The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields. It has a diameter of about 1,392,000 km, about 109 times that of Earth, and its mass (about 2 kilograms, 330,000 times that of Earth) accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. Chemically, about three quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen, while the rest is mostly helium. Less than 2% consists of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon, iron, and others.

The Sun's stellar classification, based on spectral class, is G2V, and is informally designated as a ''yellow dwarf'', because its visible radiation is most intense in the yellow-green portion of the spectrum and although its color is white, from the surface of the Earth it may appear yellow because of atmospheric scattering of blue light. In the spectral class label, ''G2'' indicates its surface temperature of approximately 5778 K (5505 °C), and ''V'' indicates that the Sun, like most stars, is a main sequence star, and thus generates its energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium. In its core, the Sun fuses 620 million metric tons of hydrogen each second. Once regarded by astronomers as a small and relatively insignificant star, the Sun is now thought to be brighter than about 85% of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy, most of which are red dwarfs. The absolute magnitude of the Sun is +4.83; however, as the star closest to Earth, the Sun is the brightest object in the sky with an apparent magnitude of −26.74. The Sun's hot corona continuously expands in space creating the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that extends to the heliopause at roughly 100 astronomical units. The bubble in the interstellar medium formed by the solar wind, the heliosphere, is the largest continuous structure in the Solar System.

The Sun is currently traveling through the Local Interstellar Cloud in the Local Bubble zone, within the inner rim of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Of the 50 nearest stellar systems within 17 light-years from Earth (the closest being a red dwarf named Proxima Centauri at approximately 4.2 light years away), the Sun ranks fourth in mass. The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way at a distance of approximately – light years from the galactic center, completing one clockwise orbit, as viewed from the galactic north pole, in about 225–250 million years. Since our galaxy is moving with respect to the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) in the direction of constellation Hydra with a speed of 550 km/s, the Sun's resultant velocity with respect to the CMB is about 370 km/s in the direction of Crater or Leo.

The mean distance of the Sun from the Earth is approximately 149.6 million kilometers (1 AU), though the distance varies as the Earth moves from perihelion in January to aphelion in July. At this average distance, light travels from the Sun to Earth in about 8 minutes and 19 seconds. The energy of this sunlight supports almost all life on Earth by photosynthesis, and drives Earth's climate and weather. The enormous effect of the Sun on the Earth has been recognized since prehistoric times, and the Sun has been regarded by some cultures as a deity. An accurate scientific understanding of the Sun developed slowly, and as recently as the 19th century prominent scientists had little knowledge of the Sun's physical composition and source of energy. This understanding is still developing; there are a number of present-day anomalies in the Sun's behavior that remain unexplained.

Characteristics

The Sun is a G-type main sequence star comprising about 99.8632% of the total mass of the Solar System. It is a near-perfect sphere, with an oblateness estimated at about 9 millionths, which means that its polar diameter differs from its equatorial diameter by only 10 km. As the Sun consists of a plasma and is not solid, it rotates faster at its equator than at its poles. This behavior is known as differential rotation, and is caused by convection in the Sun and the movement of mass, due to steep temperature gradients from the core outwards. This mass carries a portion of the Sun’s counter-clockwise angular momentum, as viewed from the ecliptic north pole, thus redistributing the angular velocity. The period of this ''actual rotation'' is approximately 25.6 days at the equator and 33.5 days at the poles. However, due to our constantly changing vantage point from the Earth as it orbits the Sun, the ''apparent rotation'' of the star at its equator is about 28 days. The centrifugal effect of this slow rotation is 18 million times weaker than the surface gravity at the Sun's equator. The tidal effect of the planets is even weaker, and does not significantly affect the shape of the Sun.

The Sun is a Population I, or heavy element-rich, star. The formation of the Sun may have been triggered by shockwaves from one or more nearby supernovae. This is suggested by a high abundance of heavy elements in the Solar System, such as gold and uranium, relative to the abundances of these elements in so-called Population II (heavy element-poor) stars. These elements could most plausibly have been produced by endergonic nuclear reactions during a supernova, or by transmutation through neutron absorption inside a massive second-generation star.

The Sun does not have a definite boundary as rocky planets do, and in its outer parts the density of its gases drops exponentially with increasing distance from its center. Nevertheless, it has a well-defined interior structure, described below. The Sun's radius is measured from its center to the edge of the photosphere. This is simply the layer above which the gases are too cool or too thin to radiate a significant amount of light, and is therefore the surface most readily visible to the naked eye.

The solar interior is not directly observable, and the Sun itself is opaque to electromagnetic radiation. However, just as seismology uses waves generated by earthquakes to reveal the interior structure of the Earth, the discipline of helioseismology makes use of pressure waves (infrasound) traversing the Sun's interior to measure and visualize the star's inner structure. Computer modeling of the Sun is also used as a theoretical tool to investigate its deeper layers.

Core

The core of the Sun is considered to extend from the center to about 20–25% of the solar radius. It has a density of up to (about 150 times the density of water) and a temperature of close to 13.6 million kelvin (K). By contrast, the Sun's surface temperature is approximately 5,800 K. Recent analysis of SOHO mission data favors a faster rotation rate in the core than in the rest of the radiative zone. Through most of the Sun's life, energy is produced by nuclear fusion through a series of steps called the p–p (proton–proton) chain; this process converts hydrogen into helium. Less than 2% of the helium generated in the Sun comes from the CNO cycle.

The core is the only region in the Sun that produces an appreciable amount of thermal energy through fusion; inside 24% of the Sun's radius, 99% of the power has been generated, and by 30% of the radius, fusion has stopped nearly entirely. The rest of the star is heated by energy that is transferred outward from the core and the layers just outside. The energy produced by fusion in the core must then travel through many successive layers to the solar photosphere before it escapes into space as sunlight or kinetic energy of particles.

The proton–proton chain occurs around times each second in the core of the Sun. Since this reaction uses four free protons (hydrogen nuclei), it converts about 3.7 protons to alpha particles (helium nuclei) every second (out of a total of ~8.9 free protons in the Sun), or about 6.2 kg per second. Since fusing hydrogen into helium releases around 0.7% of the fused mass as energy, the Sun releases energy at the mass-energy conversion rate of 4.26 million metric tons per second, 384.6 yotta watts (), or 9.192 megatons of TNT per second. This mass is not destroyed to create the energy, rather, the mass is carried away ''in'' the radiated energy, as described by the concept of mass-energy equivalence.

The power production by fusion in the core varies with distance from the solar center. At the center of the Sun, theoretical models estimate it to be approximately 276.5 watts/m³, a power production density that more nearly approximates reptile metabolism than a thermonuclear bomb. Peak power production in the Sun has been compared to the volumetric heats generated in an active compost heap. The tremendous power output of the Sun is not due to its high power per volume, but instead due to its large size.

The fusion rate in the core is in a self-correcting equilibrium: a slightly higher rate of fusion would cause the core to heat up more and expand slightly against the weight of the outer layers, reducing the fusion rate and correcting the perturbation; and a slightly lower rate would cause the core to cool and shrink slightly, increasing the fusion rate and again reverting it to its present level.

The gamma rays (high-energy photons) released in fusion reactions are absorbed in only a few millimeters of solar plasma and then re-emitted again in random direction and at slightly lower energy. Therefore it takes a long time for radiation to reach the Sun's surface. Estimates of the photon travel time range between 10,000 and 170,000 years. Since energy transport in the Sun is a process which involves photons in thermodynamic equilibrium with matter, the time scale of energy transport in the Sun is longer, on the order of 30,000,000 years. This is the time it would take the Sun to return to a stable state if the rate of energy generation in its core were suddenly to be changed.

After a final trip through the convective outer layer to the transparent surface of the photosphere, the photons escape as visible light. Each gamma ray in the Sun's core is converted into several million photons of visible light before escaping into space. Neutrinos are also released by the fusion reactions in the core, but unlike photons they rarely interact with matter, so almost all are able to escape the Sun immediately. For many years measurements of the number of neutrinos produced in the Sun were lower than theories predicted by a factor of 3. This discrepancy was resolved in 2001 through the discovery of the effects of neutrino oscillation: the Sun emits the number of neutrinos predicted by the theory, but neutrino detectors were missing of them because the neutrinos had changed flavor by the time they were detected.

Radiative zone

From about 0.25 to about 0.7 solar radii, solar material is hot and dense enough that thermal radiation is sufficient to transfer the intense heat of the core outward. This zone is free of thermal convection; while the material gets cooler from 7 to about 2 million kelvin with increasing altitude, this temperature gradient is less than the value of the adiabatic lapse rate and hence cannot drive convection. Energy is transferred by radiation—ions of hydrogen and helium emit photons, which travel only a brief distance before being reabsorbed by other ions. The density drops a hundredfold (from 20 g/cm³ to only 0.2 g/cm³) from the bottom to the top of the radiative zone.

The radiative zone and the convection form a transition layer, the tachocline. This is a region where the sharp regime change between the uniform rotation of the radiative zone and the differential rotation of the convection zone results in a large shear—a condition where successive horizontal layers slide past one another. The fluid motions found in the convection zone above, slowly disappear from the top of this layer to its bottom, matching the calm characteristics of the radiative zone on the bottom. Presently, it is hypothesized (see Solar dynamo), that a magnetic dynamo within this layer generates the Sun's magnetic field.

Convective zone

In the Sun's outer layer, from its surface down to approximately 200,000 km (or 70% of the solar radius), the solar plasma is not dense enough or hot enough to transfer the thermal energy of the interior outward through radiation; in other words it is opaque enough. As a result, thermal convection occurs as thermal columns carry hot material to the surface (photosphere) of the Sun. Once the material cools off at the surface, it plunges downward to the base of the convection zone, to receive more heat from the top of the radiative zone. At the visible surface of the Sun, the temperature has dropped to 5,700 K and the density to only 0.2 g/m³ (about 1/6,000th the density of air at sea level).

The thermal columns in the convection zone form an imprint on the surface of the Sun as the solar granulation and supergranulation. The turbulent convection of this outer part of the solar interior causes a "small-scale" dynamo that produces magnetic north and south poles all over the surface of the Sun. The Sun's thermal columns are Bénard cells and therefore tend to be hexagonal prisms.

Photosphere

The visible surface of the Sun, the photosphere, is the layer below which the Sun becomes opaque to visible light. Above the photosphere visible sunlight is free to propagate into space, and its energy escapes the Sun entirely. The change in opacity is due to the decreasing amount of H⁻ ions, which absorb visible light easily. Conversely, the visible light we see is produced as electrons react with hydrogen atoms to produce H⁻ ions. The photosphere is tens to hundreds of kilometers thick, being slightly less opaque than air on Earth. Because the upper part of the photosphere is cooler than the lower part, an image of the Sun appears brighter in the center than on the edge or ''limb'' of the solar disk, in a phenomenon known as limb darkening. Sunlight has approximately a black-body spectrum that indicates its temperature is about 6,000 K, interspersed with atomic absorption lines from the tenuous layers above the photosphere. The photosphere has a particle density of ~10²³ m⁻³ (this is about 0.37% of the particle number per volume of Earth's atmosphere at sea level; however, photosphere particles are electrons and protons, so the average particle in air is 58 times as heavy).

During early studies of the optical spectrum of the photosphere, some absorption lines were found that did not correspond to any chemical elements then known on Earth. In 1868, Norman Lockyer hypothesized that these absorption lines were because of a new element which he dubbed ''helium'', after the Greek Sun god Helios. It was not until 25 years later that helium was isolated on Earth.

Atmosphere

The parts of the Sun above the photosphere are referred to collectively as the ''solar atmosphere''. They can be viewed with telescopes operating across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio through visible light to gamma rays, and comprise five principal zones: the ''temperature minimum'', the chromosphere, the transition region, the corona, and the heliosphere. The heliosphere, which may be considered the tenuous outer atmosphere of the Sun, extends outward past the orbit of Pluto to the heliopause, where it forms a sharp shock front boundary with the interstellar medium. The chromosphere, transition region, and corona are much hotter than the surface of the Sun. The reason has not been conclusively proven; evidence suggests that Alfvén waves may have enough energy to heat the corona.

The coolest layer of the Sun is a temperature minimum region about above the photosphere, with a temperature of about . This part of the Sun is cool enough to support simple molecules such as carbon monoxide and water, which can be detected by their absorption spectra.

Above the temperature minimum layer is a layer about thick, dominated by a spectrum of emission and absorption lines. It is called the ''chromosphere'' from the Greek root ''chroma'', meaning color, because the chromosphere is visible as a colored flash at the beginning and end of total eclipses of the Sun. The temperature in the chromosphere increases gradually with altitude, ranging up to around near the top. In the upper part of chromosphere helium becomes partially ionized.

Above the chromosphere, in a thin (about 200 km) transition region, the temperature rises rapidly from around 20,000 K in the upper chromosphere to coronal temperatures closer to 1,000,000 K. The temperature increase is facilitated by the full ionization of helium in the transition region, which significantly reduces radiative cooling of the plasma. The transition region does not occur at a well-defined altitude. Rather, it forms a kind of nimbus around chromospheric features such as spicules and filaments, and is in constant, chaotic motion. The transition region is not easily visible from Earth's surface, but is readily observable from space by instruments sensitive to the extreme ultraviolet portion of the spectrum.

The corona is the extended outer atmosphere of the Sun, which is much larger in volume than the Sun itself. The corona continuously expands into space forming the solar wind, which fills all the Solar System. The low corona, near the surface of the Sun, has a particle density around 10¹⁵–10¹⁶ m⁻³. m⁻³.|group=note}} The average temperature of the corona and solar wind is about 1,000,000–2,000,000 K; however, in the hottest regions it is 8,000,000–20,000,000 K. While no complete theory yet exists to account for the temperature of the corona, at least some of its heat is known to be from magnetic reconnection.

The heliosphere, which is the cavity around the Sun filled with the solar wind plasma, extends from approximately 20 solar radii (0.1 AU) to the outer fringes of the Solar System. Its inner boundary is defined as the layer in which the flow of the solar wind becomes ''superalfvénic''—that is, where the flow becomes faster than the speed of Alfvén waves. Turbulence and dynamic forces outside this boundary cannot affect the shape of the solar corona within, because the information can only travel at the speed of Alfvén waves. The solar wind travels outward continuously through the heliosphere, forming the solar magnetic field into a spiral shape, until it impacts the heliopause more than 50 AU from the Sun. In December 2004, the Voyager 1 probe passed through a shock front that is thought to be part of the heliopause. Both of the Voyager probes have recorded higher levels of energetic particles as they approach the boundary.

