Name	Alsace
Reg logo	AlsLogo.png
Map	Rimex-France location Alsace.svg
Flag	Flag of Alsace.svg
Capital	Strasbourg
Largest city	Strasbourg
Area	8280
Population	1815488
Pop ref
Pop date	2006
Website	region-alsace.eu
Leader	Philippe Richert (2010-)
Leader party	UMP
Departments	2
Dept1	Bas-Rhin
Dept2	Haut-Rhin
Nuts	FR4

Alsace ( ; Alsatian: Elsàss ; , pre-1996: Elsaß, ; ) is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area (8,280 km²), and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km² (total population in 2006: 1,815,488; January 1, 2008 estimate: 1,836,000). Alsace is located on France's eastern border and on the west bank of the upper Rhine adjacent to Germany and Switzerland. The political, economic and cultural capital as well as largest city of Alsace is Strasbourg. Due to that city being the seat of dozens of international organizations and bodies, Alsace is politically one of the most important regions in the European Union.

The name "Alsace" derives from the Germanic Ell-sass, meaning "Seated on the Ill", a river in Alsace. The region was historically part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was gradually annexed by France in the 17th century under kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV and made one of the provinces of France. Alsace is frequently mentioned in conjunction with Lorraine, because German possession of parts of these two régions (as the imperial province Alsace-Lorraine, 1871–1918) was contested in the 19th and 20th centuries, during which Alsace changed hands four times between France and Germany in 75 years.

Although the historical language of Alsace is Alsatian, a regional German language, today most Alsatians speak French, the official language of the country they have been a part of for most of the past three centuries. About 39% of the adult population, and probably less than 10% of the children, are fluent in Alsatian. There is therefore a substantial bilingual population in contemporary Alsace. The place names used in this article are in French. See this list for the original German place names.

History

Roman Alsace

In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters, but by 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. By 58 BC, the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture. To protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania Superior.

Frankish Alsace

With the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their language formed the basis of the modern-day Alsatian dialect. Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac, and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis' Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized. Alsace remained under Frankish control until the Frankish realm, following the Oaths of Strasbourg of 842, was formally dissolved in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun; the grandsons of Charlemagne divided the realm into three parts. Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia, which was ruled by the youngest grandson Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts. The part known as Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was given to Lothar's son. The rest was shared between Lothar's brothers Charles the Bald (ruler of the West Frankish realm) and Louis the German (ruler of the East Frankish realm). The Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, however; the region that was to become Alsace fell to the Holy Roman Empire as part of the Duchy of Swabia in the Treaty of Meersen in 870.

Alsace within the Holy Roman Empire

At about this time the entire region began to fragment into a number of feudal secular and ecclesiastical lordships, a situation which lasted into the 17th century and was a common process in Europe. Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors. Frederick I set up Alsace as a province (a procuratio, not a provincia) to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants. The idea was that such men would be more tractable and less likely to alienate the fief from the crown out of their own greed. The province had a single provincial court (Landgericht) and a central administration with its seat at Hagenau. Frederick II designated the Bishop of Strasbourg to administer Alsace, but the authority of the bishop was challenged by Count Rudolph of Habsburg, who received his rights from Frederick II's son Conrad IV. Strasbourg began to grow to become the most populous and commercially important town in the region. In 1262, after a long struggle with the ruling bishops, its citizens gained the status of free imperial city. A stop on the Paris-Vienna-Orient trade route, as well as a port on the Rhine route linking southern Germany and Switzerland to the Netherlands, England and Scandinavia, it became the political and economic center of the region. Cities such as Colmar and Hagenau also began to grow in economic importance and gained a kind of autonomy within the "Decapole" or "Dekapolis", a federation of ten free towns.

The prosperity of Alsace was terminated in the 14th century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, and the Black Death. These hardships were blamed on Jews, leading to the pogroms of 1336 and 1339. An additional natural disaster was the Rhine rift earthquake of 1356, one of Europe's worst which made ruins of Basel. Prosperity returned to Alsace under Habsburg administration during the Renaissance.

, Strasbourg]]

German central power had begun to decline following years of imperial adventures in Italian lands, ceding hegemony in Europe to France, which had long since centralized power. France began an aggressive policy of expanding eastward, first to the Rhône and Meuse Rivers, and when those borders were reached, aiming for the Rhine. In 1299, the French proposed a marriage alliance between Philip IV of France's sister and Albert I of Germany's son, with Alsace to be the dowry; however, the deal never came off. In 1307, the town of Belfort was first chartered by the Counts of Montbéliard. During the next century, France was to be militarily shattered by the Hundred Years' War, which prevented for a time any further tendencies in this direction. After the conclusion of the war, France was again free to pursue its desire to reach the Rhine and in 1444 a French army appeared in Lorraine and Alsace. It took up winter quarters, demanded the submission of Metz and Strasbourg and launched an attack on Basel.

In 1469, following the Treaty of St. Omer, Upper Alsace was sold by Archduke Sigismund of Austria to Charles of Burgundy. Although Charles was the nominal landlord, taxes were paid to Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. The latter was able to use this tax and a dynastic marriage to his advantage to gain back full control of Upper Alsace (apart from the free towns, but including Belfort) in 1477 when it became part of the demesne of the Habsburg family, who were also rulers of the empire. The town of Mulhouse joined the Swiss Confederation in 1515, where it was to remain until 1798.

By the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, Strasbourg was a prosperous community, and its inhabitants accepted Protestantism in 1523. Martin Bucer was a prominent Protestant reformer in the region. His efforts were countered by the Roman Catholic Habsburgs who tried to eradicate heresy in Upper Alsace. As a result, Alsace was transformed into a mosaic of Catholic and Protestant territories. On the other hand, Mömpelgard (Montbéliard) to the southwest of Alsace, belonging to the Counts of Württemberg since 1397, remained a Protestant enclave in France until 1793.

Incorporation into France

This situation prevailed until 1639 when most of Alsace was conquered by France to prevent it falling into the hands of the Spanish Habsburgs, who wanted a clear road to their valuable and rebellious possessions in the Spanish Netherlands. This occurred in the greater context of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Beset by enemies and to gain a free hand in Hungary, the Habsburgs sold their Sundgau territory (mostly in Upper Alsace) to France in 1646, which had occupied it, for the sum of 1.2 million Thalers. Thus, when the hostilities finally ceased in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia, most of Alsace went to France with some towns remaining independent. The treaty stipulations regarding Alsace were Byzantine and confusing; it is thought that this was purposely so that neither the French king nor the German emperor could gain tight control, but that one would play off the other, thereby assuring Alsace some measure of autonomy. Supporters of this theory point out that the treaty stipulations were authored by Imperial plenipotentiary Isaac Volmar, the former Chancellor of Alsace. The transfer of most of Alsace to France at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 marked its start, along with Lorraine, as a contested territory between France and Germany (French-German enmity).

Because warfare had caused large numbers of the population (mainly in the countryside) to die or to flee, numerous immigrants arrived from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Lorraine, Savoy and other areas after 1648 and until the mid-18th century. Between 1671-1711 Anabaptist refugees came from Switzerland, notably from Bern. Strasbourg became a main centre of the early Anabaptist movement.

France consolidated her hold with the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen, which brought the towns under her control. France occupied Strasbourg in 1681 in an unprovoked action, and from 1688 onwards devastated large parts of southern Germany according to the Brûlez le Palatinat! policy. These territorial changes were reinforced at the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick which ended the War of the Grand Alliance. However, Alsace had a somewhat exceptional position in the Kingdom of France. The German language was still used in local government, school, and education and the German (Lutheran) University of Strasbourg was continued and attended by students from Germany. The Edict of Fontainebleau, which legalized the suppression of French Protestantism, was not applied in Alsace. In contrast to the rest of France, there was a relative religious tolerance, although the French authorities tried to promote Catholicism and the Lutheran Strasbourg Cathedral had to be handed over to the Catholics in 1681. There was a customs boundary along the Vosges mountains against the rest of France while there was no such boundary against Germany. For these reasons Alsace remained marked by German culture and economically oriented towards Germany until the French Revolution.

French Revolution

The year 1789 brought the French Revolution and with it the first division of Alsace into the départements of Haut- and Bas-Rhin. Alsatians played an active role in the French Revolution. On July 21, 1789, after receiving news of the Storming of the Bastille in Paris, a crowd of people stormed the Strasbourg city hall, forcing the city administrators to flee and putting symbolically an end to the feudal system in Alsace. In 1792, Rouget de Lisle composed in Strasbourg the Revolutionary marching song La Marseillaise, which later became the anthem of France. La Marseillaise was played for the first time in April of that year in front of the mayor of Strasbourg Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich. Some of the most famous generals of the French Revolution also came from Alsace, notably Kellermann, the victor of Valmy, and Kléber, who led the armies of the French Republic in Vendée.

At the same time, some Alsatians were in opposition to the Jacobins and sympathetic to the invading forces of Austria and Prussia who sought to crush the nascent revolutionary republic. Many of the residents of the Sundgau made "pilgrimages" to places like Mariastein Abbey, near Basel, in Switzerland, for baptisms and weddings. When the French Revolutionary Army of the Rhine was victorious, tens of thousands fled east before it. When they were later permitted to return (in some cases not until 1799), it was often to find that their lands and homes had been confiscated. These conditions led to emigration by hundreds of families to newly-vacant lands in the Russian Empire in 1803–4 and again in 1808. A poignant retelling of this event based on what Goethe had personally witnessed can be found in his long poem Hermann and Dorothea.

In response to the restoration of Napoleon I of France, in 1814 and 1815, Alsace was occupied by foreign forces, including over 280,000 soldiers and 90,000 horses in Bas-Rhin alone. This had grave effects on trade and the economy of the region since former overland trade routes were switched to newly-opened Mediterranean and Atlantic seaports.

The population grew rapidly, from 800,000 in 1814 to 914,000 in 1830 and 1,067,000 in 1846. The combination of factors meant hunger, housing shortages and a lack of work for young people. Thus, it is not surprising that people left Alsace, not only to Paris, where the Alsatian community grew in numbers, with famous members such as Baron Haussmann, but also to far away places like Russia and the Austrian Empire to take advantage of new opportunities offered there. Austria had conquered lands in Eastern Europe from the Ottoman Empire and offered generous terms for colonists in order to consolidate their hold on the lands. Many Alsatians also began to sail for the United States. In 1843 and 1844, sailing ships full of families from Alsace, arrived at port of New York. These emigrants settled in Illinois, many to farm, or succeed in commercial ventures. (For example, May 1843 sailing ship Sully & June 1844 sailing ship Iowa carried families who settled in northern Illinois and northern Indiana). Some were noted for their roles in 19th century development People emigrated from Alsace to many areas in the US, 1820 to 1850.

Between France and Germany

France was provoked by the Ems Dispatch into the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), and was defeated by the Kingdom of Prussia and other German states. The end of the war led to the unification of Germany. Otto von Bismarck annexed Alsace and northern Lorraine to the new German Empire in 1871; unlike other members states of the German federation, which had governments of their own, the new Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine was under the sole authority of the Kaiser, administered directly by the imperial government in Berlin. Between 100,000 to 130,000 Alsatians (of a total population of about a million and a half) chose to remain French citizens and leave Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen, many of them resettling in French Algeria as Pied-Noirs. Only in 1911 was Alsace-Lorraine granted some measure of autonomy, which was manifested also in a flag and an anthem (Elsässisches Fahnenlied). In 1913, however, the Saverne Affair showed the limits of this new tolerance of the Alsatian identity.

