Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north, South Australia to the west, and Tasmania to the south, across Bass Strait. Victoria is the most densely populated state, and has a highly centralised population, with almost 75% of Victorians living in Melbourne, the state capital and largest city. Approximately 30,000 Indigenous Australians are estimated to have lived in the area, before European settlement in Victoria began in the 1830s. The discovery of gold in 1851 at Ballarat and Warrandyte transformed it into a leading industrial and commercial centre.

Etymology

Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria, the monarch at the time.

History

After the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788, Australia was divided into an eastern half named New South Wales and a western half named New Holland, under the administration of the colonial government in Sydney. The first European settlement in the area later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay, Victoria on Port Phillip Bay. It consisted of 308 convicts, 51 marines, 17 free settlers, 12 civil officers, a missionary and his wife. They had been sent from England in HMS Calcutta under the command of Captain Daniel Woodriff, principally out of fear that the French, who had been exploring the area, might establish their own settlement and thereby challenge British rights to the continent. nations/language territories]] Victoria's next settlement was at Portland, on the west coast of what is now Victoria. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman.

From settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. In 1851, the British Government separated the area from New South Wales, proclaiming a new Colony of Victoria.

In 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at many sites across Victoria. This triggered one of the largest gold rushes the world has ever seen. The colony grew rapidly in both population and economic power. In ten years the population of Victoria increased sevenfold from 76,000 to 540,000. All sorts of gold records were produced including the "richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world" and the largest gold nugget. Victoria produced in the decade 1851–1860 20 million ounces of gold, one third of the world's output.

on 1 December 1854 — watercolour by Charles Doudiet]] Immigrants arrived from all over the world to search for gold, especially from Ireland and China. Many Chinese miners worked in Victoria, and their legacy is particularly strong in Bendigo and its environs. Although there was some racism directed at them, there was not the level of anti-Chinese violence that was seen at the Lambing Flat riots in New South Wales. However, there was a riot at Buckland Valley near Bright in 1857. Conditions on the gold fields were cramped and unsanitary; an outbreak of typhoid at Buckland Valley in 1854 killed over 1,000 miners.

In 1854 at Ballarat there was an armed rebellion against the government of Victoria by miners protesting against mining taxes (the "Eureka Stockade"). This was crushed by British troops, but the discontents prompted colonial authorities to reform the administration (particularly reducing the hated mining licence fees) and extend the franchise. Within a short time, the Imperial Parliament granted Victoria responsible government with the passage of the Colony of Victoria Act 1855. Some of the leaders of the Eureka rebellion went on to became members of the Victorian Parliament.

The first foreign military action by the colony of Victoria was to send troops and a warship to New Zealand as part of the Māori Wars. Troops from New South Wales had previously participated in the Crimean War.

In 1901 Victoria became a state in the Commonwealth of Australia. As a result of the gold rush, Melbourne had by then become the financial centre of Australia and New Zealand. Between 1901 and 1927, Melbourne was the capital of Australia while Canberra was under construction. It was also the largest city in Australia at the time and the second largest city in terms of population of the British Empire (after London). Whilst Melbourne remains an important and influential financial centre, home to many national and international companies, it was slowly overtaken by Sydney in business importance around the 1970s and 1980s.

On Saturday 7 February 2009 ("Black Saturday"), the state was affected by the 2009 Victorian bushfires, resulting in 173 deaths.

Government

, built in 1856, stands in Spring Street, Melbourne.]] Chamber, as photographed in 1878.]] {| class="toccolours" align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="margin-right: .5em; margin-top: .4em;margin-left: 0.5em;font-size: 90%;" |- ! colspan=3 bgcolor="#cceeff" align="center"| Composition of the Parliament of Victoria |- |- bgcolor="#cccccc" valign="top" !PoliticalParty !LegislativeAssembly !LegislativeCouncil |- | align="center" bgcolor="FF6666"|ALP | align="center" |43 | align="center" |16 |- | align="center" bgcolor="00BFFF"|Liberal | align="center" |35 | align="center" |18 |- | align="center" bgcolor="cceeff"|National | align="center" |10 | align="center" |3 |- | align="center" bgcolor="90EE90"|Greens | align="center" |0 | align="center" |3 |- | style="font-size: 80%" colspan=3 bgcolor="#cceeff" align="center"| Source: Victorian Electoral Commission |- |}

Parliament

Victoria has a parliamentary form of government based on the Westminster System. Legislative power resides in the Parliament consisting of the Governor (the representative of the Queen), the executive (the Government), and two legislative chambers. The Parliament of Victoria consists of the lower house Legislative Assembly, the upper house Legislative Council and the Queen of Australia.

Eighty-eight members of the Legislative Assembly are elected to four-year terms from single-member electorates.

In November 2006, the Victorian Legislative Council elections were held under a new multi-proportional representation system. The State of Victoria was divided into eight electorates with each electorate represented by five representatives elected by Single Transferable Vote proportional representation. The total number of upper house members was reduced from 44 to 40 and their term of office is now the same as the lower house members — four years. Elections for the Victorian Parliament are now fixed and occur in November every four years. Prior to the 2006 election, the Legislative Council consisted of 44 members elected to eight-year terms from 22 two-member electorates.

Premier and cabinet

The Premier of Victoria is the leader of the political party or coalition with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Premier is the public face of government and, with cabinet, sets the legislative and political agenda. Cabinet consists of representatives elected to either house of parliament. It is responsible for managing areas of government that are not exclusively the Commonwealth's, by the Australian Constitution, such as education, health and law enforcement. The current Premier of Victoria is Ted Baillieu.

Governor

Executive authority is vested in the Governor of Victoria who represents and is appointed by Queen Elizabeth II. The post is usually filled by a retired prominent Victorian. The governor acts on the advice of the premier and cabinet. The current Governor of Victoria is David de Kretser.

Constitution

Victoria has a written constitution. Enacted in 1975, but based on the 1855 colonial constitution, it establishes the parliament as the state's law-making body for matters coming under state responsibility. The Victorian Constitution can be amended by the parliament of Victoria. Under new provisions to be enacted, changes to the Victorian Constitution will be subjected to a plebiscite of votes, voting in a referendum.

Politics

The centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP), the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia and the rural-based National Party of Australia are Victoria's major political parties. Traditionally, Labor is strongest in Melbourne's inner, working class and western and northern suburbs, Morwell, Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. The Liberals' main support lies in Melbourne's more affluent eastern and outer suburbs, and some rural and regional centres. The Nationals are strongest in Victoria's North Western and Eastern rural regional areas.

The ALP government of former Premiers Steve Bracks and John Brumby was in office in Victoria from 1999 to 2010. On 27 July 2007, Bracks announced his resignation from politics, saying that he needed to spend more time with his family. The deputy premier, John Thwaites, announced later that day that he too would resign. Former Treasurer John Brumby was elected unopposed by the Labor caucus as the new leader and became the 45th Premier of Victoria on Monday, 30 July 2007. He contested as Premier the November 2010 Victorian state election but his government was defeated by the Liberal/National Coalition led by Ted Baillieu.

Federal government

Victorian voters elect 49 representatives to the Parliament of Australia, including 37 members of the House of Representatives and 12 members of the Senate. Since 2010, the ALP has held 22 Victorian house seats, the Liberals 12, the Nationals two and the Greens one. As of 1 July 2008, the Liberals have held six senate seats, the ALP five and the Family First Party one.

Local government

Victoria is incorporated into 79 municipalities for the purposes of local government, including 39 shires, 32 cities, seven rural cities and one borough. Shire and city councils are responsible for functions delegated by the Victorian parliament, such as city planning, road infrastructure and waste management. Council revenue comes mostly from property taxes and government grants.

{|- | style="font-size: 90%" align="left"; margin-left= 5em | Source: Victorian Parliamentary Library, Department of Victorian Communities, Australian Electoral Commission |}

Demographics

{| class="toccolours" align="right" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin-left: .5em; font-size: 90%;" |- ! colspan=2 bgcolor="#cceeff" align="center"| Population growthestimates for Victoria |- | align="right"| 2007 || align="center"| 5,087,000 |- | align="right"| 2011 || align="center"| 5,500,000 |- | align="right"| 2016 || align="center"| 6,000,000 |- | align="right"| 2021 || align="center"| 6,400,000 |- | align="right"| 2026 || align="center"| 6,800,000 |- | align="right"| 2031 || align="center"| 7,300,000 |- | style="font-size: 80%" colspan=2 bgcolor="#cceeff" align="center"| Source: Dept of Planning andCommunity Development |- |} , the state capital, is home to more than seven in ten Victorians.]]

The 2006 Australian census reported that Victoria had 4,932,422 people resident at the time of the census, an increase of 6.2% on the 1996 figure. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that in June 2010 the state's population reached 5,547,500, an increase of 1.8% from the previous year and may well reach 7.2 million by 2050.

Victoria's founding Anglo-Celtic population has been supplemented by successive waves of migrants from southern and eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and, most recently, the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. Victoria's population is ageing in proportion with the average of the remainder of the Australian population.

About 72% of Victorians are Australian-born. This figure falls to around 66% in Melbourne but rises to higher than 95% in some rural areas in the north west of the state. Around two-thirds of Victorians claim Australian, Scottish, English or Irish ancestry. Less than 1% of Victorians identify themselves as Aboriginal. The largest groups of people born outside Australia came from the British Isles, China, Italy, Vietnam, Greece and New Zealand.

More than 70% of Victorians live in Melbourne, located in the state's south. The greater Melbourne metropolitan area is home to an estimated 3.9 million people. Leading urban centres include Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Mildura, Warrnambool, Wodonga and the Latrobe Valley.

Victoria is Australia's most urbanised state: nearly 90% of residents living in cities and towns. State Government efforts to decentralise population have included an official campaign run since 2003 to encourage Victorians to settle in regional areas, however Melbourne continues to rapidly outpace these areas in terms of population growth.

Age structure and fertility

The government predicts that nearly a quarter of Victorians will be aged over 60 by 2021. The 2006 census reveals that Australian average age has crept upward from 35 to 37 since 2001, which reflects the population growth peak of 1969–72. In 2007, Victoria recorded a TFR of 1.87, the highest after 1978.

Religion

About 60.5% of Victorians describe themselves as Christian. Roman Catholics form the single largest religious group in the state with 27.5% of Victorian population, followed by Anglicans and members of the Uniting Church. Catholics and Protestants (including Anglicans) in Victoria each form around 30% of the population. Buddhism, the state's largest non-Christian religion, is also the fastest growing with 132,634. Victoria is also home of 109,370 Muslims and 41,105 Jews. Around 20% of Victorians claim no religion, and even amongst those who declare a religious affiliation, church attendance is low.

In 2008, the levels of couples choosing to marry in a church had dropped to 36%; the other 64% chose to register their marriage with a civil celebrant.

Education

Primary and secondary

Victoria's state school system dates back to 1872, when the colonial government legislated to make schooling both free and compulsory. The state's public secondary school system began in 1905. Before then, only private secondary schooling was available. Today, a Victorian school education consists of seven years of primary schooling (including one preparatory year) and six years of secondary schooling.

The final years of secondary school are optional for children aged over 17. Victorian children generally begin school at age five or six. On completing secondary school, students earn the Victorian Certificate of Education. Students who successfully complete their secondary education also receive a tertiary entrance ranking, or ATAR score, to determine university admittance.

Victorian schools are either publicly or privately funded. Public schools, also known as state or government schools, are funded and run directly by the Victoria Department of Education . Students do not pay tuition fees, but some extra costs are levied. Private fee-paying schools include parish schools run by the Roman Catholic Church and independent schools similar to English public schools. Independent schools are usually affiliated with Protestant churches. Victoria also has several private Jewish and Islamic primary and secondary schools. Private schools also receive some public funding. All schools must comply with government-set curriculum standards. In addition, Victoria has four government selective schools, Melbourne High School for boys, MacRobertson Girls' High School for girls, the coeducational Nossal High School, and The Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School. Students at these schools are exclusively admitted on the basis of a selective entry test.

As of August 2005, Victoria had 1,613 public schools, 484 Catholic schools and 208 independent schools. Just under 537,000 students were enrolled in public schools, and 289,000 in private schools. Nearly two-thirds of private students attend Catholic schools. More than 455,000 students were enrolled in primary schools and more than 371,000 in secondary schools. Retention rates for the final two years of secondary school were 77% for public school students and 90% for private school students. Victoria has about 60,200 full-time teachers.

Tertiary education

Victoria has nine universities. The first to offer degrees, the University of Melbourne, enrolled its first student in 1855. The largest, Monash University, has an enrolment of nearly 56,000 students—more than any other Australian university. Both the University of Melbourne and Monash University are purportedly ranked highly among the world's best universities requiring a fairly high entry score, passing of mature age entrance exams or direct payment for student admission into their courses.

The number of students enrolled in Victorian universities was 241,755 at 2004, an increase of 2% on the previous year. International students made up 30% of enrolments and account for the highest percentage of pre-paid university tuition fees. The largest number of enrolments were recorded in the fields of business, administration and economics, with nearly a third of all students, followed by arts, humanities, and social science, with 20% of enrolments.

Victoria has 18 government-run institutions of “technical and further education” (TAFE). The first vocational institution in the state was the Melbourne Mechanics Institute (established in 1839), which is now the Melbourne Athenaeum. More than 1,000 adult education organisations are registered to provide recognised TAFE programs. In 2004, there were about 480,700 students enrolled in vocational education programs in the state.

{|- | style="font-size: 90%" align="left"; margin-left= 5em | Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Department of Education and Training (Victoria), Department of Education, Science and Training (Commonwealth), National Centre for Vocational Education Research |}

Libraries

The State Library of Victoria is the State's research and reference library. It is responsible for collecting and preserving Victoria's documentary heritage and making it available through a range of services and programs. Material in the collection includes books, newspapers, magazines, journals, manuscripts, maps, pictures, objects, sound and video recordings and databases.

In addition, local governments maintain local lending libraries, typically with multiple branches in their respective municipal areas.

Economy

{| border="0" class="toccolours" align="RIGHT" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="font-size: 90%; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0.5em" |- ! colspan=4 bgcolor="#cceeff" align="center"| Victorian production andworkers by economic activities |- |- bgcolor="#cccccc" valign="top" !Economicsector !GSPproduced !Number ofworkers !Percentageof workers |- align="center" | align="left"| Finance, insuranceand property | 30.5% | 319,109 | 15.3% |- align="center" | align="left"| Community, social and personal services | 16.6% | 562,783 | 27.4% |- align="center" | align="left"| Manufacturing | 15.4% | 318,218 | 15.3% |- align="center" | align="left"| Wholesale andretail trade | 12.1% | 423,328 | 20.3% |- align="center" | align="left"| Transport, utilitiesand communications | 10.6% | 133,752 | 6.4% |- align="center" | align="left"| Construction | 6.2% | 136,454 | 6.6% |- align="center" | align="left"| Government | 4% | 62,253 | 3% |- align="center" | align="left"| Agriculture | 3.3% | 72,639 | 3.5% |- align="center" | align="left"| Mining | 1.3% | 4,472 | 0.2% |- align="center" | align="left"| Other | - | 49,208 | 2% |- | style="font-size: 90%" colspan=4 bgcolor="#cceeff" align="center"| Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Figures are for 2004–2005 |}

The state of Victoria has the largest economy in Australia after New South Wales, accounting for a quarter of the nation's gross domestic product. The total gross state product (GSP) at current prices for Victoria was at just over A$222 billion, with a GSP per capita of A$44,443. The economy grew by 3.4% in 2004, less than the Australian average of 5.2%.

Finance, insurance and property services form Victoria's largest income producing sector, while the community, social and personal services sector is the state's biggest employer. Despite the shift towards service industries, the troubled manufacturing sector remains Victoria's single largest employer and income producer. As a result of job losses in declining sectors such as manufacturing, Victoria has the highest unemployment rate in Australia as of September 2009.

