Name | Istanbul |
---|---|
Settlement type | City |
Blank emblem type | Logo |
Pushpin map | Turkey |
Pushpin map caption | Location in Turkey |
Pushpin mapsize | 300px |
Coordinates region | TR |
Subdivision type | Country |
Subdivision name | |
Subdivision type1 | Region |
Subdivision name1 | Marmara |
Subdivision type2 | Province |
Subdivision name2 | Istanbul |
Leader party | AKP |
Leader title | Mayor |
Leader name | Kadir Topbaş |
Established title | Established |
Established title1 | - Byzantium |
Established date1 | c. 660 BC |
Established title2 | - Constantinople |
Established date2 | 330 AD |
Established title3 | - Istanbul |
Established date3 | 1453 (Ottoman Turkish)1923 (Modern Turkish)1930 (internationally) |
Parts type | Districts |
Parts | 39 |
Area metro km2 | 5343 |
Area metro mi2 | 2063 |
Area metro footnotes | |
Population total | 8,803,468 |
Population as of | 2000–10 city proper, 2010–12 metro area |
Population metro | 13,255,685 |
Population rank | 1st Turkish, 19th World |
Population density metro km2 | 2481 |
Timezone | EET |
Utc offset | +2 |
Timezone dst | EEST |
Utc offset dst | +3 |
Postal code type | Postal code |
Postal code | 34000 to 34850 |
Area code | (+90) 212 (European side) (+90) 216 (Asian side) |
Website | }} |
Istanbul (), historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople (see names of Istanbul for further information), is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province (municipality) had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe(if its Asian half is counted) after London and Moscow. The city in its administrative limits had 8.8 million residents counted in the latest Turkish census from 2000. Istanbul is a megacity, as well as the cultural, economic, and financial centre of Turkey. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural harbour known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is situated on two continents. Istanbul is a designated alpha world city.
During its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital of the Roman Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). When the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed on 29 October 1923, Ankara, which had previously served as the headquarters of the Turkish national movement during the Turkish War of Independence, was chosen as the new Turkish State's capital. Istanbul was chosen as a joint European Capital of Culture for 2010 and the European Capital of Sports for 2012. Istanbul is currently bidding to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. The historic areas of the city were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.
The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province.
By the 19th century, the city had acquired a number of names used by either foreigners or Turks. Europeans used Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, while using the name Stamboul - as the Turks also did - to describe the walled peninsula between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara. Pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu, which is still in use today. However, with the Turkish Postal Service Law of 28 March 1930, the Turkish authorities formally requested foreigners to adopt İstanbul, a name in existence since the 10th century, as the sole name of the city within their own languages.
Etymologically, the name "İstanbul" (, colloquially ) derives from the Medieval Greek phrase or, in the Aegean dialect, (, Modern Greek "στην Πόλη" ), which means "in the city" or "to the city". In modern Turkish, the name is written "İstanbul", with a dotted İ, as the Turkish alphabet distinguishes between a dotted and dotless I. Also, while in English the stress is on the first syllable ("Is"), in Turkish it is on the second syllable ("tan"). Like Rome, Istanbul has been called "The City of Seven Hills" because the oldest part of the city is supposedly built on seven hills, each of which bears a historic mosque.
However, the history of Istanbul generally begins around 660 BCE, when the settlers from Megara, under the command of King Byzas, established Byzantion (Latinised as Byzantium) on the European side of the Bosphorus. By the end of the century, an acropolis was established at the former locations of Lygos and Semistra, on the Seraglio Point. The city experienced a brief period of Persian rule at the turn of the 5th century BC, but the Greeks recaptured it during the Greco-Persian Wars. Byzantium then continued as part of the Athenian League and its successor, the Second Athenian Empire, before ultimately gaining independence in 355 BCE. Long protected by the Roman Republic, Byzantium officially became a part of the Roman Empire in AD 73.
Byzantium's decision to side with the usurper Pescennius Niger against Roman Emperor Septimus Severus cost it dearly; by the time it surrendered at the end of 195, two years of siege had left the city devastated. Still, five years later, Severus began to rebuild Byzantium, and the city regained—and, by some accounts, surpassed—its previous prosperity.
When Constantine I defeated Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis in September 324, he effectively became the emperor of the whole of the Roman Empire. Just two months later, Constantine laid out the plans for a new, Christian city to replace Byzantium. Intended to replace Nicomedia as the eastern capital of the empire, the city was named Nea Roma (New Rome); however, most simply called it Constantinople ("the city of Constantine"), a name that persisted into the 20th century. Six years later, on 11 May 330, Constantinople was proclaimed the capital of an empire that eventually became known as the Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire.
The establishment of Constantinople served as one of Constantine's most lasting accomplishments, shifting Roman power eastward and becoming a center of Greek culture and Christianity. Numerous churches were built across the city, including the Hagia Sofia, which remained the world's largest cathedral for a thousand years. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople developed in the city, and its leader is still one of the foremost figures in the Greek Orthodox Church. Constantinople's location also ensured its existence would stand the test of time; for many centuries, its walls and seafront protected Europe against invaders from the east as well as from the advance of Islam. During most of the Middle Ages and the latter part of the Byzantine period, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city on the European continent, and during parts of this period the largest in the world.
Constantinople began to decline after the Fourth Crusade, during which it was sacked and pillaged. The city subsequently became the center of the Latin Empire, created by Catholic crusaders to replace the Orthodox Byzantine Empire, which was divided into splinter states. However, the Latin Empire was short-lived, and the Byzantine Empire was restored, weakened, in 1261. Constantinople's churches, defenses, and basic services were in disrepair, and its population had dwindled to forty thousand from nearly half a million during the 9th century.
Various economic and military policies instituted by Andronikos II, such as the reduction of forces, weakened the empire and left it more vulnerable to attack. In the mid-14th century, the Ottoman Turks began a strategy by which they took smaller towns and cities over time, cutting off Constantinople's supply routes and strangling it slowly. Finally, on 29 May 1453, after an eight-week siege (during which the last Roman Emperor, Constantine XI, was killed), Sultan Mehmed II "the Conqueror" captured Constantinople and declared it the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. Hours later, the sultan rode to the Hagia Sofia and summoned an imam to proclaim the Islamic creed, converting the grand cathedral into an imperial mosque.
Following the fall of Constantinople, Mehmed II immediately set out to revitalize the city, now also known as Istanbul. He invited and forcibly resettled many Muslims, Jews, and Christians from other parts of Anatolia into the city, creating a cosmopolitan society that persisted through much of the Ottoman period. By the end of the century, Istanbul had returned to a population of two hundred thousand, making it the second-largest city in Europe. Meanwhile, Mehmed II repaired the city's damaged infrastructure and began to build the Grand Bazaar. Also constructed during this period was Topkapı Palace, which served as the official residence of the sultan for four hundred years.
The Ottomans quickly transformed Constantinople from a bastion of Christianity to a symbol of Islamic culture. Religious foundations were established to fund the construction of grand imperial mosques, often adjoined by schools, hospitals, and public baths. Suleiman the Magnificent's reign from 1520 to 1566 was a period of especially great artistic and architectural achievements; chief architect Mimar Sinan designed the Süleymaniye Mosque and other grand buildings in the city, while Ottoman arts of ceramics, calligraphy and miniature flourished. The total population of Constantinople amounted to 570,000 by the end of the 18th century.
A period of rebellion at the start of the 19th century led to the rise of the progressive Sultan Mahmud II and eventually the Tanzimat period, which produced reforms that aligned the empire along Western European standards. Bridges across the Golden Horn were constructed during this period, and Istanbul was connected to the rest of the European railway network in the 1880s. The Tünel, one of the world's oldest subterranean urban rail lines, opened in 1875; other modern facilities, such a stable water network, electricity, telephones, and trams, were gradually introduced to Istanbul over the following decades, although later than to other European cities.
Still, the modernization efforts were not enough to forestall the decline of the Ottoman regime. The early 20th century saw the Young Turk Revolution, which disposed of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and a series of wars that plagued the ailing empire's capital. The last of these, World War I, resulted in the British, French, and Italian occupation of Istanbul. The final Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI, was exiled in November 1922; the following year, the occupation of Istanbul ended with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne and the recognition of the Republic of Turkey, which was declared by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on 29 October 1923.
In the early years of the republic, Istanbul was overlooked in favor of the country's new capital, Ankara. However, starting from the late 1940s and early 1950s, Istanbul underwent great structural change, as new public squares (such as Taksim Square), boulevards, and avenues were constructed throughout the city, sometimes at the expense of historical buildings. In 1955, the Istanbul Pogrom targeted the city's ethnic Greek community. The pogrom greatly accelerated the emigration of the city's ethnic Greeks to Greece. The population of Istanbul began to rapidly increase in the 1970s, as people from Anatolia migrated to the city to find employment in the many new factories that were built on the outskirts of the sprawling metropolis. This sudden, sharp rise in the city's population caused a large demand for housing development, and many previously outlying villages and forests became engulfed into the greater metropolitan area of Istanbul. As a capital of empires, the city was not only an administrative, but also a religious center. The Patriarchate of Eastern Christians has been headquartered here since its establishment, and the largest early churches and monasteries of the Christian world rose in this city on top of the pagan temples. Within a century after the city was conquered, it was enriched with mosques, palaces, schools, baths and other architectural monuments that gave it a Turkish character, while some of the existing churches in ruins were repaired, altered and converted into mosques.Between the 16th century when the Ottoman sultans acquired themselves the title of the "Caliph of Islam" and 1924, the first year of the Republic, Istanbul was also the headquarters of the Caliphate. More Jews settled in Istanbul than any other port, and here they built themselves a new and happy life after they were rescued from Spain by the Turks in the 15th century. Istanbul has always been a city of tolerance where mosques, churches and synagogues existed side by side. The city was adorned with a large number of dazzling and impressive works even during the period of decline of the Ottomans. During this time, the influence of European art made itself felt in the new palaces, while the northern slopes of the Golden Horn, Galata and Beyoglu districts assumed a European character. Even when the Empire, which was a party to World War I, collapsed and the young Republic that replaced it moved the capital to Ankara, Istanbul did not lose its significance. The haphazard development that began in the years following World War II and accelerated in the 1950s has unfortunately had a negative impact on the fabric of the old city, and while old wooden houses disappeared rapidly, concrete buildings proliferated. Istanbul experienced a population explosion due to immigration, and within a very short period it expanded far beyond the historical city walls. The areas inside the walls were invaded by workshops, mills and offices; even the new thoroughfares could not solve the traffic problems, and the inadequacy of the infrastructure gave rise to a sea pollution problem, starting with the Golden Horn.
With the initiatives for saving the city in the 1980s, Istanbul embarked on a process of restructuring on a scale unseen in its history.Thousands of buildings along the Golden Horn were demolished to make way for a green belt on its shores; parks and gardens were built on the land claimed by filling up the beaches of the Sea of Marmara. In order to prevent sea pollution drainage systems were completed and physical and biological wastewater treatment plants were erected; the use of natural gas for heating has considerably reduced air pollution. Efforts are continuing for the restoration of the Roman city walls, and Beyoglu, the main artery, was rescued by building a newavenue. Improvements were made in ihe general cleaning, maintenance, garbage collection fields and these services are now at Western European standards. Ring roads cross the Bosphorus over two suspension bridges to connect the two continents. The European side has now a fast tramway system and a subway, and comfort and speed has been ensured in sea transportation with the hydrofoil terminals built on the seashores. All industrial establishments on the historic peninsula have been moved to new facilities in the suburbs, and the new international bus terminal has reduced traffic intensity. The old jail and the first large concrete building of the city were given over to tourism and converted into 5-star hotels.
The city is growing dynamically and developing at full speed on an east-west axis along the shores of the Marmara.
Istanbul is located in northwestern Turkey within the Marmara Region on a total area of . is given by them for the "MMI Authority Area", while another page states that "Each MM is sub-divided into District Municipalities ("DM") of which there are 27 in Istanbul" [emphasis added] with a total area of . However, the Municipal History Page appears to be the most explicit and most updated, saying that in 2004, "Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's jurisdiction was enlarged to cover all the area within the provincial limits". It also states a 2008 law merged the Eminönü district into the Fatih district (a point that is not reflected in the previous source) and increased the number of districts in Istanbul to 39. That total area, as corroborated on the Turkish version of the MMI website, is .|group="note"|name="city-area"}} The Bosphorus, which connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, divides the city into a European side, comprising the historic and economic centers, and an Asian, Anatolian side; as such, Istanbul is one of the two bi-continental cities in Turkey among with Çanakkale. The city is further divided by the Golden Horn, a natural harbor bounding the peninsula where the former Byzantium and Constantinople were founded. In the late-19th century, a wharf was constructed in Galata at the mouth of the Golden Horn, replacing a sandy beach that once formed part of the inlet's coastline. The confluence of the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus, and the Golden Horn at the heart of present-day Istanbul has deterred attacking forces for thousands of years and still remains a prominent feature of the city's landscape.