During World War I, to avoid ground fights between brothers, many Alsatians served as sailors in the Kaiserliche Marine and took part in the Naval mutinies that led to the abdication of the Kaiser in November 1918, which left Alsace-Lorraine without a nominal head of state. The sailors returned home and tried to found a republic. While Jacques Peirotes, at this time deputy at the Landrat Elsass-Lothringen and just elected mayor of Strasbourg, proclaimed the forfeiture of the German Empire and the advent of the French Republic, a self-proclaimed government of Alsace-Lorraine declared independence as the "Republic of Alsace-Lorraine". French troops entered Alsace less than two weeks later to quash the worker strikes and remove the newly established soviets and revolutionaries from power. At the arrival of the French soldiers many Alsatians and even, ironically, local Prussian/German administrators & bureaucrats cheered due to the re-establishment of order (which can be seen and is described in detail in the reference video below) Although U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had insisted that the région was self-ruling by legal status, as its constitution had stated it was bound to the sole authority of the Kaiser and not to the German state, France tolerated no plebiscite, as granted by the League of Nations to some eastern German territories at this time, because Alsatians were considered by the French public as fellow Frenchmen liberated from German rule. Germany ceded the region to France under the Treaty of Versailles.

After World War I, the establishment of German identity in Alsace was reversed, as all Germans who had settled in Alsace since 1871 were expelled. Policies forbidding the use of German and requiring that of French were introduced. However, in order not to antagonize the Alsatians, the region was not subjected to some legal changes that had occurred in the rest of France between 1871 and 1919, such as the 1905 French Law of Separation of Church and State.

marked with "Elsaß" (1940)]]

The région was effectively annexed by Germany in 1940 during World War II, and incorporated into the Greater German Reich, which had been restructured into Reichsgaue. Alsace was merged with Baden, and Lorraine with the Saarland, to become part of a planned Westmark. The annexation, while putting a halt to the anti-German discrimination in the région, subjected it to the cruel Nazi dictatorship, which was loathed by most of the people. The German government never negotiated or declared a formal annexation, however, in order to preserve the possibility of an agreement with the West. During the war, 130,000 young men from Alsace and Lorraine were forcibly inducted into the German army and in some cases, the Waffen SS.

France regained control of the war-torn area in late 1944 and resumed its policy of promoting the French language and repressing the German with uncompromising vigor. For instance, from 1945 to 1984, the use of German in newspapers was restricted to a maximum of 25%.

However, today the territory enjoys laws in certain areas that are significantly different from the rest of France - this is known as the local law.

In more recent years, Alsatian is again being promoted by local, national and European authorities as an element of the region's identity. Alsatian is taught in schools (but not mandatory) as one of the regional languages of France. German is also taught as a foreign language in local kindergartens and schools. However, the Constitution of France still requires that French be the only official language of the Republic.

Timeline

{| class="wikitable" |- " ! Year(s) ! Event ! style="width:20%;"|Ruled by ! style="width:12%;"|Official language |- | 5400–4500 BC || Bandkeramiker/Linear Pottery cultures||—||None |- | 2300–750 BC || Bell Beaker cultures||—||None; Proto-Celtic spoken |- | 750–450 BC || Halstatt early Iron Age culture (early Celts)||—||None; Old Celtic spoken |- | 450–58 BC || Celts/Gauls firmly secured in entire Gaul, Alsace; trade with Greece is evident (Vix) || Celts/Gauls || None; Gaulish variety of Celtic widely spoken |- | 58 / 44 BC–AD 260 || Alsace and Gaul conquered by Caesar, provinciated to Germania Superior || Roman Empire || Latin; Gallic widely spoken |- | 260–274 || Postumus founds breakaway Gallic Empire || Gallic Empire || Latin, Gallic |- | 274–286 || Rome reconquers the Gallic Empire, Alsace || Roman Empire || Latin, Germanic (only in Argentoratum) |- | 286–378 || Diocletian divides the Roman Empire into Western and Eastern sectors || Roman Empire |- | around 300 || Beginning of Germanic migrations to the Roman Empire || Roman Empire |- | 378–395 || The Visigoths rebel, precursor to waves of German, and Hun invasions || Roman Empire |- | 395–436 || Death of Theodosius I, causing a permanent division between Western and Eastern Rome || Western Roman Empire |- | 436–486 || Germanic invasions of the Western Roman Empire || Roman Tributary of Gaul |- | 486–511 || Lower Alsace conquered by the Franks || Frankish Realm || Old Frankish, Latin |- | 531–614 || Upper Alsace conquered by the Franks || Frankish Realm |- | 614–795 || Totality of Alsace to the Frankish Kingdom || Frankish Realm |- | 795–814 || Charlemagne begins reign, Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the Romans on December 25, 800 || Frankish Empire || Old Frankish |- | 814|| Death of Charlemagne || Carolingian Empire || Old Frankish, Old High German |- | 847–870 || Treaty of Verdun gives Alsace and Lotharingia to Lothar I || Middle Francia (Carolingian Empire) || Frankish, Old High German |- | 870–889 || Treaty of Mersen gives Alsace to East Francia || East Francia (German Kingdom of the Carolingian Empire) || Frankish, Old High German |- | 889–962 || Carolingian Empire breaks up into five Kingdoms, Magyars and Vikings periodically raid Alsace || Kingdom of Germany || Old High German, Frankish |- | 962–1618 || Otto I crowned Holy Roman Emperor || Holy Roman Empire || Old High German, Modern High German. (Alemannic spoken widely) |- | 1618–1674 || Louis XIII annexes portions of Alsace during the Thirty Years' War || Holy Roman Empire || German |- | 1674–1871 || Louis XIV annexes the rest of Alsace during the Franco-Dutch War, establishing full French sovereignty over the region || Kingdom of France ||Official :French
Alsatian and German tolerated, but strongly suppressed in official circles. |- | 1871–1918 || Franco-Prussian war causes French cession of Alsace to German Empire || German Empire || German |- | 1919–1940 || Treaty of Versailles causes German cession of Alsace to France || France || French |- | 1940–1944 || Nazi Germany conquers Alsace || Nazi Germany || German |- | 1945–present || French control || France || Official: French.
Alsatian and German strongly suppressed until 1972. |}

Tourism

Having been early and always densely populated, Alsace is famous for its high number of picturesque villages, churches and castles and for the various beauties of its three main towns, in spite of severe destructions suffered throughout five centuries of wars between France and Germany.

Alsace is furthermore famous for its vineyards (especially along the 170 km of the Route des Vins d'Alsace from Marlenheim to Thann) and the Vosges mountains with their thick and green forests and picturesque lakes.

from the Maginot Line]]

Old towns of Strasbourg, Colmar, Sélestat, Guebwiller, Saverne, Obernai

Smaller cities and villages : Molsheim, Rosheim, Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé, Kaysersberg, Wissembourg, Neuwiller-lès-Saverne, Marmoutier, Rouffach, Soultz-Haut-Rhin, Bergheim, Hunspach, Seebach, Turckheim, Eguisheim, Neuf-Brisach, Ferrette, Niedermorschwihr

Churches (as main sights in otherwise less remarkable places) : Thann, Andlau, Murbach, Ebersmunster, Niederhaslach, Sigolsheim, Lautenbach, Epfig, Altorf, Ottmarsheim, Domfessel, Niederhaslach, Marmoutier and the fortified church at Hunawihr

Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg

Other castles : Ortenbourg and Ramstein (above Sélestat), Hohlandsbourg, Fleckenstein, Haut-Barr (above Saverne), Saint-Ulrich (above Ribeauvillé), Lichtenberg, Wangenbourg, the three Castles of Eguisheim, Pflixbourg, Wasigenstein, Andlau, Grand Geroldseck, Wasenbourg

Musée de l'automobile de Mulhouse

Cité du train museum in Mulhouse

The EDF museum in Mulhouse

Ungersheim's "écomusée" (open air museum) and "Bioscope" (leisure park about environment)

Musée historique in Haguenau, largest museum in Bas-Rhin outside of Strasbourg

Bibliothèque humaniste in Sélestat, one of the oldest public libraries in the world

Christmas markets in Kaysersberg, Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Colmar

Departmental Centre of the History of Families (CDHF) in Guebwiller

The Maginot Line: Ouvrage Schoenenbourg

Mount Ste Odile

Route des Vins d'Alsace (Alsace Wine Route)

Mémorial d'Alsace-Lorraine in Schirmeck

The Struthof, the only concentration and extermination camp on the French territory during WWII

Famous mountains: Massif du Donon, Grand Ballon, Petit Ballon, Ballon d'Alsace, Hohneck, Hartmannswillerkopf

National park : Parc naturel des Vosges du Nord

Regional park : Parc naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges (south of the Vosges)

Climate

Alsace has a semi-continental climate with cold and dry winters and hot summers. There is little precipitation because the Vosges protect it from the west. The city of Colmar has a sunny microclimate; it is the second driest city in France, with an annual precipitation of just 550 mm, making it ideal for vin d'Alsace (Alsatian wine).

Topography

Alsace has an area of 8,283 km², making it the smallest région of metropolitan France. It is almost four times longer than it is wide, corresponding to a plain between the Rhine in the east and the Vosges mountains in the west.

It includes the départements of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin (known previously as Sundgau and Nordgau). It borders Germany on the north and the east, Switzerland and Franche-Comté on the south, and Lorraine on the west.

Several valleys are also found in the région. Its highest point is the Grand Ballon in Haut-Rhin, which reaches a height of 1426 m.

Geology

, southern face, seen from the valley of the Thur]]

Alsace is the part of the plain of the Rhine located at the west of the Rhine, on its left bank. It is a rift or graben, from the Oligocene epoch, associated with its horsts : the Vosges and the Black Forest.

The Jura Mountains, formed by slip (induced by the alpine uplift) of the Mesozoic cover on the Triassic formations, goes through the area of Belfort.

Flora

It contains many forests, primarily in the Vosges and in Bas-Rhin (Haguenau Forest).

Politics

Alsace is one of the most conservative régions of France. It is one of just two régions in metropolitan France where the conservative right won the 2004 région elections and thus controls the Alsace Regional Council. Conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy got his best score in Alsace (over 65%) in the second round of the French presidential elections of 2007. The president of the Regional Council is Philippe Richert, a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, elected in the 2010 regional election. The frequently changing status of the région throughout history has left its mark on modern day politics in terms of a particular interest in national identity issues. Alsace is also one of the most pro-EU regions of France. It was one of the few French regions that voted 'yes' to the European Constitution in 2005.

Administrative divisions

The Alsace region is divided into 2 departments, 13 departmental arrondissements, 75 cantons (not shown here), and 904 communes:

Department of Bas-Rhin
(Number of communes in parentheses)

Arrondissement of Haguenau (56)

Arrondissement of Molsheim (69)

Arrondissement of Saverne (128)

Arrondissement of Sélestat-Erstein (101)

Arrondissement of Strasbourg-Campagne (104)

Arrondissement of Strasbourg-Ville (1)

Arrondissement of Wissembourg (68)

Department of Haut-Rhin
(Number of communes in parentheses)

Arrondissement of Altkirch (111)

Arrondissement of Colmar (62)

Arrondissement of Guebwiller (47)

Arrondissement of Mulhouse (73)

Arrondissement of Ribeauvillé (32)

Arrondissement of Thann (52)

Economy

According to the Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (INSEE), Alsace had a gross domestic product of 44.3 billion euros in 2002. With a GDP per capita of €24,804, it was the second-place région of France, losing only to Île-de-France. 68% of its jobs are in the services; 25% are in industry, making Alsace one of France's most industrialised régions.

Alsace is a région of varied economic activity, including:

viticulture (mostly along the Route des Vins d'Alsace between Marlenheim and Thann);

hop harvesting and brewing (half of French beer is produced in Alsace, especially in the vicinity of Strasbourg, notably in Strasbourg-Cronenbourg, Schiltigheim and Obernai);

forestry development

automobile industry (Mulhouse)

life sciences, as part of the trinational BioValley and

tourism

potassium chloride (until the late 20th century) and phosphate mining

Alsace has many international ties and 35% of firms are foreign companies (notably German, Swiss, American, Japanese, and Scandinavian).

Demographics

Alsace's population increased to 1,836,000 in 2008. It has regularly increased over time, except in wartime, by both natural growth and migration. This growth has even accelerated at the end of the 20th century. INSEE estimates that its population will grow 12.9% to 19.5% between 1999 and 2030.

With a density of 222/km², Alsace is the third most densely populated région in metropolitan France.

