A music executive or record executive is person within a record label who works in senior management, making executive decisions over the label's artists. Their role varies greatly but in essence, they can oversee one, or many, aspects of a record label, including A&R;, contracts, management, publishing, production, manufacture, marketing/promotion, distribution, copyright, touring, as well as other things.

Notable music executives

Eminem (Shady Records)

DJ Paul & Juicy J (Hypnotize Mindz)

Jay Z (Roc-A-Fella Records)

Diddy (Bad Boy Entertainment)

Richard Valles (Starborn Records)

Suge Knight (Death Row Records)

Master P (No Limit Records)

Ahmet Ertegun (Atlantic Records)

Eazy-E (Ruthless Records)

Dr.Dre (Aftermath Records)

Tataee (Casa Productions-Legend Audio)

Simon Cowell (Syco)

Tommy Mottola (Sony Music, Casablanca, Columbia)

Clive Davis (Sony Music)

Rolf Schmidt-Holtz (Sony Music)

Barry Weiss (RCA/Jive Label Group

Bryan Williams & Ronald Williams (Cash Money Records)

Jimmy Iovine (Interscope-Geffen-A&M;)

Linda Perry (Custard Records)

Pete Waterman (PWL)

Randy Jackson (Columbia)

Edgar Bronfman, Jr. (Warner)

Chino Rodriguez (Oriente Music Group)

Guy Hands (EMI)

Elijah Wood (Simian Records)

Doug Morris (Universal)

Simon Fuller (19 Entertainment)

Lee Soo-Man (SM Entertainment)

Yang Hyun-Seok (YG Entertainment)

Park Jin-Young (JYP Entertainment)

Mathew Knowles (Music World Entertainment)

Michael Gudinski (Mushroom)

Rob Stevenson (Virgin Records) * Ro Smith (Def Ro Inc)

Pete Wentz (Decaydance Records)

Peter Grant (Swan Song Records)

Jacob Wareham (Praize Movement Records)

Kara DioGuardi (Warner Bros. Records, Arthouse Entertainment)

Felix Pryor (Ancestor Studios)

Category:Occupations in music

Name	Snoop Dogg
|img	Snoop Dogg Hawaii.jpg
Born	October 20, 1971Long Beach, California, United States
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Cordozar Calvin Broadus
Alias	Snoop Doggy Dogg
Occupation	Rapper, actor, producer
Genre	Gangsta rapG-funkHip hopWest Coast hip hop
Years active	1991–present
Label	Death Row, No Limit, Capitol, Doggystyle, Geffen, EMI, Priority
Associated acts	Dr. Dre, B-Real, R. Kelly Cypress Hill, Ice Cube, 2Pac, Nate Dogg, Pharrell, Tha Dogg Pound, Tha Eastsidaz, 213, Xzibit, Wiz Khalifa
Url

Cordozar Calvin Broadus (born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American entertainer, rapper, record producer and actor. Snoop is best known as an MC in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school. Shortly after graduation, he was arrested for cocaine possession and spent six months in Wayside County Jail. His music career began in 1992 after his release when he was discovered by Dr. Dre. He collaborated on several tracks on Dre's solo debut, The Chronic and on the titular theme song to the film Deep Cover.

Snoop's debut album, Over the Counter, was released in 1991 and his second Doggystyle, was released in 1993 under Death Row Records. Doggystyle went quadruple platinum and spawned several hit singles, including "What's My Name" and "Gin & Juice". In 1996, Snoop Dogg was cleared of charges over his bodyguard's 1993 murder of Philip Woldemariam. His third album, 1996's Tha Doggfather, was his last release for Death Row before he signed with No Limit Records, where he recorded three albums from 1998 to 2001. Snoop then signed with Priority/Capitol/EMI Records in 2002, which released his album Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss, and then he signed with Geffen Records in 2004 for his next three albums.

In addition to music, Snoop Dogg has starred in motion pictures and hosted several television shows: Doggy Fizzle Televizzle, Snoop Dogg's Father Hood and Dogg After Dark. He also coaches a youth football league and high school football team. He has run into many legal troubles, some of which caused him to be legally banned from the UK and Australia, the UK ban was later reversed after a long legal battle. He is the cousin of emcees Nate Dogg, Daz Dillinger, RBX and Lil' ½ Dead and the cousin of R&B; singers Brandy and Ray J. Starting September 2009, Snoop was hired by EMI as the chairman of a reactivated Priority Records. His tenth studio album, Malice n Wonderland was released December 8, 2009.

Snoop Dogg collaborated with Rap Artist Mr. Capone-E in 2009 to produce the song 'Light My Fire'.

Life and career

Early life

Named after his step-father, Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Sr. (December 10, 1948 - November 9, 1985, Los Angeles, California), Calvin Broadus was born October 20, 1971 at the Los Altos Hospital in Long Beach, California, the second of three sons of Beverly Broadus (née Tate; born April 27, 1951, McComb, Mississippi). His father, Vernall Varnado (born December 13, 1949, Magnolia, Mississippi), Broadus' parents nicknamed him "Snoopy" as a child because of his appearance, but usually addressed him as Calvin at home. His mother and stepfather divorced in 1975. At an early age, Broadus began singing in Golgotha Trinity Baptist Church and playing piano; when he was in sixth grade, he began rapping. He attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, and was convicted for cocaine trafficking and served six months at the Wayside County Jail.

Snoop Dogg is a member of the Rollin' 20 Crips gang in the Eastside of Long Beach, although he stated in 1993 that he never joined a gang.

Doggystyle (1992–1995)

When he began recording, Broadus took the stage name Snoop Doggy Dogg. Dr. Dre began working with Snoop Dogg, first on the theme song of the 1992 film Deep Cover, and then on Dr. Dre's debut solo album The Chronic with the other members of his former starting group, Tha Dogg Pound. The huge success of Snoop Dogg's debut Doggystyle was partially because of this intense exposure. Doggystyle, much like The Chronic, featured a host of rappers signed to or affiliated with the Death Row label including Daz Dillinger, Kurupt, Nate Dogg and others. Rolling Stone music critic Touré asserted that Snoop had a relatively soft vocal delivery compared to other rappers: "Snoop's vocal style is part of what distinguishes him: where many rappers scream, figuratively and literally, he speaks softly."

Tha Doggfather (1996-1997)

After Snoop Dogg was acquitted of murder charges on February 20, 1996, he and the mother of his son and their kennel of 20 pit bulls moved into a 5,000-square-foot home in the hills of Claremont, California and by August 1996 Doggy Style Records, a subsidiary of Death Row Records, signed The Gap Band's Charlie Wilson as one of the record label's first artists.

However, by the time Snoop Dogg's second album, Tha Doggfather, was released in November 1996, the price of living (or sometimes just imitating) the gangsta life had become very evident. Among the many notable hip hop industry deaths and convictions were the death of Snoop Dogg's friend and labelmate 2Pac and the racketeering indictment of Death Row co-founder Suge Knight.

Tha Doggfather, No Limit Top Dogg and Tha Last Meal (1998-2000)

Snoop signed with Master P's No Limit Records (distributed by Priority/EMI Records) in 1998 and debuted on the label with Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told that year. His other albums from No Limit were No Limit Top Dogg in 1999 (selling over 1,503,865 copies) and Tha Last Meal in 2000 (selling over 1,000,000).

Snoop Dogg has ventured into singing for Bollywood with his first ever rap for an Indian movie Singh Is Kinng; the title of the song is also "Singh is Kinng". The album featuring the song was released on June 8, 2008 on Junglee Music Records.

He released his ninth studio album, Ego Trippin' (selling 400,000 copies in the U.S.), along with the first single, "Sexual Eruption". The single peaked at #7 on the Billboard 100, featuring Snoop using autotune. The album featured production from QDT (Quik-Dogg-Teddy).

filming the music video for "Mr. Romeo" (2010).]]

Malice n Wonderland and More Malice (2009-2010)

Snoop was appointed an executive position at Priority Records. His tenth studio album, Malice n Wonderland, was released on December 8, 2009. The first single from the album, "Gangsta Luv", featuring The-Dream, peaked at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album debuted at #23 on the Billboard 200, selling 61,000 copies its first week, making it his lowest charting album. His third single, "I Wanna Rock", peaked at #41 on the Billboard Hot 100. Snoop features on the latest Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. The fourth single from Malice n Wonderland, titled "Pronto", featuring Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, was released on iTunes on December 1, 2009. Snoop re-released the album under the name More Malice.

Doggumentary Music (2010-present)

Snoop collaborated with Katy Perry on the first single from her second mainstream album, "California Gurls", which was released on May 11, 2010. Snoop can also be heard on the track "Flashing" by Dr. Dre and on Curren$y's song Seat Change. He was also featured on a new single from Australian singer Jessica Mauboy, titled "Get 'em Girls" (released September 2010). Snoop's latest effort was backing American recording artist, Emii, on her second single entitled "Mr. Romeo" (released October 26, 2010 as a follow-up to "Magic").

Snoop Dogg's next studio album will be a sequel to his 1993 classic Doggystyle, and producer Swizz Beatz is already giving him "sounds" for the project. "I'm in the studio with Swizzle, and he just laced my boots up on my new record," Snoop Dogg said while sitting next to Swizz. "Motherfucker gave me some gangsta shit, some crip shit, some R&B; shit, some hip hop shit, some hard shit, some mean shit. And the name of the album is Doggystyle 2: The Doggumentary, be on the look out for it." The album was renamed to Doggumentary Music and will be released during March 2011.

Other ventures

Media appearances

Snoop Dogg has appeared on television and in films throughout his career. In 1998, Snoop had a cameo appearance in the film Half Baked as the "Scavenger Smoker". In 2000, Snoop (as "Michael J. Corleone") directed Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, a pornographic film produced by Hustler. The film, combining hip hop with x-rated material, was a huge success and won "Top Selling Release of the Year" at the 2002 AVN Awards. Snoop then directed in 2002 (using the nickname "Snoop Scorsese").

In 2001, Snoop lent his voice to the animated show King of the Hill, in which he played a white pimp named Alabaster Jones. He played a lead character in the movie The Wash with Dr. Dre. He portrayed a drug dealer in a wheelchair in the film Training Day, featuring Denzel Washington. In 2001, Snoop starred in the horror film Bones, with him playing a murdered mobster who returns from the dead to exact his revenge against those who murdered him.

In 2002, Snoop hosted, starred in, and produced his own MTV sketch comedy show entitled Doggy Fizzle Televizzle. Snoop was filmed for a brief cameo appearance in the television movie It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002), but his performance was omitted from the final cut of the movie. On November 8, 2004, Snoop Dogg was starred in the episode "Two of a Kind" of NBC's series Las Vegas.

In 2004, Snoop appeared on the Showtime series The L Word as the character "Slim Daddy". He also notably played the drug dealer-turned-informant character of Huggy Bear, in the 2004 remake film of the 1970s TV-series of the same name, Starsky & Hutch. He appeared as himself in the episode "MILF Money" of Weeds, and made an appearance on the TV shows Entourage and Monk, for which he recorded a version of the theme, in July 2007. with Ashley Massaro and tag team partner Maria]]

Snoop founded his own production company, Snoopadelic Films, in 2005. Their debut film was Boss'n Up, a film inspired by Snoop Dogg's album R&G;, starring Lil Jon and Trina.

In December 2007, his reality show Snoop Dogg's Father Hood premiered on the E! channel. Snoop Dogg joined the NBA's Entertainment League. On March 30, 2008 he appeared at WrestleMania XXIV as a Master of Ceremonies for a tag team match between Maria and Ashley Massaro as they took on Beth Phoenix and Melina.

On May 8 and May 9, 2008, Snoop appeared as himself on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, with a new opening theme recorded by the artist presented for both episodes. In the episodes, Snoop performs at the bachelorette party for character Adriana Cramer, and credits Bo Buchanan with helping him get his start in show business. On February 24, 2010, Snoop Dogg reprised his role, performing his song "I Wanna Rock" from his new album, Malice n Wonderland, as well as once again performing a special remixed, vocal rendition of the show's opening theme. In recent interviews he has explained that, as a child, One Life to Live was one of his favorite shows, and he still regards the show fondly. He has also stated that he has always been a particular fan of Robert S. Woods, who has portrayed the character of Bo Buchanan since 1979.

In 2009, Snoop Dogg appeared in Sacha Baron Cohen's film Brüno as himself performing a rap addition to the song "Dove Of Peace". On October 19, 2009, Snoop Dogg was the guest host of WWE Raw.

In July 2009, Snoop revealed his desire to appear in the popular soap opera Coronation Street whilst touring in the UK. However ITV bosses were said to be less keen.

In 2010, Snoop Dogg appeared in an episode of I Get That a Lot on CBS as a parking-lot attendant.

In June 2010, Snoop created a music video for True Blood accompanying a song he wrote for one of the main characters of the show entitled "Oh Sookie."

Endorsements

.]]

St. Ides

Snoop Dogg 40 Oz Malt liquor

Boost Mobile cell phone

Chrysler 300

Orbit Gum

Cal Worthington's Ford dealership in Long Beach, California

"Snoop Doggs" – foot-long hot dogs manufactured in Massachusetts, a joint venture with Platinum One Media

"Snoop Dogg Board Company (SDBC)" – skateboards and Luggage fabrication company (with Pentagon Distribution)

"Snooperbowl" and "Snoop Youth Football league"

"Chronic Candy" – candy that tastes like marijuana (from Switzerland and is currently banned in some cities of US)

Love Don't Live Here No More, Doggy Tales Vol.1 – love novel (co-written by David E. Talbert, published by Atria and Snoopadelic Films) ISBN 0-7432-7363-X Tha Doggfather : The Times, Trials, And Hardcore Truths Of Snoop Dogg – autobiography (published by William Morrow) Hardcover ISBN 0-688-17158-3, Paperback ISBN 0-06-107607-4

Fear & Respect (project cancelled as of March 1, 2006) – PlayStation 2 video game (developed by Midway Games)

"Doggy Biscuitz" – shoe brand (in partnership with Pony International)

"Snoop Dogg Clothing" – streetwear (distributed at Macy's)

"WRFF" – unique design scooters (in cooperation with Salton, Inc.) "Hip Hop Gaming League" – a celebrity online gaming competition (hosted by Global Gaming League) "Snoop Dogg figures" (Vital Toys, SOTA Toys)

"Snoop Dogg Boxing" – mobile phone game (Sony Pictures Mobile)

"Snoop Dogg Pet Accessory Line" (in conjunction with Jakks Pacific) Snoop Dogg is a celebrity voice of a Tom Tom GPS navigation system. He stated on George Lopez's talk show Lopez Tonight that he is tired of hearing directions from the same woman. In August 2008, Snoop Dogg announced the launch of a new streetwear line called Rich & Infamous, via a partnership with Robert Thorne Co. The line was unveiled during the Magic Tradeshow in Las Vegas. "Hack is Wack" - Promoting Norton AntiVirus. "Coffee Cup With A Cause" with 7 Eleven. "Serious Pimp" clothing line. "iFizzle" iPhone Application. "Vybe Mobile" "Pepsi Max" - Zero Calories

Style and rap skills

Kool Moe Dee ranks Snoop at #33 in his book There's a God on the Mic, and says he has "an ultra-smooth, laidback delivery", and "flavor-filled melodic rhyming". Peter Shapiro describes Snoop's delivery as a "molasses drawl" and Allmusic notes his "drawled, laconic rhyming" style.

Snoop is known to freestyle some of his lyrics on the spot for some songs - in the book How to Rap, Lady of Rage says, "Snoop Dogg, when I worked with him earlier in his career, that's how created his stuff... he would freestyle, he wasn't a writer then, he was a freestyler," and D.O.C. states, "Snoop's [rap] was a one take willy, but his shit was all freestyle. He hadn't written nothing down. He just came in and started busting. The song was "The Shiznit" - [that was all freestyle]. He started busting and when we got to the break, Dre cut the machine off, did the chorus and told Snoop to come back in. He did that throughout the record. That's when Snoop was in the zone then."

Peter Shapiro says that Snoop debuted on "Deep Cover" with a "shockingly original flow - which sounded like a Slick Rick born in South Carolina instead of South London" and adds that he "showed where his style came from by covering Slick Rick's 'La Di Da Di'". as well as 'linking with rhythm' in his compound rhymes, using alliteration, and employing a "sparse" flow with good use of pauses.

Legal issues

While recording Doggystyle in August 1993, Snoop Dogg was arrested in connection with the death of Phillip Woldermarian, a member of a rival gang who was shot and killed by Snoop's bodyguard, McKinley Lee; Snoop was charged with murder along with Lee as he was driving the vehicle from which the shooting had commenced. Snoop and Lee were defended by Johnnie Cochran. Both Snoop and Lee were acquitted; Lee was acquitted on grounds of self-defense, but Snoop Dogg remained entangled in the legal battles around the case for three years. In July 1993, Snoop was stopped for a traffic violation and a firearm was found by police while conducting a search of his car. In February 1997, he pled guilty to one count of being an ex-felon in possession of a handgun and was ordered to record three public service announcements, pay a $1,000 fine, and serve three years' probation. Twice, in May 1998 and October 2001, Snoop Dogg was fined and arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession. In 2002 he pleaded no contest to the charge from 2001 and was fined a total of $398.30 and received a suspended 30-day jail sentence.

Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, and The Game were sued for assaulting a fan on stage at a May 2005 concert at the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Washington. The accuser, Richard Monroe, Jr., claimed he was beaten by the artists' entourage while mounting the stage. He alleged that he reacted to an "open invite" to come on stage. Before he could, Snoop’s bodyguards grabbed him and he was beaten unconscious by crewmembers, including the rapper and producer Soopafly; Snoop and The Game were included in the suit for not intervening. The lawsuit focuses on a pecuniary claim of $22 million in punitive and compensatory damages, battery, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The concerned parties appeared in court in April 2009.

On April 26, 2006, Snoop Dogg and members of his entourage were arrested after being turned away from British Airways' first class lounge at Heathrow Airport. Snoop and his party were not allowed to enter the lounge because some of the entourage were flying first class, other members in economy class. After the group was escorted outside, they vandalized a duty-free shop by throwing whiskey bottles. Seven police officers were injured in the midst of the disturbance. After a night in prison, Snoop and the other men were released on bail on April 27, but he was unable to perform at the Premier Foods People's Concert in Johannesburg on the same day. As part of his bail conditions, he had to return to the police station in May. The group has been banned by British Airways for "the foreseeable future." When Snoop Dogg appeared at a London police station on May 11, he was cautioned for affray under Section 4 of the Public Order Act for use of threatening words or behavior. On May 15, the Home Office decided that Snoop Dogg should be denied entry to the United Kingdom for the foreseeable future due to the incident at Heathrow as well as his previous convictions in the United States for drugs and firearms offenses. Snoop Dogg's visa card was rejected by local authorities on March 24, 2007 because of the Heathrow incident. A concert at London's Wembley Arena on March 27 went ahead with Diddy (with whom he toured Europe) and the rest of the show. However the decision affected four more British performances in Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow and Budapest (due to rescheduling). As of March 2010, Snoop Dogg has been allowed back into the UK.

