Sound Relief was a multi-venue rock music concert held on 14 March 2009, which was announced by the Premier of Victoria, John Brumby on 24 February 2009. The event was organised by Michael Gudinski, Michael Chugg, Amanda Pelman, Joe Segreto & Tom Lang of IMC/Homebake Festival and Mark Pope to raise funds for those affected by the February 2009 Victorian bushfires and Queensland Floods.

The Concerts

Melbourne Cricket Ground

The line-up for the Melbourne concert featured:

Jet - "Rip it Up", "Are You Gonna Be My Girl", "Get Me Outta Here", "Look What You've Done" (12:10PM)

Gabriella Cilmi - "Don't Wanna Go To Bed Now", "Sweet About Me", "Save the Lies", "Whole Lotta Love" (12:55PM)

Kings of Leon - "Crawl", "Revelry", "On Call", "Use Somebody"(1:40PM)

Paul Kelly - "Dumb Things", "To Her Door", "God Told Me To", "Leaps and Bounds", "How to Make Gravy", "Meet me in the Middle of the Air" (2:20PM)

Augie March - "Lupus", "Pennywhistle", "Brundisium", "There Is No Such Place", "This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers", "One Crowded Hour" (3:05PM)

Bliss N Eso with Paris Wells - "Up Jumped The Boogie", "Eye of the Storm", "Bullet and a Target", "Remember Me", "Party at my Place", "Field of Dreams", "The Sea is Rising" (3:50PM)

Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson with Troy Cassar-Daley - "Rattlin Bones", "Monkey On A Wire", "The Captain", "The House That Never Was"(4:35PM)

Liam Finn special appearance by Crowded House - "Second Chance", "Lead Balloon", "Don't Dream It's Over", "Weather With You", "Better Be Home Soon" (5:30PM)

Jack Johnson - "Sitting Waiting Wishing" "Flake" "Banana Pancakes", "Times Like These", "Better Together" (6:20PM)

Wolfmother - "Back Round", "Dimension", "Woman", "White Unicorn", "Joker and the Thief" (7:00PM)

Kylie Minogue - "I Still Call Australia Home" (a cappella) (7:50PM)

Hunters & Collectors - "When the River Runs Dry", "Do You See What I See", "Blind Eye", "Say Goodbye", "Holy Grail", "Throw Your Arms Around Me", "The Slab" (encore) (8:00PM)

Split Enz - "Shark Attack", "Poor Boy", "I Got You", "Message to My Girl", "Dirty Creature", "Pioneer", "Six Months in a Leaky Boat", ""History Never Repeats", "I See Red" (8:55PM)

Midnight Oil - "Redneck Wonderland", "Read About It", "Blue Sky Mine"(Incorrectly listed as "Blue Sky Mining" on the DVD banner), "Advance Australia Fair" (instrumental), "One Country", "Beds Are Burning", "King Of The Mountain", "The Dead Heart", "Power and the Passion", "Best Of Both Worlds", "Sometimes" (encore) (9:50)

A number of celebrities shared the MC duties between performances, including music industry icon Molly Meldrum, music producer and event co-organiser Michael Gudinski, Victorian premier John Brumby, skateboarder Tony Hawk and announcers from a range of radio stations, including Dave Hughes, Ed Kavalee, Hamish and Andy and Red Symons.

Hunters & Collectors reunited for the first time in over 10 years for the concert. Midnight Oil also made a comeback with lead singer Peter Garrett, who was then also Australia's Minister for Environment and the Arts.

Some members of Crowded House made a surprise appearance with Liam Finn to perform three of their hits. Kings of Leon chose not to perform their popular #1 hit, Sex on Fire, out of respect for the bushfire victims.

During Split Enz's performance of "I See Red", Red Symons walked across the stage, so vocalist Tim Finn literally did "see Red"

The MCG concert sold out quickly, with over 80,000 tickets sold. That makes the Melbourne event the largest paid concert event in Australian history.

Sydney Cricket Ground

The line-up for the Sydney concert featured:

Coldplay - "Life in Technicolor", "Yellow", "Lost!", "Clocks", "Viva La Vida", "You're the Voice" (featuring John Farnham), "Fix You" (Encore) (12:15PM)

Wolfmother

Hoodoo Gurus - "Tojo", "The Right Time", "What's My Scene"

Little Birdy - "Come On Come On", "Six Months In A Leaky Boat", "Brother", "Beautiful To Me"

Architecture In Helsinki - "Hold Music", "Do The Whirlwind", "Heart It Races", "That Beep"

You Am I - "Frightfully Moderne", "It Ain't Funny How We Don't Talk Anymore", "Gunslingers", "How Much is Enough", "Berlin Chair", "Thank God I've Hit The Bottom", "The Piano up the Tree" (3:40PM)

Josh Pyke - "Lines On Palms", "The Summer", "Make You Happy", "Don't Wanna Let You Down", "Middle Of The Hill", "Memories And Dust"

Marcia Hines (Special Performance) - "Fire And Rain"

Taylor Swift - "You Belong With Me", "Love Story", "Our Song", "Change"

Eskimo Joe - "Sarah", "Inshalla", "Foreign Land", "London Bombs", "From the Sea", "Black Fingernails, Red Wine"

Jet - "Rip It Up", "Are You Gonna Be My Girl", "She's A Genius", "Shine On", "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is", "Cold Hard Bitch"

The Presets - "Talk Like That", "Yippiyo-Ay", "Are You The One?", "This Boy's In Love", "Kicking And Screaming", "My People"

Icehouse - "We Can Get Together", "Crazy", "Electric Blue", "Can't Help Myself", "Great Southern Land"

Barry Gibb with Olivia Newton John - "To Love Somebody", "Jive Talkin'", "Words", "Island In The Stream", "I Honestly Love You", "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", "Guilty", "You Should Be Dancing", "Spicks and Specks"

Coldplay singer Chris Martin memorably ran into the crowd towards the end of their song Fix You and did not make it back for the end of the song, but the crowd continued to sing anyway. Once he made it back to the stage he then repeated the end of the song, but was so exhausted that he let the crowd sing the final line. He was then unwell after the performance and spent the afternoon vomiting, still managing to play a second show that night.

Eskimo Joe, Wolfmother and Jet all premiered new songs that had not been released yet. Eskimo Joe sung "Foreign Land" and "Inshalla", Wolfmother Sang "Back Round" and Jet sang "She's A Genius"

Little Birdy sang "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" in Sydney and Split Enz would sing it at Melbourne later that night. While Jet and Wolfmother played most of their songs at both concerts, this was the only song to be played a both concerts by two separate artists.

Australian actress Toni Collette introduced Princes William and Harry who sent their support via satellite.

The Presets performed parts of their song during the middle of a lightning storm.

Media coverage

ABC radio network Triple J broadcast live music from both venues using their own live music team. The event was also screened on Max and Channel V, covering the Sydney and Melbourne concerts respectively.

Triple M, Nova and Vega broadcast live from both Sydney and Melbourne.

References

External links

Official Site

Category:2009 in music Category:Benefit concerts Category:Music festivals in Australia Category:Rock festivals in Australia

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

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

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

Early life

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

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

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

Music career

2000–05: Musical beginnings

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

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

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

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

2006–08: Taylor Swift

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

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

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

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

HQ in 2007.]]