Agriculture

During 2003–04, the gross value of Victorian agricultural production increased by 17% to $8.7 billion. This represented 24% of national agricultural production total gross value. As of 2004, an estimated 32,463 farms occupied around 136,000 square kilometres (52,500 sq mi) of Victorian land. This comprises more than 60% of the state's total land surface. Victorian farms range from small horticultural outfits to large-scale livestock and grain productions. A quarter of farmland is used to grow consumable crops.

More than 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 sq mi) of Victorian farmland are sown for grain, mostly in the state's west. More than 50% of this area is sown for wheat, 33% for barley and 7% for oats. A further 6,000 square kilometres (2,300 sq mi) is sown for hay. In 2003–04, Victorian farmers produced more than 3 million tonnes of wheat and 2 million tonnes of barley. Victorian farms produce nearly 90% of Australian pears and third of apples. It is also a leader in stone fruit production. The main vegetable crops include asparagus, broccoli, carrots, potatoes and tomatoes. Last year, 121,200 tonnes of pears and 270,000 tonnes of tomatoes were produced.

More than 14 million sheep and 5 million lambs graze over 10% of Victorian farms, mostly in the state's north and west. In 2004, nearly 10 million lambs and sheep were slaughtered for local consumption and export. Victoria also exports live sheep to the Middle East for meat and to the rest of the world for breeding. More than 108,000 tonnes of wool clip was also produced—one-fifth of the Australian total.

Victoria is the centre of dairy farming in Australia. It is home to 60% of Australia's 3 million dairy cattle and produces nearly two-thirds of the nation's milk, almost 6.4 million litres. The state also has 2.4 million beef cattle, with more than 2.2 million cattle and calves slaughtered each year. In 2003–04, Victorian commercial fishing crews and aquaculture industry produced 11,634 tonnes of seafood valued at nearly $A109 million. Blacklipped abalone is the mainstay of the catch, bringing in $A46 million, followed by southern rock lobster worth $A13.7 million. Most abalone and rock lobster is exported to Asia.

Manufacturing

Machinery and equipment manufacturing is the state's most valuable manufacturing activity, followed by food and beverage manufacturing and petroleum, coal and chemical manufacturing. More than 15% Victorian workers are employed in manufacturing industries. Victoria has 318,000 manufacturing workers. The state is marginally behind New South Wales in the value of manufacturing output.

Major industrial plants belong to the car manufacturers Ford, Toyota and Holden; Alcoa's Portland and Point Henry aluminium smelters; oil refineries at Geelong and Altona; and a major petrochemical facility at Laverton.

Victoria also plays an important role in providing goods for the defence industry. Melbourne is the centre of manufacturing in Victoria, followed by Geelong. Energy production has aided industrial growth in the Latrobe Valley.

Mining

in the Latrobe Valley]] Mining in Victoria contributes around A$3 billion to the gross state product (~1%) but employs less than 1% of workers. The Victorian mining industry is concentrated on energy producing minerals, with brown coal, petroleum and gas accounting for nearly 90% of local production. The oil and gas industries are centred off the coast of Gippsland in the state's east, while brown coal mining and power generation is based in the Latrobe Valley.

In the 2005/2006 fiscal year, the average gas production was over per day (M cuft/d) and represented 18% of the total national gas sales, with demand growing at 2% per year.

In 1985, oil production from the offshore Gippsland Basin peaked to an annual average of 450,000 barrels per day. In 2005–2006, the average daily oil production declined to 83,000 bbls/d, but despite the decline Victoria still produces almost 19.5% of crude oil in Australia.

Brown coal is Victoria's leading mineral, with 66 million tonnes mined each year for electricity generation in the Latrobe Valley, Gippsland. The region is home to the world's largest known reserves of brown coal.

Despite being the historic centre of Australia's gold rush, Victoria today contributes a mere 1% of national gold production. Victoria also produces limited amounts of gypsum and kaolin.

Service industry

The service industries sector is the fastest growing component of the Victorian economy. It includes the wide range of activities generally classified as community, social and personal services; finances, insurance and property services, government services, transportation and communication, and wholesale and retail trade. Most service industries are located in Melbourne and the state's larger regional centres.

As of 2004–05, service industries employed nearly three-quarters of Victorian workers and generated three-quarters of the state's GSP. Finance, insurance and property services, as a group, provide a larger share of GSP than any other economic activity in Victoria. More than a quarter of Victorian workers are employed by the community, social and personal services sector.

Geology and geography

.]] Victoria's northern border is the southern bank of the Murray River. It also rests at the southern end of the Great Dividing Range, which stretches along the east coast and terminates west of Ballarat. It is bordered by South Australia to the west and shares Australian's shortest land border with Tasmania. The official border between Victoria and Tasmania is at 39°12' S, which passes through Boundary Islet in the Bass Strait for 85 metres. Victoria contains many topographically, geologically and climatically diverse areas, ranging from the wet, temperate climate of Gippsland in the southeast to the snow-covered Victorian alpine areas which rise to almost 2,000 metres (6,500 ft), with Mount Bogong the highest peak at 1,986 m; (6,516 ft). There are extensive semi-arid plains to the west and northwest.

There is an extensive series of river systems in Victoria. Most notable is the Murray River system. Other rivers include: Ovens River, Goulburn River, King River, Campaspe River, Loddon River, Wimmera River, Elgin River, Barwon River, Thomson River, Snowy River, Latrobe River, Yarra River, Maribyrnong River, Mitta River, Hopkins River, Merri River and Kiewa River.

The state symbols include the Pink Heath (state flower), Leadbeater's Possum (state animal) and the Helmeted Honeyeater (state bird).

The state's capital, Melbourne, contains approximately 70% of the state's population and dominates its economy, media, and culture. For other cities and towns, see List of localities (Victoria) and Local Government Areas of Victoria.

Transport

Victoria has the highest population density in any state in Australia, with population centres spread out over most of the state; only the far northwest and the Victorian Alps lack permanent settlement.

The Victorian road network services the population centres, with highways generally radiating from Melbourne and other major cities and rural centres with secondary roads interconnecting the highways to each other. Many of the highways are built to freeway standard ("M" freeways), while most are generally sealed and of reasonable quality. C class (Citadis) tram.]]

Rail transport in Victoria is provided by several private and public railway operators who operate over government-owned lines. Major operators include: Metro Trains Melbourne which runs an extensive, electrified, passenger system throughout Melbourne and suburbs; V/Line which is now owned by the Victorian Government, operates a concentrated service to major regional centres, as well as long distance services on other lines; Pacific National, CFCLA, El Zorro which operate freight services; Great Southern Railway which operates The Overland Melbourne—Adelaide; and CountryLink which operates XPTs Melbourne—Sydney.

There are also several smaller freight operators and numerous tourist railways operating over lines which were once parts of a state-owned system. Victorian lines mainly use the broad gauge. However, the interstate trunk routes, as well as a number of branch lines in the west of the state have been converted to standard gauge. Two tourist railways operate over narrow gauge lines, which are the remnants of five formerly government-owned lines which were built in mountainous areas.

Melbourne has the world's largest tram network, currently operated by Yarra Trams. As well as being a popular form of public transport, over the last few decades trams have become one of Melbourne's major tourist attractions. There are also tourist trams operating over portions of the former Ballarat and Bendigo systems. There are also tramway museums at Bylands and Haddon.

Melbourne Airport is the major domestic and international gateway for the state. Avalon Airport is the state's second busiest airport, which is complements Essendon and Moorabbin Airports to see the remainder of Melbourne's air traffic. Hamilton Airport, Mildura Airport, Mount Hotham and Portland Airport are the remaining airports with scheduled domestic flights. There are no fewer than 27 other airports in the state with no scheduled flights.

The Port of Melbourne is the largest port for containerised and general cargo in Australia, and is located in Melbourne on the mouth of the Yarra River, which is at the head of Port Phillip Bay. Additional seaports are at Westernport Bay, Geelong, and Portland.

Utilities

Energy

Victoria's major utilities include a collection of brown-coal-fired power stations, particularly in the LaTrobe Valley. One of these is Hazelwood Power Station, which is number 1 in the worldwide List of least carbon efficient power stations.

Water

Victoria's water infrastructure includes a series of dams and reservoirs, predominantly in Central Victoria, that hold and collect water for much of the state. The water collected is of a very high quality and requires little chlorination treatment, giving the water a taste more like water collected in a rainwater tank. In regional areas however, such as in the west of the state, chlorination levels are much higher.

Victoria's water system is currently being linked by a series of pipelines to facilitate the privatisation of the state's water system, creating a water market where water will be traded between regions and investors can buy and sell water. These works include the Wonthaggi desalination plant, being constructed to provide "new" water to the system to better facilitate water trade in a privatised market.

Victoria has a varied climate despite its small size. It ranges from semi-arid and hot in the north-west, to temperate and cool along the coast. Victoria's main land feature, the Great Dividing Range, produces a cooler, mountain climate in the centre of the state.

Victoria's southernmost position on the Australian mainland means it is cooler and wetter than other mainland states and territories. The coastal plain south of the Great Dividing Range has Victoria's mildest climate. Air from the Southern Ocean helps reduce the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Melbourne and other large cities are located in this temperate region.

The Mallee and upper Wimmera are Victoria's warmest regions with hot winds blowing from nearby deserts. Average temperatures top 30 °C (86 °F) during summer and 15 °C (59 °F) in winter. Victoria's highest maximum temperature of 48.8 °C (119.9 °F) was recorded in Hopetoun on 7 February 2009, during the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave.

The Victorian Alps in the northeast are the coldest part of Victoria. The Alps are part of the Great Dividing Range mountain system extending east-west through the centre of Victoria. Average temperatures are less than 9 °C (48 °F) in winter and below 0 °C (32 °F) in the highest parts of the ranges. The state's lowest minimum temperature of –11.7 °C (10.9 °F) was recorded at Omeo on 13 June 1965, and again at Falls Creek on 3 July 1970.

{|- | style="font-size: 90%" align="left"; margin-left= 5em | Source: Bureau of Meteorology, Department of Primary Industries, Australian Natural Resources Atlas |}

Tourism

at Phillip Island]] Some major tourist destinations in Victoria are:

The metropolis of Melbourne, particular its inner city suburbs (known also for shopping tourism) and the attractions of the city centre such as Crown Casino, Melbourne Zoo, Melbourne Museum, the Melbourne Aquarium, Science Works, Healsville Sanctuary, Werribee open range zoo, tourism precincts such as Melbourne Docklands, Southbank and St Kilda as well as cultural and sporting tourist icons such as The Arts Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, also known as the MCG, and the Eureka Tower, tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, with its Skydeck 88.

The Goldfields region featuring the historic cities of Ballarat, Beechworth, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Maldon and Daylesford.

Natural attractions, such as The Twelve Apostles, Wilsons Promontory, The Grampians, the Fairy Penguins (particularly at Phillip Island and St Kilda), the Buchan Caves and the Gippsland Lakes.

The Dandenong Ranges (in particular the Puffing Billy Railway).

Towns along the Murray River and Riverina including Echuca and Mildura including waterskiing.

Geelong and the Australian International Airshow

The Bellarine Peninsula which features historic resort towns such as Queenscliff.

The Surf Coast which features famous beaches such as Bells Beach, Torquay and Lorne

Mornington Peninsula, particularly for its wineries and secluded beaches, Arthur's Seat and the coastal attractions of Portsea and Sorrento.

Yarra Valley (in particular Healesville Sanctuary and wineries).

Great Ocean Road, which features The Twelve Apostles, historic towns of Port Fairy and Portland, cliffs and whale watching and resort towns such as Lorne.

The Victorian Alpine Region, part of the Australian Alps, particularly for skiing

The Central Victorian Highlands, 'Highcountry' are very well known for winter sports and bushwalking

Wine regions across the entire state.

Other popular tourism activities are gliding, hang-gliding, hot air ballooning and scuba diving.

Major events also play a big part in tourism in Victoria, particularly cultural tourism and sports tourism. Most of these events are centred around Melbourne, but others occur in regional cities, such as the V8 Supercars and Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island, the Grand Annual Steeplechase at Warrnambool and the Australian International Airshow at Geelong and numerous local festivals such as the popular Port Fairy Folk Festival, Queenscliff Music Festival, Bells Beach SurfClassic and the Bright Autumn Festival.

Sport

during the 1998 Boxing Day Test match.]] Victoria is the home of Australian rules football, with ten of the seventeen clubs of the Australian Football League based in Victoria, and the traditional Grand Final held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground usually on the last Saturday in September.

Victoria's cricket team, the Victorian Bushrangers play in the national Sheffield Shield cricket competition. Victoria is represented in the National Rugby League by the Melbourne Storm and in the Super 14 by the Melbourne Rebels (from 2011). It is also represented in Football (soccer) by Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart (from 2010) in the A-League.

Melbourne has held the 1956 Summer Olympics, 2006 Commonwealth Games, FINA World Swimming Championship, and is home to the Australian Open tennis tournament in January each year, the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.

Victoria is also home to Bells Beach, which is the home of the world's longest-running surfing competition, the Bells Beach SurfClassic, which is part of The ASP World Tour.

Netball is a big part of sport in Victoria. The Melbourne Vixens represent Victoria in the ANZ Championship. Some of the worlds best netballers such as Sharelle McMahon, Renae Hallinan, Madison Browne, Julie Corletto and Bianca Chatfield come from Victoria.

Possibly Victoria's most famous island, Phillip Island, is home of the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit which hosts the Australian motorcycle Grand Prix which features MotoGP (the world's premier motorcycling class), as well as the Australian round of the World Superbike Championship and the domestic V8 Supercar racing, which also visits Sandown Raceway and the rural Winton Motor Raceway circuit.

Australia's most prestigious footrace, the Stawell Gift, is an annual event.

Victoria is also home to the Aussie Millions poker tournament, the richest in the Southern hemisphere.

The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival is one of the biggest horse racing events in the world and is one of the world's largest sporting events. The main race is for the $6 million Melbourne Cup, and crowds for the carnival exceed 700,000.

See also

2003 Melbourne thunderstorm

Atlas of Victorian Birds

Geography:

Goombala Road

Victorian Alps

Vicmap Topographic Map Series

Lists:

List of highways in Victoria

List of localities (Victoria)

Protected areas of Victoria (Australia)

References

External links

State Government of Victoria website

Official Government tourism website

Tourism Victoria's Online Image Library

Category:Former British colonies Category:States and territories of Australia Category:States and territories established in 1851

Name	Victoria Justice
Background	solo_singer
Born	February 19, 1993
Origin	Hollywood, Florida, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	Pop rock, electropop, pop, dance pop, R&B;
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	2003–present
Label	Columbia RecordsSony Music Entertainment
Url	victoriajustice.net

Victoria Justice (born February 19, 1993) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for playing the roles of Tori Vega on Victorious and Lola Martinez on the Nickelodeon show Zoey 101.

Early life

Justice was born February 19, 1993, in Hollywood, Florida to Serene and Zack Justice. She is of Puerto Rican descent on her mother's side, and of Irish, German, French, and English descent on her father's. Her family moved from Hollywood, Florida, to Los Angeles when she was 11 so she could pursue acting. She has a stepfather named Mark.

Career

Justice has guest starred on several television series including Gilmore Girls and Everwood. She played "Rebecca" on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody in the episode "The Fairest of Them All". She had roles in the films Mary, When Do We Eat?, Silver Bells, The Garden, and Unknown.

Justice's first major role came in 2005 on the series Zoey 101. Her character (Lola Martinez) was a perky outgoing actress who eventually becomes best friends with other students, Zoey Brooks (Jamie Lynn Spears), Nicole Bristow (Alexa Nikolas), and Quinn Pensky (Erin Sanders). In 2009, Justice played Tammi Dyson in the Nickelodeon's original film, Spectacular!. She also had a supporting role in the feature film, The Kings of Appletown, starring Dylan and Cole Sprouse. Also in 2009, she guest starred on The Naked Brothers Band, in the iCarly episode "iFight Shelby Marx" and on True Jackson, VP. In 2010, Justice appeared in one episode of The Troop .