The historic peninsula is said to be built on seven hills, each topped by an imperial mosque, surrounded by of city walls; the largest of these hills is the site of Topkapı Palace on the Sarayburnu. Rising from the opposite side of the Golden Horn is another, conical hill, where the modern Beyoğlu district is situated. Because of the topography, buildings were once constructed with the help of terraced retaining walls (some of which are still visible in older parts of the city), and roads in Beyoğlu were laid out in the form of steps. Üsküdar on the Asian side exhibits similarly hilly characteristics, with the terrain gradually extending down to the Bosphorus coast, but the landscape in Şemsipaşa and Ayazma is more abrupt, akin to a promontory. The highest point in Istanbul is Çamlıca Hill (also on the Asian side), with an altitude of .
Istanbul is situated near the North Anatolian Fault on the boundary between the African and Eurasian plates. This fault zone, which runs from northern Anatolia to the Sea of Marmara, has been responsible for several deadly earthquakes throughout the city's history. Among the most devastating of these seismic events was the 1509 earthquake, which caused a tsunami that broke over the walls of the city, destroyed over 100 mosques, and killed more than 10,000 people. More recently, in 1999, an earthquake with its epicenter in nearby İzmit left 17,000 people dead, including 1,000 people in Istanbul's suburbs. Istanbulites remain concerned that an even more catastrophic seismic event may be in Istanbul's near future, as thousands of structures recently built to accommodate the city's rapidly increasing population may not have been constructed properly. Seismologists say the risk of a 7.6-magnitude earthquake striking Istanbul by 2030 is greater than sixty percent.
Istanbul has a persistently high humidity, which can exacerbate the moderate summer heat. The humidity is especially salient during the morning hours, when humidity generally reaches eighty percent and fog is very common. The city receives fog an average of 228 days each year, with the highest concentration of foggy days being in the winter months, although it usually dissipates by noontime. Thunderstorms are uncommon, occurring just 23 days each year, but they occur most frequently in the summer and early autumn months. Istanbul has an annual average of 124 days with significant precipitation, which together generate around of rain. The highest recorded temperature was on 12 July 2000, and the lowest recorded temperature was on 9 February 1927. Istanbul also tends to be a windy city, having an average wind speed of . Due to the city's huge size, topography and maritime influences, Istanbul exhibits a multitude of distinct microclimates.
Dolmabahçe Palace, the seat of government during the late Ottoman period, is located in Beşiktaş, just north of Beyoğlu, across from BJK İnönü Stadium, home to Turkey's oldest football club. The former village of Ortaköy is situated within Beşiktaş and provides its name to the Ortaköy Mosque, along the Bosphorus near the First Bosphorus Bridge. Lining the shores of the Bosphorus north of there are yalıs, luxurious chalet mansions originally built by 19th-century aristocrats and elites as summer homes. Today, some are homes within the city's most exclusive neighborhoods, including Bebek. Further inland, between the Bosphorus Bridge and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet (Second Bosphorus) Bridge, are Levent, Maslak, and Mecidiyeköy, Istanbul's primary economic centers. Officially part of the Beşiktaş and Şişli districts, they contain Istanbul's tallest buildings and the headquarters of Turkey's largest companies.
Like Beyoğlu, the districts of Üsküdar and Kadıköy on the Asian side were originally separate cities, Chrysopolis and Chalcedon, respectively. During the Ottoman period, they continued to remain outside the scope of urban Istanbul, serving as tranquil outposts with seaside yalıs and gardens. However, during the second half of the 20th century, the Asian side experienced massive urban growth, owning in part to the development of Bağdat Avenue into an upscale shopping hub similar to İstiklal Avenue on the European side. The fact that these areas were largely empty until the 1960s also provided the chance for developing better infrastructure and tidier urban planning when compared with most other residential areas in the city. While now officially parts of Istanbul, much of the Asian side of the Bosphorus, which accounts for one third of the city's population, functions as a suburb of the economic and commercial centers in European Istanbul.
As a result of Istanbul's exponential growth during the 20th century, a significant portion of the city's outskirts comprised gecekondus (a Turkish term meaning built overnight), referring to the illegally constructed squatter buildings run rampant outside the centers of the country's largest cities. At present, some gecekondu areas are being gradually demolished and replaced by modern mass-housing compounds.
Whs | Historic Areas of Istanbul |
---|---|
State party | |
Type | Cultural |
Criteria | I, II, III, IV |
Id | 356 |
Region | Europe and North America |
Year | 1985 |
Session | 9th |
Link | http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/356 }} |
Istanbul is primarily known for its Byzantine and Ottoman architecture, but its buildings reflect the various peoples and empires that have ruled its predecessors. Genoese, Roman, and even Greek forms of architecture remain visible in Istanbul alongside their Ottoman counterparts. Similarly, while the Hagia Sophia and imperial mosques dominate much of the city's skyline, the city is also home to a number of historic churches and synagogues.
More than two thousand years following the departure of the Greeks, few examples of Istanbul's Greek architecture have survived. Perhaps the most prominent relic of the Greek era is Maiden's (Leander's) Tower. Residing on an islet in the Bosphorus just off the coast of Üsküdar, Maiden's Tower was first built by the Greeks in 411 BC to guide ships within the strait. Since then, however, the tower has undergone a number of enlargements and restorations, rendering its connection to the Greeks tenuous, and today merely serves as an observation point.
Examples of Roman architecture have proved themselves to be more durable. Obelisks from the Hippodrome of Constantinople, modeled after the Circus Maximus in Rome, are still visible in Sultanahmet Square. A section of the Valens Aqueduct, constructed in the late 4th century to carry water to the city, stands relatively intact over in the west of the Fatih district. Similarly, the Walls of Constantinople, which were erected in stages well into the Byzantine period, are still visible along much of their original course from the Sea of Marmara to the Golden Horn. Finally, the Column of Constantine, erected in 330 AD to mark the new Roman capital, still stands not far from the Hippodrome.
Early Byzantine architecture followed the classical Roman model of domes and arches, but further improved these architectural concepts, as in the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus. The oldest surviving Byzantine church in Istanbul (albeit partially in ruins) is the Stoudios (İmrahor) Monastery, which was built in 454. Other extant structures from the early Byzantine period include the Hagia Irene, initially the first church in the new capital, and the Prison of Anemas, which was incorporated into the city walls. After the recapture of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantines constructed two of their most important churches, Chora Church and Pammakaristos Church. Across the Golden Horn, the Genoese contributed Galata Tower, then the highest point in the citadel of Galata. Still, the pinnacle of Byzantine architecture, and one of Istanbul's most iconic structures, is the Hagia Sophia. Topped by a dome in diameter, the Hagia Sofia stood as the largest cathedral for more than a thousand years, before being converted into a mosque and, now, a museum.
Among the oldest extant examples of Ottoman architecture in Istanbul are the Anadoluhisarı and Rumelihisarı fortresses, which helped block sea traffic aimed at assisting the Byzantines during the Turkish siege of the city. Over the next four centuries, the Ottomans continued to make an indelible impression on the skyline of Istanbul, building towering mosques and ornate palaces. These grand imperial mosques include Sultan Ahmed Mosque (the Blue Mosque), Süleymaniye Mosque, and Yeni Mosque, all of which were built at the peak of the Ottoman Empire, in the 16th and 17th centuries.
In the following centuries, and especially after the Tanzimat reforms, Ottoman architecture was supplanted by European styles. In contrast to the traditional elements of Topkapı Palace and the mosques on the historic peninsula, Dolmabahçe Palace, Yıldız Palace, and Ortaköy Mosque in Beşiktaş, and Beylerbeyi Palace across the Bosphorus in Üsküdar are clearly of Neo-Baroque style. At the same time, the areas around İstiklal Avenue were filled with grandiose European embassies and rows of buildings in European (mostly Neoclassical and, later, Art Nouveau) style started to appear along the avenue. Istanbul was one of the major centers of the Art Nouveau movement in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, with famous architects of this style building palaces and mansions in the city.
Istanbul is a home rule city and municipal elections are mainly partisan. The metropolitan model of governance has been used with the establishment of metropolitan administration in 1930. The metropolitan council is responsible for all authority when it comes to making city decisions.
The metropolitan government structure consists of three main organs: (1) The Metropolitan Mayor (elected every five years), (2) The Metropolitan Council (decision making body with the mayor, district Mayors, and one fifth of the district municipal councillors), (3) The metropolitan executive committee. There are three types of local authorities: (1) municipalities, (2) special provincial administrations, (3) village administrations. Among the local authorities, municipalities are gaining greater importance with the rise in urbanisation.
The current Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Hall building in the Saraçhane quarter of the Fatih district, the construction of which began on 17 December 1953 and was completed and inaugurated on 26 May 1960, will soon be demolished and replaced by a new building, designed by Istanbul-based Arolat Architects.
! Year | ! Population | ! Year | ! Population |
330 | 40,000 | 1914 | 909,978 |
400 | 200,000 | 1927 | 680,857 |
530 | 550,000 | 1935 | 741,148 |
545 | 350,000 | 1940 | 793,949 |
715 | 300,000 | 1945 | 860,558 |
950 | 400,000 | 1950 | 983,041 |
1200 | 250,000 | 1955 | 1,268,771 |
1453 | 36,000 | 1960 | 1,466,535 |
1477 | 70,000 | 1965 | 1,742,978 |
1566 | 600,000 | 1970 | 2,132,407 |
1690 | 750,000–800,000 | 1975 | 2,547,364 |
1817 | 500,000 | 1980 | 2,772,708 |
1860 | 715,000 | 1985 | 5,475,982 |
1885 | 873,570 | 1990 | 6,629,431 |
1890 | 874,000 | 2000 | 8,803,468 |
1897 | 1,059,000 | 2007 | 11,372,613 |
1901 | 942,900 | 2010 | 13,120,596 |
According to the address-based birth recording system of the Statistical Institute, the metropolitan municipality (entire Istanbul Province), had a population of 13,255,685 people as of 2010, making the city one of the largest metropolitan areas today. On the last census in 2000, Istanbul had a proper population of 8,803,468 inhabitants. According to present estimates the rate of population growth in the city is currently at 3.45% a year on average, mainly due to the influx of people from the surrounding rural areas. Istanbul's population density of 2,742 people per square mile (1,700 per square km) far exceeds Turkey's 130 people per square mile (81 people per square km).
During the early Middle Ages, Istanbul was the largest city in the world, and has been one of the world's largest and most important cities during much of its history (excepting the period of collapse of the Byzantine Empire, before the Ottomans). Its geopolitical significance since ancient times brought representatives of ethnic groups from all over Europe, Asia, and Africa, many of whom became assimilated with the local Greek and later Turkish populations.
The following overview shows the numbers of inhabitants by year. Population tallies up to 1914 are estimated with variations of up to 50% depending upon researcher. The numbers from 1927 to 2000 are results of censuses. The numbers of 2005 and 2006 are based on computer simulation forecasts. The doubling of the population of Istanbul between 1980 and 1985 is due to a natural increase in population as well as the expansion of municipal limits.
The urban landscape of Istanbul is shaped by many communities. The religion with the largest community of followers is Islam. Religious minorities include Orthodox Christians, Armenian Christians, Catholic Levantines and Sephardic Jews. According to the 2000 census, there were 2,691 active mosques, 123 active churches and 26 active synagogues in Istanbul; as well as 109 Muslim cemeteries and 57 non-Muslim cemeteries. Some districts used to have sizeable populations of these ethnic groups, such as the Kumkapı district, which had a sizeable Armenian population; the Balat district, which had a sizeable Jewish population; the Fener district, which had a sizeable Greek population; and some neighbourhoods in the Nişantaşı and Beyoğlu districts that had sizeable Levantine populations. Very few remain in these districts, as they either emigrated or moved to other districts. In some quarters, such as Kuzguncuk, an Armenian church sits next to a synagogue, and on the other side of the road a Greek Orthodox church is found beside a mosque.
The seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, patriarch of the autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church, is located in the Fener (Phanar) quarter. Also based in Istanbul are the archbishop of the Turkish Orthodox Church, an Armenian archbishop, and the Turkish Grand-Rabbi. A number of places reflect past movements of different communities into Istanbul, most notably Arnavutköy (Albanian village), Polonezköy (Polish village) and Yenibosna (New Bosnia).
The Muslims are by far the largest religious group in Istanbul. Among them, the Sunnis form the most populous sect, while a number of the local Muslims are Alevis. In 2007 there were 2,944 active mosques in Istanbul.
Istanbul was the final seat of the Islamic Caliphate, between 1517 and 1924, when the Caliphate was dissolved and its powers were handed over to the Turkish Parliament. On 2 September 1925, the tekkes and tarikats were banned, as their activities were deemed incompatible with the characteristics of the secular democratic Republic of Turkey; particularly with the secular education system and the laicist state's control over religious affairs through the Religious Affairs Directorate. Most followers of Sufism and other forms of Islamic mysticism practiced clandestinely afterwards, and some of these sects still boast numerous followers. To avoid the still active prohibition, these organisations represent themselves as "cultural associations."
