJ of the Year

2008

* CUMA (Caribbean Urban Music Awards)

2009

EME Awards

** Male DJ of the Year

** Lyricist/Songwriter of the Year

** Song of the Year (Romping Shop ft. Spice)

2010

EME Awards

** Male DJ of the Year

** Lyricist/Songwriter of the Year

** Recording Artist of the Year

WBLS Caribbean Artiste of the Year

References

External links

Vybz Kartel Feat. Russian – Jeans & Fitted

Vybz Kartel & Popcaan Tour Europe

Kartel reveals life story

Vybz Kartel, one of the baddest DJs

Vybz Katel vs Bounty Killer - The summer war

Category:1976 births Category:Living people Category:People from Kingston, Jamaica Category:Dancehall musicians Category:Reggae fusion artists Category:Jamaican reggae musicians

Name	Taylor Swift
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Taylor Alison Swift
Birth date	December 13, 1989Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, United States
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, ukulele
Genre	Country pop, pop, teen pop, country
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, actress
Years active	2006–present
Label	Big Machine
Notable instruments	Custom-built Taylor acoustic guitars
Url
Associated acts	Nathan Chapman, Liz Rose

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American country pop Fearless topped the Billboard 200 for 11 non-consecutive weeks; no album has spent more time at No. 1 since 2000. Swift was named Artist of the Year by Billboard Magazine in 2009. Swift released her third album Speak Now on October 25, 2010 which sold 1,047,000 copies in its first week.

In 2008, her albums sold a combined four million copies, making her the best-selling musician of the year in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Forbes ranked Swift 2009's 69th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $18 million and 2010's 12th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $45 million. Swift was ranked the 38th Best Artist of the 2000–10 decade by Billboard. In January 2010 Nielsen SoundScan listed Swift as the most commercially successful country (or country/pop crossover) artist in music history with over 28 million digital tracks sold. , she has sold over 16 million albums worldwide.

Early life

Swift was born on December 13, 1989, the only daughter of Andrea Gardner (née Finlay), a homemaker, and Scott Kingsley Swift, a stockbroker. She was born and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Her maternal grandmother, Majorie Finlay, was an opera singer. Swift has a younger brother, Austin.

When she was in fourth grade, she won a national poetry contest with a three-page poem entitled "Monster In My Closet". When Swift was 10, a computer repairman showed her how to play three chords on a guitar, sparking her interest in learning the instrument. Afterwards, she wrote her first song, "Lucky You". She began writing songs regularly and used it as an outlet to help her with her pain from not fitting in at school. She was a victim of bullying, and often wrote songs to express her emotions. Swift also started performing at karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs around her hometown. When she was 12, she devoted an entire summer to writing a 350-page novel, which remains unpublished. Her first major show was a well-received performance at the Bloomsburg Fair. Swift attended Hendersonville High School but was subsequently homeschooled for her junior and senior years. In 2008, she earned her high-school diploma.

Swift's greatest musical influence is Shania Twain. Her other influences include LeAnn Rimes, Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, and her grandmother. Although her grandmother was a professional opera singer, Swift's tastes always leaned more toward country music. In her younger years, she developed a love for Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton. She also credits the Dixie Chicks for demonstrating the impact you can make by "stretching boundaries".

Music career

2000–05: Musical beginnings

At age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville, hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town, but was rejected.

After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, where her rendition of the national anthem received much attention. Swift started writing songs and playing 12-string guitar when she was 12. Swift began to regularly visit Nashville and wrote songs with local songwriters. By the time she was 14, her family decided to move to an outlying Nashville suburb.

When Swift was 15, she rejected RCA Records because the company wanted to keep her on an artist development deal. After performing at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, she caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine Records. At age 14, she became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.

guitar in June 2006. Swift continues to perform with custom-made Taylor guitars.]]

2006–08: Taylor Swift

Swift released her debut single, "Tim McGraw", in mid-2006, reaching #6 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Songs chart. Her self-titled debut album was later released on October 24, 2006. Debuting high on the Billboard 200, the album sold 39,000 copies during its first week. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and #5 on the Billboard 200. Her debut album spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums charts and remained at the top for 24 out of 91 weeks. The only other country artists this decade to achieve the number-one sales position for 20 weeks or more are The Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood.

The music video for "Tim McGraw" won Swift an award for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2007 CMT Music Awards. Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of "GAC Short Cuts", a part-documentary, part-music-video series airing since the summer of 2006. On May 15, 2007, Swift performed "Tim McGraw" at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Swift has been an opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tour. She has opened in the past for George Strait, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts as well.

The second single from the Taylor Swift album, "Teardrops on My Guitar", was released February 24, 2007. In mid-2007, the song peaked at #2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released with a pop remix that brought "Teardrops on My Guitar" to #13 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Pop 100. In October 2007, Swift was awarded Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Assn. Intl., making her the youngest artist ever to win the award.

Her third song off her debut album, "Our Song" spent six weeks at #1 on the Country charts, peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100, and rose to #24 on the Billboard Pop 100. Swift recorded a holiday album, , which was released exclusively at Target in late 2007. Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse. Swift's successful single, "Picture to Burn", was the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted and soon peaked at #3 on the Billboard Country chart in spring 2008.

HQ in 2007.]]

"Should've Said No" became Swift's second #1 single. In Summer 2008, Swift released Beautiful Eyes, an EP sold exclusively at Wal-Mart. In its first week of release, the album sold 45,000 copies, debuting at #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart and #9 on the Billboard 200. With her self-titled debut album sitting at #2 during the same week, Swift became the first artist since 1997 to hold the Top 2 positions of the Top Country Albums chart. In October 2008, Swift performed a duet with best selling rock band Def Leppard in a taped show in Nashville, Tennessee, and their collaboration was up for both Performance of the Year and Wide Open Country Video of the Year at the CMT Music Awards in 2009.

2008–09: Fearless and MTV VMA incident

Swift's latest studio album, Fearless, was released in the United States on November 11, 2008. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Its sales of 592,304 were the highest debut of any country artist in 2008. This is also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the fourth biggest overall behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay. Its lead single "Love Story" became a hit on both the country and pop charts. During the first week of release, more than 129,000 of Swift's sales were sold digitally. This gives Swift the best online start for any country album in history. It also makes Swift the fourth biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004. Through its eighth week of release, Fearless has sold more than 338,467 downloads, making it the bestselling country album in digital history. In second place is Swift's debut Taylor Swift with sales of 236,046 downloads as of April 18, 2009.

In its debut week, seven songs in total on Fearless were charted on Billboard Hot 100, tying Swift with Miley Cyrus for the most by a female artist in a single week. With "White Horse" charted at #13, this gave Swift her sixth top 20 debut of 2008, a calendar year record for any artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Of the 13 tracks on Fearless, 11 have already spent time on the Hot 100. The song was also featured as part of the soundtrack of NBC's broadcast package of the Olympics.

The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released on September 12, 2008. The Fearless album includes the "Love Story" music video which is based on Romeo and Juliet. The song has reached #2 on iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Fifteen weeks after being added to pop radio, "Love Story" also became the first country crossover recording to hit number one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart in the 16-year-history of the list, as well as number one on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart.

The second single from Fearless, "White Horse", was released on December 8, 2008. The music video for the song premiered on CMT on February 7, 2009. Though it missed the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot Country Songs as of the week April 11, 2009, "White Horse" claimed the #1 spot atop the USA Today/Country Aircheck chart (powered by Mediabase) in that week. "Forever & Always", another song from the album, was based on Swift's relationship with singer Joe Jonas.

She was the first artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart.

Swift is Billboard's Top Country Artist and Hot Country Songwriter of 2008; she is also country music's best-selling artist of 2008. Swift ranked seventh on Nielsen SoundScan Canada's top-10 selling artists across all genres in 2008. Fearless and Taylor Swift took the #1 and #2 slots on 2008 Year-End Canadian Country Albums Chart. Swift sang the Star-Spangled Banner at game three of the World Series in Philadelphia on October 25, 2008.

in Prince Edward Island, Canada.]] In January 2009, Swift announced her North American Fearless Tour planned for 52 cities in 38 states and provinces in the US and Canada over the span of 6 months. The tour kicked off April 23 in Evansville, Indiana. In the same month, Swift made her first musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live. On February 8, 2009, Swift performed her song "Fifteen" with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards.

As of the week ending February 8, 2009, Swift's single "Love Story" became the country song with the most paid downloads in history. Since the release of Swift's second album, Fearless, she has released one new song "Crazier" for the of the feature film . At the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, Swift picked up Album of the Year honors as a performer and producer for Fearless.

Swift is the youngest artist in history to win the ACM Album of the Year award. The Academy lauded her for career achievements including selling more albums in 2008 than any other artist in any genre of music, the breakthrough success of her debut album, and the worldwide crossover success of her #1 single "Love Story". The Academy also cited Swift's contribution to helping country music attract a younger audience. As of late April 2009, Swift has sold more than 14 million downloads, as well as three Gold Mobile Ringtones.

On April 28, 2009, Swift gave a free, private concert to students at Bishop Ireton High School, a small Catholic school in Alexandria, Virginia after the school won a national "TXT 2 WIN" contest from Verizon Wireless. The students sent over 19,000 text messages to Verizon during a roughly one month long contest. Swift played for about an hour during the school's field day, an annual day-long recess with games and activities. On October 8, 2009 Swift's official website announced that her sold-out Fearless Tour would return to North America for 37 additional dates in 2010.

Scheduled to perform on September 13, 2009, Swift attended the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

This was her first VMA performance, where she became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award. During the show, as Swift was on stage accepting the award for Best Female Video for "You Belong with Me," singer/rapper Kanye West came on stage and took the microphone from Swift, saying that Beyoncé's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated for the same award, was "one of the best videos of all time," an action that caused the many audience members to boo West. He handed the microphone back to a stunned and reportedly upset Swift, who did not finish her acceptance speech. When Beyoncé later won the award for Best Video of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", she called Swift up on stage so that she could finish her acceptance speech.

Following the awards show, West apologized for his verbal outburst in a blog entry (which was subsequently removed). and even by President Barack Obama in an "off the record" comment. He later posted a second apology on his blog and made his first public apology one day after the incident on the debut episode of The Jay Leno Show. She said West had not spoken to her following the incident.

On the chart week of November 14, 2009, Swift set a record for the most songs on the Billboard Hot 100 by a female artist at the same time with eight singles from the re-release of her 2008 album Fearless namely five debut new songs in the top 30: "Jump Then Fall" at #10, "Untouchable" at #19, "The Other Side of the Door" at #22, "Superstar" at #27 and "Come in With the Rain" at #30 and three already-charted songs that were released as singles—"You Belong with Me" (#14), "Forever & Always" which re-entered the chart at #34, and "Fifteen" (#46).

In addition, the song "Two Is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls which features Swift, debuted at #80 in the same issue. This gives Swift six debuts in one week, the biggest number of debuts by any female artist of all time. It also lifts the number of her simultaneously-charting songs to nine, setting another record for the biggest number of charting songs by the same female artist in the same week. When "Fifteen" reached #38 on the chart week of November 21, 2009, Swift became the female artist with the most Top 40 singles this decade, surpassing Beyoncé. "Fifteen" became Swift's twentieth Top 40 single overall. "Two Is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls and John Mayer's "Half of My Heart" both featured Swift, peaking at #40 and #25 respectively. The two songs are her 21st and 22nd Top 40 singles.

Fearless was the best-selling album of 2009 in the US with more than 3.2 millions copies sold in that year. Swift claimed both the #1 and #2 positions atop Nielsen's BDS Top 10 Most Played Songs chart (all genres), with "You Belong With Me" and "Love Story," respectively. She also topped the all format 2009 Top 10 Artist Airplay chart with over 1.29 million song detections, and the Top 10 Artist Internet Streams chart with more than 46 million song plays.

2010–present: Speak Now

Swift released the track "Today Was a Fairytale" as a digital download on iTunes on January 19, 2010. The song was featured on the soundtrack for the film Valentine's Day, in which she made her feature-film acting debut. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 2, becoming her sixth Top 10 and 23rd Top 40 single on that chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan, with sales of "Today Was a Fairytale" more than 325,000 in its first week, Swift has broken the record for first-week download sales by a female artist. The song also debuted at number one on the Canadian Hot 100, making it Swift's first number one hit in Canada.

In February 2010, Swift brought her Fearless Tour to 5 cities in Australia. Opening acts included Gloriana.