Transportation

Roads

Most major car journeys are made on the A35 autoroute, which links Saint-Louis on the Swiss border to Lauterbourg on the German border.

The A4 toll road (towards Paris) begins 20 km northwest of Strasbourg and the A36 toll road towards Lyon, begins 10 km west from Mulhouse.

Spaghetti-junctions (built in the 1970s and 1980s) are prominent in the comprehensive system of motorways in Alsace, especially in the outlying areas of Strasbourg and Mulhouse. These cause a major buildup of traffic and are the main sources of pollution in the towns, notably in Strasbourg where the motorway traffic of the A35 was 170,000 per day in 2002.

At present, plans are being considered for building a new dual carriageway west of Strasbourg, which would reduce the buildup of traffic in that area by picking up north- and southbound vehicles and getting rid of the buildup outside of Strasbourg. The line plans to link up the interchange of Hœrdt to the north of Strasbourg, with Innenheim in the southwest. The opening is envisaged at the end of 2011, with an average usage of 41,000 vehicles a day. Estimates of the French Works Commissioner however, raised some doubts over the interest of such a project, since it would pick up only about 10% of the traffic of the A35 at Strasbourg. Paradoxically, this reversed the situation of the 1950s. At that time, the French trunk road left of the Rhine not been built, so that traffic would cross into Germany to use the Karlsruhe-Basel Autobahn.

To add to the buildup of traffic, the neighbouring German state of Baden-Württemberg has imposed a tax on heavy-goods vehicles using their Autobahnen. Thus, a part of the HGVs travelling from north Germany to Switzerland or southern Alsace bypasses the A5 on the Alsace-Baden-Württemberg border and uses the untolled, French A35 instead.
The French Assemblée Nationale allowed a tax on HGVs using the alsatian road network in 2005. It must be applicated since beginning 2008.

Trains

TER Alsace is the rail network serving Alsace. Its network is articulated around the city of Strasbourg. It's one of the most developed rail network in France, financially sustained partly by the French railroad SNCF, and partly by the région Alsace.

Because the Vosges are surmountable only by the Col de Saverne and the Belfort Gap, it has been suggested that Alsace needs to open up and get closer to France in terms of its rail links.

The TGV Est (Paris - Strasbourg) was brought into service in June 2007, and different plans are due to be implemented:

the TGV Rhin-Rhône or a Dijon-Mulhouse line (to start in construction in 2006, with anticipated completion in 2011);

an interconnection with the German InterCityExpress, as far as Kehl and/or Ottmarsheim;

a tram-train system in Mulhouse (May 2006), then Strasbourg (2011).

However, the abandoned Maurice-Lemaire tunnel towards Saint-Dié-des-Vosges was rebuilt as a toll road.

Rivers

Port traffic of Alsace exceeds 15 million tonnes, of which about three quarters is centred on Strasbourg, which is the second busiest French fluvial harbour. The enlargement plan of the Rhine-Rhône channel, intended to link up the Mediterranean Sea and Central Europe (Rhine, Danube, North Sea and Baltic Sea) was abandoned in 1998 for reasons of expense and land erosion, notably in the Doubs valley.

Air traffic

There are two international airports in Alsace:

the international airport of Strasbourg in Entzheim;

the international EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, which is the seventh largest French airport in terms of traffic.

Strasbourg is also two hours away from one of the largest European airports, Frankfurt Main.

Religion

(architect : Jean-Baptiste Schacre), the main Calvinist church of Mulhouse.]] Most of the Alsatian population is Roman Catholic, but largely because of the region's German heritage, a significant Protestant community also exists: today, the EPAL (a united Lutheran-Reformed church) is France's second largest Protestant church. Unlike the rest of France, the Alsace-Moselle territory still adheres to the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801, which provides public subsidies to the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist churches, as well as to Jewish synagogues; public education in these faiths is offered. This divergence in policy from the French majority is due to the region having been part of Imperial Germany when the 1905 law separating the French church and state was instituted (for a more comprehensive history, see: Alsace-Lorraine). Controversy erupts periodically on the appropriateness of this legal disposition, as well does the exclusion of other religions from this arrangement.

Following the Protestant Reformation, promoted by local reformer Martin Bucer, the principle of cuius regio, eius religio led to a certain amount of religious diversity in the highlands of northern Alsace. Landowners, who as "local lords" had the right to decide which religion was allowed on their land, were eager to entice populations from the more attractive lowlands to settle and develop their property. Many accepted without discrimination Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Jews and Anabaptists. villages appeared, particularly in the region of Alsace bossue. Alsace became one of the French regions boasting a thriving Jewish community, and the only region with a noticeable Anabaptist population. The schism of the Amish under the lead of Jacob Amman from the Mennonites occurred in 1693 in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines. The strongly Catholic Louis XIV tried in vain to drive them from Alsace. When Napoleon imposed military conscription without religious exception, most emigrated to the American continent.

In 1707, the was established, by which many Reformed and Lutheran church buildings were forced to allow Catholic services. About 50 such "simultaneous churches" still exist in modern Alsace, though they tend to hold Catholic services only occasionally.

Culture

in the 20th century]] Alsace historically was part of the Holy Roman Empire and the German realm of culture. Since the 17th century, the region has passed between German and French control numerous times, resulting in a cultural blend. Germanic traits remain in the more traditional, rural parts of the culture, such as the cuisine and architecture, whereas modern institutions are totally dominated by French culture.

Language

Although German dialects were spoken in Alsace for most of its history, the dominant language in Alsace today is French.

The traditional language of the région is Alsatian, an Alemannic dialect of Upper German and thus closely related to Swiss German. Some Frankish dialects of West Central German are also spoken in the extreme north of Alsace. Neither Alsatian nor the Frankish dialects have any form of official status, as is customary for regional languages in France, although both are now recognized as languages of France and can be chosen as subjects in lycées.

Although Alsace has been annexed by France several times in the past, the region had no direct connection with the French State for several centuries. From the end of the Roman Empire (5th century) to the French annexation (17th century), Alsace was politically part of the Germanic world.

The towns of Alsace were the first to adopt German language as their official language, instead of Latin, during the Lutheran Reform. It was in Strasbourg that German was first used for the Liturgy. It was also in Strasbourg that the first German Bible was published in 1466.

From the annexation of Alsace by France in the 17th century and the language policy of the French Revolution up to 1870, knowledge of French in Alsace increased considerably. With the education reforms of the 19th century, the middle classes began to speak and write French well. The French language never really managed, however, to win over the masses, the vast majority of whom continued to speak their German dialects and write in German (which we would now call "standard German").

Between 1870 and 1918, Alsace was annexed by the German Empire in the form of an imperial province or Reichsland, and the official language, especially in schools, once again became High German; Although the German language policy was vastly more liberal than the French one was to be in later years, with Germans traditionally respecting the "Language of Fredrick-the-Great", French lost ground to such an extent that it has been estimated that only 2% of the population spoke French fluently and only 8% had some knowledge of it (Maugue, 1970).

After 1918, French was the only language used in schools, and particularly primary schools. After much argument and discussion and after many temporary measures, a memorandum was issued by Vice-Chancellor Pfister in 1927 and governed education in primary schools until 1939.

After short de facto reannexation by Germany (1940–1945), High German was reinstated as the language of education. The young teachers sent from Germany enjoyed a certain degree of popularity. Following the Second World War, the 1927 regulation was not reinstated and the teaching of German in primary schools was suspended by a provisional rectorial decree, which was supposed to enable French to regain lost ground. The teaching of German became a major issue, however, as early as 1946. Following World War II, the French government pursued, in line with its traditional language policy, a campaign to suppress the use of German as part of a wider a Francization campaign.

In 1951, Article 10 of the Deixonne law on the teaching of local languages and dialects made provision for Breton, Basque, Catalan and old Provençal, but not for Corsican, Dutch (West Flemish) or German in Alsace and Moselle.

It was not until a Decree of 18 December 1952, supplemented by an Order of 19 December of the same year, that optional teaching of the German language was introduced in elementary schools in Communes where the language of habitual use was the Alsatian dialect. Because of many objections by teachers and much official and unofficial pressure, this Decree was not very rigorously enforced.

In 1972, the Inspector General of German, Georges Holderith, obtained authorization to reintroduce German into 33 intermediate classes, on an experimental basis. This teaching of German, referred to as the Holderith Reform, was later extended to all pupils in the last two years of elementary school. This reform is still largely the basis of German teaching in elementary schools today.

It was not until 9 June 1982, with the Circulaire sur la langue et la culture régionales en Alsace (Memorandum on regional language and culture in Alsace) issued by the Vice-Chancellor of the Académie Pierre Deyon, that the teaching of German in primary schools in Alsace really began to be given more official status. The Ministerial Memorandum of 21 June 1982, known as the Circulaire Savary, introduced financial support, over three years, for the teaching of regional languages in schools and universities. This memorandum was, however, implemented in a fairly lax manner.

More recently, in 1987, Article III of a national Minute concerning the early teaching of German in France contained special instructions for the teaching of German in Alsace and Moselle.

Both Alsatian and Standard German were for a time banned from public life (including street and city names, official administration, and educational system). Though the ban has been lifted, Alsace-Lorraine is today very French in language and culture. Few young people speak Alsatian today, though the closely-related Alemannic German survives on the opposite bank of the Rhine, in Baden, and especially in Switzerland. However, while French is the major language of the region, the Alsatian dialect of French is heavily influenced by German, in phonology and vocabulary.

Often assumed to be a bilingual region, Alsace has in fact moved toward a situation of total French monolingualism. This is documented in Le declin du dialecte alsacien, a study funded by the General Council of Alsace and carried out in twenty secondary schools by Calvin Veltman and M.N. Denis. This situation has spurred a movement to preserve the Alsatian language, which is perceived as endangered, a situation paralleled in other régions of France, such as Brittany or Occitania. Alsatian is now taught in French high schools, but the overwhelming presence of French media make the survival of Alsatian uncertain among younger generations. Increasingly, French is the only language used at home and at work, whereas a growing number of people have a good knowledge of standard German as a foreign language learned in school.

The constitution of the Fifth Republic states that French alone is the official language of the Republic. However Alsatian, along with other regional languages, are recognized by the French government in the official list of languages of France. A 1999 INSEE survey counted 548,000 adult speakers of Alsatian in France, making it the second most-spoken regional language in the country (after Occitan). Like all regional languages in France, however, the transmission of Alsatian is on the decline. While 39% of the adult population of Alsace speaks Alsatian, only one in four children speaks it, and only one in ten children uses it regularly.

In 1992 the French Government signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which however is not ratified yet (2009) by the French Parliament and therefore not in force.

Cuisine

Alsatian cuisine, strongly based on Germanic culinary traditions, is marked by the use of pork in various forms. Traditional dishes include baeckeoffe, flammeküeche, choucroute, and fleischnacka. Southern Alsace, also called the Sundgau, is characterized by carpe frite.

The festivities of the year's end involve the production of a great variety of biscuits and small cakes called bredala as well as pain d'épices (gingerbread), especially from Gertwiller, which are given to children starting on Saint Nicholas Day.

Alsace is an important wine-producing région. Vins d'Alsace (Alsatian wines) are mostly white and display a strong Germanic influence. Alsace produces some of the world's most noted dry rieslings and is the only région in France to produce mostly varietal wines identified by the names of the grapes used (wine from Burgundy is also mainly varietal, but not normally identified as such), typically from grapes also used in Germany. The most notable example is gewürztraminer.

Alsace is also the main beer-producing région of France, thanks primarily to breweries in and near Strasbourg. These include those of Fischer, Karlsbräu, Kronenbourg, and Heineken International. Hops are grown in Kochersberg and in northern Alsace. Schnapps is also traditionally made in Alsace, but it is in decline because home distillers are becoming less common and the consumption of traditional, strong, alcoholic beverages is decreasing.

Alsatian food is synonymous with conviviality, the dishes are substantial and served in generous portions and it has one of the richest regional kitchens.

