Change may refer to:

The process of becoming different

Social change

Biological metamorphosis

Change (mathematics), the mathematical study of change

Percentage change, in statistics

Fold change, in statistics

Personal development - especially if seen as personally "life-changing"

Changing clothes

Changing money

The change (also the change of life), an informal alternate term for menopause

In music

Bands

Change (band), an Italian-American post-disco group active in the 1980s

Change (also known as Clockwork and Jimmy and the Soulblazers), an American R&B; group active in the 1970s

Songs

"Change" (Daniel Merriweather song)

"Change" (Every Little Thing song)

"Change" (Hotel FM song)

"Change (In the House of Flies)", a Deftones song

"Change" (Killing Joke song)

"Change" (Kimberley Locke song)

"Change" (Lisa Stansfield song)

"Change" (Miwa song)

"Change" (Sugababes song)

"Change" (Taylor Swift song)

"Change" (Tears for Fears song)

"Change" (Hyuna song)

"Change", a song by Oingo Boingo from their 1994 album ''Boingo''

"Change", a song by Blind Melon from their 1992 album ''Blind Melon''

"Change", a song by Crazy Town from their 2002 album ''Darkhorse''

"Change", a song by Axium from their 2002 album ''Matter of Time''

"Change", a 2001 song by Conor and Jay, featured in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto III''

"Change", a 2005 song by Tracy Chapman on the album ''Where You Live''

"Change", a 2008 song by Tess Gaerthé

"Change", a song by Bobby Darin, used in the 2004 film ''Beyond The Sea''

"Change", a song by Fishbone on the album ''Truth and Soul''

"Change", a song by John Waite

"Change", a song by T-Pain from the album ''Thr33 Ringz''

"Change", a song by Carrie Underwood

"Change", a song by Keri Hilson

Albums

''Change'' (The Alarm album)

''Change'' (Vanessa Amorosi album)

''Change!'', an album by the Black Swans

''Change'' (The Dismemberment Plan album)

''Change'' (Every Little Thing album)

''Change'' (Andrew Hill album)

''Change'' (Richie Kotzen album)

''Change'' (Pink Cream 69 album)

''Change'' (Sons of the Desert album)

''Change'' (Sugababes album)

''Change'' (Ray Wilson album)

Places

Change Islands, Newfoundland and Labrador

Change, Nepal

Change, Saône-et-Loire, France

Changé, Mayenne, France

Changé, Sarthe, France

Le Change, Dordogne, France

Other uses

Loose change, coin money

Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment (CHANGE), a civic organization based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

''Change'' (TV series), 2008 Japanese television drama starring Takuya Kimura and Eri Fukatsu

''Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning'', a journal published for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching by Heldref Publications

Change.gov, the website for the Obama administration's transition (November 2008 to January 2009)

Change 2011, a Finnish political party

See also

Changes (disambiguation)

Chang'e, the Chinese goddess of the moon

Chang'e (disambiguation)

"Changing", a song by Saosin from the album ''In Search of Solid Ground''

Identity and change

Impermanence

ar:تغير (توضيح) ca:Change de:Change es:Change (desambiguación) fr:Change ko:체인지 it:Change he:שינוי nl:Change ja:チェンジ no:Change pl:Change pt:Change fi:Change tr:Change

Coordinates	35°22′48″N174°4′8″N
Name	Taylor Swift
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Taylor Alison Swift
Birth date	December 13, 1989
Birth place	Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, ganjo, piano, ukulele
Genre	Country pop, pop, country, dance-pop
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, actress
Years active	2006–present
Label	Big Machine
Associated acts	Nathan Chapman, Liz Rose
Website	150pxTaylor Swift's signature }}

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 2000s 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'' Queens of Pop list. , she has sold over 20 million albums and 34.3 million singles worldwide. She has been listed in the 2012 ''Guinness Book Of World Records'' as the Fastest Selling Digital Album by a Female Artist for her album ''Speak Now'', and Most Simultaneous U.S. Hot 100 Hits by a Female Artist. In 2011, ''Billboard'' named her woman of the year.

Early life

Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania, and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Andrea Gardner (née Finlay), a homemaker who previously worked in finance, and Scott Kingsley Swift, a stockbroker. Her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay (née Moehlenkamp), was an opera singer. Swift has a younger brother, Austin. She grew up on a Christmas-tree farm.

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".

Music career

2000–2005: musical beginnings

At age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville, hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town, but was rejected. After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the US Open tennis tournament, where her rendition of the national anthem received much attention.

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.

2006–2008: ''Taylor Swift''

Swift released her debut single, "Tim McGraw", in mid-2006, reaching No.6 on ''Billboard'' magazine's Hot Country Songs chart. Her self-titled debut album was later released on October 24, 2006. Debuting high on the ''Billboard'' 200, the album sold 39,000 copies during its first week. It peaked at No.1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and No.5 on the ''Billboard'' 200. Her debut album spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums charts and remained at the top for 24 out of 91 weeks. The only other country artists this decade to achieve the number-one sales position for 20 weeks or more are The Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood. The music video for "Tim McGraw" won Swift an award for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2007 CMT Music Awards. Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of "GAC Short Cuts", a part-documentary, part-music-video series airing since the summer of 2006. On May 15, 2007, Swift performed "Tim McGraw" at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Swift has been an opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tour. She has opened in the past for George Strait, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts as well. The second single from the ''Taylor Swift'' album, "Teardrops on My Guitar", was released February 24, 2007. In mid-2007, the song peaked at No.2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and No.33 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song was re-released with a pop remix that brought "Teardrops on My Guitar" to No.13 on the Hot 100 and No.11 on the Pop 100. In October 2007, Swift was awarded Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Assn. Intl., making her the youngest artist ever to win the award. Her third song off her debut album, "Our Song" spent six weeks at No.1 on the Country charts, peaked at No.16 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and rose to No.24 on the ''Billboard'' Pop 100. Swift recorded a holiday album, ''Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection,'' which was released exclusively at Target in late 2007. Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse. Swift's successful single, "Picture to Burn", was the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted and soon peaked at No.3 on the Billboard Country chart in spring 2008. left|upright|thumb|Swift performing at Yahoo HQ in 2007 "Should've Said No" became Swift's second No.1 single. In Summer 2008, Swift released ''Beautiful Eyes'', an EP sold exclusively at Wal-Mart. In its first week of release, the album sold 45,000 copies, debuting at No.1 on ''Billboard'''s Top Country Albums chart and No.9 on the ''Billboard'' 200. With her self-titled debut album sitting at No.2 during the same week, Swift became the first artist since 1997 to hold the Top 2 positions of the Top Country Albums chart. In October 2008, Swift performed a duet with best selling rock band Def Leppard in a taped show in Nashville, Tennessee, and their collaboration was up for both Performance of the Year and Wide Open Country Video of the Year at the CMT Music Awards in 2009.