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

2008–09: Fearless and MTV VMA incident

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2010–present: Speak Now

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

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

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

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

Songwriting style

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

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

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

Other work

Acting

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

Cover model and recognition

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

Merchandise

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

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

Philanthropy

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

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

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

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

Personal life

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

Filmography

Discography

Taylor Swift (2006)

Fearless (2008)

Speak Now (2010)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

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

Name	Kylie Minogue
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Kylie Ann Minogue
Birth date	May 28, 1968
Birth place	Melbourne, Australia
Genre	Pop, synthpoprock, dance, electronic
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, fashion designer, author, entrepreneur, philanthropist
Years active	1979–present
Label	PWL (1987-1993) Deconstruction (1993-1998) Parlophone (1999-present) Mushroom (Australia)
Url

Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE ( ; born 28 May 1968), is an Australian pop singer, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing her career as a recording artist in 1987. Her first single, "Locomotion", spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart and became the highest selling single of the decade. This led to a contract with songwriters and producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Her debut album, Kylie (1988), and the single "I Should Be So Lucky", each reached number one in the United Kingdom, and over the next two years, her first 13 singles reached the British top ten. Her debut film, The Delinquents (1989) was a box-office hit in Australia and the UK despite negative reviews.

Initially presented as a "girl next door", Minogue attempted to convey a more mature style in her music and public image. Her singles were well received, but after four albums her record sales were declining, and she left Stock, Aitken & Waterman in 1992 to establish herself as an independent performer. Her next single, "Confide in Me", reached number one in Australia and was a hit in several European countries in 1994, and a duet with Nick Cave, "Where the Wild Roses Grow", brought Minogue a greater degree of artistic credibility. Drawing inspiration from a range of musical styles and artists, Minogue took creative control over the songwriting for her next album, Impossible Princess (1997). It failed to attract strong reviews or sales in the UK, but was successful in Australia and Israel where it reached the number 1 position.

Minogue returned to prominence in 2000 with the single "Spinning Around" and the dance-oriented album Light Years, and she performed during the closing ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Her music videos showed a more sexually provocative and flirtatious personality and several hit singles followed. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" reached number one in more than 40 countries, and the album Fever (2001) was a hit throughout the world, including the United States, a market in which Minogue had previously received little recognition. Minogue embarked on a concert tour but cancelled it when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. After surgery and chemotherapy treatment, she resumed her career in 2006 with . Her tenth studio album X was released in 2007 and was followed by the KylieX2008 tour. In 2009, she embarked upon her For You, For Me Tour, her first concert tour of the US and Canada.

Minogue has achieved worldwide record sales of more than 60 million, and has received notable music awards, including multiple ARIA and Brit Awards and a Grammy Award. She has mounted several successful concert tours and received a Mo Award for "Australian Entertainer of the Year" for her live performances. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire "for services to music", and an Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2008.

Life and career

1968–86: Early life and career beginnings

Kylie Ann Minogue was born 28 May 1968 in Melbourne, Australia, the first child of Ronald Charles Minogue, an accountant of Irish ancestry and Carol Ann (née Jones), a former dancer from Maesteg, Wales. Her sister, Dannii Minogue, is also a pop singer The Minogue children were raised in Surrey Hills, Melbourne, and educated at Camberwell High School.

The Minogue sisters began their careers as children on Australian television. Interested in following a career in music, she made a demo tape for the producers of the weekly music programme Young Talent Time, which featured Dannii as a regular performer. Kylie gave her first television singing performance on the show in 1985 but was not invited to join the cast. Dannii's success overshadowed Kylie's acting achievements,

Her popularity in Australia was demonstrated when she became the first person to win four Logie Awards in one event, and the youngest recipient of the "Gold Logie" as the country's "Most Popular Television Performer", with the result determined by public vote.

1987–92: Stock, Aitken and Waterman and Kylie

During a Fitzroy Football Club benefit concert with other Neighbours cast members, Minogue performed "I Got You Babe" as a duet with the actor John Waters, and "The Loco-Motion" as an encore, and was subsequently signed to a recording contract with Mushroom Records in 1987. Her first single, "The Loco-Motion", spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian music charts. It sold 200,000 copies, and Minogue received the ARIA Award for the year's highest selling single. Its success resulted in Minogue travelling to England with Mushroom Records executive Gary Ashley to work with Stock, Aitken & Waterman. They knew little of Minogue and had forgotten that she was arriving; as a result, they wrote "I Should Be So Lucky" while she waited outside the studio. The song reached number one in the UK, Australia, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Israel and Hong Kong. Minogue won her second consecutive ARIA Award for the year's highest selling single, and received a "Special Achievement Award". Her debut album, Kylie, a collection of dance-oriented pop tunes spent more than a year on the British album charts, including several weeks at number one. The album went gold in the United States, and the single, "The Loco-Motion", reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number one on the Canadian Singles Chart. "It's No Secret", released only in the U.S., peaked at number 37 in early 1989, and later in the year she left Neighbours to focus on her music career. Jason Donovan commented "When viewers watched her on screen they no longer saw Charlene the local mechanic, they saw Kylie the pop star." She was sometimes referred to as "the Singing Budgie" by her detractors over the coming years, however Chris True's comment about the album Kylie for Allmusic suggests that Minogue's appeal transcended the limitations of her music, by noting that "her cuteness makes these rather vapid tracks bearable".

Her follow-up album Enjoy Yourself (1989) was a success in the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand, Asia and Australia, and contained several successful singles, including the British number one "Hand on Your Heart", In December 1989, Minogue was one of the featured vocalists on the remake of "Do They Know It's Christmas", and her debut film, The Delinquents, premiered in London. It was poorly received by critics, but it proved popular with audiences; in the UK it grossed more than £200,000, and in Australia it was the fourth-highest grossing local film of 1989 and the highest grossing local film of 1990.

Rhythm of Love (1990) presented a more sophisticated and adult style of dance music and also marked the first signs of Minogue's rebellion against her production team and the "girl-next-door" image. Determined to be accepted by a more mature audience, Minogue took control of her music videos, starting with "Better the Devil You Know", and presented herself as a sexually aware adult. Her relationship with Michael Hutchence was also seen as part of Minogue's departure from her earlier persona; Hutchence was quoted as saying that his hobby was "corrupting Kylie", and that the INXS song "Suicide Blonde" had been inspired by her. The singles from Rhythm of Love sold well in Europe and Australia and were popular in British nightclubs. Pete Waterman later reflected that "Better the Devil You Know" was a milestone in her career and said that it made her "the hottest, hippest dance act on the scene and nobody could knock it as it was the best dance record around at the time". Her fourth album, Let's Get to It (1991), reached number 15 on the British album charts and was the first of her albums to fail to reach the Top 10;

A Greatest Hits album was released in 1992. It reached number one in the UK and the singles "What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)" and her cover version of Kool & The Gang's "Celebration" each reached the UK Top 20. She performed a striptease in the video for her next single, "Put Yourself in My Place", inspired by Jane Fonda in the film Barbarella. This single and her next, "Where Is the Feeling?" each reached the British top 20, During this period she made a guest appearance as herself, in an episode of the comedy The Vicar of Dibley. The director Steven E. de Souza was intrigued by Minogue's cover photo in Australia's Who Magazine as one of "The 30 Most Beautiful People in the World", and offered her a role opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in Street Fighter (1994). The film was a moderate success, earning USD$70 million in the U.S., She co-starred with Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin in Bio-Dome (1996), but it was a failure, dismissed by Movie Magazine International as the "biggest waste of celluloid space".