The Orlando Sentinel reported in August 2008 that Justice had signed a talent deal with Nickelodeon. The series, Victorious, takes place in a performing arts high school and revolves around Justice's character Tori Vega as she pursues a singing career. It premiered on March 27, 2010 to 5.7 million viewers, making it the highest-rated premiere for a live action series in Nickelodeon history. Justice also starred in the 2010 Nickelodeon television movie The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, playing Jordan Sands, a girl who is transformed into a werewolf following her move to a creepy manor.

In an interview with the Associated Press, she stated that she is coming out with an album but will take her time with the process, rather than rush it, and write the songs on the album. But, she is very excited waiting for it.

Filmography

{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 90%;" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;"|Film |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! align="center"| Year ! width="170"| Film ! width="150"| Role ! Notes |- |rowspan="3"| 2005 || Mary || Stella || Film debut |- |When Do We Eat? || Young Nikky || |- |Silver Bells || Rose || CBS TV movie |- |rowspan="2"| 2006 || The Garden || Holly || |- |Unknown || Daughter || |- |rowspan="2"| 2009 || Spectacular! || Tammi Dyson || Nickelodeon TV movie |- |The Kings of Appletown || Betsy|| Supporting role |- |2010 || The Boy Who Cried Werewolf || Jordan Sands || Nickelodeon TV movie |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;"|Television series |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |- | 2005 - 2008 || Zoey 101 || Lola Martinez || Main role (Seasons 2-4) |- | 2010 - present || Victorious || Victoria "Tori" Vega || Lead role |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;"|Television guest appearances |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Episode(s) |- | 2003 || Gilmore Girls || Jill #2||"The Hobbit, the Sofa and Digger Stiles" |- | 2005 || The Suite Life of Zack & Cody || Rebecca || "The Fairest of Them All" (Season 1, episode 2) |- | 2006 || Everwood || Thalia Thompson || "Enjoy the Ride" (Season 4, episode 18) |- |rowspan="3"| 2009 || The Naked Brothers Band || Herself || "Valentine Dream Date" & "The Premiere" |- |iCarly || Shelby Marx||"iFight Shelby Marx" (Season 2, episode 20) |- |True Jackson, VP || Vivian||"True Crush" (Season 1, episode 22) |- | 2009|| BrainSurge || Herself as a Contestant || |- | 2010|| 2010 Kids' Choice Awards || Herself || |- |rowspan="2"| 2010 || The Troop || Eris Fairy ||"Speed" (Season 1, episode 15) |- |The Penguins of Madagascar|| Stacy || "Badger Pride" (Season 2, episode 14) |- | 2011 || iCarly || Victoria "Tori" Vega ||"iParty with Victorious" (Season 4, Episode 9-11) |}

Discography

Soundtracks

2009: Spectacular!

2011: Victorious

Singles

2007: "A Thousand Miles''

2010: "Make It Shine"

from ''Victorious (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

2010: "You're the Reason"

2010: "Finally Falling" (ft. Avan Jogia)

2010: "Tell Me That You Love Me" (ft. Leon Thomas III)

2010: "Freak the Freak Out", #50 US

See also

List of Puerto Ricans

Irish immigration to Puerto Rico

References

External links

Category:1993 births Category:Actors from Florida Category:American child actors Category:American child singers Category:American film actors Category:American female singers Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American people of Puerto Rican descent Category:American television actors Category:Hispanic and Latino American actors Category:Musicians from Florida Category:Living people Category:People from Hollywood, Florida

Name	Victoria Beckham
Background	solo_singer
Alias	Posh, Posh Spice
Born	April 17, 1974Harlow, Essex, England
Birth name	Victoria Caroline Adams
Origin	Goffs Oak, Hertfordshire, England
Genre	Pop, R&B;
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer, businesswoman
Years active	1994–present
Label	Virgin (1996–present)19/Telstar (2002–04)
Associated acts	Spice Girls
Url

Victoria Caroline Beckham (née Adams; born 17 April 1974) is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. During her rise to fame with the late 1990s girl pop group the Spice Girls, Beckham was dubbed Posh Spice, a nickname first coined by the British pop music magazine, Top of the Pops'' in the July 1996 issue. Since the Spice Girls pursued separate careers, she has had a solo pop music career, scoring four UK Top 10 singles. Her first single to be released, "Out of Your Mind", reached Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart and is her highest chart entry to date. During her solo career, she has been signed to Virgin Records and Telstar Records.

Beckham has found more success as an internationally recognised and photographed style icon. Her career in fashion includes designing a line of jeans for Rock & Republic and later designing her own denim brand, dVb Style. Beckham has brought out her own range of sunglasses and fragrance, entitled Intimately Beckham, which has been released in the UK and the US. In association with the Japanese store Samantha Thavasa and Shiatzy Chen, she has produced a range of handbags and jewellery. In addition, Beckham has released two best-selling books; one her autobiography, the other a fashion guide.

In her television ventures, Beckham has participated in five official documentaries and reality shows about her, some of which include Being Victoria Beckham and The Real Beckhams. Her last documentary was , which documented her move to the US with her family in 2007. She has since made a cameo appearance in an episode of American TV series Ugly Betty, and been a guest judge on Project Runway, Germany's Next Topmodel, and American Idol. She is the wife of English footballer David Beckham and they have three sons: Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz. As of 2009, the couple's joint wealth is estimated at £125 million.

Early life

Beckham was born to Jacqueline and Anthony Adams at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex and raised in Goffs Oak, Hertfordshire. and the success of the family business allowed for a comfortable upbringing for Victoria and her siblings,

Beckham attended St. Mary's High School in Cheshunt. She was embarrassed by her family's wealth and often begged her father not to drop her off outside the school in their Rolls Royce. Beckham said that during her schooling days, she was a victim of bullying, having been made to feel like an outsider. She commented: "Children were literally picking things up out of the puddles and throwing them at me. And I just stood there, on my own. No one was with me. I didn't have any friends."

She was inspired by watching the musical Fame, and subsequently decided that she would become famous. It was then that her parents enrolled her at Jason Theatre School.

Career

Spice Girls

In 1994, Beckham joined the all-female group, the Spice Girls. In the recordings before her marriage, she is credited with her maiden name as Victoria Adams. The group's first single was called "Touch", and she worked with Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm. Beckham had previously answered an advertisement in The Stage in March 1993 which required girls who were "street smart, extrovert, ambitious and able to sing and dance". After the release of their third album, Forever (UK number 2), which was far less successful than their previous two albums, the Spice Girls stopped recording, leading Beckham to try and build a solo career.

In 2007, the Spice Girls reformed and announced plans to embark upon a reunion tour, Victoria had previously stated that she and her former Spice colleagues were enjoying their solo careers in various fields, saying "We're all still doing our own thing." Their "Greatest Hits" album was released in early November, 2007 and the tour began on 2 December 2007. At its advent, Beckham said "I wanted my children to see that Mummy was a pop star. It was the last opportunity for them to stand in a crowd full of people screaming for the Spice Girls." When Beckham had her hair coloured brown for the tour, she stated that her sons immediately reacted by saying "Oh my goodness, it's Posh Spice. She's back." During one Spice Girls performance at London's The O2 Arena, her three sons accompanied her on stage during "Mama", along with the other Spice Girls' children. She was the only member of the group not to sing a solo song on the tour, instead posing in the style of a fashion show on a makeshift catwalk, whereas the others each performed a number from their solo careers. One critic wrote "This time around Posh gets the biggest cheer when she sings her solo lines. She knows it too – and it seems to give her more and more confidence as the show goes on."

Filmmaker Bob Smeaton directed an official film of the tour entitled Spice Girls: Giving You Everything, which was first aired on Fox8 in Australia. It later aired in the UK on 31 December 2007 on BBC One. As well as their sell-out tour, the Spice Girls were contracted to appear in Tesco advertisements, for which they were paid £1 million each.

Solo career

On 14 August 2000, Beckham released her first solo single, "Out of Your Mind" in collaboration with Dane Bowers and Truesteppers. Following a huge publicity campaign, "Out Of Your Mind" was outsold by Ellis-Bextor, and debuted at Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart. Before the single's release, on 8 July 2000, Beckham made her public solo debut at London's Hyde Park at a concert to raise money for the Prince's Trust charity. She sang "Out of Your Mind" to a 100,000-strong audience. Beckham then signed a recording contract with her group label Virgin Records. Despite a huge promotional campaign, Beckham was outsold eight to one, and her single debuted at number 6. The album cost a reputed £5 million to produce and it sold a modest 50,000 copies. Rumours soon spread that Beckham was to be dropped by her label for not charting in the Top Three. These were strongly refuted at the time. Beckham commented "You know what newspapers are like, they just like to put all the negative stuff in, but as far as I'm concerned and the record company is concerned it is all great." Following the announcement of Beckham's second pregnancy, the single was shelved. Beckham and Virgin Records went their separate ways; a statement from her publicist read: "No-one has been dropped. The Virgin deal has come to a natural end and both parties have decided not to continue." Instead of pop, Beckham wanted a more urban sound, working with urban producer Damon Dash for a more RnB and hip hop influence. This double A-side lifted "Let Your Head Go" from Beckham's earlier pop-inspired work with "This Groove" one of her Hip-Hop/R'n'B songs and remains Beckham's last single release to date. She is currently the only Spice Girl never to have had a UK solo number one, though she is also the only Spice Girl to have all her single/album releases go Top 10. Outside of the UK, Damon Dash had plans for Beckham in the US, including a potential release of "Let Your Head Go / This Groove" under the name of "Posh Spice Victoria Beckham". The release was proposed for sometime between March to May 2004, but never eventuated.

With the UK media describing her solo music career a failure, combined with a rumoured fall-out between Dash and Fuller, her hip hop album, Come Together, was not released. Amidst the collapse of Telstar, remaining plans for Beckham's music career were cancelled. Beckham is the only Spice Girl to have all of her singles and albums chart in the Top 10 of the UK charts, but she also has released fewer albums (1) and singles (4).

Books

Beckham's autobiography, entitled Learning to Fly, was released on 13 September 2001. The title was taken from a line in a song from the musical Fame, which Beckham had enjoyed as a child. The verse that inspired the title is: "I'm gonna live forever, I'm gonna learn how to fly". The book documents her childhood, time during the Spice Girls, her marriage and family life, as well as her career at the time. Learning to Fly became the third best-selling non-fiction title of 2001 and the total UK sales stand at more than 500,000 copies. When the book was first released, it went to Number 1 in the book charts after four weeks of release, relegating Robbie Williams' book to second place. A high-profile guest appearance on Parkinson, watched by nine million people, helped to promote the book. She later claimed this was a mistranslation from the original Spanish in which the interview was printed, saying she actually stated that she never had time to finish reading a book because she was always too busy looking after her children.

Beckham's second book, a fashion advice guide, entitled That Extra Half an Inch: Hair, Heels and Everything In Between, was published on 27 October 2006. That Extra Half an Inch: Hair, Heels and Everything In Between includes tips from Beckham on fashion, style and beauty, and has sold 400,000 copies in Britain alone since it was published in hardcover. The rights have since been sold to the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, Portugal, Lithuania, Russia, and most recently China. The second, Being Victoria Beckham, was broadcast in March 2002 and saw Beckham discussing her career as a solo artist with the release of her first album, and also showed her at various photo shoots and recording sessions. The documentary attracted a strong audience of 8.83 million, coming top in its timeslot. One critic described her as "so clearly level-headed, happy with her not inconsiderable lot and seemingly unfazed by the madly intrusive nature of her monumentally ridiculous fame". The third, The Real Beckhams, aired on 24 December 2003 on ITV1 and focused on the Beckhams' move to Madrid from London after David Beckham was signed to Real Madrid. It also featured Victoria Beckham re-launching her solo career and showed her mocking the tabloid stories she reads in the paper every day. The special received an audience of 6.10 million viewers and was later released on DVD on 2 February 2004.

The fourth was entitled , and followed Victoria and David Beckham organising and making preparations to host a 2006 World Cup Party at a marquee in the grounds of their mansion in Hertfordshire, which aimed to raise money for their charity. Two tickets to attend the ball were auctioned on-line for charity, and sold for £103,000. The documentary aired on 28 May 2006 and showed the event itself, where the menu was designed especially by friend and chef Gordon Ramsay and the charity auction was hosted by Graham Norton. Ramsay catered for 600 guests, with the aid of 40 chefs and 100 waiting staff.

To document Victoria Beckham's preparations for her family's move to the US, she signed a deal with NBC for six episodes of a half-hour unscripted reality TV series. Despite original plans for six episodes, the show was cut to a one hour special only as there "just wasn't enough (material) for a series." The show, called , aired on 16 July 2007 in the US and Canada. It was heavily scrutinised by the American media and critics, with The New York Post describing it as "an orgy of self-indulgence" and also describing Beckham as "vapid and condescending". The programme aired in Britain on 17 July 2007 on ITV with 3.84 million viewers tuning in. The programme was produced by Simon Fuller who managed her and the Spice Girls on their come-back tour.

In July 2007, it was announced that Beckham would shortly begin filming a cameo appearance as herself in an episode of the second season of ABC's TV series Ugly Betty. The episode, "A Nice Day for a Posh Wedding", aired on 9 November 2007 in the United States and on 23 November in the United Kingdom. Beckham's first line was "This is major", said when bursting through a curtain at a dress fitting for a wedding, in which she was the bridesmaid. In February 2008, it was revealed that Beckham would be the guest judge for the finale of fourth season of Project Runway, which aired on 5 March 2008 in the US.

Fashion

Beckham has become better recognised as an international style icon, rather than a music artist. Beckham made a guest appearance on the catwalk for Maria Grachvogel in 2000, marking her debut as a model at London Fashion Week. Beckham also acted as a British ambassador for Dolce and Gabbana and was briefly the face of Rocawear in 2003. Beckham designed a limited-edition fashion line for Rock & Republic called VB Rocks in 2004, consisting mainly of jeans for the high end of the market, retailing at approximately $300 in the US. She had previously "hit it off instantly" with Rock & Republic designer, Michael Ball, in Los Angeles. He commented "She not only understands fashion and trends but has been a trend-setter and fashion icon for years."

On 16 January 2006, Beckham walked the runway for Roberto Cavalli at Milan Fashion Week, and was for a period exclusively dressed by him for red-carpet and social events. For the March 2006 issue of Harper's Bazaar, Beckham acted as fashion editor when she styled her close friend, Katie Holmes, for a fashion shoot. In July 2006, Beckham released a line of sunglasses, called dvb Eyewear. She has admitted to a personal love of sunglasses, saying "I'm quite obsessed with sunglasses. I collect vintage Guccis and Carreras — they can make virtually any outfit look cool." She also produced a range of handbags and jewellery in association with the Japanese store, Samantha Thavasa. On 14 June 2007 Beckham launched her dvb Denim collection in New York at the high-end Saks Fifth Avenue, along with unveiling her eye-wear range in the United States for the first time. In the same month, Beckham made her first appearance at London's annual Graduate Fashion Week as a judge alongside Glenda Bailey (editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar) and Lanvin's Alber Elbaz, to choose the winner of the River Island Gold Award, worth £20,000. In August 2007, Intimately Beckham perfume hit US stores for the first time. Victoria Beckham has stated "We are not just saying, 'We are celebrities, put our name on it.' I love to be involved with the whole process." The Intimately Beckham line has been predicted to sell over $100 million worth of sales internationally, doubling this estimate in 2008. and her debut cosmetics line V-Sculpt was unveiled and launched in Tokyo. In a 2007 appearance at an LA Galaxy press conference, Beckham is credited with having popularised Roland Mouret's 'moon dress' and his brand, and Beckham was also the face of Marc Jacobs for his Spring 2008 collection. Beckham's own fashion collection debuted during the 2008 New York Fashion Week at the Waldorf Hotel, featuring dresses, of which only 400 will be made. Her first collection, that will retail between £650 and £1900, whilst others called it "Beautiful", "desirable" and "classy".