Snoop Dogg was arrested again on October 26, 2006 at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California while parked in a passenger loading zone. Approached by airport security for a traffic infraction, he was found in possession of marijuana and a firearm, according to a police statement. He was transported to Burbank Police Department Jail, booked, and released on $35,000 bond. He faced firearm and drug possession charges on December 12 at Burbank Superior Court. He was again arrested on November 29, 2006, after performing on The Tonight Show, for possession of marijuana and a firearm.

Snoop was arrested again on March 12, 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden after performing in a concert with P. Diddy in Stockholm's Globe Arena after he and a female companion reportedly "reeked" of marijuana. They were released four hours later after providing a urine sample. Pending results on urine will determine whether charges will be pressed. However the rapper denied all charges.

On April 26, 2007, the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship banned him from entering the country on character grounds, citing his prior criminal convictions. He had been scheduled to appear at the MTV Australia Video Music Awards on April 29, 2007. Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship lifted the ban in September 2008 and had granted him visa to tour Australia. DIAC said "In making this decision, the department weighed his criminal convictions against his previous behaviour while in Australia, recent conduct – including charity work – and any likely risk to the Australian community ... We took into account all relevant factors and, on balance, the department decided to grant the visa."

Snoop Dogg's many legal issues forced San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom to withdraw his plan to issue a proclamation to the rapper.

Snoop Dogg was banned from Parkpop, a festival in the Netherlands on June 27, 2010 which he was scheduled to perform at. The mayor and law enforcement officials asked organizers of the festival to find an artist more “open and friendly” to play the event.

Personal life

Broadus's father left the family when Broadus was three months old. Snoop married his high school sweetheart, Shante Taylor, on June 12, 1997. On May 21, 2004, he filed for divorce from Shante, citing irreconcilable differences. The couple renewed their wedding vows on January 12, 2008. R&B; singers Brandy and Ray J are his first cousins. In 2002, the rapper announced he was giving up marijuana, one of his image trademarks, for good. According to his IMDb biography, Snoop is a fan of the thrash metal band Metallica and performed their song "Sad But True" on the band's 2003 MTV Icon Special which is available on YouTube. A DNA test read by George Lopez on Lopez Tonight revealed Snoop Dogg to be of 0% East Asian, 23% Native American, 6% European, and 71% African descent.

Snoop is an avid fan of hometown teams Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Lakers. Snoop is also an avid Pittsburgh Steelers fan. and is often seen wearing Pittsburgh Steelers apparel. Snoop has mentioned that his love for the Steelers began in the 1970s during the team's dynasty years while watching the team with his grandfather growing up in L.A. In the 2005 offseason, Snoop mentioned that he wanted to be an NFL head coach, "probably for the Steelers". The following year, he was in attendance for the Steelers' victory in Super Bowl XL and later in Super Bowl XLIII. He was also a fan of the Oakland Raiders and Dallas Cowboys, often wearing a #5 jersey, and has been seen in Raiders training camps. He did his own free style rap based on his similarities with Tony Romo. He has also shown affection for the New England Patriots, as he has been seen performing at the Gillette Stadium and picked the Patriots as the favorite to win Super Bowl XXXIX against the Eagles. On August 6, 2009, Snoop visited the training camp of the Baltimore Ravens at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. He was invited by Ray Lewis the day after his concert at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.

A certified football coach, Snoop Dogg has been head coach for his son's youth football teams and the John A. Rowland High School team.

Snoop Dogg is an avid hockey fan; he sported a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey (with the name and number 'GIN AND JUICE' 94 on the back) and a jersey of the now-defunct Springfield (MA) Indians of the American Hockey League in his 1994 music video, "Gin And Juice". On the E! show, Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood, Snoop Dogg and his family received lessons on playing hockey from the Anaheim Ducks, then returning to the Honda Center to cheer on the Ducks against the Vancouver Canucks in the episode Snow in da Hood.

In 2009, it was revealed that Snoop Dogg was a member of the Nation of Islam. On March 1, 2009, he made an appearance at the Nation of Islam's annual Saviours' Day holiday, where he praised controversial minister Louis Farrakhan. Snoop claimed to be a member of the Nation of Islam, but he declined to give the date on which he joined. He also donated $1,000 to the organization.

He popularized the catch-phrase suffix , which had been in use for decades, but not nearly to the extent that it is now, particularly in the pop and hip hop music industry.

Snoop claimed in a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone magazine that unlike other hip hop artists who've superficially adopted the pimp persona, he was an actual professional pimp in 2003 and 2004, saying "That shit was my natural calling and once I got involved with it, it became fun. It was like shootin' layups for me. I was makin' 'em every time." He goes on to say that upon the advice on some of the other pimps he knew, he eventually gave up pimping to spend more time with his family.

Discography

Doggystyle (1993)

Tha Doggfather (1996)

Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told (1998)

No Limit Top Dogg (1999)

Tha Last Meal (2000)

Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss (2002)

(2004)

Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (2006)

Ego Trippin' (2008)

Malice n Wonderland (2009)

Doggumentary Music (2011)

Filmography

1994: Murder Was the Case (Platinum)

1998: Caught Up

1998: Half Baked (cameo appearance)

1998: Da Game of Life

1998: Hot Boyz

1998: Ride

1999: Whiteboyz

1999: Urban Menace

2000: Tha Eastsidaz

2000: ''Up in Smoke Tour

2001: Baby Boy

2001: Training Day

2001: King of the Hill (voice)

2001: Bones

2001: The Wash

2003: Malibu's Most Wanted

2003: Old School

2004: Starsky & Hutch

2004: Soul Plane

2004: Volcano High

2005: Boss'n Up

2005: Racing Stripes (voice)

2006: The Tenants

2006: Weeds: Himself

2006: Hood of Horror

2007: Arthur and the Minimoys (voice)

2007: Monk

* During the opening credits, he covered the title song by Randy Newman "It's a Jungle out There".

2007: The Boondocks

2008: Singh Is Kinng (as Himself)

2008: Snoop Dogg's Father Hood (as Himself)

2009: (voice)

2009: Dogg After Dark: Himself

2009: (voice)

2009: Brüno (cameo appearance)

2009: Falling Up

2010: ''Down for Life

2010: ''One Life to Live as Calvin Broadus

2010: Straight Outta L.A. (as Himself)

2010:

2010: Big Time Rush

Awards

Snoop Dogg was also a judge for the 7th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

Music samples

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See also

Izzle

List of individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom, a list Snoop Dogg is on

Further reading

References

External links

Official website

Snoop Dogg at Geffen Records

Category:1971 births Category:Living people Category:1990s rappers Category:2000s rappers Category:2010s rappers Category:2010s singers Category:African American film actors Category:African American rappers Category:Native American rappers Category:African American singers Category:American film producers Category:American male singers Category:American voice actors Category:Crips Category:Death Row Records artists Category:Geffen Records artists Category:G-funk Category:E1 Music artists Category:Members of the Nation of Islam Category:No Limit Records artists Category:People convicted of drug offenses Category:People from Long Beach, California Category:Participants in American reality television series Category:Priority Records artists Category:Rappers from Los Angeles, California * Category:Star Trak Entertainment artists Category:American rappers of European descent Category:People acquitted of murder

:''For the DAB+ radio station, MyMP, see 3MP.

Name	M.Y.M.P.
Background	group_or_band
Alias	Make Your Momma Proud
Origin	Katipunan Ave., Quezon City, Philippines
Instrument	Various
Genre	OPM, soul
Years active	2003–present (as recording artists)
Associated acts	None authorized
Label	2003-2008: Ivory Music2008-present: Star Records
Current members	Juliet BahalaChin AlcantaraHannche Bobis Jeff lima Chrisbery Haber
Past members	Juris Fernandez (2001-2009)Nina (2000-2001)Brix Ferraris (2000-2001)Fritz Ednacot (1996-2000)Mike Manahan (2003)

M.Y.M.P. (or MYMP, short for Make Your Mama Proud) is one of the acoustic band acts in the Philippines, which consists of 5 members. Their career started when Raymond Ryan, a station manager of iFm watched their gig and met up with a producer to produce their 2003 debut album, Soulful Acoustic, which is now Certified Platinum Record.

In 2005, M.Y.M.P. released their second album titled Beyond Acoustic and third album Versions through Ivory Music. The success of the two albums prompted the re-release of their second and third albums in a 2-disc set the same year. In 2006, they released their fourth album, New Horizon, and DVD of their concert in the Music Museum. In 2008, M.Y.M.P. released their last album on Ivory Music, titled Now, as the group signed a deal with Star Records.

Background

Origin (1996-2002)

Jacques "Chin" Alcantara former Claretian founded the band back in late 1996. It was Chin's elder brother, Julius, who gave the band its name --- a tribute to their departed mother. Chin's mother, Dr. Stella Lopez-Alcantara (a cardiologist), had died of complications from breast cancer when he was 17.

Back when it was originally formed, Make Your Momma Proud was a four-man rock band, whose arsenal included Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and, as Alcantara adds, a little Mr. Big. He was still a student at Miriam College then, taking up Communication Arts, major in Advertising. “My mom played the piano but she didn’t get to see me play professionally—she did get to see me start out,” Alcantara said. In the year after his mother died, Alcantara took up the guitar and, in his words, “really got obsessed with it and that’s when I knew what I wanted to be, a musician.” Alcantara was enjoined by his father (an investment and a private development banker) to attend classical guitar tutoring, but stopped after a month. Alcantara taught himself how to play.

The peak of M.Y.M.P.'s amateur days was when it won the 1996 national championship of the San Miguel Beer Battle of (rock) Bands. Before that, the group had won the NCR championship, best vocalist and best lead-guitarist awards.

As a college band, M.Y.M.P. appeared in college fairs and shows, but as they became more earnest in their intent to pursue music as a career, they encountered difficulty in lining up gigs due to their "disciplined rock" repertoire. M.Y.M.P. added a keyboardist and began working on a more pop sound, completing the transformation with the addition of a female vocalist in 2000, Marifil Niña Girado, known then as the R&B; singer [and later as Nina--the Soul Siren}] after leaving the band to go solo. M.Y.M.P. then industriously performed in bars, clubs and shows for years, building an identity.

In 2001, Alcantara handed an audition for a new female lead, and the group found Julie Iris "Juris" Fernandez. Originally from Davao, Fernandez explains she didn’t grow up exposed to music on a regular basis. Like Alcantara, Fernandez did not study music formally for long, eschewing the training to learn on her own. After graduating from Miriam, Fernandez was studying at the Ateneo, working towards completing her pre-med requirements when she decided that, like Alcantara, she wanted to immerse herself in music. After singing with Jimmy Bondoc, she fatefully auditioned for M.Y.M.P.

Early career (2003-2004)

It was the trio of Alcantara, Fernandez and percussionist Mike Manahan that established the beachhead for M.Y.M.P.’s frontal assault on the sales and radio charts.

Their recording career started when Raymond Ryan, the station manager of iFM watched their gig. Ryan met with a producer to produce their debut album, Soulful Acoustic. Ivory Records then became their recording company. M.Y.M.P.'s debut album was released on Ivory Music and Video's 20th anniversary. M.Y.M.P. became famous with their hit songs "A Little Bit" which bagged the People's Choice "Favorite Song" Award in Awit Awards last 2004; "their own version of Sting's "Every Little Thing"; "Waiting in Vain", which was originally sung by Bob Marley; and their originals "Miss You" and "Could Be Wrong."

The trio did click but M.Y.M.P. became a duo when one of their members decided to leave the group. Manahan left the band in 2003 due to what Alcantara called “professional differences” as well as fallout from Manahan’s breakup with Fernandez; the two were in a relationship for a while. Manahan now appears in a band named Michaelangelo with his brother. Yet, this did not stop MYMP's Juris & Chin from sharing their music.

Versions and Beyond (2005-2008)

The duo set-up did great and as they enjoy their ride in the Philippine music scene, a new and improved M.Y.M.P. had emerged, a quartet together with Andrew and John as bassist and kahonista, respectiely, as two more albums were released in a year. Beyond Acoustic and Versions, both 12-track albums, were declared Certified Gold Record after less than a month.

Their hit songs are "Tell Me Where It Hurts", "Talaga Naman", "Kailan", "Get Me", "Especially For You", "Eternal Flame", which later on are used as theme songs for TV series and commercial ads.

Last October 1, 2005, M.Y.M.P. had their first major concert at the Music Museum, titled Especially For You. Due to the success of their concert, this prompted the band to have another concert at the Araneta Coliseum on November 18, 2005, and its repeat on February 3, 2006. Both concerts were sold-out, with each concert having more than 10,000 audience capacity.

In 2006, they released a DVD of their concert at the Music Museum.

Now backed by keyboardist Edward Jimenez, percussionist Dexter John Angeles and bassist Aimiel Rivas, M.Y.M.P. embarks on its most ambitious career step yet: a summer tour of the US West and East coasts, a development that excites Alcantara and Fernandez immensely. “It was a dream we were thinking of fulfilling maybe five years from now,”

Alcantara said of their hot streak. Alcantara hopes to be working on their next album once they return home from the tour. His hopes came true as the group released New Horizon in 2006.

In 2008, M.Y.M.P. ended their contract with Ivory Music and signed a deal with Star Records. M.Y.M.P. released their last album of Ivory Music, Now''.

With a new label (2009-present)

M.Y.M.P. is currently working on their new album on their new label. M.Y.M.P. ended the year 2008 with 2 other formidable bands in the philippine music scene, Side A and Freestyle, and took centerstage Back2Back2Back at the Araneta Coliseum on December first. People can't get enough off the sold-out concert that it had a repeat, then dubbed "Love2Love2Love" wherein all 3 bands had a fair share of the spotlight while dishing out hits of the century.Currently M.Y.M.P. can be regularly seen on tube every Sunday on ASAP '09 Sessionistas together with the Soul-Siren Nina, Crooner Richard Poon, Bossa Artist Sitti Navarro, Ex-Southborder Vocalist Duncan Ramos and Asian Acoustic Sensation Aiza Seguerra.

Juris Fernandez leaves the group

Sometime in the middle of the year 2009, speculations about Fernandez and Alcantara having issues caught some media attention when Alcantara silently pulled out from a segment of ABS-CBN's Sunday variety show ASAP '09 called Sessionistas, leaving only Fernandez giving solo performances. The rumors intensified when the band failed to attend the first-ever Philippine Movie Press Club Music Awards in which the group won for Best duo/group. The group had been silent until an official announcement they released at the Manila Bulletin Entertainment on November 5, 2009, confirming that Juris Fernandez was leaving M.Y.M.P. They said in the statement that they are parting ways due to "irreconcilable professional differences." However, since they are working on an album when the breakup happened, they also said they will work together to finish the five songs they already had recorded, although the outcome will not be released as M.Y.M.P's, but as Fernandez's solo album with Alcantara as the producer. Alcantara also stated that he is looking for a new vocalist as a replacement of Juris, and Fernandez on the other hand will start her solo career under Star Records.

New singer

Juliet Bahala was introduced on January 24 as the new vocalist of MYMP on ASAP. Juliet, an 18-year old regional singing champ, hails from Davao where Juris also came from. The other new members of MYMP are: Jeff Lima (drummer); Hannche Bobis (keyboardist); Chrisbery Haber (bassist); and, Maria Teresa Tinio (manager).

Discography

Albums

Soulful Acoustic (2003)

Beyond Acoustic (2005)

Versions (2005)

Versions and Beyond (2-disc set,2005)

New Horizon (2006)

Now (2008)

Live albums

MYMP Live at the Music Museum (2006)

Compilations

High Five: The Best Of Five Years (2 CD Set, 2009)

Collaborations

Compilation Albums

Senti Four It's Complicated (Viva Records & Vicor Music, 2010) - "Only Reminds Me"

May Bukas Pa Album (Star Records, 2010) - "Nariyan Ka"

Tambayan 101.9 Compilation Album (Star Records, 2009) - "To Love You More"

Bagong Henerasyon : Bagong Himig (2009) - "Itaga Mo Sa Bato"

Acoustic's Best (Ivory Music, 2009) - "Get Me"

Soul Obsessions: Duets With Thor (Ivory Music, 2007) - "Be My Number Two"

Ultraelectromagneticjam:A Tribute to the Eraserheads (Volume 1) (Sony Music, 2005) - "Huwag Mo Nang Itanong"

Jam88.3's Not Another Christmas Break (Sony Music, 2004) - "The Christmas Song"

Single tracks

"Peng You" (Kaibigan) with Kim Chiu (2006)(original version by Emil Chau)

"Power of Two" (original version by the Indigo Girls)

"Think of Laura" (original version by Christopher Cross)

"Sa'Yo" - Wave 89.1 recording: South Border Tribute

Commercial Jingles

"Tatak Exclusibo" (2006)- HBC Commercial Song

"Torpe Song #5" remix - Jollibee Commercial

"Bida Ang Saya" - Jollibee Store Ad

"One Moment, One Nescafe" - Nescafe Ad (Radio)

"Jam88.3 Jingle" - Jam88.3 Ad

OST(Promotions/Demo)

"Love Will Keep Us Together" - George and Cecil

"Friend of Mine" - Close To You

"A Little Bit" - Can This Be Love

"Sa Bawat Sandali" - Indie Film

"Di Na NagIisa" - Darna Theme (Sung by: Regine Velasquez)

"Crazy for You" (original version by Madonna)

"Baby Now That I've Found You" (original version by The Foundations [1967] and Alison Krauss [1995])

"Sway" (original version by Bic Runga)

"Emotion" (original version by Samantha Sang and the Bee Gees)

"Till They Take My Heart Away" (original version by Clair Marlo)

"It Might Be You" (original version by Stephen Bishop)

"A Very Special Love" Kailan, in the movie Sarah and John sing together on Karaoke

"Katorse" (Tamis Ng Unang Halik) - Christina Paner

" I Love You, Goodbye " - Dianne Warren for the movie, I Love You Goodbye

TV shows

ASAP - ASAP Sessionistas feat. Richard Poon, Aiza Seguerra, Nina, Sitti, Duncan Ramos and M.Y.M.P.

Maynila TV Series (GMA 7)

MYX Live (2004, 2005, 2007)

MYX Presents: Love Moves,A date with M.Y.M.P.