Australian artist Nick Cave had been interested in working with Minogue since hearing "Better the Devil You Know", saying it contained "one of pop music's most violent and distressing lyrics" and "when Kylie Minogue sings these words, there is an innocence to her that makes the horror of this chilling lyric all the more compelling". They collaborated on "Where the Wild Roses Grow" (1995), a brooding ballad whose lyrics narrated a murder from the points of view of both the murderer (Cave), and his victim (Minogue). The video was inspired by John Everett Millais's painting Ophelia (1851–1852), and showed Minogue as the murdered woman, floating in a pond as a serpent swam over her body. The single received widespread attention in Europe, where it reached the top 10 in several countries, and acclaim in Australia where it reached number two on the singles chart, and won ARIA Awards for "Song of the Year" and "Best Pop Release". Following concert appearances with Cave, Minogue recited the lyrics to "I Should Be So Lucky" as poetry in London's Royal Albert Hall "Poetry Jam", at the suggestion of Cave, and later described it as a "most cathartic moment". She credited Cave with giving her the confidence to express herself artistically, saying: "He taught me to never veer too far from who I am, but to go further, try different things, and never lose sight of myself at the core. For me, the hard part was unleashing the core of myself and being totally truthful in my music." By 1997, Minogue was in a relationship with the French photographer Stéphane Sednaoui, who encouraged her to develop her creativity. Inspired by a mutual appreciation of Japanese culture, they created a visual combination of "geisha and manga superheroine" for the photographs taken for the album Impossible Princess and the video for "German Bold Italic", Minogue's collaboration with Towa Tei. Minogue drew inspiration from the music of artists such as Shirley Manson and Garbage, Björk, Tricky and U2, and Japanese pop musicians such as Pizzicato Five and Towa Tei.

Impossible Princess featured collaborations with musicians such as James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore of the Manic Street Preachers. Mostly a dance album, its style was not represented by its first single "Some Kind of Bliss", and Minogue countered suggestions that she was trying to become an indie artist. She told Music Week, "I have to keep telling people that this isn't an indie-guitar album. I'm not about to pick up a guitar and rock." Acknowledging that she had attempted to escape the perceptions of her that had developed during her early career, Minogue commented that she was ready to "forget the painful criticism" and "accept the past, embrace it, use it". Billboard described the album as "stunning" and concluded that "it's a golden commercial opportunity for a major [record company] with vision and energy [to release it in the United States]. A sharp ear will detect a kinship between Impossible Princess and Madonna's hugely successful album, Ray of Light". Retitled Kylie Minogue in the UK following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, it became the lowest-selling album of her career. At the end of the year a campaign by Virgin Radio stated, "We've done something to improve Kylie's records: we've banned them." to become her most successful album since Kylie in 1988, and her Intimate and Live tour was extended due to demand. The Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett, hosted a civic reception for Minogue in Melbourne, and she maintained her high profile in Australia with live performances, including the 1998 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and Sydney's Fox Studios in 1999, where she performed Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", and a Christmas concert in Dili, East Timor in association with the United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces. Returning to Australia, she appeared in the film Sample People and recorded a cover version of Russell Morris's "The Real Thing" for the soundtrack. Her album Light Years (2000) was a collection of dance songs, influenced by disco music. Minogue said that her intention was to present dance-pop music in a "more exaggerated form" and to make it "fun". The single "Spinning Around" became her first British number one in ten years, and its accompanying video featured Minogue in revealing gold hot pants, which came to be regarded as a "trademark". The single was described by a 2009 The Times article as heralding a new era in synthpop that was continuing. and number two in the UK. She then embarked upon a concert tour, On A Night like This Tour, which played to sell-out crowds in Australia and the United Kingdom. Minogue was inspired by Madonna's 1993 world tour The Girlie Show which incorporated Burlesque and theatre, William Baker also cited the style of Broadway shows such as 42nd Street, films such as Anchors Aweigh, South Pacific, the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals of the 1930s and the live performances of Bette Midler. Minogue was praised for her new material and her reinterpretations of some of her greatest successes, turning "I Should Be So Lucky" into a torch song and "Better the Devil You Know" into a 1940s big band number. She won a "Mo Award" for Australian live entertainment as "Performer of the Year". Following the tour she was asked by a Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalist what she thought was her greatest strength, and replied, "[That] I am an all-rounder. If I was to choose any one element of what I do, I don't know if I would excel at any one of them. But put all of them together, and I know what I'm doing."

She appeared as "The Green Fairy" in Moulin Rouge! (2001), shortly before the release of Fever, an album containing disco elements combined with 1980s electropop and synthpop. Fever reached number one in Australia, the UK, and throughout Europe, eventually achieving worldwide sales in excess of eight million. Its lead single "Can't Get You Out of My Head" became the biggest success of her career, reaching number one in more than 40 countries. She won four ARIA Awards including a "Most Outstanding Achievement" award, and two Brit Awards, for "Best international female solo artist" and "Best international album". Rolling Stone states that "Can't Get You out of My Head" "was easily the best and most omnipresent dance track of the new century", and following extensive airplay by American radio, Capitol Records released it and the album Fever in the U.S. in 2002. Fever debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart at number three, and "Can't Get You out of My Head" reached number seven on the Hot 100. and the following year won the same award for "Come into My World".

Minogue's stylist and creative director William Baker explained that the music videos for the Fever album were inspired by science fiction films—specifically those by Stanley Kubrick—and accentuated the electropop elements of the music by using dancers in the style of Kraftwerk. Alan MacDonald, the designer of the 2002 KylieFever tour, brought those elements into the stage show which drew inspiration from Minogue's past incarnations. The show opened with Minogue as a space age vamp, which she described as "Queen of Metropolis with her drones", through to scenes inspired by Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, followed by the various personas of Minogue's career. and 2006 in the U.S.; she voiced one of the principal characters, Florence.

Minogue began a relationship with the French actor, Olivier Martinez, after meeting him at the 2002 Grammy Awards ceremony. Her next album, Body Language (2003), was released following an invitation-only concert, titled Money Can't Buy, at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. The event marked the presentation of a new visual style, designed by Minogue and Baker, inspired in part by Brigitte Bardot, about whom Minogue commented: "I just tended to think of BB [Bardot] as, well, she's a sexpot, isn't she? She's one of the greatest pinups. But she was fairly radical in her own way at that time. And we chose to reference the period, which was ... a perfect blend of coquette and rock and roll." The album downplayed the disco style and Minogue said she was inspired by 1980s artists such as Scritti Politti, The Human League, Adam and the Ants and Prince, blending their styles with elements of hip hop. It received positive reviews with Billboard Magazine writing of "Minogue's knack for picking great songs and producers". Allmusic described it as "a near perfect pop record... Body Language is what happens when a dance-pop diva takes the high road and focuses on what's important instead of trying to shock herself into continued relevance". Sales of Body Language were lower than anticipated after the success of Fever, After reaching number one on the US club chart, "Slow" received a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Dance Recording category. The Wall Street Journal described Minogue as "an international superstar who seems perpetually unable to conquer the U.S. market".

Minogue played a guest role in the season finale of the comedy series Kath & Kim, in which she referenced her earlier role as Charlene in Neighbours, during a wedding sequence. The episode achieved the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's highest ratings of the year.

She released her second official greatest hits album in November 2004, entitled Ultimate Kylie, along with her music videos on a DVD compilation of the same title. The album introduced her singles "I Believe in You", co-written with Jake Shears and Babydaddy from the Scissor Sisters, and "Giving You Up". "I Believe in You" reached the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play top three, and was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in February 2007. Minogue commenced her , and after performing in Europe, travelled to Melbourne, where she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

2006–09: Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour, X, KylieX2008 and For You, for Me Tour

In November 2006, Minogue resumed her with a performance in Sydney. She had told journalists before the concert that she would be highly emotional, and she cried before dedicating the song "Especially for You" to her father, a survivor of prostate cancer. Her dance routines had been reworked to accommodate her medical condition, and slower costume changes and longer breaks were introduced between sections of the show to conserve her strength. The media reported that Minogue performed energetically, with the Sydney Morning Herald describing the show as an "extravaganza" and "nothing less than a triumph". Minogue's shows throughout Australia continued to draw positive reviews, and after spending Christmas with her family, she resumed the European leg of her tour with six sold-out shows in Wembley Arena, before taking her tour to Manchester for a further six shows.