Beckham sealed her status as a fashion icon by appearing on the cover of different editions of Vogue Magazine three times in a the space of a year. Beckham's first appearance was on the April 2008 cover of British Vogue, then in November she appeared on Indian Vogue, and in February 2009 she made the cover of Russian Vogue. Beckham has voiced her anti-fur beliefs, and promotes an animal friendly wardrobe filled with faux/synthetic furs. Her stand against the fur industry has generated admiration from animal rights organizations, including PETA. Of PETA's numerous anti-fur campaigns, Beckham stated that she is "supportive of its high-profile anti-fur campaigns," and pledged "never to work with fur in any of her own fashion collections". Beckham is also well known for her love of designer high heeled shoes.

Personal life

2007.]] In 1997, she started dating footballer David Beckham after they had met at a charity football match, prompting him to request a meeting with her. Of their initial meeting, she said, "I didn't really know who he was. I was never into football." The couple announced their engagement in 1998 and were dubbed "Posh and Becks" by the media. On 4 July 1999 they were married by the Bishop of Cork, Paul Colton, at Luttrellstown Castle, Ireland. The wedding attracted much media coverage. Beckham's team-mate, Gary Neville, was the best man, Most of the media were kept away from the ceremony as an exclusive deal with OK! magazine had been arranged, but photographs were released showing the Beckhams sitting on golden thrones. Victoria wearing a diamond coronet created for her by jewellery designer Slim Barrett. A total of 437 staff were employed for the wedding reception, which was estimated to have cost £500,000. The couple bought what would become their most famous home for £2.5 million in 1999; the property, which is set in of land, was duly given a £3 million renovation and was subsequently dubbed Beckingham Palace by the media. Romeo James (born 1 September 2002, Westminster, London), and Cruz David (born 20 February 2005, Madrid, Spain). Elton John and David Furnish are reportedly the godparents of Brooklyn and Romeo, and the godmother is Elizabeth Hurley. The Beckhams have stated that they would like to have more children, especially a daughter. On 9 January 2011, it was announced that the Beckhams are expecting their fourth child in the summer. David announced the news on his Facebook page while Victoria got into her Twitter to thank her friends and fans for the warm wishes on her baby number 4 news.

In January 2000, a tip-off to Scotland Yard detectives exposed a plot to kidnap Victoria and Brooklyn Beckham and hold them at a house in Hampstead, London. The family was then moved to a secret location, but no arrests were made. All charges were dropped after a witness was deemed unreliable. In 2004, allegations surfaced that David Beckham had had a brief affair with a former personal assistant, Rebecca Loos. The affair had apparently taken place when David had moved to Madrid, although he denied all the allegations. They currently reside in a $22 million Beverly Hills mansion with ten security guards. To create publicity for their move to America, the couple were photographed in their underwear for the fashion magazine, W'', Beckham's marriage and career as a singer have made her the 52nd richest woman in Britain. and the 19th richest person in Britain with husband David, with an estimated joint wealth of £112 million ($225 million USD).

Filmography

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

See also

Girl Power

Power couple

Celebrity

Spice Girls

References

Alexander, Ella Victoria Beckham on her relationship with Diane von Furstenberg at Vogue.com http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/100624-victoria-beckham-on-diane-von-furst.aspx

External links

Category:1974 births Category:Living people Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:Businesspeople in fashion Category:English bloggers Category:English businesspeople Category:English dance musicians Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:English female singers Category:English pop singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:Footballers' Wives and Girlfriends Category:People from Waltham Cross Category:Spice Girls members

Name	Victoria Wood
Birth date	May 19, 1953
Birth place	Prestwich, Lancashire, now Greater ManchesterEngland
Nationality	British
Medium	Actress, screenwriter,comedienne, singer
Genre	Stand-up
Active	1974–present
Spouse	(Separated)

}} Victoria Wood CBE (born 19 May 1953) is a British comedienne, actress, singer and screenwriter. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano.

Much of her humour is grounded in everyday life, and includes references to popular British media and brand names of quintessentially British products. She is noted for her skills in observing culture, and in satirising social classes.

She started her career in 1974 by winning the ATV talent show New Faces. It wasn't until the 1980s that she began to establish herself as a comedy star, with the award-winning television series Victoria Wood As Seen On TV and became one of Britain's most popular stand-up comedians. In 2006, she won two BAFTA awards for her one-off drama for ITV1, Housewife, 49. and began her showbusiness career while an undergraduate studying drama at the University of Birmingham, appearing on the TV talent show New Faces. This led to her appearance in a sketch show featuring the winners of that series, The Summer Show. Her first big break was as a novelty act on the BBC's consumer affairs programme That's Life! in 1976. Wood had first met long-term collaborator Julie Walters in the early 1970s, when Wood applied for Manchester Polytechnic,

1980–88

The success of the television version of Talent led to Wood writing the "follow-up", Nearly A Happy Ending. Shortly afterwards, a third play for Granada was written and made, Happy Since I Met You, again with Walters alongside Duncan Preston as the male lead. During 1980 she also wrote and starred in the stage play Good Fun. and the dry run of the show (the pilot episode) was filmed. The programme was arranged to be made into a full series, and went on to co-star Duncan Preston and a cast of other supporting actors. However, in between the filming of the pilot and the series, Eckersley died. Wood cites Eckersley as giving her her first big break, and feels that Wood and Walters suffered due to his death. There was a second series of Victoria Wood As Seen On TV in 1986, followed by a one-off 'special' in 1987.

In 1988, she appeared in the BAFTA-winning An Audience With Victoria Wood for ITV. At the time of recording the show, Wood was six months pregnant.

1989–99

During this period Wood began to move away from the sketch show format and into more self-contained works, often with a more bittersweet flavour. Victoria Wood (six parts, 1989)) featured Wood in several individual stories such as "We'd Quite Like To Apologise", set in an airport departure lounge, and "Over to Pam", set around a fictional talk show. There was a brief return to sketches with the 1992 Christmas Day special Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast. The television film, Pat and Margaret (1994), starring Wood and Julie Walters as long-lost sisters with very different lifestyles, continued her return to stand-alone plays with a poignant undercurrent to the comedy. In 1998, she wrote her first sitcom, dinnerladies, which continued her now established milieu of mostly female, mostly middle-aged characters depicted vividly and amusingly, but with a counterpoint of sadder themes.

In 1994 there was also the one off BBC 80 minute programme Victoria Wood: Live in Your Own Home featuring Julie Walters and Duncan Preston.

2000–05

December 2000 saw the Christmas sketch show special Victoria Wood with All The Trimmings, starring her traditional troupe of actors and actresses as well as a string of special guest stars. However, it was during this period that Wood tended to move away from comedy, focusing on drama instead. She did continue to produce one-off specials, though, including Victoria Wood's Sketch Show Story (2002) and Victoria Wood's Big Fat Documentary (2005).

Wood wrote her first musical, , which opened in 2005 at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, for a limited period, directed by Trevor Nunn. It starred most of the original cast, with Sally Ann Triplett playing Miss Berta (played in the series by Wood). Wood played Julie Walters' character Mrs. Overall for matinee performances.

2006–present

Wood wrote the 2006 one-off ITV serious drama Housewife, 49, an adaptation of the real diaries of Nella Last, and played the eponymous role of an introverted middle-aged character who discovers new confidence and friendships in Lancashire during World War II. Housewife, 49 was critically praised, and Wood won BAFTAs for both her acting and writing for this drama — a rare double.

In November 2006, Wood directed a revival production of Acorn Antiques: The Musical! with a brand new cast. The musical opened at The Lowry in Salford in December and toured the United Kingdom from January to July 2007.

In January 2007, she appeared as herself in a series of new adverts featuring famous people working for supermarket chain Asda. The adverts featured Wood working in the ASDA bakery and introduced a new catchphrase for the supermarket – "there's no place like ASDA". Wood was also the subject of an episode of The South Bank Show in March 2007 and is the only woman to be the subject of two South Bank programmes (the previous occasion was in September 1996).

Wood appeared in her own travel documentary show on BBC One called Victoria's Empire, in which she travelled around the world in search of the history, cultural impact and customs which the British Empire placed on the parts of the world it ruled. She departed Victoria Station, London for:

Programme One: Calcutta (India), Hong Kong and Borneo

Programme Two: Ghana, Jamaica and Newfoundland, Canada

Programme Three: New Zealand, Australia and Zambia, finishing at the Victoria Falls.

In a tribute to Wood, the British television station UKTV Gold celebrated her works with a weekend marathon of programmes between 3 November and 4 November 2007. The weekend focused on programmes such as Victoria Wood Live and dinnerladies in addition to Victoria Wood As Seen On TV – this marked the first time it has been shown on British television since its last rerun in 1995.

Wood returned to stand-up comedy with a special performance written for the celebratory show Happy Birthday BAFTA on 28 October 2007, alongside other household names. The programme was transmitted on ITV1 on Wednesday 7 November 2007. On Boxing Day 2007 she appeared as "Nana" in the Granada dramatisation of Noel Streatfeild's novel Ballet Shoes.

In December 2007, while guesting on the radio programme Desert Island Discs, Wood said that she was about to begin writing a movie, described as a contemporary comedy about a middle-aged person, marking her first foray into film. On Thursday 12 June 2008, Wood was part of the celebrity guest panel on the series on BBC Two.

In June 2009, Wood appeared as a panelist on the first 2 episodes of the new series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

Wood returned to television comedy for a one-off Christmas comedy sketch-show special, her first in 9 years, titled Victoria Wood's Mid Life Christmas, transmitted on BBC One at 21:00 on Christmas Eve 2009. The special, which reunited Wood with long-time collaborator Julie Walters, included a spoof of BBC period drama (Lark Rise to Candleford, Little Dorrit and Cranford) entitled Lark Pies to Cranchesterford, a spoof documentary following Acorn Antiques star Bo Beaumont (Walters) titled Beyond The Marigolds, highlights from the Mid Life Olympics 2009 (with Wood as the commentator), parodies of personal injury advertisements and a reprise of Wood's most famous song "The Ballad of Barry and Freda" ("Let's Do It"). , a 90-minute documentary looking back on Wood's career, was broadcast on BBC Two at 20:30 on December 21, whilst a behind-the-scenes special programme about Midlife Christmas, , was broadcast on BBC One at 23:00 on December 30. She also appeared in the 2011 drama Eric and Ernie as Sadie Bartholomew, mother of Eric Morecambe.

Associated actors

Wood is notable for frequently including the same actors in her shows. These actors have appeared in most of her work in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s and include — most notably — Julie Walters, Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston. To a lesser extent, other associate actors include: Lill Roughley, Anne Reid and Susie Blake,.

Awards and recognition

Wood has received many awards in her long career. In 1997, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List . Earlier in 1994, she was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Sunderland. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.

Her work has also been laden with awards, both by the public and her professional contemporaries.

In 2003, she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 Funniest Acts in British Comedy. In the 2005 Channel 4 poll The Comedian's Comedian, she was voted 27th out of the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. She was the highest-ranked woman on the list, beating French & Saunders (who paid tribute to her in their 'Lord of the Rings' spoof, where a map of middle earth shows a forest called 'Victoria Wood'), Joan Rivers and Joyce Grenfell.

Her sketch show Victoria Wood As Seen On TV won BAFTA awards for its two series and Christmas Special. In 2007, she was nominated for and won the BAFTA awards for "Best Actress" and for "Best Single Drama" for her role in the British war-time drama Housewife, 49, in which she plays the part of an ordinary housewife dominated by her moody husband. Wood's character eventually stands up to him and helps the WRVS (Women's Royal Voluntary Service) in their preparations for the British soldiers.

Her popularity with the British public has been confirmed when she won 'Best Stand-Up' and 'Best Sketch Show' by Radio Times readers in 2001. Wood was also voted 'Funniest Comedian' by the readers of Reader's Digest in 2005 and came 8th in ITV's poll of the public's 50 Greatest Stars, four places behind fellow co-star Julie Walters.

Personal life

Wood is the youngest daughter of Stanley Wood and Nellie Mape. She has three siblings: a brother, Chris, and two sisters, Penny and Rosalind.

Wood married magician Geoffrey Durham in March 1980. They separated in October 2002. They have two children, Grace (born 1988) and Henry (born 1992). Although Wood fiercely maintains her privacy and that of her children, even originally refusing to publicly release the name of her son when he was born, Henry Wood appeared in a small cameo in her 2010 BBC Christmas Special.

Wood is a vegetarian, once remarking; "I'm all for killing animals and turning them into handbags. I just don't want to have to eat them."

Stand-Up videos

Sold Out (1991)

Live In Your Own Home (31 October 1994)

Live 1997 (27 October 1997)

At The Albert Hall – Live (25 November 2002)

References

External links

In-depth look at her first TV play 'Talent'

Profile at Caroline's Comedy Base

Profile at TV Museum

Victoria Wood at BBC Comedy Guide

A Chronology

Songs and Sketches

Return to drama (Manchester Evening News)

BBC Writers Room – Video and text interview with Victoria Wood about writing comedy

The Independent – The 5-Minute Interview: Victoria Wood, comedian and writer

Category:1953 births Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:English comedians Category:English Quakers Category:English stand-up comedians Category:English television writers Category:English vegetarians Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Living people Category:Old Clavians Category:People from Prestwich Category:People from Bury Category:Women comedians Category:Women television writers

Name	Sylvia Plath
Caption	Plath in her late 20s
Alt	A black-and-white photo of a Caucasian woman with shoulder-length hair in her late 20s. She is seated facing the camera wearing a sweater with bookshelves behind her.
Pseudonym	Victoria Lucas
Birthdate	October 27, 1932
Birthplace	Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Deathdate	February 11, 1963
Deathplace	London, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Poet, novelist, and short story writer
Nationality	American
Ethnicity	Austrian, German
Education	Cambridge University
Alma mater	Smith College
Period	1960–1963
Genre	Autobiography, Confessionalism
Movement	Confessional poetry
Notableworks	The Bell Jar and Ariel
Spouse	Ted Hughes (m. 1956-1963)
Children	Frieda HughesNicholas Hughes (deceased)
Influences	W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, William Blake, Robert Lowell, J. D. Salinger, Anne Sexton, Dylan Thomas, Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats
Influenced	Ted Hughes, Jaime Manrique, Kurt Cobain, Marjorie Perloff, Markus Zusak
Awards	Fulbright scholarshipWoodrow Wilson Fellowship
Signature	Sylvia Plath signature.jpg

Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932–February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956 and they lived together first in the United States and then England, having two children together: Frieda and Nicholas. Following a long struggle with depression and a marital separation, Plath committed suicide in 1963. Controversy continues to surround the events of her life and death, as well as her writing and legacy.

Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for her two collections The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel. In 1982, she became the first poet to win a Pulitzer Prize posthumously for The Collected Poems. She also wrote The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death.

Life and career

Early life

Plath was born during the Great Depression on October 27, 1932 in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, to Aurelia Schobert Plath, a first-generation American of Austrian descent, and Otto Emile Plath, an immigrant from Grabow, Germany. Plath's father was a professor of biology and German at Boston University and author of a book about bumblebees. Plath's mother was approximately twenty-one years younger than her husband.

In April 1935, Plath's brother Warren was born. The family moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts in 1936 and Plath spent much of her childhood on Johnson Avenue. Raised a Unitarian Christian, Plath experienced a loss of faith after her father's death, and remained ambivalent about religion throughout her life Plath's mother, Aurelia, had grown up in Winthrop, and her maternal grandparents, the Schobers, had lived in a section of the town called Point Shirley, a location mentioned in Plath's poetry. While living in Winthrop, eight-year-old Plath published her first poem in the Boston Herald's children's section. In addition to writing, she showed early promise as an artist, winning an award for her paintings from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 1947.