In mid-July 2010, Billboard revealed that Swift's new album is called Speak Now. It was released on October 25, 2010. She has written the album completely by herself in Arkansas, New York, Boston and Nashville with Nathan Chapman serving as co-producer. On Wednesday, August 4, 2010, the lead single from the album, "Mine," was leaked onto the internet. Big Machine Records decided to rush the release of the song to counteract the leak.

Taylor Swift appeared at the 44th Annual Country Music Awards on November 10, 2010.

Songwriting style

Swift's lyrics are highly autobiographical; she has said that "If you listen to my albums, it’s like reading my diary." For example, the song "Forever & Always" was inspired by her relationship with Joe Jonas, while the song "Hey Stephen" was written about a boy who she toured with in the past. She has also indicated that she tries to write so her fans can relate to the lyrics, saying "My goal is to never write songs that my fans can't relate to." She parodied her confrontational style of songwriting during her appearance on Saturday Night Live; during her opening monologue, she performed an original song that featured lines such as "You might think I'd bring up Joe, that guy who broke up with me on the phone/ Hey, Joe, I'm doing real well, tonight I'm hosting 'SNL'" referring to her highly publicized relationship with Joe Jonas.

The intensely personal nature of the songs has drawn her attention in the music industry. Swift once said, "I thought people might find them hard to relate to, but it turned out that the more personal my songs were, the more closely people could relate to them."

The autobiographical nature of her songs has led some fans to research the songs' origins. Swift once said, "Every single one of the guys that I’ve written songs about has been tracked down on MySpace by my fans." The New York Times described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults".

Other work

Acting

In 2008, Swift made her acting debut in Brad Paisley's music video "Online". In that same year Swift filmed a documentary for MTV entitled MTV's Once Upon a Prom and a documentary with Def Leppard for CMT entitled CMT Crossroads, which premiered on November 7, 2008. Swift collaborated with the Jonas Brothers in their 3D Concert Film, . The film was released on February 27, 2009 in North America and brought in $12.7 million on its opening weekend. Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS's "Turn, Turn, Turn" as Haley Jones on March 5, 2009 in the U.S. and Canada. The episode was watched by 20.8 million viewers. Swift made a cameo appearance in Kellie Pickler's music video "Best Days of Your Life". Swift also appeared in credited as "woman singing in the barn". The film was released on April 10, 2009 in North America. The television show Dateline NBC showcased an hour on Swift on May 31, 2009. The episode titled Dateline NBC: On Tour With Taylor Swift included scenes from her tour bus, concert footage, and rehearsals. Swift both hosted and performed as the musical guest for the November 7, 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live. In 2010, Swift made her feature film acting debut as Felicia in the film Valentine's Day. For this role she won the Teen Choice Award for Movie Female Breakout.

Cover model and recognition

Swift has been featured on the cover of a number of magazines. She has been a cover girl for Blender, for which she was one of two country artists during the magazine’s fifteen year run to be a cover subject. She was included in People's annual "100 Most Beautiful People" 2008, 2009, and 2010 lists. Additionally, she was named number fifty-seven on Maxim's sexiest women of 2008, and number thirty-one on the 2010 list. CosmoGirl voted Swift as the "2008 Girl of the Year". Swift was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of "The RS 100: Agents of Change". She was nominated as a candidate for Times "2009 The Time 100 Finalists" list, which is determined by online voting. People magazine named Swift one of 25 Most Intriguing People of 2009.

Merchandise

Jakks Pacific released a celebrity doll of Swift in late 2008. Taylor Swift has been the face of L.E.I. Jeans (Life Energy Intelligence) since 2008. Swift and the L.e.i. Clothing Line made a deal to create a line based on Swift's style of dressing, which will appear in Wal-Mart in the coming months. However, Swift said she does not want to be called a designer. Instead, she says she will inspire the clothing company's dress line based on her own style. "I don't look at it like I'm branching out as a designer... It's not the Taylor Swift designer line." In 2009, Swift became the National Hockey League's newest celebrity spokesperson. She appears in commercials for the Nashville Predators.

In May 2009, Swift filed a lawsuit (kept sealed until August 2010) against numerous sellers of unauthorized counterfeit merchandise bearing her name, likeness, and trademarks, where she demanded a trial by jury, sought a judgement for compensatory damages, punitive damages, three times the actual damages sustained, and statutory damages, and sought for recovery of her attorney's fees and prejudgement interest. Nashville's U.S. District Court granted an injunction and judgment against the sellers, who had been identified at Swift's concerts in several states. The court ordered merchandise seized from the defendants to be destroyed.

Philanthropy

]] On September 21, 2007, Swift helped launch a campaign to protect children from online predators. She has teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to combat internet sex crimes.

Swift donated $100,000 to the Red Cross in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to help the victims of the Iowa flood of 2008. Swift has teamed up with Sound Matters to make listeners aware of listening "responsibly". Swift supports @15, a teen-led social change platform underwritten by Best Buy to give teens opportunities to direct the company's philanthropy through the newly-created @15 Fund. Swift's song, "Fifteen", is featured in this campaign. Swift lent her support to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal by joining the lineup at Sydney's Sound Relief concert, reportedly making the biggest contribution of any artist playing at Sound Relief to the Australian Red Cross. Swift donated her prom dress, which raised $1,200 for charity, to DonateMyDress.org. On November 20, 2009 after a live performance on BBC's Children in Need night Swift announced to Sir Terry Wogan she would donate £13,000 of her own money to the cause.

On December 13, Swift's own birthday, she donated $250,000 to various schools around the country which she had either attended or been involved with. Taylor Swift has donated a pair of her shoes - a gently-worn pair of black Betsey Johnson heels with her autograph on the sole - to the Wish Upon a Hero Foundation's Hero in Heels fundraiser for auction to raise money to benefit women with cancer.

In response to the May 2010 Tennessee floods, Swift donated $500,000 during a flood relief telethon hosted by WSMV, a Nashville television station.

Personal life

In 2008, Swift was in a relationship with pop singer Joe Jonas which ended in November of that year. Swift indicated that her heartbreak song, "Forever & Always", on her album Fearless was inspired by Jonas. The song "Back To December" off her album Speak Now, which Swift has described as an apology song, has been widely speculated to be dedicated to Lautner.

Filmography

Discography

Taylor Swift (2006)

Fearless (2008)

Speak Now (2010)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Category:1989 births Category:Living people Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:American child singers Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American female guitarists Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Big Machine Records artists Category:English-language singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from Pennsylvania Category:People from Berks County, Pennsylvania Category:Ukulele players Category:American Christians

Name	Ryan Bingham
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	George Ryan Bingham
Born	March 31, 1981Hobbs, New Mexico, United States
Origin	Spring, Texas, United States
Instrument	Vocals, guitar
Genre	Texas Country
Occupation	Musician
Years active	2006–present
Label	Lost Highway
Url	http://www.binghammusic.com/

Ryan Bingham (born March 31, 1981) is an American Academy Award-winning singer/songwriter. He has released three albums on the Lost Highway Records label.

Personal life

Bingham was born in Hobbs, New Mexico, and raised in Texas.

Career

After issuing self released "Wishbone Saloon" and "Dead Horses", the latter distributed by Lone Star Music, Bingham was signed to Lost Highway Records, who issued his first major label debut with Mescalito on October 2, 2007, produced by former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford. Texas Music Magazine has opined that "Bingham talks and sings with a whiskey-and-cigarette throat that screams hard living. Hard in a way that can make a 29-year-old sound like a 50-year-old Tom Waits."

Bingham spent several years on the rodeo circuit: He began bullriding in his late teens. His family moved several times, from Hobbs to Spring and Stephenville, Texas.

Bingham's bandmates, The Dead Horses, are Matthew Smith (drums), Corby Schaub (guitar and mandolin) and Elijah Ford (bass). The bass player on Mescalito was Jeb Stuart. They appeared with the Drive-by Truckers on the PBS show Austin City Limits in October 2007.

The first single from Mescalito, entitled "Southside of Heaven," was released on November 30, 2007. The next single was entitled "Bread and Water."

On June 2, 2009, Ryan Bingham and The Dead Horses released their second album titled Roadhouse Sun via Lost Highway Records. It was once again produced by Marc Ford.

Bingham performed two songs for the soundtrack of the movie Crazy Heart, including "I Don't Know," and the theme song, "The Weary Kind." In addition to these performances, Bingham wrote "The Weary Kind" and was produced by T Bone Burnett. He also had a small role in the film as Tony. On January 17, 2010, Bingham was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for "The Weary Kind" at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards. The song won Best Original Song at the 2010 82nd Academy Awards, as well as Song of the Year at the 9th Annual Americana Music Association awards.

Bingham's third major label release, Junky Star, was released on Lost Highway Records on August 31, 2010.

Reception

Bingham has appeared as a guest on Bob Harris's Country Show on the BBC's Radio 2. Daryl Easlea, writing for the BBC's folk and country review, said "Bingham will be one of the names to drop in 2008, with an album that sounds as if it's been unearthed from 1972."

Rolling Stone magazine gave Mescalito three out of five stars and wrote that Bingham "earns his sepia-toned album cover with a dusty wood-and-steel sound, and despite being twenty-five, sings like Steve Earle's dad."

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

Bingham's official website

Review of Roadhouse Sun from CountryMusicPride.com

Los Angeles Times article on Bingham

Interview with AmericanaRoots.com

Interview with LoneStarMusic.com

Category:1981 births Category:American male singers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singers Category:Songwriters from Texas Category:Golden Globe Award winning musicians Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:Living people Category:People from Austin, Texas Category:Texas country musicians Category:Lost Highway Records artists

Name	Rihanna
Capt size	100px
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Robyn Rihanna Fenty
Alias
Born	February 20, 1988Saint Michael, Barbados
Genre	R&B;, pop, dancehall, dance, hip hop, urban pop
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, executive producer, dancer, video director, philanthropist, cultural ambassador, author, actress
Instruments	Vocals, drums
Years active	2005–present
Label	Def Jam, SRP, Roc Nation
Description	"Pon de Replay" is Rihanna's debut single. The song encompasses the reggae genre using a mixture of dance-pop and R&B.;}}

Her music was marketed within the reggae genres because of her Caribbean descent. The album received mixed reviews by music critics. Rolling Stone magazine rated it 2.5 out of 5 stars and described as lacking the replay value, ingenuity and rhythm of the single with "generic vocal hiccups and frills" of US R&B; inflecting upon her "Caribbean charm". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine described the album as a "glut of teen R&B; chanteuses " and described her lead single "Pon de Replay" as "a dancehall-pop mixture that owes plenty of its sweat and shimmy to Beyoncé's "Baby Boy". The albums second single, "If It's Lovin' that You Want" was less successful than "Pon de Replay", having managed a peak position of number thirty-six in the US, and number eleven on the UK Singles Chart. The album contained production from record producers Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken who produced most of her debut album, Stargate, J. R. Rotem and label-mate singer-songwriter Ne-Yo. While recording the album, Rihanna served as an opening act for Gwen Stefani to promote her debut album. The lead single, "SOS", peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her first number-one in the United States. less than eight months after her debut. The album reached number five on the Billboard 200 Internationally, the album peaked at number one on the Top Canadian Albums, five on the UK Albums Chart and number five on the Irish Album Chart. The critical response to the album was mixed; Rolling Stone magazine commented "Like her filler-packed debut album, this similar but superior follow-up doesn't deliver anything else as ingenious as its lead single." Critics described the album as a record that almost identically alternates between the sunny dancehall/dub-pop, hip-hop-infused club bangers and gushy, adult-oriented ballads. The second single, "Unfaithful", became a major worldwide hit, reaching the top ten in dozen countries around the world, including the United States where it reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as topping the charts in Canada, France and Switzerland. The albums third single, "We Ride" failed to reprise the success of the lead single but the fourth single, "Break It Off" featuring Sean Paul, jumped from number fifty-two to number ten eventually peaking at number nine. After the release of the album, Rihanna embarked on her first headlining tour, the . She then embarked on the Rock The Block Tour and then toured with Pussycat Dolls from November 2006 to February 2007 in the United Kingdom. Rihanna also made her acting debut in a cameo role in the straight-to-DVD film , which was released on August 8, 2006.