Magnetic field

thumb|right|The heliospheric current sheet extends to the outer reaches of the Solar System, and results from the influence of the Sun's rotating magnetic field on the [[Plasma (physics)|plasma in the interplanetary medium.]]

The Sun is a magnetically active star. It supports a strong, changing magnetic field that varies year-to-year and reverses direction about every eleven years around solar maximum. The Sun's magnetic field leads to many effects that are collectively called solar activity, including sunspots on the surface of the Sun, solar flares, and variations in solar wind that carry material through the Solar System. Effects of solar activity on Earth include auroras at moderate to high latitudes, and the disruption of radio communications and electric power. Solar activity is thought to have played a large role in the formation and evolution of the Solar System. Solar activity changes the structure of Earth's outer atmosphere.

All matter in the Sun is in the form of gas and plasma because of its high temperatures. This makes it possible for the Sun to rotate faster at its equator (about 25 days) than it does at higher latitudes (about 35 days near its poles). The differential rotation of the Sun's latitudes causes its magnetic field lines to become twisted together over time, causing magnetic field loops to erupt from the Sun's surface and trigger the formation of the Sun's dramatic sunspots and solar prominences (see magnetic reconnection). This twisting action creates the solar dynamo and an 11-year solar cycle of magnetic activity as the Sun's magnetic field reverses itself about every 11 years.

The solar magnetic field extends well beyond the Sun itself. The magnetized solar wind plasma carries Sun's magnetic field into the space forming what is called the interplanetary magnetic field. Since the plasma can only move along the magnetic field lines, the interplanetary magnetic field is initially stretched radially away from the Sun. Because the fields above and below the solar equator have different polarities pointing towards and away from the Sun, there exists a thin current layer in the solar equatorial plane, which is called the heliospheric current sheet. At the large distances the rotation of the Sun twists the magnetic field and the current sheet into the Archimedean spiral like structure called the Parker spiral. The interplanetary magnetic field is much stronger than the dipole component of the solar magnetic field. The Sun's 50–400 μT (in the photosphere) magnetic dipole field reduces with the cube of the distance to about 0.1 nT at the distance of the Earth. However, according to spacecraft observations the interplanetary field at the Earth's location is about 100 times greater at around 5 nT.

Chemical composition

The Sun is composed primarily of the chemical elements hydrogen and helium; they account for 74.9% and 23.8% of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere, respectively. All heavier elements, called ''metals'' in astronomy, account for less than 2% of the mass. The most abundant metals are oxygen (roughly 1% of the Sun's mass), carbon (0.3%), neon (0.2%), and iron (0.2%).

The Sun inherited its chemical composition from the interstellar medium out of which it formed: the hydrogen and helium in the Sun were produced by Big Bang nucleosynthesis. The metals were produced by stellar nucleosynthesis in generations of stars which completed their stellar evolution and returned their material to the interstellar medium before the formation of the Sun. The chemical composition of the photosphere is normally considered representative of the composition of the primordial Solar System. However, since the Sun formed, the helium and heavy elements have settled out of the photosphere. Therefore, the photosphere now contains slightly less helium and only 84% of the heavy elements than the protostellar Sun did; the protostellar Sun was 71.1% hydrogen, 27.4% helium, and 1.5% metals.

In the inner portions of the Sun, nuclear fusion has modified the composition by converting hydrogen into helium, so the innermost portion of the Sun is now roughly 60% helium, with the metal abundance unchanged. Because the interior of the Sun is radiative, not convective (see Structure above), none of the fusion products from the core have risen to the photosphere.

The solar heavy-element abundances described above are typically measured both using spectroscopy of the Sun's photosphere and by measuring abundances in meteorites that have never been heated to melting temperatures. These meteorites are thought to retain the composition of the protostellar Sun and thus not affected by settling of heavy elements. The two methods generally agree well.

Singly ionized iron group elements

In the 1970s, much research focused on the abundances of iron group elements in the Sun. Although significant research was done, the abundance determination of some iron group elements (e.g., cobalt and manganese) was still difficult at least as far as 1978 because of their hyperfine structures.

The first largely complete set of oscillator strengths of singly ionized iron group elements were made available first in the 1960s, and improved oscillator strengths were computed in 1976. In 1978 the abundances of singly ionized elements of the iron group were derived.

Solar and planetary mass fractionation relationship

Various authors have considered the existence of a mass fractionation relationship between the isotopic compositions of solar and planetary noble gases, for example correlations between isotopic compositions of planetary and solar neon and xenon. Nevertheless, the belief that the whole Sun has the same composition as the solar atmosphere was still widespread, at least until 1983.

In 1983, it was claimed that it was the fractionation in the Sun itself that caused the fractionation relationship between the isotopic compositions of planetary and solar wind implanted noble gases.

Solar cycles

Sunspots and the sunspot cycle

When observing the Sun with appropriate filtration, the most immediately visible features are usually its sunspots, which are well-defined surface areas that appear darker than their surroundings because of lower temperatures. Sunspots are regions of intense magnetic activity where convection is inhibited by strong magnetic fields, reducing energy transport from the hot interior to the surface. The magnetic field causes strong heating in the corona, forming active regions that are the source of intense solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The largest sunspots can be tens of thousands of kilometers across.

The number of sunspots visible on the Sun is not constant, but varies over an 11-year cycle known as the solar cycle. At a typical solar minimum, few sunspots are visible, and occasionally none at all can be seen. Those that do appear are at high solar latitudes. As the sunspot cycle progresses, the number of sunspots increases and they move closer to the equator of the Sun, a phenomenon described by Spörer's law. Sunspots usually exist as pairs with opposite magnetic polarity. The magnetic polarity of the leading sunspot alternates every solar cycle, so that it will be a north magnetic pole in one solar cycle and a south magnetic pole in the next.

The solar cycle has a great influence on space weather, and is a significant influence on the Earth's climate since luminosity has a direct relationship with magnetic activity. Solar activity minima tend to be correlated with colder temperatures, and longer than average solar cycles tend to be correlated with hotter temperatures. In the 17th century, the solar cycle appeared to have stopped entirely for several decades; few sunspots were observed during this period. During this era, known as the Maunder minimum or Little Ice Age, Europe experienced unusually cold temperatures. Earlier extended minima have been discovered through analysis of tree rings and appear to have coincided with lower-than-average global temperatures.

Possible long-term cycle

A recent theory claims that there are magnetic instabilities in the core of the Sun that cause fluctuations with periods of either 41,000 or 100,000 years. These could provide a better explanation of the ice ages than the Milankovitch cycles.

Life cycle

The Sun was formed about 4.57 billion years ago when a hydrogen molecular cloud collapsed. Solar formation is dated in two ways: the Sun's current main sequence age, determined using computer models of stellar evolution and nucleocosmochronology, is thought to be about 4.57 billion years. This is in close accord with the radiometric date of the oldest Solar System material, at 4.567 billion years ago.

The Sun is about halfway through its main-sequence evolution, during which nuclear fusion reactions in its core fuse hydrogen into helium. Each second, more than four million metric tons of matter are converted into energy within the Sun's core, producing neutrinos and solar radiation. At this rate, the Sun has so far converted around 100 Earth-masses of matter into energy. The Sun will spend a total of approximately 10 billion years as a main sequence star.

The Sun does not have enough mass to explode as a supernova. Instead, in about 5 billion years, it will enter a red giant phase, its outer layers expanding as the hydrogen fuel in the core is consumed and the core contracts and heats up. Helium fusion will begin when the core temperature reaches around 100 million K and will produce carbon, entering the asymptotic giant branch phase.

Earth's fate is precarious. As a red giant, the Sun will have a maximum radius beyond the Earth's current orbit, , 250 times the present radius of the Sun. However, by the time it is an asymptotic giant branch star, the Sun will have lost roughly 30% of its present mass due to a stellar wind, so the orbits of the planets will move outward. If it were only for this, Earth would probably be spared, but new research suggests that Earth will be swallowed by the Sun owing to tidal interactions. Even if Earth would escape incineration in the Sun, still all its water will be boiled away and most of its atmosphere would escape into space. Even during its current life in the main sequence, the Sun is gradually becoming more luminous (about 10% every 1 billion years), and its surface temperature is slowly rising. The Sun used to be fainter in the past, which is possibly the reason life on Earth has only existed for about 1 billion years on land. The increase in solar temperatures is such that in about another billion years the surface of the Earth will likely become too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life.

Following the red giant phase, intense thermal pulsations will cause the Sun to throw off its outer layers, forming a planetary nebula. The only object that will remain after the outer layers are ejected is the extremely hot stellar core, which will slowly cool and fade as a white dwarf over many billions of years. This stellar evolution scenario is typical of low- to medium-mass stars.

Sunlight

Sunlight is Earth's primary source of energy. The solar constant is the amount of power that the Sun deposits per unit area that is directly exposed to sunlight. The solar constant is equal to approximately (watts per square meter) at a distance of one astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun (that is, on or near Earth). Sunlight on the surface of Earth is attenuated by the Earth's atmosphere so that less power arrives at the surface—closer to in clear conditions when the Sun is near the zenith.

Solar energy can be harnessed by a variety of natural and synthetic processes—photosynthesis by plants captures the energy of sunlight and converts it to chemical form (oxygen and reduced carbon compounds), while direct heating or electrical conversion by solar cells are used by solar power equipment to generate electricity or to do other useful work, sometimes employing concentrating solar power (that it is measured in suns). The energy stored in petroleum and other fossil fuels was originally converted from sunlight by photosynthesis in the distant past.

Motion and location within the galaxy

The Sun lies close to the inner rim of the Milky Way Galaxy's Orion Arm, in the Local Fluff or the Gould Belt, at a hypothesized distance of 7.5–8.5 kpc (25,000–28,000 lightyears) from the Galactic Center, contained within the Local Bubble, a space of rarefied hot gas, possibly produced by the supernova remnant, Geminga. The distance between the local arm and the next arm out, the Perseus Arm, is about 6,500 light-years. The Sun, and thus the Solar System, is found in what scientists call the galactic habitable zone.

The Apex of the Sun's Way, or the solar apex, is the direction that the Sun travels through space in the Milky Way, relative to other nearby stars. The general direction of the Sun's galactic motion is towards the star Vega in the constellation of Lyra at an angle of roughly 60 sky degrees to the direction of the Galactic Center.

The Sun's orbit around the Galaxy is expected to be roughly elliptical with the addition of perturbations due to the galactic spiral arms and non-uniform mass distributions. In addition the Sun oscillates up and down relative to the galactic plane approximately 2.7 times per orbit. It has been argued that the Sun's passage through the higher density spiral arms often coincides with mass extinctions on Earth, perhaps due to increased impact events. It takes the Solar System about 225–250 million years to complete one orbit of the galaxy (a ''galactic year''), so it is thought to have completed 20–25 orbits during the lifetime of the Sun. The orbital speed of the Solar System about the center of the Galaxy is approximately 251 km/s. At this speed, it takes around 1,190 years for the Solar System to travel a distance of 1 light-year, or 7 days to travel 1 AU.

The Sun's motion about the centre of mass of the Solar System is complicated by perturbations from the planets. Every few hundred years this motion switches between prograde and retrograde.

Theoretical problems

Solar neutrino problem

For many years the number of solar electron neutrinos detected on Earth was to of the number predicted by the standard solar model. This anomalous result was termed the solar neutrino problem. Theories proposed to resolve the problem either tried to reduce the temperature of the Sun's interior to explain the lower neutrino flux, or posited that electron neutrinos could oscillate—that is, change into undetectable tau and muon neutrinos as they traveled between the Sun and the Earth. Several neutrino observatories were built in the 1980s to measure the solar neutrino flux as accurately as possible, including the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory and Kamiokande. Results from these observatories eventually led to the discovery that neutrinos have a very small rest mass and do indeed oscillate. Moreover, in 2001 the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory was able to detect all three types of neutrinos directly, and found that the Sun's ''total'' neutrino emission rate agreed with the Standard Solar Model, although depending on the neutrino energy as few as one-third of the neutrinos seen at Earth are of the electron type. This proportion agrees with that predicted by the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect (also known as the matter effect), which describes neutrino oscillation in matter, and it is now considered a solved problem.

Coronal heating problem

The optical surface of the Sun (the photosphere) is known to have a temperature of approximately 6,000 K. Above it lies the solar corona, rising to a temperature of 1,000,000–2,000,000 K. The high temperature of the corona shows that it is heated by something other than direct heat conduction from the photosphere.

It is thought that the energy necessary to heat the corona is provided by turbulent motion in the convection zone below the photosphere, and two main mechanisms have been proposed to explain coronal heating. The first is wave heating, in which sound, gravitational or magnetohydrodynamic waves are produced by turbulence in the convection zone. These waves travel upward and dissipate in the corona, depositing their energy in the ambient gas in the form of heat. The other is magnetic heating, in which magnetic energy is continuously built up by photospheric motion and released through magnetic reconnection in the form of large solar flares and myriad similar but smaller events—nanoflares.

Currently, it is unclear whether waves are an efficient heating mechanism. All waves except Alfvén waves have been found to dissipate or refract before reaching the corona. In addition, Alfvén waves do not easily dissipate in the corona. Current research focus has therefore shifted towards flare heating mechanisms.

Faint young Sun problem

Theoretical models of the Sun's development suggest that 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, during the Archean period, the Sun was only about 75% as bright as it is today. Such a weak star would not have been able to sustain liquid water on the Earth's surface, and thus life should not have been able to develop. However, the geological record demonstrates that the Earth has remained at a fairly constant temperature throughout its history, and that the young Earth was somewhat warmer than it is today. The consensus among scientists is that the young Earth's atmosphere contained much larger quantities of greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide, methane and/or ammonia) than are present today, which trapped enough heat to compensate for the smaller amount of solar energy reaching the planet.

Present anomalies

The Sun is currently behaving unexpectedly in a number of ways.

It is in the midst of an unusual sunspot minimum, lasting far longer and with a higher percentage of spotless days than normal; since May 2008.

It is measurably dimming; its output has dropped 0.02% at visible wavelengths and 6% at EUV wavelengths in comparison with the levels at the last solar minimum. Over the last two decades, the solar wind's speed has dropped by 3%, its temperature by 13%, and its density by 20%.

Its magnetic field is at less than half strength compared to the minimum of 22 years ago. The entire heliosphere, which fills the Solar System, has shrunk as a result, resulting in an increase in the level of cosmic radiation striking the Earth and its atmosphere.