2008–2010: ''Fearless'' and MTV VMA incident

Swift's second studio album, ''Fearless'', was released in the United States on November 11, 2008. The album debuted at No.1 on the ''Billboard'' 200 Album Chart. Its sales of 592,304 were the highest debut of any country artist in 2008. This is also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the fourth biggest overall behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay. Its lead single "Love Story" became a hit on both the country and pop charts. During the first week of release, more than 129,000 of Swift's sales were sold digitally. This gives Swift the best online start for any country album in history. It also makes Swift the fourth biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004. Through its eighth week of release, ''Fearless'' has sold more than 338,467 downloads, making it the bestselling country album in digital history. In second place is Swift's debut ''Taylor Swift'' with sales of 236,046 downloads as of April 18, 2009. In its debut week, seven songs in total on ''Fearless'' were charted on ''Billboard'' Hot 100, tying Swift with Miley Cyrus for the most by a female artist in a single week. With "White Horse" charted at #13, this gave Swift her sixth top 20 debut of 2008, a calendar year record for any artist in the history of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Of the 13 tracks on ''Fearless'', 11 have already spent time on the Hot 100. "Change", a song from the album, was selected as part of a soundtrack supporting Team USA's efforts in the 2008 Summer Olympics. The song was also featured as part of the soundtrack of NBC's broadcast package of the Olympics. The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released on September 12, 2008. The Fearless album includes the "Love Story" music video which is based on ''Romeo and Juliet''. The song has reached No.2 on iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and No.4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Fifteen weeks after being added to pop radio, "Love Story" also became the first country crossover recording to hit number one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart in the 16-year-history of the list, as well as number one on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart. The second single from ''Fearless'', "White Horse", was released on December 8, 2008. The music video for the song premiered on CMT on February 7, 2009. Though it missed the No.1 spot on Billboard's Hot Country Songs as of the week April 11, 2009, "White Horse" claimed the No.1 spot atop the USA Today/Country Aircheck chart (powered by Mediabase) in that week. "Forever & Always", another song from the album, was based on Swift's relationship with singer Joe Jonas. She was the first artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart. It also was the first album by a female artist in country music history to log eight weeks at No.1 on The ''Billboard'' 200. In mid-January 2009, Swift became the first country artist to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads with three different songs. Swift is ''Billboard'''s Top Country Artist and Hot Country Songwriter of 2008; she is also country music's best-selling artist of 2008. Swift ranked seventh on Nielsen SoundScan Canada's top-10 selling artists across all genres in 2008. ''Fearless'' and ''Taylor Swift'' took the No.1 and No.2 slots on 2008 Year-End Canadian Country Albums Chart. Swift sang the Star-Spangled Banner at game three of the World Series in Philadelphia on October 25, 2008. In January 2009, Swift announced her North American Fearless Tour planned for 52 cities in 38 states and provinces in the US and Canada over the span of 6 months. The tour kicked off April 23 in Evansville, Indiana. In the same month, Swift made her first musical guest appearance on ''Saturday Night Live''. On February 8, 2009, Swift performed her song "Fifteen" with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards. As of the week ending February 8, 2009, Swift's single "Love Story" became the country song with the most paid downloads in history. Since the release of Swift's second album, ''Fearless'', she has released one new song "Crazier" for the soundtrack of the feature film ''Hannah Montana: The Movie''. At the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, Swift picked up Album of the Year honors as a performer and producer for ''Fearless''. Swift is the youngest artist in history to win the ACM ''Album of the Year'' award. The Academy lauded her for career achievements including selling more albums in 2008 than any other artist in any genre of music, the breakthrough success of her debut album, and the worldwide crossover success of her No.1 single "Love Story". The Academy also cited Swift's contribution to helping country music attract a younger audience. As of late April 2009, Swift has sold more than 14 million downloads, as well as three Gold Mobile Ringtones. On April 28, 2009, Swift gave a free, private concert to students at Bishop Ireton High School, a small Catholic school in Alexandria, Virginia after the school won a national "TXT 2 WIN" contest from Verizon Wireless. The students sent over 19,000 text messages to Verizon during a roughly one month long contest. Swift played for about an hour during the school's field day, an annual day-long recess with games and activities. On October 8, 2009 Swift's official website announced that her sold-out Fearless Tour would return to North America for 37 additional dates in 2010.

Scheduled to perform on September 13, 2009, Swift attended the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. This was her first VMA performance, where she became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award. During the show, as Swift was on stage accepting the award for Best Female Video for "You Belong with Me," singer/rapper Kanye West came on stage and took the microphone from Swift, saying that Beyoncé's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated for the same award, was "one of the best videos of all time," an action that caused the many audience members to boo West. He handed the microphone back to a stunned and reportedly upset Swift, who did not finish her acceptance speech. When Beyoncé later won the award for Best Video of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", she called Swift up on stage so that she could finish her acceptance speech. Following the awards show, West apologized for his verbal outburst in a blog entry (which was subsequently removed). He was criticized by various celebrities for the outburst, and even by President Barack Obama who called West a "jackass" 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.