2007–08: Good Girl Gone Bad

With her third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), Rihanna wanted to head in a new direction with the help of music producers Timbaland, will.i.am and Sean Garrett, and re-imagine her album compositions with fresh, uptempo dance tracks. The album yielded eight hit singles — all singles reaching the top twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 — including the worldwide number-one hit "Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z. In addition to reaching number one in various countries, "Umbrella" was the number-one single in the United Kingdom for ten consecutive weeks, making it the longest-running number-one single since Wet Wet Wet's single "Love Is All Around" spent fifteen weeks at the top in 1994. The song is listed number three on the 100 Best Songs of 2007 published by Rolling Stone magazine. Her other singles, "Shut Up and Drive", "Don't Stop The Music" and "Hate That I Love You" were able to mirror the success of "Umbrella," with "Don't Stop the Music" reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 while peaking at number one in various countries. With the re-issue of her third album, titled , which was released in June 2008. Rihanna released the first singles from the re-release "Take a Bow" — which became a worldwide number-one hit — the duet with Maroon 5, "If I Never See Your Face Again," and the other US number-one hit "Disturbia." "Disturbia" reached to number four before reaching number one, as her previous single, "Take a Bow", was at number two, making Rihanna the seventh female singer to have two songs in the top five. Meanwhile, Rihanna was featured on rapper T.I.'s "Live Your Life," which peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Rihanna her fifth number-one single on the Hot 100 thus far ("SOS," "Umbrella," "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia," as well as T.I.'s "Live Your Life"). This made Rihanna one of the two female solo artist with the most number-one singles this decade, with the other being Beyoncé Knowles. It has shipped over two million units in the United States, receiving a two-times-platinum certification from the RIAA; this gave Rihanna her best-selling album to date. At the 2008 Grammy Awards, Rihanna earned her first Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, in addition to receiving five other nominations, including Record of the Year, Best Dance Recording, Best R&B; Performance by a Duo or Group and Best R&B; Song. In support of the album, she kicked off her second headlining tour The Good Girl Gone Bad Tour on September 12, 2007, with several shows across the United States, Canada and Europe and then embarked on the Glow in the Dark Tour with Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and N.E.R.D on April 16, 2008. Rihanna won Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B; Female Artist at the 2008 American Music Awards. In December 2008, Margeaux Watson of Entertainment Weekly wrote an article entitled "Rihanna: Diva of the year" which he referred to her breakout success of 2008.

2009: Domestic violence case and Rated R

On February 8, 2009, Rihanna's scheduled performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards was cancelled. Reports later surfaced regarding an alleged altercation with then-boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, who was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. On March 5, 2009, Brown was charged with assault and making criminal threats. Due to a leaked photograph from the Los Angeles Police Department obtained by TMZ.com—which revealed Rihanna had sustained visible injuries—an organization known as STOParazzi has proposed a law called "Rihanna's Law," which, if enacted, would "deter employees of law enforcement agencies from releasing photos or information that exploits crime victims." Gil Kaufman of VH1 reported "[t]he nonstop coverage of the Rihanna/Brown case has brought up a number of issues regarding the privacy of alleged victims of domestic violence, including the decision by almost all major news outlets to divulge the identity of the victim—which is not typically done in domestic-violence cases" and the controversial distribution of the leaked photograph. Rihanna was subpoenaed to testify during a preliminary hearing in L.A. on June 22, 2009. "The DA told me Rihanna will be subpoenaed. I will accept on her behalf," Rihanna's attorney, Donald Etra told Us Weekly. On June 22, 2009, Brown pled guilty to the felony assault. In exchange for his plea Brown received five years probation and was ordered to stay fifty yards away from Rihanna, unless at public events, which then will be reduced to ten yards.

red carpet in 2009]] Rihanna made an appearance as the central character in Kanye West's music video "Paranoid". She also collaborated with Jay-Z and West on "Run This Town" which peaked at number two on Billboard Hot 100 as well as reaching the top ten in ten other countries. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, bringing her total to three Grammys. Her fourth studio album, Rated R, was released in November 2009. Rolling Stone was favorable of the album commenting that "Rihanna has transformed her sound and made one of the best pop records of the year". The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of one million copies. In January 2010, Rihanna won two Barbados Music Awards for "Song of the Decade" with "Umbrella" and "Entertainer of the Decade". She was named "International Female Artist of the Year" at the 2010 NRJ Music Awards. Two other singles were released from Rated R, which included "Rockstar 101" and the final single from the album, "Te Amo". To further promote the album, she embarked on her worldwide tour, the Last Girl on Earth Tour.

2010–present: Loud

During the summer, Rihanna collaborated with rapper Eminem on "Love the Way You Lie", which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as other countries including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. The song became Rihanna's seventh number one hit single on the Hot 100 of her career, making her the female artist with the fifth-most number ones in the chart's history. Rihanna was asked by Kanye West in or around August 2010 to contribute to "All of the Lights", the fifth track from West's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In an interview with MTV News, Rihanna stated that she "loved" the song, which also features several other artists, including but not limited to Alicia Keys, John Legend, Fergie and Elton John. On October 19, 2010, Rihanna released a self-titled book, and is currently working on Peter Berg's film, Battleship, scheduled for release in 2012. On October 20, 2010, Rihanna announced that she was parting ways with manager Marc Jordan and will henceforth be managed by Jay-Z's Roc Nation Management. She is also starting her own company, Rihanna Entertainment, in which she will "merge all of her businesses including music, film, fragrance, fashion and book ventures". The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, selling 207,000 copies in its first week, becoming the fifth top-ten album of Rihanna's career in the US, with her best week of sales. Its lead single, "Only Girl (In the World)", was digitally released in the United States in September 2010. After many weeks, the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. "Only Girl" also reached number one in many other countries including Australia, Canada, and the UK. The album's second single, "What's My Name?", featuring rapper Drake, also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Although it was the second single from Loud, it reached the top spot before the first single, "Only Girl (In the World)" making it the first time in Hot 100 history that an album's debut single reached number one after the second single.

On December 5, 2010, Rihanna had three songs in the top ten on the UK singles chart with "Only Girl (In The World)" at number seven, "What's My Name?" at number eight, and the David Guetta single "Who's That Chick?" at number nine.. On January 9, 2011, the same three songs were in the top ten on the UK singles chart with "What's My Name?" at number one, "Only Girl (In The World)" at number nine, and the David Guetta single "Who's That Chick?" at number ten.

On January 9, 2011, "What's My Name?" hit the top spot on the official UK singles chart, giving Rihanna the record of being the first female solo artist to have 5 number one singles in the UK in consecutive years. In 2007, "Umbrella" gave Rihanna her first UK number one single; in 2008, "Take A Bow" gave her her second; in 2009, "Run This Town" was the third; in 2010, "Only Girl (In the World)" gave her her fourth UK number one single.

Artistry

Music and voice

Volume 65 of the Contemporary Black Biography book series notes that "Rihanna is the rare rhythm and blues (R&B;) diva to emerge from the Caribbean world." Becoming an international sensation, Rihanna is known for blending R&B; with Caribbean music, such as reggae and dancehall. Peter Coulter of the Antrim Times commented that "[Rihanna] has an amazing voice which showed during her acoustic set, she just needs to work on her audience engagement during live shows." At the time of her debut, reviewers referred to her as a "bubblegum queen" While performing at the Ottawa Bluesfest, Denis Armstrong of Canadian Online Explorer commented on her performance saying "her show was a Disney-esque choreographed fantasy of non-stop hip-swivelling, sassy attitude and personal endearments and a string of funky, sugar-free hits." After revealing a new image while headlining her first tour, she was likely to be criticized for her tight leather outfit during each show. A review in The Times compared Rihanna's stage wardrobe styling to that of Janet Jackson. He described her outfit as "a vision of Ann Summers couture in thigh-high boots and a few scraps of black PVC." Stuart Derdeyn of The Province commented that "even with the whole haute couture B&D; clearly firing on all points, she's still got a ways to go to become the new Janet Jackson."

Rihanna's musical style has changed during the release of her last three albums. She was originally marketed as a reggae singer since she burst into the music scene in 2005, with a styles of pop, R&B; and dancehall. Her music include various styles of musical genres, including contemporary R&B;, dance-pop and the Caribbean music styles of reggae and dancehall. With the release of Music of the Sun and its lead single "Pon de Replay", Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic described Rihanna's musical style as "synthesize Caribbean rhythms and beats with standard-issue urban dance-pop: Caribbean-inflected urban, if you will." Rihanna is described as utilizing "dancehall-lite beats and a reggae vocal cadence." Barry Walters of Rolling Stone considers Rihanna's A Girl Like Me to be "lightweight dancehall and R&B; jams." After the release of Good Girl Gone Bad, Allmusic's Andy Kellman credits Rihanna to be "as pop as pop gets." Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times described her hit "Umbrella" as a lightweight pop confection with a heavy hip-hop backbeat, a breezy love song enriched by those unexpectedly goth-sounding keyboards and by the incongruous hint of anguish in Rihanna’s girlish voice.

Her debut album featured production from pop veterans Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken who first discovered her. Sturken and Rogers have collaborated with Rihanna many times, including with her debut single "Pon de Replay", which helped launch her career with the tradition of reggae and dance pop and collaborated on her sophomore album. Rihanna then enlisted into the pop and contemporary R&B; working with music producer Stargate and singer-songwriter Ne-Yo on "Unfaithful" and sampling the key section, bass line, and drum beat from Soft Cell's 1981 single "Tainted Love" on "SOS". With songs like "Kisses Don't Lie" and "Shut Up and Drive", her music style became more rock-oriented. and less of the dancehall, reggae and ballad styles of her previous albums. She has included various styles of music from uptempo pop-reggae with "Pon De Replay", to an 80's new wave fueled club banger "SOS" to the whiff of gothic horror in a love song "Unfaithful". Most of her love subject ballads contain a mid-tempo pop sound, with an R&B; influences that uses of a gently strummed acoustic guitar with the production of Stargate and the songs written by Ne-Yo. She has taken to sampling songs from other artist like Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" on "SOS", Of Janet Jackson, Rihanna has commented that "[s]he was one of the first female pop icons that I could relate to ... She was so vibrant, she had so much energy. She still has power. I’ve seen her on stage, and she can stand there for 20 minutes and have the whole arena scream at her. You have to love Janet." Beyoncé Knowles has been named as a major influence, citing that she was inspired to start her career after watching Knowles on television as part of a Destiny's Child performance. Her other musical influences include Bob Marley, Alicia Keys Whitney Houston, Destiny's Child, Celine Dion, Brandy and Gwen Stefani. Her friend and former Island Def Jam record label artist Fefe Dobson was someone that she admired and looked up to, having a fellow artist writing, singing, and performing the music she truly loves.

Rihanna's music contains strong influences of caribbean music which include reggae and dancehall. The video for "Rude Boy" was inspired by her Caribbean roots. In an interview, she stated that while growing up in Barbados she grew up listening to reggae music and when she came to the United States she was exposed to many different types of music. During The Good Girl Gone Bad Tour, she did a cover to "Is This Love" which paid tribute to Marley; she would later do a cover song to Bob Marley & The Wailers' "Redemption Song". Rihanna commented that Marilyn Monroe and vintage clothing served for visual inspiration for the music video "Hate That I Love You" and "Rehab"; in contrast, the "dark, creepy" scenes of "Disturbia" have drawn comparison to Michael Jackson's Thriller. The music video ranked number five on the "Top Five Most Paranoid Music Videos" published by MTV Buzzworthy. Jon Bream of the Star Tribune commented "[i]n the tradition of Madonna and Janet Jackson, Rihanna has become the video vixen of the '00s ... Rihanna has perfected the pout, the long-legged strut and trend-setting hairdos that keep women and men alike checking her out on YouTube." George Epaminondas of InStyle considers Rihanna's music videos to be "cinematic" due to her "blend of lush island rhythms and swinging pop and ... mischievous sensuality."

Image

New York magazine described Rihanna's early look as a cookie-cutter teen queen while stating that she has the ability to shift looks so dramatically and with such ease. During the release of her sophomore album, many critics felt that Rihanna's sound and substance was too heavily similar to that of Beyoncé. The media even made negative reviews comparing her music, music videos, performances and even her image to Beyoncé, which garnered Rihanna much criticism. Some media even claimed that Jay-Z fashioned her to be a replica of Beyoncé. Since the release of her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna's image has become a sex symbol and set herself apart from other R&B; starlets, opting for designer couture over belly-baring crop tops. Sonya Magett of Black Voices reported that Rihanna's style has become quite risqué since she burst onto the scene four years ago. Rihanna's fashion and style landed her on the list of People's 10 Best Dressed Stars of 2008. In 2009, she ranked seventeenth on Glamour magazine's list of the 50 Most Glamorous Women. Tracey Lomrantz of Glamour commented, "If style risks could be measured in miles, Rihanna would have criss-crossed the globe a thousand times over already." She has appeared on Maxim's Hot 100 list for three consecutive years, from 2007 to 2009, listed in positions eight, fifteen, and eight, respectively. In June 2007, Rihanna was named 2007 Venus Breeze's "Celebrity Legs Of A Goddess" by Gillette.