History of observation

Early understanding and etymology

The English proper noun ''sun'' developed from Old English ''sunne'' (around 725, attested in ''Beowulf''), and may be related to ''south''. Cognates to English ''sun'' appear in other Germanic languages, including Old Frisian ''sunne'', ''sonne'' ("sun"), Old Saxon ''sunna'', Middle Dutch ''sonne'', modern Dutch ''zon'', Old High German ''sunna'', modern German ''Sonne'', Old Norse ''sunna'', and Gothic ''sunnō''. All Germanic terms for the Sun stem from Proto-Germanic *''sunnōn''. In Germanic paganism, the Sun is personified as a goddess; Sól/Sunna.

Theories have been proposed that Sun, as Germanic goddess, may represent an extension of an earlier Proto-Indo-European deity due to Indo-European linguistic connections between Old Norse ''Sól'', Sanskrit ''Surya'', Gaulish ''Sulis'', Lithuanian ''Saulė'', and Slavic ''Solnitse''.

Humanity's most fundamental understanding of the Sun is as the luminous disk in the sky, whose presence above the horizon creates day and whose absence causes night. In many prehistoric and ancient cultures, the Sun was thought to be a solar deity or other supernatural phenomenon. Worship of the Sun was central to civilizations such as the Inca of South America and the Aztecs of what is now Mexico. Many ancient monuments were constructed with solar phenomena in mind; for example, stone megaliths accurately mark the summer or winter solstice (some of the most prominent megaliths are located in Nabta Playa, Egypt; Mnajdra, Malta and at Stonehenge, England); Newgrange, a prehistoric human-built mount in Ireland, was designed to detect the winter solstice; the pyramid of El Castillo at Chichén Itzá in Mexico is designed to cast shadows in the shape of serpents climbing the pyramid at the vernal and autumn equinoxes.

In the late Roman Empire the Sun's birthday was a holiday celebrated as Sol Invictus (literally "unconquered sun") soon after the winter solstice which may have been an antecedent to Christmas. Regarding the fixed stars, the Sun appears from Earth to revolve once a year along the ecliptic through the zodiac, and so Greek astronomers considered it to be one of the seven planets (Greek ''planetes'', "wanderer"), after which the seven days of the week are named in some languages.

Development of scientific understanding

In the early first millennium BCE, Babylonian astronomers observed that the Sun's motion along the ecliptic was not uniform, though they were unaware of why this was; it is today known that this is due to the Earth moving in an elliptic orbit around the Sun, with the Earth moving faster when it is nearer to the Sun at perihelion and moving slower when it is farther away at aphelion.

One of the first people to offer a scientific or philosophical explanation for the Sun was the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, who reasoned that it was a giant flaming ball of metal even larger than the Peloponnesus rather than the chariot of Helios, and that the Moon reflected the light of the Sun. For teaching this heresy, he was imprisoned by the authorities and sentenced to death, though he was later released through the intervention of Pericles. Eratosthenes estimated the distance between the Earth and the Sun in the 3rd century BCE as "of stadia myriads 400 and 80000", the translation of which is ambiguous, implying either 4,080,000 stadia (755,000 km) or 804,000,000 stadia (148 to 153 million kilometers or 0.99 to 1.02 AU); the latter value is correct to within a few percent. In the 1st century CE, Ptolemy estimated the distance as 1,210 times the Earth radius, approximately .

The theory that the Sun is the center around which the planets move was first proposed by the ancient Greek Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BCE, and later adopted by Seleucus of Seleucia (see Heliocentrism). This largely philosophical view was developed into fully predictive mathematical model of a heliocentric system in the 16th century by Nicolaus Copernicus. In the early 17th century, the invention of the telescope permitted detailed observations of sunspots by Thomas Harriot, Galileo Galilei and other astronomers. Galileo made some of the first known telescopic observations of sunspots and posited that they were on the surface of the Sun rather than small objects passing between the Earth and the Sun. Sunspots were also observed since the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) by Chinese astronomers who maintained records of these observations for centuries. Averroes also provided a description of sunspots in the 12th century.

Arabic astronomical contributions include Albatenius discovering that the direction of the Sun's eccentric is changing, and Ibn Yunus observing more than 10,000 entries for the Sun's position for many years using a large astrolabe.

The transit of Venus was first observed in 1032 by Persian astronomer and polymath Avicenna, who concluded that Venus is closer to the Earth than the Sun, while one of the first observations of the transit of Mercury was conducted by Ibn Bajjah in the 12th century.

In 1672 Giovanni Cassini and Jean Richer determined the distance to Mars and were thereby able to calculate the distance to the Sun. Isaac Newton observed the Sun's light using a prism, and showed that it was made up of light of many colors, while in 1800 William Herschel discovered infrared radiation beyond the red part of the solar spectrum. The 19th century saw advancement in spectroscopic studies of the Sun; Joseph von Fraunhofer recorded more than 600 absorption lines in the spectrum, the strongest of which are still often referred to as Fraunhofer lines.

In the early years of the modern scientific era, the source of the Sun's energy was a significant puzzle. Lord Kelvin suggested that the Sun was a gradually cooling liquid body that was radiating an internal store of heat. Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz then proposed a gravitational contraction mechanism to explain the energy output. Unfortunately the resulting age estimate was only 20 million years, well short of the time span of at least 300 million years suggested by some geological discoveries of that time. In 1890 Joseph Lockyer, who discovered helium in the solar spectrum, proposed a meteoritic hypothesis for the formation and evolution of the Sun.

Not until 1904 was a documented solution offered. Ernest Rutherford suggested that the Sun's output could be maintained by an internal source of heat, and suggested radioactive decay as the source. However, it would be Albert Einstein who would provide the essential clue to the source of the Sun's energy output with his mass-energy equivalence relation .

In 1920, Sir Arthur Eddington proposed that the pressures and temperatures at the core of the Sun could produce a nuclear fusion reaction that merged hydrogen (protons) into helium nuclei, resulting in a production of energy from the net change in mass. The preponderance of hydrogen in the Sun was confirmed in 1925 by Cecilia Payne. The theoretical concept of fusion was developed in the 1930s by the astrophysicists Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Hans Bethe. Hans Bethe calculated the details of the two main energy-producing nuclear reactions that power the Sun.

Finally, a seminal paper was published in 1957 by Margaret Burbidge, entitled "Synthesis of the Elements in Stars". The paper demonstrated convincingly that most of the elements in the universe had been synthesized by nuclear reactions inside stars, some like our Sun.

Solar space missions

[[File:Moon transit of sun large.ogg|thumb|left|A lunar transit of the Sun captured during calibration of STEREO B's ultraviolet imaging cameras ]] The first satellites designed to observe the Sun were NASA's Pioneers 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, which were launched between 1959 and 1968. These probes orbited the Sun at a distance similar to that of the Earth, and made the first detailed measurements of the solar wind and the solar magnetic field. Pioneer 9 operated for a particularly long time, transmitting data until May 1983.

In the 1970s, two Helios spacecraft and the Skylab Apollo Telescope Mount provided scientists with significant new data on solar wind and the solar corona. The Helios 1 and 2 probes were U.S.–German collaborations that studied the solar wind from an orbit carrying the spacecraft inside Mercury's orbit at perihelion. The Skylab space station, launched by NASA in 1973, included a solar observatory module called the Apollo Telescope Mount that was operated by astronauts resident on the station. Skylab made the first time-resolved observations of the solar transition region and of ultraviolet emissions from the solar corona. Discoveries included the first observations of coronal mass ejections, then called "coronal transients", and of coronal holes, now known to be intimately associated with the solar wind.

In 1980, the Solar Maximum Mission was launched by NASA. This spacecraft was designed to observe gamma rays, X-rays and UV radiation from solar flares during a time of high solar activity and solar luminosity. Just a few months after launch, however, an electronics failure caused the probe to go into standby mode, and it spent the next three years in this inactive state. In 1984 Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-41C retrieved the satellite and repaired its electronics before re-releasing it into orbit. The Solar Maximum Mission subsequently acquired thousands of images of the solar corona before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere in June 1989.

Launched in 1991, Japan's Yohkoh (''Sunbeam'') satellite observed solar flares at X-ray wavelengths. Mission data allowed scientists to identify several different types of flares, and demonstrated that the corona away from regions of peak activity was much more dynamic and active than had previously been supposed. Yohkoh observed an entire solar cycle but went into standby mode when an annular eclipse in 2001 caused it to lose its lock on the Sun. It was destroyed by atmospheric re-entry in 2005.

One of the most important solar missions to date has been the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, jointly built by the European Space Agency and NASA and launched on 2 December 1995. Originally intended to serve a two-year mission, a mission extension through 2012 was approved in October 2009. It has proven so useful that a follow-on mission, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, was launched in February 2010. Situated at the Lagrangian point between the Earth and the Sun (at which the gravitational pull from both is equal), SOHO has provided a constant view of the Sun at many wavelengths since its launch. Besides its direct solar observation, SOHO has enabled the discovery of a large number of comets, mostly tiny sungrazing comets which incinerate as they pass the Sun.

All these satellites have observed the Sun from the plane of the ecliptic, and so have only observed its equatorial regions in detail. The Ulysses probe was launched in 1990 to study the Sun's polar regions. It first travelled to Jupiter, to "slingshot" past the planet into an orbit which would take it far above the plane of the ecliptic. Serendipitously, it was well-placed to observe the collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994. Once Ulysses was in its scheduled orbit, it began observing the solar wind and magnetic field strength at high solar latitudes, finding that the solar wind from high latitudes was moving at about 750 km/s which was slower than expected, and that there were large magnetic waves emerging from high latitudes which scattered galactic cosmic rays.

Elemental abundances in the photosphere are well known from spectroscopic studies, but the composition of the interior of the Sun is more poorly understood. A solar wind sample return mission, Genesis, was designed to allow astronomers to directly measure the composition of solar material. Genesis returned to Earth in 2004 but was damaged by a crash landing after its parachute failed to deploy on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Despite severe damage, some usable samples have been recovered from the spacecraft's sample return module and are undergoing analysis.

The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission was launched in October 2006. Two identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to (respectively) pull further ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth. This enables stereoscopic imaging of the Sun and solar phenomena, such as coronal mass ejections.

Observation and effects

The brightness of the sun can cause pain from looking at it with the naked eye, although doing so for brief periods is not hazardous for normal, non-dilated eyes. Looking directly at the Sun causes phosphene visual artifacts and temporary partial blindness. It also delivers about 4 milliwatts of sunlight to the retina, slightly heating it and potentially causing damage in eyes that cannot respond properly to the brightness. UV exposure gradually yellows the lens of the eye over a period of years and is thought to contribute to the formation of cataracts, but this depends on general exposure to solar UV, not on whether one looks directly at the Sun. Long-duration viewing of the direct Sun with the naked eye can begin to cause UV-induced, sunburn-like lesions on the retina after about 100 seconds, particularly under conditions where the UV light from the Sun is intense and well focused; conditions are worsened by young eyes or new lens implants (which admit more UV than aging natural eyes), Sun angles near the zenith, and observing locations at high altitude.

Viewing the Sun through light-concentrating optics such as binoculars may result in permanent damage to the retina without an appropriate filter that blocks UV and substantially dims the sunlight. An attenuating (ND) filter might not filter UV and so is still dangerous. Attenuating filters to view the Sun should be specifically designed for that use: some improvised filters pass UV or IR rays that can harm the eye at high brightness levels. Unfiltered binoculars can deliver over 500 times as much energy to the retina as using the naked eye, killing retinal cells almost instantly. Even brief glances at the midday Sun through unfiltered binoculars can cause permanent blindness.

Partial solar eclipses are hazardous to view because the eye's pupil is not adapted to the unusually high visual contrast: the pupil dilates according to the total amount of light in the field of view, ''not'' by the brightest object in the field. During partial eclipses most sunlight is blocked by the Moon passing in front of the Sun, but the uncovered parts of the photosphere have the same surface brightness as during a normal day. In the overall gloom, the pupil expands from ~2 mm to ~6 mm, and each retinal cell exposed to the solar image receives about ten times more light than it would looking at the non-eclipsed Sun. This can damage or kill those cells, resulting in small permanent blind spots for the viewer. The hazard is insidious for inexperienced observers and for children, because there is no perception of pain: it is not immediately obvious that one's vision is being destroyed.

During sunrise and sunset sunlight is attenuated due to Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering from a particularly long passage through Earth's atmosphere, and the Sun is sometimes faint enough to be viewed comfortably with the naked eye or safely with optics (provided there is no risk of bright sunlight suddenly appearing through a break between clouds). Hazy conditions, atmospheric dust, and high humidity contribute to this atmospheric attenuation.

A rare optical phenomenon may occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, known as a green flash. The flash is caused by light from the Sun just below the horizon being bent (usually through a temperature inversion) towards the observer. Light of shorter wavelengths (violet, blue, green) is bent more than that of longer wavelengths (yellow, orange, red) but the violet and blue light is scattered more, leaving light that is perceived as green.

Ultraviolet light from the Sun has antiseptic properties and can be used to sanitize tools and water. It also causes sunburn, and has other medical effects such as the production of vitamin D. Ultraviolet light is strongly attenuated by Earth's ozone layer, so that the amount of UV varies greatly with latitude and has been partially responsible for many biological adaptations, including variations in human skin color in different regions of the globe.

Terminology

Like other natural phenomena, the Sun has been an object of veneration in many cultures throughout human history, and was the source of the word Sunday. Its formal name in the English language is, per the International Astronomical Union, the Sun (capitalized as a proper noun). The Latin name ''Sol'' (), for the Sun god of the same name, is widely known but not common in general English language use; the adjectival form is the related word ''solar''. "Sol" is, however, the modern word for "Sun" in many European languages.

The term ''sol'' is also used by planetary astronomers to refer to the duration of a solar day on another planet, such as Mars. A mean Earth solar day is approximately 24 hours, while a mean Martian 'sol' is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds. See also Timekeeping on Mars.

