name	Juanes
background	solo_singer
birth name	Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez
alias	Juanes
birth date	August 09, 1972
origin	Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia
instrument	Guitar, keyboards, vocals
genre	Rock music, Heavy Metal
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
years active	1988–present
label	UniversalGeffen
associated acts	Ekhymosis, Nelly Furtado, Laura Pausini, Colbie Caillat, Juan Luis Guerra
website	http://www.juanes.net/
notable instruments	}}

Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez (born August 9, 1972), better known as Juanes (for the contraction of his first and second name) is a Colombian musician who was a member of heavy metal band Ekhymosis and is now a solo artist. In 2000, his solo debut album ''Fíjate Bien'' won three Latin Grammy Awards. Juanes has sold more than 13 million albums. He has won seventeen Latin Grammy Awards, winning more than any other artist. He has also won one Grammy Award. Juanes received the BMI President’s Award at the 2010 BMI Latin Awards. Juanes is also known for his humanitarian work, especially with aid for Colombian victims of anti-personnel mines.

Early life and Ekhymosis

Juanes was born in Carolina del Príncipe, Antioquia, Colombia. When he was seven years old, his father and brothers began to teach him how to play guitar. His passion for the instrument led him to discover diverse genres of music such as traditional Latin sounds such as tango and bachata, as well as Colombian folk music.

He grew up in Medellín during the height of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar's reign, when the city had the highest homicide rate in the world. During his childhood, Juanes witnessed a civil war in which thousands were killed. He was greatly affected by the violence; his cousin was executed by kidnappers, and his close friend was murdered by gunmen. He believes that this period of time shaped his social consciousness, saying "Colombia has suffered so much that the only way to go forward is to imagine a better country." His father also died of cancer when he was a child, which caused him to further retreat into music.

As a teenager, Juanes was greatly influenced by metal acts such as Metallica. He started the metal band Ekhymosis in 1988, and it released its self-produced debut album, ''Niño Gigante'', the same year. The band released five studio albums during its career and shared the stage with acts including Alejandro Sanz, Aterciopelados, and Ricky Martin; however in Juanes' words, the band "couldn't get out of Colombia" and remained "very local and confined to the Colombian market." Juanes disbanded the group in 1998 so that he could pursue a solo career.

2002–present solo career

The follow-up, ''Un Dia Normal'' (''A Normal Day''), also produced by Gustavo Santaolalla who signed him with his first solo album, was released in 2002 and was highly successful in Latin America. The album was certified gold in Colombia during its first day of sales and was certified platinum and multi-platinum in countries including Colombia, Mexico, and Spain. The album spent 92 weeks in the top ten of ''Billboard''s Top Latin Albums chart, setting a new record, and spent a total of two years on the chart. The album was released after the eligibility deadlines for the 2002 Latin Grammy Awards, but the advance airdate for the lead single, "A Dios le Pido" ("To God I Pray"), allowed it to be nominated for three awards and win Best Rock Song. "A Dios le Pido" topped the singles charts of twelve countries and spent 47 consecutive weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Tracks. The album also featured "Fotografía" ("Photograph"), a duet with Portuguese Canadian pop singer Nelly Furtado about the isolation between lovers. Juanes later worked with Furtado on a remix of "Powerless (Say What You Want)", the lead single from her 2003 album ''Folklore'', and on "Te busqué" ("I Looked for You"), a single from her 2006 album ''Loose''. Juanes won the most awards at the 2003 Latin Grammy Awards, where he won each of the 5 awards for which he had been nominated, including Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Album of the Year.

''Mi Sangre'' (''My Blood''), was released in September 2004 and debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' Top Latin Albums. The album produced three consecutive number one singles, which held the top chart position for a combined 6 months. The album's third single, "La camisa negra" ("The Black Shirt"), was used in Italy in support of neo-fascism by relating it to the uniform used under the regime of Benito Mussolini. In response, left-wing media network Indymedia called for a boycott of the song. Juanes later stated that "'La camisa negra' has got nothing to do with fascism or Mussolini... People can interpret music in all kinds of ways I guess."

At the 2005 Latin Grammy Awards, Juanes won three additional awards to his nine previous Grammy awards. He took the award for Best Rock Song for "Nada Valgo Sin Tu Amor" ("I Am Worthless Without Your Love"), Best Rock Solo Album for ''Mi Sangre'' and Best Music Video for "Volverte a Ver" ("To See You Again"). On December 9, 2005, Juanes performed "La camisa negra" at an international gala in Germany celebrating the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final Draw evening. In 2006, he recorded a duet of "The Shadow of Your Smile" with Tony Bennett for Bennett's ''Duets: an American Classic''.

In June 2006, Juanes began a year-long sabbatical to spend time with his wife, model ''Karen Martínez'', and their daughters Luna and Paloma. He was working on an album that was released on October 23, 2007. When asked about the possibility of recording an album in English, Juanes responded, "singing in Spanish is very important because it's the language in which I think and feel. I respect people that sing in English, but for now I'll keep my Spanish." Juanes planned to launch his own music label, named 4J, in October 2007, to be distributed by the Universal Music Group. He also was working on a new album, titled ''La vida... es un ratico'' (''Life Is a Little Moment'').

''La vida... es un ratico'' was released on Oct 23, 2007 with the first single being "Me Enamora" (I fall in love). The second single was "Gotas de Agua Dulce" (drops of sweet water), and the third single became the vallenato fusion of "Tres" (three).

On December 11, 2007, Juanes performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway together with a variety of artists, which was broadcast live to over 100 countries.

On November 24, 2008, Juanes re-released the album as ''"La vida... es un ratico (en vivo)"'' [Deluxe Edition][2 CD/DVD Combo]" The album aside the 14 original songs, contains two previously unreleased songs: "Falsas Palabras" (false words) and "Odio Por Amor" (hate for love) which is also the current single. This new re-edition also includes seven live versions of songs played during his U.S. La Vida Tour. As another bonus added, Juanes also included a duet of his song "Hoy Me Voy" (today I leave) with US singer Colbie Caillat. The DVD contains the music videos of the four singles of the cd as well as a few live video recordings of the US tour.

In 2010, Juanes performed in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Kickoff Concert, as well as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, New York. In addition, he released his album P.A.R.C.E. which featured the #1 Billboard hit Yerbatero and the top-ten hit Y No Regresas. February 17, Juanes performed live on the third single from their fifth studio album Regalito in the delivery of the Premios Lo Nuestro. The album has sold 1 million copies worldwide.

Activism

Juanes has said that: "these are your people, young people, people with families, and four or five of them are dying every day." Juanes established the Mi Sangre Foundation to help victims of anti-personnel mines In 2005, he was named by ''Time'' as one of the world's 100 most influential people. Juanes has supported former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, stating that "with this new government of Álvaro Uribe my country seems in better shape." On November 15, 2005, he was honored at the annual benefit gala for Sir Paul McCartney's Adopt-A-Minefield for his work as a Goodwill Ambassador for United for Colombia, a non-profit organization that raises awareness about the impact of land mines within Colombia.

On April 19, 2006, Juanes performed before the European Parliament, as part of a campaign to increase awareness against the use of land mines around the world, including in his native Colombia. He was first singer to perform in the hemicycle where the European Parliament holds its plenary sessions. The Parliament gave a symbolic gift of €2.5 million to demine Colombia and to rehabilitate victims of the landmines. In honor of his work and his music, he was given an ''escopetarra'' (a decommissioned AK-47 converted into a guitar) by peace activist César López; he later sold it at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills for US$17,000. Juanes held a benefit concert on May 24, 2006 in conjunction with KLVE and Univision which raised roughly US$350,000 to care for injured children and provide prosthetics, wheelchairs, and land rehabilitation.

On July 19, 2006, French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres awarded Juanes with the highest cultural honor given by France, L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, declaring him "Knight in the order of Arts and Letters" for his work in social activism. In December 2006, work began on a recreational park for the rehabilitation of the handicapped named "Parque Juanes de la Paz" in Medellín. The 68,000-square-meter facility will cost COL$10.6 billion, financed in part by the government of Medellín, and is to be completed by May 2007.

Juanes is also an activist for his native Spanish language; he has stated many times that while he respects native Spanish-speaking artists who choose to sing in English (such as fellow Colombian singer Shakira), he himself will not sing in English in order to best express himself (since he thinks and feels in Spanish) and to promote the Spanish language. One exception was his duet with Tony Bennett for the song "The Shadow of your Smile." Also recently his new song "Odio por amor" includes one line in English: "It's Time To Change". He also sang a few lines of English during a duet performance with John Legend during the 2009 NBA All-Star Game.

On March 16, 2008, Juanes organized a free concert as a response to the 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis. This concert took place on the Colombia-Venezuela border. This was a free event and gathered an audience of 300,000 people. It was broadcast by Colombian and Venezuelan television stations. A Yahoo-Telemundo partnership webcast the event. The concert featured the well-known artists: Miguel Bosé, Alejandro Sanz from Spain. Juan Luís Guerra from the Dominican Republic, Ricardo Montaner from Venezuela, Juan Fernando Velasco from Ecuador and Juanes and Carlos Vives from Colombia. The concert became a reality with the help of many private companies from Colombia and Venezuela. As an important remark concerning this event, Colombian president Álvaro Uribe had expressed days before the concert that he would attend the event. Juanes' manager replied that since it was an artistic event with no political affiliations they preferred the president not to be present. President Uribe replied in an official letter that he accepted Juanes' manager's suggestion.

2009 Peace Concert in Cuba

On August 5, 2009, it was announced that Juanes would hold his second "Peace Without Borders" concert in Havana's storied Plaza de la Revolución on September 20, 2009. The Cuban concert coincides with U.N. International Peace Day and could feature up to 12 artists from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and the United States. Cuban folk legend Silvio Rodriguez and local salsa stars Los Van Van will also be participating.

Juanes has received criticism on his potential concert by some in the Cuban-American/Cuban exile community in Miami who believe it will be seen as an act of support for the communist government of Cuba. Juanes expressed in an interview for Univision that he has no affiliation whatsoever to the Cuban government or their political views and that he sees this only as an artistic performance and nothing more. Willy Chirino, a Cuban American performer who has not been to Cuba in over 45 years, however came out in defense of the right of Juanes and others to sing in Cuba, a move also supported by Puerto Rican artist Olga Tañón. On August 14, 2009, Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón's daughter, Margarita Alarcón, spoke of the controversy to ''CBS News'', remarking that:

On August 20, 2009, Juanes announced that he had considered canceling the peace concert citing "fears for his safety as well as his family", who reside with him in Miami on Key Biscayne. Such fears are contained in an August 15, 2009, police report, and are the result of threatening messages Juanes has received from those he describes as "a very small number of extremists." However, John Reilly, Juanes' New York-based spokesman, has stated that plans for the concert have not changed and that "the vast majority of communication Juanes is receiving from both fans on Twitter and everyday people he comes into contact with in Miami continues to be overwhelmingly supportive. The concert "Paz Sin Fronteras"(Peace Without Borders) was a total success. Juanes closed it along with 15 other Cuban and international artists and with more than one million people attending the concert."

Personal life

Juanes met model/actress Karen Martínez during the filming of his video "Podemos Hacernos Daño". On August 6, 2004 they were married. The couple separated in May 2007 after three years of marriage due to unresolved differences, but reconciled four months later. They have three children;2 girls and 1 boy.

Juanes is of Basque descent on his father's side.

His band

Waldo Madera (drums since 2004)

Felipe Navia (bass since 2000)

Juan Pablo Daza (Guitar since 2010)

Emmanuel Briceño (Keyboards and Vocals since 2002)

Felipe Alzate (Percussion since 2000)

Fernando Tobon (Guitar since 2002)

Richard Bravo (Percussion since 2010)

Discography

2000 - ''Fíjate Bien''

2002 - ''Un Día Normal''

2004 - ''Mi Sangre''

2007 - ''La Vida... Es un Ratico''

2010 - ''P.A.R.C.E.''