Otto Plath died on November 5, 1940, a week and a half after Plath's eighth birthday, Following this experience, Plath made her first medically documented suicide attempt by crawling under her house and taking an overdose of sleeping pills. After her unsuccessful suicide attempt, Plath was briefly committed to a mental institution where she received electroconvulsive therapy.

Career and marriage

In a 1961 BBC interview (now held by the British Library Sound Archive), Plath and poet Ted Hughes describe how they met and eventually came to be married. Hughes begins, "I left Cambridge in 1954, but I still had friends there that I used to go back and see now and again. And one of these friends produced a poetry magazine, it just sold one issue. Anyway, I had some poems in this and we had a celebration the day it came out." "To which I came," Plath continues. "I happened to be at Cambridge. I was sent there by the [US] government on a government grant. And I'd read some of Ted's poems in this magazine and I was very impressed and I wanted to meet him. I went to this little celebration and that's actually where we met. [...] I think we saw each other again on Friday the 13th, or something, in London, somehow, after this. Then we saw a great deal of each other. Ted came back to Cambridge and suddenly we found ourselves getting married a few months later." Hughes goes on "I'd saved some cash. I'd been working for about 3 months and everything I'd saved, I blew it on a courtship." Plath adds, "We kept writing poems to each other. Then it just grew out of that, I guess, a feeling that we both were writing so much and having such a fine time doing it, we decided that this should keep on." and the middle of 1958, the couple moved to Boston. Plath took a job as a receptionist in the psychiatric unit of Massachusetts General Hospital and in the evening took creative writing seminars given by poet Robert Lowell (also attended by the writer Anne Sexton).

After travelling in the US, the couple moved back to the United Kingdom in December 1959. Plath and Hughes lived in London at 3 Chalcot Square, near the Primrose Hill area of Regent's Park. Their daughter Frieda was born on 1 April 1960 and in October, Plath published her first collection of poetry, The Colossus. In August she finished her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar and immediately after this, the family moved to the small market town of North Tawton in Devon. Nicholas was born in January 1962. In December 1962, she returned alone to London with their children, and rented a flat at 23 Fitzroy Road (only a few streets from the Chalcot Square flat) in a house where William Butler Yeats once lived. Her depression returned but she completed the rest of her poetry collection which would be published after her death (1965 in the UK, 1966 in the US) . Her only novel The Bell Jar came out in January 1963, published under the pen name Victoria Lucas. Al Alvarez, a poet, editor and literary champion of Hughes and Plath, spoke, in a BBC interview in March 2000, about his failure to recognize Plath's depression. Alvarez says he regretted his inability to offer emotional support to Plath: "I failed her on that level. I was 30 years old and stupid. What did I know about chronic clinical depression? [...] She kind of needed someone to take care of her. And that was not something I could do."

The nurse was due to arrive at nine o'clock the morning of February 10, 1963 to help Plath with the care of her children. Upon arrival, she could not get into the flat, but eventually gained access with the help of a workman, Charles Langridge. They found Plath dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in the kitchen, with her head in the oven, having sealed the rooms between herself and her sleeping children with wet towels and cloths. At approximately 4:30 am, Plath had placed her head in the oven, with the gas turned on. Therefore, it is argued Plath turned the gas on at a time when Mr. Thomas should have been waking and beginning his day. This theory maintains that the gas seeped through the floor for several hours and reached Mr. Thomas and another resident of the floor below. However, in her biography Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath, Plath's best friend, Jillian Becker wrote: "according to Mr. Goodchild—a police officer attached to the coroner's office . . . she had thrust her head far into the gas oven. 'She had really meant to die.'" Plath's gravestone in Heptonstall churchyard bears the inscription that Hughes chose for her: "Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted." Biographers variously attribute the source of the quote to the 16th century Buddhist novel Journey to the West written by Wu Ch'eng-En or to the Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita. Wevill's death led to claims that Hughes had been abusive to both Plath and Wevill. In 1970, radical feminist poet Robin Morgan published the poem "Arraignment", in which she openly accused Hughes of the battery and murder of Plath; other feminists threatened to kill him in Plath's name.

In 1989, with Hughes under public attack, a battle raged in the letters pages of The Guardian and The Independent. In The Guardian on April 20, 1989 Hughes wrote the article "The Place Where Sylvia Plath Should Rest in Peace": "In the years soon after [Plath's] death, when scholars approached me, I tried to take their apparently serious concern for the truth about Sylvia Plath seriously. But I learned my lesson early. [...] If I tried too hard to tell them exactly how something happened, in the hope of correcting some fantasy, I was quite likely to be accused of trying to suppress Free Speech. In general, my refusal to have anything to do with the Plath Fantasia has been regarded as an attempt to suppress Free Speech [...] The Fantasia about Sylvia Plath is more needed than the facts. Where that leaves respect for the truth of her life (and of mine), or for her memory, or for the literary tradition, I do not know."

On March 16, 2009, Nicholas Hughes, the son of Plath and Hughes, hanged himself at his home in Alaska, following a history of depression.

Works

Plath wrote poetry from the age of eight. By the time she arrived at Smith College she had written over fifty short stories and published in a raft of magazines. At Smith she majored in English and won all the major prizes in writing and scholarship. She edited the college magazine Mademoiselle and on her graduation in 1955, she won the Glascock Prize for Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea. Later at Newnham, Cambridge, she wrote for the Varsity magazine. By the time Heinmann published her first collection, The Colossus and other poems in the UK in late in 1960, Plath had been short-listed several times in the Yale Younger Poets book competition and had had work printed in Harper's, The Spectator and the Times Literary Supplement. All the poems in The Colossus had already been printed in major US and British journals and she had a contract with The New Yorker. It was however her 1966 collection Ariel, published posthumously, on which Plath's reputation essentially rests.

In 1971, the volumes Winter Trees and Crossing the Water were published in the UK, including previously unseen nine poems from the original manuscript of Ariel.

Reception

The Colossus received largely positive UK reviews, highlighting her voice as new and strong, individual and American in tone. Peter Dickinson at Punch called the collection "a real find" and "exhilarating to read", full of "clean, easy verse".

Some in the feminist movement saw Plath as speaking for their experience, as a "symbol of blighted female genius".

Themes

Sylvia Plath's early poems exhibit what would become her typical imagery, using personal and nature-based depictions featuring, for example, the moon, blood, hospitals, foetuses, and skulls. They were mostly imitation exercises of poets she admired such as Dylan Thomas, W. B. Yeats and Marianne Moore. Posthumously published in 1966, the impact of Ariel was dramatic, with its dark and potentially autobiographical descriptions of mental illness in poems such as Tulips, Daddy and Lady Lazarus.

In an interview with The Paris Review in 1971, Plath's fellow confessional poet and friend Anne Sexton was asked if they had ever talked about suicide. She replied: "Often, very often. Sylvia and I would talk at length about our first suicide, in detail and in depth—between the free potato chips. Suicide is, after all, the opposite of the poem. Sylvia and I often talked opposites. We talked death with burned-up intensity, both of us drawn to it like moths to an electric lightbulb, sucking on it. She told the story of her first suicide in sweet and loving detail, and her description in The Bell Jar is just that same story. It is a wonder we didn’t depress George [Starbuck] with our egocentricity; instead, I think, we three were stimulated by it—even George—as if death made each of us a little more real at the moment." The confessional interpretation of her work has led to some dismissing certain aspects of her work as an exposition of sentimentalist melodrama; in 2010, for example, Theodore Dalrymple asserted that Plath had been the "patron saint of self-dramatization" and of self-pity. Revisionist critics such as Tracy Brain have, however, argued against a tightly autobiographical interpretation of Plath's work.

Journals and letters

Plath's letters were published in 1975, edited and selected by her mother Aurelia Plath. The collection, Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963, came out partly in response to the strong public reaction to the publication of The Bell Jar in America. Plath had kept a diary from the age of 11 until her death, doing so until her suicide. Her adult diaries, starting from her first year at Smith College in 1950, were first published in 1982 as The Journals of Sylvia Plath, edited by Frances McCullough, with Ted Hughes as consulting editor. In 1982, when Smith College acquired Plath's remaining journals, Hughes sealed two of them until February 11, 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of Plath's death.

During the last years of his life, Hughes began working on a fuller publication of Plath's journals. In 1998, shortly before his death, he unsealed the two journals, and passed the project onto his children by Plath, Frieda and Nicholas, who passed it on to Karen V. Kukil. Kukil finished her editing in December 1999, and in 2000 Anchor Books published The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. More than half of the new volume contained was newly released material;

The Bell Jar

Plath's semi-autobiographical novel was published in 1963 and in the US in 1971, which her mother wished to block. She described her novel as "an autobiographical apprentice work which I had to write in order to free myself from the past". She dated a Yale senior named Dick Norton during her junior year. Norton, upon whom the character of Buddy in The Bell Jar is based, contracted tuberculosis and was treated at the Ray Brook Sanatorium near Saranac Lake. While visiting Norton, Plath broke her leg skiing, an incident that was fictionalized in the novel.

Hughes controversy

As Hughes and Plath were legally married at the time of her death, Hughes inherited the Plath estate, including all her written work. Hughes has been condemned from some quarters He "lost" another journal and an unfinished novel and instructed that a collection of Plath's papers and journals should not be released until 2013. In the reams of literary criticism and biography published after their deaths, after the release of new material, biopics, or any old-new controversy, the debate over Plath's literary estate is very often reduced to black and white, that is, whose story the readers choose. Hughes has been accused of attempting to control the estate for his own ends, although royalties from Plath's poetry were placed into a trust account for their two children, Frieda and Nicholas.

Still the subject of speculation and approbation, Hughes published Birthday Letters in 1998, his own collection of 88 poems about his relationship with Plath. Hughes had published very little about his experience of the marriage and subsequent suicide and the book caused a sensation, being taken as his first explicit disclosure, topping best seller charts. It was not known that on the volume's release, that Hughes was suffering from terminal cancer and would die later that year. It went on to win the Forward Poetry Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry and the Whitbread Poetry. The poems, written after her death, in some cases long after, they are an account of a failure, circling round a missing centre, trying to find a reason for why she took her own life.

Plath was portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow in the 2003 film Sylvia. Frieda Hughes, now a poet and painter, who was two years old when her mother died, was angered by the making of entertainment featuring her parents' lives. She accused the "peanut crunching" public of wanting to be titillated by the family's tragedies. In 2003, she published her poem "My Mother" in Tatler: Now they want to make a film For anyone lacking the ability To imagine the body, head in oven, Orphaning children

[...] they think I should give them my mother's words To fill the mouth of their monster, Their Sylvia Suicide Doll

From My Mother, in The Book of Mirrors (2003) by Frieda Hughes

Works

Poetry collections

The Colossus and Other Poems (1960)

Ariel (1961–1965)

Three Women: A Monologue for Three Voices (1968)

Crossing the Water (1971)

Winter Trees (1971)

The Collected Poems (1981)

Selected Poems (1985)

Plath: Poems (1998)

Sylvia Plath Reads, Harper Audio (2000) (Audio)

Collected prose and novels

The Bell Jar: A novel (1963), under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas"

(1975)

Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts (1977)

The Journals of Sylvia Plath (1982)

The Magic Mirror (published 1989), Plath's Smith College senior thesis

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, edited by Karen V. Kukil (2000)

Children's books

The Bed Book (1976)

The It-Doesn't-Matter-Suit (1996)

Collected Children's Stories (UK, 2001)

Mrs. Cherry's Kitchen (2001)

See also

Sylvia Plath effect

Sources

Alexander, Paul. (1991). Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306812991.

Alvarez, Al (2007) Risky Business. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9780747587446

Axelrod, Steven Gould. (1992). Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words. Johns Hopkins University. ISBN 080184374X.

Becker, Jillian. (2003). Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath, A memoir. New York: St Martins Press. ISBN 0312315988.

Brain, Tracy. (2010) The Other Sylvia Plath. Essex: Longman, 2001

Brain, Tracy ''Dangerous Confessions: The Problem of Reading Sylvia Plath Biographically." Modern Confessional Writing: New Critical Essays. Ed. Jo Gill.

Butscher, Edward. (2003). Sylvia Plath: Method & Madness (A Biography). ISBN 0971059829.

Hayman, Ronald. (1991). The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath. Carol Publishing. ISBN 1559720689.

Helle, Anita (Ed). (2007). The Unraveling Archive: Essays on Sylvia Plath. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472069276.

Hemphill, Stephanie. (2007). Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath. ISBN 037583799X.

Kyle, Barry. (1976). Sylvia Plath: A Dramatic Portrait Conceived and Adapted from Her Writings. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0571106981.

Kirk, Connie Ann. (2004). Sylvia Plath: A Biography. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313332142.

Malcolm, Janet. (1995). The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Vintage. ISBN 0679751408.

Middlebrook, Diane. (2003). Her Husband: Ted Hughes & Sylvia Plath, a Marriage. Viking Adult. ISBN 0670031879.

Steinberg, Peter. (2004). Sylvia Plath. Chelsea House. ISBN 0791078434.

Plath Helle, Anita. (2007). The Unraveling Archive: Essays on Sylvia Plath. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472069276.

Stevenson, Anne. (1989). Bitter Fame. A Life of Sylvia Plath. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0395453747.

Wagner, Erica. (2002). Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and the Story of Birthday Letters. W.W. Norton. ISBN 0393323013.

Wagner-Martin, Linda. (2003). Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0333631145.

Wagner-Martin, Linda (Ed). (1988). Sylvia Plath (Critical Heritage). Routledge. ISBN 0415009103.

Notes

References

External links

Biography

Plath biog from American Academy of Poets. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Poetry Foundation Biog and poetry of Plath. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Poetry Archive's biography, bibliography and poetry sound files. Retrieved 2010-10-30

BBC Biog and video. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Plath Biography at Blackbird Journal. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Works

Poetry listing of Plath. Standford University. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Ariel (sound file).">BBC archive. Plath reading "Lady Lazarus" from Ariel (sound file). Retrieved 2010-10-30

Essays

Essays on Plath by Joyce Carol Oates. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Online Essays on Plath. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Resources

Plath resources. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Plath resources. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Sylvia Plath resources at LibraryThing. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Hughes and Plath archive at University of Victoria. Retrieved 2010-10-30

Category:1932 births Category:American child writers Category:1963 deaths Category:20th-century novelists Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:American diarists Category:American essayists Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American novelists Category:American people of Austrian descent Category:American poets Category:American women writers Category:American writers of German descent Category:Artists who committed suicide Category:Female suicides Category:Fulbright Scholars Category:Glascock Prize winners Category:Poets who committed suicide Category:Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Category:Smith College alumni Category:Suicides in England Category:Women diarists Category:Writers from Boston, Massachusetts Category:Writers who committed suicide

Caption	Bay in 2008
Birth name
Birth date	February 17, 1965
Birth place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Years active	1984–present
Occupation	Film directorFilm producer

Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for directing high-budget action films characterized by fast edits, polished visuals and substantial usage of practical special effects. His films, which include The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and the Bad Boys and Transformers series, have grossed over three billion dollars world-wide. He is co-founder of commercial production house The Institute , a.k.a. The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness. He is co-chair and part-owner of the special effects house Digital Domain. He co-owns Platinum Dunes, a production house which has remade horror movies including Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Personal life

Michael Bay was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He was raised by his adoptive parents Harriet, a bookstore owner/child psychiatrist, and Jim, a CPA. His cousin, Susan Bay, is the wife of Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy. He attended the exclusive Crossroads School, in Santa Monica, California. Bay often traces his interest in action films back to an incident during his childhood. As a boy, he attached some firecrackers to a toy train and filmed the ensuing fiery disaster with his mother's 8mm camera. The firemen were called and he was grounded. He got his start in the film industry interning with George Lucas when he was fifteen, filing the storyboards for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which he thought was going to be terrible. But his opinion changed after seeing it in the theater and he was so impressed by the experience that he decided to become a film director. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1986, majoring in both English and Film. He was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and a favorite student of film historian Jeanine Basinger. For his graduate work, he attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where he also studied film.