The city has been the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople since the 4th century AD. The city is also seat of the Autocephalous Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate and the Armenian Patriarchate. The city was formerly also the seat of the reduced Bulgarian Orthodox Exarchate, before its autocephaly was recognised for a second time by other bodies of the Orthodox Church.
The everyday life of the Christians, particularly the Greeks and Armenians living in Istanbul changed significantly following the bitter conflicts between these ethnic groups and the Turks during the fall of the Ottoman Empire, which began in the 1820s and continued for a century. The conflicts reached their culmination in the decade between 1912 and 1922; during the Balkan Wars, the First World War and the Turkish War of Independence. The Christian population declined from 450,000 to 240,000 between 1914 and 1927. Today, most of Turkey's remaining Greek and Armenian minorities live in or near Istanbul. The number of the local Turkish Armenians in Istanbul today amount to approximately 45,000 (not including the nearly 40,000 Armenian workers in Turkey who came from Armenia after 1991 and mostly live and work in Istanbul); while the Greek community, which amounted to 150,000 citizens in 1924, currently amounts to approximately 4,000 citizens. There are also 60,000 Istanbulite Greeks who currently live in Greece but continue to retain their Turkish citizenship.
The Sephardic Jews have lived in the city for over 500 years. They fled the Iberian Peninsula during the Spanish Inquisition of 1492, when they were forced to convert to Christianity after the fall of the Moorish Kingdom of Andalucia. The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481–1512) sent a sizable fleet to Spain under the command of Kemal Reis to save the Sephardic Jews. At that point in the Caliphate's history it was a beacon of tolerance compared to most of Christendom. More than 200,000 Jews fled first to Tangier, Algiers, Genova, and Marseille, later to Salonica, and finally to Istanbul. The Sultan granted over 93,000 of these Spanish Jews to take refuge in the Ottoman Empire. Another large group of Sephardic Jews came from southern Italy, which was under Spanish control. The İtalyan Sinagogu (Italian Synagogue) in Galata is mostly frequented by the descendants of these Italian Jews in Istanbul.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were over 200,000 Jews in Istanbul. However with the formation of the Turkish Republic and accompanying nationalism, many Jews emigrated along with other minorities. The 1934 anti-Jewish pogrom, the 1942 Varlık Vergisi ("Wealth Tax"), and recent terrorist bombings of synagogues have contributed to the exodus. Today, according to the World Jewish Congress, 23,000 Jews remain in Turkey, the vast majority being located in Istanbul. There are about 20 synagogues, the most important of them being the Neve Shalom Synagogue inaugurated in 1951, in the Beyoğlu district.
Apart from being the largest city and former political capital of the country, Istanbul has always been the centre of Turkey's economic life because of its location as a junction of international land and sea trade routes. Istanbul is also Turkey's largest industrial centre. It employs approximately 20% of Turkey's industrial labour and contributes 38% of Turkey's industrial workspace. Istanbul and its surrounding province produce cotton, fruit, olive oil, silk, and tobacco. Food processing, textile production, oil products, rubber, metal ware, leather, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, glass, machinery, automotive, transport vehicles, paper and paper products, and alcoholic drinks are among the city's major industrial products. According to Forbes magazine, Istanbul had a total of 35 billionaires as of March 2008, ranking fourth in the world.
Originally established as the Ottoman Stock Exchange (Dersaadet Tahvilat Borsası) in 1866, and reorganised to its current structure at the beginning of 1986, the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) is the sole securities market of Turkey. During the 19th century and early 20th century, Bankalar Caddesi (Banks Street) in Galata was the financial centre of the Ottoman Empire, where the headquarters of the Ottoman Central Bank (established as the Bank-ı Osmanî in 1856, and later reorganised as the Bank-ı Osmanî-i Şahane in 1863) and the Ottoman Stock Exchange (1866) were located. Bankalar Caddesi continued to be Istanbul's main financial district until the 1990s, when most Turkish banks began moving their headquarters to the modern central business districts of Levent and Maslak. In 1995, the Istanbul Stock Exchange moved to its current building in the İstinye quarter.
Today, the city generates 55% of Turkey's trade and 45% of the country's wholesale trade, and generates 21.2% of Turkey's gross national product. Istanbul contributes 40% of all taxes collected in Turkey and produces 27.5% of Turkey's national product. In 2005 the City of Istanbul had a GDP of $133 billion. In 2005 companies based in Istanbul made exports worth $41,397,000,000 and imports worth $69,883,000,000; which corresponded to 56.6% and 60.2% of Turkey's exports and imports, respectively, in that year.
Istanbul is one of the most important tourism spots of Turkey. There are thousands of hotels and other tourist oriented industries in the city, catering to both vacationers and visiting professionals. In 2006 a total of 23,148,669 tourists visited Turkey, most of whom entered the country through the airports and seaports of Istanbul and Antalya. The total number of tourists who entered Turkey through Atatürk International Airport and Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in Istanbul reached 5,346,658, rising from 4,849,353 in 2005. Istanbul is also one of the world's major conference destinations and is an increasingly popular choice for the world's leading international associations.
Istanbul holds some of the finest institutions of higher education in Turkey, including more than 35 public and private universities. Most of the reputable universities are public, but in recent years there has also been an upsurge in the number of private universities. Istanbul University, founded as a madrasa in 1453, is the oldest Turkish educational institution in the city, while Istanbul Technical University (1773) is the world's third-oldest technical university dedicated entirely to engineering sciences. Other prominent state universities in Istanbul include Boğaziçi University, Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Yildiz Technical University and Marmara University. The major private universities in the city include Koç University, Sabancı University,Istanbul Bilgi University, Bahçeşehir University, Yeditepe University, Istanbul Kültür University, and Kadir Has University. Almost all Turkish private high schools and universities in Istanbul teach in English, German or French as the primary foreign language, usually accompanied by a secondary foreign language.
Among the best public schools of Turkey, the Galatasaray High School, established in 1481 as Galata Sarayı Enderun-u Hümayunu (Galata Palace Imperial School) and later known as Galatasaray Mekteb-i Sultanisi (Galatasaray School of the Sultans), is the oldest Turkish high school in Istanbul and the second oldest Turkish educational institution in the city. Istanbul High School, also commonly known as İstanbul Erkek Lisesi (established in 1884), abbreviated İEL, is one of the oldest and internationally renowned public high schools of Turkey. Kuleli Military High School is the only military high school in Istanbul, located in Çengelköy district. Another important school in Turkey is Darüşşafaka which has no similar world-wide, providing children opportunities around the Turkey without receiving any money from any of them. The school accepts only yetim children (a child without father), children with both parents or öksüz children (a child without mother) are not accepted. This school was built in 1873 by Darüşşafaka community. The primary person who came up with creating this school and community is Yusuf Ziya Pasha. Darüşşafaka is located in Maslak.
Anadolu Liseleri (Anatolian High Schools) were originally furnished for the Turkish children who returned home from foreign countries, such as the Üsküdar Anadolu Lisesi with German as the primary foreign language and technical instruction in German. Kabataş Erkek Lisesi(Kabatas Highschool)is one of Anatolian High Schools and also one of the oldest and the most prominent schools in Turkey. Established in 1908 by the Ottoman Empire Sultan Abdulhamid II, the high school has been educating for 103 years and still does. The Queen of the UK has visited the school in 2008. Furthermore, Kadıköy Anadolu Lisesi which is also commonly known as Kadıköy Maarif College is one of the first six special Ministry of Education Colleges established in 1950s in big cities across Turkey. Those English-medium colleges were renamed as "Anadolu Lisesi" in subsequent decades. There are also many foreign high schools in Istanbul, most of which were established in the 19th century to educate foreigners in Istanbul. Following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, most of these schools went under the administration of the Turkish Ministry of Education, but some of them still have considerable foreign administration, such as the Liceo Italiano Statale I.M.I. (Özel İtalyan Lisesi), which is still regarded as an Italian state school by the government of Italy and continues to receive funding and teachers from Rome. Robert College established in 1863 and Üsküdar American Academy established in 1876, are other remarkable foreign schools in the city, among numerous others.
Fen Liseleri (Science High School) were originally furnished for the Turkish children who wants to be scientist, doctor or a job about the "Science", such as Atatürk Fen Lisesi, Yaşar Acar Fen Lisesi and 2 other science high schools.
Istanbul has numerous libraries, many of which contain vast collections of historic documents from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods, as well as from other civilisations of the past. The most important libraries in terms of historic document collections include the Topkapı Palace Library, Library of the Archaeological Museum, Library of the Naval Museum, Beyazıt State Library, Nuruosmaniye Library, Süleymaniye Library, Istanbul University Library, Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Paşa Library, Atatürk Library and Çelik Gülersoy Library.
The city has many public and private hospitals, clinics and laboratories within its bounds and numerous medical research centers. Many of these facilities have high technology equipment, which has contributed to the recent upsurge in "medical tourism" to Istanbul, particularly from West European countries like the United Kingdom and Germany where governments send patients with lower income to the city for the inexpensive service of high-tech medical treatment and operations. Istanbul has particularly become a global destination for laser eye surgery and plastic surgery. The city also has an Army Veterans Hospital in the military medical centre.
Pollution-related health problems increase especially in the winter, when the combustion of heating fuels increase. The rising number of new cars in the city and the slow development of public transportation often cause urban smog conditions. Mandatory use of unleaded gas was scheduled to begin only in January 2006.
Istanbul's first water supply systems date back to the foundation of the city. The two greatest aqueducts from the Roman period are the Mazulkemer Aqueduct and the Valens Aqueduct. These were built to channel water from the Halkalı area in the western edge of the city to the Beyazıt district in the city centre, which was called the Forum Tauri in the Roman period. After reaching the city centre, the water was later collected in the city's numerous cisterns, such as the famous Philoxenos (Binbirdirek) Cistern and the Basilica (Yerebatan) Cistern. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent commissioned Mimar Sinan, his engineer and architect-in-chief, to improve the water needs of the city. Sinan constructed the Kırkçeşme Water Supply System in 1555. In later years, with the aim of responding to the ever-increasing public demand, water from various springs was channeled to the public fountains by means of small supply lines; see German Fountain.
Today, Istanbul has a chlorinated and filtered water supply and a sewage disposal system managed by the government agency İSKİ. There are also several private sector organisations distributing clean water. Electricity distribution services are covered by the state-owned TEK. The first electricity production plant in the city, Silahtarağa Termik Santrali, was established in 1914 and continued to supply electricity until 1983.
The Ottoman Ministry of Post and Telegraph was established in the city on 23 October 1840. The first post office was the Postahane-i Amire near the courtyard of Yeni Mosque. In 1876 the first international mailing network between Istanbul and the lands beyond the vast Ottoman Empire was established. In 1901 the first money transfers were made through the post offices and the first cargo services became operational. Samuel Morse received his first ever patent for the telegraph in 1847, at the old Beylerbeyi Palace (the present Beylerbeyi Palace was built in 1861–1865 on the same location) in Istanbul, which was issued by Sultan Abdülmecid who personally tested the new invention. Following this successful test, installation works of the first telegraph line between Istanbul and Edirne began on 9 August 1847. In 1855 the Telegraph Administration was established. In July 1881 the first telephone circuit in Istanbul was established between the Ministry of Post and Telegraph in Soğukçeşme and the Postahane-i Amire in Yenicami. On 23 May 1909, the first manual telephone exchange with a 50 line capacity was established in the Büyük Postane (Grand Post Office) of Sirkeci.
Istanbul has two international airports: The larger one is the Atatürk International Airport located in the Yeşilköy district on the European side, about west from the city centre. When it was first built, the airport was situated at the western edge of the metropolitan area but now lies within the city bounds. The smaller one is the Sabiha Gökçen International Airport located in the Kurtköy district on the Asian side, close to the Istanbul Park GP Racing Circuit. It is situated approximately east of the Asian side and east of the European city centre.
Sea transport is vital for Istanbul, as the city is practically surrounded by sea on all sides: the Sea of Marmara, the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the Black Sea. Many Istanbulites live on the Asian side of the city but work on the European side (or vice-versa) and the city's famous commuter ferries form the backbone of the daily transition between the two parts of the city – even more so than the two suspension bridges that span the Bosphorus. The commuter ferries, along with the high speed catamaran Seabus (Deniz Otobüsü), also form the main connection between the city and the Princes' Islands.
