Name	City of Coventry
Blank emblem type	Coat of arms of the city council
Map caption	Coventry shown within England
Coordinates region	GB
Subdivision type	Sovereign state
Subdivision name	United Kingdom
Subdivision type1	Constituent country
Subdivision name1	England
Subdivision type2	Region
Subdivision name2	West Midlands
Subdivision type3	Ceremonial county
Subdivision name3	West Midlands
Subdivision type4	Admin HQ
Subdivision name4	Coventry city centre
Government type	Metropolitan borough
Leader title1	Governing body
Leader name1	Coventry City Council
Leader title2	Executive:
Leader name2	Labour
Established title	Founded
Established date	1043
Founder	Leofric, Earl of Mercia
Area total km2	98.64
Latns	N
Coordinates	52°24′29″N1°30′38″N
Longew	W
Population as of	2006 est
Population total	(Ranked )
Population density km2	3108
Population blank2 title	LUZ
Population blank2	651000
Population blank1 title	Conurbation
Population blank1 name	2,284,903
Timezone	Greenwich Mean Time
Utc offset	+0
Timezone dst	British Summer Time
Utc offset dst	+1
Postal code type	Postcode
Postal code	CV
Area code	024
Blank name	ISO 3166-2
Blank info	GB-COV
Blank1 name	ONS code
Blank1 info	00CQ
Blank2 name	OS grid reference
Blank2 info
Blank3 name	NUTS 3
Blank3 info	UKG33
Blank4 name	Ethnicity (2006 Est.)
Blank4 info	80.5% White 11.9% South Asian 3.1% Black British2.1% Mixed Race 2.4% East Asian and Other
Website	Coventry }}

Coventry ( or ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although both Leicester and Nottingham have larger urban areas. The population of Coventry has risen to 309,800 as of 2008.

Coventry is situated northwest of London and east of Birmingham, and is further from the coast than any other city in Britain. Although harbouring a population of almost a third of a million inhabitants, Coventry is not amongst the English Core Cities Group due to its proximity to Birmingham.

Coventry was the world's first 'twin city' when it formed a twinning relationship with the Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) during World War II. The relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show their support for the Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The city is now also twinned with Dresden, Lidice and with 26 other cities around the world.

Coventry Cathedral is one of the newer cathedrals in the world, having been built following the World War II bombing of the ancient cathedral by the Luftwaffe. Coventry motor companies have contributed significantly to the British motor industry, and it has two universities, the city centre-based Coventry University and the University of Warwick on the southern outskirts.

History

Coventry is an ancient city which predates many of the large cities around it including Birmingham and Leicester. It is likely that Coventry grew from a settlement of the Bronze Age near the present-day city centre where Coventry's bowl shape and, at that time large flowing river and lakes, created the ideal settlement area, with mild weather and thick woods: food, water and shelter would have been easily provided. The people of the Coventry area may have been the Corieltauvi, a largely agricultural people who had few strongly defended sites and signs of centralised government.

The Romans settling in Baginton founded another settlement and another formed around a Saxon nunnery, founded ca. AD 700 by St Osburga, that was later left in ruins by King Canute's invading Danish army in 1016. Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva built on the remains of the nunnery and founded a Benedictine monastery in 1043 dedicated to St Mary. In time, a market was established at the abbey gates and the settlement expanded.

By the 14th century, Coventry had become an important centre of the cloth trade, and throughout the Middle Ages was one of the largest and most important cities in England. The bishops of Lichfield were often referred to as bishops of Coventry and Lichfield, or Lichfield and Coventry (from 1102 to 1541). Coventry claimed the status of a city by ancient prescriptive usage, was granted a charter of incorporation in 1345, and in 1451 became a county in its own right.

Hostile attitudes of the cityfolk towards Royalist prisoners held in Coventry during the English Civil War are believed to have been the origin of the phrase "to be sent to Coventry", which in Britain means "to be ostracised"; although their physical needs were catered for, the Royalist prisoners were literally never spoken to by anybody.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Coventry became one of the three main British centres of watch and clock manufacture and ranked alongside Prescot, near Liverpool and Clerkenwell in London. As the industry declined, due mainly to competition from Swiss made clock and watch manufacturers, the skilled pool of workers proved crucial to the setting up of bicycle manufacture and eventually the motorbike, car, machine tool and aircraft industries.

In the late 19th century, Coventry became a major centre of bicycle manufacture. The industry being energised by the invention by James Starley and his nephew John Kemp Starley of the Rover Safety Bicycle, which was much safer and more popular than the pioneering Penny Farthing. The company later became Rover. By the early 20th century, bicycle manufacture had evolved into motor manufacture, and Coventry became a major centre of the British motor industry. The design headquarters of Jaguar Cars is still in the city at their Whitley plant and although they ceased vehicle assembly at their Browns Lane plant in 2004, they still continue some operations from there. However, the headquarters moved to India, and Tata Motors owns Jaguar now.

Coventry became home to one of Britain's first local ambulance services in 1902. The local entertainment business received a boost in 1910 when the city's first cinema opened. Public transport was enhanced in 1914 when motorbuses took to local roads.

With many of the city's older properties becoming increasingly unfit for habitation, the first council houses were let to their tenants in 1917. With Coventry's industrial base continue to soar after the end of World War I a year later, numerous private and council housing developments took place across the city in the 1920s and 1930s. The development of a southern by-pass around the city, starting in the 1930s and being completed in 1940, helped deliver more urban areas to the city on previously rural land.

Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during World War II, most notoriously from a massive Luftwaffe air raid known as the "Coventry Blitz" on 14 November 1940. Firebombing on this date led to severe damage to large areas of the city centre and to Coventry's historic cathedral, leaving only a shell and the spire. More than 4,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, along with around three-quarters of the city's industrial plants. More than 800 people were killed, with thousands injured and homeless. The Germans coined the term "Coventrate" to describe the tactics of complete urban devestation developed for the raid.

Aside from London, Hull and Plymouth, Coventry suffered more damage than any other British city during the Luftwaffe attacks, with huge firestorms devastating most of the city centre. The city was probably targeted due to its high concentration of armaments, munitions, aircraft and aero-engine plants which contributed greatly to the British war effort, although there have been claims that Hitler launched the attack as revenge for the bombing of Munich by the RAF six days before the Coventry Blitz and chose the Midlands city because its medieval heart was regarded as one of the finest in Europe. Following the raids, the majority of Coventry's historic buildings could not be saved as they were in ruinous states or were deemed unsafe for any future use, although several were later demolished simply to make way for modern developments which saw the city centre's buildings and road infrastructure almost completely altered by 1970.

Further housing developments in the private and public sector took place after World War II, partly to accommodate the growing population of the city and also to replace condemned and bomb damaged properties.

In the postwar years Coventry was largely rebuilt under the general direction of the Gibson Plan, gaining a new pedestrianised shopping precinct (the first of its kind in Europe on such a scale) and in 1962 Sir Basil Spence's much-celebrated new St Michael's Cathedral (incorporating one of the world's largest tapestries) was consecrated. Its prefabricated steel spire was lowered into place by helicopter. In 1967, the Eagle Street Mosque opened as Coventry's first mosque.

Major expansion to Coventry had taken place previously, in the 1920s and 1930s, to provide housing for the large influx of workers who came to work in the city's booming factories. The areas which were expanded or created in this development included Radford, Coundon, Canley, Cheylesmore and Stoke Heath.

Coventry's motor industry boomed during the 1950s and 1960s and Coventry enjoyed a 'golden age'. During this period the disposable income of Coventrians was one of the highest in the country and both the sports and the arts benefited. A new sports centre, with one of the few Olympic standard swimming pools in the UK, was constructed and Coventry City Football Club reached the First Division of English Football. The Belgrade Theatre was also constructed along with the Herbert Art Gallery. Coventry's pedestrianised Precinct shopping area came into its own and was considered one of the finest retail experiences outside of London. In 1965 the new University of Warwick campus was opened to students, and rapidly became one of the country's leading higher-education institutions.

Coventry's large industrial base made it attract to the wave of Asian and Caribbean immigrants who arrived from Commonwealth colonies after 1948. In 1960, one of Britain's first mosques – and the very first in Coventry – was opened on Eagle Street to serve the city's growing Islamic community.

The 1970s, however, saw a decline in the British motor industry and Coventry suffered particularly badly. By the early 1980s, Coventry had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and crime rates were also high.

Some 30 years later, Coventry is now considered as one of the UK's safer major cities and has gradually recovered economically with newer industries locating there, although the motor industry continues to decline.

By 2008, only one motor manufacturing plant was operational, that of LTI Ltd, producing the popular TX4 taxi cabs. On 17 March 2010 LTI announced they would no longer be producing bodies and chassis in Coventry, instead producing them in China and shipping them in for assembly in Coventry.

On the sporting scene, Coventry Rugby Football Club has consistently been among the nation's leading rugby football sides since the early 20th century, peaking in the 1970s and 1980s with a host of major honours. Association football, on the other hand, was scarcely a claim to fame until 1967, when Coventry City F.C. finally won promotion to the top flight of English football as champions of the Football League Second Division. They would stay among the elite for the next 34 years, reaching their pinnacle with FA Cup glory in 1987 – the first and to date only major trophy in the club's history. Their long stay in the top flight of English football ended in relegation in 2001, and they have yet to regain their status among the elite. Highfield Road, to the east of the city centre, was Coventry City's home for 106 years from 1899. They finally departed from the stadium in 2005 on their relocation to the 32,000-seat Ricoh Arena some two miles to the north of the city centre, in the Foleshill district.

City boundaries

Unlike other major UK cities, Coventry does not have an extensive 'greater' urban area. This is partly because the city boundaries were drawn so as to include practically all of its suburbs, and partly because Coventry has comparatively little in the way of contiguous satellite towns and dormitory settlements.

The M6 motorway directly to the north of Coventry acts as an artificial boundary which precludes expansion into the Bedworth-Nuneaton urban area, as does the protected West Midlands Green Belt which surrounds the city on all sides. This has circumvented the expansion of the city into both the administrative county of Warwickshire and the metropolitan borough of Solihull (the 'Meriden Gap'), and has helped to prevent the coalescence of the city with surrounding towns such as Kenilworth, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Rugby and Balsall Common.