He lives in Los Angeles and Miami with his two bullmastiffs, Bonecrusher and Grace, named for characters in Transformers and Armageddon, respectively. He loves animals. As a boy he donated his Bar Mitzvah money to an animal shelter and often includes his bullmastiff dogs in his films. Mason the dog's last appearance in a film was as Miles' dog in Transformers. He died during production of that film in March 2007. On September 1, 2010, Bay offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture and prosecution of a young woman who appeared in a video on YouTube casually throwing puppies into a river to drown them as well as her accomplice who videotaped the act. He retracted the offer when an individual came forth on the site to confess to the crime.

Early career

Michael Bay began working at Propaganda Films, directing commercials and music videos, two weeks after finishing his post-graduate degree. His 90-second World War II-inspired Coca-Cola ad was picked up by Capitol Records. His first national commercial for the Red Cross won a Clio Award in 1992. He created the Got Milk? advertisement campaign for the California Milk Processors Board in 1993.

Music videos

Filmography

Bad Boys

Bay's success in music videos gained the attention of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson who selected him to direct his first feature-length film, Bad Boys. The film was shot in Miami in 1994 and starred Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The action film proved to be a break-out role for actor Will Smith who was segueing from television to films at that time. Shooting in Miami was a good experience for Bay who would later own a home in the city and spend a great deal of time there. The film was completed for $19 million dollars and grossed a remarkable $141 million at the box office in the summer of 1995. Bay's success led to a strong partnership and friendship with Jerry Bruckheimer.

The Rock

His follow-up film, The Rock (1996), was an action movie set on Alcatraz Island, and in the San Francisco Bay area. It starred Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris. It was also produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, the latter of whom died five months before the film's release. The film is dedicated to him. Connery and Cage won 'Best On-Screen Duo' at the MTV Movie Awards in 1997 and the film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Achievement in Sound category for the work of Greg P. Russell, Kevin O'Connell, and Keith A. Wester.

Armageddon

In 1998, Bay collaborated with Jerry Bruckheimer again, this time as a co-producer, as well as directing the action-adventure film Armageddon. The film, about a group of tough oil drillers who are sent by NASA to deflect an asteroid away from a collision course with Earth, starred Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler. It was nominated for 4 Oscars at the 71st Academy Awards including Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Song. The film earned 9.6 million dollars on its opening day and a total of 36.5 million through the first weekend. The production budget, $140 million dollars, was one of the highest of the summer of 1998. Armageddon went on to gross over $553 million dollars worldwide.

Pearl Harbor

In 2001, Bay directed Pearl Harbor. It starred Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale and Cuba Gooding, Jr. The film was released on Memorial Day weekend in 2001. Again, Bay produced the film with Jerry Bruckheimer. The film received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing and Best Song. Again, Kevin O'Connell received another nomination for Best Sound, but he did not win. Pearl Harbor won in the category for Sound Editing. Michael Bay also directed the music video for nominated track "There You'll Be" by vocal artist Faith Hill.

Bad Boys II

Bay reteamed with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence for Bad Boys II, an event which also marked Bay's fifth collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer. The film grossed $138 million domestically, enough to cover the production budget, and $273 million worldwide, almost twice as much as the first movie.

The Island

In 2005, Bay directed The Island, a science-fiction film starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. It was the first film Michael Bay made without Jerry Bruckheimer. The Island cost $126 million to produce. It earned $46 million domestically and $172 million worldwide. Bay stated that he was not comfortable with the domestic marketing campaign as it confused the audience as to the true subject of the film.

Transformers

In 2007, he directed and teamed up with Steven Spielberg to produce Transformers, a live action film based on the Transformers franchise. The film was released in the U.S. and Canada on July 3, 2007, with 8 p.m. preview screenings on July 2. The previews earned $8.8 million, and in its first day of general release it grossed $27.8 million, a record for Tuesday box office attendance. It broke the record held by Spider-Man 2 for the biggest July 4 gross, making $29 million. On its opening weekend, Transformers grossed $70.5 million, amounting to a $155.4 million opening week, giving it the record for the biggest opening week for a non-sequel. As of November 2007, the film has made over $319 million domestically and over $708 million worldwide.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Bay returned as director and executive producer for , which was released on June 24, 2009 and went on to gross over $832 million worldwide. Although it received mostly negative reviews by critics, the film was well-received by its intended audience and was one of the highest-grossing films of 2009.

American film critics such as Roger Ebert, Michael Phillips and David Denby aggressively criticized the film. In 2010, it had the dubious distinction of earning seven Golden Raspberry Award nominations and winning three: Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay.

The Transformers films have grossed more than $1.5 billion domestically and $3.5 billion worldwide. As of 2009, Michael Bay's worldwide box office totals make him the director with the 8th highest domestic US gross of all time (not adjusted for inflation). It was also one of the best selling DVD and blu ray discs of 2009, second only to Twilight in DVD format and the number one of all time in blu-ray format until it was surpassed by blu ray sales of James Cameron's Avatar in April 2010.

Filmography

Current projects

Bay confirmed that he will direct , set to be released on July 1, 2011.

After is completed, he may direct a sequel to Bad Boys franchise or a "small" film he's been developing for years, tentatively called Pain & Gain. The true crime story, based on events described in a Miami Herald article written by Pete Collins, concerns a group of bumbling bodybuilders working together to commit a robbery.

Bay is producing DreamWorks' I Am Number Four, based on a series of novels by authors James Frey and Jobie Hughes published by HarperCollins Children's Books. D. J. Caruso (Eagle Eye, Disturbia) is slated to direct.

Bay will co-produce One Way Out, a reality series that pits ordinary people against each other as they try to keep their pasts hidden and builds toward a showdown where all those secrets will be revealed.

Gideon's Sword, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's novel set for release in February 2011, was optioned by Bay Films and will be produced by Michael Bay. The main character, Gideon Crew, avenges the death of his father.

Awards

Bay has received five MTV Movie Awards: Best Movie and Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet for Transformers, Best Action Scene for Pearl Harbor, Best Action Scene for Bad Boys II, and Best Action Scene for The Rock. In 1994, Bay was honored by the Directors Guild of America with an award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials.

Michael Bay received the ShoWest 2009 Vanguard Award for excellence in filmmaking at the confab of theater owners.

Production and FX companies

Platinum Dunes

Bay founded this production house with fellow producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form in 2001. Platinum Dunes is named after one of Bay's first student films at Wesleyan University. Brad Fuller also graduated from Wesleyan and worked for Bay as an executive assistant before joining him in this business venture. The company's first film, a remake of the 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, netted $107 million dollars worldwide. Platinum Dunes produced lucrative remakes of classic horror films and introduced new directors like Sam Bayer and Marcus Nispel to feature film audiences. Their most recent horror film production, A Nightmare on Elm Street starring Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, was released April 2010. The film made 32.9 million dollars in its opening weekend, covering nearly its entire 35 million dollar budget and went on to gross over 100 million dollars worldwide.

Paramount Pictures signed a first look deal with Platinum Dunes in 2009. As part of this new relationship, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon have brought the Platinum Dunes producers on to produce a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, rebooting the film series launched by New Line in 1990. Bay, Fuller and Form will co-produce with Galen Walker, Scott Mednick and Marina Norman.

Digital Domain

Bay and Wyndcrest Holdings, a Florida-based investment firm, acquired the special effects company Digital Domain from James Cameron and Stan Winston in 1996, infusing the struggling business with a $50 million dollar investment.

The Institute

After leaving Propaganda Films, Bay and producer Scott Gardenhour, also formerly at Propaganda, formed The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness (now known as The Institute), to produce commercials and other projects. Through The Institute, Bay has directed and produced spots for Victoria's Secret, Lexus, Budweiser, Reebok, Mercedes-Benz, and Nike. His most recent advertisement for Victoria Secret was the 2009 "A Thousand Fantasies" holiday campaign.

References in popular culture

Michael Bay's flair for special effects was lampooned on an episode of Robot Chicken in 40-second movie trailer entitled "Michael Bay Presents: Explosions!".

In 2008, Bay spoofed himself in an advertisement for the Commonwealth Bank in Australia and again for a Verizon FiOS commercial, where he detonates various items within his home that he deemed "awesome" with special effects explosives.

A caricature of Michael Bay appeared in the South Park episode "Imaginationland: Episode I". Bay, M. Night Shyamalan, and Mel Gibson are asked by the Pentagon to think of a way to rescue the collective human imagination from the terrorists holding it captive. Bay is dismissed because his plans "are not ideas, they're special effects."

References

External links

Category:1965 births Category:American adoptees Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American film producers Category:American music video directors Category:Living people Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Saturn Award winners Category:Wesleyan University alumni

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), better known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American pop musician. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by Christian pastor parents; Perry grew up listening to only gospel music and sang in her local church as a child. After earning a GED during her freshman year of high school, she began to pursue a career in music. As Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled gospel album in 2001, which due to the closing of her record label, was deemed unsuccessful. She later recorded an album with production team The Matrix and completed the majority of a solo album from 2004–5; neither of which were released.

After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry and released her first Internet single "Ur So Gay" that November, which garnered public attention; but failed to chart. She rose to fame with the release of her second single "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008, which went on to top international charts. Perry's first mainstream studio album One of the Boys followed later that year and subsequently, became the thirty-third best selling album worldwide of 2008. It was accredited platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America, while "I Kissed a Girl" and her second single "Hot n Cold" both received multi-platinum certifications. Her sophomore studio album Teenage Dream was released in August 2010 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album included hit singles "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream" and "Firework", all of which topped the charts on the Billboard Hot 100 and worldwide.

Perry was credited as a guest judge on the seventh series of the British television show The X Factor; has released a fragrance called "Purr"; and will appear in the upcoming 2011-film The Smurfs. Perry had a long relationship with Travie McCoy; she married Russell Brand on October 23, 2010.

Biography

1984–2006: Early life and career beginnings

Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Santa Barbara, California on October 25, 1984 to Mary (née Perry), an evangelist who grew up in Southern California and had "a tempestuous first marriage in Zimbabwe", She has an older sister and younger brother. Perry's maternal aunt and uncle were screenwriter Eleanor Perry and director Frank Perry, through whom she is also related to Charles M. Schwab, the founder of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

Perry was incorporated into her parents' ministry She grew up listening to gospel music, was not allowed to listen to what her mother called "secular music", and attended Christian schools and camps. She took her GED after her freshman year at Dos Pueblos High School and decided to leave school in the pursuit of a career in music. Her sister practiced with cassette tapes, while Perry took the tapes herself when her sister was not around. She rehearsed the songs and performed them in front of her parents, who suggested she take vocal coaching. She grabbed the opportunity and began taking lessons at the age of nine and continued until she was sixteen. She later enrolled in at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and studied Italian opera for a short period of time. In Nashville, Perry started recording demos and was taught by country music veterans on how to craft songs and play guitar. Performing as Katy Hudson, she released the self-titled Gospel-rock album in 2001. The album was due for release in 2005,

Perry signed to Columbia Records in 2004. However, the label was not amenable with her vision, not putting her in the "driver's seat". She made a cameo appearance in Carbon Leaf's video, "Learn to Fly".

2007–09: One of the Boys and MTV Unplugged

Before being dropped by Columbia, its then publicity executive Angelica Cob-Baehler recommended Perry to Capitol A&R; Chris Anokute while at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Keen to hear more, Anokute was sent a DVD, featuring a video of "Simple", and a three-song demo. It was after hearing the demo of "Waking Up in Vegas" that Anokute became convinced of Perry's star talent. He showed the demo to his boss Jason Flom, then head of Capitol Music Group, telling him, "I've found the next Avril Lavigne meets Alanis Morissette." Flom proved to be less enthusiastic, however; he wasn't convinced the demos were good enough and was wary about an artist that had already been dropped by two major labels. Anokute refused to give up and eventually his persistence together with that of new Virgin employee, Cob-Baehler, paid off. Perry was signed to Capitol Music in early 2007.

She went on the next step of promoting the album, undertaking a two-month tour of radio stations. The album's official lead single, "I Kissed a Girl", was released on May 6, 2008. Perry's A&R;, Chris Anokute, told HitQuarters how, despite being himself convinced it was a "career record", the song and its controversial theme met with strong resistance at the label, "People said, 'This is never going to get played on the radio. How do we sell this? How’s this going to be played in the bible belt?'" On June 12, 2008, Perry appeared as herself on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless,

One of the Boys was released on June 17, 2008 to mixed critical reviews. The album has reached number nine on the Billboard 200, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Perry released her second single, "Hot n Cold", which became her second top three single in dozens of countries around the world, including the United States where it reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100, Perry was nominated in five categories at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best New Artist and Best Female Video, but lost to Britney Spears. She won Best New Act at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, which she co-hosted, and Best International Female Artist at the 2009 BRIT Awards. On February 9, 2009, both "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold" were certified three-time platinum by Recording Industry Association of America for individual digital sales of over three million.

The Matrix's self-titled debut album, which features Perry, was later released via the team's label, Let's Hear It, during Perry's solo tour. When the release date was scheduled, "I Kissed a Girl" had been charting well. Matrix member Lauren Christy spoke to Perry about the decision, but she wanted to hold the release until the fourth single of One of the Boys had been dispatched. Despite their communication, The Matrix was released on January 27, 2009, via iTunes Store. In December 2008, Perry apologized to British singer Lily Allen for remarks in which she called herself a "skinnier version" of her, saying she meant it as a joke. Allen retaliated and told a British radio station that she "happen[ed] to know for a fact that she [Perry] was an American version" of her because their record company needed "to find something controversial and 'kooky'" like her.

On May 16, 2009, Perry performed at the opening ceremony of the annual Life Ball in Vienna, Austria. In June 2009, lawyers acting for Katy Perry opposed the recent trademark of Australian fashion designer Katie Perry who uses her own name to market loungewear. Some media outlets reported this as a lawsuit, which Katy Perry has denied on her blog. Katie Perry the designer reports on her blog that at a hearing with IP Australia on July 10, 2009, the singer's lawyers withdrew their opposition to the trademark. During the summer of 2009 Perry filmed a cameo appearance for Get Him to the Greek; her scene, in which she kisses her future fiancé Russell Brand was cut, and does not appear in the final film. Discussing the issue with MTV, Perry hypothesized there may have been some fear that seeing the two make out would have taken viewers out of the experience. In 2009, Perry was featured on two singles: a remix of Colorado-based band 3OH!3's song "Starstrukk" in August (the idea for the collaboration came after Perry's tour that featured 3OH!3 as the supporting act). The song was released over iTunes on September 8, 2009; and "If We Ever Meet Again", the fourth single off Timbaland's album Shock Value II in December. In October 2009, MTV Unplugged revealed that Perry was one of the artists to perform for them, and that she would be releasing a live album of the performance, including two new tracks, "Brick by Brick" and Fountains of Wayne cover "Hackensack". The album was released on November 17, and includes both a CD and a DVD.

2010–present: Teenage Dream

Perry appeared as a guest judge alongside Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh during the Dublin audition stage of the seventh series of the British television show The X Factor on June 28, 2010 (later televised on August 28). She was one of the many celebrities chosen to fulfil the role of judge whilst Dannii Minogue was on maternity leave. She later returned to the show on October 17 to perform "Firework". Perry's second mainstream studio album was titled Teenage Dream and was released in August 2010. The first single from the album was titled "California Gurls". The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the fastest rising single from a Capitol Records artist since Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" in 1967. The cover art for Teenage Dream is a painting by Will Cotton in which depicts Perry lying naked on clouds of cotton candy; resembling the shots of Perry in the video for "California Gurls". The booklet of the physical edition of the album, in keeping with the theme of cotton candy, has a cotton candy scent. The album's second single "Teenage Dream" was released in July 2010. "Firework" is the album's third single.