Rihanna's tattoos have drawn much media attention. Her tattoos include a music note tattoo on her ankle, a Pisces sign behind her right ear, a Sanskrit prayer going down her hip, a star in her left ear, the word love on her left middle finger, an Arabic phrase meaning "Freedom in Christ" on her ribcage area, a trail of stars going down the back of her neck, a skull with a pink hair bow, the phrase "shhh..." on her right index finger, the date 11.4.86 in Roman numerals on top of her left shoulder, a henna-style dragon claw including hibiscus flowers, a handgun under her right armpit, a six-word phrase on her chest, and the phrase "rebelle fleur" on her neck, said to mean "rebel/rebellious flower" in French. Her gun tattoo was planned to be just below her shoulders but was ultimately located on her ribcage. In answer to criticism for her violence-themed tattoo, Keith "Bang Bang" McCurdy, her tattoo artist, was quick to explain his opinion that the image simply "represents strength and power". Her thirteenth tattoo which she had was on her chest and reads, "Never a failure, always a lesson". She had it tattoed backwards, McCurdy says, because she wanted to be able to read it in the mirror. When he asked why she wanted it, she said that it was her "motto in life for everything".

Other ventures

In October 2005, Rihanna struck her first endorsement deal with Secret Body Spray for them to sponsor her first tour, Rihanna's Secret Body Spray Tour In 2006, Rihanna participated in several endorsement deals, including Nike sportswear for the launch of her "SOS" She recorded a song written by Ne-Yo entitled "Just Be Happy" as part of the deal to promote their Happy fragrance. Rihanna also recorded a song called "Winning Women" with Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger for Procter & Gamble's female deodorant Secret. In 2007, Rihanna signed with CoverGirl and became a celebrity spokesperson which included appearances on TV commercials and in the Barbados Tourism Authority's tourism commercials.

In December 2008, Rihanna contracted with Gucci to appear in their ads for the Tattoo Heart Collection, a special-edition line. In the Gucci handbag ad, Rihanna is seen hanging from a giant hoop, scantily clad in a barely-there white bodysuit and wearing an oversized white Gucci purse. The success of her single, "Umbrella" earned her an endorsement deal with Totes. Her handlers pitched her hit "Umbrella" to Totes and the song became the soundtrack for commercials in which she starred. On April 8, 2009, it was announced that Rihanna inked a fragrance deal with Jay-Z’s licensing company Iconic Fragrances. The fragrance is set to be named Reb'l Fleur and released in 2011. Rihanna was working with her artistic director for Rated R, Simon Henwood, on the book Rihanna. It was released on September 14, 2010. In August 2010 Rihanna began appearing in an Australian television advert for Optus, a position previously held by Pink.

Philanthropy

Rihanna created her Believe Foundation in 2006 to help terminally ill children. Rihanna explained her reasons for starting the Foundation saying, "When I was young and I would watch television and I would see all the children suffering, I always said: when I grow up, I want to help." Rihanna is also heavily involved in the marketing of her native country of Barbados. She began by including the flag and broken trident in many of her videos, shooting her album packaging for A Girl Like Me there. She additionally was honored by the Prime Minister David Thompson, who presented her with several gifts at a national concert on February 20, 2008, in Barbados, called "Rihanna Day". In February 2008, Rihanna thanked and honoured her country during the acceptance speech for her win of "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" at the Grammy Awards. Although Rihanna is heavily involved in the promotion of her country and works with the government in Barbados to do so, she is often criticized by other Barbadians for everything from her music to her successes and for wearing "skimpy clothes". Rihanna, speaking on one incident, said, "I went to the beach and I had on a one-piece swimsuit with jeans [...] They took the picture and they made it look like a top that was really revealing... There were [...] radio programmes about it. It was a big deal for, like, three weeks straight – talking about I'm not setting a good example." Rihanna states she was bullied at school. "Having lighter skin wasn’t a problem in my household, but it was when I went to school — which really confused me at first. The harassment continued to my very last day of elementary school."

Rihanna has performed a number of concerts to raise funds for both charities and the Foundation and is a 2008 Cartier Love Charity Bracelet Ambassador. She performed at Madonna’s Raising Malawi fundraiser on February 6, 2008, in New York City. After becoming an honorary cultural ambassador for Barbados, Rihanna became involved with DKMS, an international donor network based in Tübingen, Germany, to try to find a donor for Lisa Gershowitz Flynn. The Manhattan attorney had been diagnosed in November with acute myelogenous leukemia. In January 2008, Rihanna contributed in the fight against AIDS when she visited the H&M; in New York to support Fashion Against AIDS by presenting her t-shirt design and signing autographs for a limited time with slogans like "Believe" and "Stop and Think." The collection features t-shirts and hoodies designed by Rihanna, Timbaland and other well-known designers, musicians and artists. The line, called Fashion Against AIDS, was launched in February 2008 to raise awareness of the disease among teens and spread awareness about HIV/AIDS. In August 2008, Rihanna and other pop, rock, R&B; and country singers such as Carrie Underwood, Ciara, Beyoncé Knowles, Leona Lewis, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, and Fergie recorded the charity single, "Just Stand Up!", the theme song to the anti-cancer campaign Stand Up to Cancer and its theme song. The singers performed the song live on September 5, 2008. Rihanna was also selected as the spokesmodel for Gucci’s first United Nations Children's Fund ad campaign. She appeared in the fashion house’s Tattoo Heart campaign, which premiered in December 2008. Rihanna was photographed in series of special edition print ads with United Nations Children's Fund items, twenty-five percent of sales will benefit the children’s charity.

On November 19, 2008, Rihanna was enlisted by Gucci's Frida Giannini along with Madonna to light the United Nations Children's Fund Christmas snowflake in New York City at the Grand Army Plaza. In 2008, she became the global representative and the face of the 4th annual Gucci Campaign to Benefit United Nations Children's Fund. The campaign aimed to raise funds for children in Africa through the sale of its Tattoo Heart collection of bags, which launched worldwide on November 19, 2008. Rihanna has been a part of many benefit concerts to help raise money for various illnesses, such as cancer for Hope Rocks. Rihanna performed on January 20, 2009, at the Recording Industry Association of America's Presidential Inauguration Charity Ball to raise money for the world largest anti-hunger organization. On April 2, 2009, Rihanna visited the NYU Medical Center to help look for another bone marrow donor for a young girl named Jasmina Anema. Rihanna first learned about Anema's plight in February 2009, when she saw the moving video Anema's best friend, Isabelle Huurman, and her mother, Karen Detrick, made appealing for donors to save Anema. Rihanna honored Anema's best friend, Isabella, for her efforts for trying to save her best friend at a DKMS Gala on May 7, 2009. Jasmina Anema eventually received her transplant on June 11, 2009, but died on January 27, 2010. In September 2009, Rihanna performed at Jay-Z's "Answer to Call" concert, which paid tribute to the police officers and firefighters who died on the September 11 attacks.

Discography

Music of the Sun (2005)

A Girl Like Me (2006)

Good Girl Gone Bad (2007)

Rated R (2009)

Loud (2010)

Tours

Main Tours

, 2006

The Good Girl Gone Bad Tour, 2007/8/9

Last Girl on Earth Tour, 2010/11

Loud Tour, 2011

Promotional Tours

Rihanna's Secret Body Spray Tour, 2005

A Girl's Night Out, 2007

Featured Tours

PCD World Tour, 2006

Rock Tha Block Tour, 2006

Glow in the Dark Tour, 2008

See also

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

List of awards and nominations received by Rihanna

List of number-one hits (United States)

List of Rihanna concert tours

List of Rihanna songs

References

External links

Rihanna at Island Def Jam Music Group

Rihanna's Believe Foundation

Category:1988 births Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Barbadian expatriates in the United States Category:Barbadian pop singers Category:Barbadian reggae musicians Category:Beauty pageant contestants Category:Dancehall musicians Category:Def Jam Recordings artists Category:English-language singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Hip hop singers Category:Juno Award winners Category:Living people Category:People from Saint Michael, Barbados Category:People of Guyanese descent Category:People of Irish descent Category:Reggae fusion artists Category:Rhythm and blues singers Category:World Music Awards winners

Name	Martin Short
Nickname's	Marty, Shorty
Caption	Short hosting Broadway on Broadway, September 2006
Birth name	Martin Hayter Short
Birth date	March 26, 1950
Birth place	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Comedian, actor, screenwriter, singer, producer, voice actor
Years active	1972–present
Spouse	Nancy Dolman (1980-2010 [her death]; 3 children)

Martin Hayter Short, CM (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian-American comedian, actor, writer, singer and producer. He is best known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live. He has also starred in many popular comedic films such as Three Amigos, Innerspace, Pure Luck, Jungle 2 Jungle, Mars Attacks!, Father of the Bride, and Father of the Bride Part 2.

Early life

Short, youngest of five children, was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, the son of Olive (née Hayter), a violinist, and Charles Patrick Short, a corporate executive with Stelco, a Canadian steel company. He had three older brothers, David, Michael, and Brian, and one older sister, Nora. Short's father was a Roman Catholic refugee from Crossmaglen, South Armagh, Northern Ireland, who came to North America as a stowaway during the Irish War of Independence. Short's mother, who was the concertmaster of the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, encouraged Martin's early creative endeavours. His eldest brother, David, was killed in a car accident in 1962, when Short was 12. His mother died of cancer when he was 17; and, two years later in 1969, his father died of complications from a stroke.

Short attended Westdale Secondary School and graduated in 1972 from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work.

Career

Early career

When Short graduated from McMaster University, he intended to pursue a career in social work; but he became interested in acting once he was cast in a Toronto production of Godspell that same year. Among other members of that production's cast were Victor Garber, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, and Andrea Martin; Paul Shaffer was the Musical Director. He was subsequently cast in several television shows and plays, including the intense topical drama Fortune and Men's Eyes. He worked solely in Canada through 1979.

In 1979, Short starred in the U.S. sitcom The Associates about a group of young novice lawyers working at a Wall Street law firm. In 1980, he joined the cast of I'm a Big Girl Now, a sitcom starring Diana Canova. Canova was offered the sitcom because of her success playing Corinne Tate Flotsky on ABC's Soap and left Soap shortly before Short's newlywed wife Nancy Dolman joined it.

SCTV

Short was encouraged to pursue comedy by McMaster classmates Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas, whom he joined at improv troupe The Second City in 1977. Short came to public notice when the troupe produced a show for television, Second City Television or SCTV, which ran for several years in Canada and the United States. At SCTV, Short developed several characters before moving on to Saturday Night Live for the 1984-1985 season:

Talk show host Brock Linehan, based on the Canadian interviewer Brian Linehan.

Aged songwriter Irving Cohen, loosely based on American composer Irving Caesar.

Spurious albino entertainer Jackie Rogers, Jr.

Current-events commentator Troy Soren

Industrialist and art patron Bradley P. Allen

Defense attorney Nathan Thurm

Oddball man-child Ed Grimley, later featured in his own animated television series, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley.

Saturday Night Live

At SNL, Short helped revive the show with his many characters after Eddie Murphy left. Short's SNL characters included Wheel of Fortune fan Ed Grimley, which he borrowed from his SCTV days. The Grimley character became Short's best-known original character. He also was recognized for his impersonations of celebrities, notably Jerry Lewis and Katharine Hepburn, and for the character of Nathan Thurm. SNL proved to be the springboard to a long career in film and TV.

Television

In addition to his revered work on SCTV and SNL, Short has starred in several television specials and series of his own. In 1985, Short starred in the one-hour Showtime special, Martin Short: Concert for the North Americas. This is Short's first live concert, interspersed with studio sketches and a wraparound featuring Jackie Rogers Jr. Co-produced by the CBC, this aired as The Martin Short Comedy Special in Canada in March 1986. In 1989, Short headlined another one-hour comedy special, this time for HBO, I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood, Short's classic send-up of all things Hollywood. It featured many of his characters including: Lawrence Orbach, Ed Grimley, Jackie Rogers Jr, Bradley P Allen, Troy Soren, and Dale O'Day (the dancing fence); released on VHS, it is now out of print. Martin Short has had no less than three shows called The Martin Short Show, including a sitcom (The Martin Short Show, 1994), a sketch comedy show (The Show Formerly Known as the Martin Short Show, 1995), and a syndicated talk show (The Martin Short Show, 1999). Short starred as Jiminy Glick on Comedy Central's Primetime Glick (2001–03). In addition to his own series, Short has guest starred on several shows including Arrested Development, and most recently in a critically acclaimed turn as Leonard Winstone on FX's Damages. As of August 2010, Short is the voice of the Cat in the Hat in The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! on the Public Broadcasting Service.