The gastronomic symbol of the région is undoubtedly Sauerkraut. The word Sauerkraut in Alsatian has the form sûrkrût, same as in other southwestern German dialects, and means "sour cabbage" as its Standard German equivalent. This word was included into the French language as choucroute. To make it, the cabbage is finely shredded, layered with salt and juniper and left to ferment in wooden barrels. Sauerkraut can be served with poultry, pork, sausage or even fish. Traditionally it is served with pork, Strasbourg sausage or frankfurters, bacon, smoked pork or smoked Morteau or Montbéliard sausages or a selection of pork products. Served alongside are often roasted or steamed potatoes or dumplings.

Alsace is also well known for its foie gras made in the region since the 17th century. Additionally, Alsace is known for its fruit juices, mineral waters and wines.

Architecture

's old town]] The traditional habitat of the Alsatian lowland, like in other regions of Germany and Northern Europe, consists of houses constructed with walls in timber framing and cob and roofing in flat tiles. This type of construction is abundant in adjacent parts of Germany and can be seen in other areas of France, but their particular abundance in Alsace is owed to several reasons: # The proximity to the Vosges where the wood can be found. # During periods of war and bubonic plague, villages were often burned down, so to prevent the collapse of the upper floors, ground floors were built of stone and upper floors built in half-timberings to prevent the spread of fire. # During most of the part of its history, a great part of Alsace was flooded by the Rhine every year. Half-timbered houses were easy to knock down and to move around during those times (a day was necessary to move it and a day to rebuild it in another place).

However, half-timbering was found to increase the risk of fire, which is why from the 19th century, it began to be rendered. In recent times, villagers started to paint the rendering white in accordance with Beaux-Arts movements. To discourage this, the region's authorities gave financial grants to the inhabitants to paint the rendering in various colors, in order to return to the original style and many inhabitants accepted (more for financial reasons than by firm belief).

Symbolism

The stork is a main feature of Alsace and was the subject of many legends told to children. The bird practically disappeared around 1970, but re-population efforts are continuing. They are mostly found on roofs of houses, churches and other public buildings in Alsace.

Notable Alsatians ONLY PEOPLE BORN IN ALSACE

by Frédéric Bartholdi in front of the Unterlinden Museum, Colmar]]

{| border="0" |- |valign=top|

Paul Émile Appell

Jean Arp

Frédéric Bartholdi

Max Bense

Hans Bethe

Karl Brandt

Sebastian Brant

Martin Bucer

Mireille Delunsch

Gustave Doré

Alfred Dreyfus

Charles de Foucauld

Charles Friedel

Georges Friedel

Charles Frédéric Gerhardt

Charles Frédéric Girard

Gottfried von Straßburg

Albert Kahn (banker)

Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg

Alfred Kastler

François-Christophe Kellermann

Jean-Baptiste Kléber

Katia and Maurice Krafft

Johann Heinrich Lambert

Pope Saint Leo IX

Bernard Lauth

Julius Leber

Jean-Marie Lehn

Sébastien Loeb

Philip James de Loutherbourg

|valign=top|

Marcel Marceau

Johannes Mentelin

Paul Meyer

Yvan Muller

Charles Münch

Viktor Nessler

Jean-Frédéric Oberlin

François-Joseph Offenstein

Beatus Rhenanus

Claude Rich

René Schickelé

The Schlumberger brothers

Martin Schongauer

Albert Schweitzer

Philipp Jakob Spener

François Spoerry

Sebastian Stoskopff

Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck

Marie Tussaud

Tomi Ungerer

Claude Vigée

Thomas Voeckler

Émile Waldteufel

Jean-Jacques Waltz aka Hansi

André Weckmann

Johann Baptist Wendling

Arsène Wenger

Alfred Werner

Bob Wollek

Charles-Adolphe Wurtz

William Wyler

|}

Major communities

German original names in brackets if French names are different

Sister provinces

There is an accord de coopération internationale between Alsace and the following regions:

Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea

Lower Silesia, Poland

Upper Austria, Austria

Quebec, Canada

Jiangsu, China

Moscow, Russia

Vest, Romania

See also

German place names (Alsace)

History of Jews in Alsace

Musée alsacien (Strasbourg)

Route Romane d'Alsace

Footnotes

Bibliography

Assall, Paul. Juden im Elsass. Zürich: Rio Verlag. ISBN 3-907668-00-6

Das Elsass: Ein literarischer Reisebegleiter. Frankfurt a. M.: Insel Verlag, 2001. ISBN 3-458-34446-2

Erbe, Michael (Hrsg.) Das Elsass: Historische Landschaft im Wandel der Zeiten. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2002. ISBN 3-17-015771-X

Faber, Gustav. Elsass. München: Artemis-Cicerone Kunst- und Reiseführer, 1989.

Fischer, Christopher J. Alsace to the Alsatians? Visions and Divisions of Alsatian Regionalism, 1870-1939 (Berghahn Books, 2010); ; 235 pages;

Gerson, Daniel. Die Kehrseite der Emanzipation in Frankreich: Judenfeindschaft im Elsass 1778 bis 1848. Essen: Klartext, 2006. ISBN 3-89861-408-5

Haeberlin, Marc. Elsass, meine große Liebe. Orselina, La Tavola 2004. ISBN 3-909909-08-6
− Rezension über das „Schlaraffenland“ Elsass

Herden, Ralf Bernd. Straßburg Belagerung 1870. Norderstedt: BoD, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8334-5147-8

Mehling, Marianne (Hrsg.) Knaurs Kulturführer in Farbe Elsaß. München: Droemer Knaur, 1984.

Putnam, Ruth. Alsace and Lorraine: From Cæsar to Kaiser, 58 B.C.-1871 A.D. New York: 1915.

Schreiber, Hermann. Das Elsaß und seine Geschichte, eine Kulturlandschaft im Spannungsfeld zweier Völker. Augsburg: Weltbild, 1996.

Schwengler, Bernard. Le Syndrome Alsacien: d'Letschte? Strasbourg: Éditions Oberlin, 1989. ISBN 2-85369-096-2

Ungerer, Tomi. Elsass. Das offene Herz Europas. Straßburg: Édition La Nuée Bleue, 2004. ISBN 2-7165-0618-3

Ungerer, Tomi, Danièle Brison, and Tony Schneider. Die elsässische Küche. 60 Rezepte aus der Weinstube L'Arsenal. Straßburg: Édition DNA, 1994. ISBN 2-7165-0341-9

Vogler, Bernard and Hermann Lersch. Das Elsass. Morstadt: Éditions Ouest-France, 2000. ISBN 3-88571-260-1

External links

Tourism-Alsace.com Info from the Alsace Tourism Board

Official website of the Alsace regional council

Rhine Online - life in southern Alsace and neighbouring Basel and Baden Wuerrtemburg

Statistics and figures on Alsace on the website of the INSEE Alsace.net: Directory of Alsatian Websites Jews and Judaism in Alsace "Museums of Alsace" Churches and chapels of Alsace (pictures only) Medieval castles of Alsace (pictures only)

"Alsatian language Wiki" (Elsassisch)

">"Synagogues d'Alsace" "Origins of Alsace" The Alsatian Library of Mutual Credit

Category:Regions of France Category:Ethnic groups in Europe Category:Germanic culture Alsatians Category:History of the Germanic peoples Category:NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union Category:Wine regions of France

Name	Frank Zappa
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Frank Vincent Zappa
Born	December 21, 1940 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Died	December 04, 1993 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Instrument	Guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards, drums, synclavier
Genre	Rock, jazz, classical, avant-garde
Occupation	Composer, musician, conductor, producer
Years active	1950s–1993
Label	Verve, Bizarre/Straight/DiscReet/Barking Pumpkin
Associated acts	The Mothers of Invention Captain Beefheart Steve Vai
Url	Zappa.com
Notable instruments	Hagström Viking Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster Gibson SG Gibson Les Paul Fender Stratocaster Synclavier }}

Frank Vincent Zappa (; December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, electronic, orchestral, and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.

While in his teens, he acquired a taste for percussion-based avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse and 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands—he later switched to electric guitar. He was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often impossible to categorize. His 1966 debut album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. His later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was one of rock, jazz or classical. He wrote the lyrics to all his songs, which—often humorously—reflected his iconoclastic view of established social and political processes, structures and movements. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education and the abolition of censorship.

Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist and gained widespread critical acclaim. Many of his albums are considered essential in rock and jazz history. He is regarded as one of the most original guitarists and composers of his time. He also remains a major influence on musicians and composers. He had some commercial success, particularly in Europe, and for most of his career was able to work as an independent artist. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.

Zappa was married to Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman from 1960 to 1964. In 1967, he married Adelaide Gail Sloatman, with whom he remained until his death from prostate cancer in 1993. They had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen. Gail Zappa manages the businesses of her late husband under the name the Zappa Family Trust.

Early life

Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 21, 1940. His mother, Rose Marie (née Colimore), was of Italian and French descent, and his father, Francis Vincent Zappa, was a native of Partinico, Sicily and had Greek and Arab ancestry. Zappa was the eldest of four children, and had two brothers and a sister. The family moved often during Zappa's childhood because his father, a chemist and mathematician, had various jobs in the US defense industry. After a brief time in Florida in the mid-1940s, the family returned to Maryland, where Zappa's father worked at the Edgewood Arsenal chemical warfare facility at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. Due to their home's proximity to the arsenal, which stored mustard gas, gas masks were kept in the house in case of an accident. This had a profound effect on the young Zappa: references to germs, germ warfare and other aspects of the defense industry occur throughout his work.

During his childhood, Zappa was often sick, suffering from asthma, earaches and sinus problems. A doctor treated the latter by inserting a pellet of radium into each of Zappa's nostrils; little was known at the time about the potential dangers of being subjected to even small amounts of therapeutic radiation. Nasal imagery and references appear both in his music and lyrics, as well as in the collage album covers created by his long-time visual collaborator, Cal Schenkel.

Many of Zappa's childhood diseases may have arisen from exposure to mustard gas. Furthermore, his health worsened when he lived in the Baltimore area. They next moved to Monterey, California, where Zappa's father taught metallurgy at the Naval Postgraduate School. Shortly afterward, they moved to Claremont, then to El Cajon before finally moving to San Diego.

Musical influences

Zappa joined his first band, The Ramblers, at Mission Bay High School in San Diego. He was the band's drummer. About the same time his parents bought a phonograph, which allowed him to develop his interest in music, and to begin building his record collection. R&B; singles were early purchases, starting a large collection he kept for the rest of his life. He was interested in sounds for their own sake, particularly the sounds of drums and other percussion instruments. By age 12, he had obtained a snare drum and began learning the basics of orchestral percussion. The article described Varèse's percussion composition Ionisation, produced by EMS Recordings, as "a weird jumble of drums and other unpleasant sounds". Zappa decided to seek out Varèse's music. After searching for over a year, Zappa found a copy (he noticed the LP because of the "mad scientist" looking photo of Varèse on the cover). Not having enough money with him, he persuaded the salesman to sell him the record at a discount. Television also exerted a strong influence, as demonstrated by quotations from show themes and advertising jingles found in his later works.

At Antelope Valley High School, Zappa met Don Vliet (who later expanded his name to Don Van Vliet and adopted the stage name Captain Beefheart). Zappa and Vliet became close friends, sharing an interest in R&B; records and influencing each other musically throughout their careers. Around the same time, Zappa started playing drums in a local band, The Blackouts. (In the 1970s and '80s, he invited Watson to perform on several albums.) Zappa considered soloing as the equivalent of forming "air sculptures", He graduated from Antelope Valley High School in 1958, and later acknowledged two of his music teachers on the sleeve of the 1966 album Freak Out! Due to his family's frequent moves, Zappa attended at least six different high schools, and as a student he was often bored and given to distracting the rest of the class with juvenile antics. He left community college after one semester, and maintained thereafter a disdain for formal education, taking his children out of school at age 15 and refusing to pay for their college.