2010–present: ''Speak Now''

Swift released the track "Today Was a Fairytale" as a digital download on iTunes on January 19, 2010. The song was featured on the soundtrack for the film ''Valentine's Day'', in which she made her feature-film acting debut. The song debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at No. 2, becoming her sixth Top 10 and 23rd Top 40 single on that chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan, with sales of "Today Was a Fairytale" more than 325,000 in its first week, Swift has broken the record for first-week download sales by a female artist. The song also debuted at number one on the Canadian Hot 100, making it Swift's first number one hit in Canada. In February 2010, Swift brought her Fearless Tour to 5 cities in Australia. Opening acts included Gloriana. In mid-July 2010, ''Billboard'' revealed that Swift's new album is called ''Speak Now''. It was released on October 25, 2010. She has written the album completely by herself in Arkansas, New York, Boston and Nashville with Nathan Chapman serving as co-producer. On Wednesday, August 4, 2010, the lead single from the album, "Mine," was leaked onto the internet. Big Machine Records decided to rush the release of the song to counteract the leak. Swift appeared at the 44th Annual Country Music Awards on November 10, 2010. In 2011, Swift visited Singapore as the first stop of the Asian leg of her first world tour. Hong Kong is the last stop of the Speak Now World Tour and Swift will begin the European and American leg afterwards. Swift's first live album, ''Speak Now World Tour: Live'', featuring all seventeen performances from the North American leg of her concert tour, is scheduled for a November 21, 2011 release. Many dates on the Speak Now World Tour were cancelled due to Swift suffering from bronchitis and was told she is unable to perform. Swift sold approximately 4,470,000 albums in the US in 2010 (more than any other artist) and sold 9.9 million digital tracks. She was ranked second on ''Rolling Stone'''s lists of Top 16 "Queen Of Pops" of the decade. Swift appeared on the ''Hamish & Andy'' show where she performed a new song called "Chaperone Dads", which is dedicated to a select group of her fans. The week following the release of her "Sparks Fly" video Swift jumped from nineteen to ten on the ''Billboard'''s Social 50. Swift has revealed that she has already written 25 songs for an untitled follow-up album to ''Speak Now'', set to release in the later part of 2012. She commented on them, "They’re sad. If I'm being honest."

On December 23, 2011, Taylor announced via Twitter, "Something I've been VERY excited about for a VERY long time is going to be happening VERY soon." Several hours later, Taylor announced that she is featured on ''The Hunger Games'' Official Movie Soundtrack. Her song, entitled "Safe & Sound", was the first track released from the album. The song was co-written by The Civil Wars, who also co-recorded the song with Taylor. On January 8, 2012, Taylor was elected the fifth top artist (fourth female top artist) of all-time with the best-selling digital music tracks. Taylor has sold 41,821,000 million digital tracks as of the end of 2011 according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Songwriting style

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

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

Other work

Acting

In 2008, Swift made her acting debut in Brad Paisley's music video "Online". In that same year Swift filmed a documentary for MTV entitled ''MTV's Once Upon a Prom'' and a documentary with Def Leppard for CMT entitled ''CMT Crossroads'', which premiered on November 7, 2008. Swift collaborated with the Jonas Brothers in their 3D Concert Film, ''Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience''. The film was released on February 27, 2009 in North America and brought in $12.7 million on its opening weekend. Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS's ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' "Turn, Turn, Turn" as Haley Jones on March 5, 2009 in the U.S. and Canada. The episode was watched by 20.8 million viewers. Swift made a cameo appearance in Kellie Pickler's music video "Best Days of Your Life". Swift also appeared in ''Hannah Montana: The Movie'' credited as herself. The film was released on April 10, 2009 in North America. The television show Dateline NBC showcased an hour on Swift on May 31, 2009. The episode titled ''Dateline NBC: On Tour With Taylor Swift'' included scenes from her tour bus, concert footage, and rehearsals. Swift both hosted and performed as the musical guest for the November 7, 2009 episode of ''Saturday Night Live''. In 2010, Swift made her feature film acting debut as Felicia in the film ''Valentine's Day''. For this role she won the Teen Choice Award for Movie Female Breakout. She has been cast to voice the role of Audrey in the animated film ''The Lorax'', set to be released in 2012. In January 2012, Swift was offered the role of Eponine in the film adaptation of the musical, ''Les Misérables''.

Cover model and recognition

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

Merchandise

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

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

Philanthropy

On September 21, 2007, Swift helped launch a campaign to protect children from online predators. She has teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to combat internet sex crimes. The year-long campaign, in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, will distribute Internet safety information and materials to parents and students across the state. In early 2008, Swift donated the pink Chevy pick-up truck given to her by her record label to the children’s charity, the ''Victory Junction Gang''; in June 2008, Swift donated all the proceeds from her merchandise sales at the 2008 Country Music Festival to Red Cross, the ''Nashville Area Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund'' and the ''National American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund''.

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.

Personal life

In addition to her relationship with Joe Jonas, which ended in October 2008, Swift's dating history has included other celebrities: Taylor Lautner, for three months in 2009; and Jake Gyllenhaal, from late 2010 to early 2011. Swift has also been romantically linked to John Mayer. There has been speculation that the songs "Dear John" and "The Story of Us" from her album ''Speak Now'' are about Mayer. In October 2011, she revealed to Ellen Degeneres on her show ''Ellen'' that, "I don't even have, like, kind of a boyfriend. I don't have someone that I'm texting that is a guy that someday might be my boyfriend. There's like nothing going on right now."

In November 2011, Taylor adopted a Scottish fold kitten. She named her Meredith after the character Meredith Grey from the popular ABC drama ''Grey's Anatomy''. The kitten appeared in the official music video for Taylor's song ''Ours'' alongside Taylor and ''Friday Night Lights'' star Zach Gilford.

Filmography

>

! 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

Discography

Albums

''Taylor Swift'' (2006)

''Fearless'' (2008)

''Speak Now'' (2010)

Awards and nominations

Tours

Fearless Tour (2009–10)

Speak Now World Tour (2011–2012)

References

External links

Category:1989 births Category:American child singers Category:American country banjoists Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American female guitarists Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American pianists Category:American pop singers Category:American television actors Category:Big Machine Records artists Category:Child pop musicians Category:English-language singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Pennsylvania Category:People from Reading, Pennsylvania Category:People from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania Category:Ukulele players

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Coordinates	35°22′48″N174°4′8″N
name	Daniel Merriweather
alt	A thirty-six year-old man is shown in three-quarter view. He is standing centre-stage, half-turned with hands clapped together. He is partly obscured by a microphone stand in front. Behind him is a drummer at his kit. Beyond that is the lighting, which includes the partly spelled letters R-O-C-K-C-O-R in large orange-yellow.
landscape	yes
background	solo_singer
birth name	Daniel Paul Merriweather
birth date	February 17, 1982
birth place	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
death date
genre	R&B;, neo-soul, acid jazz, blue-eyed soul
occupation	Singer
years active	2002–present
label	Marlin, J, Allido, RCA, Universal, Roc Nation
associated acts	Mark RonsonPhraseJordan GallandWale
website
notable instruments	}}