Panoramic views of Coventry City Centre from the Cathedral Tower {| |- | |}

Suburbs or areas

A

Alderman's Green

Allesley

Allesley Green

Allesley Park

Ash Green

B

Ball Hill

Bannerbrook Park

Bell Green

Binley

Bishopsgate Green

Brownshill Green

C

Canley

Cannon Park

Chapelfields

Cheylesmore

Clifford Park

Copsewood

Coundon

Courthouse Green

D

Daimler Green

E

Earlsdon

Eastern Green

Edgwick

Ernesford (or Ernsford) Grange

F

Finham

Fenside

Foleshill

G

Green Lane

Gibbet Hill

Gosford Green

Great Heath

H

Hearsall Common

Henley Green

Hillfields

Holbrooks

I

J

K

Keresley

L

Little Heath

Longford

M

Mount Nod

N

Nailcote Grange

O

P

Pinley

Potters Green

Q

R

Radford

S

Spon End

Stoke

Stoke Heath

Stoke Aldermoor

Stivichall/Styvechale

T

Tanyard Farm

Tile Hill

Toll Bar End

U

V

Victoria Farm

W

Walsgrave-on-Sowe

Westwood Heath

Whitley

Whitmore Park

Whoberley

Willenhall

Wood End

Woodway Park

Wyken

Places of interest

Cathedral

St. Michael's Cathedral is Coventry's best-known landmark and visitor attraction. The 14th century church was largely destroyed by German bombing during World War II, leaving only the outer walls and spire. At 303 feet high, the spire of St. Michael's is claimed to be the third tallest cathedral spire in England, after Salisbury and Norwich. Due to the architectural design (in 1940 the tower had no internal wooden floors and a stone vault below the belfry) it survived the destruction of the rest of the cathedral. The new Coventry Cathedral was opened in 1962 next to the ruins of the old. It was designed by Sir Basil Spence. The cathedral contains the tapestry ''Christ in Glory'' by Graham Sutherland. The bronze statue ''St Michael's Victory over the Devil'' by Jacob Epstein is mounted on the exterior of the new cathedral near the entrance. Benjamin Britten's ''War Requiem'', regarded by some as his masterpiece, was written for the opening of the new cathedral.

The spire of the ruined cathedral forms one of the ''"three spires"'' which have dominated the city skyline since the 14th century, the others being those of Christ Church (of which only the spire survives) and Holy Trinity Church (which is still in use).

Art gallery and museums

The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum is a major art gallery in the city centre. About four miles from the city centre and just outside Coventry in Baginton is the Lunt Fort, a reconstructed Roman fort. The Midland Air Museum is situated just within the perimeter of Coventry on land adjacent to Coventry Airport and near Baginton.

Another major visitor attraction in Coventry city centre is the free-to-enter Coventry Transport Museum, which has the largest collection of British-made road vehicles in the world. The most notable exhibits are the world speed record-breaking cars, Thrust2 and ThrustSSC. The museum received a major refurbishment in 2004 which included the creation of a striking new entrance as part of the city's Phoenix Initiative project. The revamp saw the museum exceed its projected five-year visitor numbers within the first year alone, and it was a finalist for the 2005 Gulbenkian Prize.

Coventry was one of the main centres of watchmaking during the 18th and 19th centuries and as the industry declined the skilled workers were key to setting up the cycle trade. A group of local enthusiasts are in the process of setting up a museum in Spon Street.

The city's main police station in Little Park Street also hosts a museum of Coventry's police force. The museum, based underground, is split into two sections – one representing the history of the city's police force, and the other compiling some of the more unusual, interesting and grisly cases from the force's history. The museum is funded from charity donations – viewings can be made by appointment.

Coventry City Farm was a small farm in an urban setting. It was mainly to educate city children who might not get out to the countryside very often. The farm closed in 2008 due to funding problems.

Football stadia

Since 2005, Coventry City F.C. have been playing at their new home, the Ricoh Arena, a 32,609 capacity stadium in Rowleys Green in north Coventry. Their football academy is now based at the Alan Higgs Centre, a leisure centre in south-east Coventry opened in 2004.

The Highfield Road stadium has been demolished, making way for new housing and a small green.

Redevelopment

Major improvements continue to regenerate the city centre. The Phoenix Initiative, which was designed by MJP Architects, reached the final shortlist for the 2004 RIBA Stirling Prize and has now won a total of 16 separate awards. It was published in the book 'Phoenix : Architecture/Art/Regeneration' in 2004. Further major developments are potentially afoot, particularly the Swanswell Project, which is intended to deepen Swanswell Pool and link it to Coventry Canal Basin, coupled with the creation of an urban marina and a wide Parisian-style boulevard. A possible second phase of the Phoenix Initiative is also in the offing, although both of these plans are still on the drawing-board. The redevelopment of the Belgrade Theatre is currently in progress, and the building of IKEA's first city centre multi-storey store has recently been completed and was opened to the public on 16 December 2007.

The River Sherbourne runs under Coventry's city centre; the river was paved over during the rebuilding after World War II and is not commonly known. When the new rebuild of Coventry city centre takes place 2009 onwards, it is planned that river will be re-opened, and a river walk way will be placed along side it in parts of the city centre.

Twinning with other cities; "city of peace and reconciliation"

Coventry and Stalingrad (now Volgograd) were the world's first 'twin' cities when they established a twinning relationship during World War II. The relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show their support for the Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The city was also subsequently twinned with Dresden, as a gesture of peace and reconciliation following World War II. Coventry is now twinned with 27 other cities around the world.

Coventry Cathedral is notable for being one of the newest cathedrals in the world, having been built following the World War II bombing of the ancient cathedral by the Luftwaffe. Coventry has since developed an international reputation as one of Europe's major cities of peace and reconciliation, centred around its cathedral, and holds an annual Peace Month.

Education

Coventry has two universities; Coventry University is situated on a modern city centre campus while the University of Warwick lies 3½ miles (5.5 km) to the south of the city centre within Coventry near the border with Warwickshire. The University of Warwick is one of only five universities never to have been rated outside the top ten in terms of teaching excellence and research and is a member of the prestigious Russell Group. A team from the University won the BBC TV ''University Challenge'' trophy in April 2007. Coventry University is one of only a handful of universities to run a degree course in automotive design in the world renowned Coventry School of Art and Design

Coventry also has three further education colleges within city boundaries, City College, Henley College and Hereward College.

Many of the secondary schools in and around Coventry are specialist colleges, such as Finham Park School, which is a Mathematics and IT college, a teacher training school and the only school in Coventry to offer studying the International Baccalaureate, and Coventry Blue Coat Church of England School which has recently become a specialist college of Music, one of only a few in the country. Bishop Ullathorne RC School became a specialist college in Humanities in 2006. Woodlands School in Coventry is now also a sports college, which has a newly built sport centre. Ernesford Grange School, in the south east, is a specialist science college. Coundon Court School is a Technology College. Pattison College, a private school opened in 1949, specialises in the performing arts. There is also Caludon Castle School, a business and enterprise school, which has been rebuilt over 2005–2007. Exhall Grange School and Science College is in the north of the city, although, its catchment area is north Warwickshire. There is also Cardinal Newman Catholic School and specialist arts college.

Coventry has a variety of school, one of the oldest secondary schools is Sidney Stringer School which is located in the centre of the city. it is a co-educational school that has made vast improvements in the last few years. Andf has moved into a larger building costing £28million, it is now known as Sidney Stringer Academy.

The Coventry School Foundation comprises the independent schools King Henry VIII School and Bablake School together with King Henry VIII Preparatory School.

The Woodlands School, which is an all-boys' school, and Tile Hill Wood School are the only single-sex schools left in Coventry. However, their sixth forms have merged to form the "West Coventry 6th Form", whose lessons take place in mixed classes on both sites.

The Westwood School, which is a Technology College, is close to the University of Warwick. It is the only school in Coventry that is a CISCO Academy and prides itself on its links with other educational establishment, industry and the local community.

Sherbourne Fields School is an ''educational special needs school'' for young people with physical disabilities and is located in the Coundon area. It opened in the 1960s and there is now discussions as to whether to close this school.

Arts and culture

Literature and drama

During the early 19th century, Coventry was well-known due to author George Eliot who was born near Nuneaton. The city was the model for her famous novel ''Middlemarch'' (1871).

The Coventry Carol is named after the city of Coventry. It was a carol performed in the play ''The Pageant of The Shearman and Tailors'', written in the 15th century as one of the Coventry Cycle Mystery Plays. These plays depicted the nativity story, the lyrics of the Coventry Carol referring to the Annunciation to the Massacre of the Innocents, which was the basis of the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. These plays were traditionally performed on the steps of the (old) cathedral, and the plays are believed to have been performed for both Richard III in 1484 and Henry VII in 1584. The Belgrade Theatre brought back the Coventry Mystery Plays in 2000 to mark the city's millennium celebrations: the theatre now produces the Mystery Plays every three years.

The Belgrade Theatre was Britain's first purpose-built civic theatre, opened in 1958. In 1965 the world's first ''Theatre-in-Education'' (TiE) company was formed to develop theatre as a way of inspiring learning in schools. The TiE movement spread worldwide, the theatre still offers a number of programmes for young people across Coventry and has been widely recognised as a leader in the field.

The poet Philip Larkin was born and brought up in Coventry, where his father was the City Treasurer.

Music and cinema

During the late-1970s and early-1980s, Coventry was the centre of the Two Tone musical phenomenon, with bands such as the Specials and the Selecter coming from the city, spawning several major hit singles and albums. The Specials achieved two UK #1 hit singles between 1979–1981, namely Too Much Too Young and Ghost Town. Notable singles by the Selecter included On My Radio and Three Minute Hero.

Today Coventry is recognised for its range of music events including one of the UK's foremost international jazz programmes, the Coventry Jazz Festival, and the award-winning Godiva Festival. On the Saturday of the Godiva Festival, a carnival parade also starts in the city centre and makes its way to War Memorial Park where the festival is held. In recent times the city has also given birth to Hip Hop acts such as C.O.V, Idyllic and Ricta.

In the film ''The Italian Job'', the famous scene of Mini Coopers being driven at speed through Turin's sewers was actually filmed in Coventry, using what were then the country's biggest sewer pipes, that were accessible because they were being installed. More recently various locations in Coventry have been used in the BAFTA nominated film ''The Bouncer'' starring Ray Winstone, ''All in the Game'', also starring Ray Winstone (Ricoh Arena), the medical TV series ''Angels'' (Walsgrave Hospital), the BBC sitcom ''Keeping Up Appearances'' (Stoke Aldermoor and Binley Woods districts) and in August 2006 scenes from "The Shakespeare Code", an episode of the third series of ''Doctor Who'', were filmed in the grounds of Ford's Hospital.

Venues

Theatre, art and music venues in Coventry include: The Warwick Arts Centre: situated at the University of Warwick, Warwick Arts Centre includes an art gallery, a theatre, a concert hall and a cinema. It is the second largest arts centre in the UK, after London's Barbican.

The College Theatre: the city's main community theatre, housed at the Butts Centre of City College Coventry. It's a fully functioning theatre with flying scenery, full sound and lighting boxes.

The Belgrade Theatre: one of the largest producing theatres in Britain, the 858-seat Belgrade was the first civic theatre to be opened in the UK following World War II. The theatre underwent a huge redevelopment and reopened in September 2007; in addition to refurbishing the existing theatre the redevelopment included a new 250-seat studio auditorium known as B2, a variety of rehearsal spaces and an exhibition space that traces the history of theatre in Coventry.

