A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. It entails more than basic facts (education, work, relationships, and death), a biography also portrays a subject's experience of these events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of a subject's personality.

Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Biographical works in diverse media—from literature to film—form the genre known as a biography.

An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and, at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An autobiography is about a life of a subject, written by that subject or sometimes with a collaborator. ^[1]

Early biography[link]

The Early Middle Ages (AD 400 to 1450) saw a decline in awareness of the classical culture in Europe. During this time, the only repositories of knowledge and records of the early history in Europe were those of the Roman Catholic Church. Hermits, monks, and priests used this historic period to write the first modern biographies. Their subjects were usually restricted to the church fathers, martyrs, popes, and saints. Their works were meant to be inspirational to the people, vehicles for conversion to Christianity (see Hagiography). One significant secular example of a biography from this period is the life of Charlemagne by his courtier Einhard.

Meanwhile in the medieval Islamic civilization (c. AD 750 to 1258), biographies began to be produced on a large scale, noteably with the advent of paper and the beginning of the Prophetic biography tradition. This led to the introduction of a new literary genre: the biographical dictionary. The first biographical dictionaries were written in the Muslim world from the 9th century onwards. They contained more social data for a large segment of the population than that found in any other pre-industrial society. The earliest biographical dictionaries initially focused on the lives of the prophets of Islam and their companions, with one of these early examples being The Book of The Major Classes by Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi. And then began the documentation of the lives of many other historical figures (from rulers to scholars) who lived in the medieval Islamic world.^[2]

By the late Middle Ages, biographies became less church-oriented in Europe as biographies of kings, knights, and tyrants began to appear. The most famous of such biographies was Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. The book was an account of the life of the fabled King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Following Malory, the new emphasis on humanism during the Renaissance promoted a focus on secular subjects, such as artists and poets and encouraged writing in the vernacular. Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists (1550) was the landmark biography focusing on secular lives. Vasari made celebrities of his subjects, as the Lives became an early "bestseller". Two other developments are noteworthy: the development of the printing press in the 15th century and the gradual increase in literacy. Biographies in the English language began appearing during the reign of Henry VIII. John Foxe's Acts and Monuments (1563), better known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, was essentially the first dictionary of the biography in Europe, followed by Thomas Fuller's The History of the Worthies of England (1662), with a distinct focus on public life. Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, A General History of the Pyrates (1724) is the prime source for the biographies of many well-known pirates.^[3]

The romantic biographers disputed many of Johnson's judgments. Jean Jacques Rousseau's Confessions (1781–88) exploited the romantic point of view and the confessional mode. The tradition of testimony and confession was brought to the New World by the Puritan and Quaker memoirists and journal-keepers, where the form continued to be influential. Benjamin Franklin's autobiography (1791) would provide the archetype for the American success story. (Stone, 1982) Autobiography would remain an influential form of biographical writing.

Generally the American biography followed the English model, while incorporating Thomas Carlyle's view that a biography was a part of history. Carlyle asserted that the lives of great human beings were essential to understanding society and its institutions. While the historical impulse would remain a strong element in the early American biography, the American writers carved out their own distinct approach. What emerged was a rather didactic form of biography, which sought to shape the individual character of a reader in the process of defining national character. (Casper, 1999)

The distinction between the mass biography and the literary biography had formed by the middle of the nineteenth century, and reflected a breach between high culture and middle-class culture. This division would endure for the remainder of the century. Biography began to flower, thanks to new publishing technologies and an expanding reading public. This revolution in publishing made books available to a larger audience of readers. Almost ten times as many American biographies appeared from 1840 to 1860 than had appeared in the first two decades of the century. In addition, affordable paperback editions of popular biographies were published for the first time. Also, American periodicals began publishing a sequence of biographical sketches. (Casper, 1999) The topical emphasis shifted from republican heroes to self-made men and women.

Much of the late nineteenth-century biography remained formulaic. Notably, few autobiographies had been written in the nineteenth-century. The following century witnessed a renaissance of autobiography. Beginning with Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery (1901) and followed by Henry Adams' Education (1907), the chronicle of self-defined failure that ran counter to the predominant American success story. The publication of socially significant autobiographies by both men and women began to flourish. (Stone, 1982)

The authority of psychology and sociology was ascendant, and would make its mark on the new century’s biographies. (Stone, 1982) The demise of the "great man" theory of history was indicative of the emerging mindset. Human behavior would be explained through Darwinian theories. "Sociological" biographies conceived of their subjects' actions as the result of the environment, and tended to downplay individuality. The development of psychoanalysis led to a more penetrating and comprehensive understanding of the biographical subject, and induced biographers to give more emphasis to childhood and adolescence. Clearly these psychological ideas were changing the way Americans read and wrote biographies, as a culture of autobiography developed in which the telling of one's own story became a form of therapy. (Casper, 1999)

The conventional concept of national heroes and narratives of success disappeared in the obsession with psychological explorations of personality. The new school of biography featured iconoclasts, scientific analysts, and fictional biographers. This wave included Lytton Strachey, Gamaliel Bradford, André Maurois, and Emil Ludwig, among others. Strachey's biographies had an influence similar to that which Samuel Johnson had enjoyed earlier. In the 1920s and '30s, biographical writers sought to capitalize on Strachey's popularity and imitate his style. Robert Graves (I, Claudius, 1934) stood out among those following Strachey's model of "debunking biographies." The trend in literary biography was accompanied in popular biography by a sort of "celebrity voyeurism", in the early decades of the century. This latter form's appeal to readers was based on curiosity more than morality or patriotism.