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Nasa SOHO (Solar & Heliospheric Observatory) satellite

National Solar Observatory

Astronomy Cast: The Sun

Looking Into the Sun – slideshow by ''Life magazine''

A collection of spectacular images of the sun from various institutions (The Boston Globe)

Satellite observations of solar luminosity

Sun|Trek, an educational website about the Sun

The Swedish 1-meter Solar Telescope, SST

An animated explanation of the structure of the Sun (University of Glamorgan)

The Future of our sun

Solar Conveyor Belt Speeds Up – NASA – images, link to report on Science

Category:G-type main sequence stars Category:Plasma physics Category:Space plasmas Category:Stars with proper names Category:Light sources

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Coordinates	40°42′15.0″N73°55′4.0″N
name	Joseph Arthur
background	solo_singer
birth name	%7C alias
birth date	September 28, 1971
origin	Akron, Ohio, United States
instrument	Vocals, guitar, harmonica, bass
genre	Alternative rock, folk rock
years active	1996–present
label	Lonely Astronaut Records
associated acts	The Lonely Astronauts, Fistful of Mercy
website	www.josepharthur.comwww.lonelyastronautrecords.com }}

Joseph Arthur (born September 28, 1971) is an American singer-songwriter and artist from Akron, Ohio. Combining poetic lyrics with a layered sonic palette, Arthur has built his reputation over the years through critically acclaimed releases and constant touring; his unique solo live performances incorporate the use of a number of distortion and loop pedals, and his shows are recorded live at the soundboard and made available to concertgoers immediately following the show on recordable media. Arthur was discovered by Peter Gabriel in the mid-'90s, and signed to Gabriel's Real World label as the first North American artist on the label's roster. Arthur released his debut album ''Big City Secrets'' (1997) and follow-up ''Come to Where I'm From'' (2000) on Real World before signing with various independent labels between 2002 and 2006. He established his own record label, Lonely Astronaut Records, in 2006.

Arthur is also an acclaimed painter and designer. His artwork has graced the sleeves of his entire discography; the sleeve design for his 1999 extended play ''Vacancy'' was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package.

Musical history

Early life and ''Big City Secrets''

Joseph began writing and playing music in his early teens, after inheriting an electronic keyboard from his aunt. At age 16, he played bass in a blues band called Frankie Starr and the Chill Factor, which disbanded by 1995. Joseph graduated from Firestone High School in 1990 and continued developing his music. In the early '90s, Arthur relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, continuing to record home demos, playing local clubs and working as a guitar salesman at Clark Music Store.

In 1996, Peter Gabriel's A&R; associate Harvey Schartz presented Gabriel with a demo of Arthur's first EP, ''Cut and Blind''. Gabriel and Schwartz arranged a live audition at ''The Fez'' nightclub in New York City, and Arthur flew up from Atlanta. The night was a success; not only was Lou Reed a guest in the audience, but within a few months Arthur was officially signed, Arthur recorded his debut album at Gabriel's Real World Studios in England with producer Markus Dravs (Björk, Coldplay, Arcade Fire). The debut album ''Big City Secrets'' was released worldwide in spring 1997, and Arthur joined Gabriel's WOMAD tour in Europe. ''Big City Secrets'' displayed Arthur's often angsty and emotionally-wrought lyrics coupled with diverse instrumentation, which he himself described as "someone struggling to heal over experimental folk-rock", but went virtually unnoticed by the mainstream. Two years later, he recorded an EP called ''Vacancy'', which earned him a Grammy nomination in 2000 for best recording package.

2000–2003: ''Come to Where I'm From'' and ''Redemption's Son''

In April 2000, Arthur released his sophomore studio album ''Come to Where I'm From'', which was co-produced with T-Bone Burnett and Tchad Blake. The album exhibited a more polished and accessible sound, and received positive accolades from Pitchfork Media and ''Entertainment Weekly''. Arthur began playing for larger audiences, opening for Ben Harper and Gomez. During that same period, he released a promotional live album recorded at the Gypsy Tea Room bar in Dallas, Texas.

After releasing a series of four EPs called ''Junkyard Hearts'', which were only available to purchase at his live shows, his third album, ''Redemption's Son'', came out in May 2002 in the UK. The American release was delayed until November 2002 since Arthur had been dropped by EMI in North America, having been picked up by Universal Music Group imprint Enjoy Records. The double album furthered the themes of emotional and spiritual dislocation found on ''Come to Where I'm From'', and was described by Allmusic reviewer Thom Jurek as a "sleeper hit."

While on tour, Arthur regularly released recordings of his performances soon after each show. He also recorded an album with alternative rock side project Holding the Void, featuring himself on vocals and guitar, Pat Sansone on vocals and bass, and Rene Lopez on vocals and drums. In Summer 2003, he toured with Tracy Chapman in the US.

2004–2006: ''Our Shadows Will Remain''

Arthur signed a new recording contract with Vector Recordings and began recording his fourth studio album, ''Our Shadows Will Remain'' across New Orleans, New York City, London, and Prague. The album was released in September 2004, and was Arthur's first album to feature string arrangements, provided by the City of Prague Philharmonic. The album was released to widespread critical acclaim; Allmusic's Thom Jurek awarded the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, praising that, "Arthur is in a class of his own and ''Our Shadows Will Remain'' is a monstrous, memorable outing, his finest moment in a career that is thus far full of them." ''Entertainment Weekly'' gave the album an A rating, hailing the album as "especially forceful and cohesive"; ''The Guardian'' hailed that Joseph "might just be a genuine mad genius"; ''Stylus Magazine'' gave the album an A– rating; and Chris Rubin of ''Rolling Stone'' named ''Our Shadows Will Remain'' as the number 1 album of the year 2004 in the year-end critics' pick list.

Arthur toured the US alone and with Joan Wasser to promote the album, and a new EP called ''And the Thieves Are Gone'', which collected unreleased tracks from the ''Shadows'' recording sessions, came out in December. Shortly afterward, Arthur went on a brief tour of Europe with R.E.M.. ''Our Shadows Will Remain'' was picked up by 14th Floor Records for distribution in the United Kingdom in 2005, which yielded the release of four singles: "Can't Exist" in July, "Even Tho" in September, "Devil's Broom" in February 2006 to coincide with his first headlining appearance at London's Shepherds Bush Empire, and a reissue of "Can't Exist" in May 2006, although none of the singles charted on the UK Singles Chart.

In August 2006, Joseph was invited to help launch the project A River Blue, where a group of young people in northern Uganda were brought together to participate in a music, drama, and art festival. Joseph also recorded the song "A River Blue" for the foundation.

2006–2007: Lonely Astronaut Records, ''Nuclear Daydream'', and ''Let's Just Be''

Also in 2006, Arthur started the record label Lonely Astronaut Records with longtime professional partner Lauren Pattenaude. He released a book entitled ''We Almost Made It'', a visual collection of his artworks, along with an accompanying instrumental CD titled ''The Invisible Parade'' in May 2006. In September 2006, Arthur released his fifth studio album, ''Nuclear Daydream'', which was recorded in Berlin and Los Angeles. The album would be the first release on his new label. Joseph then embarked on a worldwide tour with his new backing band, The Lonely Astronauts.

His song "In the Sun" was covered by Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Chris Martin of Coldplay in 2006 for a Hurricane Katrina relief EP. The EP includes six versions of the song, one featuring Arthur himself singing with Stipe and another remixed by Justin Timberlake, and is available only on iTunes. On March 26, 2007, Joseph's then-UK label 14th Floor Records released a re-recorded version of his 2002 song "Honey and the Moon" as a special single in the UK only. In April, he released his sixth studio album, ''Let's Just Be'', and embarked on an extensive US tour. This was Joseph's first album with The Lonely Astronauts; the band recorded as many as 80 songs in late 2006, with only sixteen appearing on the album. The album was released to lukewarm critical reception, with Pitchfork Media calling the album "unfocused" and "sloppy," summarizing that the album "sounds like it came together on the fly, in jam sessions that didn't stem from any kind of solid idea."

2008–present

In 2008, Arthur released four EPs in a four-month span: ''Could We Survive'' on March 18, ''Crazy Rain'' on April 15, ''Vagabond Skies'' on June 10, and ''Foreign Girls'' on July 8. Regarding these releases, Arthur noted, "I have so much music piled up, like strange animals in a cosmic cage begging for release. The jails were overcrowded. I had to let some of them go." He played seven solo shows during the SXSW 2008 Festival, six in Austin and one in Dallas. Live dates in Europe and an extensive US solo tour coincided with the new releases. ''Temporary People'', his seventh full-length studio album and second with The Lonely Astronauts, was released on September 30, 2008. The album was received warmly by critics, with ''The Times Online'' stating that it "evokes the loose, rocking swagger and country melancholy of early-1970s Stones", and Crawdaddy! noting that Arthur "treats his audience to a brawny and brooding rock album, notching his most fully realized LP to date in the process." The album came out in Europe in late October, and afterward Arthur embarked on a solo tour and opened for Tracy Chapman on her six-week "Our Bright Future" European tour, followed by tour dates in Canada.

Arthur recorded a cover of The Afghan Whigs's "Step Into the Light" from their 1996 album ''Black Love'' for the tribute album, ''Summer's Kiss: A Tribute to The Afghan Whigs''. Following UK tour dates with The Lonely Astronauts in July, Arthur embarked on a solo tour of France in October 2009. A reissue of his 2006 album ''Nuclear Daydream'' with six previously unreleased bonus tracks was released during this tour.

Arthur, Ben Harper, and Dhani Harrison formed the supergroup trio Fistful of Mercy in 2010, and their debut album ''As I Call You Down'' was released on October 5, 2010. Arthur's first solo studio album since ''Nuclear Daydream'', titled ''The Graduation Ceremony'',was released on May 23, 2011.

Visual art

Arthur has also received acclaim as a painter and designer. His artwork has graced the sleeves of his entire discography, notably the album covers for ''Come to Where I'm From'' and ''Our Shadows Will Remain'', which included a 36-page booklet featuring prints of his original artwork, and was released with a die-cut outer slipcase sleeve. Arthur and frequent graphic design collaborator Zachary Larner's sleeve design for the 1999 extended play ''Vacancy'' was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package. He staged his first art exhibition in 2006 at the Vertigo Gallery in London from February 10 to February 12, and released a 110-page book entitled ''We Almost Made It'', a visual collection of his artworks, along with an accompanying instrumental CD titled ''The Invisible Parade'' in May 2006.

He set up his personal art gallery ''The Museum of Modern Arthur'' in June 2007 as a brick and mortar location in Brooklyn's DUMBO District. According to an article on Stereogum.com, Joseph and the MOMAR were evicted from the building. Joseph held a record release party for ''Temporary People'' before the closing of the gallery in September 2008. The MOMAR gallery soon morphed into an online gallery.

Live performances

Arthur's one man band live performances incorporate looping techniques and several distortion techniques. His live performances are recorded through to the last note and then burnt to CD-R. They are sold immediately to fans after the concert. Beginning with his fall 2006 tour, Arthur incorporated a full band, The Lonely Astronauts. They are no longer together.

The Lonely Astronauts were:

Joseph Arthur – vocals, guitar

Kraig Jarret Johnson – guitar, keyboards, vocals

Jennifer "Jen" Turner – guitar, vocals

Sibyl Buck – bass, vocals

Greg "G. Wiz" Wieczorek – drums, vocals

Instruments and loops

Of the guitars that Joseph utilizes, his primary acoustic guitar is an Irish Lowden 012C. Some of Joseph's other guitars include a Garrison G-50-CE, a Gibson ES-335, and a '70s Fender Strat.

To incorporate his looping techniques, Arthur uses a myriad of rackmounted units of the Lexicon JamMan. He plays his guitars through an impressive floor of effects pedals. When performing solo live, he often records a sample of guitar, percussion, or vocals which he can then loop periodically throughout a song, allowing him to perform verses with the added effect of harmonizing with himself.

Discography

Studio albums

''Big City Secrets'' (1997)

''Come to Where I'm From'' (2000)

''Redemption's Son'' (2002)

''Our Shadows Will Remain'' (2004)

''Nuclear Daydream'' (2006)

''Let's Just Be'' (2007) (with The Lonely Astronauts)

''Temporary People'' (2008) (with The Lonely Astronauts)

''The Graduation Ceremony'' (2011)

EPs

''Cut and Blind'' (August 1996)

''Vacancy'' (May 11, 1999)

''Junkyard Hearts I'' (February 15, 2002)

''Junkyard Hearts II'' (February 28, 2002)

''Junkyard Hearts III'' (March 15, 2002)

''Junkyard Hearts IV'' (March 28, 2002)

''And the Thieves Are Gone'' (December 7, 2004)

''Could We Survive'' (March 18, 2008)

''Crazy Rain'' (April 15, 2008)

''Vagabond Skies'' (June 10, 2008)

''Foreign Girls'' (July 8, 2008)

References

External links

Joseph Arthur's official website

Joseph Arthur's Tumblr blog

Lonely Astronauts – fan website

Lonely Astronaut Records website

Category:Living people Category:American male singers Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Songwriters from Ohio Category:1971 births Category:People from Akron, Ohio Authur, Joseph Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics

de:Joseph Arthur fr:Joseph Arthur it:Joseph Arthur pl:Joseph Arthur ru:Артур, Джозеф sv:Joseph Arthur

Coordinates	40°42′15.0″N73°55′4.0″N
name	Colbie Caillat
landscape	Yes
background	solo_singer
birth name	Colbie Marie Caillat
Alias	Coco
born	May 28, 1985 Newbury Park, California, United States
origin	Malibu, California, United States
genre	Pop, Pop rock, folk-pop, Ballad, Surf pop
occupation	Singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist
years active	2007–present
instrument	Vocal, guitar, ukulele, piano
label	Universal Republic Records
website	www.colbiecaillat.com }}

Colbie Marie Caillat (; born May 28, 1985) is an American pop singer-songwriter and guitarist from Malibu, California. She debuted in 2007 with ''Coco'', which included hit singles "Bubbly", "Realize", and "The Little Things". In 2008, she recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, "Lucky", which won a Grammy. Caillat released her second album, ''Breakthrough'', in August 2009. ''Breakthrough'' was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album. She was also part of the group that won Album of the Year for her background vocals and writing on Taylor Swift's ''Fearless''. She has sold over six million albums worldwide and sold over 10 million singles.

Life and career

Childhood and youth

Caillat was born in Malibu, California, and grew up in Newbury Park, California. Her father, Ken Caillat, co-produced Fleetwood Mac's ''Rumours'' (1977) and ''Tusk'' (1979) albums. When she was an infant, her parents gave her the nickname "Coco", which she would later name her debut album. Caillat took piano lessons as a child, but lacked significant inspiration until she turned 11 years old, when she became enthralled with Lauryn Hill's performance in ''Sister Act 2''. She realized that she wanted to be a singer, and began taking vocal lessons, performing onstage for the first time in sixth grade.