Daniel Paul Merriweather (born 17 February 1982) is an Australian R&B; singer-songwriter who has worked as a featured vocalist for other artists and has a solo career. His guest vocals are included on album tracks by Disco Montego, Mark Ronson and Phrase. His collaborations with Ronson led to working in the United Kingdom including lead vocals on Ronson's cover version of The Smiths' song "Stop Me" in 2007. Merriweather's debut solo album, ''Love & War'', was released in June 2009. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number two. It was preceded by two singles, "Change" and "Red", which both made the top 10 on the related singles chart. Merriweather has won two ARIA Music Awards, 'Best Urban Release' in 2005 for "She's Got Me" and 'Best Male Artist' in 2009 for ''Love & War''.

Biography

Music

Daniel Merriweather's first commercially released recording was a guest appearance on the track "All I Want" for Australian dance act Disco Montego's self-titled album in September 2002. The album peaked at No. 17 on the ARIA Albums Chart. He signed with the local label, Marlin Records, which led to work with Mark Ronson, a United Kingdom DJ and guitarist, on the latter's debut album, ''Here Comes the Fuzz'', ("She's Got Me" and "NYC Rules") in September 2003. Merriweather signed with Ronson's label, Allido Records, and worked on his debut solo single, "City Rules", as a revised version of "NYC Rules". It was produced by Ronson and featured raps from New York MC Saigon and was issued in early 2004. Other musicians on the single are ?uestlove, The Black Eyed Peas' horn section and members of Beck's backing band. He received an ARIA Award nomination for "City Rules" in the category 'Best Urban Release' at the 2004 ceremony.

"She's Got Me" was released as Merriweather's second single. While neither charted on the ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart, both became favourites in clubs and urban music circles. "City Rules" won the 'Most Performed Dance Work' category at the APRA Awards of 2005 and "She's Got Me" won the 'Best Urban Release' at the ARIA Music Awards of 2005. "City Rules" obtained some airplay on the major Australian commercial radio stations FOX FM (Melbourne)/2Day FM and B105.

In 2005, he co-wrote and co-produced much of Phrase's debut album ''Talk with Force'', also lending vocals to three tracks including the single "Catch Phrase". In March 2006, ''Undercover News'' reported that Merriweather was recording his debut album, ''The Fifth Season'' with Ronson producing. However, in August 2011, Merriweather recalled "It was 12 songs out of a whole bunch of songs that I’d written. I came up with the idea of calling it ''The Fifth Season'' and someone put it on Wikipedia. But it wasn’t really an album – it was just a collection of songs. There’s a difference".

In early 2007, Ronson featured Merriweather's lead vocals on a cover version of The Smiths' song "Stop Me". It was re-composed with additional lyrics from the song "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by The Supremes. Merriweather admitted in an interview with ''The Guardian'' that he was not familiar with "Stop Me (If You Think You've Heard This One Before)" prior to recording the revised version: "Mark said, 'I want you to sing on this - it's my favourite Smiths song', so I listened to it. I'd heard it once before, but I was never a Smiths fan. But I thought it was beautiful". It was issued as a single in April on Columbia Records and appeared on Ronson's compilation album, ''Version'' that same month. It was a commercial success in the United Kingdom where it reached number two on the Singles Chart. It peaked in the top 40 on the Swiss and Italian Singles Charts.

Merriweather's debut solo album, ''Love & War'', also produced by Ronson, was released in June 2009, which reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and peaked in the top 10 on the Swiss Albums Chart. It was preceded by the singles "Change" (February) and "Red" (May), which both made the top 10 on the UK Singles Chart. "Change" appeared in the top 10 on the Swiss Singles Top 75. While "Red" was a top 10 hit on the Danish and Irish Singles Charts. On the ARIA Albums Chart, ''Love & War'' reached the top 40 and "Change" peaked in the top 50 on the related singles chart. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2009, he won 'Best Male Artist' for ''Love & War''.

Merriweather cites Stevie Wonder, Prince, Jeff Buckley and Herbie Hancock as his major influences.

Personal life

Daniel Paul Merriweather was born on 17 February 1982 and he grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Sassafras in the Dandenong Ranges. Both his parents are teachers and he has two brothers. Merriweather described his family as, "My mum’s lot are working-class – my granddad was a boxer and fireman, a real man’s man – while my dad’s parents were missionaries, and he grew up with a tribe in Papua New Guinea". His maternal grandfather, Ted Ellis, was also an Australian rules footballer for North Melbourne and Footscray, while Daniel is an Essendon supporter.

Merriweather attended The Patch Primary School, Billanook College, Blackburn High School and Swinburne Senior Secondary College (for year 11) and left school when he was aged 17. His musical education began with violin lessons at the age of four; he started guitar at age 13; his music grades at Blakckburn High were average. As a teen, he became involved in violent confrontations, he was charged with assault and threatened with jail. After dropping out of school, he focused his attention on music, taking vocal lessons and performing in clubs around Melbourne. In a September 2009 article in ''The Sun'', he indicated that he liked reading about Philosophy and "was thinking of studying it at a higher level" but would not forgo his musical career.

His younger brother, Ben, had the lower half of a leg amputated as a result of a car accident. Merriweather spent much of his time between New York and London, and as from 2009 resided in East Harlem. Since the age of 18, Merriweather has a tattoo on his inside right forearm bearing the Latin phrase for "love or money". Merriweather indicated in 2009, that he planned another tattoo for his back – a 100-word excerpt from the last verse of the poem, "Jim Jones", quoted in Robert Hughes' book, ''The Fatal Shore'' which includes "For night and day ... we toil and toil".

Tours

In January 2004, Merriweather headlined the City Rules Tour of Australia with Mark Ronson, Scribe and P-Money. In March 2006, Merriweather supported Kanye West on his Australian tour. He opened for Biz Markie in Brooklyn and Justin Timberlake in London; He has performed live on various radio and television programs, including ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', Triple J's ''Hip Hop Show'', Radio 1's ''Live Lounge'' show, and Australian TV show, ''Sunrise''.