Also currently being built is the Belgrade Plaza.

The Ricoh Arena: located 3½ miles (5.6 km) north of the city centre, the 32,600 capacity Coventry City F.C. stadium is also used to hold major rock concerts for some of the world's biggest acts, including Oasis, Bon Jovi, Lady Gaga, Rod Stewart, Kings of Leon and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It is also one of the venues chosen for the footballing events at the 2012 Olympic Games. The adjacent Jaguar Exhibition Hall is a 6,000-seat events venue for hosting a multitude of other acts.

The SkyDome Arena, which is a 3,000 capacity sports auditorium, and has played host to artists such as Girls Aloud, Paul Oakenfold, Judge Jules and Paul Morrell. It is the home ground for Coventry Blaze ice hockey club, and has also hosted professional wrestling events from WWE, TNA and Pro Wrestling Noah

War Memorial Park, which holds various festivals including the Godiva Festival and the Coventry Caribbean Festival, every year.

The Butts Park Arena, home of Coventry Rugby Football Club, holds music concerts occasionally.

The Kasbah nightclub, Hillfields. It was renamed after refurbishment in 2007, but is still often referred to by its previous name, 'Colosseum'. By older Coventrians, it is still remembered as the Orchid Ballroom.

The Criterion Theatre, a small theatre, in Earlsdon.

Coombe Country Park, although outside the city boundary, Coventry City Council's only country park.

Sport

Sporting teams include: Coventry City F.C. (association football); Coventry Buildbase Bees (speedway); Coventry R.F.C. (rugby union); Coventry Bears (rugby league); Coventry Godiva Harriers (athletics); Coventry Crusaders (basketball); Coventry Jets (American football); City of Coventry Swimming Club (swimming); Coventry Blaze (ice hockey); Four Masters G.A.A. Club (Gaelic football).

In football, Coventry City have been in existence since the late 19th century, but did not reach the top flight of the Football League until 1967, when they were promoted as Second Division champions. Their highest league position so far is sixth place in the First Division in 1970, when they qualified for the European Fairs Cup (later the UEFA Cup, now The Europa League) in 1970–71. Their only major trophy to date is the FA Cup which was won in 1987 with a 3–2 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley.

Coventry City were founder members of the Premier League in 1992, but currently play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football, where they have been since 2001, following relegation after 34 successive seasons of top flight football. Their current stadium is the 32,600 capacity Ricoh Arena, which opened in Rowleys Green in the north of the city in 2005, replacing 106-year-old Highfield Road to the east of the city centre.

Notable former players include Reg Matthews (the first Coventry-born footballer to be capped by England), Clarrie Bourton, George Hudson, Willie Carr, Dion Dublin, Stuart Pearce, Gerry Francis, Kevin Gallacher, Terry Gibson, Mark Hateley, Ian Wallace, Tommy Hutchison, Robbie Keane, Gary McAllister, David Speedie, Steve Ogrizovic, Colin Stein and Terry Yorath.

Their most famous former managers are Jesse Carver, George Raynor and Jimmy Hill. Others include Noel Cantwell, Dave Sexton, John Sillett, Bobby Gould, Phil Neal, Ron Atkinson, Gordon Strachan, Peter Reid, Gary McAllister, Micky Adams, Iain Dowie and Chris Coleman.

The Coventry Bees are based at Coventry Stadium (formerly Brandon Stadium) to the east of the city. The stadium has operated both sides of World War II. The Bees started in 1948 and have operated continuously ever since. They started out in the National League Division Three before moving up to the Second Division and, later to the top flight. They have operated at this level ever since.

Amongst the top speedway riders who have represented Coventry teams are Tom Farndon, Jack Parker, Arthur Forrest, Nigel Boocock, Kelvin Tatum, Chris Harris, Emil Sayfutdinov and World Champions Ole Olsen, Hans Nielsen, Greg Hancock, Billy Hamill and Jack Young.

Between 1998 and 2000, Coventry Stadium hosted the Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain.

In 2007, the Bees won the domestic speedway treble of Elite League, Knock-out Cup and Craven Shield, whilst Chris Harris won both the Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain and the British Championship. The Bees retained the Craven Shield in 2008, and Chris Harris added further British Championship victories in both 2009 and 2010. The Elite League Championship Trophy returned to Brandon in 2010 when the Bees convincingly beat Poole Pirates in the play-off finals.

Before World War II speedway also operated for a short time at Foleshill Stadium, off Lythalls Lane in the city.

In 2003, Coventry Blaze won the British National League and Playoffs. In 2007, Coventry Blaze won the Elite League and the British Challenge Cup and narrowly missed out on the treble by losing in the semi-finals of the playoffs.

Coventry Bears are the major rugby league team in the city now playing in the Rugby League Conference. In 2002 they won the Rugby League Conference, and took the step up to the national leagues. In 2004 they won the National Division 3 title and have appeared in the Challenge Cup.

2005 was a good year for sport in Coventry. Not only did it become the first city in the UK to host the International Children's Games, but three of the city sports teams won significant honours. The Blaze won the treble consisting of Elite League, playoff and Challenge Cup; the Jets won the BAFL Division 2 championship and were undefeated all season; and the Bees won the Elite League playoffs.

+Major sports teams in Coventry
!Club	!Sport	!Founded	!League	!Venue
Coventry R.F.C.	Rugby union	1874	National Division One	Butts Park Arena
Coventry City F.C.		1883	Football League Championship	Ricoh Arena
Coventry Bees		1928
Coventry Crusaders	Basketball	1987	English Basketball League	Coventry Sports Centre
Coventry Bears	Rugby league	1998	Rugby League Conference	O C's Stadium
Coventry Blaze	Ice hockey	2000	Elite Ice Hockey League	SkyDome Arena

Coventrians

''History and politics''

Coventry is well-known for the legendary 11th century exploits of Lady Godiva who, according to legend, rode through the city naked on horseback in protest at high taxes being levied on the cityfolk by her husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia.

According to the legend the residents of the city were commanded to look away as she rode, but one man didn't and was allegedly struck blind. He became known as ''Peeping Tom'' thus originating a new idiom, or metonym, in English.

There is a Grade II* listed statue of her in the city centre, which for 18 years had been underneath a much-maligned Cathedral Lanes shopping centre canopy, removed in October 2008.

There is also a bust of Peeping Tom looking out across Hertford Street shopping precinct, and overlooking Broadgate and the statue of Godiva is a clock where, at every hour, Lady Godiva appears on her horse while being watched by Peeping Tom.

The Labour politician Mo Mowlam was educated in Coventry; trade union organiser Tom Mann and National Socialist Movement leader Colin Jordan also came from the city.

The statesman and founder of modern Australia, Sir Henry Parkes, was born in Canley in 1815.

''Science, technology and business''

Coventry has been the home to several pioneers in science and engineering.

Sir Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine, was from the city, as was the inventor James Starley, instrumental in the development of the bicycle and his nephew J.K. Starley, who worked alongside his uncle and went on to found car company Rover.

Cyborg scientist Kevin Warwick is also a Coventrian, as is Sir John Egan, industrialist and former Chief Executive of Jaguar Cars.

Sir Frederick Gibberd, architect and designer, was born in Coventry, and amongst the buildings for which he is best known are Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and Didcot Power Station.

Donald Trelford, journalist and academic, was born in Coventry and attended Bablake School. He was edior of The Observer newspaper from 1975 to 1993.

Born in Coventry, former King Henry VIII Grammar School pupil Paul Connew became editor of the Sunday Mirror and deputy editor of the Daily Mirror and News of The World – he is now Director of Communications at the children's charity Sparks.

Coventrians who established successful businesses from very humble beginnings were known as "Coventry Kids".

''The arts''

Dame Ellen Terry, one of the greatest Shakespearian actors, was born in Coventry in 1847.

Other Coventrians in the arts include the highly acclaimed poet Philip Larkin, actors Billie Whitelaw, Nigel Hawthorne, Brendan Price and Clive Owen, and the author Lee Child.

Many notable musicians originated in Coventry, including Frank Ifield, Vince Hill, Delia Derbyshire, Jerry Dammers, Terry Hall, Neville Staple, Hazel O'Connor, Clint Mansell, Julianne Regan, Lee Dorrian, Jen Ledger of Skillet (band), Taz (lead singer of the band Stereo Nation), and Panjabi MC.

2 Tone music developed in and around Coventry in the 1970s and two of the genre's most notable bands, The Specials and The Selecter are both from the city. Other Coventry bands include Coventry Automatics, The Primitives, Adorable, Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield, King, Jigsaw, The Sorrows, and The Enemy.

Record producer Pete Waterman is also from the city and is president of Coventry Bears.

Broadcaster Brian Matthew, theatre producer Dominic Madden, comedian and writer Emma Fryer and adult model Debee Ashby are also Coventrians, as were comedian Reg Dixon and ventriloquist Dennis Spicer.

Disgraced former Sky Sports broadcaster Richard Keys is also a Coventrian, a product of Whitley Abbey School.

''Sport''

Notable Coventrian sportsmen include speedway rider Tom Farndon ; Davis Cup tennis player Tony Mottram ; footballer Reg Matthews, Graham Alexander and Gary McSheffrey ; cricketers Tom Cartwright and Ian Bell ; rugby union players Ivor Preece, David Duckham, Neil Back, Danny Grewcock, Geoff Evans and Andy Goode ; motor-cyclist Cal Crutchlow ; boxer Errol Christie ; golfer Laura Davies ; sprinter Marlon Devonish ; distance runners Brian Kilby and David Moorcroft ; darts player Steve Beaton ; show jumper Nick Skelton ; professional wrestler Adam Windsor (Adam Bryniarski) ; fencer Kevin Reilly.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Coventry at current basic prices by ''Office for National Statistics'' with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling: Regional Gross Value Added ¹3,4074,5905,103

Year	|	Agriculture 2	Industry 3	Services 4
1995	|	3	1,530	1,874
2000	|	3	1,873	2,714
2003	|	2	1,529	3,572

Notes: # Components may not sum to totals due to rounding # Includes hunting and forestry # Includes energy and construction # Includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Coventry has long been a centre of motor and cycle manufacturing, dating from 1896. Starting out with some less familiar names such as Coventry Motette, Great Horseless Carriage Co, Swift Motor Company and more familiar names like Humber, Riley, Francis-Barnett and Daimler and the Triumph motorcycle having its origins in 1902 in a Coventry factory. The Massey-Ferguson tractor factory was situated on Banner Lane, Tile Hill, until it closed in the late 1990s. Although the motor industry has declined almost to the point of extinction, the Jaguar company has retained its corporate and research headquarters in the city (at Allesley and Whitley), and Peugeot still have a large parts centre in Humber Road. The famous London black cab taxis are produced in Coventry by LTI and these are now the only vehicles still wholly built in Coventry.