Film

After doing sketch comedy for several years, Short focused on film—appearing in ¡Three Amigos!, Innerspace, The Big Picture, Captain Ron, Clifford, and the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride and its sequel. In 1996, he appeared in Tim Burton's sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! as image-obsessed, hormonally driven Press Secretary Jerry Ross. In 2004, he wrote and starred in Jiminy Glick in Lalawood with Jan Hooks as his wife, Dixie Glick. Also in 1997, he appeared as Wall Street broker Richard Kempster in Jungle 2 Jungle starring Tim Allen. In 2006, he starred in another movie with Tim Allen, . Short was also in Pure Luck, directed by Nadia Tass, with Danny Glover and Sheila Kelley and in Three Fugitives, directed by Francis Veber, with Nick Nolte and James Earl Jones. He also played Thimbletack the Brownie from the Spiderwick Chronicles.

On August 31, 2007, he appeared as the new host of O Canada!, a 360° Circlevision® film premiering at Walt Disney World's EPCOT theme park.

Stage

Short also resumed work in the theater, taking a role in the 1993 musical version of the Neil Simon work The Goodbye Girl, receiving a Tony Award nomination and an Outer Critic Circle Award.

He had the lead role in the 1999 Broadway revival of the musical Little Me, which earned him a Tony Award and another Outer Celtic Circle Award.

In 2003, Short took to the stage once again in the critically acclaimed Los Angeles run of The Producers. Short played the role of the accountant, Leo Bloom, opposite Jason Alexander's Max Bialystock. Although the role of Leo Bloom was originated on Broadway by Matthew Broderick, Mel Brooks first approached Short about doing the part opposite Nathan Lane. On the subject, Short has stated in numerous interviews that, while he was thrilled by the opportunity, the idea of having to move his family from their Los Angeles home to New York for a year was less than ideal and ultimately proved a deal-breaker.

Short performed in his satirical one-man show, with a full cast of six, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway. The show toured several cities in the spring of 2006: began previews July 29; opened August 17; and closed January 7, 2007. In it, he performed his classic characters Grimley, Cohen, and Glick.

As Glick, Short brought a member of the audience (usually a celebrity) on stage and interviews him or her. Jerry Seinfeld was the guest on opening night and the subjects have included Al Roker, Bebe Neuwirth, Ben Stiller, Bernadette Peters, Bette Midler, Bill Maher, Bob Costas, Brian Williams, Chris Matthews, Chris Noth, Conan O'Brien, David Hasselhoff, David Schwimmer, Dennis Miller, Diane Keaton, Doris Roberts, Dylan Baker, Gene Simmons, Goldie Hawn, Isaac Mizrahi, James Belushi, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jerry Springer, Jimmy Fallon, Joe Scarborough, Jon Stewart, Kathleen Turner, Kathryn Erbe, Kevin Nealon, Kevin Pollak, Kristin Chenoweth, Larry King, Mariska Hargitay, Martha Stewart, Michael Kors, Michael Riedel, Molly Shannon, Nathan Lane, Neil Patrick Harris, Neil Simon, Nia Vardalos, Regis Philbin, Richard Kind, Rita Wilson, Roseanne, Rosie O'Donnell, Sean Hayes, Spencer Breslin, Stanley Tucci, Stephen Colbert, Steve Martin, Susan Lucci, Tom Burg, Toni Senecal, Tracey Ullman, Tucker Carlson, Victor Garber and many more.

The show also featured parodies of many celebrities including Celine Dion, Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Tommy Tune, Joan Rivers, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, Renée Zellweger, Jodie Foster, Rachel Ray, and Short's wife, actress Nancy Dolman. The cast album was released on April 10, 2007, and is available from Ghostlight Records, an imprint of Sh-K-Boom Records.

Since the closure of Fame Becomes Me, Short has continued to tour in his one-man show, which features many of his best-loved characters and sketches. In addition to Fame Becomes Me, some of the titles Short has used for his one-man show include "Stroke Me Lady Fame", "If I'd Saved, I Wouldn't Be Here", and, in more conservative markets, "Sunday in the Park with George Michael".

Personal life

Relationships

Short met Canadian comic actress Nancy Dolman in 1972 during the run of Godspell. He dated co-star Gilda Radner for most of the show's run then began dating Dolman, who was Radner's understudy, in 1974. The couple married in 1980.

Dolman retired from show business in 1985 to be a homemaker and raise her family. Short and Dolman had three children: Katherine Elizabeth (born December 2, 1983), Oliver Patrick (born April 29, 1986) and Henry Hayter (born August 4, 1989). Short and his family make their home in Pacific Palisades, California; and Short is a naturalized U.S. citizen, as well as a citizen of the United Kingdom. The Shorts also have a home on Lake Rosseau in Ontario, Canada. It was reported on August 23, 2010, by the Huffington Post and various media outlets, that Nancy Dolman Short had died. Short's representative confirmed the news but did not reveal the cause. It was later confirmed that the cause of death was cancer.

Short has two stars on Canada's Walk of Fame. He is a Roman Catholic. Short is the first cousin of Clare Short, a former member of the British Parliament and a former British cabinet minister.

Awards and honors

1972: Bachelor of Arts in social work: McMaster University

1982: Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program, SCTV Comedy Network; award shared

1982: Nelly Award: Outstanding Writing, SCTV Comedy Network

1993: Outer Critics Circle Award: Outstanding Actor in a Musical, The Goodbye Girl

1993: Theater World Award

1994: Member of the Order of Canada

1995: Earl Grey Life Time Achievement Award

1999: Outer Critics Circle Award: Outstanding Actor in a Musical, Little Me

1999: Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, Little Me

2000: Canada Walk of Fame

2001: Doctor of Letters honoris causa: McMaster University

2002: Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee Medal

Filmography

;Actor

;Writer

;Producer

;Director

In-character quotes

As Irving Cohen: "What hell kind of name is Roy!?"

As Irving Cohen: "Give me a C, a bouncy C."

As Irving Cohen (as his standard conclusion to an improvised song, of which he's sung a few bars, accompanied by replacing his cigar in his mouth): "...a dot dot dot, dee dee dee, and whatever the hell else you want to put in there."

As Ed Grimley (indrawn breath): "I must say...".

As Ed Grimley (clutching his burning fingers after removing a batch of cookies from the oven without using an oven mitt): "That's a pain that will tend to linger."

As Bradley Allen: "''You can't tell me that a woman who plays the tuba doesn't have a boyfriend somewhere... I mean who's going to carry the damn thing?"

As Bradley Allen (drinking Scotch and declining tissues after a productive cough): "No, I got it."

As Franc Eggelhoffer..."Every party has a pooper, that's why we invited you, party pooper, GEORGE BANKS! That's who!"

As Jack Frost (talking to a little girl who told him to chill) : "I invented chill!"

As Jack Frost (talking to the other members of the Legendary Council) "Excuse me! Did you accuse me of being skillful and delicious? Guilty as charged!"

As Huy.... "You're playing with the big boys now!"

References

External links

Martin Short at Godspell.ca

Northern Stars: Martin Short

; Interviews

Martin Short (June 16, 2010) — The Hour, season 6, episode 66

; Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me

Photo Coverage: Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me Opens on BroadwayWorld.com

Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from Ontario Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American impressionists (entertainers) Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:American television personalities Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American television writers Category:Canadian expatriate actors in the United States Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian immigrants to the United States Category:Canadian impressionists (entertainers) Category:Canadian musical theatre actors Category:Canadian Roman Catholics Category:Canadian people of Northern Ireland descent Category:Canadian stage actors Category:Canadian television comedians Category:Emmy Award winners Category:American people of Irish descent Category:McMaster University alumni Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Hamilton, Ontario Category:Second City alumni Category:Tony Award winners

Name	Kris Allen
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Kristopher Neil Allen
Born	June 21, 1985Jacksonville, Arkansas, United States
Died
Origin	Conway, Arkansas
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, viola, piano, keyboards
Genre	Pop rock, alternative rock, acoustic rock, CCM
Occupation	Singer-songwriter
Years active	2007–present
Label	Jive/19 Recordings
Url	www.KrisAllenOfficial.com/

Kristopher Neil "Kris" Allen (born June 21, 1985) is an American singer-songwriter from Conway, Arkansas, and the winner of the eighth season of American Idol. Prior to Idol, he self-released a 2007 album entitled Brand New Shoes.

Allen's Idol coronation song, "No Boundaries" and his version of "Heartless" both charted within the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. Allen's post-Idol self-titled album was released on November 17, 2009, through Jive Records. The album debuted at #11 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The album's lead single, "Live Like We're Dying", was released on September 21, 2009, and has so far peaked at #18 in the U.S. The album's second single, "The Truth", was released on May 11, 2010, the song featured Pat Monahan of the rock band Train on vocals. The third single is confirmed to be "Alright With Me", written by Allen and Joe King.

Biography

Early life

Allen was born in Jacksonville, Arkansas, to Kimberly (née Wood) and Neil Allen. He is the elder of two sons; his younger brother, Daniel, is a college cheer-leading coach.

Allen served as assistant music director at the New Life Church in both Conway, Arkansas, and Little Rock, Arkansas. Allen has participated in Christian missionary work around the world, including in Burma, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa, Spain, and Thailand. Additionally, he taught himself to play the guitar at age 13, and also plays the piano. His musical influences, as stated in his Idol confessionals, include the Beatles, Jamie Cullum, Jason Mraz, Pat Monahan, John Mayer and Michael Jackson. Allen played publicly for several years before trying out for Idol, even opening for earlier Idol contestant Sean Michel on multiple occasions. He has described his decision to audition for American Idol as a "last hurrah" before giving up his pursuit of a music career.

Education

After high school, Allen moved to Conway, Arkansas, to attend the University of Central Arkansas, where he was a business major and a member of Chi Alpha campus ministries. He soon dropped out to pursue music professionally, performing in local bars and working as a shoe salesman to make ends meet. Allen planned on going back to college to finish his degree and "get a real job",

Personal life

Allen married his high school sweetheart on September 26, 2008. The two began dating back in Allen's junior year of high school.

American Idol

Overview

Allen auditioned for the eighth season of American Idol in Louisville, Kentucky, with his brother Daniel, who did not make it to Hollywood. In the early stages of the season, he was among the finalists (along with Allison Iraheta) that received the least amount of screen time. Only several seconds of his first audition (and neither of his Hollywood Week solo performances) were shown, although his group performance with White Chocolate (including fellow finalist Matt Giraud) was aired in its entirety. The judges also asked him to participate in an un-aired sing-off with another contestant before they allowed him to enter the semifinals round.

Throughout the competition, Allen received many compliments for his folk-inspired interpretations of modern pop songs. He played several instruments during his performances, including the acoustic guitar, the electric guitar, the keyboard, and the piano. His performance of "To Make You Feel My Love" as part of the Top 11 earned praise from the judges, with Simon Cowell commenting, "I am genuinely beginning to think you have a shot of doing well in this competition." In the finals, he performed his own arrangement of "Ain't No Sunshine" on a keyboard, with a few musicians on stage, which earned praise from the judges. Cowell lauded it as Allen's "best performance so far."

On the first Top 7 night, Allen chose to sing the Oscar-winning song from the indie film Once. While Randy Jackson described it as "pitchy from note one", Kara DioGuardi declared it "one of your best moments ever." Allen subsequently received a signed record and other gifts from the original artists, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. On the second Top 7 show, Allen brought back the guitar for the fourth time and performed an original, acoustic version of "She Works Hard for the Money", complete with bongo drums and the band on stage. This earned praise from all four judges, with Abdul remarking "There aren’t many men who are willing to shop in the women’s department. You shopped and found a perfect fit." For his second Top 3 performance, Allen impressed the judges with an acoustic arrangement of Kanye West's "Heartless", prompting Jackson to state that he preferred it to West's original and The Fray's cover version. Cowell agreed and said, "I had written you out of the competition but that has changed after that performance." This performance helped Kris move on to the finals and win.

After being voted into the Top 3, Allen returned home to Arkansas and his hometown to film the material for the next two American Idol episodes. Allen's homecoming parade was greeted by a crowd estimated to be greater than 20,000. Allen performed at three concerts in Little Rock and Conway, Arkansas, playing many of his popular songs during the competition, including "Man in the Mirror", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Falling Slowly" and "She Works Hard for the Money" at the venues, as well as "Come Together" at the studio of local Fox affiliate KLRT-TV. He accompanied himself on all of these songs with his guitar.