The first steam ferries appeared on the Bosphorus in 1837 and were operated by private sector companies. On 1 January 1851, the Şirket-i Hayriye (literally the Goodwill Company, as the Istanbul Ferry Company was originally called) was established by the Ottoman state. The Şirket-i Hayriye continued to operate the city's landmark commuter ferries until the early years of the Republican period, when they went under the direction of Türkiye Denizcilik İşletmeleri (Turkish State Maritime Lines). Since March 2006, Istanbul's traditional commuter ferries are operated by İstanbul Deniz Otobüsleri (Istanbul Sea Buses), which also operates the high speed catamaran Seabus.
İDO (İstanbul Deniz Otobüsleri – Istanbul Sea Buses) was established in 1987 and operates the high speed catamaran Seabuses that run between the European and Asian parts of Istanbul—and also connect the city with the Princes' Islands and other destinations in the Sea of Marmara. The Yenikapı High Speed Car Ferry Port on the European side, and the Pendik High Speed Car Ferry Port on the Asian side, are where the high speed catamaran "car ferries" are based. The car ferries that operate between Yenikapı (on the European side of Istanbul) and Bandırma reduce the driving time between Istanbul and İzmir and other major destinations on Turkey's Aegean coast by several hours; while those that operate between Yenikapı or Pendik (on the Asian side of Istanbul) and Yalova significantly reduce the driving time between Istanbul and Bursa or Antalya.
The port of Istanbul is the most important one in the country. The old port on the Golden Horn serves primarily for personal navigation, while Karaköy port in Galata is used by the large cruise liners. Regular services as well as cruises from both Karaköy and Eminönü exist to several port cities in the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea. Istanbul's main cargo port is located in the Harem district on the Asian side of the city. Istanbul also has several marinas of varying size for personal navigation, the largest of which are the Ataköy Marina on the European side and Kalamış Marina on the Asian side.
The State Road and the European route , the Trans European Motorway (TEM) are the two main motorway connections between Europe and Turkey. The motorway network around Istanbul is well developed and is constantly being extended. Motorways lead east to Ankara and west to Edirne. There are also two express highways circling the city. The older one, the , is mostly used for inner city traffic; while the more recent one, the , is mostly used by intercity or intercontinental traffic.
The Bosphorus Bridge on the and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge on the establish the motorway connection between the European and the Asian sides of the Bosphorus. The southern and northern shores of the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorus on the European side of the city, are connected through the Galata Bridge, the Atatürk Bridge and the Haliç Bridge; the latter also being a part of the motorway network.
Büyükdere Avenue is the main artery that runs through the central business districts of Levent and Maslak on the European side, and is also accessible through a number of subway stations. At the point where the motorway junctions and tunnels between the quarters of Gayrettepe and Zincirlikuyu come together, Büyükdere Avenue connects with Barbaros Boulevard, which descends towards the ferry port of Beşiktaş. There it connects with the coastal highway that runs along the European shore of the Bosphorus, from Eminönü in the south to Sarıyer in the north.
In 1883, a Belgian entrepreneur, Georges Nagelmackers, began a rail service between Paris and Istanbul, using a steamship to ferry passengers from Varna to Constantinople. In 1889, a rail line was completed going directly from Istanbul to Bucharest, making the whole journey via land possible. The route was known as the Orient Express, made even more famous by the works of Agatha Christie and Graham Greene.
Today, the Sirkeci Terminal of the Turkish State Railways (TCDD), which was originally opened in 1890 as the terminus of the Orient Express, is the terminus of all the lines on the European side and the main connection node of the Turkish railway network with the rest of Europe.
Currently, international connections are provided by the line running between Istanbul and Thessaloniki, Greece, and the Bosphorus Express serving daily between Sirkeci and Bucharest, Romania. Lines to Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest are established over the Bosphorus Express connection to Bucharest.
Beyond the Bosphorus, the Haydarpaşa Terminal on the Asian side serves lines running several times daily to Ankara, and less frequently to other destinations in Anatolia. The railway networks on the European and Asian sides are currently connected by the train ferry across the Bosphorus, which will be replaced by an underwater tunnel connection with the completion of the Marmaray project, scheduled for 2012. Marmaray (Bosphorus Rail Tunnel) will also connect the metro lines on the European and Asian parts of the city. Inaugurated in 1908, the Haydarpaşa Terminal was originally opened as the terminus of the Istanbul-Konya-Baghdad and Istanbul-Damascus-Medina railways.
A suburban railway line runs between the main train station of the European part, the Sirkeci Terminal, and the Halkalı district towards the west of the city centre, with 18 stations along its 30 km length. A single trip takes 48 minutes. Another suburban line runs on the Anatolian part from the main train station, the Haydarpaşa Terminal, to Gebze at the eastern end of the city. The 44 km long line has 28 stations and the trip takes 65 minutes. 720,000 passengers use the urban rail lines on the European side of the city every day.
Trams first entered service in Istanbul on 3 September 1869, at the Tophane – Ortaköy line. In 1871 the Azapkapı – Galata; Aksaray – Yedikule; Aksaray – Topkapı; and Eminönü – Aksaray lines entered service. Other lines that entered service in the late 19th century included the Voyvoda Caddesi – Kabristan Sokağı – Tepebaşı – Taksim – Pangaltı – Şişli line; the Bayezid – Şehzadebaşı line; the Fatih – Edirnekapı – Galatasaray – Tünel line; and the Eminönü – Bahçekapı line. Since 1939 the trams of the city are operated by the İETT. On 12 August 1961, the historic red trams of Istanbul were removed from the city's European side; and on 14 November 1966, they were removed from the city's Asian side. Towards the end of 1990, replicas of these historic red trams were put in service along the İstiklal Avenue between Taksim and Tünel, which is a single 1.6 km-long (1640 m) line. On 1 November 2003, another nostalgic tram line (T3) was reopened on the Anatolian part of Istanbul between Kadıköy and Moda. It has 10 stations on a 2.6 km long route. The trip takes 21 minutes.
A fast tram (T1) was put in service in 1992 on standard gauge track with modern cars, connecting Sirkeci with Topkapı. The line was extended on one end from Topkapı to Zeytinburnu in March 1994, and on the other end from Sirkeci to Eminönü in April 1996. On 30 January 2005 it was extended from Eminönü to Fındıklı, crossing the Golden Horn through the Galata Bridge for the first time after 44 years. A final extension to Kabataş was opened in June 2006. The line has 24 stations on a length of 14 km. Service was initially operated with 22 LRT vehicles built by ABB, now reassigned to other lines; while stations were provided with temporary high platforms. These vehicles were replaced by 55 low-floor Bombardier Flexity Swift trams in 2003. An entire trip takes 42 minutes. The daily transport capacity is 155,000 passengers. The amount of investment totaled US$110 million. In September 2006, a second tram line (T2) was added, running west from Zeytinburnu to Bağcılar. Service on this line is operated with 14 ABB LRT cars. Stations have high platforms at the level of the car floor.
A second funicular line, the Kabataş-Taksim Funicular, entered service on 29 June 2006, connecting Kabataş and Taksim. This system connects the Seabus station and the tram stop in Kabataş to the metro station at Taksim Square. It is about 600 meters long and climbs approximately 60 meters in 110 seconds, carrying 9,000 passengers per day.
The Istanbul LRT is a light rail transit system consisting of 2 lines. The first line (M1) began service on 3 September 1989 between Aksaray and Kartaltepe. The line was further developed step-by-step and reached Atatürk Airport on 20 December 2002. The other line (T4) was opened in 2007 between Edirnekapı and Mescid-i Selam. There are 36 stations, including 12 underground and 3 viaduct stations, on the line's 32 km length. The lines are totally segregated from other traffic, without level crossings, and run underground for 10.4 km. Service is operated with LRT vehicles built by ABB in 1988.
A northern extension from 4. Levent to Maslak was opened on 30 January 2009. The southern extension of the M2 line from Taksim to Yenikapı, across the Golden Horn on a bridge and underground through the historic peninsula, has thus far been completed up to the Şişhane station in Beyoğlu, which also entered service on 30 January 2009. At Yenikapı the M2 network will intersect with the extended light metro and suburban train lines, and with the Marmaray tunnel.
At present, the M2 line has 10 stations in service on the European side of the city; while 6 new stations on the European side and 16 new stations on the Asian side are currently under construction. The trip between the Şişhane station in Beyoğlu and the Atatürk Oto Sanayi station in Maslak is long and takes 21 minutes. The total length of the European side of the M2 line will reach when all 16 stations from Hacıosman to Yenikapı will be completed; not including the 936 metres long Golden Horn metro bridge, the 0.6 km long Taksim-Kabataş tunnel connection with the Seabus port, the 0.6 km long Yenikapı-Aksaray tunnel connection with the LRT network, and the 13.6 km long Marmaray tunnel.
On the Asian side, construction of the long M2 line from Kadıköy to Kartal continues, which will have a total of 16 stations. The Marmaray tunnel (Bosporus undersea railway tunnel) will connect the metro lines of the Asian and European parts of the city. According to the scheduled construction timeline, the tunnel will enter service in 2013.
Annually Istanbul hosts music and opera festivals. These festival are an outgrowth of Turkey's government policy starting in the early 1930s to introduce and instutionalize the teaching and performing of polyphonic music and opera. The policy was implemented using highly acclaimed musicologists, performers, composers, etc. who were at risk in their native Germany. Among them were Paul Hindemith, Licco Amar, Carl Ebert, and Ernst Praetorius. They are part of a music and opera directorate bound to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Istanbul Modern frequently hosts the exhibitions of renowned Turkish and foreign artists. Pera Museum and Sakıp Sabancı Museum have hosted the exhibitions of world famous artists and are among the most important private museums in the city. The Doğançay Museum – Turkey’s first contemporary art museum – is dedicated almost exclusively to the work of its founder Burhan Doğançay. The Rahmi M. Koç Museum on the Golden Horn is an industrial museum that exhibits historic industrial equipment such as cars and locomotives from the 19th century and early 20th century, as well as boats, submarines, aircraft, and other similar vintage machines from past epochs.
Istanbul Archaeology Museum, established in 1881, is one of the largest museums of its kind in the world. The museum contains more than 1,000,000 archaeological pieces from the Mediterranean basin, the Balkans, Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. Istanbul Mosaic Museum contains the late Roman and early Byzantine floor mosaics and wall ornaments of the Great Palace of Constantinople. The nearby Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum displays a vast collection of items from various Islamic civilisations. Sadberk Hanım Museum contains a wide variety of artifacts, dating from the earliest Anatolian civilisations to the Ottomans.
Occasionally, in November, the Silahhane (Armory Hall) of Yıldız Palace hosts the Istanbul Antiques Fair, which brings together rare pieces of antiques from the Orient and Occident. The multi-storey Mecidiyeköy Antikacılar Çarşısı (Mecidiyeköy Antiques Bazaar) in the Mecidiyeköy quarter of Şişli is the largest antiques market in the city, while the Çukurcuma neighbourhood of Beyoğlu has rows of antiques shops in its streets. The Grand Bazaar, edificed between 1455–1461 by the order of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror also has numerous antiques shops, along with shops selling jewels, carpets and other items of art and artisanship. Historic and rare books are found in the Sahaflar Çarşısı near Beyazıt Square, and it is one of the oldest book markets in the world, and has continuously been active in the same location since the late Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
Live shows and concerts are hosted at a number of locations including historical sites such as the Hagia Irene, Rumeli Fortress, Yedikule Castle, the courtyard of Topkapı Palace, and Gülhane Park; as well as the Atatürk Cultural Center, Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall and other open air and modern theatre halls.
Recently, old beaches have reopened in the city. The most popular places for swimming in the city are in Bakırköy, Küçükçekmece, Sarıyer and the Bosphorus. Outside the city are the Marmara Sea's Princes' Islands, Silivri and Tuzla; as well as Kilyos and Şile on the Black Sea.
The Princes' Islands (Adalar) are a group of islands where motor transportation is prohibited, located in the Marmara Sea, south of the Kartal and Pendik districts. Pine and stone-pine wooden neoclassical and art nouveau-style Ottoman era summer mansions from the 19th century and early 20th century, horse-drawn carriages and seafood restaurants make them a popular destination. They can be reached by commuter ferries or high-speed catamaran Seabus (Deniz otobüsü) from Eminönü and Bostancı. Of the nine islands, only five are settled.
Şile is a distant and well-known Turkish seaside resort on the Black Sea, from Istanbul, where unspoiled white sand beaches can be found. Kilyos is a small calm seaside resort not far from the northern European entrance of the Bosphorus at the Black Sea. The place has good swimming possibilities and has become popular in the recent years among the inhabitants of Istanbul as a place for excursions. Kilyos offers a beach park with seafood restaurants and night clubs, being particularly active in the summer with many night parties and live concerts on the beach.
Along with the traditional Turkish restaurants, many European and Far Eastern restaurants and numerous other cuisines are also thriving in the city. Most of the city's historic winehouses (meyhane in Turkish) and pubs are located in the areas around İstiklal Avenue in Beyoğlu. The 19th century Çiçek Pasajı (literally Flower Passage in Turkish, or Cité de Péra in French) on İstiklal Avenue, which has many historic meyhanes, pubs and restaurants, was built by Hristaki Zoğrafos Efendi at the former site of the Naum Theatre and was inaugurated in 1876. The famous Nevizâde Street, which has rows of historic meyhanes next to each other, is also in this area.