The manufacture of machine tools was once a major industry in Coventry. Alfred Herbert Ltd became one of the largest machine tool companies in the world. Unfortunately in later years the company faced tough competition from foreign machine tool builders and ceased trading in 1983. Another famous Coventry machine tool manufacturer was the A. C. Wickman company. The last Coventry machine tool manufacturer was Matrix Churchill which was forced to close in the wake of the Iraqi Supergun (Project Babylon) scandal. It had been owned by the Saddam Hussein government, via front companies, and closed amidst much controversy and bad feeling.

Coventry's main industries include: cars, electronic equipment, machine tools, agricultural machinery, man-made fibres, aerospace components and telecommunications equipment. In recent years, the city has moved away from manufacturing industries towards business services, finance, research, design and development, creative industries as well as logistics and leisure.

Coventry motor companies once contributed significantly to the British motor industry but that role is now much diminished.

Transport

Coventry is near the M6, M69, M45 and M40 motorways. It is also served by the A45 and A46 dual carriageways. Coventry has a much used inner ring road opened in the 1960s (approx.). Phoenix Way, a dual carriageway running north – south opened 1998 (approx.), has improved traffic flows through the city.

For rail, Coventry railway station is served by the West Coast Main Line, and has regular rail services between London and Birmingham (and stations beyond). It is also served by railway lines to Nuneaton via Bedworth. There is a line linking it to Leamington Spa and onwards to the south coast. Coventry also has two Suburban Rail stations in Canley and in Tile Hill.

Bus service operators in Coventry include National Express Coventry, Travel de Courcey and Stagecoach in Warwickshire. Pool Meadow Bus Station is the main bus and coach interchange in the city centre. Two park and ride sites exist in the city, one at War Memorial Park and one at Courthouse Green.

The nearest major airports are Birmingham International Airport, some 17 km (11 miles) to the west of the city and Coventry Airport in Baginton, located 8 km (5 miles) south of the city centre.

The Coventry Canal terminates near the city centre at Coventry Canal Basin and is navigable for 61 km (38 miles) to Fradley Junction in Staffordshire.

Waste management

Coventry has a large incineration plant which burns rubbish from both Coventry and Solihull, producing electricity for the National Grid and some hot water that is used locally. Some rubbish is still put into landfill.

Coventry City Council is assisting recycling as part of their waste management strategy in line with national trends:

many areas of Coventry have kerb-side plastic, metal (tins and cans), and paper recycling. Garden-green rubbish is also collected and composted.

a wide range of waste materials can be taken by car to the recycling depot, which is adjacent to the incineration unit.

there are many recycling points throughout the City for paper, glass recycling and metal / tin can recycling.

In October 2006, Coventry City Council signed the Nottingham Declaration, joining 130 other UK councils in committing to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the council and to help the local community do the same.

Local and national government

Traditionally a part of Warwickshire (although it was a county in its own right for 400 years), Coventry became an independent county borough in 1889. It later became a metropolitan district of the West Midlands county under the Local Government Act (1974), even though it was entirely separate to the Birmingham conurbation area (this is why Coventry appears to unnaturally "jut out" into Warwickshire on political maps of the UK). In 1986, the West Midlands County Council was abolished and Coventry became administered as an effective unitary authority in its own right.

Coventry is still strongly associated with its traditional county, Warwickshire. This may be because of its geographical location, forming a large protrusion into the county.

Coventry is administered by Coventry City Council. The city is divided up into 18 Wards each with three councillors. Coventry has usually been controlled by the Labour Party over the past few decades, and at times they appeared to be in safe control. However the Conservatives held control for a short time in the 1970s, and they have also been in control since June 2004. (For a time they held control on the casting vote of the Lord Mayor, but they won clear control at the local elections of 4 May 2006). However in 2010 the Conservatives lost control of Coventry City Council when Labour gained enough seats to have overall control.

The leader of the Conservative group is Ken Taylor, who held the post of Leader of the Council between 2004 and 2010. The leader of the controlling Labour group is John Mutton, he has held the post of Leader of the Council since the 2010 Local Elections.

A notable politician serving with Coventry City Council is former Militant Tendency Labour MP Dave Nellist who now represents the Socialist Party (England and Wales).

Certain local services are provided by West Midlands wide agencies including the West Midlands Police, the West Midlands Fire Service and the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (Centro) which is responsible for public transport.

In 2006, Coventry and Warwickshire Ambulance Service was merged with the West Midlands Ambulance Service. The Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance service is based at Coventry Airport in Baginton.

Coventry is represented in Parliament by three MPs all of whom are Labour. These are:

Bob Ainsworth – (Coventry North East)

Jim Cunningham – (Coventry South)

Geoffrey Robinson – (Coventry North West)

Up until 1997, Coventry was represented by four Members of Parliament, whereupon the Coventry South West and Coventry South East constituencies were merged to form Coventry South.

At the Annual Meeting of the City Council on 20 May 2009, Councillor Jack Harrison was elected as the new Lord Mayor of Coventry. Councillor Harrison has been a Labour councillor for 13 years representing the Lower Stoke Ward. Councillor Harrison's wife, Jill, is Lady Mayoress. The Deputy Lord Mayor is Councillor Brian Kelsey. He has been a Conservative councillor in Bablake Ward since 1999.

The Bishop of Coventry since April 1998 has been the Rt Revd. Colin James Bennetts, who retired from the post on 31 January 2008. The Reverend Canon Dr Christopher John Cocksworth BA, PhD, PGCE was nominated Bishop of Coventry on 3 March 2008 and HM The Queen then approved the nomination.

Council affiliation

As of March 2011, it was as follows-

Party !! Number of councilors
Conservative	22
Socialist	1
Labour	30
Liberal Democrats	1

Demographics

Like most major British cities, Coventry has a large ethnic minority population, making up 25.2% of the population as of 2006 estimates. The ethnic minority population is concentrated in the Foleshill and the St. Michael's wards.

The composition of the ethnic minority population is not typical of the UK. Sikhs are the largest non-Christian religion, with significant numbers of other South Asians. The Black population is just 3.1%, only slightly above the British average, and lower than many other cities.

8.2% of the population identify as ethnically Indian, 2.2% as Pakistani, 0.8% as being from other South Asian groups, and 0.7% as Bangladeshi.

White Irish people constitute 2.8%, and 2.9% of the city's population identify as "White Other" (non-Irish, non-British white groups).

1.7% of the population are Black African, 1.2% Black Caribbean, and 0.2% from other black groups.

1.5% are ethnically Chinese and the remaining 0.9% is mainly composed of East Asians.

People reporting two or more ethnicities make up 2.1% of the population.

Year and Current Total Population

1801 – 21,853

1851 – 48,120

1901 – 88,107

1911 – 117,958

1921 – 144,197

1931 – 176,303

1941 – 214,380

1951 – 260,685

1961 – 296,016

1971 – 336,136

1981 – 310,223

1991 – 305,342

2001 – 300,844

2007 – 306,700

2009 – 309,800

2010 – 310,500

Closest cities, towns and villages

Cities (within 80 km/50 miles)

Birmingham (30 km/19 miles)

Leicester (38 km/24 miles)

Lichfield (48 km/30 miles)

Wolverhampton (59 km/37 miles)

Worcester (69 km/43 miles)

Derby (80 km/50 miles)

Nottingham (80 km/50 miles)

Oxford (80 km/50 miles)

Towns (within 32 km/20 miles)

Bedworth (10 km/6 miles)

Kenilworth (10 km/6 miles)

Nuneaton (14.5 km/9 miles)

Leamington Spa (16 km/10 miles)

Warwick (19 km/12 miles)

Rugby (19 km/12 miles)

Hinckley (19 km/12 miles)

Atherstone (21 km/13 miles)

Solihull (21 km/13 miles)

Southam (21 km/13 miles)

Redditch (29 km/18 miles)

Stratford-upon-Avon (30 km/19 miles)

Sutton Coldfield (32 km/20 miles)

Tamworth (32 km/20 miles)

Villages

Arley, Warwickshire Distance unknown.

Baginton, about 4 miles south

Neal's Green/Ash Green – about 4 miles north

Burton Green, about 4 miles west

Binley Woods, about 5 miles southeast

Stoneleigh, 5 miles south

Ryton-on-Dunsmore, about 5.5 miles southeast

Hawkesbury, about 5.5 miles north

Ansty, about 6 miles north east

Corley, about 6 miles northwest

Bulkington, about 6 miles northeast

Brandon, about 6 miles southeast

Shilton, about 7 miles northheast

Berkswell, about 7 miles west

Balsall Common, about 7 miles west

Fillongley, about 7 miles north

Wolston, about 7 miles southeast

Brinklow, about 7 miles east

Bubbenhall, about 7 miles southeast

Meriden, about 8 miles west

Bramcote, about 8 miles northeast

Princethorpe, about 10 miles southeast

Stretton-on-Dunsmore, about 10 miles southeast

Wolvey, about 10 miles northeast

Postcodes

Postal districts CV1 to CV6 inclusive cover the city of Coventry and its immediate suburbs. Postal districts CV7 to CV47 cover almost all of the surrounding administrative county of Warwickshire, with the exception of those areas around Coleshill, Polesworth, Alcester and Studley in western Warwickshire, which have Birmingham (B) postcodes instead. However, Coventry remains the post town for settlements within the CV7 postcode (e.g., Balsall Common and Berkswell etc.), even though they do not form part of the city.

Twin cities

Coventry first twinned with (Volgograd, Russia). After World War II Coventry twinned with Dresden as an act of peace and reconciliation, both cities having been very heavily bombed during the war. Each twin city country is represented in a specific ward of the city and in each ward has a peace garden dedicated to that twin city.

Coventry is now twinned with 26 places across the world:

Australia GrazSarajevoCornwall, OntarioJinanLidiceCaenDresdenDunaújvárosBolognaKingston, JamaicaArnhemWarsawCork (city)GalațiVolgograd/StalingradBelgradeCoventry, Connecticut

Flag !! City !! Country !! Year Twinned !! Ward
	Parkes, New South Wales	|	1956	Bablake
	|	Austria	1957	Binley & Willenhall
	|	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1957	Cheylesmore
rowspan=3		|	Canada	1972	Earlsdon
Granby, Quebec	1963
Windsor, Ontario	1963
	|	China	1983	Foleshill
rowspan=2		|	Czech Republic	1947	Henley
Ostrava	1959
rowspan=2		|	France	1957	Longford
Saint-Étienne	1955
rowspan=2		|	Germany	1959	Lower Stoke
Kiel	1947
rowspan=2		|	Hungary	1962	Radford
Kecskemét	1962
	|	Italy	1960	Sherbourne
	Kingston ||	Jamaica	1962	St Michael's
	|	Netherlands	1958	Upper Stoke
	|	Poland	1957	Wainbody
	Cork ||	Ireland	1958	Holbrooks
	|	Romania	1962	Westwood
	|	Russia	1944	Whoberley
	|	Serbia	1957	Woodlands
rowspan=3		|	United States	1962	Wyken
Coventry, New York	1972
Coventry, Rhode Island	1971

Accent

Origins: Coventry in a linguistic sense looks both ways, towards both the 'West' and 'East' Midlands. One thousand years ago, the extreme west of Warwickshire, what today we would designate Birmingham and the Black Country was then separated from Coventry and east Warwickshire by the forest of Arden, with resulting inferior means of communication. The west Warwickshire settlements too were smaller in comparison to Coventry which, by the 14th century, was England's third city. Even as far back as Anglo-Saxon times Coventry, situated as it was along Watling Street was a trading and market post between King Alfred's Saxon Mercia and Danelaw England with a consequent merging of dialects.