MTV Homecoming (2005)

At Home Ka Dito (May,2005)

Your Song (2 episodes)

"Pambansang Awit" Mano Mano: The Celebrity Boxing Challenge (October,2007)

Balik-bayan - January 2008

Awards

2004 - Awit Awards - People's Choice Favorite Song (A Little Bit)

2004 - SOP Music Awards - Best Acoustic Act

2005 - Aliw Awards - Best Pop Performance in Hotel, Music Lounges and Bars

2005 - SOP Music Awards - Viewer's Choice For Artist of the Year; Revive '05 Category (Tell Me Where It Hurts)

2005 - ASAP's 1st Platinum Circle - Top Awardee (Versions and Beyond)

2006 - Aliw Awards - Best Performance In A Concert

2006 - MYX Music Awards - Favorite MYX Live Performance; Favorite Ringtone (Tell Me Where it Hurts)

2006 - Box-Office Entertainment Awards - Most Popular Recording Group

2007 - ASAP's Pop Viewer's Choice Awards - Best Band Performance in a Music Video (Only Reminds Me Of You)

2007 - ASAP's 3rd Platinum Circle - Band Awardee: New Horizon (Single Platinum)

2007 - ASAP's 24k Gold Awards - Awardee: New Horizon (Released Dec. 2006 Reached Gold in Feb. 2007)

2008 - Myx Music Awards - Favorite Myx Live Performance

2009 - Digital Music Awards (Korea) - August International Artist

2009 - Awit Awards - Best Christmas - Wishlist from the album "Now"

2009 - 1st PMPC Star Awards for Music - Best Duo/Group Artist of the Year

References

External links

M.Y.M.P. official website

Category:Philippine musical groups

Name	Tracy Lee
Background	solo_singer
Born	October 22, 1970
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genre	Hip Hop
Occupation	Rapper
Years active	1996–1999
Label	Uptown Records/Universal Records
Url	www.traceyleeinc.com

Tracey Lee (born 22 October 1970) is a rapper who became known in 1997 when his single "The Theme (It's Party Time)" had some commercial success. His debut album Many Facez followed on March 25, 1997.

Lee is a graduate of Howard University, receiving a major in Communications.

Discography

Albums

{|class="wikitable" |- !rowspan="2"| Year !rowspan="2"| Title !colspan="2"| Chart positions |- ! U.S. Billboard 200 ! U.S. R&B; |align=center| Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs |align=center| Hot Rap Tracks |- | 1997 | "The Theme (It's Party Time)" |align="center"| #55 |align="center"| #19 |align="center"| #6 |align="center"| #51 |}

References

Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:American rappers

Ron Fair is a veteran A&R; executive, record producer and songwriter. In a career that has spanned over 25 years at major record labels he has produced and arranged hits for several artists, but he is best known as a "guru/mentor", guiding the careers of unknown artists and turning them into superstars. Among the artists he has mentored are Christina Aguilera, Keyshia Cole, Travis Garland, Vanessa Carlton, Ashlee Simpson and the Black Eyed Peas.

Career

Early career

Ron was born in Los Angeles. The environment in which he grew had a major impact on his eventual career direction, saying in an interview with HitQuarters, "My grandfather was a broadcaster who had built a remote facility for the purpose of producing a daily radio broadcast. Ever since I was two years old I was around microphones and consoles." During his childhood Fair was actively encouraged to pursue this career path, receiving various music tuition and being encouraged to take on the job training in multi-track recording. in Hollywood while at the same time developing a reputation as a motion picture musical soundtrack coordinator, with the multi-platinum successes of Pretty Woman and Reality Bites.

A&R; career

His first A&R; position was with RCA Records, where even as a junior exec, in an interview with Music Connection magazine, Fair expressed a desire to be the "Irving Thalberg" of the music business.

In 2009 Ron Fair approached Indian film composer A.R. Rahman to produce an English version of "Jai Ho", the hit soundtrack to the film Slumdog Millionaire. Along with Nicole Scherzinger and the Pussycat Dolls a new version of the song titled "Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny)" was released worldwide on the 23rd and 24 February 2009 through Interscope Records. He considers Rahman to be "one of the world's great living composers in any medium". He married singer-songwriter Stefanie Ridel on September 4, 2001. They have one child together.

He is currently mentoring Girlicious, The Pussycat Dolls, whose debut album, PCD, has sold seven million copies worldwide. He signed Keyshia Cole, overseeing and co-producing two platinum albums and five number one hits. In 2006 Fair became chairman of Geffen Records. He was nominated for 6 Grammy awards.

Fair also produced and engineered Lady Gaga's single Speechless, from her album The Fame Monster.

References

External links

Ron Fair discographie at Discogs.com

Category:American record producers Category:Songwriters from California Category:A&R; people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people

Paul Cardall (born April 24, 1973) is an American pianist.

History

Cardall says his earliest memories of music were songs learned in Primary.

Paul Cardall began piano lessons at the age of eight but quit after six months because he was frustrated with the practice routine. During high school Cardall lost a close friend and in search of solace he sat at the family piano and discovered his ability to play by ear and transcribe the feelings of his heart through music. Cardall would play the piano two to three hours a day. Cardall studied a couple of months with pianist Craig Kaelin and credits him with teaching Cardall how to chart music (which would later serve a valuable purpose in his studio recording sessions.)

While continuing to develop his composing skills, Cardall took jobs playing the piano at Nordstroms and The Roof Restaurant (atop the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City). His public performances led to Cardall recording his first album, entitled Sign of Affection, in 1995. A copy of this home-pressed album made its way to author Richard Paul Evans, writer of The Christmas Box. Evans invited Cardall to create a musical adaptation of the book.

Since then Cardall has partnered with Narada, a division of Virgin Records, to re-release The Christmas Box. He also debuted a new album entitled The Looking Glass. In December 1999 both records were listed on Billboard's Top 25 New Age Charts (www.allmusic.com) During his association with The Christmas Box, families of victims in the Oklahoma City bombing requested the music be played during the memorial ceremonies as families placed flowers on the empty chairs representing their lost loved ones.

During the year 2002, Cardall recorded two albums, Daily Devotions and Miracles: A Journey of Hope and Healing. Miracles has spent more time on New Age Voice's Top 100 radio charts than any other pianist in 2002. The song "Driving North" debuted at #3 on Amazon.com's Smooth Jazz Top 200 MP3 charts. Wind and Wire magazine gave his 2003 release, Faithful, the #2 spot of best contemporary instrumental albums of 2003.

In September 2005 Cardall released a new CD called Primary Worship, inspired by the innocence and spiritual development of childhood. The album debuted at #12 on the Billboard Magazine Top 25 New Age Chart, spending 11 weeks on that chart. Cardall founded independent label Stone Angel Music which produces, markets, and distributes not only his catalogue of recordings but recently signed cellist Steven Sharp Nelson whose debut album, Sacred Cello, debuted at #18 on Billboard's Classical Chart in September 2006.

Cardall also appears on two compilation albums, 20 Years of Narada Piano and Piano Portraits (Excel Entertainment Group.)

Cardall is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and attended Salt Lake Community College in Utah.

Cardall has a rare heart disease and received a donated heart via transplant on September 10, 2009.

Cardall and his wife Lynette have one child, a daughter named Eden.

References

External links

Official website

Deseret News, Sep. 10, 2006

Category:American pianists Category:Living people Category:American Latter Day Saints Category:Narada Productions artists Category:1973 births

Name	Nardwuar The Human Serviette
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	John Ruskin
Born	July 05, 1968
Origin	Vancouver, BC, Canada
Instrument	Keyboards
Genre	Garage Punk
Occupation	Media personality
Years active	1986-
Label	Nardwuar RecordsAlternative Tentacles
Associated acts	The EvaporatorsThee Goblins
Url	http://www.nardwuar.com}}

Nardwuar the Human Serviette (born John Ruskin, July 5, 1968) is a Canadian celebrity interviewer and musician from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is the lead singer and keyboardist for The Evaporators and plays in Thee Goblins.

He legally changed his name in 1986, and argues that "no one refers to Iggy Pop as 'James Osterberg'". When asked to explain his name, Nardwuar once quipped "Nardwuar equals dumb silly name, like Sting; Human means human, as in Human Fly; and Serviette is something you can't get in the U.S. because down there they're called napkins."

In 2005, he contributed to the UNICEF benefit song, "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" He has an honours bachelor's degree in history from the University of British Columbia and wrote his honours thesis on the Kennedy assassination. In July 1999, Nardwuar suffered a cerebral hemorrhage (aborting his planned ambush interview of Courtney Love), but recovered after surgery.

Nardwuar has an exhaustive knowledge of the Pacific Northwest garage rock scene.

Radio

Nardwuar got his start in media at the University of British Columbia radio station CITR 101.9 FM in Vancouver. His show has been running every Friday afternoon (3:30-5:00 p.m. Pacific) since October 1987. The program features a mix of eclectic music, along with interviews and commentary.

He also sometimes appears as a guest host and interviewer on CBC Radio 3.

Nardwuar started his own weekly program on freeform radio station WFMU in 2009.

Interviews

Nardwuar's interviews are frequently shown on MuchMusic's Going Coastal, or printed in Chart. Although Nardwuar's favourite targets are music artists, he has stated that he will interview any celebrity.

His interview style can be quite grating and confusing to those who have had no prior experience with him. A typical interview will begin with "Who are you?", followed by "From?" if the subject doesn't volunteer his or her affiliations. The interview will always end with "Keep on rockin' in the free world", and the "doot doota loot doo..." of "Shave and a Haircut", to which the interviewee must respond with the final "doot doo!" before Nardwuar will let them go. A somewhat common reply has been "Fuck you!". Other notable replies have been "Help Me" (Tom Morello), "You're nuts" (Glenn Danzig), "Ka-Boom" (Jello Biafra), "Mmm-hmm" (Jack White), "Massive Death" (King Coffey of the Butthole Surfers), "Um bye" (Faris Badwan of The Horrors), and "Bang-Bang" (Ice-T).

Due to his upfront and esoteric style, he has been attacked verbally, physically threatened, and intimidated by people such as Sebastian Bach of Skid Row (who stole Nardwuar's tuque); the band Quiet Riot (who chased Nardwuar and crew down the street); and Dave Rowntree of Blur. Alice Cooper, Travis Barker, Harlan Ellison, Beck and others have hung up on him or been verbally combative in interviews. Chris Fehn of Slipknot refused to talk during an interview and left midway through.

Nardwuar's unorthodox approach often ends up in bizarre scenarios. Snoop Dogg has repeatedly stolen various items from Nardwuar, including a Redd Foxx doll and Richard Pryor and Blowfly records, although Snoop claims to be 'taking' the objects in question rather than stealing them. Some of his subjects recognize Nardwuar's eccentric style and successfully manage to reverse the scenario on him, especially Iggy Pop, David Cross and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Some misinterpret his hijinks as intentionally disrespectful, particularly Henry Rollins and pornographer Al Goldstein.

More often the experience confuses the celebrities. Members of GWAR tried not to laugh while in character. Jello Biafra was impressed with his guerrilla interview style, but became noticeably angered in a 2000 interview when Nardwuar began to cajole Biafra about Biafra's lawsuit against former Dead Kennedys band mates. Others who have appreciated Nardwuar's interview include Nirvana, Kelly Rowland, Marilyn Manson, Michael Moore, Franz Ferdinand, Ron Jeremy, The Mars Volta, N.E.R.D., NOFX, Josh Homme, Drake, Skinhead Rob and Rhys Webb of The Horrors who described the interview style as "an ever winding ball of string".

Nardwuar does extensive research on the interviewee to confuse, scare or impress them; often bringing up minutia about band members' pasts that they have a hard time recalling, until he coaches them along. Frequently, he will also attempt to make connections, no matter how obscure, between the person or subject at question and Canada. A tribute to his research skills, while interviewing Josh Homme, he produced a grade school class photo of Homme mid-interview, who remained blasé yet clearly impressed. During an interview with Pharrell Williams from N.E.R.D., Nardwuar pulled out a vinyl 1992 record featuring the very first recorded track by Pharrell, causing him to pause and state "This is one of the most impresssive interviews I've ever experienced in my life. Seriously."

Political interviews

Nardwuar has also been known to be a "guerrilla journalist," often sneaking in to press conferences under the guise of a more normal reporter, to confront political leaders or other non-musical celebrities with surreal questions. He has asked Mikhail Gorbachev which world leader had the biggest pants, and Crispin Glover whether he sleeps in a coffin full of tar.

In November 1997, he cut off all his hair and was able to sneak into an APEC conference to ask Jean Chrétien if he supported the pepper spraying of protesters outside. Chrétien responded with a line that has become well known in Canada: "For me, pepper, I put it on my plate."

In June 2004, Nardwuar convinced an amused Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada, to play a quick game of the Hasbro game "Hip Flip" while he was on the campaign trail. After Martin won the election, Nardwuar commented on the great predictive power of the "Hip Flip," because neither of the other two other candidates had performed the act. On a campaign trip to Vancouver in December 2005, Nardwuar concluded an interview with New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton - who, in their first encounter, had taken the instructions to the game and said he would practice for their next encounter - with a successful, coordinated, swinging of their hips. Current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is the only major candidate from the 2004 election who has never performed a successful "Hip Flip" with Nardwuar.

See also

The Evaporators

References

External links

Nardwuar.com

Nardwuar's user page on Youtube.com

Category:1968 births Category:Living people Category:People from Vancouver Category:Musicians from Vancouver Category:Canadian rock singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian rock keyboardists Category:Canadian radio personalities Category:MuchMusic personalities Category:University of British Columbia alumni

Name	Mitch Miller
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Mitchell William Miller
Born	July 04, 1911Rochester, New York, United States
Died	July 31, 2010New York City, United States
Instrument	English horn, oboe, vocals
Genre	Choral, traditional pop
Occupation	Musician, singer, conductor, record producer, record company executive
Years active	1940s–1960s
Associated acts	Mitch Miller and The GangSing Along with Mitch

Mitchell William "Mitch" Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010)

He was married for sixty-five years to the former Frances Alexander, who died in 2000.

As part of the CBS Symphony, Miller participated in the musical accompaniment in the infamous radio broadcast of Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds.

A&R; man

Miller joined Mercury Records as a classical music producer and served as the head of Artists and Repertoire (A&R;) at Mercury in the late 1940s, and then joined Columbia Records in the same capacity in 1950. This was a pivotal position in a recording company, because the A&R; executive decided which musicians and songs would be recorded and promoted by that particular record label.

He defined the Columbia style through the early 1960s, signing and producing many important pop standards artists for Columbia, including Patti Page, Frankie Laine, Johnnie Ray, Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Jimmy Boyd, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, and Guy Mitchell (whose pseudonym was based on Miller's first name), and helped direct the careers of artists who were already signed to the label, like Doris Day, Dinah Shore and Jo Stafford, to just name a few. Miller also discovered Aretha Franklin and signed her to her first major recording contract. She left Columbia after a few years when Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records promised her artistic freedom to create records outside the pop mainstream in a more rhythm-and-blues-driven direction.

Miller also was responsible for not pursuing certain artists and tunes: he disapproved of rock 'n' roll, and passed on Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, who became stars on other labels. (He had offered Presley a contract, but balked at the amount Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was asking.) The one time that Miller was vetoed over his dislike for rock 'n' roll was when Bill Paley ordered him to sign the inter-racial Mexican rock group "Los Nómadas" since they could record rock records in both English and Spanish. Producer Bob Stanley had found the group during a series of early 1954 'Mexican civil rights concerts" in East Los Angeles. Their lead guitarist Bill Aken (adopted son of Mexican actress Lupe Mayorga, who was a friend of Paley's) was the only Caucasian in the Latino band. Although Mitch had once referred to the group as just "four arrogant little bastards," Miller softened his position regarding them when Paley's estimate of their record sales in Mexico proved to be highly accurate. In all fairness to Miller, it should be noted that it was due to his recommendation and a letter of reference to William Shuman that Aken's parents sent the young musician to the Juilliard School of Music.

Despite his distaste for rock 'n' roll, Miller often produced records for Columbia artists that were rockish in nature. Songs like "A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)" by Marty Robbins, and "Rock-a-Billy" by Guy Mitchell are just two examples.

Record producer

As a record producer, Miller gained a reputation for both innovation and gimmickry. Although he oversaw dozens of chart hits, his relentlessly cheery arrangements and his penchant for novelty material (for example, "Come on-a My House" (Rosemary Clooney), "Mama Will Bark") has drawn heavy criticism from some admirers of traditional pop music. Music historian Will Friedwald wrote in his book Jazz Singing (Da Capo Press, 1996) that "Miller exemplified the worst in American pop. He first aroused the ire of intelligent listeners by trying to turn — and darn near succeeding in turning — great artists like Sinatra, Clooney, and Tony Bennett into hacks. Miller chose the worst songs and put together the worst backings imaginable — not with the hit-or-miss attitude that bad musicians ... traditionally used, but with insight, forethought, careful planning, and perverted brilliance."

At the same time, Friedwald acknowledges Miller's seminal influence on later popular music production:

Miller established the primacy of the producer, proving that even more than the artist, the accompaniment, or the material, it was the responsibility of the man in the recording booth whether a record flew or flopped. Miller also conceived of the idea of the pop record "sound" per se: not so much an arrangement or a tune, but an aural texture (usually replete with extramusical gimmicks) that could be created in the studio and then replicated in live performance, instead of the other way around. Miller was hardly a rock 'n' roller, yet without these ideas there could never have been rock 'n' roll. "Mule Train", Miller's first major hit (for Frankie Laine) and the foundation of his career, set the pattern for virtually the entire first decade of rock. The similarities between it and, say, "Leader of the Pack", need hardly be outlined here.

While Miller's methods were resented by some of Columbia's performers, including Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney, the label maintained a high hit-to-release ratio during the 1950s. Sinatra, in particular, would speak harshly of Miller and blamed him for his (Sinatra's) temporary fall from popularity while at Columbia, having been forced to record material like "Mama Will Bark" and "The Hucklebuck." Miller countered that Sinatra's contract gave him the right to refuse any song.

Recording artist

In the early 1950s Miller recorded with Columbia's house band as "Mitchell Miller and His Orchestra". He also recorded a string of successful albums and singles, featuring a male chorale and his own distinctive arrangements, under the name "Mitch Miller and the Gang" starting in 1950. The ensemble's hits included "The Children's Marching Song" (more commonly known as "This Old Man"), "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena", "The Yellow Rose of Texas", and the two marches from The Bridge on the River Kwai: "The River Kwai March" and "Colonel Bogey March". In 1961 Miller also provided two choral tracks set to Dimitri Tiomkin's title music on the soundtrack to The Guns of Navarone. In 1962 they sang the theme of The Longest Day over the end credits. In 1965 they sang the "Major Dundee March", the theme song to Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee. Though the film was a box-office bomb, paradoxically the song remained popular for years. In 1987, Miller conducted the London Symphony Orchestra with pianist David Golub in a well-received recording of Gershwin's "An American in Paris," "Rhapsody in Blue," and "Concerto in F."

Sing Along with Mitch

In the 1960s, Miller became a household name with his 1961–1966 NBC television show Sing Along with Mitch, a community-sing program featuring him and a male chorale (an extension of his highly successful series of Columbia record albums of the same name). During the second season of Sing Along with Mitch, Miller himself coined the catchphrase "all smiles."