Other historic pubs are found in the areas around Tünel Pasajı and the nearby Asmalımescit Sokağı. Some historic neighbourhoods around İstiklal Avenue have recently been recreated, with differing levels of success; such as Cezayir Sokağı near Galatasaray High School, that has rows of pubs, cafés and restaurants playing live music.
Istanbul is also famous for its historic seafood restaurants; as an example, the Kumkapı neighbourhood has a pedestrian-only area that is dedicated to fish restaurants. Some 30 fish restaurants are found there, many of them among the best of the city. Also, many of the most popular and upscale seafood restaurants (with picturesque views) are found along the shores of the Bosphorus, particularly in Bebek, Arnavutköy, Yeniköy, Beylerbeyi and Çengelköy; and by the Marmara Sea shore towards the south of the city. The largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara (namely Büyükada, Heybeliada, Burgazada and Kınalıada) and Anadolu Kavağı near the northern entrance of the Bosphorus towards the Black Sea (close to Yoros Castle, which was also known as the Genoese Castle due to Genoa's possession of it in the mid-15th century) also have many historic seafood restaurants.
There are many night clubs, pubs, restaurants and taverns with live music in the city. The night clubs, restaurants and bars increase in number and move to open air spaces in the summer. The areas around Istiklal Avenue, Nişantaşı, Bebek and Kadıköy offer all sorts of cafés, restaurants, pubs and clubs as well as art galleries, theaters and cinemas. Babylon and Nu Pera in Beyoğlu are popular night clubs both in the summer and in the winter.
The most popular open air summer time seaside night clubs are found on the Bosphorus, such as Sortie, Reina and Anjelique in the Ortaköy district. Q Jazz Bar in Ortaköy offers live jazz music in a stylish environment.
Venues such as Istanbul Arena in Maslak and Kuruçeşme Arena on the Bosphorus frequently host the live concerts of famous singers and bands from all corners of the world. Parkorman in Maslak hosted the Isle of MTV Party in 2002 and is a popular venue for live concerts and rave parties in the summer.
During the Roman and Byzantine periods, the most important sporting events were the quadriga chariot races that were held at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, which had a capacity to accommodate more than 100,000 spectators. Today, sports like football, basketball and volleyball are very popular in the city. In addition to Beşiktaş, Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe, which field teams in multiple sports, several other clubs have also excelled in particular team sports; such as Efes Pilsen, Fenerbahçe Ülker, Galatasaray Cafe Crown and Beşiktaş Cola Turka in basketball; or Eczacıbaşı, Vakıfbank and Fenerbahçe in volleyball.
The Atatürk Olympic Stadium, the largest multi-purpose stadium in Turkey, is a 5-star UEFA stadium and a first-class venue for track and field; having reached the highest required standards set by the International Olympic Committee and sports federations such as the IAAF, FIFA and UEFA. The stadium hosted the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final. The Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, home of Fenerbahçe, which is also a 5-star UEFA stadium, hosted the 2009 UEFA Cup Final that went down to history as the last Final of the UEFA Cup football tournament. The UEFA Cup will be replaced by the UEFA Europa League starting from the 2009–2010 season.
The Sinan Erdem Dome, the largest multi-purpose indoor arena in Turkey, hosted the Final of the 2010 FIBA World Basketball Championship, and will also be the venue for the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships and the 2012 FINA Short Course World Championships. The Abdi İpekçi Arena hosted the Final of EuroBasket 2001, and was also the venue for the 1992 Euroleague Final Four.
Istanbul hosts several annual motorsports events, such as the Formula One Turkish Grand Prix, the MotoGP Grand Prix of Turkey, the FIA World Touring Car Championship, the GP2 and the Le Mans Series races at the Istanbul Park GP Racing Circuit. From time to time Istanbul also hosts the Turkish leg of the F1 Powerboat Racing on the Bosphorus. Several annual sailing and yacht races take place on the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara. The Golden Horn is where the rowing races take place. Major clubs like Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş, and major universities such as the Bosphorus University have rowing teams. Air racing is new to the city. On 29 July 2006, Istanbul hosted the 5th leg of the spectacular Red Bull Air Race World Series, as well as the 4th leg on 2 June 2007, in both cases above the Golden Horn.
Personal sports like golf, horse riding and tennis are gaining popularity as the city hosts international tournaments such as the WTA Istanbul Cup. For aerobics and bodybuilding, numerous fitness clubs are available. The Paintball sport has recently gained popularity and is practiced by two large clubs in the proximity of Istanbul. Martial arts and other Eastern disciplines and practices such as Aikido and Yoga can be exercised in several centers across the city. Istanbul also hosts the annual MTB races in the nearby Belgrad Forest and Büyükada Island. Two of the most prominent cycling teams of Turkey, namely the Scott/Marintek MTB Team and the Kron/Sektor Bikes/Efor Bisiklet MTB Team, are from Istanbul.
{{navboxes|list = }}
Istanbul Category:Ancient Greek cities Category:Archaeological sites in Turkey Istanbul Category:Populated places along the Silk Road Istanbul Istanbul Category:Cities in the Ottoman Empire Istanbul Category:Former national capitals Category:Capitals of former nations Category:Places illustrated on Turkish banknotes Category:European Capitals of Culture Category:IOC Session Host Cities
ace:Éseutamu af:Istanboel als:Istanbul ang:Constantinopolis ab:Асҭампыл ar:إسطنبول an:Istambul arc:ܐܝܣܛܢܒܘܠ (ܡܕܝܢܬܐ) frp:Istanbul ast:Estambul av:Истамбул az:İstanbul bn:ইস্তানবুল zh-min-nan:İstanbul be:Горад Стамбул be-x-old:Стамбул bar:Istanbul bs:Istanbul br:Istanbul bg:Истанбул ca:Istanbul cv:Стамбул ceb:İstanbul cs:Istanbul tum:Istanbul cy:Istanbul da:Istanbul de:Istanbul et:İstanbul el:Κωνσταντινούπολη es:Estambul eo:Istanbulo ext:Estambul eu:Istanbul fa:استانبول hif:Istanbul fo:Istanbul fr:Istanbul fy:Istanbûl ga:Iostanbúl gv:İstanbul gag:İstanbul gd:Istanbul gl:Istambul - İstanbul gan:伊斯坦布爾 ko:이스탄불 ha:Santanbul hy:Ստամբուլ hi:इस्तांबुल hsb:Istanbul hr:Istanbul io:Istanbul id:Istanbul ia:Istanbul ie:Istanbul os:Стамбул is:Istanbúl it:Istanbul he:איסטנבול jv:Istanbul kn:ಇಸ್ತಾಂಬುಲ್ ka:სტამბოლი kk:Стамбұл kw:Istanbul rw:Istanbul ky:Стамбул sw:Istanbul ku:Stenbol mrj:Стамбул lad:Estambol lbe:Истамбул la:Constantinopolis lv:Stambula lb:Istanbul lt:Stambulas lmo:Istanbul hu:Isztambul mk:Истанбул ml:ഇസ്താംബുൾ mr:इस्तंबूल xmf:სტამბოლი arz:استانبول ms:Istanbul mn:Стамбул my:အစ်စတန်ဘူလ်မြို့ nl:Istanboel new:इस्तान्बुल ja:イスタンブル no:Istanbul nn:Istanbul oc:Istambol mhr:Стамбул uz:Istanbul pnb:استمبول pl:Stambuł pt:Istambul crh:İstanbul ro:Istanbul rm:Istanbul qu:Istanbul rue:Істанбул ru:Стамбул sah:Истанбул se:Istanbul sc:Istanbul sco:Istanbul sq:Stambolli scn:Istanbul simple:Istanbul sk:Istanbul sl:Istanbul szl:Stambuł so:Istanbuul ckb:ئەستەمبوڵ sr:Истанбул sh:Istanbul fi:Istanbul sv:Istanbul tl:Istanbul ta:இசுதான்புல் kab:Istambul roa-tara:Istanbul tt:Истанбул te:ఇస్తాంబుల్ tet:Istanbul th:อิสตันบูล tr:İstanbul tk:Stambul udm:Стамбул uk:Стамбул ur:استنبول ug:Istanbul vec:Istanbul vi:Istanbul vo:İstanbul fiu-vro:Istanbul war:Istanbul yi:סטאמבול yo:Istanbul zh-yue:伊斯坦堡 diq:Estanbol bat-smg:Stanbols zh:伊斯坦堡
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Tokio Hotel |
---|---|
background | group_or_band |
origin | Magdeburg, Germany |
years active | 2001–present |
genre | Alternative rock, electronic rock, pop rock, teen pop emo, pop punk (early) |
label | Universal Music GermanyCherrytree, Interscope (US) |
website | www.tokiohotel.com |
current members | Bill KaulitzTom Kaulitz Georg ListingGustav Schäfer |
past members | }} |
Tokio Hotel is a pop rock band from Germany, founded in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing. The quartet have scored four number one singles and have released three number one albums in their native country, selling nearly 5 million CDs and DVDs there. After recording an unreleased demo-CD under the name "Devilish" and having their contract with Sony BMG Germany terminated, the band released their first German-language album, Schrei, as Tokio Hotel on Universal Music Germany in 2005. Schrei sold more than half a million copies worldwide and spawned four top five singles in both Germany and Austria. In 2007, the band released their second German album Zimmer 483 and their first English album Scream which have combined album sales of over one million copies worldwide and helped win the band their first MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct. The former, Zimmer 483, spawned three top five singles in Germany while the latter, Scream, spawned two singles that reached the top twenty in new territories such as France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. In September 2008, they won in the US their first MTV Video Music Award (VMA) for Best New Artist. In October 2008, they won four awards including Best International Artist and Song of the year at Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica (MTV Video Music Awards Latin America) held in Mexico. Tokio Hotel became the first German band ever to win an award at the MTV VMAs and also at the MTV Latin America Awards. They also picked up the Headliner award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 held in Liverpool on November 6, 2008 and the Award for Best Group on November 5, 2009 at the MTV Europe Music Award (EMA) held in Berlin. They won an Award for Best World Stage Performance on November 7, 2010 at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Madrid. In July 2011, they became the first German band to win an MTV Video Music Awards Japan (VMAJ).
Tokio Hotel gave their first concert in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2007. "Ready, Set, Go!" was released in the UK as the band's first single on August 27, 2007. The song reached #77 in the UK Singles Chart.
Tokio Hotel won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct on November 1, 2007 and were also nominated for Best Band. They performed "Monsoon" at the event.
Tokio Hotel released their first US single, simply called "Tokio Hotel", in late 2007. The single contains the tracks "Scream" and "Ready, Set, Go!", and was available exclusively at Hot Topic stores. Their second US single, "Scream America", was released on December 11, 2007. The single contains the track "Scream" and a remix of "Ready, Set, Go!" by AFI's Jade Puget. In February 2008, the band toured North America for five dates starting in Canada and finishing up in New York. After appearing and performing live on MuchMusic, while touring in Canada, "Ready, Set, Go!" entered the MuchOnDemand Daily 10, a countdown of videos chosen by viewers. It remained there for over a week, then returned to the top of the MOD Daily 10 chart on April 8. "Scream" was released in Canada on March 25 and in the US on May. 6
Bill Kaulitz had been putting strain on his voice after playing 43 concerts in the 1000 Hotels tour without vacation. He had to undergo Larynx surgery on March 30 to remove a cyst that had formed on his vocal cords. The cyst was the result of a throat infection that went untreated. Following his surgery, Bill was unable to speak for twelve days, and had four weeks of vocal rehabilitation. If Bill had continued singing the rest of the tour, his voice would have eventually been permanently damaged. Tokio Hotel started performing again in May 2008 and after that they embarked on a 2nd part of their 1000 Hotels European Tour adding many Open Air concerts and wrapping up the tour on July 13 in Werchter, Belgium.
In between the North American tours, the band returned to their record studio in Hamburg to record their third studio album, Humanoid, which, according to their producer David Jost, is currently set for release on October 2 in Germany & October 6, 2009 in the U.S. This is despite earlier statements predicting a March/April 2009 release or a May/June 2009 release. The album was recorded in both German and English with both versions were released simultaneously worldwide. Nevertheless, the video for the single was released on September 3.
On November 2, it was announced on Tom's Blog that the second English single would be "World Behind My Wall" and its German counterpart, "Lass uns laufen", would be the second German single. The music videos for both versions were released on December 14 and December 15.
On June 24, the live music video for their single, "Dark Side of the Sun" was released on the band website.