He has performed at various festivals and events including the Montreux Jazz Festival (alongside Erick Sermon); the 2004 St Kilda Festival and 2004 Melbourne World AIDS Day Concert.

During 2007, he toured the UK with Mark Ronson (as well as performing several solo shows). He also performed with Ronson and the BBC Concert Orchestra at the 2007 BBC Electric Proms. He also performed at the MTV Video Music Awards on 9 September 2007 alongside Ronson who acted as the official DJ for the proceedings. On 22 February 2008, he appeared on BBC Radio One with Ronson to perform a special version of his track, "Stop Me", as part of the Chris Moyles breakfast show.

He also played at the 2008 Brit Awards alongside Ronson. Also, he sang "Stop Me" on stage during Ronson's Glastonbury 2008 set. Merriweather performed in Australia for the first time since 2006 at the Global Gathering shows in November 2008 with Mark Ronson's Version Players.

At the 2009 0₂ Wireless festival in Hyde Park London, Merriweather headlined the second stage where Ronson supported him for half a set on guitar. Merriweather is set to play at this year's Oxegen festival in Punchestown Racecourse, Co. Kildare, Ireland. He has appeared on television programmes such as ''The Justin Lee Collins Show'' and ''Britain's Got More Talent''. He performed his single "Red" on T4 On The Beach 2009 in Weston-super-Mare.

Merriweather appeared as the musical guest on ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' on 14 July 2009, performing "Change", and Letterman on 18 February 2010 when he performed "Red".

In spring 2010, Merriweather toured as the opening act for British light jazz and R&B; singer Corinne Bailey Rae.

Discography

''Love & War'' (2009)

Awards

{| class=wikitable |- !Year !Award !Category !Title !Result |- |2004 |ARIA Awards |Best Urban Release |rowspan="2"|"City Rules" | |- |rowspan="2"|2005 |APRA Awards |Most Performed Dance Work | |- |ARIA Awards |Best Urban Release |"She's Got Me" | |- |rowspan="3"|2009 |ARIA Awards |Best Male Artist | | |- |MTV Europe Music Awards |Best New Act | | |- |GQ Australia Awards |Breakthrough of the year | | |- |2010 |APRA Awards |Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year | | |}

References

External links

Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:Australian musicians Category:Australian male singers Category:Australian hip hop musicians Category:Australian rhythm and blues singers Category:Australian soul singers Category:ARIA Award winners Category:J Records artists Category:Australian people of English descent Category:Australian people of British descent Category:Allido Records artists Category:Neo soul singers

da:Daniel Merriweather de:Daniel Merriweather es:Daniel Merriweather fr:Daniel Merriweather it:Daniel Merriweather he:דניאל מריוות'ר no:Daniel Merriweather simple:Daniel Merriweather

Coordinates	35°22′48″N174°4′8″N
name	Lisa Stansfield
background	solo_singer
birth name	Lisa Jane Stansfield
born	April 11, 1966
origin	Heywood, Lancashire, UK
instrument	vocals
genre	R&B;, soul
occupation	singer-songwriter
years active	1981–present
label	BMG/Arista, RCA, ZTT/Edel
associated acts	Blue Zone
website
past members	}}

Lisa Stansfield (born 11 April 1966) is an English singer and songwriter.

Biography

Early years

Stansfield was born to Marion and Keith Stansfield in Heywood, Lancashire, in England, where she attended Redbrook School, Rochdale. Her first television appearance was on a talent programme in the Granada TV area in 1982. She won it singing The Human League track "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of". The series was produced by the then Head of Light Entertainment at Granada TV, Johnny Hamp.

After releasing several unsuccessful singles in her mid-teens, she co-hosted a children's TV pop show, ''Razzamatazz'' with Alistair Pirrie; additionally, Stansfield could be seen in 1983 children's television series ''The Krankies Klub'', alongside comedian Jimmy Cricket and rock band Rocky Sharpe and the Replays. She became an international celebrity in the early 1990s.

Her R&B; vocal features, texture and singing style are almost identical to that of her American contemporary and Arista label-mate, Taylor Dayne.

Career

Her British band Blue Zone saw modest success with the single "Jackie", where she achieved some success with her guest vocals on Coldcut's record "People Hold On". She is probably best known for her first UK number-one single, "All Around the World" (1989), which also peaked at number three in the United States ''Billboard'' Hot 100 the following year. Other worldwide hits from her solo debut album ''Affection'' include "This Is the Right Time" (featuring a house music influence production by Coldcut with Mark Saunders), "Live Together", "What Did I Do to You" and "You Can't Deny It". "All Around the World" and "You Can't Deny It" both hit number one on the ''Billboard'' R&B; chart. ''Affection'' went platinum in the United States and sold a total of five million singles worldwide.

In 1990, Stansfield was among the high profile artists who participated in the ''Red Hot + Blue'' charity disc produced by the Red Hot Organization, which honoured Cole Porter's songwriting and benefitted AIDS research. She demonstrated her swing and jazz abilities on the song "Down in the Depths", which was one of few traditional renditions to appear on the album. Thus began an illustrious and respected tradition of Stansfield offering jazz and torch songs to outside projects (most recently she sang "I've Got the World on a String" for the ''Mona Lisa Smile'' soundtrack). This is likely what got her noticed for consideration as the female lead in the independent film ''Swing'' (1999), in which she also sang the majority of the film's songs.

In 1992, Stansfield won a BRIT Award as best British female solo artist. Her second album ''Real Love'' did not quite live up to the success of ''Affection''; it did spawn four Top 40 singles on the European charts: "Change", "All Woman", "Time to Make You Mine" and "Set Your Loving Free". "All Woman" became Stansfield's third number one single on the ''Billboard'' R&B; chart and due to the success of that song, the album went platinum.

She performed Queen songs alongside George Michael and what was left of Queen at the tribute concert on 20 April 1992 for their late frontman Freddie Mercury. The performance was later released by Queen. The concert was recognised by the music community as an important event in the work around the AIDS issue.