Zappa left home in 1959, and moved into a small apartment in Echo Park, Los Angeles. After meeting Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman during his short stay at Pomona College, they moved in together in Ontario, and were married December 28, 1960. Zappa worked for a short period in advertising. His sojourn in the commercial world was brief, but gave him valuable insights into how it works. Throughout his career, he took a keen interest in the visual presentation of his work, designing some of his album covers and directing his own films and videos.

Early 1960s: Studio Z

Zappa attempted to earn a living as a musician and composer, and played different nightclub gigs, some with a new version of The Blackouts. Financially more rewarding were Zappa's earliest professional recordings, two soundtracks for the low-budget films The World's Greatest Sinner (1962) and Run Home Slow (1965). The former score was commissioned by actor-producer Timothy Carey and recorded in 1961. It contains many themes that appeared on later Zappa records. The latter soundtrack was recorded in 1963 after the film was completed, but it was commissioned by one of Zappa's former high school teachers in 1959 and Zappa may have worked on it before the film was shot. Excerpts from the soundtrack can be heard on the posthumous album The Lost Episodes (1996).

During the early 1960s, Zappa wrote and produced songs for other local artists, often working with singer-songwriter Ray Collins and producer Paul Buff. Their "Memories of El Monte" was recorded by The Penguins (although only Cleve Duncan of the original group was featured). Buff owned the small Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga, which included a unique five-track tape recorder he had built. At that time, only a handful of the most sophisticated commercial studios had multi-track facilities; the industry standard for smaller studios was still mono or two-track. Although none of the recordings from the period achieved major commercial success, Zappa earned enough money to allow him to stage a concert of his orchestral music in 1963 and to broadcast and record it. He appeared on Steve Allen's syndicated late night show the same year, in which he played a bicycle as a musical instrument. With Captain Beefheart, Zappa recorded some songs under the name of The Soots. They were rejected by Dot Records for having no "commercial potential"; a quote Zappa later used on the sleeve of Freak Out!

In 1964, after his marriage started to break up, he moved into the Pal studio and began routinely working 12 hours or more per day recording and experimenting with overdubbing and audio tape manipulation. This set a work pattern that endured for most of his life. Aided by his income from film composing, Zappa took over the studio from Paul Buff, who was now working with Art Laboe at Original Sound. It was renamed Studio Z. Studio Z was rarely booked for recordings by other musicians. Instead, friends moved in, notably James "Motorhead" Sherwood. Zappa started performing as guitarist with a power trio, The Muthers, in local bars in order to support himself.

An article in the local press describing Zappa as "the Movie King of Cucamonga" prompted the local police to suspect that he was making pornographic films. In March 1965, Zappa was approached by a vice squad undercover officer, and accepted an offer of $100 to produce a suggestive audio tape for an alleged stag party. Zappa and a female friend recorded a faked erotic episode. When Zappa was about to hand over the tape, he was arrested, and the police stripped the studio of all recorded material. Zappa was charged with "conspiracy to commit pornography". This felony charge was reduced and he was sentenced to six months in jail on a misdemeanor, with all but ten days suspended. His entrapment and brief imprisonment left a permanent mark, and was key in the formation of his anti-authoritarian stance. Zappa lost several recordings made at Studio Z in the process, as the police only returned 30 out of 80 hours of tape seized. Eventually, he could no longer afford to pay the rent on the studio and was evicted. Zappa managed to recover some of his possessions before the studio was torn down in 1966.

Late 1960s: The Mothers of Invention

In 1965, Zappa was approached by Ray Collins who asked him to join a local R&B; band, The Soul Giants, as a guitarist. The band was renamed The Mothers, coincidentally on Mother's Day. The group increased their bookings after beginning an association with manager Herb Cohen, while they gradually gained attention on the burgeoning Los Angeles underground music scene. In early 1966, they were spotted by leading record producer Tom Wilson when playing "Trouble Every Day", a song about the Watts Riots. Wilson had earned acclaim as the producer for singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and the folk-rock act Simon & Garfunkel, and was notable as one of the few blacks working as a major label pop music producer at this time.

Wilson signed The Mothers to the Verve Records division of MGM Records, which had built up a strong reputation in the music industry for its releases of modern jazz recordings in the 1940s and 1950s, but was attempting to diversify into pop and rock audiences. Verve insisted that the band officially re-title themselves "The Mothers of Invention" because "Mother", in slang terminology, was short for "motherfucker"—a term that apart from its profane meanings can denote a skilled musician.

Debut album: Freak Out! (1966)

With Wilson credited as producer, The Mothers of Invention and a studio orchestra recorded the groundbreaking double album Freak Out! (1966). It mixed R&B;, doo-wop, musique concrète, and experimental sound collages that captured the "freak" subculture of Los Angeles at that time. The album immediately established Zappa as a radical new voice in rock music, providing an antidote to the "relentless consumer culture of America". The sound was raw, but the arrangements were sophisticated. (while recording in the studio, some of the additional session musicians were shocked that they were expected to read the notes on sheet music from charts with Zappa conducting them, since it was not standard when recording rock music.) The lyrics praised non-conformity, disparaged authorities, and had dadaist elements. Yet, there was a place for seemingly conventional love songs. Most compositions are Zappa's, which set a precedent for the rest of his recording career. He had full control over the arrangements and musical decisions and did most overdubs. Wilson provided the industry clout and connections to get the group the financial resources needed.

During the recording of Freak Out!, Zappa moved into a house in Laurel Canyon with friend Pamela Zarubica, who appeared on the album. He labeled people on drugs "assholes in action", and he only tried cannabis a few times without any pleasure. He was a regular tobacco smoker for most of his life, and strongly critical of anti-tobacco campaigns. After a short promotional tour following the release of Freak Out!, Zappa met Adelaide Gail Sloatman. He fell in love within "a couple of minutes", and she moved into the house over the summer. Examples are "Plastic People" and "Brown Shoes Don't Make It", which contained lyrics critical of the hypocrisy and conformity of American society, but also of the counterculture of the 1960s. As Zappa put it, "[W]e're satirists, and we are out to satirize everything." At the same time, Zappa had recorded material for a self-produced album based on orchestral works to be released under his own name. Due to contractual problems, the recordings were shelved and only made ready for release late in 1967. Zappa took the opportunity to radically restructure the contents, adding newly recorded, improvised dialogue to finalize what became his first solo album (under the name Francis Vincent Zappa It is an "incredible ambitious musical project", a "monument to John Cage", which intertwines orchestral themes, spoken words and electronic noises through radical audio editing techniques.

New York period (1966–1968)

The Mothers of Invention played in New York in late 1966 and were offered a contract at the Garrick Theater during Easter 1967. This proved successful and Herb Cohen extended the booking, which eventually lasted half a year. As a result, Zappa and his wife, along with the Mothers of Invention, moved to New York. Guest performers and audience participation became a regular part of the Garrick Theater shows. One evening, Zappa managed to entice some US Marines from the audience onto the stage, where they proceeded to dismember a big baby doll, having been told by Zappa to pretend that it was a "gook baby".

Situated in New York, and only interrupted by the band's first European tour, the Mothers of Invention recorded the album widely regarded as the peak of the group's late 1960s work, We're Only in It for the Money (released 1968). It was produced by Zappa, with Wilson credited as executive producer. From then on, Zappa produced all albums released by the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. We're Only in It for the Money featured some of the most creative audio editing and production yet heard in pop music, and the songs ruthlessly satirized the hippie and flower power phenomena. The cover photo parodied that of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The cover art was provided by Cal Schenkel whom Zappa met in New York. This initiated a life-long collaboration in which Schenkel designed covers for numerous Zappa and Mothers albums.

Reflecting Zappa's eclectic approach to music, the next album, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (1968), was very different. It represented a collection of doo-wop songs; listeners and critics were not sure whether the album was a satire or a tribute. Zappa has noted that the album was conceived in the way Stravinsky's compositions were in his neo-classical period: "If he could take the forms and clichés of the classical era and pervert them, why not do the same ... to doo-wop in the fifties?" A theme from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is heard during one song.

In New York, Zappa increasingly used tape editing as a compositional tool. A prime example is found on the double album Uncle Meat (1969), where the track "King Kong" is edited from various studio and live performances. Zappa had begun regularly recording concerts, and because of his insistence on precise tuning and timing, he was able to augment his studio productions with excerpts from live shows, and vice versa. Later, he combined recordings of different compositions into new pieces, irrespective of the tempo or meter of the sources. He dubbed this process "xenochrony" (strange synchronizations)—reflecting the Greek "xeno" (alien or strange) and "chrono" (time).

Disbanding the original Mothers of Invention (1969)

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Zappa and the Mothers of Invention returned to Los Angeles in the summer of 1968, and the Zappas moved into a house on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, only to move again to one on Woodrow Wilson Drive in the autumn. This was to be Zappa's home for the rest of his life. Despite being a success with fans in Europe, the Mothers of Invention were not faring well financially. Their first records were vocally oriented, but Zappa wrote more instrumental jazz and classical oriented music for the band's concerts, which confused audiences. Zappa felt that audiences failed to appreciate his "electrical chamber music". but also commented on the band members' lack of sufficient effort. Many band members were bitter about Zappa's decision, and some took it as a sign of Zappa's preference for perfection over feelings. Others were irritated by "his autocratic ways", Several members would, however, play for Zappa in years to come. Remaining recordings with the band from this period were collected on Weasels Ripped My Flesh and Burnt Weeny Sandwich (both released in 1970).

After he disbanded the Mothers of Invention, Zappa released the acclaimed solo album Hot Rats (1969). It features, for the first time on record, Zappa playing extended guitar solos and contains one of his most enduring compositions, "Peaches en Regalia", which reappeared several times on future recordings. and had a major influence on the development of the jazz-rock fusion genre.

Rebirth of the Mothers and film making (1970)

Later in 1970, Zappa formed a new version of The Mothers (from then on, he mostly dropped the "of Invention"). It included British drummer Aynsley Dunbar, jazz keyboardist George Duke, Ian Underwood, Jeff Simmons (bass, rhythm guitar), and three members of The Turtles: bass player Jim Pons, and singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, who, due to persistent legal and contractual problems, adopted the stage name "The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie", or "Flo & Eddie".

This version of the Mothers debuted on Zappa's next solo album Chunga's Revenge (1970), which was followed by the double-album soundtrack to the movie 200 Motels (1971), featuring The Mothers, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, and Keith Moon. Co-directed by Zappa and Tony Palmer, it was filmed in a week at Pinewood Studios outside London. co-director Palmer tried afterwards to have his name removed from the film. The film deals loosely with life on the road as a rock musician. It was the first feature film photographed on videotape and transferred to 35 mm film, a process which allowed for novel visual effects. It was released to mixed reviews. The score relied extensively on orchestral music, and Zappa's dissatisfaction with the classical music world intensified when a concert, scheduled at the Royal Albert Hall after filming, was canceled because a representative of the venue found some of the lyrics obscene. In 1975, he lost a lawsuit against the Royal Albert Hall for breach of contract.

After 200 Motels, the band went on tour, which resulted in two live albums, Fillmore East - June 1971 and Just Another Band From L.A.; the latter included the 20-minute track "Billy the Mountain", Zappa's satire on rock opera set in Southern California. This track was representative of the band's theatrical performances in which songs were used to build up sketches based on 200 Motels scenes as well as new situations often portraying the band members' sexual encounters on the road.

Accident, attack and their aftermath (1971–1972)

, Germany in 1971]] In December 1971, there were two serious setbacks. While performing at Casino de Montreux in Switzerland, the Mothers' equipment was destroyed when a flare set off by an audience member started a fire that burned down the casino. Immortalized in Deep Purple's song "Smoke on the Water", the event and immediate aftermath can be heard on the bootleg album Swiss Cheese/Fire, released legally as part of Zappa's Beat the Boots II compilation. After a week's break, The Mothers played at the Rainbow Theatre, London, with rented gear. During the encore, an audience member pushed Zappa off the stage and into the concrete-floored orchestra pit. The band thought Zappa had been killed—he had suffered serious fractures, head trauma and injuries to his back, leg, and neck, as well as a crushed larynx, which ultimately caused his voice to drop a third after healing. Musically, the albums were close to that of Hot Rats. Zappa began touring again in late 1972.