Singer Leslie Uggams, pianist Dick Hyman, and the singing Quinto Sisters were featured on Sing Along with Mitch. One of the singers in Miller's chorale, Bob McGrath, went on to a long career as one of the hosts of the PBS children's television show Sesame Street.

Sing Along with Mitch ran on television from 1961 until it was canceled in 1964, a victim of changing musical tastes. Selected repeats aired briefly on NBC during the spring of 1966. The demographics of the show's audience ran too much toward mature viewers to attract advertisers more interested in targeting the youth market. The show's format remained popular in England, where comedian Max Bygraves hosted his own version, Sing Along with Max.

In later years, Miller would carry on the sing-along tradition, leading crowds in song in personal appearances. For several years, Miller was featured in a popular series of Christmas festivities in New Bedford, Massachusetts, leading large crowds singing carols. Miller appeared as host of two PBS television specials, "Keep America Singing" (1994) and "Voices In Harmony" (1996), featuring champion quartets and choruses of SPEBSQSA and Sweet Adelines International. He also appeared conducting regional orchestras and filled in many times as guest conductor of The Boston Pops Orchestra.

Parodies

Steve Allen once performed a pointed satire of Sing Along with Mitch that spoofed the show's production values, including cameras panning among the vocalists, going out of control and knocking them over, then chasing Allen, made up as Miller, out of the studio and onto the roof. Stan Freberg, who had previously recorded "Wunnerful! Wunnerful!", a scathing satire of The Lawrence Welk Show, presented an equally brutal satire of the show, "Sing Along With Freeb", on his February 1962 ABC special, The Chun King Chow Mein Hour. Jonathan and Darlene Edwards (Paul Weston and Jo Stafford) produced an entire album of sing-along in the Miller style, which supposedly greatly angered him.

Years later, Internet shopping giant Amazon.com referenced Sing Along with Mitch in their Christmas commercials, featuring a male choral group singing subtitled songs about the company's various offerings.

Awards and honors

Miller received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

He was awarded Honorary Membership in the Barbershop Harmony Society in 1985.

Quotation

"Rock 'n' roll is musical baby food: it is the worship of mediocrity, brought about by a passion for conformity." NME – January 1958

References

External links

Discography and brief biography

Brief info on show

Longer biography

Legacy Recordings biography

Internet Movie Database entry

Mitch Miller Archive of American Television Video Interview

Mitch Miller on the bouncing ball

Category:1911 births Category:2010 deaths Category:American male singers Category:American record producers Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:American Jews Category:Jewish American musicians Category:American singers Category:American classical oboists Category:Musicians from New York Category:People from Rochester, New York Category:A&R; people Category:Eastman School of Music alumni

Name	Mariah Carey
Background	solo_singer
Birth date	March 27, 1970
Birth place	Huntington, New York, United States
Genre	R&B;, pop
Years active	1988–present
Associated acts	Boyz II Men, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Jay-Z, Jermaine Dupri
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, model, record producer, actress, film producer
Spouse
Label	Columbia, Virgin, Island
Url

Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an American pop/R&B; singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. She made her recording debut, in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, and became the first recording artist to have her first five singles top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola, in 1993, a series of hit records established her position as Columbia Records' highest-selling act.

Following her separation from Mottola, in 1997, she introduced elements of hip hop into her album work, to much initial success, but her popularity was in decline when she left Columbia, in 2001. She signed a record $80 million dollar deal with Virgin Records, only to be dropped from the label and bought out of her contract in the following year. This radical turn of events was due to the highly publicized physical and emotional breakdown, as well as the poor reception that was given to Glitter, her film and soundtrack project. In 2002, Carey signed with Island Records, and, after a relatively unsuccessful period, she returned to the top of pop music, in 2005, with her album, The Emancipation of Mimi.

In a career spanning over two decades, Carey has sold more than 200 million albums, singles and videos worldwide,according to Island Def Jam, which makes her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Carey was cited as the world’s best-selling recording artist of the 1990s at the 1998 World Music Awards and was also named the best-selling female artist of the millennium by the same award-giving body in 2000. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is the third-best-selling female artist, with shipments of 63 million albums. In 2008, Carey earned her eighteenth number one single on the Hot 100, the most for any solo artist. Aside from her commercial accomplishments, she has earned five Grammy Awards and is known for her five-octave vocal range, power, melismatic style and use of the whistle register.

Life and career

1970–87: Childhood and youth

Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, Long Island, New York. She is the third and youngest child of Patricia (née Hickey), a former opera singer and vocal coach, and Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer. Her mother is Irish American and her father is of Afro-Venezuelan and African American descent; her paternal grandfather, Roberto Nuñez, changed his surname to Carey to better assimilate upon moving to the United States from Venezuela. Carey has two sibilings, Morgan and Alison Carey. Carey was named after the song "They Call the Wind Mariah". Carey's parents divorced when she was three years old. While she lived in Huntington, racist neighbors allegedly poisoned the family dog and set fire to her family's car.

Carey graduated from Harborfields High School, in Greenlawn, New York. She was frequently absent, because of her work as a demo singer for local recording studios; her classmates consequently gave her the nickname "Mirage". Her work in the Long Island music scene provided opportunities to work with musicians, such as Gavin Christopher and Ben Margulies, with whom she co-wrote material for her demo tape. After she moved to New York City, she worked part-time jobs to pay the rent and she completed 500 hours of beauty school. Eventually, she became a backup singer for Puerto Rican freestyle singer Brenda K. Starr.

1988–92: Early career

In 1988, Carey met Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola at a party, where Starr gave Carey's demo tape to him. Mottola played the tape when he left the party and was impressed. He returned to find Carey but she had left. Nevertheless, Mottola tracked her down and signed her to a recording contract. This Cinderella-like story became part of the standard publicity that surrounded Carey's entrance into the industry.

Carey co-wrote the tracks on her 1990 debut album Mariah Carey and she has co-written most of her material since. During the recording, she expressed dissatisfaction with the contributions of producers such as Ric Wake and Rhett Lawrence, whom the executives at Columbia had enlisted to help to make the album more commercially viable. Critics were generally enthusiastic (See Critical reception section of the album article). Backed by a substantial promotional budget, the album reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, where it remained for several weeks. It yielded four number-one singles and made Carey a star in the United States but it was less successful in other countries. Critics rated the album highly, which assisted Carey's Grammy wins for Best New Artist, and—for her debut single, "Vision of Love"—Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Mariah Carey was also the best selling album of 1991 in the United States.

Carey conceived Emotions, her second album, as an homage to Motown soul music (see Motown Sound), and she worked with Walter Afanasieff and Clivillés & Cole (from the dance group C+C Music Factory) on the record. It was released soon after her debut album — in late 1991 — but was neither as critically or commercially successful (See Promotion and reception section of the album article). The title track "Emotions" made Carey into the only recording act whose first five singles have reached number one on the U.S. Hot 100 chart, although the album's follow-up singles failed to match this feat. Carey had lobbied to produce her own songs and, beginning with Emotions, she has co-produced most of her material. "I didn't want [Emotions] to be somebody else's vision of me," she said. "There's more of me on this album."

Although Carey performed live occasionally, stage fright prevented her from embarking on a major tour. Her first widely seen appearance was featured on the television show MTV Unplugged in 1992, and she remarked that she felt that her performance that night proved her vocal abilities were not, as some had previously speculated, simulated with studio equipment. Alongside acoustic versions of some of her earlier songs, Carey premiered a cover of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There", with her back-up singer Trey Lorenz. The duet was released as a single, reached number one in the U.S. and led to a record deal for Lorenz, Because of high ratings for the Unplugged television special, the concert's set list was released on the EP MTV Unplugged, which Entertainment Weekly called "the strongest, most genuinely musical record she has ever made [...] Did this live performance help her to take her first steps toward growing up?."

1993–96: First marriage, and international success

Carey and Tommy Mottola became romantically involved during the making of her debut album and were married in June, 1993. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds consulted on the album Music Box, which was released later that year and became Carey's most successful worldwide. The album maintained a presence on the Billboard 200 for a staggering 128 weeks. It yielded her first UK Singles Chart number-one, a cover of Badfinger's "Without You", and the U.S. number-ones "Dreamlover" and "Hero". Billboard magazine proclaimed it "heart-piercing [...] easily the most elemental of Carey's releases, her vocal eurythmics in natural sync with the songs", but TIME magazine's Christopher John Farley lamented Carey's attempt at a mellower work, "[Music Box] seems perfunctory and almost passionless [...] Carey could be a pop-soul great; instead, she has once again settled for Salieri-like mediocrity." AllMusic adds, "Carey sounds detached on several selections. She scored a couple of huge hits, "Hero" and "Dreamlover", where she did inject some personality and intensity into the leads. Most other times, Carey blended into the background and allowed the tracks guide her, instead of pushing and exploding through them. It was wise for Carey to display other elements of her approach but, sometimes, excessive spirit is preferable to an absence of passion", and Rolling Stone expressed mixed sentiments and said, "Some of the songs appear to be strongly influenced by other hits. "Hero," with its message of self-sufficiency, aims for the inspirational grandeur of "Greatest Love of All", while "Just to Hold You Once Again" and "All I've Ever Wanted" chase the tail of "I Will Always Love You." In fact, Music Box is so precisely calculated to be a blockbuster that its impact is ultimately a little unnerving." In response to such comments, Carey said, "As soon as you have a big success, a lot of people don't like that. There's nothing that I can do about it. All I can do is to make music that I believe in." Most critics slighted the opening of her subsequent U.S. Music Box Tour. Farley balanced his critique with some positive observations: "The gospel flavored 'Anytime You Need A Friend' demonstrates Carey's vocal power, although too fleetingly. And the title cut is one of Carey's loveliest songs to date..." and, in subsequent years, emerged as one of her most perennially popular songs on U.S. radio. Critical reception of Merry Christmas was mixed, with Allmusic calling it an "otherwise vanilla set [...] pretensions to high opera on 'O Holy Night' and a horrid danceclub take on 'Joy to the World'." It became one of the most successful Christmas albums of all time.

In 1995, Columbia released Carey's fourth studio album, Daydream, which combined the pop sensibilities of Music Box with downbeat R&B; and hip hop influences. A remix of "Fantasy", its first single, featured rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard. Carey said that Columbia reacted negatively to her intentions for the album: "Everybody was like 'What, are you crazy?'. They're very nervous about breaking the formula." The New Yorker noted that "It became standard for R&B; stars, like Missy Eliott and Beyoncé, to combine melodies with rapped verses." John Norris of MTV News has stated that the remix was "responsible for, I would argue, an entire wave of music that we've seen since and that is the R&B-hip-hop; collaboration. You could argue that the 'Fantasy' remix was the single most important recording that she's ever made." Norris echoed the sentiments of TLC's Lisa Lopes, who told MTV that it's because of Mariah that we have "R&B.;" Daydream became her biggest-selling album in the U.S. and its singles achieved similar success — "Fantasy" became the second single to debut at number one in the U.S. and topped the Canadian Singles Chart for twelve weeks; "One Sweet Day" (a duet with Boyz II Men) spent a record-holding sixteen weeks at number one in the U.S.; and "Always Be My Baby" (co-produced by Jermaine Dupri) was the most successful record on U.S. radio in 1996, according to Billboard magazine. The album also generated career-best reviews for Carey, and publications such as The New York Times named it as one of 1995's best albums; the Times wrote that its "best cuts bring R&B; candy-making to a new peak of textural refinement [...] Carey's songwriting has taken a leap forward and become more relaxed, sexier and less reliant on thudding clichés." and AllMusic adds, "Daydream is her best record to date, and features a consistently strong selection of songs and a remarkably impassioned performance by Carey. A few of the songs are second-rate — particularly the cover of Journey's "Open Arms" — but Daydream demonstrates that Carey continues to perfect her craft and that she has earned her status as an R&B; diva." The short but profitable Daydream World Tour augmented sales of the album. The music industry took note of Carey's success — she won two awards at the American Music Awards for her solo efforts: Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B; Female Artist. Daydream and its tracks were respectively nominated for six categories in the 38th Grammy Awards. Carey, along with Boyz II Men, opened the event with a performance of "One Sweet Day," which was mightily applauded. In contrast, throughout the night, she was not called to the stage to receive even one Grammy. The cameras started to focus on Carey, revealing the fact that it was becoming harder for her to retain a smile. Her disappointment was becoming obvious.

1997–2000: New image, Butterfly and Rainbow

Carey and Mottola officially separated in 1997. Although the public image of the marriage was a happy one, she said that, in reality, she had felt trapped by her relationship with Mottola, whom she often described as controlling. They officially announced their separation in 1997 and their divorce became final in the following year. Soon after the separation, Carey hired an independent publicist and a new attorney and manager. She continued to write and produce for other artists during this period and contributedto the debut albums of Allure and 7 Mile through her short-lived imprint Crave Records.

" video in 1998.]] Carey's next album, Butterfly (1997), yielded the number-one single "Honey", the lyrics and music video which presented a more overtly sexual image of her than had been previously seen. She stated that Butterfly marked the point when she attained full creative control over her music. However, she added, "I don't think that it's that much of a departure from what I've done in the past [...] It's not like I went psycho and thought I would be a rapper. Personally, this album is about doing whatever the hell I wanted to do." Reviews were generally positive: Rolling Stone wrote, "Carey couldn't have wished for a better start than "Honey," [...] it's an undeniably catchy pop record that revamps her sound and image. It's not as if Carey has totally dispensed with her old saccharine, Houston-style balladry [...] but the predominant mood of Butterfly is one of coolly erotic reverie. [... Except "Outside" the album sounds] very 1997. [...] Carey has spread her wings and she's ready to fly", LAUNCHcast said Butterfly "pushes the envelope", a move that its critic thought "may prove disconcerting to more conservative fans" but praised as "a welcome change." The Los Angeles Times wrote, "[Butterfly] is easily the most personal, confessional-sounding record she's ever done [...] Carey-bashing just might become a thing of the past." and AllMusic adds "Carey's vocals are sultrier and more controlled than ever, and that helps "Butterfly," "Break Down," "Babydoll," and the Prince cover, "The Beautiful Ones," rank among her best; also, the ballads do have a stronger urban feel than before. Even though Butterfly doesn't have as many strong singles as Daydream, it's one of her best records and illustrates that Carey continues to improve and refine her music, which makes her a rarity among her '90s peers." The album was a commercial success—although not to the degree of her previous three albums—and "My All" (her thirteenth Hot 100 number-one) gave her the record for the most U.S. number-ones by a female artist.

Toward the turn of the millennium, Carey developed the film project Glitter and wrote songs for the films Men in Black (1997) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). During the production of Butterfly, Carey became romantically involved with New York Yankees baseball star Derek Jeter. Their relationship ended in 1998, with both parties citing media interference as the main reason for the split. The same year, Columbia released the album #1's, a collection of Carey's U.S. number-one singles alongside new material, which, she said, was a way to reward her fans. The song "When You Believe", a duet with Whitney Houston, was recorded for the soundtrack of The Prince of Egypt (1998) and won an Academy Award. #1's sold above expectations but a review in NME labeled Carey "a purveyor of saccharine bilge like 'Hero', whose message seems wholesome enough: that if you vacate your mind of all intelligent thought, flutter your eyelashes and wish hard, sweet babies and honey will follow." Also that year, she appeared on the first televised VH1 Divas benefit concert program, although her alleged prima donna behavior had already led many to consider her a diva.

Rainbow, Carey's sixth studio album, was released in 1999 and comprised more R&B;/hip hop–oriented songs, with many of them co-created with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. "Heartbreaker" and "Thank God I Found You" (the former featuring Jay-Z, the latter featuring Joe and boy band 98 Degrees) reached number one in the U.S. VIBE magazine expressed similar sentiments, writing, "She pulls out all stops [...] Rainbow will garner even more adoration", but AllMusic states, "It's a bit ballad-heavy, which makes Rainbow seem a little samey. Yet, that's not the only reason why the record has a weird sense of déjà vu, since this follows the same formula as its two predecessors, distinguished primarily by her newfound fondness for flashing flesh. That repetition isn't necessarily a problem, because she does formula very well and manages to appeal to both housewives as well as b-boys. Rainbow proves that she can still pull off that difficult balancing act but it's hard not to be a little disappointed that she'd didn't shake the music up a little bit more — after all, it would have been a more effective album if the heartbreak, sorrow and joy that bubbles underneath the music were brought to the surface." and it became Carey's lowest-selling album up to that point,

2001–04: Glitter, Charmbracelet and personal struggles

After she received Billboard's Artist of the Decade Award and the World Music Award for Best-Selling Female Artist of the Millennium, and her relationship with the Latin icon Luis Miguel ended. In an interview the following year, she said, "I was with people who didn't really know me and I had no personal assistant. I'd do interviews all day long and get two hours of sleep a night, if that." During an appearance on MTV's Total Request Live, to which she showed up unannounced and to the apparent bewilderment of host Carson Daly, Carey handed out popsicles to the audience and began what was later described as a "striptease". By the month's end, she had checked into a hospital and her publicist announced that Carey would take a break from public appearances.

Critics panned Glitter, Carey's much delayed semi-autobiographical film and it was a box office failure. The accompanying soundtrack album, Glitter, was inspired by the music of the 1980s and featured collaborations with Rick James and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis; it generated Carey's worst showing on the U.S. chart. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch dismissed it as "an absolute mess that'll go down as an annoying blemish on a career that, while not always critically heralded, was at least nearly consistently successful", while Blender magazine opined, "After years of trading her signature flourishes for a radio-ready purr, Carey's left with almost no presence at all." The lead single, "Loverboy" (which features Cameo), reached number two on the Hot 100, due to the release of the physical single, Later that year, she signed a contract with Island Records, valued at more than $22.5 million, and launched the record label MonarC. To add further to Carey's emotional burdens, her father, with whom she had little contact since childhood, died of cancer that year.

Carey, Mira Sorvino and Melora Walters co-starred as waitresses at a mobster-operated restaurant in the independent film WiseGirls (2002), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival but went straight to cable in the U.S. Critics commended Carey for her efforts — The Hollywood Reporter predicted, "Those scathing notices for Glitter will be a forgotten memory for the singer once people warm up to Raychel", and Roger Friedman, referring to her as "a Thelma Ritter for the new millennium", said, "Her line delivery is sharp and she manages to get the right laughs". WiseGirls producer Anthony Esposito cast Carey in The Sweet Science (2006), a film about an unknown female boxer recruited by a boxing manager, but it never entered production.