Caillat soon met producer Mikal Blue, who hired her to sing on techno songs used at fashion shows. Caillat began playing the acoustic guitar at age 19, and Blue helped her record her first song. She auditioned for ''American Idol'' but was rejected at the pre-audition stage and was unable to sing for the judges. The second time she auditioned for the show, she sang her own original song, "Bubbly", and was rejected once again. However, Caillat expressed gratitude at the judges' decision, saying "I was shy. I was nervous. I didn't look the greatest. I wasn't ready for it yet. I was glad, when I auditioned, that they said no." The popularity of Caillat's MySpace profile led her to become the number-one unsigned singer in her genre for four consecutive months.

2007–2008: ''Coco''

Caillat's debut album, ''Coco'' was released in 2007. Her debut single "Bubbly" peaked at #5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #2 on the Pop 100. Two other singles followed, "Realize" (#20, Hot 100) and "The Little Things" (#94, Pop 100). After touring with The Goo Goo Dolls and Lifehouse in 2007, she was the supporting act for John Mayer on his 2008 Summer Tour.

In 2008, Caillat recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, called "Lucky," on his album, ''We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things''. In August 2008, Caillat released a song and video for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics called "Somethin' Special". Caillat also sings on "You" by Schiller and appears in the music video. She has been involved in the soundtrack of the movie ''Imagine That''; she and Mikal Blue cover the Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun". She is also featured in Colombian singer Juanes' album ''La vida... es un ratico (en vivo)'' in the song "Hoy Me Voy". In October 2008, the song "Midnight Bottle" was included in the soundtrack of Brazilian soap opera ''Três Irmãs''. She also played herself on this soap opera. Caillat provided background vocals for and co-wrote Taylor Swift's song "Breathe", on her album, ''Fearless''.

2009–2010: ''Breakthrough''

Caillat's second album, ''Breakthrough'', was released in August 2009. Most of the album was co-written by Jason Reeves and features guitarist David Becker on two tracks. Becker has worked with the Caillat's father Ken. Caillat had writer's block during the recording sessions, so she enlisted her friends Kara DioGuardi and Jason Reeves, and they went to Hawaii for three weeks, rented a beach house and wrote songs. The first single from ''Breakthrough'', "Fallin' for You", was released in June. The second single, "I Never Told You," was released in February 2010. Caillat released two Christmas songs for the 2009 holiday season: the standard "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and the Beach Boys song "Merry Christmas, Baby".

Caillat was recognized as BMI's songwriter of the year. In July 2010, Caillat performed "God Bless America" during the seventh inning stretch at the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. In September 2010, Caillat performed the national anthem in the season opener game of the National Football League in New Orleans and a Monday Night Football game in Chicago. In December 2010, Caillat performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway.

2011–present: ''All of You''

Caillat's third album, ''All of You'', was released on July 12, 2011. The first single, "I Do" was released in February. The second single, "Brighter Than the Sun", was released in June.

Discography

''Coco'' (2007)

''Breakthrough'' (2009)

''All of You'' (2011)

Tours

2008: ''John Mayer 2008 Summer Tour''

2008: ''Coco Summer Tour''

2008: ''Coco World Tour''

2009/2010: ''Breakthrough World Tour''

2011: ''All of You Summer Tour''

Awards and nominations

name	Colbie Caillat
awards	8
nominations	19 }}

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Caillat has won two awards from four nominations, including Album of the Year (as featured artist).

|- |rowspan="3"|2010 ||''Breakthrough'' |Best Pop Vocal Album | |- |"Lucky" with Jason Mraz |rowspan="2"|Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals | |- |"Breathe" with Taylor Swift |

Others awards and nominations

American Music AwardsTeen Choice AwardsPeople's Choice AwardsGrammy Award for Album of the YearGrammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals

style="background:#bcbcbc;"	Year	Result	Award	Category	Nominated Work
rowspan="3"	2008		|	T-Mobile Breakthrough Artist	General
		Choice Breakthrough Artist
	Choice Love Song
rowspan="3"	2009		rowspan="2"	BMI Pop Awards	Songwriter of the Year
	Song of The Year
		|	Choice Music: Hook Up	"Lucky"
rowspan="6"	2010
	|	Favorite Music Collaboration	Lucky (Jason Mraz song)>Lucky"
		Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album>Best Pop Vocal Album
	Album of the Year || ''Fearless'' (featured artist)
	Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals>Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals
	Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals ||"Breathe" (with Taylor Swift)

Soul and Jazz Awards

|- | rowspan="3"|2010 ||''Breakthrough'' | Best Album Pop of the Year | |- | Colbie Caillat | Best Artist of the Year Act Pop | |- | "Fallin' for You" | Best Pop Song | |- ||2011 ||"I Do" |Next Hit of 2011 |

References

External links

Colbie Caillat at Universal Republic

Colbie Caillat on the cover of the March 19, 2008 issue of iProng Magazine

Colbie Caillat cover story in the January 2009 issue of International Musician

AOL Sessions Performance & Interview

Category:1985 births Category:American child singers Category:American acoustic guitarists Category:American female guitarists Category:American female singers Category:American folk guitarists Category:American folk singers Category:American pianists Category:American pop guitarists Category:American pop singers Category:American pop singer-songwriters Category:English-language singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Musicians from California Category:People from Los Angeles County, California Category:People from Ventura County, California

cs:Colbie Caillat da:Colbie Caillat de:Colbie Caillat es:Colbie Caillat fa:کلبی کایلات fr:Colbie Caillat is:Colbie Caillat it:Colbie Caillat he:קולבי קאליי nl:Colbie Caillat ja:コルビー・キャレイ no:Colbie Caillat pl:Colbie Caillat pt:Colbie Caillat ro:Colbie Caillat ru:Кэйллат, Колби simple:Colbie Caillat fi:Colbie Caillat sv:Colbie Caillat tl:Colbie Caillat tr:Colbie Caillat vi:Colbie Caillat zh:蔻比·凱蕾

Coordinates	40°42′15.0″N73°55′4.0″N
Honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
Name	Richard Bedford Bennett
Honorific-suffix	PC KC
Order	11th
Office	Prime Minister of Canada
Term start	August 7, 1930
Term end	October 23, 1935
Monarch	George V
Predecessor	W. L. Mackenzie King
Successor	W. L. Mackenzie King
Birth date	July 03, 1870
Birth place	Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick
Death date	June 26, 1947
Death place	Mickleham, England
Party	Conservative
Religion	Methodist, then United Church of Canada
Spouse	Single; Never married
Alma mater	Dalhousie University
Profession	Lawyer
Signature	RB Bennett Signature.svg }}

Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC, KC (July 3, 1870 – June 26, 1947) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930, to October 23, 1935, during the worst of the Great Depression years. Following his defeat as prime minister, Bennett moved to England, and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Bennett.

Early life

R. B. Bennett was born on July 3, 1870, when his mother, Henrietta Stiles, was visiting at her parents' home in Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick, Canada. He grew up nearby at the home of his father, Henry John Bennett, at Hopewell Cape, the shire town of Albert County, then a town of 1,800 people.

His father was descended from English ancestors who had emigrated to Connecticut in the 18th century. His great, great grandfather Bennett migrated from Connecticut to Nova Scotia c. 1765, before the American Revolution, taking the lands forcibly removed from the deported Acadians during the Great Upheaval.

R. B. Bennett's family was poor, subsisting mainly on the produce of a small farm. His early days inculcated a lifelong habit of thrift. The driving force in his family was his mother. She was a Wesleyan Methodist and passed this faith and the Protestant ethic on to her son. His principle ever after was: work as hard as you can, earn all you can, save all you can, and then give all you can. Bennett's father does not appear to have been a good provider for his family, though the reason is unclear. He operated a general store for a while and tried to develop some gypsum deposits.

The Bennetts had previously been a relatively prosperous family, operating a shipyard in Hopewell Cape, but the change to steam-powered vessels in the mid-19th century meant the gradual winding down of their business. However, the household was a literate one, subscribing to three newspapers.They were strong Conservatives; indeed one of the largest and last ships launched by the Bennett shipyard (in 1869) was the ''Sir John A. Macdonald''.

Educated in the local school, Bennett was a good student, but something of a loner. In addition to his Protestant faith, Bennett grew up with an abiding love of the British Empire, then at its apogee.

Some important friendships

One day, while Bennett was crossing the Miramichi River on the ferry boat, a well-dressed lad about nine years younger came over to him and struck up a conversation. This was the beginning of an improbable but important friendship with Max Aitken, later the industrialist and British press baron, Lord Beaverbrook. The agnostic Aitken liked to tease the Methodist Bennett, whose fiery temper contrasted with Aitken's ability to turn away wrath with a joke. This friendship would become important to his success later in life, as would his friendship with the Chatham lawyer, Lemuel J. Tweedie, a prominent Conservative politician. He began to study law with Tweedie on weekends and during summer holidays. Another important friendship was with the prominent Shirreff family of Chatham, the father being High Sheriff of Northumberland County for 25 years. The son, Harry, joined the E.B. Eddy Company, a large pulp and paper industrial concern, and was transferred to Halifax. His sister moved there to study nursing, and soon Bennett joined them to study law at Dalhousie University. Their friendship was renewed there, and became crucial to his later life when Jennie Shirreff married the head of the Eddy Company. She later made Bennett the lawyer for her extensive interests.

University, early legal career

Bennett started at Dalhousie University in 1890, graduating in 1893 with a law degree. He worked his way through with a job as assistant in the library, being recommended by Dr. R. C. Weldon.

He was then a partner in the Chatham law firm of Tweedie and Bennett. Max Aitken (later known as Lord Beaverbrook) was his office boy, while articling as a lawyer, acting as a stringer for the Montreal Gazette, and selling life insurance. Aitken persuaded him to run for alderman in the first Town Council of Chatham, and managed his campaign. Bennett was elected by one vote, and was later furious with Aitken when he heard all the promises he had made on Bennett's behalf.

Move to Alberta

Despite his election to the Chatham town council, Bennett's days in the town were numbered. He was ambitious and saw that the small community was too narrow a field for him. He was already negotiating with Sir James Lougheed to move to Calgary and become his law partner. Lougheed was Calgary's richest man and most successful lawyer.

Bennett moved to Alberta in 1897. A lifelong bachelor and teetotaler (although Bennett was known by select associates to occasionally drink alcohol when the press was not around to observe this), he led a rather lonely life in a hotel and later, in a boarding house. For a while a younger brother roomed with him. He ate his noon meal on workdays at the Alberta Hotel. Social life, such as it was, centered on church. There was, however, no scandal attached to his personal life. Bennett worked hard and gradually built up his legal practice. In 1908 he was one of five people appointed to the first Library Board for the city of Calgary and was instrumental in establishing the Calgary Public Library.

Early political career

He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in the 1898 general election, representing the riding of West Calgary. He was re-elected to a second term in office in 1902 as an Independent from the parties in the Northwest Territories legislature.

In 1905, when Alberta was carved out of the territories and made a province, Bennett became the first leader of the Alberta Conservative Party. In 1909, he won a seat in the provincial legislature, before switching to federal politics.

Elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1911, Bennett returned to the provincial scene to again lead the Alberta Tories in the 1913 provincial election, but kept his federal seat in Ottawa when his Tories failed to take power in the province; such practice was later forbidden.

At age 44, he tried to enlist in the Canadian military once World War I broke out, but was turned down as being medically unfit. In 1916, Bennett was appointed director general of the National Service Board, which was in charge of identifying the number of potential recruits in the country.

While Bennett supported the Conservatives, he opposed Prime Minister Robert Borden's proposal for a Union Government that would include both Conservatives and Liberals, fearing that this would ultimately hurt the Conservative Party. While he campaigned for Conservative candidates in the 1917 federal election he did not stand for re-election himself.

Cabinet minister, Conservative party leader

Nevertheless, Borden's successor, Arthur Meighen appointed Bennett Minister of Justice in his government, as it headed into the 1921 federal election in which both the government and Bennett were defeated. Bennett won the seat of Calgary West in the 1925 federal election and was returned to government as Minister of Finance in Meighen's short-lived government in 1926. The government was defeated in the 1926 federal election. Meighen stepped down as Tory leader, and Bennett became the party's leader in 1927 at the first Conservative leadership convention.

As Opposition leader, Bennett faced off against the more experienced Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in Commons debates, and took some time to acquire enough experience to hold his own with King. In 1930, King blundered badly when he made overly partisan statements in response to criticism over his handling of the economic downturn, which was hitting Canada very hard. King's worst error was in stating that he "would not give Tory provincial governments a five-cent piece!" This serious mistake, which drew wide press coverage, gave Bennett his needed opening to attack King, which he did successfully in the election campaign which followed.

Prime minister

Confronting the Depression

By defeating William Lyon Mackenzie King in the 1930 federal election, he had the misfortune of taking office during the Great Depression. Bennett tried to combat the depression by increasing trade within the British Empire and imposing tariffs for imports from outside the Empire, promising that his measures would ''blast'' Canadian exports into world markets. His success was limited however, and his own wealth (often openly displayed) and impersonal style alienated many struggling Canadians.

When his ''Imperial Preference'' policy failed to generate the desired result, Bennett's government had no real contingency plan. The party's pro-business and pro-banking inclinations provided little relief to the millions of increasingly desperate and agitated unemployed. Despite the economic crisis, ''Laissez-faire'' persisted as the guiding economic principle of Conservative Party ideology. Government relief to the unemployed was considered a disincentive to individual initiative, and was therefore only granted in the most minimal amounts and attached to work programs. An additional concern of the federal government was that large numbers of disaffected unemployed men concentrating in urban centres created a volatile situation. As an "alternative to bloodshed on the streets," the stop-gap solution for unemployment chosen by the Bennett government was to establish military-run and -styled relief camps in remote areas throughout the country, where single unemployed men toiled for twenty cents a day. Any relief beyond this was left to provincial and municipal governments, many of which were either insolvent or on the brink of bankruptcy, and which railed against the inaction of other levels of government. Partisan differences began to sharpen on the question of government intervention in the economy, since lower levels of government were largely in Liberal hands, and protest movements were beginning to send their own parties into the political mainstream, notably the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and William Aberhart's Social Credit Party in Alberta.

Hosts, dominates 1932 Imperial Conference

Bennett hosted the 1932 Imperial Economic Conference in Ottawa; this was the first time Canada had hosted the meetings. It was attended by the leaders of the independent dominions of the British Empire (which later became the Commonwealth of Nations). Bennett dominated the meetings, which were ultimately unproductive, due to the inability of leaders to agree on policies, mainly to combat the economic woes dominating the world at the time.