Top 10 album (1973–1975)

Zappa then formed and toured with smaller groups that variously included Ian Underwood (reeds, keyboards), Ruth Underwood (vibes, marimba), Sal Marquez (trumpet, vocals), Napoleon Murphy Brock (sax, flute and vocals), Bruce Fowler (trombone), Tom Fowler (bass), Chester Thompson (drums), Ralph Humphrey (drums), George Duke (keyboards, vocals), and Jean-Luc Ponty (violin). , Sydney, Australia, May 1973]] By 1973 the Bizarre and Straight labels were discontinued. In their place, Zappa and Cohen created DiscReet Records, also distributed by Warner Bros. Zappa continued a high rate of production through the first half of the 1970s, including the solo album Apostrophe (') (1974), which reached a career-high #10 on the Billboard pop album charts helped by the chart single "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow". Other albums from the period are Over-Nite Sensation (1973), which contained several future concert favorites, such as "Dinah-Moe Humm" and "Montana", and the albums Roxy & Elsewhere (1974) and One Size Fits All (1975) which feature ever-changing versions of a band still called the Mothers, and are notable for the tight renditions of highly difficult jazz fusion songs in such pieces as "Inca Roads", "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" and "Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen's Church)". A live recording from 1974, You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 (1988), captures "the full spirit and excellence of the 1973–75 band". They later became estranged for a period of years, but were in contact at the end of Zappa's life.

Business breakups and touring (1976–1979)

, seated left, during a 1975 concert]] Zappa's relationship with long-time manager Herb Cohen ended in 1976. Zappa sued Cohen for skimming more than he was allocated from DiscReet Records, as well as for signing acts of which Zappa did not approve. Cohen filed a lawsuit against Zappa in return, which froze the money Zappa and Cohen had gained from an out-of-court settlement with MGM over the rights of the early Mothers of Invention recordings. It also prevented Zappa access to any of his previously recorded material during the trials. Zappa therefore took his personal master copies of the rock-oriented Zoot Allures (1976) directly to Warner Bros., thereby bypassing DiscReet.

In the mid-1970s Zappa prepared material for Läther (pronounced "leather"), a four-LP project. Läther encapsulated all the aspects of Zappa's musical styles—rock tunes, orchestral works, complex instrumentals, and Zappa's own trademark distortion-drenched guitar solos. Wary of a quadruple-LP, Warner Bros. Records refused to release it. Zappa managed to get an agreement with Mercury-Phonogram, and test pressings were made targeted at a Halloween 1977 release, but Warner Bros. prevented the release by claiming rights over the material. Zappa responded by appearing on the Pasadena, California radio station KROQ, allowing them to broadcast Läther and encouraging listeners to make their own tape recordings. A lawsuit between Zappa and Warner Bros. followed, during which no Zappa material was released for more than a year. Eventually, Warner Bros. issued major parts of Läther against Zappa's will as four individual albums with limited promotion. Läther was released posthumously in 1996.

Although Zappa eventually gained the rights to all his material created under the MGM and Warner Bros. contracts, the various lawsuits meant that for a period Zappa's only income came from touring, which he therefore did extensively in 1975–1977 with relatively small, mainly rock-oriented, bands. The performances included an impromptu musical collaboration with cast member John Belushi during the instrumental piece "The Purple Lagoon". Belushi appeared as his Samurai Futaba character playing the tenor sax with Zappa conducting. Zappa's song, "I'm the Slime", was performed with a voice-over by SNL booth announcer Don Pardo, who also introduced "Peaches En Regalia" on the same airing.

Zappa's band at the time, with the additions of Ruth Underwood and a horn section (featuring Michael and Randy Brecker), performed during Christmas in New York, recordings of which appear on one of the albums released by Warner Bros., Zappa in New York (1978). It mixes intense instrumentals such as "The Black Page" and humorous songs like "Titties and Beer". The former composition, written originally for drum kit but later developed for larger bands, is notorious for its complexity in rhythmic structure, radical changes of tempo and meter, and short, densely arranged passages.

Zappa in New York featured a song about sex criminal Michael H. Kenyon, "The Illinois Enema Bandit", which featured Don Pardo providing the opening narrative in the song. Like many songs on the album, it contained numerous sexual references, Zappa dismissed the criticism by noting that he was a journalist reporting on life as he saw it. Predating his later fight against censorship, he remarked: "What do you make of a society that is so primitive that it clings to the belief that certain words in its language are so powerful that they could corrupt you the moment you hear them?" The remaining albums released by Warner Bros. Records without Zappa's consent were Studio Tan in 1978 and Sleep Dirt in 1979, which contained complex suites of instrumentally-based tunes recorded between 1973 and 1976, and which was overlooked in the midst of the legal problems. Also released by the label without the artist's consent was Orchestral Favorites in 1979, which featured recordings of a concert with orchestral music from 1975.

Zappa as an independent artist (1979)

Resolving the lawsuits successfully, Zappa ended the 1970s "stronger than ever", by releasing two of his most successful albums in 1979: the best selling album of his career, Sheik Yerbouti, and the "bona fide masterpiece", The double album Sheik Yerbouti was the first release on Zappa Records, and contained the Grammy-nominated single "Dancin' Fool", which reached #45 on the Billboard charts, and "Jewish Princess", which received attention when a Jewish lobby group, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), attempted to prevent the song from receiving radio airplay due to its alleged anti-Semitic lyrics. The album's commercial success was attributable in part to "Bobby Brown". Due to its explicit lyrics about a young man's encounter with a "dyke by the name of Freddie", the song did not get airplay in the US, but it topped the charts in several European countries where English is not the primary language. The triple LP Joe's Garage featured lead singer Ike Willis as the voice of the character "Joe" in a rock opera about the danger of political systems,—and about the "strange relationship Americans have with sex and sexual frankness". "Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up", and the title track, as well as extended live-recorded guitar improvisations combined with a studio backup band dominated by drummer Vinnie Colaiuta (with whom Zappa had a particularly good musical rapport) adopting the xenochrony process. The album contains one of Zappa's most famous guitar "signature pieces", "Watermelon in Easter Hay".

On December 21, 1979, Zappa's movie Baby Snakes premiered in New York. The movie's tagline was "A movie about people who do stuff that is not normal". The 2 hour and 40 minutes movie was based on footage from concerts in New York around Halloween 1977, with a band featuring keyboardist Tommy Mars and percussionist Ed Mann (who would both return on later tours) as well as guitarist Adrian Belew. It also contained several extraordinary sequences of clay animation by Bruce Bickford who had earlier provided animation sequences to Zappa for a 1974 TV special (which later become available on the video The Dub Room Special (1982)). The movie did not do well in theatrical distribution, but won the Premier Grand Prix at the First International Music Festival in Paris in 1981. The Zappa Family Trust released it on DVD, and it has been available since 2003. Miami Vice and The Ren and Stimpy Show.

1980s: Productive as ever

, Buffalo, New York, 1980. The concert was released in 2007 as Buffalo.]]

After spending most of 1980 on the road, Zappa released Tinsel Town Rebellion in 1981. It was the first release on his own Barking Pumpkin Records, and it contains songs taken from a 1979 tour, one studio track and material from the 1980 tours. The album is a mixture of complicated instrumentals and Zappa's use of sprechstimme (speaking song or voice)—a compositional technique utilized by such composers as Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg—showcasing some of the most accomplished bands Zappa ever had (mostly featuring drummer Vinnie Colaiuta). the political and sociological satire in songs like the title track and "The Blue Light" have been described as a "hilarious critique of the willingness of the American people to believe anything". The album is also notable for the presence of guitar virtuoso Steve Vai, who joined Zappa's touring band in the fall of 1980.

The same year the double album You Are What You Is was released. Most of it was recorded in Zappa's brand new Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK) studios, which were located at his house, The album included one complex instrumental, "Theme from the 3^rd Movement of Sinister Footwear", but focused mainly on rock songs with Zappa's sardonic social commentary—satirical lyrics targeted at teenagers, the media, and religious and political hypocrisy. "Dumb All Over" is a tirade on religion, as is "Heavenly Bank Account", wherein Zappa rails against TV evangelists such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson for their purported influence on the US administration as well as their use of religion as a means of raising money. In 1981, Zappa also released three instrumental albums, Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More, and The Return of the Son of Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar, which were initially sold via mail order, but later released through the CBS label due to popular demand. The albums focus exclusively on Frank Zappa as a guitar soloist, and the tracks are predominantly live recordings from 1979–1980; they highlight Zappa's improvisational skills with "beautiful performances from the backing group as well". Another guitar-only album, Guitar, was released in 1988, and a third, Trance-Fusion, which Zappa completed shortly before his death, was released in 2006.

From hit single to classical performances

In May 1982, Zappa released Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch, which featured his biggest selling single ever, the Grammy Award-nominated song "Valley Girl" (topping out at #32 on the Billboard charts). Most Americans who only knew Zappa from his few singles successes now thought of him as a person writing "novelty songs", even though the rest of the album contained highly challenging music. Zappa was irritated by this and never played the song live. Zappa was not satisfied with the LSO recordings. One reason is "Strictly Genteel", which was recorded after the trumpet section had been out for drinks on a break: the track took 40 edits to hide out-of-tune notes. Some reviews noted that the recordings were the best representation of Zappa's orchestral work so far. In 1984 Zappa teamed again with Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra for a live performance of A Zappa Affair with augmented orchestra, life-size puppets, and moving stage sets. Although critically acclaimed the work was a financial failure, and only performed twice.

Synclavier

For the remainder of his career, much of Zappa's work was influenced by his use of the Synclavier as a compositional and performance tool. Even considering the complexity of the music he wrote, the Synclavier could realize anything he could dream up. The Synclavier could be programmed to play almost anything conceivable, to perfection: "With the Synclavier, any group of imaginary instruments can be invited to play the most difficult passages ... with one-millisecond accuracy—every time". Zappa viewed the Synclavier and real-life musicians as separate. The Synclavier pieces stood in contrast to the orchestral works, as the sounds were electronically generated and not, as became possible shortly thereafter, sampled.

The album Thing-Fish was an ambitious three-record set in the style of a Broadway play dealing with a dystopian "what-if" scenario involving feminism, homosexuality, manufacturing and distribution of the AIDS virus, and a eugenics program conducted by the United States government. New vocals were combined with previously released tracks and new Synclavier music; "the work is an extraordinary example of bricolage". Finally, in 1984, Zappa released Francesco Zappa, a Synclavier rendition of works by 18th century composer Francesco Zappa (no known relation), and Them or Us, a two-record set of heavily edited live and session pieces.

Senate testimony

, 1985]] On September 19, 1985, Zappa testified before the United States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music organization, co-founded by Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore. The PMRC consisted of many wives of politicians, including the wives of five members of the committee, and was founded to address the issue of song lyrics with sexual or satanic content. Zappa saw their activities as on a path towards censorship, and called their proposal for voluntary labelling of records with explicit content "extortion" of the music industry. In his prepared statement, he said:

The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal's design. It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC's demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation ... The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on things certain Christians do not like. What if the next bunch of Washington wives demands a large yellow "J" on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?

Zappa set excerpts from the PMRC hearings to Synclavier music in his composition "Porn Wars" on the 1985 album Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention. Zappa is heard interacting with Senators Fritz Hollings, Slade Gorton, Al Gore (who claimed, at the hearing, to be a Zappa fan), and in an exchange with Florida Senator Paula Hawkins over what toys Zappa's children played with. Zappa expressed opinions on censorship when he appeared on CNN's Crossfire TV series and debated issues with Washington Times commentator John Lofton in 1986. Zappa's passion for American politics was becoming a bigger part of his life. He had always encouraged his fans to register to vote on album covers, and throughout 1988 he had registration booths at his concerts. He even considered running for President of the United States.