In 2002, she performed the American national anthem in front of an audience at the Super Bowl XXXVI at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. Following a well-received supporting role in the 2002 film WiseGirls, Carey released the album Charmbracelet, which, she said, marked "a new lease on life" for her. and Rolling Stone commented, "Carey needs bold songs that help her use the power and range for which she is famous. Charmbracelet is like a stream of watercolors that bleed into a puddle of brown." Allmusic expressed similar sentiments and said, "There are no good songs on this record, outside of Def Leppard's power ballad classic "Bringin on the Heartbreak," which isn't even covered all that well. What is a greater problem is that Mariah's voice is shot, sounding in tatters throughout the record. Whenever she sings, there's a raspy whistle behind her thin voice and she strains to make notes throughout the record. She cannot coo or softly croon nor can she perform her trademark gravity-defying vocal runs. Her voice is damaged and there's not a moment where it sounds strong or inviting. That, alone, would be disturbing but, because the songs are formless and the production bland — another reason why the hip-hop announces itself, even though it's nowhere near as pronounced as it has been since Butterfly — her tired voice becomes the only thing to concentrate on and it's a sad, ugly thing, which makes an album - that would merely have been her worst - into something tragic." The album's only charting single in America, "Through the Rain", was a failure on pop radio, which had become less open to maturing "diva" stylists, such as Celine Dion, or Carey, herself, in favor of younger singers such as Christina Aguilera, who had vocal styles very similar to Carey's. She was featured on rapper Jadakiss's 2004 single "U Make Me Wanna", which reached the top ten on Billboard's R&B;/Hip-Hop chart.

Carey was one of several musicians who appeared in the independently produced Damon Dash films Death of a Dynasty (2003) and State Property 2 (2005).

2005–07: Return to prominence with The Emancipation of Mimi

, in Florida August 7, 2006.]] Carey's tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), contained contributions from producers such as The Neptunes, Kanye West and Carey's longtime collaborator, Jermaine Dupri. Carey said it was "very much like a party record [...] the process of putting on makeup and getting ready to go out [...] I wanted to make a record that was reflective of that." The Emancipation of Mimi became 2005's best-selling album in the U.S. The Guardian reviewer defined it as "cool, focused and urban [... some of] the first Mariah Carey tunes in years which I wouldn't have to be paid to listen to again"., but New York Daily News states, "Carey has brought back that trademark dog-whistle that she exploited in the callow part of her career with a vengeance and used it on 11 of the CD's 14 tracks. For Carey, vocalizing is all about the performance, not the emotions that inspired it. Singing, to her, represents a physical challenge, not an emotional unburdening. If no one can question the scope of Carey's voice, it's too bad that she has again used it to say nothing." The album earned a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B; Album and the single "We Belong Together" won Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance and Best R&B; Song. "We Belong Together" held the Hot 100's number-one position for fourteen weeks, her longest run at the top as a solo lead artist. Subsequently, the single "Shake It Off" reached number two for a week, which made Carey the first female lead vocalist to have simultaneously held the Hot 100's top two positions. (While it topped the charts in 2002, Ashanti was the "featured" singer on the number two single.) 2005 proved to be a good year for Carey, as "We Belong Together" reached number one on Billboard's year end chart for Hot 100 singles, and The Emancipation of Mimi is classed as the best selling album of 2005 by Nielsen SoundScan.

In mid-2006, Carey began The Adventures of Mimi Tour, which was the most successful of her career, although some dates had to be canceled. She appeared on the cover of the March, 2007, edition of Playboy magazine in a non-nude photo session. Around this time, she made a legal threat against porn star Mary Carey, believing their names were too similar.

In 2006, Carey joined the cast of the indie film Tennessee (2008), taking the role of an aspiring singer who flees her controlling husband and joins two brothers on a journey to find their long-lost father. The movie received mixed reviews, but most of them raved about Carey's performance and praised it as "understated and very effective."

2007–09: E=MC², second marriage, and Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel

By spring 2007, she had begun to work on her eleventh studio album, E=MC². Asked about the album title's meaning, Carey said "Einstein's theory? Physics? Me? Hello! ...Of course I'm poking fun." She characterized the project as "Emancipation of Mimi to the second power", and said that she was "freer" on this album than any other. Like her previous one, this album mainly concentrates on pop and R&B; but borrows hip hop, gospel and even reggae ("Cruise Control") elements. Although E=MC² was well received by most critics, some of them criticized it for being "a clone of The Emancipation of Mimi". Bleu Magazine's critic said that the "facsimiles aren't terrible, they're just boring and forgettable at this point." Two weeks before the album's release, on April 2, 2008, "Touch My Body", her first single from the album, became Carey's eighteenth number-one single on the Hot 100, pushing her past Elvis Presley into second place for the most number-one singles among all artists in the rock era, according to Billboard magazine's revised methodology. Carey is now second only to The Beatles, who have twenty number-one singles. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 463,000 copies sold, making it the biggest opening week sales of her career.

Carey's singles have collectively topped the charts for seventy-nine weeks, which places her just behind Presley, who topped the charts for a combined eighty weeks. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked her at number six on the "Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists", making Carey the second most successful female artist (behind Madonna) in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Carey has also had notable success on international charts, though not to the same degree as in the United States. Thus far, she has had two number-one singles in Britain, two in Australia, and six in Canada. Her highest-charting single in Japan peaked at number two. Carey and actor/comedian/rapper Nick Cannon met while they shot Carey's music video for her second single "Bye Bye" on a private island of the coast of Antigua. On April 30, 2008, Carey married Cannon at her private estate on Windermere Island in The Bahamas. In October 2008, Carey was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. Carey had a cameo appearance in Adam Sandler's 2008 film You Don't Mess with the Zohan, playing herself.

Carey performed "Hero" at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball after Barack Obama was sworn in as America's first African-American president on January 20, 2009. On July 7, 2009, Carey – alongside Trey Lorenz – performed her version of the Jackson 5 hit "I'll Be There" at the memorial service for Michael Jackson in the Los Angeles Staples Center. Carey was featured on "My Love", the second single from singer-songwriter The-Dream's album Love vs. Money. In 2009, she appeared as a social worker in Precious, the movie adaptation of the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire. The film has garnered mostly positive reviews from critics, as has Carey's performance. Variety described her acting as "pitch-perfect". So far Precious has won awards at both the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, receiving top awards there. In January 2010, Carey won the Breakthrough Actress Performance award for her role in Precious at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Carey's twelfth studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel was released on September 25, 2009. The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics. John Bush of Allmusic called it "her most interesting album in a decade", while Jon Caramanica from The New York Times criticized Carey's vocal performances, decrying her overuse of her softer vocal registers at the expense of her more powerful lower and mid registers. Commercially, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and became the lowest-selling studio album of her career. The album's lead single, "Obsessed", became her 40th entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and her highest debut on the chart since "My All" in 1998. The song debuted at number eleven and peaked at number seven on the chart and became Carey's 27th US top-ten hit, tying her with Elton John and Janet Jackson as the fifth most top-ten hits. Within hours after the song's release, various outlets speculated that its target was rapper Eminem, in response to his song "Bagpipes from Baghdad," in which he taunted Carey's husband, Nick Cannon by telling him to back off and that Carey is his. According to MTV, Carey alludes to drug problems in "Obsessed," which Eminem opened up about on his sixth studio album, Relapse. The album's follow-up singles failed to achieve commercial success. The second single, a cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", peaked at number 60 and the third single, "H.A.T.E.U.", failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100. On December 31, 2009, Carey embarked her seventh concert tour, Angels Advocate Tour, which visited the United States and Canada. Later it was announced that Carey would release two remix albums of Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel; titled Angels Advocate (an R&B; remix album featuring a collection of newly remixed duets with some of Carey's favorite artists) and MC vs JS (a dance album entirely remixed by the Jump Smokers). In January 2010, "Up Out My Face" featuring Nicki Minaj and "Angels Cry" featuring Ne-Yo were released as the lead singles from Angels Advocate. Both albums were slated for a March 2010 release, but were eventually cancelled.

2010–present: Merry Christmas II You and pregnancy

on December 3, 2010]] Following the cancellation of the remix albums, it was announced that Carey will go back to the studio to start work on her second Christmas album and her 13th studio album. Fashion photographer David LaChapelle told The Times on April 24, 2010, that he shot the album's artwork. Long time collaborators for the project include Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox. Dupri stated that a single will be released by the end of 2010. Johntá Austin and Randy Jackson are also contributing to the project.

In May 2010, Carey, citing medical reasons, dropped out of her planned appearance in For Colored Girls, the film adaptation of the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

During a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, in August 2010, Island Def Jam executive Matt Voss announced that the Christmas album would be out in November 2 and will include six new songs and a remix of her all time classic hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You". The album will be titled Merry Christmas II You, a follow-up to her 1994 multiplatinum album Merry Christmas. An accompanying DVD was released alongside the CD. Carey has produced and recorded tracks with the Broadway producer Marc Shaiman for the album. The album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 56,000 copies, surpassing the opening week sales of Carey's previous holiday album Merry Christmas of 45,000 copies 16 years prior, and making Merry Christmas II You Carey's 16th top 10 album. The album also debuted at #1 on the R&B;/Hip-Hop Albums chart, making it only the second Christmas album to top this chart, and also hit number #1 on the Holiday Albums Chart.

After much media spectulation, on October 28, 2010, Carey confirmed that she and Cannon are expecting a baby, and that it is due in the spring of 2011. Carey stated that she struggled to keep the news a secret. She also revealed that they have yet to find out the gender of the baby and that she conceived naturally. She added that she had been pregnant shortly after her wedding with Nick Cannon, but that she miscarried. Carey and Cannon decided to keep the matter private. Following allegations that Mariah accidentally revealed that the couple were expecting twins during an radio interview by referring to the child as 'they', Nick stated that Carey is due one child, not twins. However, Nick refused to say how many babies his wife was expecting to E! News, but admitted that by saying 'they', Mariah 'wasn't wrong'. On December 16, 2010, Nick Cannon announced that he and Mariah were in fact going to have twins.

On December 12, 2010, Carey was the featured performer on the annual television special Christmas in Washington, airing live on pay-per-view in select cities worldwide. The U.S. network television premiere was December 17 via the TNT network.

Artistry

Carey has said that from childhood she has been influenced by R&B; and soul musicians such as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin. Her music contains strong influences of gospel music, she attends an Episcopal church and her favorite gospel singers include The Clark Sisters, Shirley Caesar and Edwin Hawkins. She has expressed appreciation for rappers such as The Sugarhill Gang, Eric B. & Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, The Notorious B.I.G. and Mobb Deep, In She Bop II: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul (2002), writer Lucy O'Brien attributed the comeback of Barbra Streisand's "old-fashioned showgirl" to Carey and Dion, and described them and Houston as "groomed, airbrushed and overblown to perfection". Carey's musical transition and use of more revealing clothing during the late 1990s were, in part, initiated to distance herself from this image, and she subsequently said that most of her early work was "schmaltzy MOR". Despite the fact that Carey is often credited with co-writing her material, she has also been accused of plagiarism on several occasions. Many of these cases were eventually settled out of court.

Voice

Mariah Carey possesses a five-octave vocal range, and was ranked first in a 2003 MTV and Blender magazine countdown of the 22 Greatest Voices in Music, as voted by fans and readers in an online poll. Carey said of the poll, "What it really means is voice of the MTV generation. Of course, it's an enormous compliment, but I don't feel that way about myself." She also placed second in Cove magazine's list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists". Regarding her voice, Carey states,

"I have nodules on my vocal cords. My mother says I've had them since I was a kid. That's why I have the high register and the belting register and I can still be husky. The only thing that really affects my voice is sleep. Sometimes if I'm exhausted, I can't hit the really high notes." "My doctors showed me my vocal cords and why I can hit those high notes. It's a certain part of the cord that not many people use—the very top. My natural voice is low. I have a raspy voice. I'm really more of an alto. But my airy voice can be high if I'm rested. [...] When I was little, I'd talk in this really high whisper, and my mom would be like, "You're being ridiculous." I thought if I can talk like that I can sing like that. So I started [she goes higher and higher and higher] just messing around with it. I'd practice and practice, and she'd be like, "You're gonna hurt yourself." I'd tell her, It doesn’t hurt/ If I were to try and belt two octaves lower than that, that would be a strain."

She also explains that it was Minnie Riperton who influenced her to use the whistle register. The medium is "pleasurable and possesses an ample vibrato." Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker adds her timbre possesses various colors, saying, "Carey's sound changes with nearly every line, mutating from a steely tone to a vibrating growl and then to a humid, breathy coo." Her wide vocal range allows Carey to take melodies from alto bottom notes to coloratura soprano upper register,

Voice experts praise Carey's vocal technique, like Stephen Holden who said, "[s]he can deliver very accurate staccatos as well as tricky melismas, and she possesses a beautiful and solid trill in upper register". Rolling Stone expressed similar sentiments, saying, "Carey has a remarkable vocal gift, but to date, unfortunately, her singing has been far more impressive than expressive", "She wails notes that don't need emphasizing, then whispers what would ordinarily be climactic phrases, and the outcome doesn't make emotional or musical sense." New York Daily News continues in the same direction, saying, "For Carey, vocalizing is all about the performance, not the emotions that inspired it. Singing, to her, represents a physical challenge, not an emotional unburdening. If no one can question the scope of Carey's voice it's too bad she has again used it to say nothing."

Carey's output makes use of electronic instruments such as drum machines, keyboards and synthesizers. Many of her songs contain piano music, and she was given piano lessons when she was six years old. Carey said that she cannot read sheet music and prefers to collaborate with a pianist when composing her material, but feels that it is easier to experiment with faster and less conventional melodies and chord progressions using this technique. Some of her arrangements have been inspired by the work of musicians such as Stevie Wonder, a soul pianist to whom Carey once referred as "the genius of the [twentieth] century",

Carey began commissioning remixes of her material early in her career and helped to spearhead the practice of recording entirely new vocals for remixes. Disc jockey David Morales has collaborated with Carey several times, starting with "Dreamlover" (1993), which popularized the tradition of remixing R&B; songs into house records, and which Slant magazine named one of the greatest dance songs of all time. From "Fantasy" (1995) onward, Carey enlisted both hip hop and house producers to re-imagine her album compositions. Entertainment Weekly included two remixes of "Fantasy" on a list of Carey's greatest recordings compiled in 2005: a National Dance Music Award-winning remix produced by Morales, and a Sean Combs production featuring rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard. The latter has been credited with popularizing the R&B;/hip hop collaboration trend that has continued into the 2000s through artists such as Ashanti and Beyoncé. Combs said that Carey "knows the importance of mixes, so you feel like you're with an artist who appreciates your work—an artist who wants to come up with something with you". According to Rolling Stone, "Her mastery of melisma, the fluttering strings of notes that decorate songs like "Vision of Love," inspired the entire American Idol vocal school, for better or worse, and virtually every other female R&B; singer since the Nineties." Beyoncé Knowles credits Carey's singing and her song "Vision of Love," as influencing her to begin practicing vocal "runs" as a child, as well as helping her pursue a career as a musician. Carey is also credited for introducing R&B; and hip-hop into mainstream pop culture, and for popularizing rap as a featuring act through her post-1995 songs. Philip Brasor, editor of "The Japan Times," expressed how Carey's vocal and melismatic style even influenced Asian singers. He wrote regarding Japanese superstar Utada Hikaru, "Utada sang what she heard, from the diaphragm and with her own take on the kind of melisma that became de rigueur in American pop after the ascendance of Mariah Carey."

" video in 1998.]] In a career spanning over 20 years, Carey has sold over 200 million albums, singles, and videos worldwide, making her one of the biggest-selling artists in music history. Carey is ranked as the best-selling female artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era, with over 52 million copies sold. Possessing a five-octave vocal range, Carey was ranked first in MTV and Blender magazine's 2003 countdown of the 22 Greatest Voices in Music, and was placed second in Cove magazine's list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists". Aside from her voice, she has become known for her songwriting. Yahoo Music editor, Jason Ankeny wrote, "She earned frequent comparison to rivals Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, but did them both one better by composing all of her own material." According to Billboard magazine, she was the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States. At the 2000 World Music Awards, Carey was given a Legend Award for being the "best-selling female pop artist of the millennium," as well as the "Best-selling artist of the 90s" in the United States, after releasing a series of albums of multi-platinum status in Asia and Europe, such as Music Box and Number 1's. She is also a recipient of the Chopard Diamond Award in 2003, recognizing sales of over 100 million albums worldwide. In Japan, Carey has the top four highest-selling albums of all time by a non-Asian artist.

Carey has spent a record 79 weeks at the number-one position on Billboard Hot 100, becoming the artist with the most weeks at number-one in U.S. chart history. On that same chart, she has accumulated 18 number-one singles, making her the solo artist with the most number-one singles in the chart's history. It also produced the successful single, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which became the only holiday song and ringtone to reach multi-platinum status in the U.S. In Japan, Number 1's has sold over 3,250,000 copies and is the best-selling album of all time in Japan by a non-Asian artist. Her hit single "One Sweet Day", which featured Boyz II Men, spent sixteen consecutive weeks at the top of Billboards Hot 100 chart in 1996, setting the record for the most weeks atop the Hot 100 chart in history. In 2008, Billboard magazine listed "We Belong Together" ninth on The Billboard: All-Time Hot 100 Top Songs and the most successful song of the first decade of the 21st century. In 2009, Carey's song Obsessed became her 12th Platinum single, the most by any female artist. Also in 2009, Carey's cover of Foreigner's classic, "I Want to Know What Love Is" became the longest-running number-one song in Brazilian singles chart history, spending 27 consecutive weeks at number-one. Additionally, Carey has had three songs debut at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100: "Fantasy", "One Sweet Day" and "Honey", making her the artist with the most number-one debuts in the chart's 52 year history. Also, she is the first female artist to debut at number 1 in the U.S. with "Fantasy". In 2010, Careys 13th and second christmas album,Merry Christmas II You debuted at #1 on the R&B;/Hip-Hop Albums chart, making it only the second Christmas album to top this chart.

Philanthropy and other activities

Carey is a philanthropist who has donated time and money to organizations such as the Fresh Air Fund. She became associated with the Fund in the early 1990s, and is the co-founder of a camp located in Fishkill, New York, that enables inner-city youth to embrace the arts and introduces them to career opportunities. The camp was called Camp Mariah "for her generous support and dedication to Fresh Air children", and she received a Congressional Horizon Award for her youth-related charity work. She is well-known nationally for her work with the Make-a-Wish Foundation in granting the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses, and in November 2006 she was awarded the Foundation's Wish Idol for her "extraordinary generosity and her many wish granting achievements". Carey has volunteered for the New York City Police Athletic League and contributed to the obstetrics department of New York Presbyterian Hospital Cornell Medical Center. A percentage of the sales of MTV Unplugged was donated to various other charities. In 2008, Carey was named Hunger Ambassador of the World Hunger Relief Movement. She is giving a free download of her song, "Love Story", to customers who donate to the organization at participating restaurants. In February 2010, the song, "100%", which was originally written and recorded for the film, , was used as one of the theme songs for the 2010 Winter Olympics, with all money proceeds going to Team USA.