Also in 1992, Stansfield appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, Red Hot + Dance, contributing an exclusive remix of her hit single "Change," "Change (Metamorphisis Mix)." The album donated all proceeds to AIDS charities and worked to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic.

She continued recording disco-influenced soul throughout the 1990s. Her third album ''So Natural'' (1993) spawned three Top 40 European singles including the title track (UK number 15), "In All the Right Places" (UK number 8), and "Little Bit of Heaven" (UK number 32), but the album was never released in the United States. She had continued success throughout Europe, but her popularity in North America had diminished.

Her self-titled fourth album ''Lisa Stansfield'' (1997) was a hit in Europe with two Top Ten singles: "People Hold On" (re-released as a dance mix by the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and "The Real Thing," and the Top 40 track "Never Never Gonna Give You Up" (a remake of Barry White's 1973 hit); upon being released in North America, the album received some mainstream attention. Its peak charting position was number 30 on the Top R&B;/Hip-Hop Albums and number 55 on the Billboard 200. Also in the U.S., "Never Never Gonna Give You Up" also became Stansfield's last Top 40 R&B; hit, and final Hot 100 hit. Subsequently, the remix album was released due to Stansfield's reinterest from the dance community. The music video for the song featured a nude Stansfield strolling a city street, acquiring a few items of clothing along the way. VH1 featured the clip and even gave it the ''Pop-Up Video'' treatment.

Her 2001 album ''Face Up'' was less successful, charting but with less publicity but featured the singles "Let's Just Call It Love" and "8-3-1" and found her experimenting with newer styles of R&B; such as 2-step while continuing with her established sound. Stansfield's husband, Ian Devaney, delivered an arrangement for the ballad "How Could You", which displayed his love of Burt Bacharach. Only one single was released in the United Kingdom.

Following the release of ''Face Up'', a greatest hits collection called ''Biography'' was released. Stansfield then parted ways with Arista/BMG records, ending an eighteen year association with the label. Stansfield signed with ZTT Records for the United Kingdom, and her 2004 release ''The Moment'' was produced by Trevor Horn, who has worked with Seal, Grace Jones and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, among others. The album was distributed in Europe by Edel. Featuring the singles "Treat Me Like a Woman" (released as a "double A side" with "Easier") and "If I Hadn't Got You" a song written by Chris Braide with ex-Squeeze songwriter Chris Difford. The album found her exploring more pop oriented album and focusing on ballads.

At the time of the project's release, ZTT Records was gearing large amounts of its resources into re-marketing its music catalogue and producing the Trevor Horn concert for The Prince's Trust and its accompanying double CD, ''Produced by Trevor Horn''. The release of "Treat Me Like a Woman" was delayed twice. Her record label eventually paired it with the album "Easier". Later that year ZTT dropped her from their record label. A DVD of Stansfield's Ronnie Scott's performance in 2003 was released in 2005.

Stansfield also has a career in acting; she starred in the 1999 film ''Swing'' with actor Hugo Speer, and recorded cover versions of swing songs and a few original songs written in the style for the soundtrack. She later appeared on a London stage in ''The Vagina Monologues''. In 2006, she guest-starred in the series ''Goldplated''. In 2007, she starred in a ''Marple'' episode ("Ordeal by Innocence") and later joined the cast of ''The Edge of Love''.

In 1998 Stansfield was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party (UK).

Personal life

Stansfield is married to English musician Ian Devaney and from 1993 until 2008 they lived in Dublin, Ireland. Recently, Stansfield sold her six-bedroom Victorian house Mount Henry on Torca Road in Dalkey for € 6 million (originally asking for € 8 million in May 2007), and moved out from Ireland.

Discography

;Studio albums

1989: ''Affection''

1991: ''Real Love''

1993: ''So Natural''

1997: ''Lisa Stansfield''

1998: "The remix album"

1999: ''Swing''

2001: ''Face Up''

2003: "Biography"

2004: ''The Moment''

Filmography

Filmography
! Year	! Title	! Role	! Notes
1999		Joan Woodcock
2006	''Goldplated''	Trinny
		Mary Durrant
	Milli		*voice in English version
2008	''The Edge of Love''	Ruth Williams

Awards

References

External links

Lisa-Stansfield.com

Lisa Stansfield Experience: Unofficial fans website

Lisa Stansfield Discography

Lisa Stansfield Music Videos

* Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:BRIT Award winners Category:English dance musicians Category:English female singers Category:English house musicians Category:English pop singers Category:English rhythm and blues singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English soul singers Category:English television presenters Category:People associated with Dalkey Category:People from Heywood, Greater Manchester Category:Musicians from Manchester Category:Music from Rochdale Category:ZTT Records artists

da:Lisa Stansfield de:Lisa Stansfield es:Lisa Stansfield fr:Lisa Stansfield hr:Lisa Stansfield it:Lisa Stansfield lv:Līza Stensfīlda nl:Lisa Stansfield ja:リサ・スタンスフィールド pl:Lisa Stansfield pt:Lisa Stansfield ru:Стэнсфилд, Лиза sl:Lisa Stansfield fi:Lisa Stansfield sv:Lisa Stansfield th:ลิซา สแตนส์ฟิลด์

Coordinates	35°22′48″N174°4′8″N
Name	Sam Cooke
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Samuel Cook
Alias	Dale Cook
Born	January 22, 1931Clarksdale, Mississippi, U.S.
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	December 11, 1964Los Angeles, California, U.S. Interred: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
Genre	R&B;, soul, gospel, pop
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, entrepreneur
Instrument	Vocals, piano, guitar
Years active	1950–1964
Label	Specialty, Keen, RCA
Associated acts	The Soul StirrersBobby WomackJohnnie Taylor }}

Samuel Cook, best known under the stage name Sam Cooke, (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), was an American gospel, R&B;, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his vocal abilities and influence on the modern world of music. His contribution in pioneering Soul music led to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and popularizing the likes of Otis Redding and James Brown.

Cooke had 29 top-40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1964. Major hits like "You Send Me", "A Change Is Gonna Come", "Cupid", "Chain Gang", "Wonderful World", and "Bring It on Home to Me" are some of his most popular songs. Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.

On December 11, 1964, Cooke was fatally shot by the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 33. At the time, the courts ruled that Cooke was drunk and distressed, and that the manager had killed Cooke in what was later ruled a justifiable homicide. Since that time, the circumstances of his death have been widely questioned.