Digital medium and last tour

Around 1986, Zappa undertook a comprehensive re-release program of his earlier vinyl recordings. He personally oversaw the remastering of all his 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s albums for the new digital compact disc medium. Certain aspects of these re-issues were, however, criticized by some fans as being unfaithful to the original recordings. Nearly twenty years before the advent of online music stores, Zappa had proposed to replace "phonographic record merchandising" of music by "direct digital-to-digital transfer" through phone or cable TV (with royalty payments and consumer billing automatically built into the accompanying software). In 1989, Zappa considered his idea a "miserable flop".

Zappa's last tour in a rock and jazz band format took place in 1988 with a 12-piece group which had a repertoire of over 100 (mostly Zappa) compositions, but which split under acrimonious circumstances before the tour was completed. The tour was documented on the albums Broadway the Hard Way (new material featuring songs with strong political emphasis), The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (Zappa "standards" and an eclectic collection of cover tunes, ranging from Maurice Ravel's Boléro to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven"), and Make a Jazz Noise Here (mostly instrumental and avant-garde music). Parts are also found on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, volumes 4 and 6.

1990s: Classical music and death

In early 1990, Zappa visited Czechoslovakia at the request of President Václav Havel, and was asked to serve as consultant for the government on trade, cultural matters and tourism. Havel was a lifelong fan of Zappa who had large influence in the avant-garde and underground scene in Central Europe in the 1970s and 1980s (a Czech rock group that was imprisoned in 1976 took its name from Zappa's 1968 song "Plastic People"). Zappa enthusiastically agreed and began meeting with corporate officials interested in investing in Czechoslovakia. Within a few weeks, however, the US administration put pressure on the Czech government to withdraw the appointment. Havel made Zappa an unofficial cultural attaché instead. Zappa also planned to develop an international consulting enterprise to facilitate trade between the former Eastern Bloc and Western businesses. Most of Zappa's projects came to a halt in 1990, when he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. The disease had been developing unnoticed for ten years and was considered inoperable.

In 1991, Zappa was chosen to be one of four featured composers at the world-acclaimed Frankfurt Festival in 1992 (the others were John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Alexander Knaifel). Zappa was approached by the German chamber ensemble, Ensemble Modern, which was interested in playing his music for the event. Although ill, Zappa invited them to Los Angeles for rehearsals of new compositions and new arrangements of older material. In addition to being satisfied with the ensemble's performances of his music, Zappa also got along with the musicians, and the concerts in Germany and Austria were set up for the fall. It would become his last professional public appearance, as the cancer was spreading to such an extent that he was in too much pain to enjoy an event that he otherwise found "exhilarating". On Monday, December 6 his family publicly announced that "Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6:00 pm on Saturday".

Legacy

Acclaim and honors

Zappa earned widespread critical acclaim in his lifetime and after his death. The 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide writes: "Frank Zappa dabbled in virtually all kinds of music—and, whether guised as a satirical rocker, jazz-rock fusionist, guitar virtuoso, electronics wizard, or orchestral innovator, his eccentric genius was undeniable". Even though his work drew inspiration from many different genres, Zappa was seen establishing a coherent and personal expression. In 1971, biographer David Walley noted that "The whole structure of his music is unified, not neatly divided by dates or time sequences and it is all building into a composite". On commenting on Zappa's music, politics and philosophy, Barry Miles noted in 2004 that they cannot be separated: "It was all one; all part of his 'conceptual continuity. Guitar Player Magazine devoted a special issue to Zappa in 1992, and asked on the cover "Is FZ America's Best Kept Musical Secret?" Editor Don Menn remarked that the issue was about "The most important composer to come out of modern popular music". Among those contributing to the issue was composer and musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, who conducted premiere performances of works of Ives and Varèse in the 1930s. He became friends with Zappa in the 1980s, and said "I admire everything Frank does, because he practically created the new musical millennium. He does beautiful, beautiful work ... It has been my luck to have lived to see the emergence of this totally new type of music." Conductor Kent Nagano remarked in the same issue that "Frank is a genius. That's a word I don't use often ... In Frank's case it is not too strong ... He is extremely literate musically. I'm not sure if the general public knows that". Pierre Boulez stated in Musician Magazine's posthumous Zappa tribute article that Zappa "was an exceptional figure because he was part of the worlds of rock and classical music and that both types of his work would survive." Many music scholars acknowledge Zappa as one of the most influential composers of his generation. As an electric guitarist, he has become highly regarded.

In 1994, jazz magazine Down Beat's critics poll placed Zappa in its Hall of Fame. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. There, it was written that "Frank Zappa was rock and roll's sharpest musical mind and most astute social critic. He was the most prolific composer of his age, and he bridged genres—rock, jazz, classical, avant-garde and even novelty music—with masterful ease". He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. In 2005, the US National Recording Preservation Board included We're Only in It for the Money in the National Recording Registry as "Frank Zappa's inventive and iconoclastic album presents a unique political stance, both anti-conservative and anti-counterculture, and features a scathing satire on hippiedom and America's reactions to it". The same year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 71 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Artists influenced by Zappa

A number of notable musicians, bands and orchestras from diverse genres have been influenced by Frank Zappa's music. Rock artists like Alice Cooper, Primus, Fee Waybill of The Tubes all cite Zappa's influence, as do progressive rock artists like Henry Cow, Trey Anastasio of Phish, Paul McCartney regarded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as The Beatles' Freak Out! Heavy rock and metal acts like Black Sabbath, Mike Portnoy, Warren DeMartini, Steve Vai, System of a Down, Clawfinger, and Devin Townsend acknowledge Zappa's inspiration. On the classical music scene, Tomas Ulrich, Meridian Arts Ensemble,, Ensemble Ambrosius and the Fireworks Ensemble regularly perform Zappa's compositions and quote his influence. Contemporary jazz musicians and composers Bill Frisell and John Zorn are inspired by Zappa, as is funk legend George Clinton. Other artists whose work is affected by Zappa include new age pianist George Winston, electronic composer Bob Gluck, parody singer "Weird Al" Yankovic, and noise music artist Masami Akita of Merzbow.

References in arts and sciences

Scientists from various fields have honored Zappa by naming new discoveries after him. In 1967, paleontologist Leo P. Plas, Jr. identified an extinct mollusc in Nevada and named it Amaurotoma zappa with the motivation that, "The specific name, zappa, honors Frank Zappa". In the 1980s, biologist Ed Murdy named a genus of gobiid fishes of New Guinea Zappa, with a species named Zappa confluentus. Biologist Ferdinando Boero named a Californian jellyfish Phialella zappai (1987), noting that he had "pleasure in naming this species after the modern music composer". Belgian biologists Bosmans and Bosselaers discovered in the early 1980s a Cameroonese spider, which they in 1994 named Pachygnatha zappa because "the ventral side of the abdomen of the female of this species strikingly resembles the artist's legendary moustache". A gene of the bacterium Proteus mirabilis that causes urinary tract infections was in 1995 named zapA by three biologists from Maryland. In their scientific article, they "especially thank the late Frank Zappa for inspiration and assistance with genetic nomenclature". In the late 1990s, American paleontologists Marc Salak and Halard L. Lescinsky discovered a metazoan fossil, and named it Spygori zappania to honor "the late Frank Zappa ... whose mission paralleled that of the earliest paleontologists: to challenge conventional and traditional beliefs when such beliefs lacked roots in logic and reason".

In 1994, lobbying efforts initiated by psychiatrist John Scialli led the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center to name an asteroid in Zappa's honor: 3834 Zappafrank. The asteroid was discovered in 1980 by Czechoslovakian astronomer Ladislav Brozek, and the citation for its naming says that "Zappa was an eclectic, self-trained artist and composer ... Before 1989 he was regarded as a symbol of democracy and freedom by many people in Czechoslovakia".

In 1995, a bust of Zappa by sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas was installed in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. A replica was offered to the city of Baltimore in 2008, and on September 19, 2010—the twenty-fifth anniversary of Zappa's testimony to the US senate—a ceremony dedicating the replica was held. Speakers at the event included Gail Zappa and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. In 2002, a bronze bust was installed in German city Bad Doberan, since 1990 location of the Zappanale, an annual music festival celebrating Zappa. At the initiative of musicians community ORWOhaus, the city of Berlin named a street in the Marzahn district "Frank-Zappa-Straße" in 2007. The same year, Baltimore's mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed August 9 as the city's official "Frank Zappa Day" citing Zappa's musical accomplishments as well as his defense of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Discography

;Studio Albums

Freak Out! (1966)

Absolutely Free (1967)

Lumpy Gravy (1977)

We're Only in It for the Money (1968)

Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (1968)

Uncle Meat (1969)

Hot Rats (1969)

Burnt Weeny Sandwich (1970)

Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970)

Chunga's Revenge (1970)

200 Motels (1971)

Waka/Jawaka(1972)

The Grand Wazoo (1972)

Over-Nite Sensation (1973)

Apostrophe (') (1974)

One Size Fits All (1975)

Zoot Allures (1976)

Studio Tan (1978)

Sleep Dirt (1979)

Sheik Yerbouti (1979)

Orchestral Favorites (1979)

Joe's Garage (1979)

Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981)

You Are What You Is (1981)

Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch (1982)

The Man from Utopia (1983)

London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 1 (1983)

(1984)

Them or Us (1984)

Thing-Fish(1984)

Francesco Zappa (1984)

Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention (1985)

Jazz from Hell (1986)

London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 2 (1987)

Guitar (1988)

; Posthumous Studio Releases

Civilization, Phaze III (1994)

The Lost Episodes (1996)

Läther (1996)

Have I Offended Someone? (1997)

Mystery Disc (1997)

Everything Is Healing Nicely (1998)

Joe's Corsage (2004)

QuAUDIOPHILIAc (2004)

Joe's Domage (2004)

Joe's XMASage (2005)

The Making Of Freak Out! Project/Object (2006)

The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAA Birthday Bundle (2006)

The Dub Room Special (2007)

The Lumpy Money Project/Object (2009)

Greasy Love Songs (2010)

;Live Albums

Fillmore East – June 1971 (1971)

Just Another Band From L.A. (1972)

Roxy & Elsewhere (1974)

Bongo Fury (1975)

Zappa in New York (1978)

Tinseltown Rebellion (1981)

Baby Snakes (1983)

Does Humor Belong in Music? (1986)

You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 (1988)

You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 (1988)

Broadway the Hard Way (1988)

You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 (1989)

The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (1991)

You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 (1991)

Make a Jazz Noise Here (1991)

Beat the Boots (1991)

Beat the Boots II (1992)

You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 (1992)

You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 (1992)

Playground Psychotics (1992)

Ahead of Their Time (1993)

The Yellow Shark (1993)

;Posthumous Live Releases

(1996)

(2002)

Halloween (2003)

Imaginary Diseases (2006)

Trance-Fusion (2006)

Buffalo (2007)

Wazoo (2007)

One Shot Deal (2008)

Joe's Menage (2008)

Beat the Boots III (2009)

Philly '76 (2009)

Hammersmith Odeon (2010)

References

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notes

External links

The official Frank Zappa website

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Name	Dima Bilan
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Viktor Nikolaevich Belan
Born	December 24, 1981
Origin	Ust-Dzheguta, Karachay-Cherkessia, Soviet Union (now Russia)
Occupation(s)	Singer, record producer, songwriter, model, actor.
Instrument	Vocal
Genre	pop, r'n'b, soul
Associated acts	Nelly Furtado, Rudy Perez, Jim Beanz, Ryan Tedder, Trudy Bellinger, Edvin Marton, Evgeni Plushenko, Larisa Dolina, J.R. Rotem, Anastacia
Label	Universal (2008-present), Gala Records (2003-2007), EMI (2006, 2008), Мистерия Звука (2008)
Url	official website

(, ; born , , 24 December 1981 in Ust-Dzheguta, Karachay-Cherkessia) is a Russian pop artist. Bilan represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with "Never Let You Go", finishing second, and he won the contest in 2008, with the song "Believe". He has had several Russian no. 1 hits.