Coventry & Birmingham accents: Phonetically the accent of Coventry is similar to Northern English in that it eliminates the long a , so cast is pronounced rather than . Yet the clipped, flatter vowels in the accent also contain traces of Estuary English (T-glottaling), increasingly so amongst the young since 1950. One notable feature which television producers have been apt to overlook is the distinction between Coventry and Birmingham accents. In Birmingham and the Black Country 'Old' and 'cold' may be pronounced as "owd" and "cowd", this linguistic feature stops starkly as one moves beyond Solihull in the general direction of Coventry, a possible approximation of the 'Arden Forest' divide perhaps. The prosody in the voice has none of the see-saw of traditional 'Brummie', being more 'flat' in its terminal sentence tags. The common Birmingham inflection of the phonetic feature in words such as 'price'-becoming similar in sound to the word 'choice' is almost absent in Coventry. Yet accents alter briskly in this particular part of the Midlands, North Warwickshire (Bedworth & Nuneaton) displays increased East Midlands dialect features. Then again, just to the south, the general Southern English feature of the longer 'a' in words such as "bath" and "path" (becoming "barth" and "parth") starts to occur regardless of class or geodemographic grouping across an east to west band of settlements somewhere between Southam and Banbury, positioning Coventry right at the edge of England's phonetic crossroads.

Coventry accent on Television: Dramatic representations on film have been very uneven down the years, ranging from Yorkshire sounding builders visiting the Queen Vic in ''Eastenders'' [1987] to Black Country sounding factory workers in the Jeffrey Archer adaptation 'First Among Equals' (1984). The BBC's 2009 documentary ''The Bombing of Coventry'' contained useful phonetic data on the 'Coventry Accent' in the form of interviews with Coventrians. A recent performance from the actress Becci Gemmell, playing Coventry character Joyce in the BBC drama ''Land Girls'', also gave a more accurate phonetic representation of the accent.

Honours

A minor planet 3009 Coventry discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1973 is named after the city.

2008 bomb scare

The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the Luftwaffe. Second World War bombs were often abandoned if they fell in areas of little significant importance to the war effort and continue to be found during construction work to this day. Many old bombs have been found to still be viable explosive devices.

On 12 March 2008 an unexploded World War II Luftwaffe bomb was discovered at 12 noon. It was found at the Belgrade Plaza development in Upper Well Street in Coventry's city centre. Police said the device seemed genuine but it was not clear if it was live.

A Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal team was deployed from 33 Engineer Regiment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) near Cambridge. A controlled explosion was conducted at approximately 02:40 GMT on the morning of 13 March.

At first areas in close range of the bomb were evacuated (including a school and a hospital), however, as the day progressed larger parts of the city were closed off. Later, a cordon of 500 metres was enforced. The event attracted mass media coverage throughout the West Midlands region. In an ironic coincidence the finding of the bomb led to a performance of "One night in November", a play about The Blitz being cancelled.

See also

Coventry Castle

Coventration

Further reading

Smith, Albert & Fry, (1991) ''The Coventry We Have Lost''. 2 vols. Berkswell: Simanda Press, 1991, 1993 ISBN 0-9513867-1-9; ISBN 0-9513867-2-7

References

''Coventry's Heritage'', by Levi Fox (1957)

''Coventry: History and Guide'', by David McGrory (1993) ISBN 0-7509-0194-2

''A History of Warwickshire'', by Terry Slater (1981) ISBN 0-85033-416-0

''The Bombing of Coventry'' BBC Television (2009)

External links

Coventry City council

Coventry University

CV One

Category:Populated places established in the 11th century Category:Local government in the West Midlands (county) Category:Articles including recorded pronunciations (UK English) Category:Metropolitan boroughs Category:Cities in the West Midlands (region) Category:Local government districts of the West Midlands (region)

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name	Kanye West
background	solo_singer
birth name	Kanye Omari West
birth date	June 08, 1977
birth place	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
origin	Chicago, Illinois, United States
genre	Hip hop
instrument	Vocals, keyboards, sampler, percussion, synthesizer
occupation	Producer, rapper, musician, singer
years active	1996–present
label	GOOD Music, Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam
associated acts	Go Getters, Child Rebel Soldier, Jay-Z, The Throne, Common, John Legend, Kid Cudi, Rihanna, Jeff Bhasker, Pusha T, Mos Def, Mr Hudson, Talib Kweli, Big Sean, A-Trak, Pharrell, Lupe Fiasco, RZA
website	}}

Kanye Omari West (; born June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album ''The Blueprint'', as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and Janet Jackson. His style of production originally used pitched-up vocal samples from soul songs incorporated with his own drums and instruments. However, subsequent productions saw him broadening his musical palette and expressing influences encompassing '70s R&B;, baroque pop, trip hop, arena rock, folk, alternative, electronica, synth-pop, and classical music.

West released his debut album ''The College Dropout'' in 2004, his second album ''Late Registration'' in 2005, his third album ''Graduation'' in 2007, his fourth album ''808s & Heartbreak'' in 2008, and his fifth album ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'' in 2010. West released a collaborative album, ''Watch the Throne'', with Jay-Z on August 8, 2011, which is the duo's first collaborative album. His five solo albums, all of which have gone platinum, have received numerous awards and critical acclaim. As of 2011, West has won a total of fourteen Grammy Awards. All albums have been very commercially successful, with ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'' becoming his fourth consecutive No.1 album in the U.S. upon release. West has had 5 songs exceed 3 million in digital sales as of July 2011, with "Gold Digger" selling 3,086,000, "Stronger" selling 4,402,000, "Heartless" selling 3,742,000, "E.T." selling over 4,000,000 and "Love Lockdown" selling over 3,000,000 placing him third in overall digital sales of the past decade. He has sold over 25 million digital songs in the United States placing him second for solo male artists on the list and sixth overall for best selling digital artists.

West also runs his own record label GOOD Music, home to artists such as John Legend, Common and Kid Cudi. West's mascot and trademark is "Dropout Bear," a teddy bear which has appeared on the covers of three of his five albums as well as various single covers and music videos. About.com ranked Kanye West No.8 on their "Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers" list. On May 16, 2008, Kanye West was crowned by MTV as the year's No.1 "Hottest MC in the Game." On December 17, 2010, Kanye West was voted as the MTV Man of the Year by MTV. Billboard ranked Kanye West No. 3 on their list of Top 10 Producers of the decade. West has also been included in the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world as well as being listed in a number of ''Forbes''' annual lists.

Early life

Kanye West was born in Atlanta, Georgia, where he lived with his parents. When he was three years old, his parents divorced, and he and his mother moved to Chicago, Illinois. His father was Ray West, a former Black Panther who was one of the first black photojournalists at ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,'' and is now a Christian counselor. West's mother, Dr. Donda West, was a Professor of English at Clark Atlanta University, and the Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University before retiring to serve as West's manager. He was raised in a middle-class background, attending Polaris High School in suburban Oak Lawn, Illinois after living in Chicago. When asked about his grades in high school, West replied, "I got A's and B's. And I'm not even frontin'".

West attended art classes at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and also enrolled at Chicago State University, but dropped out to focus on his music career. While attending school, West produced for local artists. He later gained fame by producing hit singles for major hip hop/R&B; artists, including Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Cam'ron, Paul Wall, Common, Mobb Deep, Jermaine Dupri, Scarface, The Game, Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, John Legend among others. He also "ghost-produced" for his mentor Deric Angelettie, according to his song "Last Call" and the credits of Nas' "Poppa Was a Playa".

Music career

1996–2003: Career beginnings

Kanye West's first career productions came on Chicago rapper Grav's 1996 debut album ''Down to Earth''. West produced eight tracks on the album. While the album did not attract much attention and would be the only album released by Grav, West would soon be producing for higher profile artists. In 1998–1999 he produced for well-known artists such as Jermaine Dupri, Foxy Brown, Goodie Mob, and the group Harlem World.

West got his big break in the year 2000, when he began to produce for artists on Roc-a-Fella Records. He produced the well-received Jay-Z song "This Can't Be Life" off of the album ''The Dynasty: Roc La Familia''. West would later state that to create the beat for "This Can't Be Life", he sped up the drum beat from Dr. Dre's song "Xxplosive".

After producing for Jay-Z earlier, West’s sound was featured heavily on Jay-Z's critically acclaimed album ''The Blueprint,'' released September 11, 2001. His work was featured on the lead single "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)" and a diss track against Nas and Mobb Deep named "Takeover"; West has worked with Mobb Deep and Nas since the track's release.

After meeting great commercial success and critical acclaim for his productions on ''The Blueprint'', West became a sought after producer in the hip-hop industry, even before he became known as a rapper and solo artist. In the years 2002–2003 he would produce for artists such as Nas, Scarface, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, T.I., Ludacris, DMX, and Monica. He also continued producing for Roc-a-Fella Records artists and contribued four tracks to Jay-Z's follow up album to ''The Blueprint'', ''The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse''.

After great successes as a producer, West now looked to pursue a career as a rapper and solo artist, but struggled to get a record deal. Chris Anokute, then A&R; at Def Jam, said that when West regularly dropped by the office to pick up his producer checks he would play demos of solo material to Anokute in his cubicle and bemoan the fact that no one was taking him seriously as a rapper. Jay-Z admitted that Roc-A-Fella was initially reluctant to support West as a rapper, claiming that he saw him as a producer first and foremost. Multiple record companies felt he was not as marketable as rappers who portray the "street image" prominent in hip hop culture. Beginning his career as a rapper, Kanye West recorded the third verse on the song "The Bounce" off of Jay-Z's ''The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse'', an album he produced for, from the same label he was signed to as a rapper.

2004–05: ''The College Dropout'' and ''Late Registration''

On October 23, 2002, West was involved in a near fatal car crash while driving home from the recording studio. The crash provided inspiration for West's first single, "Through the Wire". West's faith is apparent in many of his songs, such as "Jesus Walks", which became a staple at his benefit performances, such as the Live 8 concert. These songs were featured on West's debut album, ''The College Dropout'', which was released on Roc-A-Fella Records in February 2004, and went on to receive critical acclaim. The album also defined the style for which West would become known, including wordplay and sampling. The album was eventually certified triple platinum. Guest appearances included Jay-Z, Ludacris, GLC, Consequence, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Common, and Syleena Johnson. The album also featured the singles, "All Falls Down" and "The New Workout Plan", as well as Twista's number one single, "Slow Jamz". During 2003 West also co-produced songs for British singer Javine Hylton, even appearing in the music video to Real Things playing the love interest of Javine.