Anti-Communism

A nickname that would stick with Bennett for the remainder of his political career, "Iron Heel Bennett," came from a 1932 speech he gave in Toronto that ironically, if unintentionally, alluded to Jack London's socialist novel:

What do they offer you in exchange for the present order? Socialism, Communism, dictatorship. They are sowing the seeds of unrest everywhere. Right in this city such propaganda is being carried on and in the little out of the way places as well. And we know that throughout Canada this propaganda is being put forward by organizations from foreign lands that seek to destroy our institutions. And we ask that every man and woman put the iron heel of ruthlessness against a thing of that kind.

Reacting to fears of Communist subversion, Bennett invoked the controversial Section 98 of the Criminal Code of Canada. Enacted in the aftermath of the Winnipeg General Strike, Section 98 dispensed with the presumption of innocence in outlawing potential threats to the state: specifically, anyone belonging to an organization that officially advocated the violent overthrow of the government. Even if the accused had never committed an act of violence or personally supported such an action, they could be incarcerated merely for attending meetings of such an organization, publicly speaking in its defense, or distributing its literature. Despite the broad power authorized under Section 98, it targeted specifically the Communist Party of Canada. Eight of the top party leaders, including Tim Buck, were arrested and convicted under Section 98 in 1931. This plan to stamp out communism backfired, however, and proved to be a damaging embarrassment for the government, especially after Buck was the target of an apparent assassination attempt. While confined to his cell during a prison riot, despite not participating in the riot, shots were fired into his cell. When an agit-prop play depicting these events, ''Eight Men Speak'', was suppressed by the Toronto police, a protest meeting was held where activist A.E. Smith repeated the play's allegations, and he was consequently arrested for sedition. This created a storm of public protest, compounded when Buck was called as a witness to the trial and repeated the allegations in open court. Although the remarks were stricken from the record, they still discredited the prosecution's case and Smith was acquitted. As a result, the government's case against Buck lost any credibility, and Buck and his comrades were released early and fêted as heroic champions of civil liberties.

A 2001 book by Quebec nationalist writer Normand Lester, ''Le Livre noir du Canada anglais'' (later translated as ''The Black Book of English Canada'') accused Bennett of having a political affiliation with, and of having provided financial support to, fascist Quebec writer Adrien Arcand. This is based on a series of letters sent to Bennett following his election as Prime Minister by Arcand, his colleague Ménard and two Conservative caucus members asking for financial support for Arcand's antsemitic newspaper ''Le Goglu''. The book also claims that in a 1936 letter to Bennett, A. W. Reid, a Conservative organizer, estimated that Conservative Party members gave Arcand a total of $27,000 (the modern equivalent $359,284).

Relief camp protest

Having survived Section 98, and benefiting from the public sympathy wrought by persecution, Communist Party members set out to organize workers in the relief camps. Camp workers laboured on a variety of infrastructure projects, including such things as municipal airports, roads, and park facilities, along with a number of make-work schemes. Conditions in the camps were abhorrent, not only because of the low pay, but the lack of recreational facilities, isolation from family and friends, poor quality food, and the use of military discipline, which made the camps feel like penal colonies. Communists thus had ample grounds on which to organize camp inmates. The Relief Camp Workers' Union was formed and affiliated with the Workers' Unity League, the trade union umbrella of the Communist Party. Camp workers in BC struck on April 4, 1935, and, after two months of protesting in Vancouver, began the On-to-Ottawa Trek to bring their grievances to Bennett's doorstep. The Prime Minister and his Minister of Justice, Hugh Guthrie, treated the trek as an attempted insurrection, and ordered it to be stopped. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) halted the Trek in Regina on July 1, 1935, by attacking a crowd of 3,000 strikers and their supporters, resulting in two deaths and dozens of injured. All told, Bennett's anti-Communist policy would not bode well for his political career.

Bennett's New Deal

Following the lead of President Roosevelt's New Deal in the United States, Bennett, under the advice of William Duncan Herridge, who was both Canada's ambassador to the United States and Bennett's brother-in-law, the government eventually began to follow the Americans' lead. In a series of five speeches to the nation in January 1935, Bennett introduced a Canadian version of the "New Deal," involving unprecedented public spending and federal intervention in the economy. Progressive income taxation, a minimum wage, a maximum number of working hours per week, unemployment insurance, health insurance, an expanded pension programme, and grants to farmers were all included in the plan.

In one of his addresses to the nation, Bennett said:

Bennett's conversion, however, was seen as too little too late, and he faced criticism that his reforms either went too far, or did not go far enough, including from one of his cabinet ministers H.H. Stevens, who bolted the government to form the Reconstruction Party of Canada. Some of the measures were alleged to have encroached on provincial jurisdictions laid out in Section 92 of the British North America Act. The courts, including the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, agreed and eventually struck down virtually all of Bennett's reforms. However, some of Bennett's initiatives, such as the Bank of Canada, which he founded in 1934, and the Canadian Wheat Board, remain in place to this day.

Defeat

Although there was no unity among the motley political groups that constituted Bennett's opposition, a consensus emerged that his handling of the economic crisis was insufficient and inappropriate, even from Conservative quarters. Bennett personally became a symbol of the political failings underscoring the depression. Car owners, for example, who could no longer afford gasoline, had horses pull their vehicles, named them Bennett Buggies. Unity in his own administration suffered, notably by the defection of his Minister of Trade, Henry Herbert Stevens. Stevens left the Conservatives and formed the Reconstruction Party of Canada, after Bennett refused to implement Stevens' plan for drastic economic reform to deal with the economic crisis.

The beneficiary of the overwhelming opposition during Bennett's tenure was the Liberal Party. The Tories were decimated in the October 1935 general election, winning only 40 seats to 173 for Mackenzie King's Liberals. The Tories would not form a majority government again in Canada until 1958. King's government soon implemented its own moderate reforms, including the replacement of relief camps with a scaled down provincial relief project scheme, and the repeal of Section 98. King had earlier outlined his plans with his 1918 book ''Industry and Economy''. Many of King's other reforms continue today, including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the nationalized Bank of Canada, versions of minimum wage, maximum hours of work, pension, and unemployment insurance legislation. But ultimately, Canada mostly pulled out of the depression not as a result of government programs, but because of jobs created by the industrialization and onset of the Second World War.

Coat of arms

Bennett's Coat of Arms was designed by Alan Beddoe "Argent within two bendlets Gules three maple leaves proper all between two deim-lions rampant couped gules. Crest, a demi-lion Gules grapsing in the dexter paw a battle axe in bend sinister Or and resting the sinister paw on an escallop also Gules. Supporters, Dexter a buffalo, sinister a moose, both proper. Motto, To be Pressed not Oppressed."

Legacy

While Bennett was, and is still, often criticized for lack of compassion for the impoverished masses, he stayed up through many nights reading and responding to personal letters from ordinary citizens asking for his help, and often dipped into his personal fortune to send a five-dollar bill to a starving family. The total amount he gave personally is uncertain, although he personally estimated that between the years of 1927-37 he spent well over 2.3 million dollars. Bennett was a controlling owner of the E.B. Eddy match company, which was the largest safety match manufacturer in Canada, and he was one of the richest Canadians at that time. Bennett helped put many poor, struggling young men through university. Relative to the times he lived in, he was likely the wealthiest Canadian to become prime minister.

Bennett worked an exhausting schedule throughout his years as prime minister, often more than 14 hours per day, and dominated his government, usually holding several cabinet posts. He lived in a suite in the Chateau Laurier hotel, a short walk from Parliament Hill. The respected author Bruce Hutchison wrote that had the economic times been more normal, Bennett would likely have been regarded as a good, perhaps great, Canadian prime minister.

Bennett was also a noted talent spotter. He took note of and encouraged the young Lester Pearson in the early 1930s, and appointed Pearson to significant roles on two major government inquiries: the 1931 Royal Commission on Grain Futures, and the 1934 Royal Commission on Price Spreads. Bennett saw that Pearson was recognized with an O.B.E. after he shone in that work, arranged a bonus of $1,800, and invited him to a London conference. Former Prime Minister John Turner, who as a child knew Bennett while he was prime minister, praised Bennett's promotion of Turner's economist mother to the highest civil service post held by a Canadian woman to that time.

Retirement and death

Bennett retired to Britain in 1938, and, on June 12, 1941, became the first and only former Canadian Prime Minister to be elevated to the peerage as Viscount Bennett, of Mickleham in the County of Surrey and of Calgary and Hopewell in the Dominion of Canada.

He died after suffering a heart attack while taking a bath on June 26, 1947, at Mickleham. He was exactly one week shy of his 77th birthday. He is buried there in St. Michael's Churchyard, Mickleham. He is the only former Prime Minister not buried in Canada. Unmarried, Bennett was survived by nephews William Herridge, Jr., and Robert Coats and by brother Ronald V. Bennett. The viscountcy became extinct on his death.

Bennett was ranked #12 by a survey of Canadian historians out of the then 20 Prime Ministers of Canada through Jean Chrétien. The results of the survey were included in the book ''Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders'' by J.L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer.

Supreme Court appointments

Bennett chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada by the Governor General:

Oswald Smith Crocket (September 21, 1932 – April 13, 1943)

Frank Joseph Hughes (March 17, 1933 – February 13, 1935)

Sir Lyman Poore Duff (as Chief Justice, (March 17, 1933 – January 2, 1944; appointed a Puisne Justice under Prime Minister Laurier, June 4, 1906)

Henry Hague Davis (January 31, 1935 – June 30, 1944)

Patrick Kerwin (July 20, 1935 – February 2, 1963)

Other appointments

Bennett was the Honorary Colonel of The Calgary Highlanders from the year of their designation as such in 1921 to his death in 1947. He visited the Regiment in England during the war, and always ensured the 1st Battalion had a turkey dinner at Christmas every year they were overseas, including the Christmas of 1944 when the battalion was holding front line positions in the Nijmegen Salient.

Bennett served as the Rector of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario from 1935–1937, even while he was still prime minister. At the time, this role covered mediation for significant disputes between Queen's students and the university administration.

See also

List of Canadian Prime Ministers

Albert County Museum

Juniper Hall

Further reading

Monographs

Andrew D. Maclean; ''R. B. Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada'', Toronto, Excelsior Publishing Co., 1935.

Ernest Watkins; ''R. B. Bennett: A Biography'', 1963.

J. R. H. Wilbur; ''The Bennett New Deal: Fraud or Portent'', 1968.

James Henry Grey; ''R. B. Bennett: The Calgary Years'', University of Toronto Press, Toronto and Buffalo, 1991.

Peter Busby Waite; ''Loner: Three Sketches of the Personal Life and Ideas of R.B. Bennett, 1870-1947'', 1992.

Christopher McCreery and Arthur Milnes (editors): ''The Authentic Voice of Canada'', Kingston, Ontario, McGill - Queen's University Press, Centre for the Study of Democracy, 2009, ISBN 978-1-55339-275-0. This book is a collection of Bennett's speeches in the British House of Lords from 1941-47.

Forthcoming major biography by Peter Busby Waite.

John Boyko; ''Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged And Changed A Nation'', Toronto, Key Porter Books, 2010, ISBN 1554702488.

Other works

Bruce Hutchison; ''The Incredible Canadian'', Toronto 1952, Longmans Canada. This book is mainly concerned with William Lyon Mackenzie King, but also includes substantial material on R. B. Bennett.

Lord Beaverbrook; ''Friends'', 1959.

H. Blair Neatby; ''The Politics of Chaos: Canada in the Thirties,'' 1972 ch 4 on Bennett, pp 51–72 online version.

Bruce Hutchison; ''Mr. Prime Minister 1867-1964'', Toronto 1964, Longmans Canada.

C. P. Stacey; ''Canada and the Age of Conflict, volume 2'', 1981.

Gordon Donaldson (journalist); ''The Prime Ministers of Canada'', 1993.

Michael Bliss: ''Right Honourable Men: The Descent of Canadian Politics from Macdonald to Mulroney'', 1994.

George Bowering: ''Egotists and Autocrats: The Prime Ministers of Canada'', 1999.

Will Ferguson; ''Bastards & Boneheads: Canada's Glorious Leaders Past and Present'', 1999.

J.L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer: ''Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders'', Toronto: HarperCollinsPublishersLtd., 1999, pp. 102 – 113. ISBN 0-00-200027-X.

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

Silver and Gold: Bennett and the Great Depression — Historical essay, illustrated with photographs

R.B. Bennett at Find A Grave

{{s-ttl | title = Viscount Bennett | years = 1941–1947 }} }} Category:1870 births Category:1947 deaths Category:Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Category:Canadian anti-communists Category:Canadian Methodists Category:Canadian Ministers of Finance Category:Canadian Peers Category:Canadian people of English descent Category:Canadian people of Irish descent Category:Canadian philanthropists Category:Canadian Queen's Counsel Category:Canadian Secretaries of State for External Affairs Category:Dalhousie Law School graduates Category:Knights of Grace of the Order of St John Category:Lawyers in New Brunswick Category:Leaders of the Opposition (Canada) Category:Leaders of the Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) Category:Leaders of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta Category:Members of the Canadian House of Commons from Alberta Category:Members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada Category:Members of the United Church of Canada Category:National Historic Persons of Canada Category:Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories Category:People from Albert County, New Brunswick Category:People of New England Planter descent Category:Prime Ministers of Canada Category:Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

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Coordinates	40°42′15.0″N73°55′4.0″N
name	Kelly Clarkson
background	solo_singer
birth name	Kelly Brianne Clarkson
background	solo_singer
birth date	April 24, 1982
birth place	Fort Worth, Texas
origin	Burleson, Texas, United States
genre	Pop rock, pop
occupation	Singer-songwriter, record producer, actress
instrument	Vocals
years active	2002–present
label	RCA/19
associated acts	Reba McEntire
website	}}

Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series ''American Idol: The Search for a Superstar'' in 2002 and would later become the runner-up in the television special ''World Idol'' in 2003.