See also

Music of Colombia

Colombian rock

Life (BBC TV series) narrated by Juanes

References

External links

Official website

*English version

Juanes to Twitter in Cuba Despite Exiles By Alfredo Prieto, ''Havana Times,'' August 26, 2009

Official Universal Music Latino Website Mi Sangre Foundation website

Juanes Interview

Juanes Interview on CorrienteLatina.com

English version

Category:1972 births Category:Living people Category:Colombian singers Category:Colombian musicians Category:Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Colombian rock guitarists Category:Colombian male singers Category:Colombian rock singers Category:Colombian singer-songwriters * Category:Colombian people of Basque descent Category:Humanitarians Category:People from Medellín (city) Category:Rock en Español musicians Category:Rock singer-songwriters Category:Basque-language singers Category:Spanish-language singers Category:Wrasse Records artists Category:Latin Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Miami, Florida

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name	Nelly Furtado
background	solo_singer
birth name	Nelly Kim Furtado
background	solo_singer
birth date	December 02, 1978
origin	Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
instrument	Vocals, guitar, keyboards, ukulele, trombone
vocal range	Mezzo-soprano (Ab3-G5)
genre	Pop, folk, R&B;, Latin pop
occupation	Singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, actress
years active	1996–present
label	DreamWorks, Geffen, MMG, Universal Music Latino
website
Associated acts	Gerald Eaton, Brian West, Timbaland, James Bryan }}

Nelly Kim Furtado (born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress of Portuguese descent. She has sold 20 million albums worldwide and 18 million singles, bringing her total sales to nearly 40 million records. Furtado grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, ''Whoa, Nelly!'', and its single "I'm like a Bird", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. It produced two more international singles: the more successful "Turn off the Light", and "Shit on the Radio (Remember the Days)". After giving birth to her daughter Nevis, her second studio album, ''Folklore'', was released. It was less commercially successful in the US. It produced three international singles: "Powerless (Say What You Want)", "Try", and "Força" (the theme of the 2004 European Football Championship).

In summer 2006, she released her third studio album, ''Loose''. It is her biggest success to date worldwide. It produced the number-one hits "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Say It Right" and "All Good Things (Come to an End)". After a three-year break, in September 2009, she released her first full-length Spanish album, ''Mi Plan'', along with her first Spanish single "Manos al Aire", which topped the Billboard Hot Latin Songs. This made Furtado the first North American singer to top the Billboard Hot Latin Chart with an original Spanish song. Further singles released were "Más" and "Bajo Otra Luz". For ''Mi Plan'', Nelly received the Latin Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Album. On October 26, a remix album, ''Mi Plan Remixes'', was released. Furtado released her first greatest hits album, ''The Best of Nelly Furtado'', one month later on November 12, 2010.

Early life

Furtado was born on December 2, 1978, in Victoria, British Columbia to Portuguese parents, Maria Manuela and António José Furtado, both immigrants from the Azores. She was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim. Her parents were born on São Miguel Island and emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s. Her siblings are Michael Anthony and Lisa Anne. She was raised in a Roman Catholic home.

At age four, she began performing and singing in Portuguese. Furtado's first public performance was when she sang a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day. She began playing musical instruments at the age of nine, learning the trombone, ukulele and – in later years – the guitar and keyboards. At the age of 12, she began writing songs, and as a teenager, she performed in a Portuguese marching band.

Furtado has acknowledged her family as the source of her strong work ethic; she spent eight summers working as a chambermaid with her mother, along with her brother and sister, who was a housekeeper in Victoria. She has stated that coming from a working class background has shaped her identity in a positive way.

Music career

1996–99: Musical beginnings

During a visit with her sister Lisa Anne in Toronto, the summer after eleventh grade, Furtado met Tallis Newkirk, member of the hip hop group Plains of Fascination. She contributed vocals to their 1996 album, ''Join the Ranks'', on the track "Waitin' 4 The Streets". After graduating from Mount Douglas Secondary School in 1996, she moved to Toronto to reside with her sister Lisa Anne. The following year, she formed Nelstar, a trip hop duo with Newkirk. Ultimately, Furtado felt the trip-hop style of the duo was "too segregated", and believed it did not represent her personality or allow her to showcase her vocal ability. She left the group and planned to move back home.

In 1997, she performed at the Honey Jam talent show. Her performance attracted the attention of The Philosopher Kings singer Gerald Eaton, who then approached her to write with him. He and fellow Kings member Brian West helped Furtado produce a demo. She left Toronto, but returned again to record more material with Eaton and West. The material recorded during these sessions led to her 1999 record deal with DreamWorks Records, where she was signed by A&R; executive Beth Halper, partner of Garbage drummer and record producer Butch Vig. Furtado's first single, "Party's Just Begun (Again)", was released that year on the ''Brokedown Palace: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack''.

2000–05: ''Whoa, Nelly!'' and ''Folklore''

Furtado continued the collaboration with Eaton and West, who co-produced her debut album, ''Whoa, Nelly!'', which was released in October 2000. Following the release of the album, Furtado headlined the "Burn in the Spotlight Tour" and also appeared on Moby's ''Area:One'' tour.

The album was an international success, supported by three international singles: "I'm like a Bird", "Turn off the Light", and "...On the Radio (Remember the Days)". It received four Grammy nominations in 2002, and her debut single won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Furtado's work was also critically acclaimed for her innovative mixture of various genres and sounds. ''Slant Magazine'' called the album "a delightful and refreshing antidote to the army of 'pop princesses' and rap-metal bands that had taken over popular music at the turn of the millennium". The sound of the album was strongly influenced by musicians who had traversed cultures and "the challenge of making heartfelt, emotional music that's upbeat and hopeful". According to ''Maclean's'' magazine, ''Whoa, Nelly!'' had sold six million copies worldwide as of August 2006. Portions of the song "Scared of You" are in Portuguese, while "Onde Estás" is entirely in Portuguese, reflecting Furtado's Portuguese heritage. The International Release of "Whoa Nelly" featured fellow Canadian Esthero on the song titled "I Feel You".

In 2002, Furtado appeared on the song "Thin Line", on underground hip hop group Jurassic 5's album ''Power in Numbers''. The same year, Furtado provided her vocals to the Paul Oakenfold's song "The Harder They Come" from the album ''Bunkka'' and also made the song "These words are my own". She also had a collaboration with Colombian artist Juanes, in the song "Fotografia" where she showed her diversity of yet another language. Furtado was also featured in "Breathe" from Swollen Members "Monsters in the Closet" release; the video for "Breathe," directed by Spawn creator Todd MacFarlane, won the 2003 Western Canadian Music Awards Outstanding Video and MuchVIBE Best Rap Video.

Furtado's second album, ''Folklore'', was released in November 2003. The final track on the album, "Childhood Dreams", was dedicated to her daughter, Nevis. The album includes the single "Força" (meaning "strength"/ "power" or "you can do it!" in Portuguese), the official anthem of the 2004 European Football Championship. Furtado performed this song in Lisbon at the championship's final, in which the Portugal national team played. The lead single is "Powerless (Say What You Want)" and the second single is the ballad "Try". The album was not as successful as her debut, partly due to the album's less "poppy" sound, as well as underpromotion from her label DreamWorks Records. DreamWorks had just been sold to Universal Music Group. In 2005, DreamWorks Records, along with many of its artists including Furtado, was absorbed into Geffen Records.

"Powerless (Say What You Want)" was later remixed, featuring Colombian rocker Juanes, who had previously worked with Furtado on his track "Fotografía" ("Photograph"). The two would collaborate again on "Te Busqué" ("I searched for you"), a single from Furtado's 2006 album ''Loose''.

2006–08: ''Loose''

Furtado's third album, named ''Loose'', after the spontaneous, creative decisions she made while creating the album, was released in June 2006. In this album, primarily produced by Timbaland, Furtado experiments with sounds from R&B;, hip hop, and 1980s music. Furtado herself describes the album's sound as ''punk-hop'', described as "modern, poppy, spooky" and as having "a mysterious, after-midnight vibe... extremely visceral". She attributed the youthful sound of the album to the presence of her two-year-old daughter. The album received generally positive reviews from critics, with some citing the "revitalising" effect of Timbaland on Furtado's music, and others calling it "slick, smart and surprising". Some have labeled her a ''"sellout"'' for seemingly abandoning her folk and rock roots in favour of hip hop and R&B;, while others have accused her of attempting to "sex up" her music and appearance to sell more records.

''Loose'' has become the most successful album of Furtado's career so far, as it reached number one, not only in Canada and the United States, but also several countries worldwide. The album produced her first number-one hit in the United States, "Promiscuous", as well as her first number-one hit in the United Kingdom, "Maneater". The single "Say It Right" eventually became Furtado's most successful song worldwide, due to its huge success in Europe and in the United States, where it became her second number-one hit. "All Good Things (Come to an End)" became her most successful song in Europe, topping single charts in numerous countries there.

On February 16, 2007, Furtado embarked on the "Get Loose Tour". She returned in March 2007 to her hometown of Victoria to perform a concert at the Save-On Foods Memorial Centre. In honour of her visit, local leaders officially proclaimed March 21, 2007, the first day of spring, as Nelly Furtado Day. After the tour, she released her first live DVD/CD named ''Loose the Concert''. On April 1, 2007, Furtado was a performer and host of the 2007 Juno Awards in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She won all five awards for which she was nominated, including Album of the Year and Single of the Year. She also appeared on stage at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium in London on July 1, 2007, where she performed "Say It Right", "Maneater", and "I'm like a Bird".

In 2007, Furtado and Justin Timberlake were featured on Timbaland's single "Give It to Me", which became her third number-one single in the U.S. and second in the UK. In late 2008, Furtado collaborated with James Morrison on a song called "Broken Strings" for his album ''Songs for You, Truths for Me''. The single was released on December 8 and peaked at No.2 on the UK Singles Chart in early January.

In 2007, Furtado leaked plans to ''Flare'' regarding a song she was set to duet for Kylie Minogue's return. However, the song was not featured on her album ''X'', though Minogue says the aforementioned song "is still outstanding" and has plans to pursue it. She said, "I am looking forward to getting in the studio and doing it because I know Nelly and I would have a great time together". The track has not appeared on Minogue's 2010 album ''Aphrodite'' either. In 2008, she sang with the Italian group "Zero Assoluto" the ballad Win or Lose – Appena prima di partire, released in Italy, France and Germany and whose video was shot in Barcelona. On December 31, 2008, ''El Diario La Prensa'' posted an article that Furtado is planning on recording songs in English and Spanish for her upcoming album and that it is "expected to launch on September 15, 2009".

2009–2010: ''Mi Plan'' and compilation albums

|source=— Furtado explaining song selected on ''The Best of Nelly Furtado''.}} Furtado made a guest appearance on Flo Rida's new album, ''R.O.O.T.S.'', which was released on March 31, 2009. The track is titled "Jump". Furtado has also made a guest appearance on Divine Brown's ''Love Chronicles'', co-writing and singing on the background of the song "Sunglasses".

In early March, a song called "Gotta Know" leaked onto the Internet and was said to be Nelly's. In response, on March 4, 2009, Furtado stated on her MySpace blog that the song is not hers and that she is recording two new albums: one in Spanish, and the other in Portuguese. Nelly Furtado announced via the Perez Hilton blog, that the Spanish album would be titled ''Mi Plan'' and the first single titled "Manos Al Aire" (in English, meaning "Hands in the Air"). The album will have twelve new songs, all in Spanish, as stated by Nelly in a message left in her official website. The second single "Más" was released on July 21, as it was announced on Nelly's official MySpace. The third single "Mi Plan" (ft. Alex Cuba) was released on iTunes on August 11, 2009 and "Bajo Otra Luz" (ft. Julieta Venegas and La Mala Rodriguez) is the fourth and final countdown single and it was released on September 1, 2009. She also invited the Mexican star Alejandro Fernández to sing a duet song named "Sueños" ("Dreams"). The video for "Manos al Aire" premiered on July 29 on It's On with Alexa Chung. On November 11, 2010 Furtado won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Album for ''Mi Plan''. She is the first Canadian to win a Latin Grammy award.