In February 2007, Minogue and Olivier Martinez announced that they had ended their relationship, but remained on friendly terms. Minogue was reported to have been "saddened by false [media] accusations of [Martinez's] disloyalty". in November 2007. The electro-styled album included contributions from Guy Chambers, Cathy Dennis, Bloodshy & Avant and Calvin Harris. The album received some criticism for the triviality of its subject matter in light of Minogue's experiences with breast cancer; she responded by explaining the personal nature of some of the album's songs, and said "My conclusion is that if I'd done an album of personal songs it'd be seen as 'Impossible Princess 2' and be equally critiqued." and said of her breast cancer, "thankfully, the experience hasn't made her music discernibly deeper". X and "2 Hearts" entered at number one on the Australian albums and singles charts respectively. In the UK, X initially attracted lukewarm sales, and Minogue won a Brit Award for "International solo female". X was released in the U.S. in April 2008, and debuted outside the top 100 on the albums chart despite some promotion. X was nominated for the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album, Minogue's fifth Grammy Award nomination.

In December 2007, Minogue participated in the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, and later performed in the final of the UK talent show The X Factor with the eventual winner, Leon Jackson, whose mentor was Dannii Minogue. From May 2008, Minogue promoted X with a European tour, KylieX2008, which is her most expensive tour to date with production costs of £10 million. Although she described the rehearsals as "grim" and the set list went through several overhauls, She appeared in The Kylie Show, which featured highly stylised set-piece song performances from Minogue as well as comedy sketches with Mathew Horne, Dannii Minogue, Jason Donovan and Simon Cowell. She co-starred in the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas special episode, "Voyage of the Damned", as Astrid Peth, a waitress on a spaceship Titanic. The episode aired on 25 December 2007, with 13.31 million viewers, the show's highest viewing figures since 1979.

It was announced in late December 2007 that Minogue was to be among those honoured in Queen Elizabeth II's 2008 New Years Honours list, with an OBE for services to music. Minogue commented "I am almost as surprised as I am honoured. I feel deeply touched to be acknowledged by the UK, my adopted home, in this way." She received the OBE officially from The Prince of Wales in July 2008. In May, 2008 Minogue was awarded the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's highest cultural honour. Culture Minister Christine Albanel described Minogue as a "midas of the international music scene who turns everything she touches into gold", and saluted her for publicly discussing her breast cancer. and won the "Best International Female Solo Artist" award at the 2008 BRIT Awards.

In late September 2008, Minogue made her Middle East debut as the headline act at the opening of Atlantis, The Palm, an exclusive hotel resort in Dubai, and from November, she continued with her KylieX2008 tour, taking the show to cities across South America, Asia and Australia. The tour visited 21 countries, and was considered a success, with ticket sales estimated at $70,000,000. She hosted the 2009 BRIT Awards on 18 February 2009 with James Corden and Mathew Horne.

In September and October 2009, Minogue embarked on the For You, For Me Tour, her first North American concert tour, which included shows in the U.S. and Canada. On 14 December 2009, Minogue released a download-only concert album entitled . The album was recorded at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom and contains 25 live version songs.

2010–present: Aphrodite

Minogue's eleventh studio album, Aphrodite, was released in Japan on 30 June 2010 and worldwide in July 2010. The lead single, "All the Lovers", premiered on radio in May 2010 and was made available for purchase in June 2010. The album debuted at number one in the UK charts, exactly twenty two years after her first UK number one hit. On 3 June 2010, she hosted the inaugural AmfAR "Inspiration Gala" at the New York Public Library honouring Jean Paul Gaultier for his lifelong contribution to men's fashion and the fight against AIDS. Minogue appeared on BBC1's Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on 25 June 2010, during which she confirmed she is a UK resident, and announced that she will tour in 2011.

In July 2010, Minogue filmed a cameo performance as a rock star in the American independent film Jack and Diane. The movie stars Juno Temple, Riley Keough and Jena Malone. She also recorded a duet titled "Devotion" with British synthpop duo Hurts for their debut album Happiness, released on 6 September 2010. The second single from Aphrodite, titled "Get Outta My Way" was released on 27 September 2010. In October 2010, Minogue performed in front of the Sphinx and the Pyramids at Giza, Eygpt to celebrate the anniversary of "Enigma" magazine, with profits going to the We Owe It To Egypt Foundation. A third single, Better Than Today, was released on 6 December 2010. It peaked at number thirty-two in the UK and became her lowest charting single to have a proper physical release.

On 1 December 2010, Minogue and Parlophone records released A Kylie Christmas (EP) on iTunes, which included a cover of the 1945 song Let It Snow as well as Santa Baby which was previously available as a b-side to her 2000 single Please Stay.

Image and celebrity status

|alt=A bronze statue of Kylie, on a star-shaped pedestal, portrays her in a dancing pose. Her legs are crossed and she bends at the waist, with both arms stretched above her head. The statue stands in a public square in front of a modern glass building, and several people are walking.]] Minogue's efforts to be taken seriously as a recording artist were initially hindered by the perception that she had not "paid her dues" and was no more than a manufactured pop star exploiting the image she had created during her stint on Neighbours. During her career Minogue has chosen photographers who attempt to create a new "look" for her, and the resulting photographs have appeared in a variety of magazines, from the cutting edge The Face to the more traditionally sophisticated Vogue and Vanity Fair, making the Minogue face and name known to a broad group of people. Stylist William Baker has suggested that this is part of the reason she has entered in the mainstream pop culture of Europe more successfully than many other pop singers who concentrate solely on selling records.

By 2000, when Minogue returned to prominence, she was considered to be have achieved a degree of musical credibility for having maintained her career longer than her critics had expected. That same year, Birmingham Post noted "[o]nce upon a time, long before anybody had even heard of Britney, Christina, Jessica or Mandy, Australian singer Kylie Minogue ruled the charts as princess of pop. Back in 1988 her first single, I Should Be So Lucky, spent five weeks at number one, making her the most successful female artist in the UK charts with 13 successive Top 10 entries." Her progression from the wholesome "girl next door" to a more sophisticated performer with a flirtatious and playful persona attracted new fans to her. After 20 years as a performer, Minogue was described as a fashion "trend-setter" and a "style icon who constantly reinvents herself". She has been acknowledged for mounting successful tours, and for worldwide record sales of more than 60 million.

Minogue is regarded as a gay icon, which she encourages with comments such as "I am not a traditional gay icon. There's been no tragedy in my life, only tragic outfits..." and "My gay audience has been with me from the beginning ... they kind of adopted me." Minogue has been inspired by and compared to Madonna throughout her career. Kathy McCabe for The Telegraph notes that Minogue and Madonna follow similar styles in music and fashion, and concludes, "Where they truly diverge on the pop-culture scale is in shock value. Minogue's clips might draw a gasp from some but Madonna's ignite religious and political debate unlike any other artist on the planet... Simply, Madonna is the dark force; Kylie is the light force." During the same week a bronze cast of her hands was added to Wembley Arena's "Square of Fame".

In March 2010, Minogue was declared by researchers as the "most powerful celebrity in Britain". The study examined how marketers identify celebrity and brand partnerships. Mark Husak, head of Millward Brown's UK media practice, said: "Kylie is widely accepted as an adopted Brit. People know her, like her and she is surrounded by positive buzz". In June 2010, after a performance at Glastonbury with the Scissor Sisters on their track "Any Which Way", Minogue started filming a cameo role in the film Jack and Diane, in New York.