One of Carey's most high-profile benefit concert appearances was on VH1's 1998 Divas Live special, during which she performed alongside other female singers in support of the Save the Music Foundation. The concert was a ratings success, and Carey participated in the Divas 2000 special. In 2007, the Save the Music Foundation honored Carey at their tenth gala event for her support towards the foundation since its inception. She appeared at the nationally televised fundraiser in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and in December 2001, she performed before peacekeeping troops in Kosovo. Carey hosted the CBS television special At Home for the Holidays, which documented real-life stories of adopted children and foster families, and she has worked with the New York City Administration for Children's Services. In 2005, Carey performed for Live 8 in London and at the Hurricane Katrina relief telethon "Shelter from the Storm". In August 2008, Carey and other singers recorded the charity single, "Just Stand Up" produced by Babyface and L. A. Reid, to support "Stand Up to Cancer". On September 5, the singers performed it live on TV.

Declining offers to appear in commercials in the United States during her early career, Carey was not involved in brand marketing initiatives until 2006, when she participated in endorsements for Intel Centrino personal computers and launched a jewelry and accessories line for teenagers, Glamorized, in American Claire's and Icing stores. During this period, as part of a partnership with Pepsi and Motorola, Carey recorded and promoted a series of exclusive ringtones, including "Time of Your Life". She signed a licensing deal with the cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden, and in 2007, she released her own fragrance, "M". According to Forbes, Carey was the sixth richest woman in entertainment , with an estimated net worth of US $225 million. Carey directed or co-directed several of the music videos for her singles during the 1990s. Slant magazine named the video for "The Roof (Back in Time)", which Carey co-directed with Diane Martel, one of the twenty greatest music videos of all time. In 2008, Carey made Time's annual list of 100 most Influential people. In January 2010, Carey announced via Twitter that she is launching a new rosé champagne brand called Angel Champagne.Supporting Actress of the Year at the Capri Hollywood International Film FestivalNominated — Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actress & Best Ensemble. Nominated — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion PictureNominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture. |}

{| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 2002 | Ally McBeal | Candy Cushnip | "" (Season 5, episode 8) |- | 2003 | The Proud Family | Herself | Voice role |}

Discography

1990: Mariah Carey

1991: Emotions

1993: Music Box

1994: Merry Christmas

1995: Daydream

1997: Butterfly

1999: Rainbow

2001: Glitter

2002: Charmbracelet

2005: The Emancipation of Mimi

2008: E=MC²

2009: Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel

2010: Merry Christmas II You

See also

List of best-selling music artists

List of best selling music artists in U.S.

List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. dance chart

List of awards received by Mariah Carey

List of Mariah Carey tours

Notes

References

External links

Official website

[ Mariah Carey] at Allmusic

Mariah Carey at Billboard.com

Mariah Carey at LAUNCHcast

}}

Category:1970 births Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:Actors from New York Category:African American actors Category:African American female singers Category:African American female singer-songwriters Category:African American musicians Category:African American songwriters Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters Category:American film actors Category:American female singers Category:American music video directors Category:American pop singers Category:American record producers Category:Hip hop singers Category:American dance musicians Category:American sopranos Category:English-language singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:Island Records artists Category:Musicians from New York Category:People from Long Island Category:Spanish-language singers Category:American people of Venezuelan descent Category:World Music Awards winners Category:American philanthropists

Birth name	Gabrielle Monique Union
Birth date	October 29, 1972
Caption	Union in February 2009
Birth place	Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1993–present

Gabrielle Monique Union (born October 29, 1972) is an American actress and former model. Among her notable roles is as the cheerleader opposite Kirsten Dunst in the film Bring it On. Union starred opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the blockbuster film Bad Boys II and played a medical doctor in the CBS drama series City of Angels. She starred with LL Cool J and Meagan Good in Deliver Us from Eva in 2003.

Early life

Union was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Theresa and Sylvester Union. She was raised Catholic. At the age of eight, her family moved to Pleasanton, California, where she grew up and attended Foothill High School. In high school, Union was an all-star point guard in basketball and a year-round athlete, also playing in soccer and running track.

Career

Union attended the University of Nebraska before moving on to Cuesta College. She eventually transferred to UCLA and earned a degree in sociology. While studying there, she interned at the Judith Fontaine Modeling & Talent Agency to earn extra academic credits. Invited by the agency's owner, Judith Fontaine, Union started working as a model to pay off college loans.

Union started her acting career in minor roles. Most were in teen movies such as 10 Things I Hate About You and Love and Basketball. In 1997, Union appeared in a sixth-season episode of as the Klingon N'Garen. She also appeared in Sister, Sister as Vanessa, in Smart Guy as Denise, and in five episodes of 7th Heaven as Keesha Hamilton.

In 2000, Union landed the role of Isis in the cheerleading movie Bring it On opposite Kirsten Dunst. Bring It On helped push Union into the mainstream and she began gaining more exposure. This led to Union being cast in the CBS television drama City of Angels as Dr. Courtney Ellis.

Union was cast in her first leading role in the 2003 film Deliver Us from Eva with rapper L.L. Cool J. This was her second time working with the rapper since making a cameo in his video "Paradise" in 2002. The film received fair reviews from critics and it showed that Union was a leading lady. Union landed the role of Will Smith's girlfriend Syd in the film Bad Boys II, a box office success grossing over $273 million worldwide. Union starred with Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx in the film Breakin' All the Rules in 2004.

Union starred in the short-lived 2005 ABC series Night Stalker. She has also starred in the independent drama films Neo Ned and Constellation, the latter of which was released to theaters. She won an award for Best Actress in Neo Ned at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, and the film received awards at several festivals.

She starred in the 2005 remake of The Honeymooners with comedian Cedric The Entertainer. In 2006, she starred as Busta Rhymes' love interest in the music video for Rhymes' "I Love My Chick". Union starred in the 2007 films Daddy's Little Girls by Tyler Perry (released on Valentine's Day) and the Christmas film The Perfect Holiday which opened on December 12.

In an interview with Art Nouveau Magazine, Union complained about the lack of roles for black actresses and actors in Hollywood: "There used to be [roles] specifically written black, if you knew Denzel was doing a movie you knew his wife, girl or love interest was going to be black [but] that’s not necessarily the case anymore. You’re in that room with every amazingly talented actress of every hue, and it’s a dogfight, it’s hard".

In 2008, Union appeared on Ugly Betty for 3 episodes (36-38) as Renee, Wilhelmina Slater's (Vanessa L. Williams) sister and Daniel Meade's (Eric Mabius) love interest. She also made a cameo appearance in the music video for Ne-Yo's "Miss Independent".

She joined the cast of the U.S. television series Life on NBC and appeared in four episodes prior to the cancellation of series in May 2009. She appears in the ABC series FlashForward alongside John Cho and Joseph Fiennes which premiered on September 24, 2009.

Personal life

In 1992, at age 19, Union was attacked, beaten and raped at her part-time job in a shoe store. Her attacker later turned himself in and was sentenced to 33 years in prison. She has since become an advocate for victims of sexual assault.

While being interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel, she said she dated Jason Kidd in high school. She was once married to Chris Howard. The couple married on May 1, 2001. They became legally separated and the divorce was final in April 2006. Through mid 2009 into 2010, Union is now currently dating Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade.

Awards and nominations

BET Awards

*2005, Best Actress (nominated)

*2004, Best Actress (nominated)

*2003, Best Actress (nominated)

Black Reel Awards

*2008, Best Ensemble: Cadillac Records (winner)

*2005, Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy: Breakin' All the Rules (nominated)

*2005, Best Supporting Actress in a TV Movie/Mini-Series: Something the Lord Made (nominated)

*2004, Best Actress: Deliver Us From Eva (nominated)

*2002, Best Supporting Actress: The Brothers (nominated)

*2001, Best Supporting Actress: Bring It On (winner)

*2005, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Breakin' All the Rules (nominated)

*2005, Outstanding Actress in a TV Movie/Mini-Series: Something the Lord Made (nominated)

*2004, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Deliver Us From Eva (nominated)

*2004, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Bad Boys II (nominated)

Palm Beach International Film Festival

* 2006, Best Actress Neo Ned (winner)

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 |- | rowspan=3 | 1999 | She's All That | Katie |- | 10 Things I Hate About You | Chastity |- | H-E Double Hockey Sticks | Gabrielle |- | rowspan=2 | 2000 | Love & Basketball | Shawnee |- | Bring It On | Isis |- | rowspan=2 | 2001 | The Brothers | Denise Johnson |- | Two Can Play That Game | Conny Spalding |- | rowspan=2 | 2002 | Welcome to Collinwood | Michelle |- | Abandon | Amanda Luttrell |- | rowspan=3 | 2003 | Deliver Us from Eva | Evangeline 'Eva' Dandrige |- | Cradle 2 the Grave | Daria |- | Bad Boys II | Syd |- | 2004 | Breakin' All the Rules | Nicky Callas |- | rowspan=3 | 2005 | Neo Ned | Rachael |- | The Honeymooners | Alice Kramden |- | Say Uncle | Elise Carter |- | 2006 | Running with Scissors | Dorothy |- | rowspan=4 | 2007 | Constellation | Carmel Boxer |- | Daddy's Little Girls | Julia |- | The Box | Det. Cris Romano |- | The Perfect Holiday | Nancy |- | rowspan=2 | 2008 | Meet Dave | Number 3 - Cultural Officer |- | Cadillac Records | Geneva Wade |- | 2010 | The Van Zandt Shakedown | TBA |}

Television

Family Matters - TV series (1993)

- TV series (1995–1996)

Moesha - TV series (1996)

Malibu Shores - TV series (1996)

Goode Behavior - TV series (1996)

7th Heaven - TV series (1996–1999)

Smart Guy - TV series (1997)

Dave's World - TV series (1997)

Hitz - TV series (1997)

Sister, Sister - TV series (1997)

City Guys - TV series (1997)

- TV series (1997)

The Steve Harvey Show - TV series (1998)

Clueless - TV series (1999)

Grown Ups - TV series (1999)

H-E Double Hockey Sticks - TV film (1999)

ER - TV series (2000)

The Others - TV series (2000)

Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane - TV series (2000)

City of Angels - TV series (2000)

Close to Home - TV film (2001)

Friends - TV series (2001)

The Proud Family - TV series (2003)

The West Wing - TV series (2004)

Something the Lord Made - TV film (2004)

Family Guy - TV series (2005)

Night Stalker - TV series (2005–2006)

Football Wives - TV film (2007)

Ugly Betty - TV series (2008)

The BET Honors - TV film (2010)

Life - TV series (2009)

FlashForward - TV series (2009–2010)

Army Wives - TV series (2010)

References

External links

Category:1972 births Category:African American actors Category:American film actors Category:American female models Category:American television actors Category:Living people Category:Actors from Omaha, Nebraska Category:People from Pasadena, California Category:Rape victim advocates Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:African American models

Name	Mike Burkett
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Michael John Burkett
Alias	Fat Mike
Born	January 31, 1967
Origin	Los Angeles, California
Instrument	Bass, vocals, keyboards, guitar
Genre	Punk rock
Years active	1983–present
Label	EpitaphFat Wreck Chords
Associated acts	NOFXMe First and the Gimme GimmesFalse Alarm Cokie The Clown
Url	www.nofxofficialwebsite.com
Notable instruments	Danelectro}}

Michael John Burkett (born January 31, 1967 in Boston, Massachusetts), better known as Fat Mike is an American musician, producer, lead vocalist, and bassist for the punk rock band NOFX, as well as bassist for the punk rock supergroup cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

Musical career

The moniker "Fat Mike" was given to Mike by friends after he returned from college and it was evident that he had gained a little weight. While attending Beverly Hills High School, Mike began his musical career with the band False Alarm. After the band split up in 1983, he met Eric Melvin and Erik Sandin and formed the original line-up of NOFX.

Mike is the owner and founder of Fat Wreck Chords, one of the biggest independent labels in North America. He was also the founder of the Rock Against Bush tour. The purpose was to encourage young Americans to vote George W. Bush out of office in 2004.

Mike recently recorded the Cokie the Clown EP with NOFX, playing as Cokie on both the cover of the EP and the music video for the title-track, "Cokie the Clown". In the video, Mike dresses as Cokie and puts white powder into his squirting flower, representing cocaine. Cokie then walks around the city, squirting powder in pedestrians' faces, as chronicled in the song itself.

Mike appeared in the 2010 music documentary Sounds Like A Revolution, a survey of new protest music in North America.

Personal life

Burkett lives in San Francisco, California. He and his wife Erin divorced in 2010 after 17 years of marriage. They have a daughter named Darla.

He is of Jewish heritage, but does not practice Judaism.

At Emo's, a popular nightclub in Austin during the 2010 South by Southwest festival, Fat Mike made a one time only appearance as Cokie the Clown. He recounted several graphic and disturbing stories about his life, and played several songs both previously released and unreleased. He also tricked several members of the audience into drinking tequila, before showing them a video of himself filling a partially full bottle of tequila to the top with urine to shocked reactions. The stunt was later revealed as a joke on NOFX's website, which showed Fat Mike switching out the urine bottle for an untainted one before making audience members drink it. Mike has since been banned from Emo's.

Discography

References

Category:NOFX members Category:American activists Category:American male singers Category:American rock bass guitarists Category:American punk rock singers Category:Fat Wreck Chords Category:Living people Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Musicians from Massachusetts Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:San Francisco State University alumni Category:1967 births

Name	Christian Kane
Caption	Kane in Las Vegas, April 27, 2006
Birth date	June 27, 1974
Birth place	Dallas, Texas
Website	http://www.christiankane.com/

Christian Kane (born June 27, 1974) is an American actor and singer/songwriter of Native American descent. He currently stars as Eliot Spencer on the TNT series Leverage. He is best known for his roles in the television shows Angel and Into the West, and the movies Just Married and Secondhand Lions.

He is the lead singer of the country-southern rock band Kane; their album, The House Rules, was released on December 7, 2010. The first single from the album, also titled "The House Rules", debuted at number 54 on the Billboard Country Songs chart.

Early life

Kane was born in Dallas, Texas. He is of Native American descent and is a cousin of country singer Branden Hart. His parents participated in, and met at, the rodeo. The family moved around the South and Midwest, because his father was in the oil business, and finally settled in Norman, Oklahoma when Kane was in 8th grade. While growing up in Texas and Oklahoma Kane was a wrestler and played American Football (as a strong safety) . He studied Art History at the University of Oklahoma, but decided he wanted to be an actor and headed to Los Angeles before finishing the degree. In LA he worked at a talent management company where he delivered scripts in exchange for which they sent him on auditions.

Career

Acting

Kane landed his first acting role in 1997, as one of the leads in MGM's television series Fame L.A., in the series he played a country singer who moved to Los Angeles from Kansas. His television roles have included a recurring role in Joss Whedon’s Angel as the lawyer Lindsey MacDonald, the Jerry Bruckheimer produced series Close to Home on CBS, the TNT television film Crossfire Trail in which he appeared alongside Tom Selleck, and he played the role of Abe Wheeler in the Stephen Spielberg produced miniseries Into the West.

Kane’s appearances on the big screen include the 20th Century Fox film Just Married and New Line Cinema's Secondhand Lions, as the younger version of Robert Duvall's Hub McCann, he has a scar on his upper lip from an injury he received while filming the movie. He also appeared in Taxi, Life or Something Like It, the Peter Berg directed Friday Night Lights, and the Warner Bros. baseball film Summer Catch. In 2007 Kane was featured in the Carrie Underwood music video "So Small", playing the role of one of the three converging stories. In 2009 he appeared in the psychological thriller Hide, in which he played the lead role of Billy, and The Donner Party which is based on the true story of the Donner Party. In 2010 he starred in the romantic drama Not Since You.

Since late 2008 he appears on the TNT television series Leverage, which is now in its third season and has been renewed for a fourth. Kane does his own stunts and fights as Eliot Spencer, a retrieval specialist who teams up with four other specialists to undo the injustices perpetrated upon the helpless.

Music

In 1997 Christian Kane met Steve Carlson, who had taken over his old job. They started writing songs together and in 1998 they formed the Southern rock band Kane. They have toured the U.S. as well as England and Germany. The band has self-released two albums. Their debut, the self-titled Kane, in 2000 and in 2004 they released a recording of a live acoustic set called Live in London.

The band consists of Christian Kane (lead vocals, guitar), Steve Carlson (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Jason Southard (lead guitar), Will Amend (bass guitar), and Ryan Baker (drums) and is signed to independent record label Bigger Picture Group (Zac Brown Band, Big Kenny, The Harters). Their label debut is called The House Rules and was released on December 7, 2010. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Heatseekers album chart and number 25 on the Country Albums chart. The album was produced by Bob Ezrin and Jimmie Lee Sloas.

The first single from the album, also titled "The House Rules" debuted at number 54 on the Billboard Country Songs chart and was the 7th most added song on Mediabase Country stations on its official impact date. The video for the single was directed by Timothy Hutton and premiered on CMT's Big New Music Weekend on October 1, 2010.

Christian Kane is also signed to a songwriting deal with EMI Music Publishing, and writes much of his own material. Trace Adkins released a song written by Kane called "Happy Man" on his 2010 album Cowboy's Back in Town. Kane's co-writing efforts include songs written with Blair Daly, Brett James, David Lee Murphy, Casey Beathard, and Jerrod Niemann. "Thinking of You", a song he co-wrote with Blair Daly, featured in episode 306, "The Studio Job", of Leverage.

Filmography

Actor

Soundtrack

Discography

EPs

Albums

Self released

Singles

^ACurrent single.

Music videos

References

External links

Category:1974 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from Texas Category:American country singers Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Columbia Records artists Category:People from Dallas, Texas Category:People from Norman, Oklahoma Category:American people of Cherokee descent

Name	Beyoncé Knowles
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Beyoncé Giselle Knowles
Born	September 04, 1981
Origin	Houston, Texas, United States
Instrument	Vocals, piano
Genre	R&B;, soul, pop
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, dancer, entertainer, choreographer, model, video director
Associated acts	Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Solange Knowles, Suga Mama, Lady Gaga
Years active	1997–present
Spouse	Jay-Z (2008-present)
Label	Columbia
Url

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles (born September 4, 1981), commonly known simply by the mononym Beyoncé ( ), is an American Pop/R&B; singer, songwriter, actress and fashion designer. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child. Knowles rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the R&B; girl group Destiny's Child, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time.

During the hiatus of Destiny's Child, Knowles released her debut solo album Dangerously in Love (2003), which spawned the number one hits "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy" and became one of the most successful albums of that year, earning her a then record-tying five Grammy Awards. Knowles is one of the most honored artists by the Grammys, and third among female artists, with 16 awards—13 as a solo artist and three as a member of Destiny's Child.

Knowles began her acting career in 2001, appearing in the musical film . In 2006, she starred in the lead role in the film adaptation of the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls, for which she earned two Golden Globe nominations. Knowles launched her family's fashion line, House of Deréon, in 2004, and has endorsed such brands as Pepsi, Tommy Hilfiger, Armani and L'Oréal. In 2010, Forbes ranked Knowles at number two on its list of the 100 Most Powerful and Influential Celebrities in the world; she was also listed as the most powerful and influential musician in the world. Time also included Knowles on its list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World". She is listed at number 52 on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and is named the second most influential artist of the 2000s decade by BET.