West was involved in a financial dispute over Royce Da 5'9"'s song "Heartbeat", produced by West and released on ''Build & Destroy: The Lost Sessions''. West maintains that Royce never paid for the beat, but recorded to it and released it; hearing him on the beat, the original customers decided not to buy it from West. After the disagreement, West vowed to never work with Royce again. Other Kanye West-produced hit singles during the period ''The College Dropout'' was released included "I Changed My Mind" by Keyshia Cole, "Overnight Celebrity" by Twista and "Talk About Our Love" by Brandy.

Taking a more eclectic route, West collaborated with American film score composer Jon Brion to construct his second album, ''Late Registration'', which was released on August 30, 2005. Like its predecessor, the sophomore effort garnered universal acclaim from music critics. ''Late Registration'' topped countless critic polls and was revered as the best album of the year by numerous publications, including ''USA Today'', ''Spin'', and ''Time''. ''Rolling Stone'' awarded the album the highest position on their end of the year record list and hailed it as a "sweepingly generous, absurdly virtuosic hip-hop classic." The record earned the number one spot on the ''Village Voice'''s Pazz & Jop critics' poll of 2005 for the second consecutive year. ''Late Registration'' was also a commercial success, selling over 860,000 copies in its first week alone and topping the ''Billboard 200''. Grossing over 2.3 million units sold in the United States alone by year's end, ''Late Registration'' was considered by industry observers as the sole majorly successful album release of the fall of 2005, a season that was plagued by steadily declining CD sales. The second album earned eight Grammy Award nominations including ''Album of the Year'' and ''Record of the Year'' for the song "Gold Digger". The album is certified triple platinum.

On August 22, 2005, the MTV special ''All Eyes On Kanye West'' aired, in which West spoke out against homophobia in hip-hop. He claimed that hip-hop has always been about "speaking your mind and about breaking down barriers, but everyone in hip-hop discriminates against gay people." He then reflected on a personal experience. He said that he had a "turning point" when he realized one of his cousins was gay. He said regarding this experience: "This is my cousin. I love him and I've been discriminating against gays." He drew comparison between African Americans' struggle for civil rights and today's gay rights movement. The following year, in an interview with ''Entertainment Weekly'', West further expounded his experiences with and views on the relationship between the black and gay communities.

In September 2005, West announced that he would release his Pastelle Clothing line in spring 2006: "Now that I have a Grammy under my belt and ''Late Registration'' is finished, I am ready to launch my clothing line next spring." In that year, West produced the hit singles "Go" by Common and "Dreams" by The Game.

2007–09: ''Graduation'' and ''808s & Heartbreak''

In 2007, it was announced that West would be starring in a series directed by Larry Charles. He has been working on the pilot episode for the past two years with Larry Charles and Rick Rubin. He also had this to say on January 14: "I wouldn't do something as cliché as a reality show. At least give me the credit for being more creative than that. It's a situational half-hour comedy. It's fictional, and loosely based on my life. " West also collaborated with Japanese hip-hop group Teriyaki Boyz to produce the single "I Still Love H.E.R.," a reference to Common's 1994 single "I Used to Love H.E.R.". Further to this, during a radio appearance in early 2007, West, like many of his peers, recorded an impromptu freestyle to the popular song "Throw Some D's." The song that to all other rappers was about automobile rims, was used by West to comically refer to D-cup breasts. Because of the unexpected success of the song, West went on to make a video for the freestyle, in which he is seen playing his 'Old Ass Cousin'.

West was also featured in a new song called "Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been)". It was believed to be a single for, ''Graduation'', because he is featured on the track, but Nike quickly explained that it was for the Nike Air Force 1's anniversary. It was meant only to be an exclusive track for the company.

On March 25, 2007, he and his father Ray West supported World Water Day by having a "Walk for Water" rally. After a two-year break, West has returned to being a fashion columnist in lifestyle magazine ''Complex''. On July 7, 2007, West performed with The Police and John Mayer at the American leg of Live Earth. West hosted the August 17 edition of British comedy- variety show The Friday Night Project.

In July 2007, West changed the release date of ''Graduation'', his third album, from September 18, 2007, to the same release date as 50 Cent's album ''Curtis'', September 11, 2007. 50 Cent later claimed that if ''Graduation'' were to sell more records than ''Curtis,'' he would stop releasing solo albums. However, 50 Cent would later dispel his comments. The album has been certified double platinum. Guest appearances included T-Pain, Mos Def, and Lil Wayne.

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On August 26, 2007, West appeared as himself on the HBO television show ''Entourage'' which he used as a platform to premier his new single "Good Life" during the end credits. On September 9, 2007, West performed at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, losing in every category he was nominated for; he gave an angry speech immediately afterward. (see "Controversies" section)

Following the MTV stint, West was nominated in eight Grammy Award categories for the 50th annual Grammy Awards. He won four of them, including Best Rap Album for ''Graduation'' and Best Rap Solo Performance for "Stronger" from ''Graduation''. During the four-hour televised Grammy Awards ceremony, West also performed two songs: "Stronger" (with Daft Punk) and "Hey Mama" (in honor of his recently deceased mother).

West kicked off the Glow in the Dark Tour in Seattle at the Key Arena on April 16. The tour was originally scheduled to end in June in Cincinnati but was extended into August. Over the course of the tour West was joined by a varying group of opening acts, including Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna, N.E.R.D., DJ Craze, and Gnarls Barkley. On June 15, West was scheduled to perform a late night set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival. His performance started almost two hours late and ran for half of its alloted time, angering many fans in the audience. West later wrote an outraged entry on his blog, blaming the festival organizers as well as Pearl Jam's preceding set, which ran longer than expected.

On September 7, West debuted a new song "Love Lockdown" at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. "Love Lockdown" features no rapping and only singing using an auto-tune device. This song appears on West's fourth studio album, ''808s & Heartbreak''. The new album was expected to be released on December 16, but West announced on his blog on September 24, 2008, that he had finished the album and would be releasing it sometime in November, earlier than previously scheduled. In early October, West made a surprise appearance at a T.I. concert in Los Angeles, where he stated that ''808s & Heartbreak'' was scheduled to be released on November 25, though it was actually released on the 24th, and that the second single is "Heartless". The album was another number one album for West, even though the first week numbers fell well short of ''Graduation'' with 450,145 sold.

West performed at the American Music Awards ceremony on November 23. That same night he won two AMA awards, including Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album for ''Graduation'' and Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Male Artist. West performed at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August 2008, along with Wyclef Jean and N.E.R.D. in support of Barack Obama. On January 20, 2009, Kanye West performed at the Youth Inaugural Ball hosted by MTV for Obama's inauguration.

On February 17, 2009, West was named one of Top 10 Most Stylish Men in America by ''GQ''. The next day, February 18, 2009, West won International Male Solo Artist at The Brit Awards 2009. West was not in attendance but accepted his award with a video speech, saying "Barack is the 'Best Interracial Male' but I'm proud to be the Best International Male in the world.

In April 2009, Kanye West recorded a song called "Hurricane" with 30 Seconds to Mars to appear on their album ''This Is War'', but was not released due to legal issues with both record companies. The song was eventually released on the deluxe version of ''This Is War'', titled "Hurricane 2.0".

2010–present: ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'' and ''Watch the Throne''

In May 2010, West made an animated television guest appearance on Fox's animated television series ''The Cleveland Show'' (a spin-off of ''Family Guy'') as the voice behind "Kenny West", a rival of Cleveland Brown's son. In his first episode he performed in a rap battle with Cleveland's son. The producers stated working with West was a very good experience and a reason they chose him was because they knew he was a fan of ''Family Guy''. Kenny West re-appeared in the season 2 premiere of ''The Cleveland Show''.

West spent the first half of 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii, working on his new album with the working title ''"Good Ass Job"'', later named ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'', released on November 22, 2010. West has cited Maya Angelou, Gil Scott-Heron and Nina Simone as his musical inspirations for this album. Outside production is said to come from RZA, Q-Tip, Pete Rock, and DJ Premier. West also had Justin Vernon flown into his studio on Oahu after seemingly expressing interest in sampling one of Bon Iver's songs; Vernon proceeded to feature on a number of new tracks, including "Lost In The World," which features Vernon's vocal line from Woods.

On May 28, the Dwele-assisted first single from the album, entitled "Power", leaked to the Internet. On June 30, the track was officially released via iTunes. The upcoming music video was quoted as being "apocalyptic, in a very personal way" by the director Marco Brambilla.

On September 12, 2010, West performed a new song, "Runaway" featuring Pusha T, at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Shortly after the performance, Kanye revealed he was working on a 35 minute short film based around the song. The movie is said to be influenced by film noir and concerns a fallen phoenix whom Kanye falls in love with. On October 15, 2010, Kanye West was ranked 3rd in BET's "Top Ten Rappers of the 21st Century" list.

''Watch the Throne'', a collaborative studio album by West and Jay-Z, was released by Def Jam Recordings on August 8, 2011. It has been under production since August 2010 as part of West's GOOD Friday initiative of releasing new songs every Friday between August 20 and Christmas 2010. West said through a recent interview with MTV that the album is "going to be very dark and sexy, like couture hip hop." He appeared at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, performing the track "Lost in the World" from ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy''. On January 6, 2011, Kanye announced via Twitter that the first official single from ''Watch the Throne'' would be a song called "H•A•M" produced by Lex Luger. The song was released on January 11, 2011. On January 23, 2011, Kanye revealed via his Twitter account that he will be releasing a new album in summer 2011. On April 17, 2011, West closed the Coachella Festival with a headlining set that received glowing praise from fans and critics alike. On July 13, the official tracklisting for ''Watch The Throne'' was revealed. On July 20, a track titled "Otis" from the album was released in the iTunes Store. It samples "Try a Little Tenderness" by Otis Redding.

On October 19, 2011, West announced on his Twitter plans for a Spring 2012 GOOD Music album release.

Other ventures

Business ventures

In August 2008, West revealed plans to open 10 Fatburger restaurants in the Chicago area; the first was set to open in September 2008 in Orland Park. The second followed in January 2009, while a third location is yet to be revealed, although the process is being finalized. His company, KW Foods LLC, bought the rights to the chain in Chicago. Additionally, West planned to launch his fashion career, and applied for internships with major European fashion houses. He was due to release his own clothing line called Past Tell in 2009. He also collaborated with Nike to release his own shoe, Air Yeezys.

On January 22, 2009, during Paris Fashion Week, West introduced his first shoe line designed for Louis Vuitton. The line was released in summer 2009.