During the final performance show, Allen performed a reprise of "Ain't No Sunshine", Simon Fuller's choice of "What's Goin' On" and the coronation song, "No Boundaries". During the final results show, he performed a duet with Keith Urban, singing Urban's single "Kiss a Girl", as well as a series of medleys with his fellow Season 8 contestants. Before the results were announced, Allen performed "We Are the Champions" with eventual runner-up Adam Lambert and Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen.

On May 20, 2009, Kris Allen was declared the winner of the eighth season of American Idol, becoming the first married contestant to claim the title, as well as the sixth winner from the Southern United States (only Jordin Sparks, raised in Glendale, Arizona, David Cook, from Blue Springs, Missouri, and Lee DeWyze, from Chicago, Illinois, were from outside the South). Allen also became the first winner to accept a trophy shaped like a microphone. Nearly 100 million votes were cast during the finale, setting a new world record for a televised singing competition. Unlike the previous season, the winning margin was undisclosed. Numerous sources, including the Associated Press, claimed that the margin "wasn't even close". Allen has admitted that the alleged disparity in votes was a "total surprise" to him.

Certain commentators labeled the win as an "upset" since runner-up Adam Lambert had received a significant amount of media attention throughout the season and was widely perceived to be the show's front-runner. His victory was seen as highly controversial as viewers and the media speculated about the details of the result. However, during the Top 3 results show, host Ryan Seacrest had revealed that the margin between Allen and Lambert was less than a million votes. Fox and AT&T; have stated that they "stand by the outcome" and are "absolutely certain" that "Kris Allen is the American Idol". Allen's first-week album sales were the weakest that had yet been seen by an Idol champion's post-show debut, although observers attributed this partly to weak album sales throughout the industry at the time.

Performances/Results

{|class="wikitable" ! Week ! Theme ! Song choice ! Original artist ! Performance order ! Result |- | Audition | Auditioner's Choice | "A Song for You" | Leon Russell | N/A | Advanced |- | Hollywood | First Solo | "For Once in My Life" | Stevie Wonder | N/A | Advanced |- | Hollywood | Group Performance | "I Want You Back" | The Jackson 5 | 1 | Advanced |- | Hollywood | Second Solo | "Everything" | Michael Bublé | N/A | Advanced |- | Top 36/Semi-Final 2 | Billboard Hot 100 Hits to Date | "Man in the Mirror" | Michael Jackson | 6 | Advanced |- | Top 13 | Michael Jackson | "Remember the Time" | Michael Jackson | 6 | Safe |- | Top 11 | Grand Ole Opry | "Make You Feel My Love" | Bob Dylan | 3 | Safe |- | Top 10 | Motown | "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" | Marvin Gaye | 2 | Safe |- | Top 9 | Top Downloads | "Ain't No Sunshine" | Bill Withers | 9 | Safe |- | Top 8 | Year They Were Born | "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" | Don Henley | 2 | Safe |- | Top 7 | Songs from the Cinema | "Falling Slowly" – Once | Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová | 6 | Safe |- | Top 7 | Disco | "She Works Hard for the Money" | Donna Summer | 2 | Safe |- | Top 5 | Rat Pack Standards | "The Way You Look Tonight" | Fred Astaire | 1 | Bottom 3 |- | Top 4 | Rock and Roll DuetSolo | "Renegade" with Danny Gokey"Come Together" | StyxThe Beatles | 34 | Safe |- | Top 3 | Judges' ChoiceContestant's Choice | "Apologize""Heartless" | OneRepublicKanye West | 25 | Safe |- | Top 2 | Contestant's ChoiceSimon Fuller's ChoiceCoronation Song | "Ain't No Sunshine""What's Going On""No Boundaries" | Bill WithersMarvin GayeKris Allen/Adam Lambert | 246 | Winner |} Due to the judges using their one save to save Matt Giraud, the Top 7 remained intact for another week. It was only announced that Allison Iraheta received the lowest number of votes this week. The other member(s) of the bottom two or three were never revealed, and the safe contestants were announced in random order. Song selected by Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi.

Post-Idol

After Allen's victory, he has been on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Access Hollywood, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Early Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's Fox News show, Huckabee, on which Allen sang a cover of The Beatles' song "Yesterday" with Huckabee accompanying him on bass guitar, and Good Morning America, in which Season 8 runner-up Adam Lambert and fellow American Idol winner David Cook performed together as a part of their Summer Concert Series. He was also a guest on Larry King Live (guest hosted by Ryan Seacrest) along with runner-up Adam Lambert, judge Paula Abdul, and the rest of the top ten finalists. His debut single, "No Boundaries", was released on May 20, 2009 on iTunes and debuted at #11 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for the week of May 29, 2009.

Allen's post-show tour also included a trip to Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort, where a parade was held in his honor. During his time at Disney, he visited The American Idol Experience, where he announced the winners of the day's competition. Shortly afterward, Allen returned to his hometown of Conway, Arkansas for the first time following the conclusion of the competition.

On June 5, 2009, Allen performed at the Walmart Annual Shareholders' Meeting 2009, and participated in a brief skit with host Ben Stiller. In addition to renditions of "No Boundaries" and "Heartless", Allen sang a duet with Motown legend Smokey Robinson on The Temptations classic "Get Ready". On June 7, 2009, Allen performed the National Anthem at Game 2 of the 2009 NBA Finals to a packed house including Adam Levine, Jack Nicholson, Rihanna, Paula Abdul and Leonardo DiCaprio. Following the performance, which was described as "executed to perfection," the announcement was made that Allen had signed a record deal with Jive Records (along with fellow finalist Allison Iraheta). His major label debut is now scheduled for a Fall 2009 release. In the announcement, Allen stated about his upcoming album, "Everyone's been asking me what it's going to sound like. It will be very similar to what you heard from me on the show – definitely in the pop/rock genre. I can't wait to get started!"

Kris is rumored to be working with Claude Kelly, David Hodges, Jon Foreman of Switchfoot, Salaam Remi and Joe King of The Fray on his debut album. He is also reportedly working with Toby Gad, Alex Band of The Calling, Dan Wilson of Semisonic, Chris Daughtry and Mat Kearney for the album.

Allen performed with David Gray as part of Boston's Mix 104.1 End of Summer bash September 19, 2009 at the Rooftop Pool at The Colonnade Hotel. Kris also performed at the Live in the Vineyard event in Napa on November 8, along with Collective Soul, A Fine Frenzy, and Parachute.

On November 6, 2009, his music video for "Live Like We're Dying" premiered on AOL's PopEater.com.

Allen's self-titled album was released on November 17, 2009. After its first week of sales, the album debuted at 11 on the Billboard 200 after selling just over 80,000 copies.

On January 24, 2010, Allen sang the National Anthem at the in New Orleans.

On February 25, 2010, he sang Let It Be for Haiti Relief on American Idol results show.

After returning to the American Idol stage for the first time since his win, Allen hit the road for his solo tour, starting in Madison, WI on June 1, 2010 and ending in Galveston, TX on July 3. He will supplement his solo tour by opening for major acts, including Keith Urban, OneRepublic, Maroon 5, Barenaked Ladies and another "Idol" alum, Daughtry. Allen will perform with acts during various dates during Summer 2010, beginning with two dates with the Ryan Tedder-fronted OneRepublic on March 19 and 20 at the Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, TX and the Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, TX. He'll then join Daughtry for a one-off date at the Hershey Pavilion in Hershey, PA. Allen will then join country star Keith Urban as his opening act for a string dates across the U.S., beginning on April 23 in Las Vegas, NV.

Allen will perform with Maroon 5 in a concert at Applebee's Park in Lexington, Kentucky on August 28, 2010.

The second single to be released from the album was "The Truth" featuring Patrick Monahan, the lead singer of the Grammy award-winning rock band Train, on vocals for the bridge of the song.

The third single to be released from the album will be "Alright with Me".

Allen is currently out on tour with the band Lifehouse.

Career

Brand New Shoes (2007–)

Kris Allen's musical career began in 2007, when he wrote and self-produced an album entitled Brand New Shoes with college friends and bandmates Michael Holmes (drums) and Chase Erwin (bass). As of March 2010, the album has sold around 275,000 copies. Kris's debut single "Live Like We're Dying" so far has peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving him is first top 20 in the U.S. In early March 2010, "Live Like We're Dying" passed 1 million in digital downloads, making it eligible to be certified platinum. The song continues to climb steadily on the charts, and the music video has twice ranked #1 on the VH1 Countdown. Allen's song "Before We Come Undone" was played during the January 13th episode of American Idol.

On January 24, 2010, Allen sang the national anthem for the 2010 NFC Championship Game. Kris has also been featured in many Ford commercials, during the American Idol showing.

On Feb 5 & 6 Kris had a concert in Cebu and McKinley Hills Open Ground in Fort Bonifacio in the Philippines

On Feb 8, Kris had his debut concert in Malaysia. Kris was the first American Idol winner to perform in the country.

On Feb 10, Kris Allen held a concert at Zirca in Singapore, making him the first and only American Idol winner to hold a solo concert in the country.

On February 19, Kris traveled to Haiti with the United Nations Foundation in order to raise awareness for the disaster relief efforts there as the UN and other groups continue to rebuild after the earthquake. Kris made an appearance during the February 25th American Idol results show to share footage of his experiences in Haiti and to perform "Let It Be". This performance was made available for download as a charity single on iTunes after the show.

On March 25 Kris traveled to Rwanda with TOMS shoes and Bridge 2 Rwanda, to drop off more than 35,000 pairs of shoes to children in need.

It was recently announced that the second single from the album would be "The Truth" featuring Patrick Monahan, the lead singer of the Grammy award-winning rock band Train, on vocals. Kris performed for the American Idol Finale to promote his debut album.

Allen officially revealed that the third single off his album will be "Alright with Me" on October 6, 2010.

His song "I Need to Know" was used in the episode of The Vampire Diaries "Kill or Be Killed" which aired on October 7, 2010.

On November 18, 2010, Allen posted an unofficial music video for his single "Alright With Me" on his official website to thank his fans for their support.

Discography

Brand New Shoes (2007)

Kris Allen (2009)

Songs in other media

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Kris Allen at Billboard.com

Category:American acoustic guitarists Category:American Christians Category:American Idol winners Category:American male singers Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American pianists Category:American performers of Christian music Category:American pop guitarists Category:American pop keyboardists Category:American pop singers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American violists Category:Jive Records artists Category:Musicians from Arkansas Category:People from Conway, Arkansas Category:People from Little Rock, Arkansas Category:1985 births Category:Living people Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers

Name	Kamal Heer
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Kamaljeet Singh Heer
Born	January 23, 1974Halluwal, Punjab, India
Origin	Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Instrument	Chimta, Harmonium and Vocals
Genre	Punjabi, Bhangra, Pop, Folk, Classical, Sad
Occupation	Singer and Music composer
Years active	Singing: 2000–Present Music Director: 1993–2000
Label	Plasma Records (India) Kiss Records (UK)
Associated acts	Manmohan Waris and Sangtar
Url	Official website

Kamaljeet Singh Heer aka Kamal Heer is an award winning Punjabi musician. Born on 23 January 1973, he is the younger brother of Manmohan Waris (the eldest of the brothers) and Sangtar, two other esteemed musicians. His live performances showcase his virtuosity with taan and his command of the art of traditional Punjabi music.

Career

Kamal Heer was born in the Village of Halluwal, Punjab, India. He learned music from Ustaad Jaswant Singh Bhanwra. After Kamal's family moved to Canada in 1990, Kamal and older brother Sangtar started composing music. In 1993 they composed music for Manmohan Waris's album, Gaairan Naal Penghan Jhotdiye which became a huge hit. Kamal continued composing till 1999. Kamal's debut album, Kamli released in 2000, which mostly avoided success. In 2002 Kamal Heer released Masti-Kanthay Vala which became very successful especially the superhit song "Kanthay Vala". Kamal Heer released Masti 2 in 2003 which contained superhit tracks "Nachne Nu Kare Mera Ji", "Kinnu Yaad Kar Kar Hasdi", "Hick Da Taveet" and "Ishq Ne Kamle Karte". Kamal Heer continued his success with Punjabi Virsa 2004-Toronto Live, a live album recorded in Toronto. The immense success of this live album lead to Punjabi Virsa concerts happening every year all around the world. Punjabi Virsa 2005, Punjabi Virsa 2006 and Punjabi Virsa 2008 have also been recorded live. After moderately successful studio albums, Masti Three (2006) and Chan Jiha Gabhru (2007), Kamal Heer released Jinday Ni Jinday in 2009. This album is considered his biggest hit to date. After the Punjabi Virsa 2009 tour of Australia and New Zealand Kamal is currently touring in Punjabi Virsa 2010.