Cancer

Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer on 17 May 2005, leading to the postponement of the remainder of her Showgirl – The Greatest Hits Tour and her withdrawal from the Glastonbury Festival. Her hospitalisation and treatment in Melbourne resulted in a brief but intense period of media coverage, particularly in Australia, where Prime Minister John Howard issued a statement supporting Minogue. As media and fans began to congregate outside the Minogue residence in Melbourne, the Victorian Premier Steve Bracks warned the international media that any disruption of the Minogue family's rights under Australian privacy laws would not be tolerated. His comments became part of a wider criticism of the media's overall reaction, with particular criticism directed towards paparazzi. Minogue underwent surgery on 21 May 2005 at Cabrini Hospital in Malvern, and commenced chemotherapy treatment soon after. In December 2005, Minogue released a digital-only single, "Over the Rainbow", a live recording from her Showgirl tour. Her children's book, The Showgirl Princess, written during her period of convalescence, was published in October 2006, and her perfume, "Darling", was launched in November. On her return to Australia for her concert tour, she discussed her illness, and said that her chemotherapy treatment had been like "experiencing a nuclear bomb". but she later spoke of her respect for the medical profession.

Minogue was acknowledged for the impact she had made by publicly discussing her cancer diagnosis and treatment; in May 2008, the French Cultural Minister Christine Albanel said, "Doctors now even go as far as saying there is a 'Kylie effect' that encourages young women to have regular checks."

Discography

Kylie (1988)

Enjoy Yourself (1989)

Rhythm of Love (1990)

Let's Get to It (1991)

Kylie Minogue (1994)

Impossible Princess (1997)

Light Years (2000)

Fever (2001)

Body Language (2003)

X (2007)

Aphrodite (2010)

See also

List of awards and nominations received by Kylie Minogue

List of Kylie Minogue concert tours

Kylie Minogue filmography

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

– owned and maintained by EMI and represents Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue Collection at the Performing Arts Collection

Category:1968 births Category:Living people Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Actors from Melbourne Category:ARIA Award winners Category:Australian child actors Category:Australian dance musicians Category:Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Australian female singers Category:Australian film actors Category:Australian pop singers Category:Australian television actors Category:Australian people of Irish descent Category:Australian people of Welsh descent Category:Breast cancer survivors Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Disco musicians Category:Freestyle musicians Category:Gold Logie winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:LGBT rights activists from Australia Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Parlophone artists Category:Recipients of the Centenary Medal Category:Singers from Melbourne Category:The X Factor judges Category:The X Factor (UK)

Name	John Farnham
Img alt	Statue of a male standing with a microphone in left hand at his opened mouth and pointing with right forefinger. Statue is on a block of stone with cursive lettering, John Farnham, in front of feet. Background includes a tiled area, wide footpath, trees and buildings.
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	John Peter Farnham
Siblings	Jean, Jaquiline, Steven
Alias	Johnny Farnham
Born	July 01, 1949Dagenham, England
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano
Genre	Pop rock, AOR, adult contemporary, pop
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
Years active	1964–current
Label	Columbia, EMI, RCA, Axis, Wheatley, BMG, Gotham
Associated acts	The Mavericks, Strings Unlimited, Little River Band, Brian Cadd
Url	Official website
Notable instruments	Acoustic guitar

John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham (born 1 July 1949), is an English-born Australian pop singer. He was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist but he replaced Glenn Shorrock as lead singer of Little River Band during 1982–1985. In September 1986 his solo single, "You're the Voice" peaked at No. 1 on the Australian singles charts. The associated album, Whispering Jack, held the No. 1 position for a total of 25 weeks, Both the single and the album had Top Ten success internationally including No. 1 in Sweden.

Domestically he has remained one of Australia's best-known performers with a career spanning over 40 years,

Farnham has been recognised by honours and awards including 1987 Australian of the Year, 1996 Order of Australia, and 19 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Awards including his 2003 induction into the Hall of Fame. From 1969 he was voted by TV Week readers as the '' for five consecutive years. Aside from his recording career, Farnham performed on stage with lead roles in Australian productions of Charlie Girl, Pippin and 1992's Jesus Christ Superstar. Australian rock historian, Ian McFarlane described him as "the most successful solo artist in the history of Australian rock and pop [...] Farnham has retained an affable sense of humour and a simple, unpretentious 'everyman' charm which also makes him one of the most respected celebrities in Australian entertainment history." His sisters are Jean and Jaquiline (Jackie), and his younger brother is Steven. He attended school at Yarraman State School, Lyndale Primary School and Lyndale High School.

1964–1967: The Mavericks to Strings Unlimited

Johnny Farnham performed with local band The Mavericks on weekends, while still attending school, from 1964. The band had a five song repertoire. On 29 April 1967, Strings Unlimited performed as a backing band for pop singer Bev Harrell in Cohuna. By arrangement with Sambell, Melbourne radio DJ Stan Rofe pretended that he disliked "Sadie" before playing it. Rofe was also a writer for Go-Set, a teen-oriented pop magazine, another writer for the magazine, Ian "Molly" Meldrum, praised Farnham's efforts.

Another stage musical for Farnham was Charlie Girl in 1971. Jillian Billman was one of the dancers, and Farnham married her on 18 April 1973. and its associated show album released in 1974. Also in 1974, Farnham and Hewett were co-hosts of It's Magic, a children's TV series on Channel Ten. In recording the album, Farnham's studio band were guitarist Tommy Emmanuel (ex-Southern Star Band), keyboardist Mal Logan (ex-Renée Geyer Band, LRB), drummer Derek Pellicci (LRB) and bass guitarist Barry Sullivan (ex-Chain). While charting singles were, "The Other Guy", "We Two", "You're Driving Me Out of My Mind" and "Playing to Win". Farnham's biggest Australian hits with LRB were the 1982 single "Down on the Border" which peaked at #7 and The Net which peaked at #11 on the albums charts in 1983. for Savage Streets and it was released as a solo single. and a non-Top 50 single for Farnham almost three years previously, By late 1985, LRB were in conflict again and Farnham left. while "Pressure Down" was provided by Harry Bogdanovs. Two weeks before the album was due to be recorded a demo tape arrived from London with similar material as "Pressure Down", Farnham and Fraser listened to the demo of "You're the Voice" and knew they had found a once-in-a-lifetime song. and Australia, #6 in the UK, and #6 in Austria. The song was written by Andy Qunta (ex-Icehouse), Keith Reid (Procol Harum), Maggie Ryder and Chris Thompson (ex-Manfred Mann's Earth Band).

Whispering Jack, released in October, became the highest-selling album by an Australian act in Australia, at the time, and peaked at number one on the Australian Album Charts for a total of 25 weeks. The album was released internationally on RCA/BMG and peaked at #1 in Sweden, #3 in Austria,

Age of Reason and Chain Reaction

Farnham's July 1988 single, "Age of Reason", which peaked at #1 on the ARIA singles charts, The album, Age of Reason, produced by Ross Fraser, It was the highest selling album in Australia from 1988, Renewed interest in Whispering Jack returned it to the Top Ten in August, nearly two years after its initial release. At the 1991 ARIA Awards, Farnham won 'Best Male Artist', 'Song of the Year' for "Burn for You", and 'Highest Selling Album' for Chain Reaction. "Please Don't Ask" was released as a single, which peaked into the top 30. Fellow cast members included, Angry Anderson as Herod, Kate Ceberano as Mary Magdalene, Russell Morris as Simon Zealotes, Jon Stevens as Judas and John Waters as Pontius Pilate His single, "Have a Little Faith (In Us)", in March peaked at #3, and won 'Highest Selling Album' at the 1999 ARIA Awards. Tour Of Duty was the first of Farnham's concerts to be webcast.

For the 2000 Summer Olympics, Farnham and Newton-John performed "Dare to Dream", during the Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremony. Broadcast of the ceremony was viewed by an estimated 3.5 billion people around the world. as part of Australia's celebration of a centenary of federation. In 2002, Farnham announced his decision to retire from full-scale national tours after his The Last Time Tour – he would still perform in concerts and record – which commenced on 6 November 2002 and finished on 15 June 2003.