In 2003, Clarkson released her debut album, ''Thankful'', which was a commercial success and established herself in the pop music industry. The release of its first single, "A Moment Like This" (2002), broke The Beatles' record for the biggest leap to number one, from 52, in the history of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. After parting ways with her management, Clarkson developed a more rock-oriented music with the release of her critically acclaimed sophomore album, ''Breakaway'' (2004), which sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and which garnered Clarkson more worldwide success as a pop rock artist. The album's single, "Because of You" (2005), became the best-selling single by an ''Idol'' contestant worldwide. In 2007, Clarkson took full creative control for her third album ''My December'', which had had a more rock-inspired sound and was met with controversy and moderate success. Clarkson later returned to a more pop-oriented sound with ''All I Ever Wanted'' (2009), which became a commercial and critical success. The album's lead single, "My Life Would Suck Without You" (2009), currently holds the record for biggest leap to number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 Chart, breaking her own record of "A Moment Like This" as well as earning her first number-one single in the United Kingdom. Clarkson's fifth studio album, ''Stronger'', was released on October 24, 2011, preceded by the international hit single, "Mr. Know It All".

In a career spanning a decade, Clarkson has become the most successful ''Idol'' contestant around the world, with over 24 million albums and 37 milion singles worldwide, according to ''Billboard'' and Nielsen SoundScan. Clarkson's work also gained her numerous accolades, including two Grammy Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, twelve Billboard Music Awards, four American Music Awards and a Women's World Award. ''Billboard'' also ranked Clarkson the number fourteen artist of the 2000s, as well as being also ranked on the top 200 album sellers of the Nielsen SoundScan era at number 187.

Early life

Clarkson was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in the small town of Burleson, a suburb of Fort Worth. She is the third and youngest child of Jeanne Rose, a first grade English teacher of Greek descent and Stephen Michael Clarkson, a former engineer of English descent.

Clarkson's siblings include her older brother and sister, Jason and Alyssa. When Clarkson was six years old, her parents divorced after seventeen years of marriage. The family settled in Burleson, where Clarkson's mother married her second husband, Jimmy Taylor.

Clarkson's family struggled financially, and after her parents divorced, music became her refuge. Clarkson attended Pauline G Hughes Middle School and Burleson High School. She wanted to become a marine biologist but changed her mind after seeing the movie ''Jaws''. In seventh grade, a teacher (Mrs. Cynthia Glenn) overheard her singing in a hallway and asked her to audition for the school choir; Clarkson told the teacher that she had never received professional vocal training.

In high school, Clarkson performed in musicals such as ''Annie Get Your Gun'', ''Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'' and ''Brigadoon''. She sang at her high school talent show, after which an audience member shared some inspiring words with her: "God has given you this gift. You've got to sing. You're destined to sing." Clarkson continued singing and soon started classical training, hoping that music would be her ticket to a college scholarship.

Upon high school graduation, Clarkson was offered full scholarships to The University of Texas at Austin, University of North Texas, and Berklee, but decided against college because she had "already written so much music and wanted to try it on her own," and she figured "you're never too old to go to college." Clarkson later turned down two recording contracts from Jive Records and Interscope Records in the late 1990s, stating "They would have completely pigeonholed me as a bubblegum act. I was confident enough that something better would come along." She went to Los Angeles late 2001 to pursue a career in music, but worked as a waitress and appeared as an extra in such shows as ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch'' and ''Dharma & Greg'' to support herself. She worked with songwriters such as Gerry Goffin and recorded five tracks between January and March 2002 to try to get a record deal, but returned to Texas after four months in Los Angeles.

Music career

2002–03: ''American Idol: The Search for a Superstar'' and ''World Idol''

Clarkson auditioned for the first season of ''American Idol'' (under the full title ''American Idol: The Search for a Superstar'') in May 2002. She subsequently won the competition on September 4, 2002, earning 58% of the vote to 42% for runner-up Justin Guarini. Choking back tears, Clarkson performed the ballad "A Moment Like This", the song written for the winner of ''American Idol'', which would subsequently appear on her debut album, ''Thankful''. When released as a single in October 2002, it set a record on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart when it rose from number 52 to number one. This achievement was largely due to the impact from ''Idol'' as the CD single managed to sell 236,000 copies in its first week of sales in the U.S.; it spent five weeks at number one in Canada.

''American Idol'' season 1 performances and results

{|class="wikitable" |- !Week # !Theme !Song choice !Original artist !Order # !Result |- |Audition |Dallas |"Express Yourself" "At Last" |MadonnaEtta James |rowspan="4"|N/A |rowspan="5"|Advanced |- |Top 121 |Hollywood round 1 |"Respect" |Otis Redding |- |Top 65 |Hollywood round 2 |"I Say a Little Prayer" |Dionne Warwick |- |Top 45 |Hollywood round 3 |"Save The Best For Last" |Vanessa L. Williams |- |Top 30 |Semifinal/Group 2 |"Respect" |Otis Redding |9 |- |Top 10 |Motown |"You're All I Need to Get By" ||Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell |8 |rowspan="7"|Safe |- |Top 8 |1960s |"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" |Aretha Franklin |rowspan="2"|5 |- |Top 7 |1970s |"Don't Play That Song (You Lied)" |Ben E. King |- |Top 6 |Big Band |"Stuff Like That There" |Betty Hutton |6 |- |Top 5 |Burt Bacharach Love Songs |"Walk On By" |Dionne Warwick |1 |- |Top 4 |1980s1990s |"It's Raining Men""I Surrender" |The Weather GirlsCeline Dion |37 |- |Top 3 |Judges' ChoiceIdol's Choice |"Without You""Think Twice" |BadfingerCeline Dion |36 |- |Top 2 |Finale |"A Moment Like This""Respect""Before Your Love" |Kelly ClarksonOtis ReddingKelly Clarkson |246 |Winner |}

''World Idol'' performance and results

9

Song choice !! Germany !! Australia !! Pan-Arabia !! Canada !! Netherlands !! South Africa !! Poland !! USA !! Belgium !! UK !! Norway !! Total !! Result
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"	9	|	5	9	9	8	8	12	9	9	10	97	Runner-up

In December 2003, a competition titled ''World Idol'' was held at the ''Pop Idol'' stage in London, gathering the winners of the first seasons of ''Idol series'' around the world. Clarkson was contractually obligated to participate, and placed second behind ''Norwegian Idol'' Kurt Nilsen. She performed Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". She left immediately after the competition, later explaining to fans that she was not feeling well.

2003–04: ''Thankful''

Shortly after the completion of the first season of ''American Idol'', Clarkson was signed to RCA Records by Clive Davis and Simon Fuller. In 2003, Clarkson was later accused of working with a record company prior to winning ''American Idol''. ''American Idol'''s rules stated that a contestant was not allowed to compete on the program if they had been linked to a record company. However, she was cleared of all allegations, as she only had a contract in order to conduct demonstration work.

Following the release of "A Moment Like This", Clarkson's full-length debut album ''Thankful'' was released in North America by RCA Records on April 15, 2003 with several singers and songwriters including Christina Aguilera, Diane Warren and Babyface contributing on the tracks. It debuted at number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200. To promote the album, Clarkson appeared on various episodes of ''American Idol'' in 2003. In October that year she performed in Australia at the 2003 NRL grand final. "A Moment Like This" was certified double platinum by the RIAA for sales of two million copies on December 8, 2003 and platinum by the CRIA for sales of 100,000 copies on February 10, 2004. ''Thankful'' peaked at number 41 on the UK albums chart and at number 33 on the Australian albums chart.

Reviews for the album were generally favorable. However, several critics noted that her early achievement was established due to her performances on ''American Idol''. ''Allmusic'' critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the album for its vocal ability: "throughout this record, [Clarkson] makes it seem effortless and charming. She can croon, she can belt out a song, she can be sexy and sassy while still being graceful and as wholesome as the girl next door". Rachel Kipp of ''JS Online'' criticized Clarkson for not having the same personality on ''Thankful'' that she had on ''American Idol'', and wrote: "on ''American Idol'', Clarkson showcased a great voice and an endearing, 'aw-shucks' personality. That personality is missing on ''Thankful'', and there lies the album's greatest fault". Kipp blamed the producers behind the album for not allowing Clarkson to be herself. Clarkson covered Danielle Brisebois' "Just Missed the Train" on the album.

"Miss Independent" was released as the second single from ''Thankful''. It reached the top ten of the U.S. and Canadian singles charts, and earned Clarkson a 2004 Grammy Award nomination for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance". When the single was released in the United Kingdom and Australia, it reached the top ten of the charts. "Low", the third single from ''Thankful'', reached number two in Canada, but it was unable to make the top 40 of the US chart. The final single, "The Trouble with Love Is", was released as a promotional single for the British romantic film ''Love Actually'' and failed to chart in the United States, she then promoted the song on ''Pop Idol'' in 2003.

2004–06: ''Breakaway''

Distancing herself from her ''American Idol'' image, Clarkson parted ways with 19 Entertainment and took more creative control with her second studio album ''Breakaway'', to develop a more rock-oriented image. Clarkson co-wrote six of the songs with songwriters such as former Evanescence band members Ben Moody, David Hodges and producer Max Martin; the title track was co-written by punk-pop singer Avril Lavigne.

''Breakaway'' was released by RCA Records on November 30, 2004. The album debuted within the U.S. top five and Canadian top ten, but sales were initially low in comparison to ''Thankful''. The singles from ''Breakaway'' were very successful, and the album become only the fourth album in history to stay in the ''Billboard'' 200 top 20 for a consecutive year, as well as being certified six times platinum in the U.S. in late 2007 and five times platinum in Canada in May 2006. With worldwide sales of over 12 million copies, ''Breakaway'' is the most successful album by an Idol.

''Breakaway'' received different responses from critics; ''Rolling Stone'' commented that "on Kelly Clarkson's second album, ... she embraces her rock side rather than the pop pageantry that put her on top of the ''American Idol'' heap". ''TeenInk'' noted the strength of her vocals on ''Breakaway'', and praised the change from pop music to contemporary rock: "[Clarkson] retains the incredible power and beauty of her voice while switching to rock". ''Stylus'' magazine also enjoyed Clarkson's foray into rock music, however, she was called out because of her ''American Idol'' image, which reviewer Charles Merwin believed she had yet to lose. He praised the non-singles and wrote that they "maintain a quality high". ''Allmusic'' called the album "a nice, low-key relief". "Breakaway" served as the original song for ''The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement'' (2004) and achieved considerable success across the world; it became Clarkson's third top-ten single in the U.S. and fourth top-ten single in Canada. It reached number ten in Australia, and number 22 in the UK. The second single, "Since U Been Gone", which was produced by Max Martin, became the most successful release from the album. It reached number two in the U.S. and the top five across the world. It also earned Clarkson her first Grammy Award for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance"; she won a second award for "Best Pop Vocal Album".

The third and fourth single releases, "Behind These Hazel Eyes" and "Because of You", also followed with chart success. The video for "Because of You" won the 2006 MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video, her second consecutive win in that category (following "Since U Been Gone"). Clarkson was the most-played artist of 2006 on American radio, despite releasing only one single in the entire year, "Walk Away" (the fifth single from ''Breakaway''). She was also the most radio-broadcasted artist of 2006 in Australia and "Because of You" was the third most broadcast song of the same year, despite being released in 2005.

In 2005, Clarkson made a performance during the 2005 NBA All-Star Weekend as part of the festivities leading up to the All-Star Game. Later that year, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons She also performed that spring as part of the 2005 NCAA Final Four festivities in St. Louis, Missouri.

Clarkson performed during the festivities of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. In mid 2006, Clarkson lent Ford Motor Co. a song titled "Go", written by Clarkson and Rhett Lawrence ("Miss Independent"). The song was used in the company's advertising campaign in 2006, "Bold Moves" and the song, along with its music video, was made available free at Ford's ''AddictedtoKelly.com'' website (now defunct).

2006–08: ''My December''

During her tour in Europe in 2006, Clarkson began writing songs for her third album, ''My December''. The first single from ''My December'' was "Never Again", which peaked on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number eight. Clarkson released "Sober" as the second single. She returned to ''American Idol'' for the season 6 finale, performing "Never Again" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry during a Beatles medley.

Clarkson parted with her management, The Firm, in June 2007, amid low radio airplay for "Never Again" and low ticket sales for her then-upcoming tour. Clarkson would then sign with Starstruck Entertainment, run by Narvel Blackstock — the husband of Reba McEntire – on July 2, 2007. The same month, Live Nation announced that the tour—her first nationwide arena tour—had been canceled due to underwhelming ticket sales, to be rescheduled after the release of the ''My December'' album at smaller, more intimate concert environments. Clarkson reinstated plans to tour the U.S. during 2007, with a much smaller tour than the one she canceled in June. She began her My December Tour in October 2007 in venues significantly smaller than those previously booked. The August 2007 issue of ''Blender'' included a feature on Clarkson and her new album, as well as her music label woes.

''My December'' was released in the U.S. on June 26, 2007. The album debuted at number two in the U.S. with 291,000 albums sold, a slightly higher debut than Clarkson's previous album, ''Breakaway'', which debuted at number three. In Canada, the album was awarded a platinum certification for shipments of more than 100,000 copies. ''My December'' was certified platinum in December 2007 by the RIAA. It has sold more than three million copies worldwide.

In April 2007, Clarkson appeared on the ''American Idol'' ''Idol Gives Back'' charity show aimed at raising money for tackling poverty, hunger and AIDS in Africa, as well as the Hurricane Katrina appeal. Clarkson noted that she was in a dispute with her record label bosses and executives as to which song to perform for the event. Clarkson refused to perform her new single "Never Again" viewing it as simple self-promotion through a charitable event. She is quoted as saying,

She opted to perform Patty Griffin's "Up to the Mountain". After the performance, the audience who watched Clarkson perform live gave her a standing ovation. ''American Idol'' judge Simon Cowell described her as "incredible", saying, "When you let her [Clarkson] come back on the show it makes everybody else look like an amateur." Clarkson later sang "Never Again" in the ''American Idol'' grand finale on May 23, 2007. On July 7, 2007, Clarkson performed on the American leg of Live Earth. Clarkson was invited to be a celebrity mentor for ''Canadian Idol'' during its Top 5 week of the fifth season, aired on the CTV network on August 20, and she performed on the results show the next night. Clarkson also performed the grand finale of ''Swedish Idol'' in December 2007. Clarkson also performed at the 2007 NFL opening kickoff where she sang the national anthem and songs from ''My December''. Clarkson also performed in the halftime show for the Dallas Cowboys and New York Jets game on Thanksgiving Day.