Discography

Compilations

Music videos

Videography

{| border="3" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="2" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 2px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 100%;" |- bgcolor="DCCCCBBBBB" align="left" ! Release ! DVD ! Record Label ! Notes |- | August 2003 | Shaunki Mela 2003-Surrey Live | Plasma Records | Recorded Live in Surrey. Special Tribute Concert to Dhadi Amar Singh Shaunki. Along with Manmohan Waris, Gurpreet Ghuggi and Sangtar |- | July 2004 | Plasma Framed Vol. 1 | Plasma Records | Videos Along with Manmohan Waris |- | October 2004 | Punjabi Virsa 2004-Wonderland Live | Plasma Records/Kiss Records | Recorded Live In Toronto Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |- | November 2005 | Punjabi Virsa 2005-London Live | Plasma Records/Kiss Records | Recorded Live In London Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |- | 2006 | Punjabi Virsa Behind The Scenes | Plasma Records | Making Of Whole Punjabi Virsa Tour, Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |- | December 2006 | Punjabi Virsa 2006-Toronto Live | Plasma Records/Kiss RecordS | Recorded Live In Toronto Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |- | February 2009 | Punjabi Virsa 2008 Vancouver Live | Plasma Records | Recorded Live in Vancouver Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |}

Live performances

Concerts/Tours

{| border="3" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="2" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 2px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 100%;" |- bgcolor="EEEE" align="left" ! Date ! Concert/Tour ! Notes |- | August 2003 | Shaunki Mela 2003 | Special Tribute Concert to Dhadi Amar Singh Shaunki Along with Manmohan Waris, Sangtar and Gurpreet Ghuggi |- | October 2004 | Punjabi Virsa 2004 | Toured Canada and the USA Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |- | May–June 2005 | Punjabi Virsa 2005 | Toured Europe Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |- | April–October 2006 | Punjabi Virsa 2006 | Toured Australia, Canada, USA and Europe Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |- | August/September 2007 | Punjabi Virsa 2007 | Toured Europe Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |- | August/September 2008 | Punjabi Virsa 2008 | Toured Canada and the USA Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |- | August 2009 | Punjabi Virsa 2009 | Toured Australia and New Zealand Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |- | June–September 2010 | Punjabi Virsa 2010 | Is going to tour the UK in June and July 2010, USA in July and August 2010 and Canada in September 2010. Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |}

Other

{| border="3" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="2" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 2px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 100%;" |- bgcolor="CCCAABBBB" align="left" ! Date ! Performance ! Notes |- | 2008 | Parbat Ali Vijay Diwas | Performed During the Awards |}

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Kamal Heer.com (Flash needed)

Kamal Heer on MySpace Music

Plasma Records official Website

Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:Bhangra Category:Indian male singers Category:Indian musicians Category:Indian Sikhs Category:Punjabi-language singers Category:Punjabi people Category:Punjabi Virsa Category:Waris Brothers

Name	David Letterman
Caption	Speaking at the opening of the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute (September 2009)
Pseudonym	Earl Hofert
Birth name	David Michael Letterman
Birth date	April 12, 1947
Birth place	Indianapolis, Indiana
Notable work	Host of Late Night with David Letterman (NBC)Host of Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Signature	David Letterman Autograph.svg

}} David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC. Only Letterman's friend and mentor Johnny Carson has had a longer late-night hosting career. was a florist; his mother Dorothy Letterman (née Hofert, now Dorothy Mengering), a Presbyterian church secretary of German descent, is an occasional figure on the show, usually at holidays and birthdays. He has an older sister Janice and a younger sister Gretchen.

Letterman lived on the north side of Indianapolis (Broad Ripple area), not far from Speedway, IN, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he enjoyed collecting model cars, including racers. In 2000, he told an interviewer for Esquire that, while growing up, he admired his father's ability to tell jokes and be the life of the party. Harry Joseph Letterman survived a heart attack at age 36, when David was a young boy. The fear of losing his father was constantly with Letterman as he grew up. The elder Letterman died of a second heart attack at age 57.

Letterman attended his hometown's Broad Ripple High School at the same time as Marilyn Tucker Quayle (wife of the former Vice President) who lived nearby, and worked as a stock boy at the local Atlas supermarket. According to the Ball State Daily News, he originally had wanted to attend Indiana University, but his grades weren't good enough, so he decided to attend Ball State University, in Muncie, Indiana. He is a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and he graduated from what was then the Department of Radio and Television, in 1969. A self-described average student, Letterman endowed a scholarship for what he called "C students" at Ball State.

Though he registered for the draft and passed his physical after graduating from College, he avoided military service in Vietnam due to receiving a draft lottery number of 352 (out of 365).

Letterman began his broadcasting career as an announcer and newscaster at the college's student-run radio station—WBST—a 10-watt campus station which now is part of Indiana public radio. He was fired for treating classical music with irreverence.

Letterman credits Paul Dixon—host of the Paul Dixon Show, a Cincinnati-based talk show also shown in Indianapolis while Letterman was growing up—for inspiring his choice of career: :"I was just out of college [in 1969], and I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And then all the sudden I saw him doing it [on TV]. And I thought: That's really what I want to do!"

Weatherman

Letterman began his career as a radio talk show host on WNTS (AM), and on Indianapolis television station WLWI (now called WTHR) as a local anchor and weatherman. He received some recognition for his unpredictable on-air behavior, which included congratulating a tropical storm for being upgraded to a hurricane and predicting hail stones "the size of canned hams." (To this day he occasionally gives out canned hams on his show). He would also occasionally report the weather and the day's very high and low temps for fictitious cities ("Eight inches of snow in Bingree and surrounding areas."). He also starred in a local kiddie show, made wisecracks as host of a late night TV show called "Freeze-Dried Movies" (he once acted out a scene from "Godzilla" using plastic dinosaurs), and hosted a talk show that aired early on Saturday mornings called "Clover Power," in which he interviewed 4-H members about their projects.

In 1971, Letterman appeared as a pit road reporter for ABC Sports' tape-delayed coverage of the Indianapolis 500.

Move to Los Angeles

In 1975, encouraged by his then-wife Michelle and several of his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers, Letterman moved to Los Angeles, California, with hope of becoming a comedy writer. He started off by writing material for comedian Jimmie Walker. He also began performing stand-up comedy at The Comedy Store, a famed comedy club and proving ground for young comics.

Letterman appeared in the summer of 1977 on the short-lived Starland Vocal Band Show. He has since joked about how fortunate he was that nobody would ever see his performance on the program (due to its low ratings).

Letterman had a stint as a cast member on Mary Tyler Moore's variety show, Mary; a guest appearance on Mork & Mindy (as a parody of EST leader Werner Erhard); and appearances on game shows such as The $20,000 Pyramid, The Gong Show, Password Plus and Liar's Club. He also hosted a 1977 pilot for a game show entitled The Riddlers that was never picked up. His dry, sarcastic humor caught the attention of scouts for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and Letterman was soon a regular guest on the show. Letterman became a favorite of Carson's and was a regular guest host for the show beginning in 1978. Letterman personally credits Carson as the person who influenced his career the most.

NBC

Morning show

On June 23, 1980, Letterman was given his own morning comedy show on NBC, The David Letterman Show. It was originally 90 minutes long, but was shortened to 60 minutes in August. The show was a critical success, winning two Emmy Awards, but was a ratings disappointment and was canceled in October 1980.

Late Night with David Letterman

NBC kept Letterman under contract to try him in a different time slot. Late Night with David Letterman debuted February 1, 1982; the first guest on the first show was Bill Murray. The show ran weeknights at 12:30 a.m. Eastern Time, immediately following The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. It was seen as being edgy and unpredictable, and soon developed a cult following (particularly among college students). Letterman's reputation as an interviewer was borne out in verbal sparring matches with Cher (who even called him an asshole on the show), Shirley MacLaine, Charles Grodin, and Madonna. The show also featured inventive comedy segments and running characters, in a style heavily influenced by the 1950s and '60s programs of Steve Allen. Although Ernie Kovacs is often cited as an influence on the show, Letterman has denied this. In the final months of his first stint as host of The Tonight Show, Leno beat Letterman in the ratings by a 1.3 million viewer margin (5.2 million to 3.9 million), and Nightline and The Late Show were virtually tied. Once O'Brien took over Tonight, however, Letterman closed the gap in the ratings. O'Brien initially drove the median age of Tonight Show viewers from 55 to 45, with most older viewers opting to watch The Late Show instead.

Letterman's shows have garnered both critical and industry praise, receiving 67 Emmy Award nominations, winning twelve times in his first 20 years in late night television. From 1993–2009, Letterman ranked higher than Leno in the annual Harris Poll of Nation's Favorite TV Personality twelve times. Leno was higher than Letterman on that poll three times during the same period, in 1998, 2007, and 2008.

Hosting the Academy Awards

On March 27, 1995, Letterman acted as the host for the 67th Academy Awards ceremony. Critics blasted Letterman for what they deemed a poor hosting of the Oscars, noting that his irreverent style undermined the traditional importance and glamor of the event. In a joke about their unusual names (inspired by a similar joke by Woody Allen), he started off by introducing Uma Thurman to Oprah Winfrey, and then the both of them to Keanu Reeves: "Uma...Oprah! Oprah...Uma! Oprah, Uma...Keanu!" This and many of his other jokes fell flat. Although Letterman attracted the highest ratings to the annual telecast since 1983, many felt that the bad publicity garnered by Letterman's hosting caused a decline in the Late Show's ratings.

Letterman recycled the apparent debacle into a long-running gag. On his first show after the Oscars, he joked, "Looking back, I had no idea that thing was being televised." He lampooned his stint in the following year, during Billy Crystal's opening Oscar skit, which also parodied the plane-crashing scenes from that year's chief nominated film, The English Patient.

For years afterward, Letterman recounted his horrible hosting at the Oscars, although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences still holds Letterman in high regard and it has been rumored they have asked him to host the Oscars again. On September 7, 2010, he made an appearance on the premier of the 14th season of The View, and confirmed the rumors.

Heart surgery hiatus

On January 14, 2000, a routine check-up revealed that an artery in Letterman's heart was severely constricted. He was rushed to emergency surgery for a quintuple bypass.

During the initial weeks of his recovery, reruns of the Late Show were shown and introduced by friends of Letterman including Drew Barrymore, including Dr. O. Wayne Isom and physician Louis Aronne, who frequently appears on the show. In a show of emotion, Letterman was nearly in tears as he thanked the health care team with the words "These are the people who saved my life!" The episode earned an Emmy nomination. For a number of episodes, Letterman continued to crack jokes about his bypass, including saying, "Bypass surgery: it's when doctors surgically create new blood flow to your heart. A bypass is what happened to me when I didn't get The Tonight Show! It's a whole different thing." In a later running gag he lobbied his home state of Indiana to rename the freeway circling Indianapolis (I-465) "The David Letterman Bypass." He also featured a montage of faux news coverage of his bypass surgery, which included a clip of Dave's heart for sale on the Home Shopping Network. Letterman became friends with his doctors and nurses. In 2008, a Rolling Stone interview stated "he hosted a doctor and nurse who'd helped perform the emergency quintuple-bypass heart surgery that saved his life in 2000. 'These are people who were complete strangers when they opened my chest,' he says. 'And now, eight years later, they're among my best friends.' "

Additionally, Letterman invited the band Foo Fighters to play "Everlong", introducing them as "my favorite band, playing my favorite song." During a later Foo Fighters appearance, Letterman said that Foo Fighters had been in the middle of a South American tour which they canceled to come play on his comeback episode.

Letterman again handed over the reins of the show to several guest hosts (including Bill Cosby, Brad Garrett, Elvis Costello, John McEnroe, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Bonnie Hunt, Luke Wilson and bandleader Paul Shaffer) in February 2003, when he was diagnosed with a severe case of shingles. Later that year, Letterman made regular use of guest hosts—including Tom Arnold and Kelsey Grammer—for new shows broadcast on Fridays. In March 2007, Adam Sandler—who had been scheduled to be the lead guest—served as a guest host while Letterman was ill with a stomach virus.

Re-signing with CBS

In March 2002, as Letterman's contract with CBS neared expiration, ABC offered him the time slot for long-running news program Nightline with Ted Koppel. Letterman was interested as he believed he could never match Leno's ratings at CBS due to weaker lead-ins from the network's late local news programs, but was reluctant to replace Koppel. Letterman addressed his decision to re-sign on the air, stating that he was content at CBS and that he had great respect for Koppel.