Furtado made a guest appearance on Canadian singer k-os's new album ''Yes!'', collaborating alongside Saukrates on the song "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman," released in early July 2009. Nelly Furtado will make a guest appearance on Tiësto's single "Who Wants to Be Alone" on his new album ''Kaleidoscope'' which was released on October 6, 2009. Furtado also recorded "Manos al Aire" in Simlish for the new Sims 3 expansion, World Adventures.

On February 12, 2010, Nelly Furtado sang in a duet with Bryan Adams at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. The song was called "Bang The Drum" released on EMI album ''Sounds Of Vancouver 2010'' (a commemorative album). On February 14, 2010, she appeared again at the Winter Olympic Victory Ceremony after the awarding of the medals for the athletes. On April 13, 2010, Nelly announced on her Twitter account that ''Lifestyle'', her fourth English studio album, would not be released during the summer of 2010 and that she will go on a second leg of her Mi Plan Tour where she will get more inspiration for her upcoming album ''Lifestyle''. Nelly Furtado is featured in a new song by N.E.R.D. called "Hot N Fun". She also participated in the Young Artists for Haiti song, in which many Canadian artists came together and sang K'naan's inspirational song "Wavin' Flag" to raise money for the victims of the Haiti Earthquake.

To promote the tour in Brazil, on March 24, 2010, Furtado made a ''"VIP Pocket Show"'' in reality show program Big Brother Brasil 10 from Rede Globo, the country's leading channel. She performed 5 songs from the tour in acoustic versions ("Maneater", "I'm Like A Bird", "Try", "Say It Right" and "Turn Off The Light"). Nelly Furtado participated in the live DVD recording of the Brazilian singer Ivete Sangalo in Madison Square Garden on September 4, 2010. Nelly Furtado sang two new songs: "Girlfriend in the City" and "Night Is Young" on her concert in Warsaw, Poland.

Furtado was honoured with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in October 2010. On October 26, 2010, Furtado released ''Mi Plan Remixes'' featuring 12 tracks of remixed hits from "Mi Plan." This album included the Original Spanglish Version of "Fuerte", her final release from ''Mi Plan''.

Furtado released her first greatest hits album entitled ''The Best of Nelly Furtado'' on November 16, 2010. The album's first single, "Night Is Young" premiered on BBC Radio 1 on October 3, 2010. The song was first released for digital download on October 12, 2010 in Australia. Three new songs will be on the greatest hits album, including "Night Is Young", another collaboration Salaam Remi entitled "Girlfriend in the City", and the Lester Mendez produced track, left over from the ''Loose'' sessions, "Stars".

2011–present: ''Lifestyle'' and other projects

On July 2, 2011, Furtado preformed a new track from her upcoming studio album. The acoustic ballad was entitled "Mystery". The proposed album is targeted for a 2012 release and has attracted producers such as The Neptunes, Tiësto, Timbaland, Ryan Tedder and Rodney Jerkins. At a concert in Lisbon,'Delta Tejo Festival', Furtado covered Jennifer Lopez's 2011 hit single "On the Floor" which incorporates Kaoma's 1989 single "Lambada". Furtado announced that she would include rapper Nas on her upcoming lead single, amongst others to be featured on the album. Another album feature surfaced is Passion Pit's lead singer Mike Angelakos on a track entitled "The Edge", while Furtado also expressed interest to work once again with rapper Missy Elliot. Furtado continued to collaborate with hip-hop producer Salaam Remi, who previously worked on the 2010 single Night Is Young, on "The Edge". The lyrics for the Salaam Remi produced track are reported to be influenced by the Tiger Woods cheating scandal, in which was originally referred to as "Elin's Song". Furtado proclaims that ''Lifestyle'' would be most like her 2000 debut Whoa, Nelly!, but containing elements from urban, alternative, and reggae. In addition is the first of Furtado's album to be completely in English. The influences for the album range from Janelle Monae, The xx, to Florence + the Machine.

Aside from ''Lifestyle'', Furtado was featured Game's second single on the The R.E.D. Album entitled "Mamma Knows" (produced by the Neptunes). For the Canadian film The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom, Furtado lent her vocals for the Dolly Parton gospel cover "The Seeker" featured during the credits of the film.

Other work

Record label

She has formed her own record label, Nelstar, in conjunction with Canadian independent label group Last Gang Labels. The first act signed to Nelstar is Fritz Helder & the Phantoms. Furtado released her first Spanish single "Manos al Aire" on the new label.

Philanthropy

For World AIDS Day in 2006, Furtado took part in an AIDS awareness concert in South Africa hosted by MTV, BET, and Nike; fellow performers included Enrique Iglesias, Kanye West, Kelly Rowland, Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson. Furtado also hosted a program about AIDS on MTV, which also featured guests Alicia Keys and Justin Timberlake. She cites diverse influences, which include soul-trip/hip hop artists such as De La Soul, TLC, world music artists Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Amalia Rodrigues, as well as Caetano Veloso, Juanes, Jeff Buckley, Esthero, Björk, Cornershop, Oasis, Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins and Beck.

Furtado's music has also been influenced by her current residence, Toronto, which she calls "the most multicultural city in the entire world" and a place where she "can be any culture". Regarding Toronto's cultural diversity, she has said that she did not have to wait for the Internet revolution to learn about world music; she began listening to it at the age of five and continues to discover new genres.

Her biggest influence when growing up was Ani DiFranco:

"When I was a teenager, I wanted to be (the feminist punk-folk singer) Ani DiFranco. I never wanted to be part of corporate music."

Personal life

On September 20, 2003, in Toronto, Furtado gave birth to a daughter, Nevis, whose father is Jasper Gahunia [AKA DJ Lil' Jazz, Canadian DMC Champion 1998]. Furtado and Gahunia, who had been good friends for several years, remained together for four years until their breakup in 2005. Furtado told ''Blender'' magazine that they continue to be good friends and jointly share responsibility of raising Nevis.

In June 2006, in an interview with ''Genre'' magazine, when asked if she had "ever felt an attraction to women", Furtado replied "Absolutely. Women are beautiful and sexy". Some considered this an announcement of bisexuality, but in August 2006, she stated that she was "straight, but very open-minded". In November 2006, Furtado revealed that she once turned down $500,000 to pose fully clothed in ''Playboy''.

Furtado married Cuban sound engineer Demacio "Demo" Castellón, with whom she had worked on the ''Loose'' album, on July 19, 2008.

Furtado is one of several celebrities who have come under fire recently after 2011 reports from the New York Times and a WikiLeaks document revealed several entertainers had received extravagant sums to perform for the family of Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi. She has promised to donate to charity the $1 million she received for a 2007 concert.

Furtado publicly endorsed Green Party Leader, Elizabeth May in Saanich-Gulf Islands during the Federal election in 2011.

Discography

''Whoa, Nelly!'' (2000)

''Folklore'' (2003)

''Loose'' (2006)

''Mi Plan'' (2009)

Filmography

! Year	! Title	! Role	! Genre	Notes
2001		Herself	American Science fiction Television series	Performed "I'm like a Bird"
2006	''Floribella''	Herself	Portuguese Soap Opera
2007	''One Life to Live''	Herself	American Soap Opera
2007	''CSI: NY''	Ava Brandt	American police procedural television series	Played Ava, a professional criminal accused of murder.
2007	''Punk'd''	Herself	American hidden camera practical joke television series	A victim of a bomb scare
2008		Christa Balder	Video game adaptation	The wife of Max Payne's slain ex-partner
2010	''Big Brother Brasil''	Herself	Brazilian reality show	Live performance
2010	Score : A Hockey Musical	An Ardent Hockey Fan	Canadian Film	www.scoreahockeymusical.com

See also

List of awards and nominations received by Nelly Furtado

References

External links

Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:People from Victoria, British Columbia Category:Canadian dance musicians Category:Canadian female guitarists Category:Canadian female singers Category:Canadian folk guitarists Category:Canadian folk singers Category:Canadian multi-instrumentalists Category:Canadian pop guitarists Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian rhythm and blues singers Category:Canadian Roman Catholics Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:English-language singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Latin Grammy Award winners Category:Juno Award winners Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Musicians from British Columbia Category:Canadian people of Portuguese descent Category:Portuguese-language singers Category:Spanish-language singers Category:Trip hop musicians Category:Fellows of the Royal Conservatory of Music

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Name	Tony Bennett
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Anthony Dominick Benedetto
Born	August 03, 1926Astoria, Queens, New York, U.S.
Genre	Traditional popJazz
Years active	1949–present
Occupation	Singer
Label	Columbia MGM Improv Legacy Recordings
Website	Official website }}

Tony Bennett (born Anthony Dominick Benedetto; August 3, 1926) is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz.

Raised in New York City, Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as an infantryman with the U.S. Army in the European Theatre. Afterwards, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records, and had his first number one popular song with "Because of You" in 1951. Several top hits such as "Rags to Riches" followed in the early 1950s. Bennett then further refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as ''The Beat of My Heart'' and ''Basie Swings, Bennett Sings''. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". His career and his personal life then suffered an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era.

Bennett staged a remarkable comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s, putting out gold record albums again and expanding his audience to the MTV Generation while keeping his musical style intact. He remains a popular and critically praised recording artist and concert performer in the 2000s. Bennett has won fifteen Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, been named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree. He has sold over 50 million records worldwide. Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter, creating works under the name Benedetto that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is also the founder of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens.

Early life

Anthony Benedetto was born in Astoria, Queens, New York City, the son of Ann (née Suraci) and John Benedetto. His father was a grocer who had emigrated from Podàrgoni, a rural eastern district of the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria, and his mother was a seamstress. With two other children and a father who was ailing and unable to work, the siblings grew up in poverty. John Benedetto died when Anthony was 10 years old.

Young "Tony" Benedetto grew up listening to Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby as well as jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden and Joe Venuti. An uncle was a tap dancer in vaudeville, giving him an early window into show business. By age 10 he was already singing, and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge. Drawing and caricatures were also an early passion of his. He attended New York's High School of Industrial Art where he was studying painting and music, but dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan. But mostly he set his sights on a professional singing career, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around the borough of Queens.

World War II and after

Benedetto was drafted into the United States Army in November 1944, during the final stages of World War II. He did basic training at Fort Dix and Fort Robinson as part of becoming an infantry rifleman. Benedetto ran afoul of a sergeant from the South who disliked the Italian from New York City and heavy doses of KP duty or BAR cleaning resulted. Processed through the huge Le Havre replacement depot, in January 1945, he was assigned as a replacement infantryman to 255th Infantry Regiment of the 63rd Infantry Division, a unit filling in for the heavy losses suffered in the Battle of the Bulge. He moved across France, and later, into Germany. As March 1945 began, he joined the front line and what he would later describe as a "front-row seat in hell."

As the German Army was pushed back to their homeland, Benedetto and his company saw bitter fighting in cold winter conditions, often hunkering down in foxholes as German 88 mm guns fired on them. At the end of March, they crossed the Rhine and entered Germany, engaging in dangerous house-to-house, town-after-town fighting to clean out German soldiers; during the first week of April, they crossed the Kocher River, and by the end of the month reached the Danube. During his time in combat, Benedetto narrowly escaped death several times. The experience made him a patriot and also a pacifist; he would later write, "Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one." At the war's conclusion he was involved in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg, where some American prisoners of war from the 63rd Division had also been held.

Benedetto stayed in Germany as part of the occupying force, but was assigned to an informal Special Services band unit that would entertain nearby American forces. His dining with a black friend from high school – at a time when the Army was still segregated – led to his being demoted and reassigned to Graves Registration Service duties. Subsequently, he sang with the 314th Army Special Services Band under the stage name Joe Bari (a name he had started using before the war, chosen after the city and province in Italy and as a partial anagram of his family origins in Calabria). He played with many musicians who would have post-war careers.

Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, Benedetto studied at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill. He was taught the bel canto singing discipline, which would keep his voice in good shape for his entire career. He continued to perform wherever he could, including while waiting tables. Based upon a suggestion from a teacher at American Theatre Wing, he developed an unusual approach that involved imitating, as he sang, the style and phrasing of other musicians—such as that of Stan Getz's saxophone and Art Tatum's piano—helping him to improvise as he interpreted a song. He made a few recordings as Bari in 1949 for small Leslie Records, but they failed to sell.

In 1949, Pearl Bailey recognized Benedetto's talent and asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village. She had invited Bob Hope to the show. Hope decided to take Benedetto on the road with him, but suggested he use his real name simplified as Tony Bennett. In 1950, Bennett cut a demo of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and was signed to the major Columbia Records label by Mitch Miller.

First successes

Warned by Miller not to imitate Frank Sinatra (who was just then leaving Columbia), Bennett began his career as a crooner singing commercial pop tunes. His first big hit was "Because of You", a ballad produced by Miller with a lush orchestral arrangement from Percy Faith. It started out gaining popularity on jukeboxes, then reached #1 on the pop charts in 1951 and stayed there for 10 weeks, selling over a million copies. This was followed to the top of the charts later that year by a similarly-styled rendition of Hank Williams's "Cold, Cold Heart", which helped introduce Williams and country music in general to a wider, more national audience. The Miller and Faith tandem continued to work on all of Bennett's early hits. Bennett's recording of "Blue Velvet" was also very popular and attracted screaming teenaged fans at concerts at the famed Paramount Theater in New York (Bennett did seven shows a day, starting at 10:30 a.m.) and elsewhere.

On February 12, 1952, Bennett married Ohio art student and jazz fan Patricia Beech, whom he had met the previous year after a nightclub performance in Cleveland. Two thousand female fans dressed in black gathered outside the ceremony at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral in mock mourning. Bennett and Beech would have two sons, D'Andrea (Danny, born around 1954) and Daegal (Dae, born around 1955).

A third #1 came in 1953 with "Rags to Riches". Unlike Bennett's other early hits, this was an up-tempo big band number with a bold, brassy sound and a double tango in the instrumental break; it topped the charts for eight weeks. Later that year the producers of the upcoming Broadway musical ''Kismet'' had Bennett record "Stranger in Paradise" as a way of promoting the show during a New York newspaper strike. The song reached the top, the show was a hit, and Bennett began a long practice of recording show tunes. "Stranger in Paradise" was also a #1 hit in the United Kingdom a year and a half later and started Bennett's career as an international artist.

Once the rock and roll era began in 1955, the dynamic of the music industry changed and it became harder and harder for existing pop singers to do well commercially. Nevertheless, Bennett continued to enjoy success, placing eight songs in the ''Billboard'' during the latter part of the 1950s, with "In the Middle of an Island" reaching the highest at #9 in 1957.

For a month in August–September 1956, Bennett hosted a NBC Saturday night television variety show, called ''The Tony Bennett Show'', as a summer replacement for ''The Perry Como Show''. Patti Page and Julius La Rosa had in turn hosted the two previous months, and they all shared the same singers, dancers, and orchestra. In 1959, Bennett would again fill in for ''The Perry Como Show'', this time alongside Teresa Brewer and Jaye P. Morgan as co-hosts of the summer-long ''Perry Presents.''

A growing artistry

In 1954, the guitarist Chuck Wayne became Bennett's musical director. Bennett released his first long-playing album in 1955, ''Cloud 7''. The album was billed as featuring Wayne and showed Benett's leanings towards jazz. In 1957, Ralph Sharon became Bennett's pianist and musical director, replacing Wayne. Sharon told Bennett that a career singing "sweet saccharine songs like 'Blue Velvet'" wouldn't last long, and encouraged Bennett to focus even more on his jazz inclinations.

The result was the 1957 album ''The Beat of My Heart''. It used well-known jazz musicians such as Herbie Mann and Nat Adderley, with a strong emphasis on percussion from the likes of Art Blakey, Jo Jones, Latin star Candido Camero, and Chico Hamilton. The album was both popular and critically praised. Bennett followed this by working with the Count Basie Orchestra, becoming the first male pop vocalist to sing with Basie's band. The albums ''Basie Swings, Bennett Sings'' (1958) and ''In Person!'' (1959) were the well-regarded fruits of this collaboration, with "Chicago" being one of the standout songs.

Bennett also built up the quality, and therefore, the reputation of his nightclub act; in this he was following the path of Sinatra and other top jazz and standards singers of this era. In June 1962, Bennett staged a highly-promoted concert performance at Carnegie Hall, using a stellar line-up of musicians including Al Cohn, Kenny Burrell, and Candido, as well as the Ralph Sharon Trio. The concert featured 44 songs, including favorites like "I've Got the World on a String" and "The Best Is Yet To Come". It was a big success, further cementing Bennett's reputation as a star both at home and abroad. Bennett also appeared on television, and in October 1962 he sang on the first night of the Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show''.

Also in 1962, Bennett released the song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". Although this only reached #19 on the , it spent close to a year on various other charts and increased Bennett's exposure. The album of the same title was a hit and both the single and album achieved gold record status. The song won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance. Over the years, this would become known as Bennett's signature song. In 2001, it was ranked 23rd on an RIAA/NEA list of the most historically significant Songs of the 20th Century.

Bennett's following album, ''I Wanna Be Around'' (1963), was also a top-5 success, with the title track and "The Good Life" each reaching the of the pop singles chart along with the of the Adult Contemporary chart.

The next year brought The Beatles and the British Invasion, and with them still more musical and cultural attention to rock and less to pop, standards, and jazz. Over the next couple of years Bennett had minor hits with several albums and singles based on show tunes – his last top-40 single was the #34 "If I Ruled the World" from ''Pickwick'' in 1965 – but his commercial fortunes were clearly starting to decline. An attempt to break into acting with a role in the poorly received 1966 film ''The Oscar'' met with middling reviews for Bennett; he did not enjoy the experience and did not seek further roles.

A firm believer in the American Civil Rights movement, Bennett participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. Years later he would continue this commitment by refusing to perform in apartheid South Africa.

Years of struggle

Ralph Sharon and Bennett parted ways in 1965. There was great pressure on singers such as Lena Horne and Barbra Streisand to record "contemporary" rock songs, and in this vein Columbia Records' Clive Davis suggested that Bennett do the same. Bennett was very reluctant, and when he tried, the results pleased no one. This was exemplified by ''Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!'' (1970), before which Bennett became physically ill at the thought of recording. It featured misguided attempts at Beatles and other current songs and a ludicrous psychedelic art cover.

Years later Bennett would recall his dismay at being asked to do contemporary material, comparing it to when his mother was forced to produce a cheap dress. By 1972, he had departed Columbia for MGM Records, but found no more success there, and in a couple more years he was without a recording contract.

Bennett and his wife Patricia had been separated since 1965, their marriage a victim of Bennett's spending too much time on the road, among other factors. In 1971, their divorce became official. Bennett had been involved with aspiring actress Sandra Grant since filming ''The Oscar'', and on December 29, 1971 they married. They had two daughters, Joanna (born around 1969) and Antonia (born 1974), and moved to Los Angeles.

Taking matters into his own hands, Bennett started his own record company, Improv. He cut some songs that would later become favorites, such as "What is This Thing Called Love?", and made two well-regarded albums with jazz pianist Bill Evans, ''The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album'' (1975) and ''Together Again'' (1976), but Improv lacked a distribution arrangement with a major label and by 1977 it was out of business. A stint living in England, like other American jazz expatriates, did not change his fortunes.

As the decade neared its end, Bennett had no recording contract, no manager, and was not performing any concerts outside of Las Vegas. His second marriage was failing (they would completely separate in 1979, but not officially divorce until 2007). He had developed a drug addiction, was living beyond his means, and had the Internal Revenue Service trying to seize his Los Angeles home. He had hit bottom.

Turnaround

After a near-fatal cocaine overdose in 1979, Bennett called his sons Danny and Dae for help. "Look, I'm lost here," he told them. "It seems like people don't want to hear the music I make."

Danny Bennett, an aspiring musician himself, also came to a realization. The band Danny and his brother had started, Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends, had foundered and Danny's musical abilities were limited. However, he had discovered during this time that he did have a head for business. His father, on the other hand, had tremendous musical talent but was having trouble sustaining a career from it and had little financial sense. Danny signed on as his father's manager.

Danny got his father's expenses under control, moved him back to New York, and began booking him in colleges and small theaters to get him away from a "Vegas" image. After some effort, a successful plan to pay back the IRS debt was put into place. Tony Bennett had also reunited with Ralph Sharon as his pianist and musical director. By 1986, Tony Bennett was re-signed to Columbia Records, this time with creative control, and released ''The Art of Excellence''. This became his first album to reach the charts since 1972.

An unexpected audience

By the mid-1980s, the excesses of the disco, punk rock, and new wave eras had given many artists and listeners a greater appreciation for the classic American song. Rock stars such as Linda Ronstadt began recording albums of standards, and such songs began showing up more frequently in movie soundtracks and on television commercials.

Danny Bennett felt strongly that younger audiences, although completely unfamiliar with Tony Bennett, would respond to his music if only given a chance to see and hear it. More crucially, no changes to Tony's appearance (tuxedo), singing style (his own), musical accompaniment (The Ralph Sharon Trio or an orchestra), or song choice (generally the Great American Songbook) were necessary or desirable.

Accordingly, Danny began regularly to book his father on a show with a younger, hip audience, ''Late Night with David Letterman''. This was subsequently followed by appearances on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', ''The Simpsons'', ''Muppets Tonight'', and various MTV programs. In 1993, Bennett played a series of benefit concerts organized by alternative rock radio stations around the country. The plan worked; as Tony later remembered, "I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter, Gershwin – they were like, 'Who wrote that?' To them, it was different. If you're different, you stand out."

During this time, Bennett continued to record, first putting out the acclaimed look back ''Astoria: Portrait of the Artist'' (1990), then emphasizing themed albums such as the Sinatra homage ''Perfectly Frank'' (1992) and the Fred Astaire tribute ''Steppin' Out'' (1993). The latter two both achieved gold status and won Grammys for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance (Bennett's first Grammys since 1962) and further established Bennett as the inheritor of the mantle of a classic American great.

As Bennett was seen at ''MTV Video Music Awards'' shows side by side with the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav, and as his "Steppin' Out With My Baby" video received MTV airplay, it was clear that, as ''The New York Times'' said, "Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises."

The new audience reached its height with Bennett's appearance in 1994 on ''MTV Unplugged''. (He quipped famously on the show, "I've been unplugged my whole career.") Featuring guest appearances by rock and country stars Elvis Costello and k.d. lang (both of whom had a profound respect for the standards genre), the show attracted a considerable audience and much media attention. The resulting ''MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett'' album went platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for the third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year. At age 68, Tony Bennett had come all the way back.

Painting

Tony Bennett's career as a painter, done under his real name of Benedetto, has also flourished. He followed up his childhood interest with serious training, work, and museum visits throughout his life. He sketches or paints every day, even of views out of hotel windows when he is on tour.

He has exhibited his work in numerous galleries around the world. He was chosen as the official artist for the 2001 Kentucky Derby, and was commissioned by the United Nations to do two paintings, including one for their 50th anniversary. His painting "Homage to Hockney" (for his friend David Hockney, painted after Hockney drew him) is on permanent display at the highly regarded Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. His "Boy on Sailboat, Sydney Bay" is in the permanent collection at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park in New York, as is his "Central Park" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. His paintings and drawings have been featured in ''ARTnews'' and other magazines, and sell for as much as $80,000 apiece. Many of his works were published in the art book ''Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen'' in 1996. In 2007, another book involving his paintings, ''Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life of Art & Music'', became a best-seller among art books.

No retirement

Since his comeback, Bennett has financially prospered; by 1999, his assets were worth $15 to 20 million. He had no intention of retiring, saying "If you study the masters – Picasso, Jack Benny, Fred Astaire – right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older." Indeed, Bennett has continued to record and tour steadily, doing 100 to 200 shows a year. In concert Bennett often makes a point of singing one song (usually "Fly Me to the Moon") without any microphone or amplification, demonstrating to younger audience members the lost art of vocal projection. One show, ''Tony Bennett's Wonderful World: Live From San Francisco'', was made into a PBS special. Bennett also created the idea behind, and starred in the first of, the A&E; Network's popular ''Live By Request'' series, for which he won an Emmy Award. In addition to numerous television guest performances, Bennett has had cameo appearances as himself in films such as ''The Scout'', ''Analyze This'', and ''Bruce Almighty''. In 1998 he made an unlikely but successful appearance at a mud-soaked Glastonbury in an immaculate white suit and tie. Bennett also published ''The Good Life: The Autobiography of Tony Bennett'' in 1998.

A series of albums, often based on themes (Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, blues, duets) has met with good acceptance; Bennett has won seven more Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance or Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammys in the subsequent years, most recently for the year 2006. Bennett has sold over 50 million records worldwide during his career.

Accolades came to Bennett. For his contribution to the recording industry, Tony Bennett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street. Bennett was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997, was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, and received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2002. In 2002, ''Q'' magazine named Tony Bennett in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die". On December 4, 2005, Bennett was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor. Later, a theatrical musical revue of his songs, called ''I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett'' was created and featured some of his best-known songs such as "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", "Because of You", and "Wonderful". The following year, Bennett was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

Bennett frequently donates his time to charitable causes, to the extent that he is sometimes nicknamed "Tony Benefit". In April 2002, he joined Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and former President Bill Clinton in a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at New York's Apollo Theater. He has also recorded public service announcements for Civitan International. In the late 1980s, Bennett entered into a long-term romantic relationship with Susan Crow (born c. 1960), a former New York City schoolteacher. Together they founded Exploring the Arts, a charitable organization dedicated to creating, promoting, and supporting arts education. At the same time they founded (and named after Bennett's friend) the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, a public high school dedicated to teaching the performing arts, which opened in 2001 and would have a very high graduation rate. It was a tribute in return, for in a 1965 ''Life'' magazine interview Sinatra had said that: :"For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more."

Danny Bennett continues to be Tony's manager while Dae Bennett is a recording engineer who has worked on a number of Tony's projects and who has opened Bennett Studios in Englewood, New Jersey. Tony's younger daughter Antonia is an aspiring jazz singer.

In August 2006, Bennett turned eighty years old. The birthday itself was an occasion for publicity, which then extended through the rest of the following year. ''Duets: An American Classic'' reached the highest place ever on the albums chart for an album by Bennett and garnered two Grammy Awards; concerts were given, including a high-profile one for New York radio station WLTW-FM; a performance was done with Christina Aguilera and a comedy sketch was made with affectionate Bennett impressionist Alec Baldwin on ''Saturday Night Live''; a Thanksgiving-time, Rob Marshall-directed television special ''Tony Bennett: An American Classic'' on NBC, which would win multiple Emmy Awards; receipt of the Billboard Century Award; and guest-mentoring on ''American Idol'' season 6 as well as performing during its finale. He received the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Humanitarian Award. Bennett was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award in 2006, the highest honor that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians.

On June 21, 2007, Bennett married long-time girlfriend Susan Crow in a private civil ceremony in New York that was witnessed by former Governor Mario Cuomo.

The year 2008 saw Bennett making two appearances on "New York State of Mind" with Billy Joel at the final concerts given at Shea Stadium, and in October releasing the album ''A Swingin' Christmas'' with The Count Basie Big Band, for which he made a number of promotional appearances at holiday time. In 2009, Bennett performed at the conclusion of the final Macworld Conference & Expo for Apple Inc., singing the "The Best Is Yet to Come" and "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" to a standing ovation, and later making his Jazz Fest debut in New Orleans. In February 2010, Bennett was one of over 70 artists singing on "We Are the World: 25 for Haiti", a charity single in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. In October he performed "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" at AT&T; Park before the third inning of Game 1 of the 2010 World Series and sang "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch. Days later he sang "America the Beautiful" at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, D.C.

Regarding his choices in music, Bennett reiterated his artistic stance in a 2010 interview: :"I'm not staying contemporary for the big record companies, I don't follow the latest fashions. I never sing a song that's badly written. In the 1920s and '30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. These are classics, and finally they're not being treated as light entertainment. This is classical music."

Awards and recognition

Bennett has won fifteen Grammy Awards, as follows (years shown are the year in which the ceremony was held and the award was given, not the year in which the recording was released):

Best Solo Vocal Performance, Male, 1963, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"

Record of the Year, 1963, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 1993, ''Perfectly Frank''

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 1994, ''Steppin' Out''

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 1995, ''MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett''

Album of the Year, 1995, ''MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett''

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 1997, ''Here's to the Ladies''

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 1998, ''Tony Bennett on Holiday''

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 2000, ''Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool''

Lifetime Achievement Award, 2001

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 2003, ''Playing with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues''

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 2004, ''A Wonderful World'' (with k.d. lang)

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 2006, ''The Art of Romance''

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 2007, ''Duets: An American Classic''

Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, 2007, "For Once in My Life" (with Stevie Wonder)

Bennett has won two Emmy Awards, as follows (years shown are the year in which the ceremony was held and the award was given, not the year in which the program aired):

Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, 1996, ''Live by Request''

Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, 2007, ''Tony Bennett: An American Classic''

Bennett has gained other notable recognition:

New York City's Bronze Medallion, 1969

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame, 1997

Lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, 2002 Kennedy Center Honoree, 2005 Inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Humanitarian Award, 2006

National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award, 2006

Works

Discography

Bennett has released over 70 albums during his career, with almost all being for Columbia Records. The biggest selling of these in the U.S. have been ''I Left My Heart in San Francisco'', ''MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett'', and ''Duets: An American Classic'', all of which went platinum for shipping one million copies. Eight other albums of his have gone gold in the U.S., including several compilations. Bennett has also charted over 30 singles during his career, with his biggest hits all occurring during the early 1950s and none charting since 1967.

Books

Bennett, Tony. ''Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen''. Rizzoli, 1996. ISBN 0-8478-1972-8.

Bennett, Tony, with Will Friedwald. ''The Good Life: The Autobiography Of Tony Bennett''. Pocket Books, 1998. ISBN 0-671-02469-8.

Bennett, Tony, with Robert Sullivan. ''Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life of Art & Music''. Sterling Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1402747675.

See also

List of best selling music artists

References

External links

Official Tony Bennett music website

Official Tony Bennett art website

Legacy Records Tony Bennett website

Exploring the Arts website

Official Antonia Bennett music website

The Tony Bennett MySpace Page

Category:1926 births Category:Living people Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American crooners Category:American jazz singers Category:American male singers Category:American painters Category:American pop singers Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:MusiCares Person of the Year Honorees Category:American jazz musicians of Italian descent Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:People from Astoria, Queens Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Concord Records artists Category:Musicians from New York

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''The Shadow'' is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante in the pulps, which carried over to the airwaves as a "wealthy, young man about town" with psychic powers. One of the most famous pulp heroes of the 20th century, The Shadow has been featured in comic books, comic strips, television, video games, and at least five motion pictures. The radio drama is well-remembered for those episodes voiced by Orson Welles.

Introduced as a mysterious radio narrator by David Chrisman, William Sweets, and Harry Engman Charlot for Street and Smith Publications, The Shadow was fully developed and transformed into a pop culture icon by pulp writer Walter B. Gibson.

The Shadow debuted on July 31, 1930, as the mysterious narrator of the Street and Smith radio program ''Detective Story Hour.'' After gaining popularity among the show's listeners, the narrator became the star of ''The Shadow Magazine'' on April 1, 1931, a pulp series created and primarily written by the prolific Gibson.

Over the years, the character evolved. On September 26, 1937, ''The Shadow'' radio drama officially premiered with the story "The Deathhouse Rescue", in which the character had "the power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him." This was a contrivance for the radio; in the magazine stories, The Shadow did not have the ability to become literally invisible.

Even after decades, the unmistakable introduction from ''The Shadow'' radio program, long-intoned by actor Frank Readick Jr., has earned a place in the American idiom: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" These words were accompanied by an ominous laugh and a musical theme, Camille Saint-Saëns' ''Le Rouet d'Omphale'' ("Omphale's Spinning Wheel", composed in 1872). At the end of each episode, The Shadow reminded listeners, "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay.... The Shadow knows!"

Publication history

Detective Story Hour

In order to boost the sales of their ''Detective Story Magazine,'' Street and Smith Publications hired David Chrisman of the Ruthrauff & Ryan advertising agency and writer-director William Sweets to adapt the magazine's stories into a radio series. Chrisman and Sweets felt the upcoming series should be narrated by a mysterious storyteller with a sinister voice, and began searching for a suitable name. One of their scriptwriters, Harry Engman Charlot, suggested various possibilities, such as "The Inspector" or "The Sleuth." Charlot then proposed the ideal name for the phantom announcer: "... The Shadow."

Thus, beginning on July 31, 1930, "The Shadow" was the name given to the mysterious narrator of the ''Detective Story Hour''. The narrator was voiced by James LaCurto and, later, Frank Readick. The episodes were drawn from the ''Detective Story Magazine'' issued by Street and Smith, "the nation's oldest and largest publisher of pulp magazines." Although the latter company had hoped the radio broadcasts would boost the declining sales of the ''Detective Story Magazine'', the result was quite different. Listeners found the sinister announcer much more compelling than the unrelated stories. They soon began asking newsdealers for copies of "that ''Shadow'' detective magazine," even though it did not exist.

Development

Recognizing the demand and responding promptly, circulation manager Henry William Ralston of Street & Smith commissioned magician Walter B. Gibson to begin writing stories about "The Shadow." Using the pen name of Maxwell Grant and claiming that the stories were "from The Shadow's private annals as told to" him, Gibson wrote 282 out of 325 tales over the next 20 years: a novel-length story twice a month (1st and 15th). The first story produced was "The Living Shadow", published April 1, 1931.

Gibson initially fashioned the character as a man with villainous characteristics, who used them to battle crime, and in this was the very first superhero in the modern century for modern times complete with a stylized imagery, a stylized name, sidekicks, super villains and a secret identity. Clad in black, The Shadow operated mainly after dark, burglarizing in the name of justice, and terrifying criminals into vulnerability before he or someone else gunned them down. The character was a film noir anti-hero in every sense; Gibson himself claimed the literary inspirations for The Shadow were Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'' and Edward Bulwer-Lytton's ''The House and the Brain''.

Because of the great effort involved in writing two full-length novels every month, several guest writers were hired to write occasional installments in order to lighten Gibson's work load. These guest writers included Lester Dent — who penned the Doc Savage stories — and Theodore Tinsley. In the late 1940s, mystery novelist Bruce Elliott would temporarily replace Gibson as the primary author of the pulp series. Richard Edward Wormser, a reader for Street & Smith, wrote two Shadow stories.

''The Shadow Magazine'' ceased publication with the Summer 1949 issue, but Walter B. Gibson wrote three new "official" stories between 1963 and 1980. The first of these began a new series of nine updated Shadow novels from Belmont Books, starting with ''Return of The Shadow'' under his own by-line. But the remaining eight, ''The Shadow Strikes'', ''Beware Shadow'', ''Cry Shadow'', ''The Shadow's Revenge'', ''Mark of The Shadow'', ''Shadow Go Mad'', ''Night of The Shadow'', and ''The Shadow, Destination: Moon'', were not penned by Gibson but by Dennis Lynds under the "Maxwell Grant" byline. In these last eight novels, The Shadow was given psychic powers, including the radio character's ability "to cloud men's minds" so that he effectively became invisible, and was more of a spymaster than crime fighter.

Publications

''See List of The Shadow stories''

Character development

The character and look of The Shadow gradually evolved over his lengthy fictional existence.

As depicted in the pulps, The Shadow wore a black slouch hat and a black, crimson-lined cloak with an upturned collar over a standard black business suit. In the 1940s comic books, the later comic book series, and the 1994 film starring Alec Baldwin, he wore either the black slouch hat or a wide-brimmed, black fedora and a crimson scarf just below his nose and across his mouth and chin. Both the cloak and scarf covered either a black doubled-breasted trench coat or regular black suit. As seen in some of the later comics series, the hat and scarf would also be worn with either a black Inverness coat or Inverness cape.

But in the radio drama, which debuted in 1937, The Shadow became an invisible avenger who had learned, while "traveling through East Asia," "the mysterious power to cloud men's minds, so they could not see him." This revision of the character was born out of necessity: Time constraints of 1930s radio made it difficult to explain to listeners where The Shadow was hiding and how he was remaining concealed. Thus, the character was given the power to escape human sight. Voice effects were added to suggest The Shadow's seeming omnipresence.

In order to explain this power, The Shadow was described as a master of hypnotism, as explicitly stated in several radio episodes.

Background

In print, The Shadow's real name is Kent Allard, and he was a famed aviator who fought for the French during World War I. He became known by the alias of The Black Eagle, according to ''The Shadow's Shadow,'' 1933, although later stories revised this alias as The Dark Eagle beginning with ''The Shadow Unmasks,'' 1937. After the war, Allard seeks a new challenge and decides to wage war on criminals. Allard fakes his death in the South American jungles, then returns to the United States. Arriving in New York City, he adopts numerous identities to conceal his existence.

One of these identities—indeed, the best known—is Lamont Cranston, a "wealthy young man about town." In the pulps, Cranston is a separate character; Allard frequently disguises himself as Cranston and adopts his identity ("The Shadow Laughs," 1931). While Cranston travels the world, Allard assumes his identity in New York. In their first meeting, Allard/The Shadow threatens Cranston, saying that he has arranged to switch signatures on various documents and other means that will allow him to take over the Lamont Cranston identity entirely unless Cranston agrees to allow Allard to impersonate him when he is abroad. Terrified, Cranston agrees. The two men sometimes meet in order to impersonate each other ("Crime over Miami," 1940). Apparently, the disguise works well because Allard and Cranston bear something of a resemblance to each other ("Dictator of Crime," 1941).

His other disguises include businessman Henry Arnaud, who first appeared in ''Green Eyes,'' Oct. 1932, elderly gentleman Isaac Twambley, who first appeared in ''No Time For Murder,'' and Fritz, who first appeared in ''The Living Shadow,'' Apr. 1931; in this last disguise, he pretends to be a doddering old janitor who works at Police Headquarters in order to listen in on conversations.

The Shadow appears as Henry Arnaud in "Atoms of Death," "Buried Evidence," "Death Jewels," "Death Premium," "Death Ship," "Green Eyes," "House of Silence," "Murder Trail," "Quetzal," "Realm of Doom," "The Black Master," "The Blue Sphinx," "The Case of Congressman Coyd," "The Circle of Death," "The City of Doom," "The Condor," "The Embassy Murders," "The Five Chameleons," "The Ghost Murders," "The Man From Shanghai," "The Plot Master," "The Radium Murders," "The Romanoff Jewels," "The Seven Drops of Blood," "The Shadow Unmasks," "The Shadow's Shadow," and "Wizard of Crime."

The Shadow appears as Isaac Twambley in "No Time for Murder," "Guardians of Death," "Death Has Grey Eyes," "The Stars Promise Death," "Dead Man's Chest, and "The Magigal's Mystery."

The Shadow appears as Fritz in at least 23 Shadow novels: "The Living Shadow," "Hidden Death," "The Ghost Makers," "The Crime Clinic," "Crime Circus," "The Chinese Disks," "The Dark Death," "The Third Skull," "The Black Master," "The Voodoo Master," "The Third Shadow," "The Circle of Death," "The Sledge Hammer Crimes," "The Golden Masks," "The Ghost Murders," "Hills of Death," "The Hand," "The Racket's King," "The Green Hoods," "The Crime Ray," "The Getaway Ring," "Masters of Death," and "The Crystal Skull."

For the first half of The Shadow's tenure in the pulps, his past and identity are ambiguous, supposedly an intentional decision on Gibson's part. In ''The Living Shadow,'' a thug claims to have seen The Shadow's face, and thought he saw "a piece of white that looked like a bandage." In "The Black Master" and "The Shadow's Shadow," the villains both see The Shadow's true face, and they both remark that The Shadow is a man of many faces with no face of his own. It was not until the August 1937 issue, "The Shadow Unmasks," that The Shadow's real name is revealed.

Kent Allard appears as himself in at least twenty-eight Shadow novels: "The Shadow Unmasks," "The Yellow Band," "Death Turrets," "The Sealed Box," "The Crystal Buddha," "Hills of Death," "The Murder Master," "The Golden Pagoda," "Face of Doom," "The Racket's King," "Murder for Sale," "Death Jewels," "The Green Hoods," "Crime Over Boston," "The Dead Who Lived," "Shadow Over Alcatraz," "Double Death," "Silver Skull," "The Prince of Evil," "Masters of Death," "Xitli, God of Fire," "The Green Terror," "The Wasp Returns," "The White Column," "Dictator of Crime," "Crime out of Mind," "Crime Over Casco," and "Dead Man's Chest."

In the radio drama, the Allard secret identity was dropped for simplicity's sake. On the radio, The Shadow was only Lamont Cranston; he had no other aliases or disguises.

Supporting characters

The Shadow has a network of agents who assist him in his war on crime. These include:

Harry Vincent, an operative whose life he saved when Vincent tried to commit suicide.

Moses "Moe" Shrevnitz, aka "Shrevvy," a cab driver who doubles as his chauffeur.

Margo Lane, a socialite created for the radio drama and later introduced into the pulps.

Clyde Burke, a newspaper reporter.

Burbank, a radio operator who maintains contact between The Shadow and his agents.

Cliff Marsland, a wrongly convicted ex-con who infiltrates gangs using his crooked reputation.

Dr. Rupert Sayre, The Shadow's personal physician.

Jericho Druke, a giant, immensely strong black man.

Slade Farrow, who works with The Shadow to rehabilitate criminals.

Miles Crofton, who sometimes pilots The Shadow's autogyro.

Rutledge Mann, a stock-broker who collects information.

Claude Fellows, the only agent of The Shadow ever to be killed, which he was in ''Gangdom's Doom,'' 1931.

Hawkeye, a reformed underworld snoop who trails gangsters and other criminals.

Myra Reldon, a female operative who uses the alias of Ming Dwan when in Chinatown.

Dr. Roy Tam, The Shadow's contact man in New York's Chinatown.

Though initially wanted by the police, The Shadow also works with and through them; notably gleaning information from his many chats with Commissioners Ralph Weston and Wainright Barth (who is also Cranston's uncle), while at the Cobalt Club. Weston believes that Cranston is merely a rich playboy who dabbles in detective work. Another police contact is Detective Joe Cardona, a key character in many Shadow novels.

In contrast to the pulps, ''The Shadow'' radio drama limited the cast of major characters to The Shadow, Commissioner Weston, and Margo Lane, the last of whom was created specifically for the radio series, as it was believed the abundance of agents would make it difficult to distinguish between characters. Clyde Burke and Moe Shrevnitz (identified only as "Shrevvy") made occasional appearances, but not as agents of The Shadow. Shrevvy was merely an acquaintance of Cranston and Lane, and occasionally Cranston's chauffeur.

Enemies

The Shadow also faces a wide variety of enemies, ranging from kingpins and mad scientists to international spies and "super-villains," many of whom were predecessors to the rogues's galleries of comic super-heroes. Among The Shadow's recurring foes are Shiwan Khan (''The Golden Master,'' ''Shiwan Khan Returns,'' and ''The Invincible Shiwan Khan'')--who appears in the feature film portrayed by John Lone--The Voodoo Master (''The Voodoo Master,'' ''The City of Doom,'' and ''Voodoo Trail''), The Prince of Evil (''The Prince of Evil,'' ''The Murder Genius,'' ''The Man Who Died Twice,'' and ''The Devil's Paymaster,'' all written by Theodore Tinsley), and The Wasp (''The Wasp'' and ''The Wasp Returns'').

The series also featured a myriad of one-shot villains, including The Red Envoy, The Death Giver, Gray Fist, The Black Dragon, Silver Skull, The Red Blot, The Black Falcon, The Cobra, Zemba, The Black Master, Five-Face, The Gray Ghost, and Dr. Z.

The Shadow also battles collectives of criminals, such as The Silent Seven, The Hand, The Salamanders, and The Hydra.

Radio program

In early 1930, Street & Smith Publications hired David Chrisman and Bill Sweets to adapt the ''Detective Story Magazine'' to radio format. Chrisman and Sweets felt the program should be introduced by a mysterious storyteller. A young scriptwriter, Harry Charlot, suggested the name of "The Shadow." Thus, "The Shadow" premiered over CBS airwaves on July 31, 1930, as the host of the ''Detective Story Hour'', narrating "tales of mystery and suspense from the pages of the premier detective fiction magazine." The narrator was first voiced by James LaCurto, but became a national sensation when radio veteran Frank Readick, Jr. assumed the role and gave it "a hauntingly sibilant quality that thrilled radio listeners."

Early years

Following a brief tenure as narrator of Street & Smith's ''Detective Story Hour'', "The Shadow" character was used to host segments of ''The Blue Coal Radio Revue'', playing on Sundays at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This marked the beginning of a long association between the radio persona and sponsor Blue Coal.

While functioning as a narrator of ''The Blue Coal Radio Revue'', the character was recycled by Street & Smith in October 1931, to oddly serve as the storyteller of ''Love Story Hour''.

In October 1932, the radio persona temporarily moved to NBC. Frank Readick again played the role of the sinister-voiced host on Mondays and Wednesdays, both at 6:30 p.m., with LaCurto taking occasional turns as the title character.

Readick returned as The Shadow to host a final CBS mystery anthology that fall. The series disappeared from CBS airwaves on March 27, 1935, due to Street & Smith's insistence that the radio storyteller be completely replaced by the master crime-fighter described in Walter B. Gibson's ongoing pulps.

Radio drama

Street & Smith entered into a new broadcasting agreement with Blue Coal in 1937, and that summer Gibson teamed with scriptwriter Edward Hale Bierstadt to develop the new series. As such, The Shadow returned to network airwaves on September 26, 1937, over the new Mutual Broadcasting System. Thus began the "official" radio drama that many Shadow fans know and love, with 22-year-old Orson Welles starring as Lamont Cranston, a "wealthy young man about town." Once ''The Shadow'' joined Mutual as a half-hour series on Sunday evenings, the program did not leave the air until December 26, 1954.

Welles did not speak the signature line of "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?". Instead, Readick did, using a water glass next to his mouth for the echo effect. The famous catch phrase was accompanied by the strains of an excerpt from Opus 31 of the Camille Saint-Saëns classical composition, ''Le Rouet d'Omphale''.

After Welles departed the show in 1938, Bill Johnstone was chosen to replace him and voiced the character for five seasons. Following Johnstone's departure, The Shadow was portrayed by such actors as Bret Morrison (the longest tenure, with 10 years in two separate runs), John Archer, and Steve Courtleigh.

''The Shadow'' also inspired another radio hit, ''The Whistler'', whose protagonist likewise knows "many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak".

Margo Lane

The radio drama also introduced female characters into The Shadow's realm, most notably Margo Lane (played by Agnes Moorehead, among others) as Cranston's love interest, crime-solving partner and the only person who knows his identity as The Shadow. Four years later, the character was introduced into the pulp novels. Her sudden, unexplained appearance in the pulps annoyed readers and generated a flurry of hate mail printed in ''The Shadow Magazine'''s letters page.

Lane was described as Cranston's "friend and companion" in later episodes, although the exact nature of their relationship was unclear. In the early scripts of the radio drama the character's name was spelled "Margot." The name itself was originally inspired by Margot Stevenson, the Broadway ingénue who would later be chosen to voice Lane opposite Welles' Shadow during "the 1938 Goodrich summer season of the radio drama." In the 1994 film in which Penelope Ann Miller portrayed the character, she is characterized as a telepath.

Comic strip, comic books, and graphic novels

''The Shadow'' has been adapted for the comics quite a few times, the first appearing in 1938 as a syndicated daily newspaper comic strip offered by the Ledger Syndicate. The strip's story continuity was written by Walter B. Gibson, with plot lines adapted from the Shadow pulps, and the strip was illustrated by Vernon Greene. Due to pulp paper shortages and the growing amount of space required for war news from the European and Pacific fronts, the strip was cancelled in 1942. ''The Shadow'' daily was collected decades later in two comic book series from two different publishers (see below) in 1988 and again in 1999.

To both cross-promote ''The Shadow'' and attract a younger audience to their other pulp magazines, Street & Smith published 101 issues of the comic book ''Shadow Comics'' from Vol. 1, #1 - Vol. 9, #5 (March 1940 - Sept. 1949). A Shadow story led off each issue, with the remainder of the stories being strips based on other Street & Smith pulp heroes.

In ''Mad'' #4 (April–May 1953), ''The Shadow'' was spoofed by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder. Their character was called the Shadow' (with an apostrophe), which is short for Lamont Shadowskeedeeboomboom. In this satire, Margo Pain gets Shad, as she calls him, into various predicaments, including fights with gangsters and a piano falling on him from above. At the conclusion of the tale, after Margo is tricked into going inside an outhouse surrounded by wired-up dynamite, Shad is seen gleefully pushing down a detonator's plunger.

During the superhero revivial of the 1960s, Archie Comics published an eight-issue series, ''The Shadow'' (Aug. 1964 - Sept. 1965) under the company's Mighty Comics imprint. In the first issue, The Shadow depicted was loosely based on the radio version, but with blonde hair. In issue #2 (Sept. 1964), the character was transformed into a campy, heavily muscled, green and blue costume-wearing superhero by writer Robert Bernstein (Jerry Siegel) and artist John Rosenberger.

During the mid-1970s, DC Comics published a critically acclaimed 12-issue series (Nov. 1973 - Sept. 1975) written by Dennis O'Neil and initially drawn by Michael William Kaluta (#1-4 & 6). Faithful to both the pulp-magazine and radio-drama character, the series guest-starred fellow pulp fiction hero The Avenger in issue #11. The Shadow appeared in DC's ''Batman'' #253 (Nov. 1973), in which Batman teams with an aging Shadow and calls the famous crimefighter his "greatest inspiration". In ''Batman'' #259 (Dec. 1974), Batman again meets The Shadow, and we learn The Shadow saved Bruce Wayne's life when the future Batman was a boy. In 1986, another DC incarnation was created by Howard Chaykin. This four issue mini-series, also collected as a one-shot graphic novel (''Shadow: Blood and Judgement''), brought The Shadow to modern-day New York. The story was continued in a 1987 monthly series by writer Andy Helfer (editor of the mini-series), and primarily artists Bill Sienkiewicz (issues 1-6) and Kyle Baker (issues 8-19 and Annual #2). While initially successful, this version proved unpopular with traditional Shadow fans because it depicted The Shadow using Uzi submachine guns and rocket launchers, as well as featuring a strong strain of black comedy and extreme violence throughout.

In 1988, O'Neil and Kaluta, with inker Russ Heath, returned to The Shadow with the Marvel Comics graphic novel ''The Shadow 1941: Hitler's Astrologer'', set during World War II. This one-shot appeared in both hardcover and trade paperback editions.

The Vernon Greene/Walter Gibson Shadow newspaper comic strip from the early 1940s was finally collected by Malibu Graphics (Malibu Comics) under their Eternity Comics imprint, beginning with the first issue of ''Crime Classics'' dated July, 1988. Each cover was illustrated by Greene and colored by one of Eternity's colorists. A total of 13 issues appeared featuring just the black-and-white daily until the final issue, dated November, 1989. Some of the Shadow storylines were contained in one issue, while others were continued over into the next. When a Shadow story ended, another tale would begin in the same issue. This back-to-back format continued until the final 13th issue, when the strip storylines ended.

Dave Stevens' nostalgic comics series ''The Rocketeer'' contains a great number of pop culture references to the 1930s. Various characters from the Shadow pulps make appearances in the story line published in the ''Rocketeer Adventure Magazine,'' including The Shadow's famous alter ego Lamont Cranston. Two issues were published by Comico Comics in 1988 and 1989, but the third and final installment did not appear until years later, finally appearing in 1995 from Dark Horse Comics. All three issues were then collected by Dark Horse into a slick trade paperback titled ''The Rocketeer: Cliff's New York Adventure'' (ISBN 1-56971-092-9).

From 1989 to 1992, DC published a new series, ''The Shadow Strikes'', written by Gerard Jones and Eduardo Barreto. This series was set in the 1930s and returned The Shadow to his pulp origins. During its run, it featured The Shadow's first team-up with Doc Savage, another very popular hero of the pulp magazine era. Both characters appeared together in a four-issue story that crossed back and forth between each character's DC comic series. "The Shadow Strikes" series often led The Shadow into encounters with well-known celebrities of the 1930s, such as Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, union organizer John L. Lewis, and Chicago gangsters Frank Nitti and Jake Guzik. In issue #7, The Shadow meets a radio announcer named Grover Mills — a character based on the young Orson Welles — who has been impersonating The Shadow on the radio. The character's name is taken from Grover's Mill, New Jersey, the name of the small town where the Martians land in Welles' famous 1938 radio broadcast of ''The War of the Worlds.'' This was wound up at 31 issues and one annual, the longest running Shadow comic since its original publication, after rights holder Conde Nast increased the licensing fee.

During the early-to-mid-1990s, Dark Horse Comics acquired the comics rights to the Shadow. It published the Shadow miniseries ''In The Coils of Leviathan'' (four issues) in 1993, and ''Hell's Heat Wave'' (three issues) in 1995. ''In the Coils of the Leviathan'' was later collected and issued by Dark Horse in 1994 as a trade paperback graphic novel. Both series were written by Joel Goss and Michael Kaluta, and drawn by Gary Gianni. A one-shot Shadow issue ''The Shadow and the Mysterious Three'' was also published by Dark Horse in 1994, again written by Joel Goss and Michael Kaluta, with Stan Manoukian and Vince Roucher taking over the illustration duties but working over Kaluta's layouts. A comics adaptation of the 1994 film ''The Shadow'' was published in two issues by Dark Horse as part of the movie's merchandising campaign. The script was by Goss and Kaluta and once again drawn from cover to cover by Kaluta. It was collected and published in England by Boxtree as a graphic novel tie-in for the film's British release. Emulating DC's earlier team-up, Dark Horse also published a two-issue mini-series in 1995 called ''The Shadow and Doc Savage''. It was written by Steve Vance, and illustrated once again by Manoukian and Roucher. Of special note, both issues' covers were drawn by Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens. The final Dark Horse Shadow team-up was published in 1995. It was a single issue of ''Ghost and the Shadow'', written by Doug Moench, pencilled by H. M. Baker, and inked by Bernard Kolle.

The Shadow made an uncredited cameo appearance in issue #2 of DC's 1996 four issue mini-series ''Kingdom Come''. Those four issues were then collected into a single graphic novel in 1997. The Shadow appears in the nightclub scene standing in the background next to The Question and Rorschach.

The early 1940s Shadow newspaper daily strip was again put back into print, this time by Avalon Communications under their ACG Classix imprint. The Shadow daily began appearing in the first issue of ''Pulp Action'' comics. It carries no monthly date or issue number on the cover, only a 1999 copyright and a "Pulp Action #1" notation at the bottom of the inside cover. Each issue's cover is a colorized, partial comics panel blow-up, taken from one of the reprinted strips. The eighth issue uses for its cover a partial Shadow serial black-and-white movie still, with several hand-drawn alterations added. The first issue of ''Pulp Action'' is devoted entirely to reprinting the Shadow daily, but subsequent issues began offering back-up, non-Shadow stories of various page lengths in every issue. These Shadow strip reprints stopped with ''Pulp Action''s eighth issue, never completing the daily's storylines. That last issue carries a 2000 copyright date.

In August 2011 it was announced that Dynamite Entertainment had licensed the Shadow from Conde Nast and would soon be developing a new comic series for the character.

Films

The character has been adapted for several motion pictures.

''The Shadow Strikes'' (1937)

The film ''The Shadow Strikes'' was released in 1937, starring Rod La Rocque in the title role. Lamont Cranston assumes the secret identity of "The Shadow" in order to thwart an attempted robbery at an attorney's office. Both ''The Shadow Strikes'' (1937) and its sequel, ''International Crime'' (1938), were released by Grand National Pictures.

''International Crime'' (1938)

La Rocque returned the following year in ''International Crime''. In this version, reporter Lamont Cranston is an amateur criminologist and detective who uses the name of "The Shadow" as a radio gimmick. Thomas Jackson portrayed Police Commissioner Weston, and Astrid Allwyn was cast as Phoebe Lane, Cranston's assistant.

''The Shadow'' (1940)

A 15-chapter serial produced by Columbia Studios starring Victor Jory premiered in 1940. The Black Tiger is a criminal mastermind who has been sabotaging rail lines and factories across the United States, and Lamont Cranston must become his shadowy alter ego to uncover the fiend and halt his schemes.

''The Shadow Returns'' (1946)

Low-budget motion picture studio Monogram produced a trio of films in 1946 starring Kane Richmond: ''The Shadow Returns'', ''Behind the Mask'' and ''The Missing Lady''. Richmond's Shadow wore a black face-mask similar to the type worn by the serial hero The Masked Marvel instead of his signature red sash.

''The Shadow'' (1994)

In 1994, the character was adapted once again into a feature film, ''The Shadow,'' starring Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston, alongside Penelope Ann Miller as Margo Lane. Cranston, also known as Ying-Ko (literally "Eagle's Beak"), is depicted as a brutal warlord and opium smuggler in 1930s Mongolia who is kidnapped by the agents of a tulku, who reforms him and teaches him to "cloud men's minds" with his psychic power in order to fight crime. His nemesis in the film is adapted from the pulp novel's evil warlord (and for the film, a fellow telepath), Shiwan Khan (John Lone), the last descendant of Genghis Khan; he seeks to finish his ancestors' legacy of conquering the world by first destroying New York City with an atomic bomb. In the end, the Shadow defeats him by telekinetically, stabbing Khan in the forehead with a knife-blade shaped piece of broken mirror shard; this doesn't result in his death, however. One of the Shadow's agents, the administrator of a New York insane asylum, has the shard-damaged part of Khan's frontal lobe surgically removed that controls his telepathic powers, has him declared incuribly insane, and institutionalized for life.

This movie combined the radio, pulp novels, and comic book versions of The Shadow, with the aforementioned ability to cloud minds, described only on radio, along with the huge red-lined black cloak, red scarf, the black trench coat and slouch hat, and the dual .45 semi-automatic pistols with which The Shadow was customarily outfitted. The film also displays Cranston's ability to conjure a false face whenever he is in his Shadow disguise, in keeping with his physical portrayal in the novels and the comics.

Upcoming film

On December 11, 2006, the website SuperHero Hype reported that director Sam Raimi and Michael Uslan will co-produce a new ''Shadow'' film for Columbia Pictures. Siavash Farahani will write the screenplay. Raimi had tried (and failed) to gain the rights in the late 1980s, which resulted in his 1990 feature film, ''Darkman''.

On October 16, 2007, Raimi stated that: "I don't have any news on 'The Shadow' at this time, except that the company that I have with Josh Donen, my producing partner, we've got the rights to 'The Shadow.' I love the character very much and we're trying to work on a story that'll do justice to the character."

On January 29, 2010, it was reported that Sam Raimi was searching for a new project after it was announced that the Spider-Man movie franchise would be rebooted without him. The Shadow was said to be at the top of his list. Recently, it was incorrectly rumoured that David Slade will direct the upcoming film, with a release date of 2012. On Thursday, August 5, 2010, it was reported that Quentin Tarantino - who was attached as a co-writer for the script - had been attached to direct as well., however this would later be denied by an official representative of Tarantino who informed MTV News that "There is no truth to this story"

TV series

Two attempts were made to make a television series based on the character. The first in 1954 was called ''The Shadow'', starring Tom Helmore as Lamont Cranston.

The second attempt in 1958 was called ''The Invisible Avenger'', which compiled the first two unaired episodes and was released theatrically instead. This film was later re-released in 1962 as ''Bourbon Street Shadows'', with additional footage meant to appeal to "adult" audiences. Starring Richard Derr as The Shadow, ''The Invisible Avenger'' centers upon Lamont Cranston investigating the murder of a New Orleans bandleader. The film is notable as the second directorial effort of James Wong Howe (one of the two episodes only).

Influence on superheroes

Characters such as Batman and the Green Hornet resemble Lamont Cranston's alter ego. Both characters operate mostly by night, and the Green Hornet in particular operates outside the law, insinuating himself into criminal plots in order to put an end to the activities of master criminals. But whereas the Shadow carries a real gun, the Green Hornet carries only a lightweight pistol that fires non-lethal gas.

When Bob Kane and Bill Finger first conceived of the "Bat-Man", Finger suggested they pattern the character after pulp mystery men such as the Shadow. Finger then used "Partners of Peril"—a Shadow pulp written by Theodore Tinsley—as the basis for Batman's debut story, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate." Finger later publicly acknowledged that "my first [Batman] script was a take-off on a Shadow story" and that "Batman was originally written in the style of the pulps." This influence was further evident with Batman showing little remorse over killing or maiming criminals and was not above using firearms.

Alan Moore has credited ''The Shadow'' as one of the key influences for the creation of V, the title character in his DC Comics miniseries ''V for Vendetta'', that later became a big-budget film release in 2005 from Warner Bros..

See also

Condé Nast Publications, owner of The Shadow intellectual property

Doctor Sax

List of The Shadow episodes

Notes

References

Cox, J. Randolph. ''Man of Magic & Mystery, A Guide to the Work of Walter B. Gibson'', Scarecrow Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8108-2192-3. (Comprehensive history and career bibliography of Gibson's works.)

Eisgruber, Jr., Frank. ''Gangland's Doom, The Shadow of the Pulps'', Starmont House, 1985. ISBN 0-930261-74-7.

Gibson, Walter B., Tollin, Anthony. ''The Shadow Scrapbook'', Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979. ISBN 0-15-681475-7. (Comprehensive history of The Shadow in all media forms up through the late 1970s.)

Goulart, Ron. ''Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of the Pulp Magazine'', Arlington House, 1972. ISBN 0-87000-1722-8.

Murray, Will. ''Duende History of the Shadow Magazine'', Odyssey Publications, 1980. ISBN 0-933752-12-0.

Overstreet, Robert. ''The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 35th Edition.'', House of Collectibles, 2005. ISBN 0-375-72107-X. (Lists all Shadow comics published to date.)

Sampson, Robert. ''The Night Master'', Pulp Press, 1982. ISBN 0-934498-08-3.

Shimfield, Thomas J. ''Walter B. Gibson and The Shadow''. McFarland & Company, 2003. ISBN 0-7864-1466-9. (Comprehensive Walter Gibson biography with an emphasis on The Shadow.)

Steranko, James. ''Steranko's History of the Comics, Vol. 1'', Supergraphics, 1970. No ISBN.

Steranko, James, (1972), ''Steranko's History of the Comics, Vol. 2'', Supergraphics, 1972. No ISBN.

Steranko, James. ''Unseen Shadows'', Supergraphics, 1978. No ISBN. (Collection of Steranko's detailed black-and-white cover roughs, including alternate/unused versions, done for the Shadow novel reprints from Pyramid Books and Jove/HBJ.)

Van Hise, James. ''The Serial Adventures of the Shadow'', Pioneer Books, 1989. No ISBN.

External links

The Shadow: Master of Darkness (fan site)

The Shadow in Review (fan site)

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de:The Shadow es:La Sombra fr:The Shadow it:The Shadow he:הצל (דמות בדיונית) pt:O Sombra ru:The Shadow fi:The Shadow sv:The Shadow (figur)

birth date	April 03, 1956
birth place
nationality
birth name	Luis Miguel González Borloni
Occupation	singer, actor
yearsactive	1973-present
associated acts	Juanes
url	Official site }}

Luis Miguel González Bosé (born April 3, 1956) is a Latin Grammy-winning Spanish/Italian musician and actor.

Biography

Early life

Bosé was born in San Fernando Hospital in Panama City, Panama, the son of the famous Italian actress Lucia Bosé and the legendary bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín. He is also a cousin of Carmen Ordóñez. He grew up in an environment surrounded by art and culture. Close friends of his family were Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and the father of current president [Which president? 'Current' WHEN?] of Colombia. His godfather was Luchino Visconti and Pablo Picasso was the godfather of his sister Paola Dominguin.

Career

In 1971, Bosé started a career as an actor, participating in various movies. However, he did not make that many films, and in 1975 he decided a career change was due and started exploring his talents as a singer. With the assistance of Camilo Blanes he recorded his first singles. Two years later, in 1977, Bosé signed a contract with CBS Records, and he remained with them until 1984.

In 1983, 1984 and 1985, he participated in the "Llena Tu Cabeza De Rock" television specials on Puerto Rico WAPA-TV. But it was in 1985 that he became an international superstar, when his song "Amante bandido" rose to the top of the charts all over Latin America and in Spain, while he started to decline in Italy (where he had a parallel career, singing in both Italian and English - he would go back to the top there in 1994, by winning Festivalbar (the second musical event after the Sanremo Music Festival) for the third time). The video to that song also became one of the most widely seen Spanish music videos, with Bose playing both a Superman style superhero and an Indiana Jones type of adventurer in it.

Bosé has been a force in Latin music, with a career that has spanned 21 albums, roles in more than 35 films, his own television show, and work as a theatre director. With Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway among his family friends, Bosé grew up in the arts, constantly traveling around Spain and to Milan, New York, London and Paris. He made his film debut at the age of 15, and at age 21 he began his singing career, which eventually led to international pop stardom.

Defying the contemporary formula for pop success, his music has been described as a global fusion of many musical influences. At the center of his music is all the passion and expression of a Latin artist, yet Miguel Bosé has constantly incorporated more diverse musical elements than many of the genre's crossover pop stars.

In 2007, to celebrate his 30 years as a singer, he released ''Papito'', an album that contains remakes of his previous songs, re-interpreted in duets with Juanes, Alejandro Sanz, Fangoria (band), Ivete Sangalo, Laura Pausini, Shakira, Julieta Venegas, Ricky Martin, Amaia Montero (former member of the Spanish band La Oreja de Van Gogh), and Michael Stipe from R.E.M., along with many other singers. Three singles were released off ''Papito'': the first is a re-make of his hit "Nena", featuring Mexican superstar Paulina Rubio; the second was "Morenamía", with Julieta Venegas. The third single "Como un lobo" featured his niece Bimba Bosé. "Nena" was by far the most successful single off the album, since it was nominated for a Latin Grammy for best song, and became the best selling download of Spain in 2007.

In 2008, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe offered him Colombian citizenship because of his efforts towards peace in Colombia, including his participation in two concerts in 2008. On March 16 of 2010 he received Colombian citizenship during a ceremony in the presidential palace, Casa de Nariño.

Discography

WEA

2010: ''Cardio''

2007: ''Papitour''

2007: ''Papito''

2005: ''Velvetina''

2004: ''Por vos muero''

2002: ''Sereno'' (Winner of 2003 Latin Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Performance)

2002: ''Girados'' (with Ana Torroja)

1999: ''Lo mejor de Bosé''

1998: ''11 maneras de ponerse un sombrero''

1996: ''Laberinto''

1993: ''Bajo el signo de Caín''

1990: ''Directo 90''

1990: ''Los chicos no lloran''

1989: ''XXX'' (collaboration with Giorgio Vanni and ''Tomato'')

1989: ''Salamandra''

CBS

1984: ''Bandido'' (collaboration with Giorgio Vanni and ''Tomato'')

1983: ''Made in Spain''

1982: ''¡Bravo, muchachos! Los grandes éxitos de Miguel Bosé''

1981: ''Más allá''

1980: ''Miguel''

1979: ''¡Chicas!''

1978: ''Miguel Bosé''

1978: ''Linda''

Ariola

1976: ''Es tan fácil'' (B-side: "Who?", single)

1975: ''Soy'' (B-side: "For Ever For You" , single)

Actor

1998: ''La mirada del otro'' .... Santiago

1998: ''Lorca'' .... Lorca

1996: ''Oui'' .... Hugo

1996: ''Libertarias'' .... Cura secretario de Durruti

1996: ''Amor digital'' .... Cinco-cinco

1995: ''Gazon maudit'' .... Diego, the Young Man

1995: ''Detrás del dinero'' (TV)

1994: ''Enciende mi pasión'' .... Ángel

1994: ''La reine Margot'' .... Guise

1993: ''Mazeppa'' .... Gericault

1993: ''La nuit sacrée'' .... Le consul

1991: ''High Heels'' .... Juez Domínguez/Hugo/Letal

1991: ''Lo más natural'' .... Andrés

1990: ''L'avaro'' .... Valerio

1989: ''Shangay Lily''

1988: ''Il segreto del Sahara'' TV mini-series .... El Halem

1987: ''En penumbra''

1985: ''El caballero del dragón'' .... IX

1982: ''Due di tutto'' TV series

1981: ''Cosa de locos''

1978: ''La borgata dei sogni''

1978: ''Sentados al borde de la mañana con los pies colgando''

1977: ''California'' .... Willy Preston

1977: ''La gabbia''

1977: ''Oedipus orca''

1977: ''Suspiria'' .... Mark

1976: ''Retrato de familia'' .... Cécil Rubes

1976: ''Garofano rosso''

1976: ''Giovannino''

1976: ''La orca'' .... Humberto

1974: ''Vera, un cuento cruel'' .... Enrique

1973: ''Gli eroi'' .... German soldier

References

External links

Web Tribute de Miguel Bosé

Miguel Bose's Official Label Site - Free music online

Miguel Bose - videos

MiguelBoseZone.com

Review of 'Cardio' (English)

Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:Italian actors Category:Spanish actors Category:Italian composers Category:Spanish composers Category:Italian singers Category:Spanish singers Category:Italian male singers Category:Spanish male singers Category:English-language singers Category:Italian-language singers Category:Spanish-language singers Category:Latin Grammy Award winners Category:Spanish people of Italian descent Category:World Music Awards winners Category:People from Panama City Category:LGBT people from Spain Category:Naturalized citizens of Colombia

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