On October 01, 2011, Kanye West premiered his women's fashion label, DW Kanye West at Paris Fashion Week. He received support from DSquared2 duo Dean and Dan Caten, Olivier Theyskens, Jeremy Scott, Azzedine Alaïa, and the Olsen twins, who were also in attendance during his show. His debut fashion show received mixed-to-negative reviews, ranging from reserved observations by Style.com to excoriating commentary by The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, Elleuk.com, The Daily Telegraph, Harper's Bazaar and many others.

Philanthropy

West started the "Kanye West Foundation" in Chicago in 2003. On August 24, 2007, West hosted the inaugural benefit concert to launch the foundation's partnership with Strong American Schools. It is focused on helping Latino and African American children stay in school and to get a proper education through grade school, high school, and college. The foundation also helps children to stay in high school by finding a path through music. West has contributed over $500,000 to his foundation. The foundation has also been called the "Donda West Foundation".

Kanye West has appeared and participated in many fundraisers, benefit concerts, and has done community work for Hurricane Katrina relief, the Kanye West Foundation, the Millions More Movement, 100 Black Men of America, a Live Earth concert benefit, World Water Day rally and march, Nike runs, and a MTV special helping young Iraq War veterans who struggle through debt and PTSD a second chance after returning home.

Musical style and influences

At the start of his career, Kanye West's production style often used pitched-up vocal samples, usually from soul songs, with his own drums and instruments. His first major release featuring his trademark vocal sampling style was "This Can't Be Life", a track from Jay-Z’s ''The Dynasty: Roc La Familia''. West said he sped up the drum beat of Dr. Dre's "Xxplosive" to use as a replacement for his drums on "This Can't Be Life".

West has said that Wu-Tang Clan producer RZA influenced him in his style, and has said on numerous occasions that Wu-Tang rappers Ghostface Killah and Ol' Dirty Bastard were some of his all-time favorites, "Wu-Tang? Me and my friends talk about this all the time... We think Wu-Tang had one of the biggest impacts as far as a movement. From slang to style of dress, skits, the samples. Similar to the [production] style I use, RZA has been doing that." RZA himself has spoken quite positively of the comparisons, stating in an interview for ''Rolling Stone'', "All good. I got super respect for Kanye. He came up to me about a year or two ago. He gave me mad praising and blessings... For people to say Wu-Tang inspire Kanye, Kanye is one of the biggest artists in the world. That goes back to what we say: 'Wu-Tang is forever.' Kanye is going to inspire people to be like him." After hearing his work on ''The Blueprint'', RZA claimed that a torch-passing had occurred between him and West, saying, "The shoes gotta be filled. If you ain't gonna do it, somebody else is gonna do it. That's how I feel about rap today."

While his use of sampling has lessened over time, West's production continues to feature distinctive and intricate string arrangements. This characteristic arose from him listening to the English trip hop group Portishead, whose 1998 live album ''Roseland NYC Live'', with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra inspired him to incorporate string sections into his hip hop production. Though he was unable to afford live instruments beyond violin riffs provided by Israeli violinist Miri Ben-Ari around the time of his debut album, its subsequent commercial success allowed him to hire his very own eleven-piece string orchestra. For a time, West stood as the sole current pop star to tour with a string section.

West has stated on several occasions that outside of work, he favors listening to rock music over hip-hop. He cites Franz Ferdinand, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Killers as some of his favorite musical groups. Additionally, on ''Graduation'', West drew inspiration from arena rock bands such as U2, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin for melody and chord progression. Both a fan and supporter of indie culture, West uses his official website to promote obscure indie rock bands, posting up music videos and mp3s on a daily basis. This musical affinity is mutual, as West has collaborated with indie artists such as Santigold, Peter Bjorn and John and Lykke Li while his songs have gone on to be covered countless times by myriad rock bands.

Personal life

Relationships

Kanye West and designer Alexis Phifer ended their 18-month engagement in 2008. The couple had been dating on and off since 2002, with West eventually proposing in August 2006. According to a friend, the couple's relationship had become increasingly strained, burdened by the sheer amount of time and attention West was dedicating to his current concert tour. "It's always sad when things like this end, and we remain friends," Phifer told ''People''.

West was also in a high profile on/off relationship with Amber Rose from 2008 until the summer of 2010.

Mother's death

On November 10, 2007, West's mother, Donda West, died of complications from cosmetic surgery involving abdominoplasty and breast augmentation. TMZ reported that Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Andre Aboolian refused to do the surgery because Donda West had a health condition that placed her at risk for a heart attack. Aboolian referred her to an internist to investigate her cardiac issue. Donda never met with the doctor recommended by Aboolian and had the procedures performed by a third doctor, Jan Adams. She was 58 years old (1949–2007).

Adams sent condolences to Donda West's family but declined to publicly discuss the procedure because of confidentiality. He had previously been under scrutiny by the medical board. Adams appeared on ''Larry King Live'' on November 20, 2007 but left before speaking. Two days later, he appeared again, with his attorney, stating he was there to "defend himself." He said that the recently released autopsy results "spoke for themselves". The final coroner's report January 10, 2008 concluded that Donda West died of "coronary artery disease and multiple post-operative factors due to or as a consequence of liposuction and mammoplasty."

The funeral and burial for Donda West was held in Oklahoma City on November 20, 2007. West held his first concert following the funeral at The O2 in London on November 22. He dedicated a performance of "Hey Mama", as well as a cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", to his mother, and did so on all other dates of his Glow in the Dark tour.

At a December 2008 press conference in New Zealand, West spoke about his mother's death for the first time. "It was like losing an arm and a leg and trying to walk through that," he told reporters.

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger passed the "Donda West Law," a legislation which makes it mandatory for patients to provide medical clearance for elective cosmetic surgery.

Legal issues

In December 2006, Robert "Evel" Knievel sued West for trademark infringement in West's video for "Touch the Sky." Knievel took issue with a "sexually-charged video" in which West takes on the persona of "Evel Kanyevel" and attempts flying a rocket over a canyon. The suit filed in federal court claims infringement on his trademarked name and likeness. Knievel also claims the "vulgar and offensive" images depicted in the video damage his reputation. The suit seeks damages and to stop distribution of the video. West's attorneys argued that the music video amounted to satire and therefore was covered under the First Amendment. Just days before his death in November 2007, Knievel amicably settled the suit after being paid a visit from West, saying, "I thought he was a wonderful guy and quite a gentleman."

On September 11, 2008, West and his road manager/bodyguard Don "Don C." Crowley were arrested at Los Angeles International Airport and booked on charges of felony vandalism after an altercation with the paparazzi in which West and Crowley broke the photographers' cameras. West was later released from the Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Division station in Culver City on $20,000 bail bond. On September 26, 2008 the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said it would not file felony counts against West over the incident. Instead the case file was forwarded to the city attorney's office, which charged West with one count of misdemeanor vandalism, one count of grand theft and one count of battery and his manager with three counts of each on March 18, 2009. West's and Crowley's arraignment was delayed from an original date of April 14, 2009.

West was arrested again on November 14, 2008 at the Hilton hotel near Gateshead after another scuffle involving a photographer outside the famous Tup Tup Palace nightclub in Newcastle Upon Tyne. He was later released "with no further action", according to a police spokesperson.

Controversies

General media

West has had several controversies throughout his career. On September 2, 2005, during a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina relief on NBC, A Concert for Hurricane Relief, West was a featured speaker. When West was presenting alongside actor Mike Myers, he deviated from the prepared script. Myers spoke next and continued to read the script. Once it was West's turn to speak again, he said "George Bush doesn't care about black people." At this point, telethon producer Rick Kaplan cut off the microphone and then cut away to Chris Tucker, who was unaware of the cut for a few seconds. Still, West's comment reached much of the United States. Bush stated in an interview that the comment was "one of the most disgusting moments” of his presidency.

In January 2006, West again sparked controversy when he appeared on the cover of ''Rolling Stone'' in the image of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns.

In November, 2010, Kanye West, in a taped interview with Matt Lauer for the Today Show, West expressed regret for his criticism of Bush. "I would tell George Bush in my moment of frustration, I didn't have the grounds to call him a racist," he told Lauer. "I believe that in a situation of high emotion like that we as human beings don't always choose the right words." The following day, Bush reacted to the apology in a live interview with Lauer saying he appreciated the rapper's remorse. "I'm not a hater," Bush said. "I don't hate Kanye West. I was talking about an environment in which people were willing to say things that hurt. Nobody wants to be called a racist if in your heart you believe in equality of races."

Reactions were mixed, but some felt that West had no need to apologize. "It was not the particulars of your words that mattered, it was the essence of a feeling of the insensitivity towards our communities that many of us have felt for far too long," noted Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons. Dr. Boyce Watkins said that West was, "now part of the establishment, where waffling on your principles is fully expected. Bush deserved no apology, for you don’t apologize to a criminal after repudiating him for an egregious crime. " Bush himself was acceptive towards the apology, saying, "I appreciate that. It wasn't just Kanye West who was talking like that during Katrina, I cited him as an example, I cited others as an example as well. You know, I appreciate that."

Award shows

In 2004, West had his first of a number of incidents involving music award events. At the American Music Awards of 2004, West stormed out of the auditorium after losing Best New Artist to country singer Gretchen Wilson. He later commented, "I felt like I was definitely robbed [...] I was the best new artist this year." After the 2006 Grammy nominations were released, West said he would "really have a problem" if he did not win the Album of the Year, saying, "I don't care what I do, I don't care how much I stunt – you can never take away from the amount of work I put into it. I don't want to hear all of that politically correct stuff." On November 2, 2006, when his "Touch the Sky" failed to win Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards, West went onto the stage as the award was being presented to Justice and Simian for "We Are Your Friends" and argued that he should have won the award instead. Hundreds of news outlets worldwide criticized the outburst. On November 7, 2006, West apologized for this outburst publicly during his performance as support act for U2 for their Vertigo concert in Brisbane. He later spoofed the incident in the season premiere of ''Saturday Night Live''.

On September 9, 2007, West suggested that his race had to do with his being overlooked for opening the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) in favor of Britney Spears; he claimed, "Maybe my skin’s not right." West was performing at the event; that night, he lost all 5 awards that he was nominated for, including Best Male Artist and Video of the Year. After the show, he was visibly upset that he had lost at the VMAs two years in a row, stating that he would not come back to MTV ever again. He also appeared on several radio stations saying that when he made the song "Stronger" that it was his dream to open the VMAs with it. He has also stated that Spears has not had a hit in a long period of time and that MTV exploited her for ratings.