On December 4, 2006, CBS revealed that David Letterman signed a new contract to host The Late Show with David Letterman through the fall of 2010. "I'm thrilled to be continuing on at CBS," said Letterman. "At my age you really don't want to have to learn a new commute." Letterman further joked about the subject by pulling up his right pants leg, revealing a tattoo, presumably temporary, of the ABC logo.

"Thirteen years ago, David Letterman put CBS late night on the map and in the process became one of the defining icons of our network," said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation. "His presence on our air is an ongoing source of pride, and the creativity and imagination that the Late Show puts forth every night is an ongoing display of the highest quality entertainment. We are truly honored that one of the most revered and talented entertainers of our time will continue to call CBS 'home.'"

According to a 2007 article in Forbes magazine, Letterman earned $40 million a year. A 2009 article in The New York Times, however, said his salary was estimated at $32 million per year.

In June 2009, Letterman and CBS reached agreement to extend his contract to host The Late Show until August 2012. His previous contract had been set to expire in 2010. thus allowing his show to come back on air on January 2, 2008. On his first episode since being off air, he surprised the viewing audience with his newly grown beard, which signified solidarity with the strike. His beard was shaved off during the show on January 7, 2008.

Letterman and Carson

NBC's decision to select Jay Leno and not Letterman to succeed Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show was an embarrassment to Carson, who had all but promised the succession to Letterman. Letterman maintained a close relationship with Carson through his break with NBC. Three years after he left for CBS, HBO produced a made-for-television movie called The Late Shift, based on a book by New York Times reporter Bill Carter, chronicling the battle between Letterman and Leno for the coveted Tonight Show hosting spot. Letterman would mock the film for months afterward, specifically on how the actor playing him, John Michael Higgins, did not resemble him in the least. ("They took a guy who looked nothing like me and with make-up and special camera angles, turned him into a guy who looked nothing like me, with red hair.")

Carson later made a few cameo appearances as a guest on Letterman's show. Carson's final television appearance came May 13, 1994 on a Late Show episode taped in Los Angeles, when he made a surprise appearance during a 'Top 10 list' segment. The audience went wild as Letterman stood up and proudly invited Carson to sit at his desk. The applause was so protracted that Carson was unable to say anything, and he finally returned backstage as the applause continued (it was later explained that Carson had laryngitis, though Carson can be heard talking to Letterman during his appearance).

In early 2005, it was revealed that Carson still kept up with current events and late-night TV right up to his death that year, and that he occasionally sent jokes to Letterman, who used these jokes in his monologue; according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally (a onetime producer for both men), Carson got "a big kick out of it." Letterman would do a characteristic Johnny Carson golf swing after delivering one of Carson's jokes. In a tribute to Carson, all of the opening monologue jokes during the first show following Carson's death were written by Carson.

Lassally also claimed that Carson had always believed Letterman, not Leno, to be his "rightful successor." Letterman also frequently employs some of Carson's trademark bits on his show, including "Carnac the Magnificent" (with Paul Shaffer as Carnac), "Stump the Band" and the "Week in Review."

Letterman and Oprah Winfrey

On September 10, 2007, Letterman made his first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He shared pictures of his son and live-in girlfriend. The so-called feud between Letterman and Winfrey apparently ended in 2005 when Winfrey appeared on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman on December 2, in an event Letterman jokingly referred to as "the Super Bowl of Love". Oprah had previously appeared on Letterman's show when he was hosting NBC's Late Night on May 2, 1989.

Winfrey and Letterman also appeared together in a Late Show promo that aired during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLI in February 2007, with the two sitting next to each other on the couch watching the game. Since the game was played between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears, the Indianapolis-born Letterman wears a Peyton Manning jersey, while Winfrey—who tapes her show in Chicago—is in a Brian Urlacher jersey. Three years later, during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLIV, the two appeared again, this time with Winfrey sitting on a couch between Letterman and Jay Leno. The appearance was Letterman's idea: Leno flew to New York City in an NBC corporate jet, sneaking into the Ed Sullivan Theater during the Late Show's February 4 taping wearing a disguise, meeting Winfrey and Letterman at a living room set created in the theater's balcony where they taped their promo.

Other projects

Worldwide Pants

Letterman started his own production company—Worldwide Pants Incorporated—which produced his show and several others, including Everybody Loves Raymond , The Late Late Show, and several critically-acclaimed, but short-lived television series for Bonnie Hunt. Worldwide Pants also produced the dramedy program Ed, which aired on NBC from 2000–2004. It was Letterman's first association with NBC since he left the network in 1993. During Ed's run, the star, Tom Cavanagh, appeared as a guest on The Late Show several times.

In 2005, Worldwide Pants produced its first feature film, Strangers with Candy, which was a prequel to the Comedy Central TV series of the same title. In 2007, Worldwide Pants produced the ABC comedy series, Knights of Prosperity.

Worldwide Pants made significant news in December 2007 when it was announced that Letterman's company had independently negotiated its own contract with the Writers Guild of America, East, thus allowing Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and their writers to return to work, while the union continued its strike against production companies, networks and studios who had not reached an agreement.

Rahal Letterman Racing

Rahal Letterman Racing (RLR) is an auto racing team that currently races in the American Le Mans Series, and part-time in the Indy Racing League. It is co-owned by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and Letterman himself, and is based in Hilliard, Ohio. The team won the 2004 Indianapolis 500 with driver Buddy Rice. Letterman was a pit reporter for ABC in the 1971 Indianapolis 500. The $21 million, David Letterman Communication and Media Building opened for the 2007 Fall semester. It features state-of-the-art recording equipment and facilities. Thousands of Ball State students, faculty, and local residents welcomed Letterman back to Indiana. Letterman's emotional speech touched on his struggles as a college student and his late father, and also included the "top ten good things about having your name on a building."

Letterman received the honor for his dedication to the university throughout his career as a comedian. Letterman finished with, "If reasonable people can put my name on a $21 million building, anything is possible."

Letterman also received a Sagamore of the Wabash from Governor Mitch Daniels.

Record company

In late April 2010, several music industry websites reported that David Letterman started a record label named Clear Entertainment/C.E. Music and signed his first artist, Runner Runner. Lucy Walsh announced on her myspace page that she has been signed by David Letterman and Clear Entertainment/C.E. Music and is working on her album.

Appearances in other media

Letterman appeared in issue 239 of the Marvel comic book The Avengers, in which the title characters are guests on Late Night. A parody of Letterman, called "David Endocrine", is gassed to death along with his bandleader named "Paul" and their audience in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.

Letterman provided vocals for the Warren Zevon song "Hit Somebody" from My Ride's Here, and provided the voice for Butt-head's father in the 1996 animated film, Beavis and Butt-head Do America. He also had a cameo in the feature film Cabin Boy, with Chris Elliott, who worked as a writer on Letterman's show. In this and other appearances, Letterman is listed in the credits as "Earl Hofert", the name of Letterman's maternal grandfather. He also appeared as himself in the Howard Stern biopic Private Parts as well as the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon, in a few episodes of Garry Shandling's 1990s TV series The Larry Sanders Show and in "The Abstinence", a 1996 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. Letterman also appeared in the pilot episode of the short-lived 1986 series "Coach Toast".

Personal life

Marriages and long-term relationships

In 1969, Letterman married Michelle Cook; the marriage ended by divorce in 1977. He also had a long-term relationship with former head writer and producer on Late Night, Merrill Markoe. In fact, Markoe was the mind behind several Late Night staples, such as "Stupid Pet/Human Tricks".

Letterman has a son, Harry Joseph Letterman (born in 2003), with Regina Lasko. Harry is named after Letterman's father. In 2005, police discovered a plot to kidnap Harry Letterman and ransom him for $5 million. Kelly Frank, a house painter who had worked for Letterman, was charged in the conspiracy.

Letterman and Lasko, who had been together since 1986, wed during a quiet courthouse civil ceremony in Choteau, Montana, on March 19, 2009. Letterman announced the marriage during the taping of his March 23 show, shortly after congratulating Bruce Willis for getting married the previous week. Letterman told the audience he nearly missed the ceremony because his truck became stuck in mud two miles from their house. The family resides in North Salem, New York, on a estate.

Stalking incidents

Beginning in May 1988, Letterman was stalked by Margaret Mary Ray, a woman suffering from schizophrenia. Letterman occasionally referenced her in his show, although not by name. She committed suicide in 1998. Letterman publicly expressed sympathy upon her death.

Extortion attempt and revelation of affairs

On his October 1, 2009 show, Letterman announced that he had been the victim of an extortion attempt by someone threatening to reveal that he had had sex with several of his female employees. He confirmed the relationships.

Letterman stated that three weeks earlier (on September 9, 2009) someone had left a package in his car with material he said he would write into a screenplay and a book if Letterman did not pay him $2 million. Letterman said that he contacted the Manhattan District Attorney's office, ultimately cooperating with them to conduct a sting operation involving giving the man a phony check. The extortionist, Robert J. "Joe" Halderman, a producer of the CBS true crime journalism series 48 Hours, was subsequently arrested after trying to deposit the check. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury and pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted grand larceny on October 2, 2009. Birkitt had until recently lived with Halderman, who is alleged to have copied Birkitt's personal diary and to have used it, along with private emails, in the blackmail package.

On October 3, 2009, a former CBS employee, Holly Hester, announced that she and Letterman had engaged in a year-long "secret" affair in the early 1990s while she was his intern and a student at New York University.

In the days following the initial announcement of the affairs and the arrest, several prominent women, including Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host of NBC's Today Show, and NBC news anchor Ann Curry questioned whether Letterman's affairs with subordinates created an unfair working environment. A spokesman for Worldwide Pants said that the company's sexual harassment policy did not prohibit sexual relationships between managers and employees. According to business news reporter Eve Tahmincioglu, "CBS suppliers are supposed to follow the company's business conduct policies" and the CBS 2008 Business Conduct Statement states that "If a consenting romantic or sexual relationship between a supervisor and a direct or indirect subordinate should develop, CBS requires the supervisor to disclose this information to his or her Company's Human Resources Department..."

On October 5, 2009, Letterman devoted a segment of his show to a public apology to his wife and staff. Three days later, Worldwide Pants announced that Birkitt had been placed on a "paid leave of absence" from the Late Show. On October 15, CBS News announced that the company's Chief Investigative Correspondent, Armen Keteyian, had been assigned to conduct an "in-depth investigation" into Halderman's blackmail of Letterman.

On March 9, 2010, Halderman pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny and served a 6-month jail sentence, followed by probation and community service.

Awards

In his capacities as either a writer, producer, performer, or as part of a writing team, David Letterman is among the most nominated people in Emmy Award history with 52 nominations, winning two Daytime Emmys and five Primetime Emmys since 1981. His nomination record is second only to producer Jac Venza, who holds the record for the most Emmy nominations for an individual (57). Letterman has been nominated every year since 1984, when he first appeared on late night television as the host of Late Night with David Letterman. Additionally, he has won four American Comedy Awards.

References

External links

David Letterman's Feb. 24, 1978 appearance on 90 Minutes Live

Official Late Show biography

1999 article on Letterman from Salon.com

Tape of Letterman announcing affairs/extortion attempt on Late Show

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:American people of German descent Category:American television talk show hosts Category:Ball State University alumni Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Indianapolis, Indiana television anchors Category:Indy Racing League owners Category:People from Indianapolis, Indiana Category:Weather presenters

Name	Backstreet Boys
Img capt	Backstreet Boys
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Orlando, Florida, United States
Genre	Pop, pop rock, R&B;, teen pop, adult contemporary but the remaining members did not rule out a possible return of the singer. They rose to fame with their debut international album, Backstreet Boys (1996). In the following year, they released their second international album, Backstreet's Back (1997) and their debut album in the United States which continued the group's success worldwide. They rose to superstardom with their album Millennium (1999) and its follow-up album, Black & Blue (2000). After a three-year hiatus, the band regrouped and have since released three albums: Never Gone (2005), Unbreakable (2007) and This Is Us (2009).
Name	Boys, Backstreet

Category:World Music Awards winners Category:Sony/ATV Music Publishing artists Category:Sony BMG artists Category:Jive Records artists Category:2010s music groups Category:2000s music groups Category:1990s music groups Category:Musical quintets Category:Bubblegum pop Category:American dance music groups Category:American pop music groups Category:American boy bands Category:Musical groups from Orlando, Florida Category:Musical groups established in 1993