Knowles is currently the only artist in history to have all her studio albums win the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B; Album. She has attained five Billboard Hot 100 number one singles as a solo performer and four with Destiny's Child. In the United States, Knowles' has sold over 11.2 million albums and nearly twenty-five million singles. According to Columbia Records her record sales, when combined with Destiny's Child, have surpassed 130 million. On December 11, 2009, Billboard listed Knowles as the most successful female artist of the 2000s decade and also the top Radio Artist of the decade. In February 2010, the RIAA listed her as the top certified artist of the decade.

Early life and career beginnings

Knowles was born in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Mathew Knowles, a professional record manager, and Tina Knowles, a costume designer and hair stylist. Knowles' father is African American and her mother is of Creole (African, Native American, and French) descent. Knowles was baptized after her mother's maiden name, as a tribute to her mother. Knowles' interest in music and performing began after participating in a school talent show. She sang John Lennon's Imagine and won the competition. At age seven, Knowles started gaining attention from the press, having been mentioned in the Houston Chronicle as a nominee for the local performing arts award The Sammy. In the fall of 1990, Knowles enrolled in Parker Elementary School, a music magnet school in Houston, where she would perform on-stage with the school's choir. and later went to Alief Elsik High School, located in the Houston suburban munincipality, Alief. Knowles was a soloist in the choir of her church, in St. John's United Methodist Church.

At the age of eight, Knowles met LaTavia Roberson while in an audition for an all-girl entertainment group. They, along with Knowles' friend Kelly Rowland, were placed into a group that performed rapping and dancing. Originally named Girl's Tyme, they were eventually cut down to six members. Knowles had her first "professional setback" after that defeat but regained confidence after learning that pop stars Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake had also the same experience. He dedicated his time and established a "boot camp" for their training. The move reduced Knowles' family's income by half and her parents were forced to move into separated apartments.

Music and film career

1997–2001: Destiny's Child era

.]] The group changed its name to Destiny's Child in 1993, based on a passage in the Book of Isaiah. To date, Survivor has sold over ten million copies worldwide, over forty percent of which were sold in the U.S. alone. The album spawned other number-one hits—"Bootylicious" and the title track, "Survivor", the latter of which earned the group a Grammy Award for Best R&B; Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. After releasing their holiday album, 8 Days of Christmas, the group announced a hiatus to pursue solo projects. In 2002, Knowles co-starred in the comedy film Austin Powers in Goldmember, playing Foxxy Cleopatra, opposite of Mike Myers. Knowles recorded her first solo single, "Work It Out", for the film's soundtrack. The following year, Knowles starred opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the romantic comedy film, The Fighting Temptations, and recorded numerous songs for the film's soundtrack, including "Fighting Temptation" and a cover version of "Fever". During this time, Knowles was featured on her then-boyfriend Jay-Z's hit single, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde". She also recorded a version of 50 Cent's "In Da Club" and released it in March 2003. Luther Vandross and Knowles remade the duet "The Closer I Get to You", which was originally recorded by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway in 1977. Their version won a Grammy Award for Best R&B; Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals the following year, and Vandross' "Dance with My Father", which also featured Knowles, won the Grammy for Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance.

After Williams and Rowland released their solo efforts, Knowles released her début solo album, Dangerously in Love, in June 2003. The album also topped seven charts worldwide, while it reached number two in Australia. It remains as Knowles' best-selling album to date, with sales of 4.7 million copies in the United States, as of July 2009. Worldwide, the album has sold more than eleven million copies.

The album yielded two number one singles. "Crazy in Love", featuring Jay-Z, was released as the album's lead single, which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight consecutive weeks, as well as topping many charts worldwide. The song's music video won three awards at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards in the categories of Best Female Video, Best R&B; Video, and Best Choreography. The second single, "Baby Boy" with dancehall singer Sean Paul, spent nine weeks at number one on the 'Hot 100, one week longer than "Crazy in Love". In support of the album, Knowles embarked on her first solo concert tour, the Dangerously in Love Tour, in November 2003. The tour only reached Europe, before Knowles joined Alicia Keys, Missy Elliott, and Tamia for the Verizon Ladies First Tour in March 2004. At the 46th Grammy Awards, Knowles received a then record-tying five Grammy Awards, which included the Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B; Album, Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance for "Dangerously in Love 2", Best R&B; Song for "Crazy in Love", and an additional two awards with Luther Vandross. Knowles shared this distinction with four other female artists: Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse, up until 2010, when she won six Grammy Awards in one night.

2004–2007: Destiny's Child reunion and B'Day

In 2004, Knowles planned to release a follow-up to Dangerously in Love, which would feature some of the left-over recordings. However, her musical aspirations were put on hiatus due to conflicting schedules, including her recording with Destiny's Child for what would be their final album. After a three-year journey that involved concentration on individual solo projects, Knowles rejoined Rowland and Williams for their final album, Destiny Fulfilled in November 2004. The album spawned three hit singles, "Lose My Breath", "Soldier" and "Cater 2 U". In support of the album, Destiny's Child embarked on the 2005 Destiny Fulfilled ... And Lovin' It world tour, which began in April 2005; culminating in September of that year. During the Barcelona, Spain stop of their tour, Rowland announced they would disband after the end of their final North American leg in September 2005. In October 2005, Destiny's Child released a compilation album, #1's, which included all of their number-one hits and most of their well-known songs. It also included three new tracks, including the song "Stand Up for Love", released from the album. #1's debuted at number one on Billboard 200 and certified platinum by the RIAA. In March 2006, Destiny's Child reunited to accept a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In late 2005, Knowles once again put her second album on hold, after landing a role in Dreamgirls, the film adaptation of the 1981 hit Broadway musical about a 1960s singing group, loosely based on Motown all-female group, The Supremes. Released in December 2006, Dreamgirls starred Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, and Jennifer Hudson. Knowles recorded several songs for the film's soundtrack, including the original song, "Listen". In the film, she portrays the Diana Ross-based character, Deena Jones. In 2007, Knowles received two Golden Globe Award nominations for the film; Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and Best Original Song for "Listen". Continuing her film career, Knowles co-starred in the film, The Pink Panther, playing the role of Xania, an international pop star, opposite Steve Martin, who plays Inspector Clouseau. Released on February 10, 2006, the film débuted at number one at the box office, doing $21.7 million in ticket sales in its first week of release. She worked on the album with previous musical collaborators, Rich Harrison, Rodney Jerkins and Sean Garrett, at the Sony Music Studios in New York City. She co-wrote and co-produced nearly all songs included on the album, which was completed in three weeks. The album titled, B'Day was released in the United States on September 5, 2006, to coincide with the celebration of her twenty-fifth birthday. It débuted at number one on the Billboard 200, giving Knowles her second consecutive number one album in the US. It also peaked in the top-ten in eighteen charts worldwide. To date, the album has sold more than six million copies worldwide. It earned Knowles the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B; Album at the 49th Grammy Awards.

Its lead single, "Déjà Vu" featuring Jay-Z, topped the Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Dance Club Songs charts in the United States. and became Knowles' second UK solo number-one single. The album's second international single, "Irreplaceable", topped the charts in five countries, while reaching the top-five in the UK, Canada and Netherlands. The song received a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year at the 50th Grammy Awards. On April 3, 2007, Knowles re-released B'Day, as a deluxe edition, featuring five new tracks and Spanish-language versions of "Irreplaceable", and "Listen". Her following single, "Beautiful Liar" with Colombian singer Shakira, was the first single released from the deluxe edition. The song became another number one hit for Knowles, topping eleven charts worldwide. It won the award for Most Earthshattering Collaboration at the 2007 MTV Video Music Award. In support of the album, Knowles embarked on her lengthy The Beyoncé Experience concert tour, visiting over ninety venues worldwide, which was made into the concert DVD The Beyoncé Experience Live!. Knowles made history at the 35th Annual American Music Awards for being the first woman to win an International Artist Award. Upon its release, it received generally mixed to positive reviews from most music critics; according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, the album received an average score of 62/100. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, giving Knowles her third consecutive number one album in the US. Eventually, she became the third female artist of the 2000s decade to have her first three albums debut at the top spot of the US Billboard 200 albums chart. To date, I Am... Sasha Fierce has sold over six million copies worldwide.

The album was proceeded with the release of its two lead singles, "If I Were a Boy" and "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". The first single, "If I Were a Boy" topped eight charts worldwide, including the United Kingdom and reached the top-ten in many other charts. "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Knowles' fifth number-one single and was also successful in other international markets, peaking in top-ten positions around the world. The song's music video has achieved fame for its intricate choreography, which has been credited as having started the "first major dance craze of both the new millennium and the Internet". This prompted a legion of imitations and parodies from men and women all around the world, including celebrities such as pop singers Justin Timberlake, Joe Jonas, US President Barack Obama and actor Tom Hanks. It received nine nominations at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and ultimately won the award for Video of the Year, and an additional two awards, though its loss in the Best Female Video category to Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me" led to controversy during the ceremony.

On January 18, 2009, Knowles performed at the Lincoln Memorial in honor of the inauguration of Barack Obama. Knowles also sang her cover of the R&B; classic most famously sang by Etta James, "At Last", as President Obama and his wife Michelle had their first dance as President and First lady of America, on January 20, 2009, at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball. During this time, Knowles released the fourth single off I Am... Sasha Fierce, "Halo". The song peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Knowles' twelfth top-ten single on the Hot 100 as a solo artist. With this feat, Knowles achieved the most top tens on the Hot 100 among any other female artists in the 2000s. In support of the album, Knowles headlined her second worldwide concert tour, the I Am... Tour, which began in March 2009; culminating in February 2010. In April 2009, Knowles starred opposite Ali Larter and Idris Elba in a thriller film called, Obsessed. The film proved to be a commercial success, and grossed $11.1 million on its first day of release, and ended its opening weekend at number one, with a total of $28.5 million. "Video Phone", was released as the eighth single from I Am... Sasha Fierce in November 2009 and featured pop singer Lady Gaga. The song's music video received two nominations at the 2010 BET Awards for "Video of the Year" and "Best Collaboration", winning the former category on April 27, 2010. It also received five nominations at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, in the categories of Best Choreography, Best Collaboration, Best Pop Video, Best Female Video and Best Art Direction.

Knowles led the 52nd Grammy Awards, receiving ten nominations, including Album of the Year for I Am… Sasha Fierce, Record of the Year for "Halo", and Song of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". She also received two other nominations for, Best Traditional R&B; Vocal Performance for "At Last" and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for "Once in a Lifetime" from the soundtrack, . This tied her with Lauryn Hill for most Grammy nominations in a single year by a female artist. Knowles ultimately set the record for the most Grammy awards won on a single night by a female artist, when she won six awards from her ten nominations; Song of the Year, Best R&B; Song, and Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Halo", Best Contemporary R&B; Album and Best Traditional R&B; Vocal Performance for "At Last". In February 2010, Knowles featured on Lady Gaga's song, "Telephone". The song reached number one on the US Pop Songs chart, thus becoming the sixth number-one on the chart for both Knowles and Gaga. With this, they both tied with Mariah Carey for most number-ones since the Nielsen BDS-based Top 40 airplay chart launched in 1992. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 53rd Grammy Awards.

2010-present: Untitled fourth studio album

During the final UK stop of her I Am... Tour at the Trent FM Arena in Nottingham, England in 2009, Knowles announced plans to release a new album in 2010. She said, "This is my last show for this tour in the UK, so hopefully, I'll see you all in a year with a new album." Producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins also confirmed the news on twitter, posting he is working on some tracks for the album. In an interview with MTV News, Jonsin noted that while he wants to go even more '80s than their collaboration on "Sweet Dreams", he's also looking to try out other genres with Knowles, saying "Even some sexy mid-tempos, see if she likes that and I'll try that too."

In July 2010, it was revealed that Knowles had expressed interest in recording a song for the album that was written by Irish band, The Script. She heard a song the band recorded for their second album, when it was passed around their record company, Sony Music. In August 2010, singer-songwriter Ne-Yo tweeted that he was excited to work with Knowles immediately following his session with Mary J. Blige. In an interview with Access Atlanta, Ne-Yo spoke of the album saying, "It’s coming along nicely. I can’t speak too much on it, but it’s another direction for her, and she’s carving out her own niche. In a minute nobody will be in Beyonce’s lane. They really can’t get in her lane now, but they really can’t get in her lane after this album." He also had the following to say about working with Knowles in an interview with MTV News:

"The thing about working with Beyoncé is that she definitely has her own agenda ... she's an artist that knows exactly what she wants to do. ... She's going to give you directions [like] 'Here's where I'm going, so here's where I need you to be' ... and, you know, I'm a person that follows direction well. [And she'll be like], 'So this is the sound, this is the vibe; make it happen.' And I write and she likes it or she doesn't. And in this case she did, and there you have it."

On September 17, 2010, producer Sean Garrett told Popeater.com that the album "[is] going to be her biggest album ever", and said "We're going to take it to a whole other level." In an interview with Entertainment Weekly at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, Garrett stated "I think we are doing a lot of up-tempo records for this one. She’s in such a good place right now in life that she is interested in making party music, definitely." During this time, producer Los Da Mystro tweeted that he heard a new track from Knowles that was written by The Dream, who worked with Tricky Stewart on "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". When asked to clarify what she meant by creating her own genre, in an interview with MTV during the New York screening of her I Am... World Tour DVD release, Knowles replied "Well, I wouldn't say I'm inventing a new genre ... I'm mixing every type of genre that I love and I'm inspired by every type of genre. ... It's not R&B;. It's not typically pop. It's not rock. It's just everything I love all mixed together in my own little gumbo of music." She also revealed that Fela Kuti, The Stylistics, Lauryn Hill, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson's Off the Wall have inspired the album. Rap-Up has confirmed the album will be released in 2011.

Musical style and performance

Music and voice

Knowles' music is generally contemporary R&B;, but she also incorporates pop, funk, hip hop, and soul genres into her work. While she almost exclusively releases English songs, Knowles did record several Spanish records for the re-release of B'Day. Destiny's Child had already recorded a Spanish song and received favorable responses from their Latin fans. Knowles took Spanish in school when she was young, but can now only speak a few words of the language. Prior to recording the Spanish titles on the re-released version of B'Day, she was coached phonetically by American record producer Rudy Perez.

Since Destiny's Child, Knowles is artistically involved in her career. Some of her songs are autobiographical, which she has admitted are taken from personal experiences, as well as her friends'. Knowles has also received co-producing credits for most of the records in which she has been involved, especially during her solo efforts. However, she does not formulate beats herself, but typically comes up with melodies and ideas during production, sharing them with producers. Knowles was recognized as a songwriter during the run of Destiny's Child in the 1990s and early to mid-2000s. She won the Pop Songwriter of the Year award at the 2001 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Pop Music Awards, becoming the first African-American female and second female songwriter of all time to accomplish the feat.

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Knowles possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range that spans more than three octaves. She has often been identified as the centerpiece of Destiny's Child. Jon Pareles of The New York Times commented that she has the voice that defines the group, writing that her voice is "velvety yet tart, with an insistent flutter and reserves of soul belting". Other critics praise her range and power. In reviewing her second album B'Day, Jody Rosen of Entertainment Weekly writes "Beyoncé Knowles is a storm system disguised as a singer. On her second solo album, B'Day, the songs arrive in huge gusts of rhythm and emotion, with Beyoncé's voice rippling over clattery beats; you'd have to search far and wide—perhaps in the halls of the Metropolitan Opera — to find a vocalist who sings with more sheer force...No one—not R. Kelly, not Usher, to say nothing of her rival pop divas—can match Beyoncé's genius for dragging her vocal lines against a hip-hop beat." Chris Richards of the The Washington Post writes, "Even when she's coasting, she soars above her imitators. It's all in her voice—a superhuman instrument capable of punctuating any beat with goose-bump-inducing whispers or full-bore diva-roars. Smitten, scorned, amorous, antagonistic—Beyoncé sings from all of these vantage points with undeniable virtuosity." Cove magazine ranked Knowles seventh on their list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists", giving her 48 out of 50 points based on several criteria ranging from her vocal ability to range to harmony.

Knowles has often been criticized for oversinging. A prominent employer of melisma, she earns frequent comparison to such artists as Mariah Carey, whose vocal embellishments have been known to detract from the melody of their songs. Eye Weekly writes, "There’s no question that Beyoncé is one of the best singers in pop, maybe one of the best alive...[However] as judicious as her singing can be, the effect in sum is still like being hit in the head with a fist in a velvet glove."

Stage and alter ego

In 2006, Knowles introduced her all-female tour band Suga Mama, which includes bassists, drummers, guitarists, horn players, keyboardists and percussionists. They débuted at the 2006 BET Awards and re-appeared in the music videos for "Irreplaceable" and "Green Light". Babara Ellen of The Guardian writes, "whether charismatic and soulful, or teasing and flirty, Beyoncé is, above all, in charge. Probably the most "in charge" of any female artist I've seen onstage". In reviewing her I Am... Tour, Alice Jones of The Independent writes, "Watching Beyoncé sing and strut her stuff can feel at best overawing, at worst, alienating. She takes her role as entertainer so seriously she's almost too good." The New York Times writes, "there is a breathtaking elegance in her acute desire to entertain". The Daily Mail writes, "many industry experts have been tipping Beyoncé as the next Michael Jackson. While it’s far too early for such comparisons, she certainly proved that she is one of the most exciting and talented performers around and may well go down in history as such".

Althought Knowles has been criticized for lip-synching in some of her performances, reviewers have praised her live vocal performances. In reviewing one of her performances, Jim Farber of The Daily News writes "Beyoncé showed off pipes of steely power. As the song's signature horn riff pumped away, she soared over the melody with athletic ease. The way Beyoncé used her body intensified the sense of triumph. With her hair teased into Medusa-like tresses, a pelvis in perpetual churn and legs long enough to make Tina Turner proud, Beyoncé's presence punctuated her singing like an exclamation point." Stephanie Classen of the Star Phoenix declares "Beyoncé is no ordinary performer... from note one, the 27-year-old powerhouse rose above all the gimmicks, mastering the show like a sexy alien overlord princess. Nothing but extraterrestrial origins could explain that voice....[Beyoncé] could perform circles around any other pop star today." Newsday writes, "she proves that hot choreography and strong vocals don't have to be mutually exclusive... No worries of lip-synching here."

Known for being sexy, seductive and provocative when performing on stage, Knowles has stated that's her alter ego, Sasha Fierce.