On July 20, 2010 they released their second live album Humanoid City Live from Milan, Italy On November 22, 2010, their new song "Hurricanes and Suns," premiered on the Greek radio station Mad Radio. It was included in the bonus track on all versions of "Tokio Hotel: Best Of," a compilation album of their most successful songs. As well as the single for the 'Best of' release. The album will also include "Mädchen aus dem All", the first song the band recorded in a studio.
On December 14, 2010 their 'Best of' was released. December 2 was the World Premiere of the video for "Hurricanes and Suns" on their Official Website. On April 28, 2011 they received the "Fan Army FTW" award at the MTV O Music Awards, the networks first online award show. A clip of Bill and Tom thanking their fans was played after the winner was announced.
On June 24, 2011 Tokio Hotel performed in Japan at “The Next Premium Night Tokio Hotel in Tokyo". The event was presented by Audi A1 and 150 fans were chosen to win tickets to attend the show. The event was the bands first acoustic performance in Japan. On June 25, 2011 the band performed live at the MTV Video Music Aid Japan in Tokyo. The show, which was formerly called the Video Music Awards Japan, was used as a music benefit to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross in order to help those who were affected by the recent earthquake.
Car maker Audi hired the two frontmen to star in their new advertising campaign to attract the younger generation. They were featured in an episode of Tokio Hotel TV (on Tokio Hotel's website) and also in a commercial.
On August 4, 2010, Tom Kaulitz got his own Reebok shoe commercial. Reebok signed the 20-year-old Tokio Hotel guitarist and sneaker addict to model shoes for the company. "At home, I created a little room like a little storage room," he said of his sneakers. He also said that he gets 10 new pairs a week. That's 520 sneakers a year.
Bill Kaulitz was born on September 1, 1989, in Leipzig ten minutes after his identical twin brother, Tom.
Tom Kaulitz (born 1 September 1989 in Leipzig, German Democratic Republic) is a German guitarist singer, songwriter and model from Tokio Hotel. He is the twin brother of Bill Kaulitz, and Tom was born 10 minutes before Bill.
;2005
! Category | !Award | ! Date |
Best Newcomer | Comet Awards (Germany) | October 6 |
Super Comet | Comet Awards (Germany) | October 6 |
Best Newcomer | Eins Live Krone | November 24 |
Best Pop National Act | Bambi Awards | December 1 |
Best Single | Golden Penguin (Austria) | ...2005 |
Best Pop | Golden Penguin (Austria) | ...2005 |
Rock Band 2005 | Golden Penguin (Austria) | ...2005 |
;2006
! Category | ! Award | ! Date |
Album of the year | Golden Penguin (Austria) | February 8 |
Band of the year | Golden Penguin (Austria) | February 8 |
Song of the year – ‘Der Letzte Tag’ | Golden Penguin (Austria) | February 8 |
Best Newcomer | Golden Penguin (Austria) | February 8 |
Ausverkaufte Tourhalle | Sold-out-Award of Königpilsener Arena | March 11 |
Best Newcomer | March 12 | |
Best Newcomer | Steiger Awards | March 25 |
Pop National | Radio Regenbogen (Germany) | March 31 |
SuperBand Rock – Golden Otto | Bravo Otto | May 6 |
Music Award | Bild OSGAR | May 22 |
Best Newcomer International | Popcorn Awards (Hungary) | May 26 |
Best Newcomer | Bravo Otto (Hungary) | June 24 |
Best International Band | Bravo Otto (Hungary) | June 24 |
Best Newcomer Band | Popkomm Bavarian Music Lion | September 21 |
Best German Pop Band | Goldene Stimmgabel | September 24 |
Best Selling German Artist | World Music Awards | November 15 |
Best Pop National Act | Bambi Awards | November 30 |
Best Live Act | Eins Live Krone | December 7 |
Best Rock band | MTV France |
;2007
! Category | ! Award | ! Date |
Single of the Year – Durch Den Monsun | Golden Penguin | |
Best Selling German Act – Album Schrei | European Border Breakers Award | January 21 |
European Border Breakers Award | NRJ Awards | January 21 |
Rock Award | BZ-Kulturpreis | January 23 |
Best Video National | ECHO Awards (Germany) | March 25 |
SuperBand Rock – Golden otto | Bravo Otto | April 28 |
Best Video | Comet Awards (Germany) | May 3 |
Best Band | Comet Awards (Germany) | May 3 |
Supercomet | Comet Awards (Germany) | May 3 |
Best Band | Jabra Music | July 2007 |
Digital prize | Festivalbar (Italy) | September 7 |
Most Successful Group Rock International | Goldene Stimmgabel | September 22 |
Most Successful Popgroup International | Goldene Stimmgabel Awards | October 3 |
Best Album | TMF Awards (Belgium) | October 14 |
Best Video | TMF Awards (Belgium) | October 14 |
Best New Artist | TMF Awards (Belgium) | October 14 |
Best Pop | TMF Awards (Belgium) | October 14 |
Best International Act | MTV Europe Music Awards (Germany) | November 1 |
Best band of the Year | MTV Italy Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award | December 1 |
;2008
! Category | ! Award | ! Date | |
Band of the Year 2007 | Golden Penguin (Austria) | January | |
Best International Band | Rockbjörnen Award (Sweden) | January 24 | |
Best Music National | Goldene Kamera (Germany) | February 6 | |
Best Music Video | Echo Awards (Germany) | February 15 | |
Best International Artist | Emma Gala Awards (Finland) | March 8 | |
Best International Group | Disney Channel Kids Award (Italy) | March 28 | |
Best Concert | Hitkrant (Netherlands) | May 2008 | |
Best Mood Song – Monsoon | Hitkrant (Netherlands) | May 2008 | |
Song that Satys in your Head – Monsoon | Hitkrant (Netherlands) | May 2008 | |
Superband Rock – Silver Otto | Bravo Otto | May 3 | |
Best Band | MTV TRL Awards (Italy) | May 17 | |
Best Number 1 of the Year with Monsoon | MTV TRL Awards (Italy) | May 17 | |
Best Band | Comet Awards (Germany) | May 23 | |
Best Video – An Deiner Seite | Comet Awards (Germany) | May 23 | |
Best Live Act | Comet Awards (Germany) | May 23 | |
Super Comet | Comet Awards (Germany) | May 23 | |
Best New Artist | MTV VMA Music Awards (USA) | September 7 | |
Fan Choice Best Entrance | MTV VMA Music Awards (USA) | September 7 | |
Best Male Artist International (Bill Kaulitz) | TMF Awards (Belgium) | October 11 | |
Best Video International – Don't Jump | TMF Awards | MTV Europe Music Awards (Germany) | November 5 |
Best International Rock Band | Telehit Awards (Mexico) | November 12 |
;2010
! Category | !Award | ! Date |
Band of the Year | Golden Penguin (Austria) | January 29 |
Album of the Year | Golden Penguin (Austria) | January 29 |
Band of the Year | Bravoora Awards (Poland) | February 1 |
Best International Artist | Emma Gala Awards (Finland) | February 4 |
Walk of Fame | König-Pilsener Arena (Germany) | February 26 |
Best International Band | Radio Regenbogen Awards (Germany) | March 19 |
Favorite Music Star | Kids Choice Awards 2010 (Germany) | April 10 |
Best Live Act | Comet Awards (Germany) | May 21 |
Foreign Song of the Year - World Behind My Wall | Rockbjörnen Award (Sweden) | September 1 |
Concert of the Year | Rockbjörnen Award (Sweden) | September 1 |
Best World Stage Performance | MTV Europe Music Awards (Spain) | November 7 |
Best Band National | CMA Awards (Germany) | December 12 |
Best Single National - World Behind My Wall | CMA Awards (Germany) | December 12 |
;2011
! Category | !Award | ! Date |
Band of the Year | Bravoora Awards (Poland) | March |
Star of the 20th Anniversary | March | |
Best Fan Army (Fan Army FTW) | MTV O Music Awards (USA) | April 28 |
Best Rock Video | MTV Video Music Awards Japan | July 2 |
Category:German musical groups Category:German rock music groups Category:German pop music groups Category:German-language singers Category:English-language singers Category:People from Leipzig Category:Musical groups established in 2001 Category:Pop rock groups
af:Tokio Hotel als:Tokio Hotel ar:توكيو هوتيل az:Tokio Hotel bs:Tokio Hotel br:Tokio Hotel bg:Токио Хотел ca:Tokio Hotel cs:Tokio Hotel da:Tokio Hotel de:Tokio Hotel et:Tokio Hotel el:Tokio Hotel es:Tokio Hotel eo:Tokio Hotel eu:Tokio Hotel fa:توکیو هتل fr:Tokio Hotel fy:Tokio Hotel gl:Tokio Hotel ko:토쿄 호텔 hr:Tokio Hotel it:Tokio Hotel he:טוקיו הוטל ka:ტოკიო ჰოტელი lv:Tokio Hotel lt:Tokio Hotel li:Tokio Hotel hu:Tokio Hotel mk:Токио хотел ms:Tokio Hotel mn:Токио Хотел nl:Tokio Hotel nds-nl:Tokio Hotel ja:トキオ・ホテル no:Tokio Hotel nn:Tokio Hotel mhr:Tokio Hotel uz:Tokio Hotel pl:Tokio Hotel pt:Tokio Hotel ro:Tokio Hotel ru:Tokio Hotel simple:Tokio Hotel sk:Tokio Hotel sl:Tokio Hotel sr:Tokio Hotel sh:Tokio Hotel fi:Tokio Hotel sv:Tokio Hotel th:โทคิโอโฮเทล tr:Tokio Hotel uk:Tokio Hotel vi:Tokio Hotel vls:Tokio Hotel zh:東京飯店酷兒This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Einstürzende Neubauten |
---|---|
landscape | yes |
background | group_or_band |
origin | Berlin, Germany |
genre | Dark ambientPost-industrialAvant-gardeExperimental rockIndustrial music (early) |
years active | 1980–present |
label | ZickZackMuteROIRPotomakNothing (briefly) |
website | www.neubauten.org |
current members | Blixa BargeldAlexander HackeN.U. UnruhJochen ArbeitRudolf Moser |
past members | Beate BartelGudrun GutF.M. EinheitMark ChungRoland Wolf |
notable instruments | }} |
One of their "trademarks" is the use of custom-built instruments, predominantly made out of scrap metal and building tools, and noises, in addition to standard musical instruments.
In 1981 the percussionist F.M. Einheit (from the Hamburg band Abwärts) joined Einstürzende Neubauten and they released their first LP Kollaps (English: "Collapse"), a mixture of rough punk rock tunes and industrial noises. The industrial noises were obtained from self-made music machines, electronics, and found objects such as metal plates. The live performances with FM Einheit in the 1980s, which became legendary, included lots of metal banging and destruction on stage.
During their first German tour, Mark Chung (previously the bass player with Abwärts) joined the group of musicians. This line-up lasted for nearly 15 years.
In 1983, Einstürzende Neubauten recorded their second album Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T. (English: "Drawings of Patient O.T."). The title came from a 1974 book by Leo Navratil, describing the drawings of Oswald Tschirtner.
Also in 1983, Bargeld joined the band The Birthday Party (featuring Nick Cave and Mick Harvey) as a guitarist. This group was disbanded shortly after, but Bargeld became a long-time member of one of the bands that sprang from The Birthday Party – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (again featuring Nick Cave and Mick Harvey). Bargeld remained a full-time member of both bands, Einstürzende Neubauten and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, until 2003, when he quit the Bad Seeds in order to focus on Einstürzende Neubauten.
1984 also saw the first release of a best-of and rarities compilation, Strategies Against Architecture 80-83.
The band played a show in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to kick off their third North American tour. The performance was sponsored by the German Goethe Institute as part of the German contribution to Expo 86. Also scheduled to appear were Test Dept and Skinny Puppy, though not everyone was able to play.
On the tour, the group's experimental and improvised live performance style occasionally caused difficulties with venue management and law enforcement. A performance at The Palladium in Manhattan ended 30 minutes into the set after an improvised pyrotechnics display. The band ignited a small amount of paint thinner in metal pans, and panicked management stopped the performance and cleared the venue.
The one-hour film Halber Mensch (1986) by Sōgo Ishii documents Einstürzende Neubauten's visit to Japan in 1985. The next two albums, Fünf auf der nach oben offenen Richterskala ("Five on the open-ended Richterscale") in 1987 and Haus der Lüge ("House of the Lie") in 1989, were great successes in the United States and Japan.
1991 also saw the release of the double album, a best-of and rarities album, Strategies Against Architecture II. This collection included a musical setting of Heiner Müller's piece "Bildbeschreibung" ("Explosion of a Memory" or "Description of a Picture" in English).
In Vienna, May 1992, Einstürzende Neubauten performed at The Academy of Fine Arts' 300th anniversary in a show by Erich Wonder, Das Auge des Taifun ("The eye of the typhoon").
The next album Tabula Rasa (1993) was an important turning point in the band's history, their music becoming softer and containing more electronic sounds.