During July 2003, Farnham worked with Queen to produce a new version of "We Will Rock You" for the 2003 Rugby World Cup, released on his greatest hits album, "One Voice". Media reports of Queen asking Farnham to join the band Farnham was inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame on 21 October with a performance of "You're the Voice". The DVD release, Together in Concert – John Farnham & Tom Jones, debuted at No 1. Farnham made an appearance during the 2005 Melbourne Music Festival, raising funds for rebuilding after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake at the Tsunami Benefit Concert. These shows were sponsored by Dairy Farmers and a percentage of revenue received from the 'I Remember When I was Young' concerts went to the Dairy Farmers 'Creating Greener Pastures' program to help farmers and their communities. A 2006 DVD of Farnham entitled John Farnham with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was released, it debuted at #2 on the ARIA DVD charts and then peaked at #1.

John Farnham Band members () are Angus Burchall on drums, Bob Coassin on trumpet, Lachlan Davidson on saxophone, Lisa Edwards on backing vocals, Lindsay Field on backing vocals, Stuart Fraser on guitar, Dannielle Gaha on backing vocals, Brett Garsed on guitar, Chong Lim on keyboards/musical director, Jordan Murray on trombone, Craig Newman on bass guitar, and Steve Williams on harmonica and saxophone.

From 18 February, Farnham embarked on a small Australian tour with Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks for a series of live shows. Both artists had equal billing but unlike the Tom Jones shows, they did not sing together but rather individually. The same backup singers from the tour, however, were used by Stevie Nicks and John.

On 26 March, Farnham sang at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony,

Live By Demand & Jack

On 27 May 2009, Farnham announced a new concert tour for September and October, "John Farnham – Live By Demand."

A new studio album Jack was released by Sony BMG on 15 October 2010. The album contains 11 tracks and is Farnham's first studio album in over 5 years. Jack features covers of compositions by Ray Charles, Curtis Mayfield and Percy Sledge.

The release of Jack will coincide with a run of indoor and outdoor performances under the title of "John Farnham Live!" throughout October and November 2010.

Personal life

Farnham married Jillian Billman, a dancer he met when performing the stage musical Charlie Girl, on 18 April 1973. Mo Awards and TV Week magazine's and their Logie Awards. Note: [on-line] version established at White Room Electronic Publishing Pty Ltd in 2007 and was expanded from the 2002 edition.

;Specific

External links

John Farnham at the National Film and Sound Archive

John Farnham in AusStage

Category:Australian people of English descent Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:English male singers Category:English pop singers Category:English television actors Category:Australian culture Category:ARIA Award winners Category:ARIA Hall of Fame inductees Category:Australian male singers Category:Australian of the Year Award winners Category:Australian pop singers Category:Australian television actors Category:Little River Band members Category:Officers of the Order of Australia Category:People from Dagenham Category:People from Essex Category:Cockney Category:Recipients of the Centenary Medal

Name	Chris Martin
Birth name	Christopher Anthony John Martin
Background	solo_singer
Born	March 02, 1977Exeter, Devon, England
Instrument	Vocals, piano, guitar, mandolin, clarinet, harmonica, bass, organ, glockenspiel
Genre	Alternative rock
Occupation	Vocalist, producer, musician
Years active	1996–present
Label	Parlophone, Capitol
Associated acts	Coldplay, Jay-Z
Url	Coldplay.com

Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin (born 2 March 1977) is a British singer-songwriter, musician and lead vocalist of the band Coldplay.

Early life

Chris Martin was born in Exeter, Devon and is the eldest of five children. His father, Anthony Martin, is a retired accountant, and his mother, Alison Martin, is a music teacher. Martin started his education at the preparatory Exeter Cathedral School. It was at the prep school that Martin formed his first band, The Rocking Honkies, with Nick Repton & Iwan Gronow. Their debut performance was met with boos from the crowd. After Exeter Cathedral, Martin boarded at Sherborne School, a boys' independent school in Dorset. He also met future Coldplay manager Phil Harvey at the school. Martin continued his studies at University College London, staying at Ramsay Hall where he read Ancient World Studies and graduated with First Class honours in Greek and Latin. It is here he met future Coldplay bandmates Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Guy Berryman

Recording career

Coldplay

While studying at University College London, Martin met Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Guy Berryman. In January 1998, they formed the rock band Coldplay. The band has had internationally recognised fame and success since their debut album, Parachutes, in 2000. Since then, they have released several further albums/EP's including: A Rush of Blood to the Head, Live 2003, X&Y;, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, and Prospekt's March.

Solo work

As a solo artist, Martin has written songs for a variety of acts including Embrace ("Gravity") and Jamelia ("See It in a Boy's Eyes"). Martin has also collaborated with Ron Sexsmith, Faultline, The Streets, and Ian McCulloch. He also sang a part of the vocals for the Band Aid 20 single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" at the end of 2004. In 2005, Martin collaborated with Nelly Furtado on the track "All Good Things (Come to an End)", for her 2006 album, Loose. The two were once rumoured to be a couple, after they both performed at Glastonbury in 2002. Furtado joked about the situation, saying that "Yeah, he's my boyfriend — he just doesn't know it yet".

Martin's fascination with hip hop was shown in the summer of 2006 when he collaborated with rapper Jay-Z for the rapper's comeback album Kingdom Come after the two met earlier in the year. Martin put some chords together for a song known as "Beach Chair" and sent them to Jay-Z who enlisted the help of hip hop producer Dr. Dre to add the drum line to complete the track. The song was performed on 27 September 2006 by the two during Jay-Z's European tour at Royal Albert Hall. In 2007, Martin appeared on a track titled "Part of the Plan" for Swizz Beatz' debut solo album One Man Band Man. Martin has also worked on a solo collaboration with Kanye West, with whom he shared an impromptu jam session during a 2006 concert at Abbey Road Studios. He performed the chorus of "Homecoming", from West's album Graduation.

Influences

Martin's primary influence is the British rock band Radiohead. In a 2008 Rolling Stone interview Martin stated: "Sometimes I feel like they [Radiohead] cleared a path with a machete, and we came afterward and put up a strip mall. I would still give my left [testicle] to write anything as good as OK Computer." Martin is very vocal about his love for Norwegian new wave/Synthpop band a-ha. In 2005 he stated the following in an interview: "I found myself in Amsterdam the other day and I put a-ha's first record on. I just remembered how much I loved it. It's incredible songwriting. Everyone asks what inspired us, what we've been trying to steal from and what we listened to as we were growing up – the first band I ever loved was a-ha." Martin has also performed live together with Magne Furuholmen of a-ha.

U2 has been an important influence on Martin both musically and politically, in which he wrote for Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", in the section on U2, saying: "I don't buy weekend tickets to Ireland and hang out in front of their gates, but U2 are the only band whose entire catalog I know by heart. The first song on The Unforgettable Fire, "A Sort of Homecoming", I know backward and forward – it's so rousing, brilliant, and beautiful. It's one of the first songs I played to my unborn baby." Martin also comments on Bono's effect on his own charity and political involvement he is even known to joke with friends referring to himself as "Crono". British pop groups Girls Aloud and Take That, as well as Canadian indie rock band, Arcade Fire. Solo artists Martin likes include Leona Lewis, Noel Gallagher and Kylie Minogue.

Other endeavours

" on his piano during a concert in Brazil, February 2007]] Martin and Coldplay guitarist Jon Buckland made cameo appearances in the film Shaun of the Dead as supporters of the fictional charity ZombAid. In 2006 Martin had a cameo role in the second series episode four of the Ricky Gervais- and Stephen Merchant-created comedy Extras. He also appears singing in the closing credits of the 2009 film Brüno alongside Bono, Sting, Slash, Snoop Dogg and Elton John. Martin also played one gig with the "Sid James Experience".