Katy Perry appeared at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. She was nominated for two awards and presented the award of "Best Male Video" with Nicki Minaj to Eminem. On September 14, she returned to her old high school, Dos Pueblos High School, where she performed a short set for the school's students. Perry performed "Hot n Cold" with Elmo from Sesame Street, which was originally to appear on the forty-first-season premiere of the educational children's program on September 27, 2010. However, four days before the scheduled airing, Sesame Workshop announced, "In light of the feedback we've received on the Katy Perry music video ... we have decided we will not air the segment on the television broadcast of Sesame Street, which is aimed at preschoolers. Katy Perry fans will still be able to view the video on YouTube." The main reason was that parents complained about what appeared to be a great amount of cleavage shown by her dress. Perry shot the video for Firework in Budapest in September 2010. An open casting call drew an unprecedented 38,000 applicants. She proceeded to perform at a concert in Budapest on October 1, her first concert in Central and Eastern EuropePerry has announced her own fragrance to be released in autumn of this year, named "Purr". It will come in a cat-shaped bottle, and will be available through Nordstrom stores.

Musical style and themes

Perry has a contralto vocal range. Among Perry's musical influences are Alanis Morissette, pop rockers Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Shirley Manson, and Freddie Mercury, Perry expects to record more pop songs for her next album.

Perry is artistically involved in her projects, especially in the writing process. Since she could play guitar, she would start writing songs at home and present it to her producers. Perry is mostly inspired by specific moments of her life. She said it is easy for her to write songs about heartbreak. The songs have been respectively labeled as being homophobic and promoting homosexuality, as well as "lez ploitational".

Public image

Perry is known for her unconventional style of dress. Her fashion has caught the attention of designers, who were giving her nearly as much attention as fans of her music. The picture was defended as only an effort to give Perry a "sexy, harder edge". She has appeared in FHM Magazine's 100 Sexiest Women poll twice, ranking at #23 in 2009 and #37 in 2010.

Personal life

Perry dated Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy, whom she met in a recording studio in New York, on and off for several years. After more than a year of friendship and casual dating, they became serious with their relationship right before they embarked on the 2008 Warped Tour. Perry and McCoy broke up in December 2008. The two began dating again in early 2009 and broke up again a few months later. Perry first met British comedian Russell Brand in the summer of 2008 when Perry filmed a cameo for Brand's film Get Him to the Greek. Perry and Brand began dating after meeting again in September 2009 at the MTV Video Music Awards, where Brand, as host, remarked, "Katy Perry didn't win an award and she's staying at the same hotel as me, so she's gonna need a shoulder to cry on. So in a way, I'm the real winner tonight." The couple became engaged in December 2009 when Brand proposed to Perry while vacationing in India. In a July 2010 YouTube interview, Perry said Brand would be a "perfect" father. Perry has stated that she plans to take dual British citizenship when she marries Brand. "One of the first things I'll do is apply for dual citizenship. I'm not too sure if I have to take a test as I've not had time to look into it. But England is like my second home". Perry and Brand married on October 23, 2010 near the Ranthambhore tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, the same location where Brand had proposed. They were married in a traditional Hindu ceremony.

Discography

Katy Hudson (2001)

One of the Boys (2008)

Teenage Dream (2010)

Tours

Hello Katy Tour (2009)

California Dreams Tour (2011)

Filmography

Television

{| class="wikitable sortable" !Year !Title !Role !class="unsortable"|Notes |- |2008 | |Herself |Episode 8914 |- |2008 |Wildfire |Herself |"" (Season 4, episode 8) |- |2010 | American Idol |Guest judge |"Season 9, episode 5" |- |2010 |The X Factor |Guest judge |"Series 7, episode 2" |- |2010 |Sesame Street | Herself | Online special (deleted from televised episode) |- |2010 | The Simpsons | Herself | 1 episode, "The Fight Before Christmas" |- |2011 | How I Met Your Mother | Zoey's cousin | 1 episode, "Oh Honey" |}

Films

{| class="wikitable sortable" !Year !Title !Role ! class="unsortable"|Notes |- |2011 | |Smurfette |Voice |- |2011 | |TBA |Cameo |- |}

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Official website

Category:1984 births Category:Living people Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from California Category:American bloggers Category:American Christians Category:American contraltos Category:American dance musicians Category:American female guitarists Category:American female pop singers Category:American film actors Category:American musicians of German descent Category:American people of Portuguese descent Category:American pop rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American voice actors Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Capitol Records artists Category:English-language singers Category:Female rock singers Category:Musicians from California Category:People from Santa Barbara, California Category:The X Factor judges

Name	John Mayer
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	John Clayton Mayer
Born	October 16, 1977Bridgeport, Connecticut
Origin	Fairfield, Connecticut, U.S.
Instrument	Guitar, vocals, omnichord, piano, vibraphone, percussion
Genre	Blues rock, pop rock, blue-eyed soul, acoustic rock, soft rock
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, graphic designer, columnist, comedian
Years active	–present
Label	Arista, Aware, Columbia
Associated acts	John Mayer Trio
Url
Notable instruments	Fender StratocasterMartin GuitarsGibson Guitars

John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, where he attended Fairfield Warde High School. He then attended Berklee College of Music in Boston before moving to Atlanta, Georgia in 1997, where he refined his skills and gained a following. His first two studio albums, Room for Squares and Heavier Things, did well commercially, achieving multi-platinum status. In 2003, he won a Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Grammy Award for "Your Body Is a Wonderland".

Mayer began his career performing mainly acoustic rock, but gradually began a transition towards the blues genre in 2005 by collaborating with renowned blues artists such as B. B. King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton, and by forming the John Mayer Trio. The blues influence can be heard on his album Continuum, released in September 2006. At the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007 Mayer won Best Pop Vocal Album for Continuum and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Waiting on the World to Change". He released his fourth studio album, Battle Studies, in November 2009.

Mayer's career pursuits have extended to stand-up comedy, design, and writing; he has written pieces for magazines, most notably for Esquire. He is also involved in philanthropic activities through his "Back to You" fund. Several high-profile romantic relationships and his involvement with the media caused him to become a tabloid staple, beginning in 2006.

Early life

Mayer was born on October 16, 1977 in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Margaret, an English teacher, and Richard, a high school principal. He grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut, the second of three children. Mayer is Jewish on his father's side, and has said that he "relat[es] to Judaism". Growing up in Fairfield, Mayer became friends with future tennis star James Blake. He attended Fairfield Warde High School (then called Andrew Warde High School), although he was enrolled in the Center for Global Studies at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk for his junior year. (Then known as the Center for Japanese Studies Abroad, it is a magnet program for students wanting to learn Japanese.) During an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Mayer said that he had played the clarinet for a while in middle school, with minor success. After watching Michael J. Fox's guitar performance as Marty McFly in Back to the Future, Mayer became fascinated with the instrument, and when he turned 13, his father rented one for him.

Soon after, a neighbor gave him a Stevie Ray Vaughan cassette, which began Mayer’s intense love of the blues. Mayer started taking lessons from a local guitar-shop owner, and soon became consumed with playing the instrument. His singular focus concerned his parents, and they took him twice to see a psychiatrist—but Mayer was determined to be fine. Mayer considered skipping college to pursue his music, but the disapproval of his parents dissuaded him from doing so. Shortly thereafter, he began suffering from panic attacks, and lived with the fear of having to enter a mental institution. After graduation, he worked for fifteen months at a gas station until he saved enough money to buy a 1996 Stevie Ray Vaughan signature Stratocaster.

Career

Early career

John Mayer enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, at age nineteen. In Atlanta they formed a two-man band called LoFi Masters and began performing in local coffee houses and club venues such as Eddie's Attic. As a result, the two parted ways, and Mayer embarked on a solo career. Mayer and LaBruyere then began to perform throughout Georgia and nearby states.

Major label success

Mayer’s reputation began to build, and a March 2000 appearance at South by Southwest brought him to the attention of "launch" label, Aware Records. After including him in the Aware Festival concerts and having his songs included on Aware compilations, in early 2001, Aware released Mayer’s internet-only album entitled, Room for Squares. During that time, Aware inked a deal with Columbia Records that gave Columbia first pick in signing Aware artists, and so in September of the same year, Columbia remixed and re-released Room for Squares. As part of the major label "debut", the album's artwork was updated, and the track "3x5" was added. The re-release also included reworked studio versions of the first four songs from his indie album, Inside Wants Out.

By the end of 2002, Room for Squares had spawned several radio hits, including "No Such Thing," "Your Body Is a Wonderland", and ultimately, "Why Georgia". In 2003, Mayer won a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Your Body Is a Wonderland." In his acceptance speech he remarked, "This is very, very fast, and I promise to catch up." He also figuratively referred to himself as being sixteen, a remark that many mistook to mean that he was only sixteen years old at the time.

In 2003, Mayer released a live CD and DVD of a concert in Birmingham, Alabama entitled, Any Given Thursday. The concert featured songs previously not recorded, such as "Man on the Side" (co-written with Cook) and "Something's Missing", which later appeared on Heavier Things. The concert also included "Covered In Rain". According to the accompanying DVD documentary, this song is "part two" of the song "City Love", which features the line "covered in rain". Commercially, the album quickly peaked at number seventeen on the Billboard 200 chart. The CD/DVD received conservative, although consistent, praise, with critics torn between his pop-idol image, and (at the time) emerging guitar prowess. Erik Crawford (of Allmusic) asked "Is he the consummate guitar hero exemplified when he plays a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'Lenny', or is he the teen idol that the pubescent girls shriek for after he plays 'Your Body Is a Wonderland?'"

Heavier Things, Mayer's second album, was released in 2003 to generally favorable reviews. Rolling Stone, Allmusic and Blender all gave positive, although reserved, feedback. PopMatters said that it "doesn't have as many drawbacks as one might assume". The album was commercially successful, and while it did not sell as well as Room for Squares, it peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. Mayer earned his first number one single with the song "Daughters" as well as a 2005 Grammy for Song of the Year, beating out fellow contenders Alicia Keys and Kanye West. He dedicated the award to his grandmother, Annie Hoffman, who died in May 2004. He also won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, beating Elvis Costello, Prince, and Seal for the award. In his February 9, 2009 interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Mayer said that he thought he shouldn't have won the Grammy for Song of the year because he thought that Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You was the better song. Because of this, he removed the top half of the Grammy and gave it to Keys, and kept the bottom part for himself. At the 37th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2006, Mayer was honored with the Hal David Starlight Award.

Mayer again recorded live concerts across seven nights of his U.S. tour in 2004. These recordings were released to the iTunes music store under the title as/is, indicating that the errors were included along with the good moments. A few months later, a "best of" CD was compiled from the as/is nights. The album included a previously unreleased cover of Marvin Gaye's song "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", featuring a solo from Mayer's support act—jazz and blues turntablist, DJ Logic. All the album covers of the as/is releases feature drawings of anthropomorphic bunnies.

, John Mayer and Steve Jobs at Macworld 11, SF Moscone Center.]] With increased exposure, Mayer's talent came into demand in other areas. Steve Jobs invited Mayer to perform during the keynote address of Apple's annual Macworld Conference & Expo, in January 2004, as Jobs introduced the software application GarageBand. The gig led to Mayer becoming a fixture of the event. He rejoined Jobs on stage for a solo performance at Macworld 2007, following the announcement of the iPhone. Mayer has also done endorsements, such as a Volkswagen commercial for the Beetle's guitar outlet and for the BlackBerry Curve.

Change in musical direction

Mayer began to collaborate extensively, often working with artists outside of his own genre. He appeared on Common's song "Go!" and on Kanye West's "Bittersweet Poetry". Following these collaborations, Mayer received praise from rap heavyweights Jay-Z and Nelly. When asked about his presence in the hip hop community, Mayer said, "It's not music out there right now. That's why, to me, hip-hop is where rock used to be."

It was around this time that Mayer began hinting a change in his musical interests, announcing that he was "closing up shop on acoustic sensitivity."

John Mayer Trio

This sample features an extended electric guitar solo.}}

In the spring of 2005, Mayer formed the John Mayer Trio with bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan, both of whom he had met through previous studio sessions. The trio played a combination of blues and rock music. In October 2005, the Trio opened for The Rolling Stones during a sold-out club tour of their own, and that November, released a live album called Try! The band took a break in mid-2006. In September 2006, Mayer announced plans for the Trio to begin work on a future studio album.

Continuum era

Mayer's third studio album, titled Continuum, was released on September 12, 2006, and was produced by Mayer and Steve Jordan. Mayer suggested the album was intended to combine his signature pop music with the feel, sound, groove, and sensibilities of the blues. In that vein, two of the tracks from his trio release Try!—the funky "Vultures" and the blues centerpiece "Gravity"—also were included on Continuum.

The first single from Continuum was "Waiting on the World to Change", which debuted on The Ron and Fez Show. The song was the third most downloaded song of the week on the iTunes Music Store following its release on July 11, 2006, and debuted at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. On August 23, 2006, Mayer debuted the entire album on the Los Angeles radio station Star 98.7, giving commentary on each track. A subsequent version was released the next day on the Clear Channel Music website as a streaming sneak preview. On September 21, 2006, Mayer appeared on , playing "Waiting on the World to Change" and "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room." The song "Gravity" was featured on the television series House in the episode "Cane & Able" and Numb3rs. He recorded a session for the British program Live From Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios on October 22, 2006.

On December 7, 2006, Mayer was nominated for five 2007 Grammys, including "Album of the Year." The John Mayer Trio also received a nomination for their album, Try!. He won two: Best Pop Song with Vocal for "Waiting on the World to Change" and Best Pop Album for Continuum. Mayer remixed an acoustic version of his single "Waiting on the World to Change" with vocal additions from fellow musician Ben Harper. In preparation for recording Continuum, Mayer had booked the Village Recorder in Los Angeles to record five demo acoustic versions of his songs with veteran musician Robbie McIntosh. These recordings became The Village Sessions, an EP released on December 12, 2006. As usual, Mayer oversaw the artwork of the release.

Mayer was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone (#1020) in February 2007, along with John Frusciante and Derek Trucks. He was named as one of the "New Guitar Gods," and the cover nicknamed him "Slowhand, Jr.," a reference to Eric Clapton.

On November 20, 2007, the re-issue of Continuum became available online and in stores. The release contains a bonus disc of six live songs from his 2007 tour: five from Continuum and a cover of the Ray Charles song "I Don't Need No Doctor". His new single, "Say", also became available through iTunes. On December 6, 2007, "Belief" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. He accompanied Alicia Keys on guitar on her song "No One" at the ceremony.

In February 2008, Mayer hosted a three-day Caribbean cruise event that included performances with various musicians including David Ryan Harris, Brett Dennen, Colbie Caillat and Dave Barnes, among others. The event was called "The Mayercraft Carrier" and was held aboard the cruise ship known as the Carnival Victory. A follow up cruise titled "Mayercraft Carrier 2" set sail from Long Beach, California on March 27–31, 2009 on the Carnival Splendor.

On July 1, 2008, Mayer released Where the Light Is a live concert film of Mayer's performance at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on December 8, 2007. The film was directed by Danny Clinch. It features an acoustic set and a set with the John Mayer Trio, followed by a set with John's band from the Continuum album. The DVD and Bluray bonus material includes footage of Mayer backstage and playing outside on Mulholland Drive.

Australian artist Guy Sebastian invited Mayer to collaborate on three songs from his 2009 album Like it Like That. Mayer also played guitar on the title track of Crosby Loggins's debut LP, Time to Move, released on July 10, 2009.

On July 7, 2009, Mayer performed an instrumental guitar version of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" at Jackson's memorial service.

Battle Studies

On November 17, 2009, Mayer's fourth studio album, Battle Studies, was released and debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart. The album consists of 11 tracks with a total time of 45 minutes. The first single from the album, "Who Says", was released on September 24, 2009 in advance of album, and was followed on October 19 by the single "Heartbreak Warfare". Despite the album's commercial success, critics were mixed with their praise; while some reviews were glowing, calling it his "most adventurous", others called the album "safe" and noted that "Mayer the singer-songwriter and Mayer the man about town sometimes seem disconnected, like they don’t even belong in the same body." Mayer himself admitted to Rolling Stone that he thought Battle Studies was not his best album.