On September 13, 2009, during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards while Taylor Swift was accepting her award for Best Female Video for "You Belong with Me", West went on stage and grabbed the microphone to proclaim 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". He was subsequently removed from the remainder of the show for his actions. 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. West was criticized by various celebrities for the outburst, and by President Barack Obama, who called West a "jackass" in an off-the-record comment. In addition, West's VMA disruption sparked a large influx of Internet photo memes with blogs, forums and "tweets" with the "Let you finish" photo-jokes. Subsequently, West posted two apologies for the outburst on his personal blog; one on the night of the incident and the other the same day he appeared on ''The Jay Leno Show'', on September 14, 2009, where he apologized again. After Swift appeared on ''The View'' two days after the outburst, partly to discuss the matter, West called her to apologize personally. Swift said she accepted his apology. In September 2010, West wrote a series of apologetic tweets addressed to Swift including "Beyonce didn't need that. MTV didn't need that and Taylor and her family friends and fans definitely didn't want or need that" and concluding with "I'm sorry Taylor." West also revealed he had written a song for Swift and if she did not accept the song, he would perform it himself. 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.

Discography

Solo Albums

''The College Dropout'' (2004)

''Late Registration'' (2005)

''Graduation'' (2007)

''808s & Heartbreak'' (2008)

''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'' (2010)

Collaborations

''Watch the Throne'' (2011) – with Jay-Z

''G.O.O.D. Music'' (2012) – with GOOD Music artists

Filmography

''We Were Once a Fairytale'' (2009)

''Runaway'' (2010)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Kanye West at Beatbuggy

Category:1977 births Category:African American rappers Category:African American record producers Category:African American male singers Category:American bloggers Category:American Christians Category:American hip hop record producers Category:American music industry executives Category:American music video directors Category:American pop musicians Category:Songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Brit Award winners Category:Chicago State University alumni Category:Electro-hop musicians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Hip hop musicians Category:Hip hop singers Category:Living people Category:Mercury Records artists Category:People from Atlanta, Georgia Category:Rappers from Chicago, Illinois Category:Roc-A-Fella Records artists Category:World Music Awards winners

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Name	Alison Moyet
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Geneviève Alison Jane Moyet
Alias	Alf
Birth date	June 18, 1961
Origin	Billericay, Essex, England
Instruments	Singing
Genre	New Wave, Synthpop (with Yazoo), pop, rock, blues
Occupation(s)	singer-songwriter
Years active	1981–present
Label	Columbia (1983-2002)Sanctuary (2002-2006)W14 Music (2006-2007) Sony Music 2009–present
Notable albums	''Alf'' (1984), ''Raindancing'' (1987), ''Hometime'' (2002)
Associated acts	Yazoo, The Vandals
Website	official site
Past members	}}

Alison Moyet (born 18 June 1961), is an English pop singer-songwriter, noted for her bluesy voice, whose UK album sales have reached a certified 2.3 million, with 800,000 singles sold, all in the UK, where all seven of her studio albums and three compilation albums have charted in the Top 40 UK Album Chart, with two of the albums reaching number one. She has also achieved nine Top 30 singles and five Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart.

Early life

Geneviève Alison Jane Moyet was born in the small Essex town of Billericay to a French father and English mother. She grew up in the nearby town of Basildon, where she attended Markhams Chase Junior School. Upon leaving school at 16, she worked as a shop assistant and trained as a piano tuner. She was involved in a number of punk rock, pub rock and blues bands in the South East Essex area during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Vandals, the Screamin' Ab Dabs, the Vicars and the Little Roosters (the latter featuring Gary Lammin formerly of Cock Sparrer).

Yazoo

Beginning her mainstream pop career in 1982, at the age of 21, she formed the electropop duo Yazoo with former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke. In the United States, the band became known as Yaz, as there was a record label in the region already operating as Yazoo Records that presented trademark issues. Yazoo had several hits, including "Only You", "Don't Go", "Situation" and "Nobody's Diary", and recorded two albums, ''Upstairs at Eric's'' and ''You and Me Both''.

In 1983 Moyet and Clarke decided to disband Yazoo. While Clarke went on to form The Assembly (another duo, this time with former Undertones vocalist Feargal Sharkey) and then Erasure (a duo again, with Andy Bell), Moyet signed to CBS (in part because it had been Janis Joplin's label), and began her solo career.

During mid-2008, Moyet reunited with Clarke as Yazoo for a series of live dates.

Solo career

In 1984, Moyet released her debut solo album ''Alf'' (titled after her punk-era nickname). ''Alf'' was produced by the record producing and songwriting team of Jolley & Swain. The album was co-written by the duo and Moyet, with the exception of "Invisible", which was written specifically for her by Lamont Dozier. The record was a hit in Britain, reaching #1 in the album chart. ''Alf'' spawned three international hit singles, "Love Resurrection" (UK #10), "Invisible" (UK #21) and "All Cried Out" (UK #8). In the US, "Invisible" was a Top 40 hit (something Yazoo had never achieved). In some European territories, a fourth single, "For You Only", was also released.

In 1985, Moyet performed at Live Aid alongside Paul Young, and later returned unscheduled to the stage (alongside Bob Geldof, David Bowie and Pete Townshend) to provide vocals on "Let It Be" when the microphone on Paul McCartney's piano failed, leaving him unable to be heard. Moyet also released a single not featured on ''Alf'', a cover of the standard "That Ole Devil Called Love", which climbed to #2 on the UK Singles Chart (it remains Moyet's highest-charting UK single).

Moyet had another big UK hit the following year with "Is This Love?" (co-written by the Eurythmics' David A. Stewart, under the pseudonym Jean Guiot), followed in 1987 by her second LP, ''Raindancing''. ''Raindancing'' spawned further hit singles, including a cover of Floy Joy's "Weak in the Presence of Beauty" and "Ordinary Girl". In 1987, she scored another cover hit with "Love Letters", which peaked at UK #4. The video for the song featured comedy duo French & Saunders.

Following a period of personal and career evaluation, ''Hoodoo'' was released in 1991. The album sold respectably in the UK, and Moyet was nominated for a Grammy for the single "It Won't Be Long". However, the release of ''Hoodoo'' marked the beginning of what was to become a long fight for Moyet to secure complete control of her artistic direction. Like many similar artists (including Aimee Mann and the late Kirsty MacColl), Moyet was reluctant to record a radio-friendly "pop" album simply for the sake of creating chart hits.

Moyet's next album, ''Essex'' (1994), was also a source of controversy for her; in order for the album to be released, her label (now Sony) insisted that certain ''Essex'' tracks be re-recorded and re-produced, and that there be additional material remixed to create a more 'commercial' package. The video for the single "Whispering Your Name" again featured Dawn French.

Following the release of ''Essex'', Sony released a greatest hits compilation of Moyet's work. ''Singles'' entered the UK charts at #1 and, following a UK tour, was re-issued as a double CD set which included "Live (No Overdubs)", a bonus live CD. Upon re-issue, ''Singles'' charted again, this time in the Top 20.

Due to prolonged litigation with Sony, Moyet did not record or release a new studio album for over eight years after the release of ''Essex''. During this time, however, she recorded vocals for Tricky, Sylk-130, Ocean Colour Scene, The Lightning Seeds, and King Britt, and was featured on the British leg of the Lilith Fair tour. 2001 saw the release of ''The Essential Alison Moyet'' CD, and in 2002 ''The Essential Alison Moyet'' DVD.

In 1995, she sang back-up vocals with Sinéad O'Connor for one of Dusty Springfield's last television appearances, singing "Where Is a Woman to Go?" on the music show ''Later With Jools Holland''.

In August 2002, Moyet was released from her Sony contract. Moyet signed to Sanctuary Records and released her first studio album in eight years. ''Hometime'' was produced by The Insects, who had also produced works by Massive Attack and Madonna. The release of the CD launched Moyet into the top five best-selling female UK artists of 2002, and resulted in a BRIT Awards nomination for Best Female Vocalist, as well as a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. Hometime was certified Gold in the UK for sales in excess of 100,000 copies with little promotion.

''Voice'', a collection of cover versions, was released on 6 September 2004 and entered the UK charts at #7. Scored and produced by Moyet's neighbour (and Academy Award winner) Anne Dudley, the album was later re-issued with a bonus track, "Alfie". A companion DVD, ''One Blue Voice'', was released in 2006. Voice was certified Gold in the UK within four weeks of its release.

In December 2006 Moyet signed a recording contract with W14 Music, a Universal Music Group imprint. The deal saw Moyet reunited with label head John Williams, who was her A&R; man for her last two albums, ''Hometime'' and ''Voice''.

Moyet's album, ''The Turn'', was released on 15 October 2007, preceded by the single "One More Time" a week earlier. The album featured self-penned songs, including the three numbers she wrote for the stage play, ''Smaller'' in which she starred with Dawn French. For these songs, again Moyet worked alongside producer/songwriter and frequent Moyet collaborator Pete Glenister. ''The Turn'' debuted at #21 on the UK Albums Chart on 22 October 2007. Alison left W14 shortly after the release of ''The Turn''. Promotional videos for the tracks "One More Time", "Anytime At All" and "The Man in the Wings" are on ''Youtube'' and Moyet's ''Myspace'' site.

Sony Music released ''Revisited: The Very Best of Alison Moyet'' on 19 October 2009. The track listing was compiled by Moyet including material from her seven solo albums. The 'deluxe' version of the album contained an extra disc, with re-recorded versions of older songs. In support of the release Moyet toured the UK and Ireland during November and December 2009.

Sony Music confirmed that Moyet's four solo albums (''Alf'', ''Raindancing'', ''Hoodoo'' and ''Essex'') were being digitally re-mastered and will include b-sides and bonus material.

Alison is Jools Holland's Special Guest throughout his UK Tour of the UK for 2010. Alison has contributed vocals on the latest Jools Holland album released 15 November 2010 on the song titled 'The Man That Got Away. The song was made famous by Judy Garland.

Alison has confirmed that she is writing her new album with Guy Sigsworth. Alison confirmed on BBC 6 live her new album (8th solo album) will be released in 2012 (updated today) and she will be touring to promote the release. Alison recently revealed on her website that her new album is 70% complete. Latest news from Alison's management Modest Management is her new album will not be released until 2012.

Theatre

Moyet made her stage debut in the London West End production of the musical ''Chicago'' in 2001. She played the part of Matron 'Mama' Morton, and although initially planned to be a short run, it was extended to six months. In 2006, she appeared in the play ''Smaller'', which undertook a regional tour before a stint at London's Lyric Theatre.

Personal life

Moyet's first marriage, to hairdresser Malcolm Lee, with whom she has a son, Joe, ended in divorce. A short-lived relationship, with tour manager Kim McCarthy, produced a daughter, Alex, and her present marriage, to teaching assistant David Ballard, resulted in a daughter, Caitlin.

Discography

1984: ''Alf''

1987: ''Raindancing''

1991: ''Hoodoo''

1994: ''Essex''

2002: ''Hometime''

2004: ''Voice''

2007: ''The Turn''

2012: ''''

See also

List of best-selling music artists

External links

Alison Moyet's official website

[ Biography on Allmusic]

References

Category:English female singers Category:English blues singers Category:English pop singers Category:English musical theatre actors Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Yazoo members Category:People from Basildon Category:People from Billericay Category:English people of French descent Category:Music from Essex Category:1961 births Category:Living people

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