In addition to her roles as spokeswoman for the acne treatment Proactiv as well as Vitaminwater, Clarkson partnered with NASCAR for the 2007 season. She appeared in televised advertising spots, performed at pre-race concerts, promoted NASCAR Day, and appeared at the Champions' Banquet in December. In April 2008, Clarkson participated in a Papal Youth Rally at the campus of St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie in Yonkers, New York performing a mini-concert for those in attendance. This was the Papal Visit of Pope Benedict XVI. She performed Schubert's "Ave Maria" for the Pope later in the day following the Pope's speech. Clarkson, raised a Baptist, was said to be honored by the invitation and appreciative of the rosary given to her and her band by the Pope, who were invited over by the Pope immediately following the performance for the rosary honor.

Clarkson performed "What Hurts the Most" with Rascal Flatts at the ACM Awards in 2006 and returned again to sing a duet with Reba McEntire in 2007. This was her second performance on a country music award show, even though she is in the pop/rock genre. Along with her performance with Rascal Flatts, Clarkson also performed "Cigarettes", with the country duo The Wreckers during one of their shows in Texas.

Building on her country music status, Clarkson and Reba McEntire, who first met after Clarkson won the first season of ''American Idol'', recorded an hour-long ''CMT Crossroads'' special at Nashville's famed Ryman Auditorium on February 22, 2007. It aired on CMT and Palladia (then known as MHD) on June 24, 2007. Previously, Clarkson was a performer on CMT's ''Giants: Reba McEntire''. where she sang McEntire's hit song "Why Haven't I Heard From You", introduced Dolly Parton, and later also sang McEntire's hit "Does He Love You" with Martina McBride. Clarkson also appeared on an episode of McEntire's sitcom ''Reba'', that aired on January 14, 2007.

At the Academy of Country Music Awards on May 16, 2007, Clarkson and McEntire sang a duet of Clarkson's own 2005 single, "Because of You", which also became the lead single from McEntire's album of all-star duets. The music video for this version of the song later debuted on June 20, 2007. This collaboration with McEntire earned Clarkson a CMA Award nomination for "Musical Event of the Year" in 2007 and a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Country Collaboration With Vocal" in 2008. Additionally, the song was featured on ''Now That's What I Call Country'', which was released in August 2008.

Clarkson was a surprise guest at the 2007 CMA Music Festival in Nashville on June 7, 2007, where she performed "Does He Love You" and "Because of You" with Reba McEntire during the internationally-renowned annual event. The performance of "Because of You" was taped and aired as part of the "CMA Music Festival: Country's Night To Rock" television special that aired on ABC on July 23, 2007.

On January 17, 2008, Clarkson embarked on the 2 Worlds, 2 Voices Tour 2008, a co-headlining tour with Reba McEntire. Reba and Clarkson have since stayed in touch and Clarkson is now managed by McEntire's husband Narvel Blackstock.

On May 18, 2008, Clarkson performed on stage at the Academy of Country Music Awards All-Star Jam with Reba McEntire and Ronnie Dunn of Brooks and Dunn. The All-Star jam is the final event of the week taking place immediately after the awards show. Clarkson was not announced ahead of time for an appearance.

2008–10: ''All I Ever Wanted''

Clarkson's fourth album, ''All I Ever Wanted'', was released on March 10, 2009. During recording of the album, Clarkson worked closely with producer-songwriters Ryan Tedder, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Howard Benson, among others. In its first week of sales, it sold 255,000 copies in the U.S., debuting at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200; it stayed at number one for two weeks. ''All I Ever Wanted'' received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Pop Vocal Album". Clarkson was placed eighth on ''Billboard'' Magazine's Top Female Artists of 2009 and ninth on ''Billboard'' Magazine's Top Hot Artists of 2000s. She was ranked second on ''Billboard'' Magazine's Best of 2000s: Pop Song Artist, behind Pink.

The first single from ''All I Ever Wanted'', "My Life Would Suck Without You", entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 97 and rose to number one the following week; this broke the record for the largest leap to the top spot, formerly held by Britney Spears' "Womanizer".This was the second time Clarkson broke this record. Moreover, "My Life Would Suck Without You" was Clarkson's first number one in the United Kingdom and it made her the first ''American Idol'' winner to achieve a number one single in the UK. The album's second single, "I Do Not Hook Up", peaked at number 20 in the U.S. "I Do Not Hook Up" did not fare very well overseas and the believed reason for this is due to a lack of radio support because a previous version had been recorded by Katy Perry. The third single, "Already Gone", reached number 13 in the USA but failed to achieve international success, attaining only number 66 in the UK.

"Already Gone" sparked another conflict between Clarkson and her label. There was a widely reported scandal with the album's third single, which Clarkson wrote with OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder. Many critics had noticed that the backing track and style of the song sounded similar to Beyoncé's "Halo". After becoming aware of the comparisons, Clarkson did not want to release the song out of respect for Beyoncé, instead requesting release for a self-penned song, "Cry", which later hailed extremely positive reviews, most notably from the BBC. However, her record company refused, publishing "Already Gone" against Clarkson's wishes. In response to the entire fiasco, Clarkson penned a song called "Wash Rinse Repeat" in which she states her view on the lack of creativity record labels give their artists; it is widely believed the song is an attack on Ryan Tedder.

The fourth single was "All I Ever Wanted". Clarkson performed as one of many guests for the return of ''VH1 Divas'' in September 2009. Clarkson also became a guest mentor on the Dutch television series ''X Factor'' in November 2009.

Clarkson was announced as one of the VH1 Save the Music Foundation ambassadors for 2009–2010. She began her 32-date ''All I Ever Wanted'' tour in October, following a string of summer concerts around the United States. Clarkson toured all over the world with the album, reaching territories such as Europe, South Africa, Oceania and Asia.The fall tour shows were performed in arena/theater type venues, with the summer tour being performed in outdoor amphitheatres. Her Indonesia show was initially sponsored by tobacco company Djarum, but after complaints from some fans and anti-tobacco groups, the promoter removed the sponsor. The tour ended in May 2010 in China.

2010–present: ''Don't You Wanna Stay'' and ''Stronger''

On August 23, 2010, it was announced that Clarkson had recorded a duet called "Don't You Wanna Stay" with country star Jason Aldean for Aldean's upcoming album, ''My Kinda Party''. They performed the song at the 2010 CMA Awards on November 10, 2010 and again on April 14, 2011 during the elimination show of ''American Idol'' season ten. On the week ending February 27, 2011, the song moved to number one on ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs, making Clarkson her first number one hit on the chart. As of July 21, 2011, "Don't You Wanna Stay" has sold nearly 1.9 million digital singles, becoming the most downloaded country music collaboration of all time. "Don't You Wanna Stay" is nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award for "Best Country Duo/Group Performance".

Clarkson's fifth studio album, ''Stronger'', was released on October 24, 2011. Clarkson began writing the material on November 2009 and was originally intended for a late 2010 release. Clarkson collaborated with several producers including Greg Kurstin, Ester Dean, Darkchild, Toby Gad, Steve Jordan and Howard Benson. Clarkson completed recording on February 28, 2011, and stated that it "was influenced by Prince, Tina Turner, Sheryl Crow, Radiohead and there's a little bit of a country vibe/influence on a couple of songs." On March 15, 2011, she announced that the album had been pushed back to September 2011. Rodney Jerkins told ''The Hollywood Reporter'' that it was a "smart decision", while Claude Kelly, said to MTV News that the move could work in her favor. ''Associated Content'' also reported that the delay was caused by the company restructuring at Sony Music with the former Universal Music Group chairman Doug Morris entering as its new CEO. The release of the album was accompanied by a limited release of Clarkson's first extended play, ''The Smoakstack Sessions'', which featured alternate versions of ''Stronger'' and ''All I Ever Wanted'' songs.

The first single, "Mr. Know It All", premiered via a live webcast on on August 30, 2011 and was commercially released on September 5, 2011. The song entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 18, becoming her second highest debut since "Never Again" (2007); On November 3, the song ascended to number 10, earning Clarkson her ninth top ten single. On October 2, 2011, Clarkson performed the song at the 2011 NRL Grand Final in Sydney, Australia, marking Clarkson's first appearance at the event since the 2003 NRL Grand Final. The following week, "Mr. Know It All" hit #1 on the Australian charts, the first single of her career to top the charts in that country. 'Mr Know It All charted at number 4 in the UK and 8 in New Zealand. The song recieved 2x Platinum in Australia and Gold in New Zealand. The album's second single, "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)", was released in December 2011 and impacted radio on January 17, 2012. The song has charted at number 2 in the United States, 4 in both New Zealand and Poland and 8 in the UK.

The song "Tell Me A Lie" on the debut album by the boy band One Direction was co-written by Clarkson, which was originally intended for ''Stronger''. The song was leaked onto the internet a few months before. Clarkson's second extended play, ''iTunes Session'', was announced on November 23, 2011, and was released on December 27, 2011. On December 2 Clarkson released her first Christmas single, a cover of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" which is included on ''iTunes Session'' EP.

Clarkson is also confirmed to mentor country singer Blake Shelton's contestants on the second season of ''The Voice'' in its live shows in 2012. With this feat, Clarkson becomes the only reality singing competition contestant to appear on ''Idol'', ''The X Factor'' and ''The Voice''. Also, at Super Bowl 46 Clarkson sang the American National Anthem.

Politics

On December 29, 2011, Clarkson posted on Twitter her endorsement of US Congressman Ron Paul as a 2012 presidential candidate, saying, "I love Ron Paul. I liked him a lot during the last Republican nomination and no one gave him a chance. If he wins the nomination for the Republican Party in 2012 he's got my vote. Too bad he probably won't."

Film career

Soon after the first season of ''American Idol'' ended, Clarkson starred with ''Idol'' runner-up Justin Guarini in the movie ''From Justin to Kelly'' (2003). The film was poorly received by critics and grossed only $5 million at the North American box office, less than half its reported budget. Clarkson has mentioned in interviews that she is shocked when people send her scripts after ''From Justin to Kelly'', often citing contractual obligation as her sole reason for involvement in the film. Clarkson was quoted telling ''People'', "I knew when I read the script it was going to be real, real bad, but when I won, I signed that piece of paper and I could not get out of it." The script was written by Kim Fuller, Simon Fuller's brother.

She played Brenda Lee in the television drama ''American Dreams'' and appeared in the sitcom ''Reba''. She also participated in sketch comedy on ''MADtv'' (2002) and ''Saturday Night Live'' (2005).

Filmography (acting roles only)

Source: IMDb {|class="wikitable" border="1" |- ! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Title ! scope="col" | Role ! scope="col" | Episode |- |rowspan=5|2002 ||''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' ||rowspan=3| as an extra (uncredited) || "The Whole Ball of Wax" |- |''Dharma & Greg'' || |- |''That '80s Show'' || "Valentine's Day" (S1, Ep2) |- |''Issues 101'' ||Crystal (as an extra) || Theatrical film |- |''MADtv'' ||Herself / Skits || Season 8, Ep 1 |- |rowspan=2|2003 ||''From Justin to Kelly'' ||Kelly Taylor|| Theatrical film |- |rowspan=2| ''American Dreams'' ||rowspan=2| Brenda Lee || "And Promises To Keep" |- |rowspan=2|2004 || "Tidings of Comfort and Joy" |- |''King of the Hill'' || Herself/Dawn|| "Stressed For Success" |- | rowspan=2|2005 || ''Saturday Night Live'' ||Herself / Skits / Musical Guest|| Host – Jason Bateman |- |''Damage Control'' ||Herself||Season 1, Ep. 1 |- |2007 ||''Reba'' ||Kelly|| "As We Forgive Those" |- |2009 || ''Saturday Night Live'' ||Herself / Musical Guest|| Host – Tracy Morgan |- |2011|| ''Phineas and Ferb'' ||Herself || "A Phineas and Ferb Family Christmas" |- |2012 || ''Saturday Night Live'' ||Herself / Musical Guest|| Host – Charles Barkley confirmed on air |}

Vocal ability

Clarkson possesses the vocal range of a soprano; her vocal talents and abilities have been met with praise from critics and celebrities alike. On an interview with ''Good Morning America'', Simon Cowell was asked of the then six ''American Idol'' winners, who he thought had the best voice. Cowell immediately answered that Clarkson did "by a mile", noting that she was "up there" with other great singers such as Celine Dion.

Arion Berger of ''Rolling Stone'' has said of Clarkson that "her high notes are sweet and pillowy, her growl is bone-shaking and sexy, and her midrange is amazingly confident for a pop posy whose career is tied for eternity to the whims of her ''American Idol'' overlords."

Dr. Luke, a songwriter and producer of some of Clarkson's hits stated that "She has powerful lungs. She's like the Lance Armstrong of vocal cords."

''Esquire'' wrote that Clarkson has “the best voice in the history of pop music".

Discography

''Thankful'' (2003)

''Breakaway'' (2004)

''My December'' (2007)

''All I Ever Wanted'' (2009)

''Stronger'' (2011)

Tours

;Headlining

Breakaway World Tour (2005–2006)

My December Tour (2007–2008)

All I Ever Wanted Tour (2009–2010)

Stronger Tour (2012)

;Promotional

Kelly Clarkson in Concert (2003)

Kelly Clarkson: Live in Concert (2009)

;Co-headlining

American Idols LIVE! Tour 2002 (with the American Idol Season 1 Finalists) (2002)

Independent Tour (with Clay Aiken) (2004)

2 Worlds 2 Voices Tour (with Reba McEntire) (2008)

Awards

See also

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart

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

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

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Adult Top 40 chart

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

List of artists who reached number one on the Australian singles chart

List of best-charting music artists in the U.S.

List of Idol series winners

References

Further reading

Phares, Heather. [ "Kelly—Biography"]. ''Allmusic''. Retrieved February 11, 2006.

Lamb, Bill. "Kelly Clarkson—Profile". About.com. Retrieved February 11, 2006.

Phares, Heather. "Kelly Clarkson—Biography". Yahoo LAUNCHcast. Retrieved February 11, 2006.

International charting information. ''Top40-Charts.com''. Retrieved February 12, 2006.

''Kelly Gets Cocky''. ''Idol'' winner fires Simon Fuller. PopSugar.com. ''Blog Archives''. Retrieved February 25, 2006.

. ''E! Online''. [''Some films defy criticism''.] Retrieved May 4, 2006.

Croatto, Pete. ''From Justin to Kelly''. [''Watching From Justin to Kelly, one question looms over the entire production: Why was this movie made?''] Retrieved May 4, 2006.

External links

Category:1982 births Category:Actors from Texas Category:American Christians Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American Idol winners Category:American people of Greek descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Welsh descent Category:American pop singer-songwriters Category:American record producers Category:English-language singers Category:American sopranos Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Texas Category:People from Fort Worth, Texas Category:RCA Records artists

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