Biography

Early life

When he was only two years old, his family moved to his grandmother’s place in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny in Tatarstan. When he was six years old, his family moved to Kabardino-Balkaria where he went to school with his sister. He took part in morning performances, recited poems and sang songs.

He graduated from Gnesins Musical College as a classical vocal performer. Bilan made his debut when he reached fourth place at the Russian/Latvian festival "New Wave" in 2002. In 2003, Bilan released his debut album titled Nochnoy Huligan (Night Hooligan), which included three cover versions of foreign hits. In 2004, the reissue of the album came out including 20 songs in Russian, 16 of the original + four new tracks: Бессердечная (Heartless), В последний раз (The last time), Остановите музыку (Stop the music), Тёмная ночь (Dark Night). Also in 2004 he released his successful single "Na beregu neba" ("At The Sky's Shore") which was also the title of his second album.

2005 - 2006

Produced by the late Yury Aizenshpis, a Russian music mogul famous for his work with Viktor Tsoi in the Soviet Union, Bilan attempted to reach Eurovision previously with the song "Not That Simple" in 2005, finishing in second place at the Russian national selection. The video for the Russian version of the song was reputably the most expensive in the history of Russia's music industry. In December 2005, Bilan received two golden gramophones for the song "Ty dolzjna ryadom byt'" (The Russian version of "Not That Simple", actually meaning "You should be beside me") in Saint Petersburg and Almaty. During shootings of "Noviye pyesny o glavnom" ("New songs about the main things") he received the grand prize of the First channel from the professional jury. Bilan became Showbusiness Man of the Year because the most voters gave their voices for him according to the version of Rambler. At the end of a year he accepted an invitation from an American agency to record tracks for the musical Peter Pan. On 14 March 2006, Bilan took part in "Zolotaya sharmanka" ("Golden street organ") of "International Music Awards" in Kiev where he was honored as "Singer of the Year".

In the middle of March 2006, Bilan was chosen internally by the Russian broadcaster Channel One to represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest, that year in Athens, Greece. Out of 37 participating countries, Bilan took second place with the dark pop song "Never Let You Go", equalling one of Russia's best ever showing at Eurovision — Alsou's "Solo" was runner-up back in the 2000 contest.

Bilan scored 248 points — 44 behind winning song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Finland's Lordi — and received the maximum 12 points from a total of seven countries: Armenia, Belarus, Finland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. The only countries to not award Bilan any points were Monaco and Switzerland.

Bilan's stage performance included two dancing ballerinas and a white piano covered in red rose petals, from which a ghost-like female figure emerged halfway through the song. Bilan wore a white vest with the number representing his place in the contest's running order — 13 and 10 in the semi-final and final respectively. Due to Russia's poor result the previous year, Bilan had to qualify for the final at the semi-final on 18 May. He qualified in the top ten there (finishing third with 217 points) and moved to the final.

In July 2006 Bilan was one of the four artists who took part in the biggest musical event in Russia of 2006 - "The Red Summer" show in Red Square in Moscow, where he performed on stage with Shakira, The Black Eyed Peas and t.A.T.u.

In September 2006, for second year in a row, Dima Bilan won Artist of the Year and Song of the Year at MTV Russian Music Awards. On 2 November Bilan represented Russia at MTV EMA in Copenhagen.

On 15 November 2006 Bilan received award for Best Selling Russian Artist and performed at the World Music Awards in London along with Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Nelly Furtado and Bob Sinclair. His performance of Eurovision single Never Let You Go at WMAs was broadcast on Channel 4 in UK and 130 more countries, including United States.

2007 - 2008

In February 2007 Bilan started to record his first international album in English in Los Angeles, Miami and in Philadelphia in collaboration with producer Jim Beanz and Ryan Tedder. One of the new tracks will be a duet with one of Timbaland's most successful artists, Nelly Furtado.

Also in 2007 he premiered his first single from new album — Number One Fan. According to Russian and Eastern Europe radio airplay chart, Number One Fan topped the charts for 8 weeks. Video for this song was shot in London by famous British director Trudy Bellinger, who has also made videos for acts including Girls Aloud, Sugababes and Sophie Ellis Bextor).

On 4 October, Bilan premiered his second single from the forthcoming album, Amnesia, at the MTV Russia Music Awards 2007. During this show, Bilan won three most prestigious awards for Best Performer, Best Song and — for the third consecutive year — Best Artist.

(left) and Evgeni Plushenko (right).]]

In 2008, Bilan is planning to release three albums — in Russian, English and Spanish. He is also planning to release an English album in 81 countries in co-operation with Interscope Records (Universal Group). He is working on his English album, with some tracks produced by Jim Beanz and Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic). Also his new Spanish album will include a duet with Nelly Furtado.

On 20 February, Bilan went to Miami and recorded a few tracks for his Spanish album with famous producer Rudy Perez. The Spanish album will include a duet with Nelly Furtado and a Spanish version of his first international single "Number One Fan"

In 2008, Bilan once again represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Believe", accompanied by Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton and Russian olympic and three-time world champion figure skater Evgeni Plushenko. On 24 May 2008, Bilan won first place in the contest, receiving 272 points and seven twelves. His victory's integrity was questioned by Ukraine's officials later in May.

With this victory, he became the fourth artist in the history of the contest to reach both the positions of winner and runner-up (After Gigliola Cinquetti, Linda Martin and Elisabeth Andreassen) and the first male performer to do so.

In 2008, Bilan won two awards from Muz TV: "Best male artist" and "Best ringtone" for the song "Nevozmozhnoe vozmozno". Dima also won the Best Russian Act award at MTV Europe Music Awards.

Also in 2008, Bilan finally changed his official name to Dima Bilan. Although Dima is a diminutive from Dmitry, he preferred the former, diminutive form, "Dima", as official. The name change followed Bilan's conflict with his producer Yuri Aisenshpitz's heirs, who claimed the rights on this stage name. Making it his official name would help to avoid any claimants.

Bilan performed his 2008 Eurovision-winning song "Believe" in the interval act at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Limassol, Cyprus.

2009 - 2010

During 2009 Bilan has continued with concerts and he also performed during the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, before leaving over the title of former Eurovision Song Contest winner to Alexander Rybak of Norway.

In 2010 Dima has recorded a demo version of the song "White Nights", which would be competing in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, but he hasn't entered in the contest saying that it would be too soon to return to the contest after just 2 years after his win at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008.

Dima Bilan and Anastacia

On May 25 Anastacia recorded a duet with Dima Bilan in Los Angeles which was released in Russia first and later in the rest of Europe. They've presented the song "Safety" for the first time during the Muz-TV Music Awards show on June 11 in Moscow, Anastacia has also perform a song alone.

Awards

2006 - Honoured Artist of Kabardino-Balkaria

2007 - Honored Artist of Chechnya

2007 - Honoured Artist of Ingushetia

2008 - People's Artist of Kabardino-Balkaria

MTV Russia Music Awards

Dima Bilan record for most awards RMA - 10.

* 2005 - "Best Performer" and "Best Artist"

2006 - «Best Song» ( «Never Let You Go» ), «The Best Artist»

2007 - "Best Song", "Best Song" ("Невозможное возможно"), "Best Artist"

2008 - "Best Video", "Best Singer", "The Pop Project"

MTV Europe Music Awards

2005 - «Best Russian Act»

2006 - «Best Russian Act»

2007 - «Best Russian Act»

2008 - «Best Russian Act» entered into the category "Top5 Favorit Europe"

2009 - «Best Russian Act» hit the Top5 "Best European Actor"

2010 - «Best Russian Act» hit the Top5 "Best European Actor"

Muz-TV Award

2007 - "Song of the Year", "Album of the Year", "Best Performer".

2008 - "Best Ringtone", "Best Performer".

2009 - "Best Video", "Best Song".

2010 - "Best Performer".

Golden gramophone

Dima Bilan has repeatedly won the honored music award "Golden Gramophone".

* 2005 - for the song "На берегу неба"

2006 год — «Так устроен этот мир»

2007 год — «Невозможное возможно»

2008 год — «Все в твоих руках»

ZD Awards

Bilan repeatedly became the laureate of "Soundtrack" in various categories:

* For 2003 - «Top Sexy» (Sexiest Artist)

In 2004 - "Singer of the Year"

For 2007 - Soloist of the Year and Album of the Year (for the album "Время река")

In 2008 - "Soloist of the Year"

In 2009 - Singer of the Year and Album of the Year (for the album Believe)

Eurovision Song Contest

2nd place Eurovision 2006 (Athens)

1st place Eurovision 2008 (Belgrade)

Dima Bilan, Russia's first artist win Eurovision Song Contest

World Music Awards

Best Selling Russian Artist 2006

Glamour

Dima Bilan was voted Man of the year the magazine «Glamour» in 2006 and 2009.

Discography

Albums

2003 — Я ночной хулиган (I'm a Night Hooligan)

2004 — На берегу неба (At The Sky's Shore)

2006 — Время-река (Time-River)

2008 — Против правил (Against the Rules)

2009 — Believe

2010 — 50/50

Singles

2003 — Ты, только ты (You, only)

2005 — Я тебя помню (I remember you)

2005 — Ты должна рядом быть (You must be close to me)

2005 — Not That Simple (english version of "Ты должна рядом быть")

2005 — Never Let You Go (english version of "Так устроен этот мир")

2006 — Это была любовь (That's was love)

2008 — Believe (english version of "Всё в твоих руках")

2008 — Lonely (english version of "Тоска")

2009 — Dancing Lady (english version of "Со мною")

2009 — Lady

2009 — Это модно (This is fashionable)

2009 — Changes (english version of "Больно")

2010 — По парам (On the pairs)

2010 — Safety (ft. Anastacia)

2010 — Я просто люблю тебя (I just love you)

Clips

2000

«Осень» — Osen (Autumn)

2002

«Бум» — Bum (Boom)

«Я ночной хулиган» — Ya nochnoy huligan (I'm a night hooligan)

2003

«Ты, только ты» — Ty, tolko ty (You, only you)

«Я ошибся, я попал» — Ya oshibsya, ya popal (I’ve made mistake, I’ve swallowed the bait)

«Я так люблю тебя» — Ya tak lyublyu tebya (I love you so much)

2004

«Мулатка» — Mulatka (Mulatto girl)

«На берегу неба» — Na beregu neba (Between the sky and heaven)

«Поздравляю!» — Pozdravlyayu! (Congratulations!)

2005

«Ты должна рядом быть» — Ty dolzhna ryadom byt (You must be close to me)

«Not that simple»

«Как хотел я» — Kak hotel ya (How i wanted)

«Take me with you»

«Я тебя помню» — Ya tebya pomnyu (I remember you)

2006

«Это была любовь» — Eto byla lyubov (It was love)

«Never let you go»

«Невозможное возможно» — Nevozmozhnoe vozmozhno (Impossible is possible)

«Lady flame»

2007

«Время-река» — Vremya-reka (Time-river)

«See what I see»

«Number one fan»

«Я твой номер один» — Ya tvoy nomer odin (I'm your number one)

«Горе-зима» — Gore-zima (Grief-winter)

2008

«Believe»

«Lonely»

2009

«Dancing lady»

«Lady»

«Changes»

2010

«По парам» — Po param (In the pairs)

«Safety» (совместно с Anastacia)

«Я просто люблю тебя» — Ya prosto lyublyu tebya (I just love you)

Filmography

Dima Bilan starred in several Russian films and serials

* 2005 - Not Born Beautiful (cameo)

2006 - Club (cameo)

2006 - The Adventures of Pinocchio (Duremar)

2007 - Star break (Fortiano)

2007 - Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors (Gurd)

2008 - Goldfish

2009 - Pinocchio (visiting singer)

References

External links

Dima Bilan Video's and Live performances

Dima Bilan @ MTV Russia: IDOLS

The official Dima Bilan Polish Fan Website

Dima Bilan: Friends Club in Kazakhstan

Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:People from Karachay-Cherkessia * Category:Russian Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2006 Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2008 Category:Eurovision Song Contest winners Category:Russian male models Category:Russian pop singers Category:World Music Awards winners