Early life and career

Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He later added an "e" onto the end of his name, though the reason for this is disputed. He was one of eight children of Annie Mae and the Reverend Charles Cook, a Baptist minister. He had a brother, L.C., who some years later would become a member of the doo-wop band Johnny Keyes and the Magnificents. The family moved to Chicago in 1933. Cooke attended Wendell Phillips Academy High School in Chicago, the same school that Nat "King" Cole had attended a few years earlier.

Cooke began his career singing gospel with his siblings in a group called ''The Singing Children''. He first became known as lead singer with the Highway QC's as a teenager. In 1950, Cooke replaced gospel tenor R.H. Harris as lead singer of the landmark gospel group The Soul Stirrers. Under Cooke's leadership, the group signed with Specialty Records and recorded the hits "Peace in the Valley", "How Far Am I From Canaan?", "Jesus Paid the Debt", and "One More River", among many other gospel songs.

Crossover pop success

His first pop single, "Lovable" (1956), was released under the alias "Dale Cook" in order not to alienate his gospel fan base (he sang with the Soul Stirrers until 1957); there was a considerable stigma against gospel singers performing secular music. However, it fooled no one - Cooke's unique and distinctive vocals were easily recognized. Art Rupe, head of Specialty Records, the label of the Soul Stirrers, gave his blessing for Cooke to record secular music under his real name, but he was unhappy about the type of music Cooke and producer Bumps Blackwell were making. Rupe expected Cooke's secular music to be similar to that of another Specialty Records artist, Little Richard. When Rupe walked in on a recording session and heard Cooke covering Gershwin, he was quite upset. After an argument between Rupe and Blackwell, Cooke and Blackwell left the label.

In 1957, Cooke appeared on ABC's ''The Guy Mitchell Show''. That same year, he signed with Keen Records. His first release "You Send Me", (the B-side of a reworking of George Gershwin's "Summertime") spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard R&B; chart. The song also had mainstream success, spending three weeks at #1 on the Billboard pop chart.

In 1961, Cooke started his own record label, SAR Records, with J.W. Alexander and his manager, Roy Crain. The label soon included The Simms Twins, The Valentinos, Bobby Womack, and Johnnie Taylor. Cooke then created a publishing imprint and management firm, then left Keen to sign with RCA Victor. One of his first RCA singles was the hit "Chain Gang". It reached #2 on the Billboard pop chart and was followed by more hits, including "Sad Mood", "Bring it on Home to Me" (with Lou Rawls on backing vocals), "Another Saturday Night" and "Twistin' the Night Away".

Like most R&B; artists of his time, Cooke focused on singles; in all he had twenty-nine top-40 hits on the pop charts, and more on the R&B; charts. In spite of this, he released a well received blues-inflected LP in 1963, ''Night Beat'', and his most critically acclaimed studio album ''Ain't That Good News'', which featured five singles, in 1964.

Loss of son

In 1963, Cooke's 18 month old son, Vincent, wandered away from his mother's supervision and drowned in their front yard pool while Sam was away from the home. With their marriage already in trouble largely due to extramarital affairs by both Sam and his wife, Barbara, the distance between them deepened as Sam blamed Barbara for their son's death. Cooke retreated into a deep depression, and asked that no one wear black to the child's funeral. He found his escape in out-of-town performances, which he agreed to at every opportunity.

Death

Cooke died at the age of thirty-three on December 11, 1964, at the Hacienda Motel at 9137 South Figueroa Street in Los Angeles, California. Bertha Franklin, manager of the motel, told police that she shot and killed Cooke in self-defense because he had attacked her. Police found Cooke's body in Franklin's apartment-office, clad only in a sports jacket and shoes, but no shirt, pants or underwear. The shooting was ultimately ruled a justifiable homicide. His funeral was held in Chicago at A.R Leak Funeral Home, where thousands of fans had lined up for over four city blocks to view his body. Cooke was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Some posthumous releases followed, many of which became hits, including "A Change Is Gonna Come", an early protest song that is generally regarded as his greatest composition. After Cooke's death, his widow, Barbara, married Bobby Womack. Cooke's daughter, Linda, later married Bobby's brother, Cecil.

Controversy

The details of the case involving Cooke's death are still in dispute. The official police record states that Cooke was shot dead by Bertha Franklin, manager of the Hacienda Motel, where Cooke had checked in earlier that evening. Franklin claimed that Cooke had broken into the manager's office-apartment in a rage, wearing nothing but a shoe and a sports coat demanding to know the whereabouts of a woman who had accompanied him to the hotel. Franklin said that the woman was not in the office and that she told Cooke this, but the enraged Cooke did not believe her and violently grabbed her, demanding again to know the woman's whereabouts. According to Franklin, she grappled with Cooke, the two of them fell to the floor, and she then got up and ran to retrieve her gun. She said that she then fired at Cooke, in self-defense, because she feared for her life. Cooke was struck once in the torso, and according to Franklin, he exclaimed, "Lady, you shot me," before mounting a last charge at her. She said that she beat him over his head with a broomstick before he finally fell, mortally wounded by the gunshot.

According to Franklin and the motel's owner, Evelyn Carr (whose last name is identified by some sources as ''Card'', rather than ''Carr''), they had been on the telephone together at the time of the incident. Thus, Carr claimed to have overheard Cooke's intrusion and the ensuing conflict and gunshots. Carr called the police to request that they go to the motel, informing them that she believed a shooting had occurred.

A coroner's inquest was convened to investigate the incident. The woman who had accompanied Cooke to the motel was identified as Elisa Boyer, who had also called the police that night shortly before Carr. Boyer had called the police from a telephone booth near the motel, telling them she had just escaped being kidnapped.

Boyer told the police that she had first met Cooke earlier that night and had spent the evening in his company. She claimed that after they left a local nightclub together, she had repeatedly requested that he take her home, but he instead took her against her will to the Hacienda Motel. She claimed that once in one of the motel's rooms, Cooke physically forced her onto the bed and that she was certain he was going to rape her. According to Boyer, when Cooke stepped into the bathroom for a moment, she quickly grabbed her clothes and ran from the room. She claimed that in her haste, she had also scooped up most of Cooke's clothing by mistake. She said that she ran first to the manager's office and knocked on the door seeking help. However, she said that the manager took too long in responding, so, fearing Cooke would soon be coming after her, she fled the motel altogether before the manager ever opened the door. She claimed she then put her own clothing back on, hid Cooke's clothing, and went to the telephone booth from which she called police.