Martin has been particularly outspoken on issues of fair trade and has done a great deal of campaigning for the charity Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign. He personally traveled to Ghana and Haiti to meet farmers and view the effects of unfair trade practices. When performing, he usually has variations of "Make Trade Fair", "MTF" or an equal sign written on the back of his left hand and the letters "MTF" can be seen emblazoned on his piano.

He was a vocal critic of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Martin was a strong supporter of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, most notably during his acceptance speech for the 2004 Grammy Awards Record of the Year, accepting for "Clocks". Martin also supported the Democratic Party candidate for President in 2008, giving a shout-out to Barack Obama at the end of a performance of "Yellow" on 25 October 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live.

On 1 April 2006, The Guardian reported that Martin was backing the British Conservative Party leader David Cameron and had written a new theme song for the party entitled "Talk to David". This was later revealed to be an April Fool's joke. Whilst touring Australia in March 2009, Martin and the rest of Coldplay were the opening act at the Sound Relief benefit concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, for the horrific bushfires and floods in Victoria and Queensland. Whilst performing the final song "Fix You", Martin leapt off the stage and proceeded to run through the crowd with thousands of fans chasing him. The song had finished well before he made it back on stage, but he managed to sing the final refrain under exhaustion. He was so tired that he let the crowd sing it for him as well. At the end of the performance, he was quoted to saying 'I hope no-one got hurt'. He reportedly had to lie down for half an hour back stage and was suffering from heat exhaustion. The band then played a sold-out gig in Sydney that night.

Personal life

Martin met American actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 2002 backstage at a Coldplay gig after the death of the actress's father, Bruce Paltrow. The couple married a year later on 5 December 2003. Their daughter, Apple Blythe Alison Martin, was born on 14 May 2004 in London. Their second child, Moses Bruce Anthony Martin, was born on 8 April 2006 in New York City. Simon Pegg and Martin's bandmate Jonny Buckland are Apple's godfathers. Martin is a longtime friend of Pegg, having met him in 2001, and appears in Shaun of the Dead, and practices yoga. He does not smoke or drink alcohol.

In a 2005 Rolling Stone magazine interview, Martin said of his religious views: "I definitely believe in God. How can you look at anything and not be overwhelmed by the miraculousness of it?" In the same interview he spoke of going through a period of spiritual confusion, stating "I went through a weird patch, starting when I was about sixteen to twenty-two, of getting God, religion, superstition, judgement all confused".}}

Solo discography

:See Coldplay discography for his work with said group.

References

External links

Coldplay.com

Category:1977 births Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Alternative rock musicians Category:Alumni of University College London Category:Anti-Iraq War activists Category:British expatriates in the United States Category:Coldplay members Category:English-language singers Category:English male singers Category:English rock guitarists Category:English rock pianists Category:English rock singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English vegetarians Category:Old Shirburnians Category:People from Exeter Category:Living people

Name	Barry Gibb
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Barry Alan Crompton Gibb
Born	September 01, 1946Douglas, Isle of Man
Origin	Raised in:Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, EnglandMoved to:Brisbane, Australia
Instrument	Guitar, vocals
Genre	Pop, rock, disco, country
Occupation	Singer-songwriter,record producer
Years active	1958–present
Associated acts	Bee Gees(1958–2003,2009–present)
Url	Official website}}

Barry Alan Crompton Gibb, CBE (born 1 September 1946), is a singer, songwriter and producer. He was born on the Isle of Man to English parents. With his brothers Robin and Maurice, he formed the Bee Gees, one of the most successful pop groups of all time. The trio got their start in Australia, and found their major success when they returned to England. Known for his high-pitched falsetto singing voice, Gibb holds the record for consecutive Billboard Hot 100 Number Ones as a writer with six. He also is the only songwriter to have written or co-written five songs that were simultaneously in the Top Ten.

Early life

Barry Gibb was born to Barbara and Hugh Gibb on the Isle of Man. He has an older sister, Lesley (b. 1945), and three younger brothers, fraternal twins Maurice (1949–2003) and Robin (b. 1949), and Andy (1958–1988). He and his family moved to Chorlton-cum-Hardy in Manchester in 1953. When he was 12 years old, his family moved to Brisbane, Australia, settling in one of the city's poorest suburbs, Cribb Island. The suburb was later bulldozed to make way for Brisbane Airport. It was in Australia that Gibb and his brothers Robin and Maurice starting performing as the Bee Gees. The Gibb family returned to England in 1967. Shortly afterward, the Bee Gees became international stars.

Career

The Bee Gees rank sixth on the all-time top-sellers list. Only Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, and Garth Brooks are known to have outsold the Gibb brothers. The trio's contribution to Saturday Night Fever pushed the film's soundtrack pass the 40 million mark in sales. It reigned as the top-selling album in history until Michael Jackson's Thriller. They are the only group in pop history to write, produce, and record six straight #1 hits. They have sixteen Grammy nominations and nine Grammy wins.

As a songwriter, working alone and with his brothers, Gibb has had great success. In 1978, he had five songs simultaneously in the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100, and for one week in March, four of the top five songs were written by him. His songs were #1 for 27 out of 37 weeks from December 24, 1977 to September 2, 1978. As a songwriter Gibb has had #1 songs in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, when (Barry) Islands in the Stream became number 1 in the UK as the Comic Relief single for 2009. His songs have been recorded by hundreds of artists, including Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Barbra Streisand, Destiny's Child, Celine Dion, Al Green, Diana Ross, Kenny Rogers, Dionne Warwick, Luther Vandross, Sarah Vaughn, and Wyclef Jean.

Gibb has written and produced successful albums for Andy Gibb, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Rogers, and Diana Ross.

The Bee Gees are inductees of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Barry Gibb married a former "Miss Edinburgh (Scotland)" Linda Gray on 1 September 1970, choosing his birthday "so he wouldn't forget [their] anniversary" according to his wife from a 1979 biography of the Bee Gees. At that time they lived in Abbey House, a mansion block in London near the Abbey Road crossing made famous by The Beatles. They have five children: Stephen (b. 1973), Ashley (b. 1977), Travis (b. 1981), Michael (b. 1984), and Alexandra (b. 1991). Michael Jackson was the godfather of Gibb's son Michael. Gibb's son Steve Gibb has toured with the Bee Gees and has played guitar with the bands Crowbar and Kingdom Of Sorrow.

According to the biography Tales from The Brothers' Gibb..., Gibb had a heart attack in the early 1990s, which was brought on by morphine during a back operation. He also suffers from arthritis. Gibb thought that his career might be over because his hands were so badly affected. He sometimes wears a glove to keep his hand warm while playing the guitar.

In January 2006, Gibb purchased the former home of country legends Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash in Hendersonville, Tennessee, intending to restore it and turn it into a songwriting retreat. The house was destroyed by fire on 10 April 2007 while under renovation.

On 2 May 2004, Barry and Robin Gibb received the CBE award at Buckingham Palace with their nephew Adam, who collected the award in honor of his late father, Maurice Gibb.

On 10 July 2009, both Barry and Robin were made Freemen of the Borough of Douglas. The award was also bestowed posthumously on Maurice, therefore confirming the freedom of the town of their birth to all three brothers.

In 2009, The Sunday Times estimated that Gibb and his brother Robin's combined net worth at $180 million.

Gibb resides in Miami Beach, Florida and Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.

Legislation lobbying

On 7 December 2006, Barry Gibb, along with around 4,500 other musicians, took out a full-page advertisement in the Financial Times newspaper calling for the British Government to extend the existing 50 years copyright protection for sound recordings in the United Kingdom. They proposed that the copyright be extended to the American standard of 95 years. The fair play for musicians advertisement was viewed as a direct response to the Gowers Review published by the British Government on 6 December 2006, which recommended the retention of the 50 year protection for sound recordings.