In 1993, they were booked to support U2 during their European leg of the Zoo TV Tour, but were thrown off the stage and off the tour when a band member threw an iron bar into the booing crowd.
Mark Chung left the band in 1994 after the recording of Faustmusik for Werner Schwab's play, and made a career in the music industry. F.M. Einheit, who contributed much to the music and sound of the band, left the band a short time later in 1995, during the recording of the Ende Neu album, at least partially because of a conflict with Bargeld. The last Einstürzende Neubauten track Einheit worked on was "Was ist ist". Roland Wolf replaced them on bass guitar and keyboards only a short time before dying in a car accident in 1995.
In 1997, the album Ende Neu Remixes was released, which featured remixes of the songs from Ende Neu by artists such as Barry Adamson, Pan Sonic and Darkus (alias Mark Rutherford); Darkus' remix tracks, with others not included on Ende Neu Remixes, were made available separately in the same year on The NNNAAAMMM Remixes By Darkus release.
From March 27 to May 23, 2000, Einstürzende Neubauten celebrated their 20th birthday with a "20th anniversary tour", playing in the Columbiahalle, Berlin on their exact birthday, April 1, and released the album Silence Is Sexy, followed by a world tour. 2001 also saw the release of another double best-of and rarities album, Strategies Against Architecture III.
Since 2001, Einstürzende Neubauten albums and web projects have been partially produced and supported by Bargeld's wife Erin Zhu, who also serves as webmaster of the official Einstürzende Neubauten website.
Bargeld left Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 2003. In order to go on tour, the band reneged on the idea of creating a supporter-only album, and cooperated with Mute Records to go on tour and release Perpetuum Mobile in 2004. Air sounds, such as blowing the plastic pipes with an air compressor, were greatly explored and used for this album: the working title of the album was, for a long while, Luftveränderung ("Change of air"). A half an hour long documentary about the supporters project entitled 'Traumfestival' was made by Ste van Holm and Dihcar. The film is now available on YouTube.
The live shows of the Perpetuum Mobile Tour were recorded by the band's sound engineers, then burned on CDRs with individual pictures of each show taken by Danielle de Picciotto and sold directly after the concerts to the visitors; numerous "official" live albums were created during this tour as a result.
In November 2004, the band went on a mini-tour, which included a supporters-only performance at Berlin's Palast der Republik. The performance was filmed and coordinated by Danielle de Picciotto and Ian Williamson and was released on the exclusive supporter's DVD at the end of Phase II.
The second Musterhaus CD Unglaublicher Laerm ("Incredible noise") was finished on August 15, and shipped out (as well as posted for download) shortly after.
Phase II of the Neubauten Supporter's project finished in August 2005, and the official site was taken down on September 20. The supporter album Grundstück ("Floor-piece") and DVD (containing footage from the November 2004 Grundstück performance in Berlin) was shipped in early October 2005.
Musterhaus #3 Solo Bassfeder ("Solo bass-spring"), released December 8, is a collection of bass spring compositions by the individual members of Einstürzende Neubauten.
Danielle de Picciotto, Alexander Hacke's wife and long time companion released the DVD documentary "Einstürzende Neubauten - On tour with neubauten.org" which describes the supporter project in detail, having interviewed international supporters during the Perpetuum Mobile tour in 2004.
Musterhaus #5 Kassetten ("Cassettes"), finished May 15 with release scheduled for May 31. At the same time, Alles was irgendwie nützt ("Everything of any use"), an album that had been in the work since Phase 2, were completed. The album consists of rare live tracks, handpicked by 6 supporters of Phase 2 and mixed by Boris Wilsdorf. This was quickly followed by Musterhaus #6 Klaviermusik ("Piano music"), released on August 31.In October, Neubauten released a public DVD, the recording made at Palast der Republik.
Musterhaus #7 Stimmen Reste ("Voice Remainders") was released on December 2, consisting of vocal experiments, vocal recordings, and manipulations of voice recordings, enriched with leftover instrumental tracks made with polystyrene, electronic pulses, hammond organ, bass guitar, and metal percussion.
A new commercial album was made available later in the year, the first release since 2004's Perpetuum Mobile. The new album, Alles wieder offen ("All open again"), was released on October 19, 2007 without the backing of a label, a move the band had intended to make with Perpetuum Mobile. Fans who were part of the paid EN community at neubauten.org received access to an album with the same tracks plus a number of extra songs, and an optional DVD about the making of the album. The band also filmed a video for "Nagorny Karabach".
The band spent the first half of 2008 touring for their new album, and played 32 dates in 19 European countries.
Einstürzende Neubauten celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2010 with a tour through Europe. An American leg was also planned, however on November 29, 2010 the band announced the cancellation of all their U.S. dates due to visa scheduling problems.
The band's name attracted unexpected attention when on 21 May 1980, not two months after the band's forming, the roof of the Berlin Congress Hall famously collapsed, killing one person and injuring many. The resulting media attention surrounding the collapse of the German-American icon gave the meaning of their name a new dimension.
EPs
Singles
Collections
Live albums
Neubauten.org Supporters Project
Musterhaus Series
Soundtracks and Plays
Appeared on:
Videos
* Category:German electronic music groups Category:German industrial music groups Category:Industrial rock musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1980 Category:Reachout International Records recording artists Category:German experimental musical groups Category:Mute Records artists Category:Nothing Records artists
br:Einstürzende Neubauten bg:Айнщюрценде Нойбаутен ca:Einstürzende Neubauten cs:Einstürzende Neubauten da:Einstürzende Neubauten de:Einstürzende Neubauten es:Einstürzende Neubauten eo:Einstürzende Neubauten fr:Einstürzende Neubauten gl:Einstürzende Neubauten ko:아인스튀어첸데 노이바우텐 it:Einstürzende Neubauten he:איינשטירצנדה נויבאוטן lv:Einstürzende Neubauten nl:Einstürzende Neubauten ja:アインシュテュルツェンデ・ノイバウテン pl:Einstürzende Neubauten pt:Einstürzende Neubauten ru:Einstürzende Neubauten fi:Einstürzende Neubauten sv:Einstürzende Neubauten uk:Einstürzende NeubautenThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Justin Bieber |
---|---|
background | solo_singer |
birth name | Justin Drew Bieber |
birth date | March 01, 1994 |
birth place | London, Ontario, Canada |
origin | Stratford, Ontario, Canada |
instrument | Vocals, guitar, piano, percussion, trumpet |
genre | Pop, R&B;, teen pop |
occupation | Singer, musician, actor |
years active | 2009–present |
label | Island, RBMG |
associated acts | Usher |
website | justinbiebermusic.com }} |
Bieber's first full-length studio album, My World 2.0, was released in March 2010. It debuted at number one or within the top ten in several countries and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the worldwide top-ten single, "Baby". The music video of "Baby" is currently ranked as the most viewed and most discussed YouTube video. Bieber followed-up the release of his debut album with his first headlining tour, the My World Tour, the remix albums My Worlds Acoustic and Never Say Never – The Remixes, and the 3D biopic-concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never – which had an opening weekend gross that nearly matched the record for the biggest opening weekend for a concert-film. Bieber released his second studio album, Under the Mistletoe in November 2011, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Bieber has received numerous awards, including Artist of the Year at the 2010 American Music Awards — and has been nominated for numerous awards, including Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards.
During his childhood, Bieber was interested in hockey, soccer, and chess; he often kept his musical aspirations to himself. As he grew up, Bieber taught himself to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet. In early 2007, when he was twelve, Bieber sang Ne-Yo's "So Sick" for a local singing competition in Stratford and placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see. She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B; songs, and Bieber's popularity on the site grew. Chris Hicks, Bieber's A&R; at Island/Def Jam, explained the young artist's huge online following to HitQuarters by saying:
"He was doing something different. He was an attractive white kid singing very soulful R&B; hits. That set him apart immediately from anyone in his range because no one was covering or singing these kind of records. But equally important was that you believed in these songs – it was real. And you wanted to hear more."
Bieber's first single, "One Time", was released to radio while Bieber was still recording his debut album. The song reached number 12 on the Canadian Hot 100 during its first week of release in July 2009, and later peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. During fall 2009 it had success in international markets. The song was certified Platinum in Canada and the US and Gold in Australia and New Zealand. Bieber's first release, an extended play entitled My World, was released on November 17, 2009. The album's second single, "One Less Lonely Girl", and two promo singles, "Love Me", and "Favorite Girl", were released exclusively on the iTunes store and charted within the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100. "One Less Lonely Girl" was later also released to radio and peaked within the top fifteen in Canada and the US, being certified Gold in the latter. My World was eventually certified Platinum in the US and Double Platinum in both Canada and the UK. To promote the album, Bieber performed on several live shows such as mtvU's VMA 09 Tour, European program The Dome, YTV's The Next Star, The Today Show, The Wendy Williams Show, Lopez Tonight, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, It's On with Alexa Chung, Good Morning America, Chelsea Lately, and BET's 106 & Park with Rihanna. Bieber also guest starred in an episode of True Jackson, VP in late 2009.
Bieber performed Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas" for U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House for Christmas in Washington, which was broadcast on December 20, 2009, on U.S. television broadcaster TNT. Bieber was also one of the performers at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on December 31, 2009. Bieber was a presenter at the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. He was invited to be a vocalist for the remake of We Are The World (a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie) for its 25th anniversary to benefit Haiti after the earthquake. Bieber sings the opening line, which was sung by Lionel Richie in the original version. On March 12, 2010, a version of K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" recorded by a collective of Canadian musicians known as Young Artists for Haiti was released. Bieber is featured in the song, performing the closing lines.
"Baby", the lead single from his debut album, My World 2.0, which features Ludacris, was released in January 2010 and became his biggest hit thus far, charting at number five in the U.S. and reaching the top ten in seven other countries. Two promo singles "Never Let You Go", and "U Smile" were top thirty hits on the U.S. Hot 100, and top twenty hits in Canada. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the album has received "generally favorable reviews". It debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, making Bieber the youngest solo male act to top the chart since Stevie Wonder in 1963. My World 2.0 also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, Irish Albums Chart, and Australian Albums Chart, and the New Zealand Albums Chart and reached the top ten of fifteen other countries. To promote the album, Bieber appeared on several live programs including The View, the 2010 Kids Choice Awards, Nightline, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Dome and 106 and Park. Bieber collaborated with Sean Kingston on his single "Eenie Meenie" which also appeared on Bieber's debut album. The song reached the top ten in the United Kingdom and Australia, and the top-twenty of most other markets. thumb|left|Bieber performing at the Conseco Fieldhouse, in August 2010 On April 10, 2010, Bieber was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. On July 4, 2010, Bieber performed at the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular in New York City. The second single from My World 2.0, "Somebody to Love", was released in April 2010, and a remix was released featuring Bieber's mentor Usher. The single reached number ten in Canada, number fifteen in the United States, and the top twenty in multiple international countries.
On June 23, 2010, Bieber went on his first official headlining tour, the My World Tour, starting in Hartford, Connecticut, to promote My World and My World 2.0. In July 2010, it was reported that Bieber was the most searched for celebrity on the Internet. That same month his music video, "Baby", surpassed Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" to become the most viewed, and most disliked YouTube video ever. In September 2010, it was reported that Bieber accounted for three percent of all traffic on Twitter, according to an employee of the social-networking site.
Bieber began recording his second album in July 2010 in New York City. At this point, because of puberty, his voice was deeper than it was when he recorded his first album. In April 2010, the singer discussing his vocals remarked, "It cracks. Like every teenage boy, I'm dealing with it and I have the best vocal coach in the world. [...] Some of the notes I hit on "Baby" I can't hit anymore. We have to lower the key when I sing live." British singer/songwriter Taio Cruz confirmed in July 2010 that he is writing songs for Bieber's next album. Hip hop producer Dr. Dre produced two songs with Bieber in July 2010 but it is unknown if they were made for the album, which is currently due for a 2011 release. Bieber guest-starred in the season premiere of the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, aired on September 23, 2010. He played a "troubled teen who is faced with a difficult decision regarding his only brother". Bieber was also in a subsequent episode which aired on February 17, 2011, in which his character is killed. Bieber performed a medley of "U Smile", "Baby", and "Somebody to Love" and briefly played the drums at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. Bieber announced in October 2010 that he would release an acoustic album, called My Worlds Acoustic. It was released on Black Friday in the United States and featured acoustic versions of songs from his previous albums, and accompanied the release of a completely new song titled "Pray".
On February 27, 2011, Bieber attended the 2011 Vanity Fair Oscar Party with American actress and singer Selena Gomez, confirming several months of media speculation about a romantic relationship between the pair. The relationship has since continued to garner significant media attention.
In June 2011, Bieber was ranked number 2 on the Forbes list of Best-Paid Celebrities under 30. He is the youngest star and 1 of 7 musicians on the list raking in with $53 million earned in a 12 month period. On November 1, 2011, Bieber released Under the Mistletoe, his second studio album. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 210,000 copies in its first week of release. Bieber is currently recording his third studio album entitled Believe. Kanye West and Drake are confirmed to be featured on the album.