Boyer's story is the only account of what happened between the two that night; however, her story has long been called into question. Inconsistencies between her version of events and details reported by other witnesses, as well as circumstantial evidence (e.g., thousands in cash that Cooke was reportedly carrying was never recovered, and Boyer was soon after arrested for prostitution), invited speculation that Boyer may have gone willingly to the motel with Cooke, then slipped out of the room with Cooke's clothing in order to rob him, rather than to escape an attempted rape.

Such questions were ultimately deemed beyond the scope of the inquest, whose purpose was to establish the circumstances of Franklin's role in the shooting, not to determine precisely what had transpired between Cooke and Boyer preceding the event. Boyer's leaving the motel room with almost all of Cooke's clothing, regardless of exactly why she did so, combined with the fact that tests showed Cooke was inebriated at the time, provided what inquest jurors deemed a plausible explanation for Cooke's bizarre behavior and state of dress, as reported by Franklin and Carr. This explanation, in conjunction with the fact that Carr's testimony corroborated Franklin's version of events, and the fact that police officials testified that both Boyer and Franklin had passed lie detector tests, was enough to convince the coroner's jury to accept Franklin's explanation, and return a verdict of justifiable homicide. With that verdict, authorities officially closed the case on Cooke's death.

Some of Cooke's family and supporters, however, have rejected Boyer's version of events, as well as those given by Franklin and Carr. They believe that there was a conspiracy to murder Cooke and that the murder took place in some manner entirely different from the three official accounts. In her autobiography, ''Rage to Survive'', singer Etta James claimed that she viewed Cooke's body in the funeral home and that the injuries she observed were well beyond what could be explained by the official account of Franklin alone having fought with Cooke. James described Cooke as having been so badly beaten that his head was nearly separated from his shoulders, his hands were broken and crushed, and his nose mangled.

No concrete evidence supporting a conspiracy theory has been presented to date.

Legacy and cultural impact

The song "A Change Is Gonna Come" was played upon the death of Malcolm X, and was featured in Spike Lee's film ''Malcolm X''. It also serves as title for a season six episode of ''The West Wing'' in which James Taylor performs a version of the song.

Rapper Tupac Shakur references Cooke in a line of the song "Thugz Mansion", and Nas references him in the song "We Major" with Kanye West. The Roots' song "Stay Cool" suggests, "I got the soul of a young Sam Cooke." The Irish rock-group Jetplane Landing have a song named "Sam Cooke". Canadian punk band The Riptides pay homage to Cooke in "Change Gonna Come". Steve Perry makes reference to Cooke's tragic death in "Captured by the Moment".

The Night Beats, a band from Seattle Washington, claim to have borrowed their name from Cooke's album ''Night Beat''.

He is once again mentioned by Nas on the song "Blunt Ashes". The rapper talks about the marriage between Bobby Womack and Sam Cooke's widow, suggesting Cooke’s discontent with the affair in the afterlife.

Rock star Rod Stewart once revealed to VH-1 that as a teen in the UK, he would lock himself in his room and spend hours studying Cooke's vocal phrasings.

A fictional version of Cooke (portrayed by Paul Mooney) appeared briefly in the 1978 film, ''The Buddy Holly Story'', leaving the stage at the Apollo Theater before Buddy and The Crickets went on. After being featured prominently in the 1985 film ''Witness'', the song "Wonderful World" gained further exposure. "Wonderful World" was featured in one of two concurrently running Levi's Jeans commercials in 1985 and became a hit in the United Kingdom because of this, reaching #2 in re-release. Two of Cooke's songs, "Cupid" and "Twistin' the Night Away" were also prominently featured in the 1987 movie, ''Innerspace''. Other movies that featured his music are ''Animal House'' ("Wonderful World" and "Twistin' the Night Away"), ''An American Werewolf in London'', and ''Cadence'' ("Chain Gang").

Cooke's songs "Bring It on Home to Me" and "A Change is Gonna Come" were both featured in the 2001 film ''Ali''. The opening scene of the movie consisted of a live reenactment of "Bring It on Home to Me". Al Green's cover of "A Change Is Gonna Come" is featured during the death scene of Malcolm X.

Alternative rock band The Wallflowers song "Sleepwalker" from their 2000 album (Breach) featured the lyric "Cupid don't draw back your bow/Sam Cooke didn't know what I know." The words are a reference to Cooke's song, "Cupid".

John Cougar Mellencamp's song "Ain't Even Done With the Night" contains the line "You got your hands in my back pockets, and Sam Cooke's singin' on the radio."

R. Kelly performed "A Change Gonna Come", during the Ladies Make Some Noise Tour in September 2009 in New York City.

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists released a tour-only EP entitled ''Colin Meloy Sings Sam Cooke''. The album was released to accompany his 2008 solo tour, and features five cover songs. "Cupid", "Summertime", "Thats Where Its At", "Good Times", and "Bring it on Home to Me".

The song was featured in Tyler Perry's 2007 film Daddy's Little Girls.

Matt Embree frequently covers "Bring It On Home" at RX Bandits live shows.

Posthumous honors

Shortly following his passing, Motown Records released ''We Remember Sam Cooke'', a collection of Cooke covers recorded by The Supremes.

In 1986, Cooke was inducted as a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1999, Cooke was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked him #16 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In 2008, Cooke was named the fourth "Greatest Singer of All Time" by ''Rolling Stone''.

Discography

Further reading

''Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke'' by Peter Guralnick (2005) ISBN 0-316-37794-5

''Our Uncle Sam: The Sam Cooke Story from His Family's Perspective'' by Erik Greene (2005) ISBN 1-412-06498-8

''You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke'' by Daniel Wolff, S. R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tenenbaum (1995) ISBN 0-688-12403-8

References

External links

SongsofSamCooke.com

Sam Cooke (ABKCO Homepage)

Rosco Gordon interview

History of Rock and Roll: Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke in the Encyclopedia of Gratitude

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