Other projects

Philanthropic activities

In 2002, Mayer began the "Back To You" Fund, a non-profit organization that focuses on fundraising in the areas of health care, education, the arts, and talent development. The foundation raises funds through the auction of exclusive John Mayer items, such as guitar picks, t-shirts, and signed CDs, made available on Mayer's auction site. The auctions have been successful, with some tickets selling for more than seventeen times their face value.

In an April 2007 blog entry, Mayer announced a new effort to help reverse global warming, dubbed "Another Kind of Green" (originally "Light Green", but changed because of copyright concerns). He envisioned it mostly as a line of "products that are cheap, easy alternatives to cut down on plastics," and encouraging others to do the same through his blog. He has also converted his tour bus to bio-diesel fuel. In the summer of 2007, the environmental advocacy group Reverb set up informational booths and helped his crew conserve energy on his tour dates.

Mayer has performed at a number of benefits and telethons for charity throughout his career. In response to the Virginia Tech massacre, Mayer (along with Dave Matthews Band, Phil Vassar, and Nas) performed a free concert at Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium on September 6, 2007. On December 8, 2007, Mayer hosted the First Annual Charity Revue, a tradition he has continued each year. Charities who have benefited from the concerts include Toys for Tots, Inner City Arts, and the Los Angeles Mission. Both CDs and DVDs of the first concert were released under the title "Where the Light Is" in July 2008. It has not been announced whether the DVD proceeds will go to charity or not. Mayer also appeared on Songs for Tibet, a celebrity initiative to support Tibet and the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso.

Design

In a Rolling Stone interview, Mayer recalled that after former Columbia Records head, Don Ienner, panned Continuum, he briefly considered quitting music and studying design full time. The guitar was limited to a run of only 404, an Atlanta area code. This model was followed by the release of two Fender signature Stratocaster electric guitars, beginning in 2005. A third Stratocaster, finished in charcoal frost metallic paint with a racing stripe, was also a limited-release, with only 100 guitars made. In January, 2006, Martin Guitars released the Martin OMJM John Mayer acoustic guitar. The guitar was intended to have many of the attributes of the Martin OM-28 John Mayer but with a more affordable price tag. In August 2006, Fender started manufacturing SERIES II John Mayer Stratocasters. The new Olympic white with mint green pickguard and cream plastics replaced the shoreline gold model. In January 2007, Two Rock collaborated with Mayer on custom-designed amps. Only 25 (all signed by Mayer himself) were made available to the public. June 2007 saw the release of the "album art" guitar, with the Continuum motif repeated on the face of the instrument, as well as a 500-run John Mayer signature Fender Stratocaster in Cypress-Mica. Included with the limited Cypress-Mica model was the INCSvsJM gig bag that Mayer collaborated on with Incase designs. Not surprisingly, Mayer is a passionate collector of guitars, and in 2006 his collection was estimated at more than 200. The winner was Tim Fagan of L.A., as announced in the following January's issue.

Mayer has been active online, and has maintained four blogs: a MySpace page, a blog at his official site, another at Honeyee.com, one at tumblr.com, as well as a photoblog at StunningNikon.com. He also is one of the most-followed persons on the micro-blogging site Twitter, reaching 3 million followers in January 2010. Although his posts often deal with career-related matters, they also contain jokes, videos, photos, his convictions, and his personal activities; they sometimes overlap in content. He is noted for writing the blogs himself, and not through a publicist. In the mid-2000s, stand-up comedy became a sporadic hobby of Mayer's.

Television

In 2004, Mayer hosted a one-shot, half-hour comedy special on VH1 entitled John Mayer Has a TV Show, with antics including wearing a bear suit while anonymously teasing concertgoers in the parking lot outside one of his concerts. The American network CBS announced on January 14, 2009 that they were in negotiations with Mayer for a variety show; it may air as a special or as a regular series. In an interview with Rolling Stone, posted online on January 22, 2010, Mayer confirmed that the program, also called John Mayer Has a TV Show, was still in development, and that personnel were being hired. He described the concept as "a high quality music performance show, where I could also steer it a little bit. It's about there being a bastion of artists being made to look good and sound good.".

Mayer has made many appearances on talk shows and other television programs, most notably, on a Chappelle's Show comedy skit, Late Night with David Letterman and on the final episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Mayer made an appearance with Rob Dyrdek in the MTV show Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, in which Mayer helped Dyrdek write a song dedicated to Dyrdek's mother.

Touring

Mayer has toured with many musical groups, including Maroon 5, Guster, Howie Day, Mat Kearney, Counting Crows, Ben Folds, The Wallflowers, Teitur, Brett Dennen, Sheryl Crow, Colbie Caillat, Train, OneRepublic and Paramore. Crow and Mayer, who had just previously appeared on the Cars Soundtrack together, co-headlined a tour that ran from August to October 2006. In 2007, Mayer toured Europe, hoping to reach the popularity abroad that he enjoys in North America. The initial North American Continuum tour ended on February 28, 2007, with a show at Madison Square Garden, a performance which the New York Post described as "career-defining." In 2010, Mayer and Keith Urban performed at a CMT Crossroads concert which saw Mayer and Urban performing a medley of their own songs together and a rendition of George Michael's single, "Faith". This performance was led to Urban and Mayer teaming up again for future performances, including at the 2010 CMT Awards.

Mayer allows audio taping at most of his live performances, and he also allows for the non-commercial trading of those recordings. He does this to give fans the opportunity to recreate the live experience, and to encourage fan interaction.

Touring band members

;Current members

David Ryan Harris – guitar, backing vocals (2003–present)

Robbie McIntosh – guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals (2006–present)

Sean Hurley – bass, backing vocals (2008–present)

Charlie Wilson – keyboards (2009–present)

Keith Carlock - drums, percussion (2010–present)

Bob Reynolds – saxophones, flute (2006–2008, 2010–present)

Bryan Lipps - trumpet (2010–present)

;Former members

David LaBruyere – bass (1999–2008)

Nir Z - drums (2001)

Matt Mangano - guitar (2001)

Matt Johnson - drums (2002)

Stephen Chopek – drums, percussion (2001–2002)

Michael Chaves – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (2001–2005)

Kevin Lovejoy – keyboards (2003–2004)

Erik Jekabsen – trumpet, flugelhorn (2003–2004)

Chris Karlic – saxophone, flute (2003–2005)

J.J. Johnson – drums (2003–2005, 2006–2008)

Onree Gill – keyboards (2004–2005)

Chuck McKinnon – trumpet, flugelhorn (2004–2005)

Ricky Peterson – keyboards, organ, backing vocals (2006–2007)

Tim Bradshaw – keyboards, organ, lap steel guitar, backing vocals (2007–2008)

Kenna Ramsey - backing vocals (2009–2010)

Melanie Taylor - backing vocals (2009–2010)

Steve Jordan – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2003, 2005–2006, 2009–2010)

Brad Mason - trumpet, flugelhorn (2006–2008)

Personal life

Mayer follows the discipline of Krav Maga. He hosts an annual Interfaith Baking Contest, in which he judges his favorite from pictures of baked goods sent in by his fans during the end-of-year, holiday season.

Mayer has a number of tattoos. These include: "Home" and "Life" (from the song title) on the back of his left and right arms respectively, "77" (his year of birth) on the left side of his chest, and a koi-like fish on his right shoulder. His entire left arm is covered in a sleeve tattoo that he acquired gradually, ending in April 2008; it includes: "SRV" (for his idol, Stevie Ray Vaughan) on his shoulder, a decorated rectangle on his biceps, a dragon-like figure on his inner arm, and various other floral designs. In 2003, he got a tattoo of three squares on his right forearm, which, he has explained, he will fill in gradually. As of 2010, two are filled.

He is an avid collector of watches and owns timepieces worth tens of thousands of dollars. Mayer also has an extensive collection of sneakers, estimated () at more than 200 pairs.

Mayer's parents concluded an uncontested divorce on May 27, 2009. After the divorce, Mayer moved his (82-year-old) father to an assisted-living facility in Los Angeles. Despite rumors to the contrary, Mayer did not date Heidi Klum in 2003. When Ryan Seacrest asked Mayer on the red carpet of the 2007 Grammy Awards, about his relationship with Simpson, Mayer responded in Japanese. Despite some initially conflicting translations, he said, "Jessica is a lovely woman, and I'm glad to be with her." Simpson also accompanied Mayer for a portion of his 2007 Continuum tour, and the two went on a trip to Rome in March of that year. However, the couple split in May 2007. He began dating actress Minka Kelly in September 2007, but they split up before the year's end. Mayer began dating actress Jennifer Aniston in April 2008, but Mayer broke it off the following August. They resumed dating in October 2008 and split up again in March 2009. His relationships with high-profile celebrities has led to his having a reputation as a "womanizer." Mayer's relationship with Jessica Simpson coincided with some personal behavior changes that served to significantly increase his tabloid exposure. Previously, Mayer had expressed his resolve to completely avoid drugs, alcohol, clubbing, "red-carpet" events, dating celebrities and anything else that he felt would detract from his focus on his music. In interviews, however, Mayer has alluded to experiencing an extreme "anxiety bender" episode in his twenties that motivated him to be less reclusive.

Mayer's relationship with the media has drawn controversy. He has been called long-winded and self-aware, culminated in an impromptu press conference outside of his gym in New York, where he explained why he had broken-up with Aniston. The fall-out was unfavorable, and he was branded a "" for "saving face"; and maintains he did it to take responsibility for hurting her. He apologized via Twitter for his use of the word "nigger," saying, "It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize...a word that is so emotionally charged." He also tearfully apologized to his band and fans at his concert in Nashville later that night.

Solo discography

Room for Squares (2001)

Heavier Things (2003)

Continuum (2006)

Battle Studies (2009)

Awards

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Mayer has won seven awards from fifteen nominations.

Others awards and nominations

See also

Battle Studies World Tour

Notes

Footnotes

References

Edwards, G. (2006) Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton's Little John?, New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0-307-34603-X

External links

;Official

;Written by Mayer

Segment on Jimi Hendrix that Mayer wrote for Rolling Stone

Segment on Brett Dennen, that Mayer wrote for Rolling Stone

"Music Lessons with John Mayer", database of Mayer's Esquire column at Esquire.com

;General

Comprehensive John Mayer guitar tabs

"Square pegged", Mayer's first feature article in 2001, from Creative Loafing

Rolling Stone Q&A; Podcast: John Mayer, from December 2005: transcript

Iceberg Radio interview with John Mayer from September 2006: Listen: (32K) (64K)

John Mayer Exclusive Performance and Behind the Scenes footage on AOL Sessions

"John Mayer's Soft-Sell 'World'", NPR Morning Edition interview from March 2007. (listen) (read)

Nikon Podcast #3: "Exclusive Interview with John Mayer" (posted September 9, 2007) (listen)

Category:1977 births Category:American male singers Category:American philanthropists Category:American pop singers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:Berklee College of Music alumni Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:American Jews Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Krav Maga practitioners Category:Live Music Archive artists Category:Living people Category:Music of Atlanta, Georgia Category:Musicians from Connecticut Category:People from Atlanta, Georgia Category:People from Bridgeport, Connecticut Category:People of Jewish descent Category:People with synesthesia Category:American bloggers

Name	The ExponentsThe Dance Exponents
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Christchurch, New Zealand
Years active	1981-2000, 2006, 2010
Current members	Jordan LuckDavid GentBrian JonesMichael Harralambi
Past members	Mark BellSteve CowanMartin MorrisChris SheehanDavid BarracloughEddie Rayner

The Exponents are a New Zealand rock group. They formed in 1981 as the Dance Exponents, after vocalist Jordan Luck and guitarist Brian Jones disbanded their first group, Basement, and relocated from the South Canterbury town of Timaru to Christchurch. The other founding members were David (Chalkie) Gent (bass), Steve (Fingers) Cowan (guitar) and Michael (Harry) Harralambi (drums). A residency at Christchurch's Aranui Tavern quickly earned them a strong reputation, and they were signed by Mushroom Records in 1982.

Cowan subsequently died as a result of a pre-existing medical condition. Some time later, Chris Sheehan joined the band on guitar. After releasing two albums in New Zealand, the band moved to Britain in 1987, where they were a popular draw for expatriate New Zealanders (and sometimes Australians and South Africans) and attracted A&R; interest, but did not gain a record contract. They eventually returned to New Zealand and dropped the "Dance" from their name in 1991, registering a shift in their style of music.

The group has always been based around the writing (and on stage antics) of mainstay Jordan Luck. Along with the above, members have included Bryan Bell, Mark Bell, Martin Morris and David Barraclough.

Their major hits, including "Why Does Love Do This To Me", "Who Loves Who The Most", "Victoria", "I'll Say Goodbye (Even Tho' I'm Blue)" and "Whatever Happened To Tracy" have been taken up by successive generations of younger New Zealanders, with social commentators going so far as to say that an Exponents concert forms a rite of passage for New Zealand youth.

The band continued to tour New Zealand occasionally until 2006, often playing provincial towns as well as main centres, but Luck now tours with his own band, Luck, playing Exponents songs and new compositions. They reportedly once decided to tour every New Zealand town with a KFC, not due to their love of chicken, but because they trusted KFC's market research and reasoned these towns must contain enough youth to fill up their gigs.

They also reunited in 2010 to play at the benefit concert for the 2010 Canterbury earthquake.

The Exponents have opened for acts such as The Rolling Stones, KISS and David Bowie on their respective New Zealand tours.

APRA awards

In 2001, to celebrate 75 years of its existence, APRA invited its members and an academy to vote on what they believe are to be New Zealand's top songs of all time. The Exponents had several songs appearing in the top 100:

#8 - "Victoria"

#47 - "Why Does Love Do This To Me"

#89 - "I'll Say Goodbye"

Discography

{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" !align="center" valign="top"|Date !align="center" valign="top"|Title !align="center" valign="top"|Label !align="center" valign="top"|Charted !align="center" valign="top"|Certification !align="center" valign="top"|Catalog Number |- |- bgcolor="#DDDDDD" | colspan=7 align=center | as the Dance Exponents |- |align="left" valign="center"|1983 |align="left" valign="center"|Live At Mainstreet |align="left" valign="center"| |align="left" valign="center"| 3 (NZ) |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| |- |align="left" valign="center"|1983 |align="left" valign="center"|Prayers Be Answered |align="left" valign="center"| |align="left" valign="center"| 4 (NZ) |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| |- |align="left" valign="center"|1985 |align="left" valign="center"|Expectations (EP) |align="left" valign="center"| |align="left" valign="center"| 7 (NZ) |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| |- |align="left" valign="center"|1986 |align="left" valign="center"|Amplifier |align="left" valign="center"|Sony MusicZulu Records |align="left" valign="center"| 18 (NZ) |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| ZCD001 |- |- bgcolor="#DDDDDD" | colspan=7 align=center | as the Exponents |- |align="left" valign="center"|1992 |align="left" valign="center"|Something Beginning With C |align="left" valign="center"| |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| |- |align="left" valign="center"|1994 |align="left" valign="center"|Grassy Knoll |align="left" valign="center"| |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| |- |align="left" valign="center"|1995 |align="left" valign="center"|Once Bitten, Twice Bitten |align="left" valign="center"| |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| |- |align="left" valign="center"|1997 |align="left" valign="center"|Better Never Than Late |align="left" valign="center"| |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| 9875421 |- |align="left" valign="center"|2000 |align="left" valign="center"|Hello, Love You, Goodbye |align="left" valign="center"| |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| |- |align="left" valign="center"|2006 |align="left" valign="center"|Sex and Agriculture |align="left" valign="center"| |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| - |align="left" valign="center"| |- |}

Singles

Exponents, The