Public image

" during her I Am... Tour]] Knowles has stated, "I like to dress sexy and I carry myself like a lady," but she has said that the way she dresses on stage is "absolutely for the stage". As someone who is fond of fashion, Knowles combines its artistic elements with her music videos and performances. According to Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, she uses different styles and tries to harmonize it with the music while performing. The B'Day Anthology Video Album showed many instances of fashion-oriented footage, depicting classic to contemporary wardrobe styles. People magazine recognized Knowles as the best-dressed celebrity in 2007. Knowles' mother wrote a 2002-published book, titled Destiny's Style: Bootylicious Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle Secrets From Destiny's Child, an account of how fashion had an impact on Destiny's Child's success.

As one of the most media-exposed black celebrities in the United States, Knowles has often received criticism that some believe is due to racism and sexism. Toure of Rolling Stone stated that since the release of Dangerously in Love, "[Beyoncé] has become a crossover sex symbol a la Halle Berry ..." In 2007, Knowles was featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, the first non-model and non-athlete woman to pose on the issue and the second African American model after Tyra Banks. In the same year, Knowles appeared on billboards and newspapers across the United States showing her holding an antiquated cigarette holder. Taken from the back cover of B'Day, the image provoked response from an anti-smoking group, stating that she did not need to add the cigarette holder "to make herself appear more sophisticated". During the release of pop singer Rihanna's second album, A Girl Like Me, many critics felt that her image was too heavily similar to Knowles'. Amina Taylor of The Guardian, noted Rihanna as the "Bajan Beyoncé". In March 2009, comparisons were made between the fashions of Knowles and R&B; singer Ciara, when the latter released the music video of her single, "Love Sex Magic". In the video, Ciara is seen wearing a black leotard and metallic glasses, similar to those worn by Knowles in both her "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and "Diva" videos. However, Ciara stated that her outfits were "inspired by the Vegas shows" she attended.

On April 24, 2009, Knowles appeared on Larry King Live, where she gave herself a more political image and talked about everything from singing at President Barack Obama's inauguration, to racism that she has faced being an African-American. In September 2010, Knowles made her runway modelling debut at Tom Ford’s Spring/Summer 2011 fashion show, walking down the catwalk in a sequined dress with va va voom hair.

Influences and legacy

Knowles has cited various artists who have influenced her musical style. She grew up listening to songs of Anita Baker and Luther Vandross, the latter of whom she eventually collaborated with, but often credits her pop music hero, Michael Jackson, as the reason why she does music. Knowles credits Mariah Carey's singing and her song "Vision of Love" as influencing her to begin practicing vocal "runs" as a child, as well as helping her pursue a career as a musician. She was also exposed to the jazz music of Rachelle Ferrell, after singing Ferrell's songs during her voice lessons and cites her as a musical influence. Knowles also cites influences from American artists such as Tina Turner, Prince, Aaliyah, Diana Ross, and Janet Jackson.

Aside from her musicial influences, Knowles has also influenced various contemporary artists, including pop singer Rihanna, who stated Knowles is "one of the artists that I admire a lot." With the release of Rihanna's sophomore album, critics noted that it was too similar to Knowles'. The media even made negative reviews comparing her music, music videos and performances to Knowles'. Knowles is also cited as a musical influence to X Factor UK winners, Alexandra Burke. and Leona Lewis, who stated Knowles' "definitely inspiring for females." Actress and comedian Mo'Nique who was inspired by Knowles, hosted the BET Awards in 2004 and opened the ceremony performing Knowles' song, "Crazy in Love". She also hosted in 2007 and performed, "Déjà Vu". Actress Gwyneth Paltrow made her live television singing debut at the 2010 Country Music Awards and told Access Hollywood that she got her inspiration from Knowles', stating "I studied Beyoncé a lot and her concerts for her kind of confidence… and I’m lucky that I know some singers in real life." Pop singer Miley Cyrus told Seventeen magazine that she "want[s] to be like Beyoncé", stating "She is the ultimate woman. You look at her and you don't think, I wonder what her personal life is like. You look at her and you go, That girl on the stage is a superstar. You don't care about anything else; you only care about her music. So I would hope that would be me in the future." Furthermore, British singer Cheryl Cole told Hello! magazine that she thinks Knowles "is what every woman should aspire to be." Knowles' music video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" has achieved fame for its intricate choreography, which has been credited as having started the "first major dance craze of both the new millennium and the Internet". Celebrities have also tried the choreography, including pop singers Justin Timberlake Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic found American pop singer Katharine McPhee's songs on her, self-titled, début album to have heavy influences from Knowles' music.

Knowles served as the lead singer of one of the world's best selling girl groups of all time, Destiny's Child. She currently has a total of 41 Grammy Award nominations, which is more than any other female artist in history. She was one of six female artists, along with Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Amy Winehouse and Alison Krauss, who held the record for the most number of Grammys won by a female artist in a single night; the record being five awards, which she accomplished in 2004. At the 2008 World Music Awards, Knowles was honored the legend award for Outstanding Contribution To The Arts. Her début studio album, Dangerously In Love was listed as one of the top 200 definitive albums in music history by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. On December 11, 2009, Billboard listed Knowles as the most successful female artist of the 2000s decade and also the top Radio Artist of the decade. Knowles has several wax figures of herself at Madame Tussauds Wax Museums in major cities around the world, including New York, Washington, D.C., Amsterdam, Bangkok and Hollywood.

Other ventures

Clothing lines

Knowles and her mother introduced House of Deréon, a ready-to-wear contemporary women's fashion line, in 2005. The concept is inspired by three generations of women in their family, with the name Deréon paying tribute to Knowles' grandmother, Agnèz Deréon, who worked as a seamstress. According to Tina Knowles, the overall style of the line best reflects Knowles' taste and style. Launched in 2006, products of House of Deréon received public exhibitions during the group's shows and tours during the Destiny Fulfilled era. The store, which is available across the United States and Canada, sells sportswear, denim along with fur, outerwear and accessories including handbags. Knowles also teamed up with House of Brands, a local shoe company, to produce a range of footwear for House of Deréon.

In 2004, Knowles and her mother founded their family's company Beyond Productions, which provides the licensing and brand management for House of Deréon. In early 2008, they launched Beyoncé Fashion Diva, a mobile game with an online social networking component, featuring House of Deréon. The organization said it had previously attempted to reach Knowles through faxes, letters and rallies outside her concerts. However with no reply from Knowles, PETA confronted her at a dinner in New York. The clothing line was picked up by department stores including Macy’s and Dillard’s and specialty stores, Jimmy Jazz and Against All Odds.

Products and endorsements

In 2002, Knowles signed a promotional deal with Pepsi, which included appearances on TV commercials, radio and Internet advertisements, as well as in-store promotional materials. A 2004 Pepsi TV commercial in the theme of "Gladiators" featured Knowles with singers Britney Spears, Pink, and Enrique Iglesias, and the following year with Jennifer Lopez and David Beckham entitled "Samurai".

Knowles' range of commercial deals and products also includes beauty care products and perfumes. Knowles has worked with L'Oréal since the age of 18. She launched Tommy Hilfiger's True Star fragrance, in 2004. Knowles sang a cover version of "Wishing on a Star" for the True Star commercials, for which she earned $250,000. She also launched Hilfiger's True Star Gold in 2005 and Emporio Armani's Diamonds in 2007. Forbes reported that Knowles earned $80 million between June 2007 and June 2008, combined with her album, tour, fashion business, and promotional deals. This made her the world's second best-paid music personality for this span of time. In 2009, Forbes listed Knowles fourth on its list of the 100 Most Powerful and Influential Celebrities in the world, third on its list of the top-grossing musicians, and number one on the list of top Best-Paid Celebs Under 30 with over $87 million dollars in earnings between 2008 and 2009. In June 2010, Forbes placed Knowles at number three on its 2010 Celebrity Power List with $87 million in grosses thanks to a 93-date world tour, deals with Nintendo and L'Oréal and her House of Deréon clothing line. Knowles was also listed at number two on the list of the 100 Most Powerful and Influential Celebrities in the world and subsequently turned out to be the best paid female artist. On October 7, 2010, Forbes recognized Knowles as the ninth most overall powerful woman in the world. In December 2010, Forbes reported that Knowles earned $87 million from January 2010 to December 2010 and eventually ranked her at the ninth place on its list of the "Hollywood's 20 highest-earning men and women of 2010". Knowles was the only artist to break the top ten.

In February 2010, Knowles launched her debut fragrance, Heat. As part of the scent's advertising campaign, Knowles re-recorded her cover version of "Fever" for the fragrance's television commercial. In an interview with WWD Beauty, Knowles explained the concept behind the fragrance, stating "A lot of my performances have had fire involved, so we thought ‘Heat.’ Also, red is one of my favorite colors, as is gold. Everything, from the bottle design to the name and the ideas for the commercials—that’s me". In November 2010, it was revealed that the fragrance's television commerical had been banned from UK daytime TV, after it received 14 viewer complaints. The commercial, which begins with an image of the Knowles appearing to lie naked in a room, has been deemed "too sexually provocative" to be seen by young children and has not be shown on British TV before 7.30pm.

Philanthropy

Knowles has been exposed to issues of social awareness since a young child, as her father would sometimes take her into the community, including African-American society. In 2005, music producer David Foster, his daughter Amy Foster-Gillies, and Knowles wrote "Stand Up for Love", which would serve as the anthem of World Children's Day, an event which takes place annually around the world on November 20 to raise awareness and funds for children's causes worldwide. Destiny's Child lent their voices and support as global ambassadors for the 2005 World Children's Day program.

On October 4, 2008, Knowles attended the Miami Children's Hospital Diamond Ball & Private Concert at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, where she was inducted into the International Pediatric Hall of Fame. Seven-year-old Ethan Bortnick dedicated and performed "Over the Rainbow" to Knowles. After completing work on Cadillac Records, Knowles donated her entire salary to Phoenix House, an organization of rehabilitation centers around the country. Knowles visited a Brooklyn, New York, site in preparation for portraying singer Etta James, who was once addicted to heroin. During this time, she recorded with various artists for "Just Stand Up!", a charity single for the Stand Up to Cancer charity. Joining Knowles on the song was Mariah Carey, Leona Lewis, Rihanna, Leann Rimes and Mary J. Blige, among others. Knowles also teamed up with the "Show Your Helping Hand" hunger relief initiative and General Mills Hamburger Helper. The goal was to help Feeding America deliver more than 3.5 million meals to local food banks. Knowles encouraged her fans to bring non-perishable groceries to her U.S. concert tour stops.

In January 2010, Knowles participated in the . She appeared in London with Jay-Z, Rihanna, and U2's Bono and The Edge, where she performed a piano version of her song "Halo". Knowles was named the official face of the limited edition "Fashion For Haiti" T-shirt by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The shirt, which reads: "To Haiti With Love", was designed by Peter Arnell, who also created the "Fashion for America" T-shirt which raised $2 million after 9/11. On March 5, 2010, Knowles and her mother, Tina Knowles, opened the Beyoncé Cosmetology Center at the Brooklyn Phoenix House. The program offers a seven-month cosmetology training course for men and women there. L'Oréal has donated all the products to be used at the center, and Knowles, along with her mother, have pledged to donate $100,000 annually.

Personal life

In 2010, a 60 Minutes segment aired, revealing Knowles was homeschooled as a child and prays before every performance. Knowles' has stated several times that when she's at home, she is a rather messy person and doesn't worry about her appearance at all, stating "I don't have any shoes on. No makeup. My shoes are left at the door. My purse is in the kitchen ... I'm relaxed!"

Depression

During the turmoil of Destiny's Child in 2000, Knowles had admitted in December 2006 that she had experienced depression from an accumulation of struggles: the publicized split of LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson, being publicly attacked by the media, critics and blogs for causing the split-up, and a longstanding boyfriend (that she had dated from age 12 to 19 years) leaving her. The depression was so severe it had lasted for a couple of years, while she had kept herself in her bedroom for days and refused to eat anything. Knowles stated that she struggled to speak about her depression because Destiny's Child had just won their first Grammy Award and she feared no one would take her seriously. All of these events had made her question herself and who her friends were, describing the situation she said, "Now that I was famous, I was afraid I'd never find somebody again to love me for me. I was afraid of making new friends." In 2005, rumors began to spread about the marriage of the couple. Knowles closed the speculation stating that she and Jay-Z were not even engaged. Laura Schreffler, senior writer for OK! magazine, said, "They are intensely private people". On April 4, 2008, Knowles and Jay-Z were married in New York City. It became a matter of public record on April 22, 2008. Knowles did not publicly début her wedding ring until the Fashion Rocks concert on September 5, 2008, in New York City. Knowles finally revealed their marriage through an opening montage video at the listening party for third album, I Am... Sasha Fierce in Manhattan's Sony Club. Knowles and Jay-Z were listed as the most powerful couple for Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2006. In January 2009, Forbes ranked them as Hollywood's top-earning couple, with a combined total of $162 million. They also made it to the top of the list the following year, with a combined total of $122 million between June 2008 and June 2009.

Discography

2003: Dangerously in Love

2006: B'Day

2008: I Am... Sasha Fierce

See also

Destiny's Child discography

Beyoncé Knowles videography

List of Beyoncé Knowles songs

List of Beyoncé Knowles concert tours

List of best-selling music artists

List of awards and nominations received by Beyoncé Knowles

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

Filmography

References

External links

Official American website

Category:1981 births Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Actors from Texas Category:African American actors Category:African American female singer-songwriters Category:African American musicians Category:African American songwriters Category:African American models Category:American child singers Category:American dancers Category:American fashion designers Category:American female models Category:American film actors Category:American Christians Category:American Methodists Category:American music video directors Category:American pop singers Category:American record producers Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters Category:American soul singers Category:American people of Native American descent Category:Beyoncé Knowles Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Destiny's Child members Category:English-language singers Category:American people of French descent Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Houston, Texas Category:Sony/ATV Music Publishing artists Category:Spanish-language singers Category:United Methodists Category:Native American singers Category:World Music Awards winners Category:African-American fashion designers Category:Louisiana Creole people

Caption	Brody at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival
Birth date	April 14, 1973
Birth place	Woodhaven, Queens, New York, United States
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1988–present

Adrien Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor and film producer. He received widespread recognition and subsequent acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002). He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, at 29 years old.

Early life

Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the son of Sylvia Plachy, a photojournalist, and Elliot Brody, a retired history professor and painter. Brody's father is of Polish-Jewish descent; Brody's Catholic mother was born in Budapest, Hungary, the daughter of a Catholic Hungarian aristocrat father and a Czech Jewish mother. As a child, Brody performed magic shows at children's birthday parties as "The Amazing Adrien". He attended the Joseph Pulitzer Middle School (I.S.145) and New York's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (famous as the inspiration for television's Fame). His parents enrolled him in acting classes to distance him from the dangerous kids with whom he associated. He attended summer camp at Long Lake Camp for the Arts in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. Brody attended New York's Queens College from 1991 to 1993, majoring in Performance Art, but returned to acting before graduation.

In 1992, Brody was seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident in which he flew over a car and crashed head-first into a crosswalk. He spent months recuperating. He has broken his nose three times doing stunts. His nose was broken once again during the filming of Summer of Sam.

Career

Taking acting classes as a youth, by age thirteen, he had done an off-Broadway play and a PBS-TV-movie. Brody hovered on the brink of stardom, receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his role in the 1998 film Restaurant and later praise for his roles in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. He received widespread recognition when he was cast as the lead in Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002). To prepare for the role, Brody withdrew for months, gave up his apartment and his car, was left by his then-girlfriend, He was also in talks with Paramount to play Spock in J. J. Abrams Star Trek XI, but it ultimately went to Zachary Quinto. Brody starred with Mark Ruffalo in Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom as gentlemen con men released in May 2009. Also in 2009 was the box office release of Splice, a science fiction film written and directed by Vincenzo Natali. Originally a Sundance film, Splice was adopted by Dark Castle Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. Most recently, he played the star role of Royce in Predators (a sequel to the original Predator), directed by Nimród Antal and produced by Robert Rodriguez.

Filmography

{|class="wikitable" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- |1988 | Home at Last | Billy | |- |1989 | New York Stories | Mel | |- |1991 | The Boy Who Cried Bitch | Eddie | |- |1993 | King of the Hill | Lester Silverstone | |- |rowspan=2|1994 | Angels in the Outfield | Danny Hemmerling | |- | Jailbreakers | Skinny | |- |rowspan=3|1996 | Nothing to Lose | Ray Diglovanni | aka Ten Benny |- | Solo | Dr. Bill Stewart, Solo's Designer | |- | Bullet | Ruby | |- |rowspan=2|1997 | The Last Time I Committed Suicide | Ben | |- | Six Ways to Sunday | Arnie Finklestein | |- |rowspan=3|1998 | The Thin Red Line | Cpl. Fife | |- | The Undertaker's Wedding | Mario Bellini | |- | Restaurant | Chris Calloway | Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male |- |rowspan=3|1999 | Oxygen | Harry | |- | Liberty Heights | Van Kurtzman | |- | Summer of Sam | Richie Tringale | |- |rowspan=2|2000 | Bread and Roses | Sam Shapiro | |- | Harrison's Flowers | Kyle Morris | |- |rowspan=2|2001 | The Affair of the Necklace | Count Nicolas De La Motte | |- | Love the Hard Way | Jack Grace | VFAA Award for Best Actor |- |rowspan=2|2002 | Dummy | Steven | |- | The Pianist | Wladyslaw Szpilman | Academy Award for Best ActorBoston Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActorCésar Award for Best ActorNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActorNominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleNominated – Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNominated – European Film Award for Best ActorNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture DramaNominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorNominated – Polish Academy Award for Best ActorNominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor Nominated – Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor |- |2003 | The Singing Detective | First Hood | |- |2004 | The Village | Noah Percy | |- |rowspan=2|2005 | The Jacket | Jack Starks | |- | King Kong | Jack Driscoll | |- |2006 | Hollywoodland | Louis Simo | |- |rowspan=3|2007 | The Tehuacan Project | Narrator | |- | Manolete (The Passion Within) | Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez "Manolete" | |- | The Darjeeling Limited | Peter Whitman | |- |rowspan=2|2008 | The Brothers Bloom | Bloom | |- | Cadillac Records | Leonard Chess | |- |rowspan=3|2009 | Splice | Clive Nicoli | |- | Giallo | Inspector Enzo Lavia | Also Producer |- | Fantastic Mr. Fox | Rickity | Voice Only |- |rowspan=3|2010 | High School | Psycho Ed | post-production |- | The Experiment | Travis |- | Predators | Royce |- |rowspan=3|2011 | Midnight in Paris | TBA | post-production |- |Detachment | Henry Barthes |post-productionAlso Executive Producer |- | Wrecked | Man | post-productionAlso Executive Producer |}

References

;Notes

External links

Category:1973 births Category:American film actors Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:César Award winners Category:Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts alumni Category:American Jews Category:American people of Czech-Jewish descent Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:American people of Hungarian descent Category:American actors of Polish descent Category:American actors of Hungarian descent Category:Jewish actors Category:Living people Category:Actors from New York Category:People from Queens Category:American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni