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A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock (shares) to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the company's stock is offered, owned and traded or exchanged privately. Less ambiguous terms for a privately held company are unquoted company and unlisted company.

Though less visible than their publicly traded counterparts, private companies have a major importance in the world's economy. In 2008, the 441 largest private companies in the United States accounted for $1.8 trillion in revenues and employed 6.2 million people, according to Forbes. In 2005, using a substantially smaller pool size (22.7%) for comparison, the 339 companies on Forbes' survey of closely held U.S. businesses sold a trillion dollars' worth of goods and services (44%) and employed 4 million people. In 2004, the Forbes' count of privately held U.S. businesses with at least $1 billion in revenue was 305.^[1]

Koch Industries, Bechtel, Cargill, Publix, Pilot Corp., one of the members of the Big Four accounting firms, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Hearst Corporation, S. C. Johnson, and Mars are among the largest privately held companies in the United States. KPMG, the UK accounting firms, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers, IKEA, Trafigura, J C Bamford Excavators (JCB), LEGO, Bosch, Rolex and Victorinox are some examples of Europe's largest privately held companies.

State ownership vs. private ownership[link]

In the broadest sense, the term private corporation refers to any business not owned by the state. This usage is often found in former Communist countries to differentiate from former state-owned enterprises,^{[citation needed]} but it may be used anywhere when contrasting to a state-owned company.

In the States, the term privately held company is more often used to describe for-profit enterprises whose shares are not traded on the stock market.

Ownership of stock[link]

In countries with public trading markets, a privately held business is generally taken to mean one whose ownership shares or interests are not publicly traded. Often, privately held companies are owned by the company founders and/or their families and heirs or by a small group of investors. Sometimes employees also hold shares of private companies. Most small businesses are privately held.

Subsidiaries and joint ventures of publicly traded companies (for example, General Motors' Saturn Corporation), unless shares in the subsidiary itself are traded directly, have characteristics of both privately held companies and publicly traded companies. Such companies are usually subject to the same reporting requirements as privately held companies, but their assets, liabilities and activities are also included in the reports of their parent companies, as required by the accountancy and securities industry rules relating to groups of companies.

Form of organization[link]

Private companies may be called corporations, limited companies, limited liability companies, unlimited companies, or other names, depending on where and how they are organized. In the United States, but not generally in the United Kingdom, the term is also extended to partnerships, sole proprietorships or business trusts. Each of these categories may have additional requirements and restrictions that may impact reporting requirements, income tax liabilities, governmental obligations, employee relations, marketing opportunities, and other business decisions.

In many countries, there are forms of organization which are restricted to and are commonly used by private companies, for example the private company limited by shares in the United Kingdom (abbreviated Ltd) or private unlimited company and the proprietary limited company (abbreviated Pty Ltd) or unlimited proprietary company (abbreviated Pty) in Australia.

Reporting obligations and restrictions[link]

Privately held companies generally have fewer or less comprehensive reporting requirements for transparency, via annual reports, etc. than do publicly traded companies. For example, in the United States, unlike in Europe^[where?], privately held companies are not generally required to publish their financial statements. By not being required to disclose details about their operations and financial outlook, private companies are not forced to disclose information that may potentially be valuable to competitors and can avoid the immediate erosion of customer and stakeholder confidence in the event of financial duress. Further, with limited reporting requirements and shareholder expectations, private firms are afforded a greater operational flexibility by being able to focus on long term growth rather than quarterly earnings. In addition, private company executives may steer their ships without shareholder approval, allowing them to take significant action without haste.^[2][3] In Australia, Part 2E of the Corporations Act 2001 requires that publicly traded companies file certain documents relating to their annual general meeting with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, while there is no similar requirement for privately held companies.

Privately held companies also sometimes have restrictions on how many shareholders they may have. For example, the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, section 12(g), limits a privately held company, generally, to fewer than 500 shareholders, and the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940, requires registration of investment companies that have more than 100 holders. In Australia, section 113 of the Corporations Act 2001 limits a privately held company to fifty non-employee shareholders.

Privately owned enterprise[link]

A privately owned enterprise refers to a commercial enterprise that is owned by private investors, shareholders or owners (usually collectively, but they can be owned by a single individual), and is in contrast to state institutions, such as publicly owned enterprises and government agencies. Private enterprises comprise the private sector of an economy. An economic system that contains a large private sector where privately run businesses are the backbone of the economy is referred to as capitalism. This contrasts with socialism, where industry is owned by the state or by all of the community in common. The act of taking assets into the private sector is referred to as privatization. The goal of private enterprise differs from other institutions, the major difference being private businesses exist solely to generate profit for the owners or shareholders.^[4]

A privately owned enterprise is one form that private property may take.

Types of privately owned business[link]

• Sole proprietorship: A sole proprietorship is a business owned by one person. The owner may operate on his or her own or may employ others. The owner of the business has total and unlimited personal liability of the debts incurred by the business. This form is usually relegated to small businesses.
• Partnership: A partnership is a form of business in which two or more people operate for the common goal of making profit. Each partner has total and unlimited personal liability of the debts incurred by the partnership. There are three typical classifications of partnerships: general partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships.
• Corporation: A business corporation is a for-profit, limited liability or unlimited liability entity that has a separate legal personality from its members. A corporation is owned by multiple shareholders and is overseen by a board of directors, which hires the business's managerial staff. Corporate models have also been applied to the state sector in the form of Government-owned corporations. A corporation may be privately held (that is, close - that is, held by a few people) or publicly traded.

Privately owned businesses are typically divided into two subcategories: privately held companies and publicly traded companies. Publicly traded firms list their shares on the stock market, allowing for more diversified ownership as anyone who purchases their stock becomes a partial owner and is able to receive a portion of its profit. Despite the term "public" in its name, a publicly listed company does not entail public ownership because it is not owned by the whole society. It just means that shares of the company are for sale to anyone in the general public who wishes to purchase them. Publicly listed corporations may be partially owned by peacemakers.

Criticism[link]

Criticism of private business has come from many perspectives, most notably^{[citation needed]} socialist perspectives. Criticism of private property and privately owned business is usually accompanied by criticism of the capitalist system entirely^{[citation needed]}. Socialists often argue^{[citation needed]} that within a capitalist system, economic activity is uncoordinated and serves the interest of a small business class as opposed to society as a whole. This results in stifled advancement^{[citation needed]} and an 'anarchy of production'. Marxists criticize private business^{[citation needed]}, along with capitalism, as being a form of exploitation that serves to extract the surplus value from the workforce and distribute it to passive owners (the capitalist class) in the form of profit. Because of this exploitation, the workers do not receive the full product of their labor and are forced, by the conditions imposed upon them by capitalism, to sell their labor to business owners in order to make a living.^[5] Socialists typically argue^{[citation needed]} for public ownership of the means of production, with Marxian socialists advocating^{[citation needed]} more direct collective worker-ownership of business enterprises with democratic worker management. Other critics of private property include^{[citation needed]} technocrats, some forms of economic nationalism, anarchists and proponents of economic democracy, who believe^{[citation needed]} power and economic decision-making should be spread among as many people as opposed to being concentrated into the hands of a few.

India[link]

In India, the term private limited (abbreviated: Pvt. Ltd.) is used after a name of a company which is privately held unlike public companies which use the word limited only.

See also[link]

• Private company limited by shares (private limited company)
• Private equity
• Public company
• Unlimited company

References[link]

External links[link]

• Forbes.com: America's Largest Private Companies

Ira Glass
Born	(1959-03-03) March 3, 1959 (age 53) Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Show	This American Life
Station(s)	WBEZ[1]
Network	Public Radio International
Time slot	Syndication
Style	Presenter
Country	United States
Website	thisamericanlife.org

Ira Glass (born March 3, 1959) is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.

Personal life[link]

Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, to Barry Glass, an accountant, and Shirley Glass, a psychologist, infidelity researcher, and author whom the New York Times called "the godmother of infidelity research."^[2][3] He attended Milford Mill High School in Baltimore County where he was active in student theater. He attended Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois,^[4] but transferred to Brown University, where he concentrated in semiotics and graduated in 1982.^[5] He is the first cousin once removed of composer Philip Glass, who has appeared on Ira's show and whose music can often be heard on the program. Glass stated on This American Life that he is a staunch atheist.^[6]

Glass married Anaheed Alani, a writer and editor, in August 2005.^[7]

Career[link]

Radio broadcasting[link]

Glass has worked in public radio for some 30 years. At 19 he began as an intern at National Public Radio's headquarters in Washington, D.C.^[8] He was a reporter and host on several NPR programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation. Glass wrote,

"The very first National Public Radio show that I worked on was Joe Frank's. I think I was influenced in a huge way... Before I saw Joe put together a show, I had never thought about radio as a place where you could tell a certain kind of story."^[9]

From November 1990 until September 1995, he co-hosted, with NPR producer Gary Covino a weekly, local program on Chicago Public Radio called The Wild Room. In 1993, Glass said,

“I like to think of it as the only show on public radio other than Car Talk that both Daniel Schorr [NPR news analyst] and Kurt Cobain [lead singer/guitarist of Nirvana] could listen to. I think it’s appropriate that the show [which aired on Friday evenings] is on a station that most people don’t listen to at a time when most people won’t hear it. And the fact that public radio never puts a new show on the air or takes any off is definitely to our advantage.”^[10]

During this time, he spent two years reporting on the Chicago Public School System—one year at a high school, and another at an elementary school. The largest finding of his investigations was that smaller class sizes would contribute to more success in impoverished, inner-city schools.^[11]

In 1995, the MacArthur Foundation approached Torey Malatia, general manager of Chicago Public Radio, with an offer of $150,000 to produce a show featuring local Chicago writers and performance artists. Malatia approached Glass who countered that he wanted to do a weekly program with a budget of $300,000. In 1998, Covino told the Chicago Reader, "The show he proposed was The Wild Room. He just didn't call it The Wild Room."^[12] Covino continued to produce The Wild Room until February 1996.

Glass invited David Sedaris to read his essays on NPR, which led to Sedaris's success as an independent author; Glass also produced Sedaris' commentaries on NPR.^[13]

Since 1995, he has hosted and produced This American Life, from WBEZ. The show was nationally syndicated in June 1996 by Public Radio International and has been national ever since. PRI was eager to take on the program, even as NPR passed on it.^[14]

This American Life reaches over 1.7 million listeners on over 500 stations weekly, with an average listening time of 48 minutes. Glass can be heard in all but four episodes.

On November 17, 2005, This American Life celebrated its 10th anniversary. The following week, as a special show celebrating the anniversary, the first episode, "New Beginnings", was re-broadcast. Prior to this, the first episode had never been aired outside of Chicago. When the first episode was broadcast in 1995, the show was known as Your Radio Playhouse. That first episode includes interviews with talk-show host Joe Franklin and Ira's mother, as well as stories by Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired, and performance artist Lawrence Steger.

In May 2009, the This American Life radio show episode "Return to the Scene of the Crime" was broadcast live to over 300 movie theaters.^[15]

In 2009, Glass was named the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Radio.^[16][17]

In 2011, Ira Glass earned the George Polk Award in Radio Reporting for "Very Tough Love," an hour-long report that showed alarmingly severe punishments being meted out by a county drug court judge in Georgia. Drug courts were set up to emphasize rehabilitation instead of incarceration, but Glass’ investigation revealed that Judge Amanda Williams strayed far from the principles and philosophy by routinely piling on jail sentences for relapses. One 17-year-old girl, initially in trouble for forging two small checks on her father’s account, was facing more than 10 years in jail. Following the airing of "Very Tough Love," Georgia’s Judicial Qualifying Commission filed 14 ethical misconduct charges against Williams. Within weeks of the filing of charges, Williams stepped down from the bench and agreed never to seek other judicial offices.^[18]

In 2012, Glass received a Doctorate of Humane Letters honoris causa from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD.

Other works[link]

While in high school, he wrote jokes for Baltimore radio personality Johnny Walker.

In September 1999, Ira collaborated on a comic book, Radio: An Illustrated Guide, with Jessica Abel. The book showcases how This American Life is produced, and how to produce your own radio program.

In 2006, he served as one of the executive producers of the feature film Unaccompanied Minors. It is based on the true story of what happened to This American Life contributing editor Susan Burton and her sister Betsy at an airport on the day before Christmas. Burton had already produced a segment on This American Life about the same experience before the story was adapted to film.

In October 2007, he published the anthology The New Kings of Nonfiction.

On March 22, 2007, Glass and company began airing a television version of This American Life as half-hour episodes on the Showtime network. During an interview with Patt Morrison on 89.3 KPCC, Southern California Public Radio, Glass said that he lost 30 lb (13.5 kg) for this venture.^[19] The show aired for thirteen episodes over two seasons, and ended in 2009 because of the heavy workload required to produce it.^[20]

Appearances[link]

On April 25, 2008, Glass again appeared on The Late Show.^[21] On April 22, 2009, Glass appeared as the featured guest on The Colbert Report. He also was on TBTL on September 18, 2009. Glass served as the monologist for ASSSSCAT at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York on February 21, 2010. He appeared in a green motion capture suit in a John Hodgman segment on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Thursday, November 4, 2010 where he acted as the main character of the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City video game. Glass appeared on the June 24th, 2011 edition of Adam Carolla's podcast, where they discussed The Adam Carolla Podcast claiming the title of "Most Downloaded Podcast" from the Guinness Book of World Records. On September 17, 2011, Glass participated in the Drunk Show at the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival,^[22][23] during which Glass became so drunk he blacked out and vomited backstage.^[24] On September 19, 2011, Glass appeared on WTF Live with Marc Maron^[25], which aired as Episode 213^[26] of WTF with Marc Maron, on September 26, 2011. Ira Glass guest co-hosted Dan Savage's sex advice podcast, Savage Love, on January 31, 2012.^[27] He also lent his voice to The Simpsons in Season 22 in the episode entitled "Elementary School Musical."

On May 18, 2012, Glass gave the commencement address for Goucher College class of 2012 graduation ceremony.^[28] where he also received an honorary degree.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Ira Glass at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by Ira Glass on Open Library at the Internet Archive
• The Onion A/V Club's interview with Ira Glass, November 5, 2003

Bruce Mau (born October 25, 1959) is a Canadian designer. Mau is the creative director of Bruce Mau Design, and the founder of the Institute without Boundaries.

Life and career[link]

Mau was born in Sudbury, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto, but left prior to graduation in order to join the Fifty Fingers design group in 1980. He stayed there for two years, before crossing the ocean for a brief sojourn at Pentagram in the UK. Returning to Toronto a year later, he became part of the founding triumvirate of Public Good Design and Communications. Soon after, the opportunity to design Zone 1/2 presented itself and he left to establish his own studio, Bruce Mau Design. Mau remained the design director of Zone Books until 2004, to which he has added duties as co-editor of Swerve Editions, a Zone imprint. From 1991 to 1993, he also served as creative director of I.D. magazine.

From 1996 to 1999, he was the associate cullinan professor at Rice University School of Architecture in Houston. He has also been a thesis advisor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design; artist in residence at California Institute of the Arts; and a visiting scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He has lectured widely across North America and Europe, and currently serves on the International Advisory Committee of the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio.

In addition, Bruce is an honorary fellow of the Ontario College of Art & Design and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He was awarded the Chrysler Award for Design Innovation in 1998, and the Toronto Arts Award for Architecture and Design in 1999. In 2001 he received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council.^[1]

In 2006, he participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions. He is married to Bisi Williams Mau. As of 2007, Mau was in residence at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in the Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Design Objects Department.

In 2009 Bruce Mau and Bisi Williams founded the Massive Change Network.^[2]

See also[link]

• List of AIGA medalists
• Massive Change

References[link]

• S,M,L,XL with Rem Koolhaas (1995) ISBN 0-7148-3827-6
• Life Style (2000) ISBN 1-885254-01-6
• Massive Change (2004) ISBN 0-7148-4401-2
• Eye, No. 15, Vol. 4, Winter 1994. [1]

External links[link]

• Massive Change Network
• Bruce Mau Design Inc. Mau's Toronto-based design studio
• Institute without Boundaries
• Massive Change BMD's Massive Change Project.
• Massive Change In Action The Massive Change educational project.
• Stock Exchange Of Visions: Visions of Bruce Mau (Video Interviews)
• Zone Books

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (November 2010)

Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta (February 10, 1950 – March 23, 1994) was a Mexican politician, and PRI presidential candidate, who was assassinated at a campaign rally in Tijuana during the Mexican Presidential campaign of 1994.

Political history[link]

Born into a family with a long political heritage in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, Colosio Murrieta was the descendant of 16th century Italian immigrants to New Spain who settled down in the rural territories of the northwest, in the modern state of Sonora. Colosio Murrieta studied at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, better known by its initials ITESM, after which he joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1972. After that he went on to do postgraduate studies at University of Pennsylvania in the USA and research work at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria before returning to Mexico. In 1979 he joined the Ministry of Budget and Planning under future president Carlos Salinas.

He was elected to Congress as the federal deputy for his home town in 1985 and, in 1987, he was selected to serve on the PRI's National Executive Committee. In 1988 Carlos Salinas chose him as the campaign manager for his (successful, although suspicious) presidential campaign. In the same election, Colosio was elected to the Senate, representing Sonora.

In the early years of Salinas's presidency, Colosio served as the chairman of their party's National Executive Committee. In 1992, Salinas chose him to serve in his cabinet, in the newly created position of Social Development Secretary. In November 1993, the PRI announced that Colosio was to be its candidate for the upcoming presidential election.

Campaign for president[link]

After a slow start, with the spotlight focusing on former foreign minister Manuel Camacho's negotiations with the EZLN guerrillas, Colosio appeared to get the traditional support of the political machine of the PRI. Like all the PRI's previous presidential candidates, he was greeted by large crowds throughout his presidential campaign, although the PRI's waning popularity meant some reduction in enthusiasm. Since Mexico's constitution permits presidents to remain in power for only one term, and as an extralegal rule presidents (until Salinas) handpicked their own successors (the party's first primary election in history took place in 1999), Colosio apparently enjoyed the president's favour, expressed in his famous declaration No se hagan bolas: el candidato es Colosio ("Don't get confused: Colosio is the candidate" would be an appropriate translation, literally it means "Don't entangle yourselves: Colosio is the candidate").

Salinas' declaration was motivated by persistent rumours that highly visible Camacho would replace Colosio, who was not doing well in his campaign. Camacho let speculation grow for some time, but eventually declared he wouldn't run for office, concentrating his attention on Chiapas situation instead. The day after Camacho's statement, Colosio was killed.

Assassination[link]

At 7:12 PM, on March 23, 1994, at a campaign rally in Lomas Taurinas, a poor neighborhood of Tijuana, Baja California, Colosio was shot in the head from a distance of a few centimeters in front of a person recording video nearby. There was no foreign press coverage of this campaign event in spite of it happening only a few miles south of San Diego, California. Colosio collapsed, and was subsequently rushed to the city's main hospital, after plans to fly him to an American hospital across the border were canceled. His death was announced a few hours later; amid contradicting eyewitness reports that remain to this day.

The three shots that Colosio received

The shooter, Mario Aburto Martinez, was arrested at the site and never wavered from his story that he had acted alone. Nonetheless, many theories still surround Colosio's assassination. The authorities were criticized for their poor handling of Aburto, having shaved, bathed and given him a prison haircut before showing him to the media, which started rumors about whether that man, who looked so different from the one arrested, was really the murderer. Colosio received three bullet wounds, and it was never clear if they could have been done by a single person or not. The case has been officially closed after many different prosecutors investigated it, but after the many mishandlings of the investigation and contradictory versions, the controversy continues.

Blame was initially laid at the feet of aforementioned Manuel Camacho, allegedly very upset at having been passed over as Salinas's successor. The finger of suspicion also pointed in the direction of organized crime, particularly the Tijuana drug cartel. With the passage of time, however, the most persistent rumor, seemingly confirmed by Ernesto Zedillo's (Colosio's campaign manager) selection as the PRI presidential candidate, is that Colosio was shot on the orders of Salinas himself because of a speech Colosio gave, talking about the Mexican people "thirst" for justice and a bright future. According to this rumor Salinas felt those words marked a rupture between Colosio and him.

Nevertheless, these conspiracy theories have proven faulty and often short of logic and have remained topics of urban mythology, as video evidence and Aburto's clinical history have proven them wrong. The shooter remains imprisoned at the high-security La Palma facility in Almoloya de Juárez, and the mystery surrounding the political assassination of the man chosen to be Mexico's president remains as open and intriguing as day one.^{[citation needed]}

Aftermath[link]

Monument to Luis Donaldo Colosio in Mexico city's Paseo de la Reforma.

With only four months before the election, the PRI found itself hamstrung by the constitutional requirement that no presidential candidate can hold public office during the six months immediately prior to the election; this effectively disqualified the entire cabinet, where most of the more promising replacements were. Of the few potential candidates available, Salinas eventually chose Ernesto Zedillo, who had just resigned as Education Minister to serve as Colosio's campaign manager, because Manlio Fabio Beltrones, a very close collaborator of the murdered candidate, showed a video where Colosio praised Zedillo. This stroke of luck for Zedillo, who would have never been a candidate under normal circumstances, gave rise to even more rumours - unfounded or not.

A few months later, Salinas' brother-in-law, José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, president of the PRI was also murdered in plain daylight in Mexico City, eliminating the two most visible and powerful official heads of the PRI in Mexico, Colosio and Ruiz Massieu. Eventually Ernesto Zedillo was elected president, becoming the last PRI president of Mexico ending the longest lasting one-party rule in modern times.

A year after Colosio's assassination, his wife, Laura Riojas, died of cancer. Prestigious newsmagazine Proceso reported Colosio's widow's first words upon learning of her husband's assassination: "Who did it?" Two children, now cared for by relatives, survived. Colosio's father continues determined to uncover what he strongly suspects are hidden truths behind his son's very public murder and, in 2004, he published a book about the case.

Colosio in popular culture[link]

The first motion picture about the incident premiered in Mexico in April 2005. Initially a direct to video movie focusing on politicians and drug lords, produced by a small company, it was professionally post-produced for theatrical release and the storyline heavily oriented towards political satire, filming new scenes as needed. The title was changed from the highly offensive Se c........ al candidato (Colosio) ("They f..... the candidate", "Colossus" in Spanish sounding near to Colosio) to "Magnicidio – Complot en Lomas Taurinas ("Magnicide – Conspiracy in Lomas Taurinas"). While the movie makes no attempt at historical accuracy, it remains the only finished project about Colosio, after all other attempts by Mexican and foreign directors (like Oliver Stone) were cancelled in the early stages. A dubbed version in English was simultaneously made for the international market. The main song in this movie by Diamante Films is performed by Delasónica, an alternative Spanish-language rock band from Colima, Colima. The song is called "Punto y Aparte". The rest of the musical score is by Gus Reyes.

Mexican rock group El Tri also wrote a song about the assassination of Colosio called "Con la cola entre las patas" (With the tail between the legs).

Lorenzo de Monteclaro, a Norteña and Banda music singer, also recorded a Corrido about him prior to his assassination.

The Mexican soap opera La Reina del Sur, about a Mexican drug trafficker, has a similar assassination of a Mexican presidential candidate as part of their plot.

External links[link]

• The San Diego Union-Tribune Who killed Luis Donaldo Colosio?
• The San Diego Union-Tribune 'PRI presidential candidate slain 10 years ago today'.
• The video of Colosio's assassination on YouTube

Jessie J
Jessie J at the O2 Arena in London in 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Jessica Ellen Cornish
Also known as	Jessie J
Born	(1988-03-27) 27 March 1988 (age 24) Chadwell Heath, London, England, United Kingdom
Genres	pop, hip hop, R&B, dance-pop, soul
Years active	2005–present
Labels	Lava, Universal Republic, Island, Gut
Website	jessiejofficial.com

Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), better known by her stage name Jessie J, is an English singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, she studied at the BRIT School before signing with Gut Records and striking a songwriting deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing where she wrote for artists such as Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus.

Signed with Universal, Jessie J came to prominence following the release of her debut single "Do It Like a Dude" which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Charts. After scoring her first number one in the United Kingdom, France, Ireland and New Zealand with the song "Price Tag", she released her debut album Who You Are (2011) which charted at number two in the UK. Other releases from the album include "Nobody's Perfect", "Who's Laughing Now" and "Who You Are" which charted within the top 20 in the UK but the release of fifth single "Domino" spawned international chart success, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and becoming her second UK number one. Aside from her musical career, Jessie J is currently a coach and mentor on television show The Voice UK.

Citing various influences, Jessie J is recognized for an unconventional musical and performance style^[1][2] that mixes her soul voice with contemporary R&B, pop, and hip-hop influences. Jessie J has garnered various awards and nominations for her contributions to the music industry, including the 2011 Critics' Choice BRIT Award and the BBC's Sound of 2011. As of April 2012, Jessie has sold over 11 million singles and 2.5 million records worldwide.^[3][4]

Early life[link]

Jessie J was born Jessica Ellen Cornish in Chadwell Heath, London,^[5] daughter of Stephen Cornish and Rose Cornish (née Archer). She was educated at Mayfield High School in the London Borough of Redbridge. She attended Colin's Performing Arts School and as an 11-year old-was cast in Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End production of Whistle Down the Wind.^[6][7][8] Jessie has two sisters, who are five and seven years older than her, who were both head girls at school. Unlike her academic sisters, Cornish has stated she was "never really that good at anything". She said, "At school they were like 'oh, you're a Cornish girl' and they kind of expected me to be the same as my sisters. Give me something to draw or an outfit to pick for someone, or hair, make-up, acting, write a song, I'm fine with it, but anything to do with sums – it was never my thing." She also said she never based her intelligence on her exam results.^[9] She also said she was always good at singing and it was her "thing". At the age of 16 she began studying at the BRIT School and at 17 she joined a girl group named Soul Deep.^[10] She graduated in the class of 2006 along with singers Adele and Leona Lewis.^[11] At 18 she suffered a stroke.^[12]

Music career[link]

2006–2010: Career beginnings[link]

Jessie J was signed to Gut Records, recording an album for the label, but the company went bankrupt before any material was released.^[8][10] She then found success as a songwriter, gaining a Sony ATV publishing contract.^[13] She was also the support act for Cyndi Lauper during Lauper's UK dates of her 2008 Bring Ya To The Brink tour (Lauper invited J to join her on stage for the performances of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun"). Jessie has also written lyrics for artists such as Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus, including "Party in the U.S.A.".^[14][15] Jessie J was also part of a girl band, called Soul Deep, for two years, however she left due to thoughts that "it wasn't going anywhere". Despite people thinking that her first notoriety was through YouTube, Jessie was signed for four years before her first video was posted. Jessie first came to the attention of Lava Records when her publisher at Sony/ATV, Rich Christina, sent Lava president Jason Flom a link to her MySpace page, which the record executive loved.^[16] After seeing an impressive U.S. showcase, Lava was, along with several other labels, keen to sign the artist but progress was hampered by her management's insistence on, what Flom called, a "crazy deal", and their refusal to let Jessie speak to any labels directly.^[16] Despite this, Senior Director of A&R at Lava, Harinder Rana, made surreptitious efforts to meet Jessie on her own in winter of 2008. Later in the year a change in management to Sarah Stennett and Nadia Khan of Crown Music allowed record deal negotiations to take place. Jessie eventually signed with Lava as part of a joint venture with Universal Republic.^[16]

[edit] 2010–2012: Who You Are

Jessie J performing at a concert in New York City in 2011.

Jessie J began recording her debut studio album in 2006 and it was completed on 19 January 2011.^[17][18] She revealed that "Big White Room" would be on the album and was written from an experience she had when she was 11 years old, although she wrote the song at age 17, in hospital, where a ward mate, a little boy, died.^[19] Jessie J says the album's title track, "Who You Are", is one of her proudest creations, she said the song is a "positive role model for young people" and "I always say that I'm half-artist, half-therapist".^[19] In late 2010 Jessie J released her first single, "Do It Like a Dude" which was co-written with George Astasio, Tj Normandin, Jason Pebworth, Jon Shave, Kyle Abrahams and Peter Ighile. Originally, she wrote the song with Rihanna in mind because "Rude Boy" was released at the time, partly inspiring the song. She then sent the song to her label, Island Records, before sending it to Rihanna's management. Island insisted the song become Jessie J's first single.^[20] She wishes to perform the song with Rihanna at one point.^[21] The single gained positive reception from critics.^[22] The single charted at number two on the UK Singles Charts. Her follow-up single "Price Tag" was released in late January 2011. This was written by Jessie J, Lukasz Gottwald, Claude Kelly, and Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr. and charted at number one in the top of the charts. "Price Tag" was released in the United States on 1 February 2011 and peaked at 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[23] "Price Tag" also charted at number-one in New Zealand and Ireland and is the most successful online video J has released. As of October 2011, the video has generated over 148 million views on Youtube and Vevo, making it the 22nd most viewed music video of all time.^[24][25] Her first American television appearance was as the musical guest on the 12 March 2011 episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live.^[26]

On 25 February 2011 her debut album, Who You Are, was released.^[27] The album first entered the charts on 6 March 2011 where it charted on the UK Album Charts at number two. The album charted into the top ten in a number of countries and number 11 in the United States.^[28] After the release she went on to release a third single from the album, "Nobody's Perfect".^[29] MTV reported that the single is, so far, only confirmed for release in the United Kingdom.^[30] The album's fourth single was "Who's Laughing Now". "Domino" was her second US single.^[31] The Dr. Luke-produced track was sent to mainstream radio on 6 September 2011.^[32] With the success of Who You Are in North America, Jessie was chosen to tour as the opening act for American pop artist Katy Perry's California Dreams Tour in 2011 but after she was unable to fully recover from her injuries during rehearsals she was forced to pull out under the doctor's orders.^[33] Jessie J served as the house artist at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, performing several of her original songs along with covers around commercial breaks.^[34]

James Morrison's third studio album, The Awakening features a collaboration with Jessie J called "Up", the song was released as a single on 4 December 2011. Jessie J re-released "Who You Are" on 9 November 2011, featuring the regular tracks plus "Domino" and two new songs. "Domino" became her first top 10 hit in the U.S., following the success of "Price Tag". The song also peaked at number 1 in January 2012 in the UK, before it was even officially released there.

[edit] 2012–present: Second studio album and The Voice

On 4 October 2011, Jessie announced that she will be one of four coaches for new BBC program, The Voice UK.^[35] The show was announced after the success of the US version, The Voice. It premiered in March 2012 on BBC One. It will be presented by Holly Willoughby and Reggie Yates, with will.i.am (of The Black Eyed Peas), Tom Jones and Danny O'Donoghue (of The Script) joining Jessie on the coaching panel.^[36] The first stage of the competition, The Blind auditions, began in London on 18 January 2012 at the BBC Television Centre and finished filming on 22 January 2012. The winner will receive £100,000 and a record deal with Universal Republic. It was also reported that the 4 coaches recorded a cover of the Black Eyed Peas song, "I Gotta Feeling", and will release an accompanying music video to help promote the show.^[37]

On 31 January 2012, Jessie announced that she had begun recording for her second studio album.^[38] She also stated that she hopes to collaborate with many artists this year, possibly including some of her fellow coaches on The Voice.^[39] It was revealed that she has worked in the studio with Cee-Lo Green after he tweeted her on twitter. Jessie has also revealed on twitter that she has worked with Diane Warren as well as reuniting in the studio with her 'Price Tag' co-writer Claude Kelly.

Jessie will embark on her first arena tour in March 2013. Via microblogging website, Twitter, Jessie J confirmed the tour will be called Nice to Meet You Tour.^[40]

Personal life[link]

Jessie J performing at the 2011 The Big Chill, sitting on the "gilded throne" she used for performances while her foot was broken.

In early 2011 she suffered a panic attack on stage after she was forced to perform in the dark. "I did a gig recently and had a panic attack on stage," she told NOW. "The night was called 'Black Out' and I had to perform in the dark. I asked them to turn on the lights and they didn't. I was onstage in pitch black and, because I couldn't see anything, I started to panic. It was awful."^[41]

Jessie J is bisexual and stated in an interview on the "In Demand" radio show on 3 March 2011, "I've never denied it. Whoopie doo guys, yes, I've dated girls and I've dated boys – get over it."^[42][43] However, in April 2012 The Sun outed her as homosexual which she denied via Twitter, calling it a "yet another boring untrue story".^[44] According to The Guardian, Jessie J's sexuality is valuable to young teens, especially for young girls unsure of themselves because of their sexuality and identity, to feel "that this does happen and this is normal."^[45]

On 12 June 2011 at the Capital Radio Summertime Ball, Jessie ruptured several tendons in her foot during rehearsals, and performed her set the following day while sitting on a gilded throne.^[46] For her appearance at Glastonbury Festival 2011 on 25 June 2011, she performed on the throne again, claiming her physician had told her not to perform with her broken foot which would take six weeks to heal.^[47] Jessie J was scheduled to play at several festivals throughout the summer, however it was reported on 1 July 2011 that she would not be able to attend T in the Park, T4 On The Beach, Wembley:Orange, iTunes Festival, Lovebox and Oxegen due to the injuries to her foot. Jessie J personally tweeted before surgery; "Keep making nervous jokes with the doctor and he keeps looking at me blankly. Which is making me laugh even more. It's getting serious. I just took my nose stud out." Tweeting after the surgery, she wrote: "Can't keep tweeting. Still very dizzy and being sick. But I'm OK, I got through it." Her record label released an official statement on 30 June 2011 that under strict orders from her doctor, she will not be able to perform for a number of weeks so she can heal and recuperate properly.^[48] She returned to the concert circuit in late August, including sets at the V Festival^[49] and The Big Chill. For the 2011 VMA's she was still in a cast and using the throne to keep off it.

Jessie J confirmed on 2 August 2011 that she would be shaving her hair off for charity in 2012. Speaking via her official Twitter account she said: "It’s hair, It will grow back. Even if it takes 2 years, if it saves lives it’s worth it. Even if its 1 life that’s something."^[50]

‎Artistry and voice[link]

Jessie J performing at the Bournemouth International Centre in 2011.

Although she was first identified as a soul singer, she primarily records songs of contemporary R&B and pop music with hip-hop influences.

Music critic Matthew Perpetua of Pitchfork Media compared Jessie J to her peers Adele and Amy Winehouse, but suggested she was missing something: "Whereas Adele and Winehouse also have powerhouse voices, they fit into clear aesthetic niches and invest their songs with depth and humanity. Jessie J doesn't have even a fraction of their restraint." Perpetua added: "Her idea of showcasing her gift is to shoot for a blaring melisma on "Mamma Knows Best" that makes Christina Aguilera seem as subtle as Joni Mitchell by comparison."^[51]

Ailbhe Malone of the music magazine NME also recognized Cornish's "undeniably potent voice". However, she pointed out the possible "identity crisis" that might have been caused by Jessie's songwriter past: "This is an album of singles for other artists. There’s Rihanna Jessie (‘Do It...’), Perry Jessie (‘Abracadabra’), Pixie Jessie (‘Mamma Knows Best’), Ellie Jessie ('Big White Room')."^[52]

Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian shared her positive opinion about the singer, saying that "if any singer has the potential to be the British Katy Perry or Pink, with the accompanying millions of sales, it's her". Sullivan also complimented Cornish's attitude: "[Her songs] are delivered with a confidence that money can't buy."^[53]

Entertainment Weekly's music critic Adam Markovitz said of Jessie: "The 23-year-old Brit has all the tools, from a monster voice to an ear for hooks — she co-wrote Miley Cyrus' 'Party in the U.S.A.' — and a manic persona that's equal parts Katy Perry, Kristin Chenoweth, and Alice Cooper."^[54]

Discography[link]

• Who You Are (2011)

Concert tours[link]

Headlining

• Stand Up Tour (2011)
• Heartbeat Tour (2011-12)
• Nice To Meet You Tour (2013)

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jessie J

External links[link]

• Official website
• Jessie J discography at Discogs
• Jessie J's channel on YouTube
• Jessie J's BBC Sound of 2011 page at BBC Online