Recent work

On the 8 May 2007 episode of American Idol, Gibb mentored the four remaining contestants. On the following night, he sang his own song "To Love Somebody" before the elimination of LaKisha Jones.

As a preview to his forthcoming country album, Gibb released the song "Drown On The River" to iTunes. The song is also be featured in the 2008 movie Deal, starring Burt Reynolds.

Gibb composed the theme music for ITV's Grease Is The Word.

On 14 March 2009, Gibb teamed with Olivia Newton-John to present the one-hour finale performance at a star studded twelve-hour live concert at Sydney's Sydney Cricket Ground, part of Sound Relief, a fundraiser to aid victims of the February 2009 Victorian Bushfires that devastated large tracts of heavily wooded and populated south-eastern Australia. The concert was televised live nationally across Australia on the Max TV cable network.

In late 2009, Barry and Robin announced plans to record and perform together as the Bee Gees.

The Barry Gibb Talk Show

"The Barry Gibb Talk Show" has been a popular satirical segment on Saturday Night Live. It features Jimmy Fallon as a temperamental Barry Gibb and Justin Timberlake as his brother Robin.

On 16 March 2010, Barry and Robin Gibb appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. They talked about their 50-year career, their recent appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and "The Barry Gibb Talk Show."

Discography

The Kid's No Good

1970 (unreleased)

Side 1

Mando Bay (or Born)

One Bad Thing

The Day Your Eyes Meet Mine

Happiness

Peace In My Mind

Clyde O'Reilly

Side 2

I Just Wanna Take Care Of You

I'll Kiss Your Memory

The Victim

This Time

What's It All About

Born (or Mando Bay)

Album Notes

The album is known by this title but it is not definite. The line 'the kid's no good' features in a Bee Gees song by Barry Gibb, "Come Home Johnny Bride", on the 1973 album Life In A Tin Can.

This is most likely the intended lineup, though available sources differ as to the placement of the first and last tracks. Bootleg versions add a number of additional tracks, and one claims to be a Polydor release.

"I'll Kiss Your Memory" and "This Time" were released on a single (Polydor in much of the world, Atco in North America), which did not chart. A second single of "One Bad Thing" and "The Day Your Eyes Meet Mine" was pressed by Atco Canada but not released.

1984: Now Voyager

Polydor, 1984 (MCA in North America)

Side 1

I Am Your Driver

Fine Line

Face To Face

Shatterproof

Shine Shine

Side 2

Lesson In Love

One Night (For Lovers)

Stay Alone

Temptation

She Says

The Hunter

Album Notes

To tie in with the album, Gibb filmed a "video album" version with a storyline, including nine of the songs and an instrumental title theme that is not on the LP or CD albums. The Now Voyager film is currently available as a Region 0 (all region) NTSC DVD. The video for "Fine Line" features a rarely seen Barry Gibb minus his trademark beard.

"Shine Shine" reached the Top 40 in the U.S. and the Top 10 in Adult Contemporary Charts.

Moonlight Madness

Polydor, 1986 (unreleased)

Side 1

Moonlight Madness

My Eternal Love

System Of Love

Where Tomorrow Is

In Search Of Love

Cover You

Side 2

The Savage Is Loose

Not In Love At All

Words Of A Fool

Distant Strangers

Change

Letting Go

Album Notes

Also known as When Tomorrow Comes and My Eternal Love.

Several songs would later appear on the Hawks soundtrack.

A bootleg version exists, titled The Original Hawks. This disc features the entire unreleased album, as well as a number of bonus tracks.

1988: Hawks (OST)

Polydor, 1988

System Of Love

Childhood Days

My Eternal Love

Moonlight Madness

Where Tomorrow Is

Celebration De La Vie (Theme From Hawks)

Chain Reaction

Cover You

Not In Love At All

Letting Go

Album Notes

The final incarnation of the unreleased Moonlight Madness album.

"Chain Reaction" is performed by Diana Ross.

2006: The Guilty Demos

private, 1979 (unreleased) / iTunes, 2006

Guilty

Woman in Love

Run Wild

Promises

The Love Inside

What Kind Of Fool

Life Story

Make It Like A Memory

Carried Away

Secrets

Album Notes

Recorded as a guideline for Barbra Streisand.

Finally released on iTunes in 2006 as The Guilty Demos.

A demo of "Never Give Up" was also recorded, but remains unreleased.

"Carried Away" and "Secrets" were not used on Streisand's version.

2006: The Heartbreaker Demos

private, 1982 (unreleased) / iTunes, 2006

Heartbreaker

It Makes No Difference

Yours

Take The Short Way Home

Misunderstood

All The Love In The World

I Can't See Anything (But You)

Just One More Night

You Are My Love

Album Notes

Recorded as a guideline for Dionne Warwick.

Released on iTunes in 2006 as The Heartbreaker Demos.

2006: The Eyes That See in the Dark Demos

private, 1983 (unreleased) / iTunes, 2006

This Woman

You And I

Buried Treasure

Islands In The Stream

Living With You

Evening Star

Hold Me

Midsummer Nights

I Will Always Love You

Eyes That See In The Dark

Album Notes

Recorded as a guideline for Kenny Rogers. The released versions include instrumental tracks from these demos.

Released on iTunes in 2006 as The Eyes That See In The Dark Demos.

Gibb's demo of "Islands in the Stream" was not used when the song was chosen for inclusion on the 2001 Bee Gees compilation, . Instead, Robin and Maurice, sans Barry, recorded a brand new version.

2006: The Eaten Alive Demos

private, 1985 / iTunes, 2006

Oh Teacher

Experience

More And More

I'm Watching You

Love On The Line

(I Love) Being In Love With You

Crime Of Passion

Don't Give Up On Each Other

Album Notes

Recorded as a guideline for Diana Ross.

Released on iTunes in 2006 as The Eatin Alive Demos. The spelling of "Eaten" was later corrected.

Notable for their absences are "Eaten Alive" and "Chain Reaction." Though a demo exists, the album's title track was not included as the song is currently the property of its co-author, Michael Jackson. Gibb and Albhy Galuten did not send any demo of "Chain Reaction" to Diana Ross, and evidently Gibb did not want to release whatever work tape they had of it.

Guilty Pleasures Demos

private, 2005 (unreleased) / Barry Gibb Radio, 2006

Come Tomorrow

Stranger In A Strange Land

Hideaway

It's Up To You

Night Of My Life

Above The Law

Without Your Love

All Our Children

Golden Dawn

Album Notes

Recorded as a guideline for Barbra Streisand.

As of yet, the full-length demos have not been released. All nine songs appeared on the online "Barry Gibb Radio" as two or three minute fragments, with a fade at each end.

Two songs are missing from the above tracklist - "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away" and "Letting Go." As both songs were previously released, no new demos were necessary.

Albums

1970: The Kid's No Good (Unreleased)

1984: Now Voyager

1988: Hawks (Soundtrack album)

2006: The Eaten Alive Demos (iTunes)

2006: The Guilty Demos (iTunes)

2006: The Eyes That See In The Dark Demos (iTunes)

2006: The Heartbreaker Demos (iTunes)

Singles

1969: "I'll Kiss Your Memory"

1978: "A Day in the Life"

1981: "Guilty" (duet with Barbra Streisand)

1981: "What Kind of Fool" (duet with Barbra Streisand)

1984: "Shine Shine"

1984: "Fine Line"

1988: "Childhood Days"

2006: "Dr. Mann"

2006: "Underworld"

2007: "Drown On the River"

References

External links

Official Barry Gibb Website

Official Bee Gees Website

Category:Bee Gees members Category:English pop singers Category:English-language singers Category:English male singers Category:English record producers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English songwriters Category:English tenors Category:Countertenors Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Musicians from Manchester Category:People from Brisbane Category:Australian people of English descent Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:English expatriates in Australia Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:Manx people