Bieber is often featured in teen magazines such as Tiger Beat, and has been labeled as a "teen hearthrob". Bieber has released a collection of nail varnishes to raise awareness for charity. Wax statues of Bieber are on display at Madame Tussauds wax museums in New York, Amsterdam and London. His change of hairstyle in 2010, and the consequent alterations to Bieber products, led to it being called 'the most expensive musical haircut of all time; one company spent $100,000 to fix its dolls for the 2011 Christmas season.
Bieber's comments in a February 2011 profile in Rolling Stone sparked controversy. Asked whether a person should wait until marriage to have sex, Bieber responded, "I don't think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them." Asked about his opinion on abortion, Bieber said he does not "believe in abortion" and that it is "like killing a baby". When asked about abortion in cases of rape, he said, "Well, I think that's really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I don't know how that would be a reason. I guess I haven't been in that position, so I wouldn't be able to judge that." In the same interview, Bieber talked about homosexuality, stating that "It's everyone's own decision to do that. It doesn’t affect me and shouldn't affect anyone else", and Rolling Stone commented, "It is not clear whether he intended to label homosexuality as a lifestyle choice." However, Bieber has also contributed to the It Gets Better Project, a project started in response to the suicide of Billy Lucas, a teenager who was the target of anti-gay bullying.
Bieber has said he is not interested in obtaining United States citizenship, praising Canada as being "the best country in the world", citing its health care system as an example.
Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes | |||
rowspan="2" | 2009 | True Jackson, VP | rowspan="4">rowspan="3"| Guest star |
My Date With... | |||
Silent Library (MTV series)>Silent Library | |||
School Gyrls (film)School Gyrls | |
Cameo | |
Saturday Night Live | |||
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Jason McCann | ||
Hubworld | Guest star | ||
The X Factor (UK) | Performer | ||
rowspan="9" | 2011 | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition| | Guest star |
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Jason McCann | ||
Khloé & Lamar | Himself|Episode:The Father In Law (uncredited) Himself playing the NBA Celebrity All Star Game | ||
Saturday Night Live | |||
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never | Himself | ||
Dancing With The Stars | Guest star | ||
So Random! | Himself | ||
Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade | Guest star | ||
The X Factor (UK) | Performer |
|
Category:1994 births Category:Canadian child singers Category:Canadian Christians Category:Canadian dance musicians Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Canadian Internet personalities Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian people of French descent Category:Canadian people of German descent Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian rhythm and blues singers Category:Child pop musicians Category:Hip hop singers Category:Island Records artists Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:People from Stratford, Ontario Category:Living people
af:Justin Bieber ar:جستن بيبر an:Justin Bieber az:Castin Biber bn:জাস্টিন বিবার zh-min-nan:Justin Bieber bcl:Justin Bieber bg:Джъстин Бийбър br:Justin Bieber ca:Justin Bieber cs:Justin Bieber cbk-zam:Justin Bieber cy:Justin Bieber da:Justin Bieber de:Justin Bieber et:Justin Bieber es:Justin Bieber eo:Justin Bieber eu:Justin Bieber fa:جاستین بیبر fo:Justin Bieber fr:Justin Bieber fy:Justin Bieber ga:Justin Bieber gd:Justin Bieber gl:Justin Bieber ko:저스틴 비버 hy:Ջասթին Բիբեր hr:Justin Bieber ig:Justin Bieber ilo:Justin Bieber id:Justin Bieber is:Justin Bieber it:Justin Bieber he:ג'סטין ביבר jv:Justin Bieber ka:ჯასტინ ბიბერი kk:Джастин Бибер la:Iustinus Bieber lv:Džastins Bībers lb:Justin Bieber lt:Justin Bieber ln:Justin Bieber hu:Justin Bieber mk:Џастин Бибер mg:Justin Bieber ml:ജസ്റ്റിൻ ബെയ്ബെർ mr:जस्टिन बीबर xmf:ჯასთინ ბიბერი ms:Justin Bieber mn:Жастин Бибер my:ဂျပ်စတင် ဘီဘာ nl:Justin Bieber ne:जस्टिन बीबर ja:ジャスティン・ビーバー no:Justin Bieber nn:Justin Bieber uz:Justin Bieber pcd:Justin Bieber pl:Justin Bieber pt:Justin Bieber ro:Justin Bieber ru:Бибер, Джастин sq:Justin Bieber simple:Justin Bieber sk:Justin Bieber sl:Justin Bieber sr:Џастин Бибер sh:Justin Bieber su:Justin Bieber fi:Justin Bieber sv:Justin Bieber tl:Justin Bieber ta:ஜஸ்டின் பீபர் tt:Джастин Бибер th:จัสติน บีเบอร์ tr:Justin Bieber uk:Джастін Бібер vi:Justin Bieber yi:זשאסטין ביבער yo:Justin Bieber zh:贾斯汀·比伯This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Taylor Swift |
---|---|
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Taylor Alison Swift |
Birth date | December 13, 1989 |
Birth place | Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, United States |
Instrument | Vocals, guitar, banjo, piano, ukulele |
Genre | Country pop, pop, teen pop, country |
Occupation | Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, actress |
Years active | 2006–present |
Label | Big Machine |
Notable instruments | Custom-built Taylor acoustic guitars |
Website | |
Associated acts | Nathan Chapman, Liz Rose }} |
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress.
In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. In November 2008, Swift released her second album, Fearless, and the recording earned Swift four Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Fearless and Taylor Swift finished 2008 at number-three and number-six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million. Fearless topped the Billboard 200 for 11 non-consecutive weeks. 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, 2010's 12th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $45 million and 2011's 7th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $45 million, too. Swift was ranked the 38th Best Artist of the 2000–10 decade by Billboard. In January 2010 Nielsen SoundScan listed Swift as the most successful digital artist in music history with over 34.3 million digital tracks sold. On June 2011, renowned site The Boot named Swift and Carrie Underwood The Country Royalty, as they were the only female country artists to be ranked on Rolling Stone's Queens of Pop list. , she has sold over 20 million albums and 34.3 million singles worldwide.
When Swift was in fourth grade, she won a national poetry contest with a three-page poem, "Monster in My Closet". At the age of ten, a computer repairman showed her how to play three chords on a guitar, sparking her interest in learning the instrument. Afterwards, Swift wrote her first song, "Lucky You". When Swift was 12, she devoted an entire summer to writing a 350-page novel, which remains unpublished. She began writing songs regularly and used it as an outlet to help her with her pain from not fitting in at school. Swift was a victim of bullying, and spent her time writing songs to express her emotions. She also started performing at local karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs.
Swift began to regularly visit Nashville, Tennessee, and work with local songwriters. When she was 14, her family relocated to Nashville. Her first major show was a well-received performance at the Bloomsburg Fair. In Tennessee, 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 Swift's 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 that one can have by "stretching boundaries".
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.
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). He was criticized by various celebrities for the outburst, 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. On September 15, 2009, Swift talked about the matter on The View, where she said she was at first excited to see West on stage and then disappointed once he acted out. She said West had not spoken to her following the incident. Following her appearance on The View, West contacted her to apologize personally; Swift said she accepted his apology. However, on November 8, 2010, in an interview with a Minnesota radio station, West seemed to recant a bit of his past apologies by attempting to describe the act at the 2009 awards show as "selfless" and downgrade the perception of disrespect it created. Swift would later perform a song at the 2010 VMA called "Innocent" which is about the incident and in the song she absolves West of his actions. On November 11, 2009, Swift became the youngest artist ever to win the Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the year, and is one of only six women to win the Country Music Association's highest honor. 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 No.27 and "Come in With the Rain" at No.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 No.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 No.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 No.40 and No.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 No.1 and No.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.
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." Due to the autobiographical nature of her songs, some fans have researched 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".
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. On July 15, 2011, Swift's official website announced that she had partnered with Elizabeth Arden to launch a fragrance, which is to be released in October 2011. The fragrance's name, "Wonderstruck", is a reference to the song "Enchanted" featured on her Speak Now album.
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. 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.
On May 23, 2011, Taylor Swift transformed what was to have been the final dress rehearsal for the North American leg of her Speak Now tour into a benefit concert for victims of recent tornadoes in the United States southeast region. The concert in Nashville drew more than 13,000 people and raised more than $750,000 from proceeds from ticket sales, merchandise and other facets of the show. The benefit concert for tornado relief was subsequently honored at the 2011 Do Something Awards. In July 2011, Swift further aided to the cause by donating $250,000 to Alabama football coach Nick Saban's charity Nick's Kids to aid in the tornado relief efforts of West Alabama.
! Year | ! Title | ! Role | Notes |
2007 | Herself | Guest; Episode: Season 2 Finale | |
2008 | CMT Crossroads | Herself | Episode: "Taylor Swift and Def Leppard" |
2009 | Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience | Herself | |
2009 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Haley Jones | |
2009 | Hannah Montana: The Movie | Herself | Cameo |
2009 | Saturday Night Live | Herself | Host/Musical Guest |
2009 | Herself | Guest; Episode: Week 6 results | |
2010 | Felicia | Movie acting debut | |
2010 | Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless | Herself | Main Role |
2010 | Herself | Guest; Episode: 200th episode | |
2012 | Audrey | ||
2012 | Bruno the Robot | Various |
Category:1989 births Category:Living people Category:American child singers Category:American pop singers Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American country banjoists Category:American female guitarists Category:American pianists 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 Wyomissing, Pennsylvania Category:Ukulele players
af:Taylor Swift ang:Taylor Swift ar:تايلور سويفت bn:টেইলর সুইফট zh-min-nan:Taylor Swift bar:Taylor Swift ca:Taylor Swift cs:Taylor Swift da:Taylor Swift de:Taylor Swift et:Taylor Swift el:Τέιλορ Σουίφτ es:Taylor Swift eu:Taylor Swift fa:تیلور سوئیفت fr:Taylor Swift gl:Taylor Swift ko:테일러 스위프트 hy:Թեյլոր Սվիֆթ hi:टेलर स्विफ्ट hr:Taylor Swift id:Taylor Swift is:Taylor Swift it:Taylor Swift he:טיילור סוויפט jv:Taylor Swift kn:ಟೈಲರ್ ಸ್ವಿಫ್ಟ್ ka:ტეილორ სვიფტი sw:Taylor Swift la:Taylor Swift lv:Teilore Svifta lt:Taylor Swift hu:Taylor Swift mk:Тејлор Свифт ml:ടെയിലർ സ്വിഫ്റ്റ് nl:Taylor Swift ja:テイラー・スウィフト no:Taylor Swift nn:Taylor Swift uz:Taylor Swift pl:Taylor Swift pt:Taylor Swift ro:Taylor Swift ru:Свифт, Тейлор sq:Taylor Swift simple:Taylor Swift sl:Taylor Swift sr:Тејлор Свифт fi:Taylor Swift sv:Taylor Swift tl:Taylor Swift th:เทย์เลอร์ สวิฟต์ tr:Taylor Swift uk:Тейлор Свіфт vi:Taylor Swift yi:טעילאר סוויפט zh-yue:泰勒斯威夫特 zh:泰勒·斯威夫特
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters.
We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. For example, if you submit an inquiry to us or sign up for our newsletter, you may be asked to provide certain information such as your contact details (name, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.).
When you submit your personally identifiable information through wn.com, you are giving your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you would prefer that we not collect any personally identifiable information from you, please do not provide us with any such information. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we will use the information you provide us only for the purpose of responding to your inquiry or in connection with the service for which you provided such information. We may forward your contact information and inquiry to our affiliates and other divisions of our company that we feel can best address your inquiry or provide you with the requested service. We may also use the information you provide in aggregate form for internal business purposes, such as generating statistics and developing marketing plans. We may share or transfer such non-personally identifiable information with or to our affiliates, licensees, agents and partners.
We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to personally identifiable information needed to perform their functions, but may not use such information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose any information, including personally identifiable information, we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request.
We do not want you to receive unwanted e-mail from us. We try to make it easy to opt-out of any service you have asked to receive. If you sign-up to our e-mail newsletters we do not sell, exchange or give your e-mail address to a third party.
E-mail addresses are collected via the wn.com web site. Users have to physically opt-in to receive the wn.com newsletter and a verification e-mail is sent. wn.com is clearly and conspicuously named at the point of
collection.If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at michaelw(at)wn.com
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during registration and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure, however. Therefore, though we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If we decide to change our e-mail practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we think appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If we make material changes to our e-mail practices, we will notify you here, by e-mail, and by means of a notice on our home page.
The advertising banners and other forms of advertising appearing on this Web site are sometimes delivered to you, on our behalf, by a third party. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, the third party may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. For more information on cookies, you can visit www.cookiecentral.com.
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain aspects of our entities or assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on Wn.com you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.