By World War I, cheap hard-cover reprints had become popular. The decades of the 1920s witnessed a biographical "boom." In 1929, nearly 700 biographies were published in the United States, and the first dictionary of American biography appeared. In the decade that followed, numerous biographies continued to be published, despite the economic depression. They reached a growing audience through inexpensive formats via public libraries.

The late feminist scholar Carolyn Heilbrun observed that women's biographies and autobiographies began to change character during the second wave of feminist activism. She cited Nancy Milford's 1970 biography Zelda, as the "beginning of a new period of women's biography, because "[only] in 1970 were we ready to read not that Zelda had destroyed Fitzgerald, but Fitzgerald her: he had usurped her narrative." Heilbrun named 1973 as the turning point in women's autobiography, with the publication of May Sarton's Journal of a Solitude, for that was the first instance where a woman told her life story, not as finding "beauty even in pain" and transforming "rage into spiritual acceptance," but acknowledging what had previously been forbidden to women: their pain, their rage, and their "open admission of the desire for power and control over one's life."^[4]

Multimedia forms[link]

With technological advances in the twentieth century, multimedia biography became more popular than literary forms of personality. Along with documentary Biographical films, Hollywood produced numerous commercial films based on the lives of famous people. The popularity of these forms of biography culminated in such cable and satellite television networks as A&E, The Biography Channel, The History Channel, and History International.

More recently, CD-ROM and online biographies have appeared. Unlike books and films, they often do not tell a chronological narrative: instead, they are archives of many discrete media elements related to an individual person, including video clips, photographs, and text articles. Media scholar Lev Manovich says that such archives exemplify the database form, allowing users to navigate the materials in many ways. (Manovich 220) Twenty-first century web 2.0 applications, such as Annoknips.com enable users all over the world to compile their own biography and illustrate it with other people's photos.

Book awards[link]

Several countries offer an annual prize for writing a biography such as the:

• Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize – Canada
• National Biography Award – Australia
• Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography – United States
• Whitbread Prize for Best Biography – United Kingdom
• J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography – United Kingdom
• Prix Goncourt de la Biographie – France

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	History portal

• Autobiography
• Biography: A Brief History (book)
• Biography in literature
• Dictionary of National Biography (DNB, notable figures from British history)
• Family history
• Historical document
• List of biographers
• List of political career biographies
• Lists of people
• Who's Who

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Casper, Scott E. Constructing American Lives: Biography and Culture in Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
• Heilbrun, Carolyn G. Writing a Woman's Life. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988.
• Lee, Hermione. Biography: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-953354-1
• Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
• Stone, Albert E. Autobiographical Occasions and Original Acts. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.

External links[link]

Find more about Biography on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2011)

Edward C. Luck (born 17 October 1948)^[1] is a professor, author, and expert in international relations. He has served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser at the Assistant Secretary-General level since February 2008. Previously he was Vice President of the International Peace Academy as well as the director of the Center on International Organization of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Biography[link]

Dr. Luck received his BA in international relations from Dartmouth College.^[1] He earned his MA, MPh, and PhD in political science from Columbia University, as well as an MIA from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and a Certificate of the Harriman Institute.^[2]

From 1984 to 1994 Dr. Luck was the president and CEO of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA); he was president emeritus of that organization from 1994 to 1998). Between December 1995 and July 1997, Dr. Luck was a senior consultant to the Department of Administration and Management of the United Nations, and a staff director of the General Assembly's Open-Ended High-Level Working Group on the Strengthening of the United Nations System.^[2]

Before joining the faculty at Columbia as Professor of Practice in International and Public Affairs, Dr. Luck founded and was executive director of the Center for the Study of International Organization, a research institute jointly established by the New York University School of Law and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs of Princeton University.^[2]

United Nations[link]

On 21 February 2008 Dr. Luck was appointed Special Adviser at the Assistant Secretary-General level to the United Nations by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.^[1]

Dr. Luck has testified before Congress on arms control, defense, foreign policy, Russian and East Asian affairs, and United Nations reform and peacekeeping. He has also published dozens of articles in Foreign Policy, the Washington Quarterly, Current History, Disarmament, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, International Herald Tribune, USA Today, and Newsday.^[2]

Personal[link]

Dr. Luck is married with one daughter.^[1]

Bibliography[link]

Books[link]

• On the Endings of Wars. Kennikat Press. 1980. ISBN 0-8046-9240-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=16ErAAAAYAAJ&q=edward+luck&dq=edward+luck&hl=en.  (with Stuart Albert)
• Arms control, the multilateral alternative. New York University Press. 1983. ISBN 0-8147-5006-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=jWKIQAAACAAJ&dq=edward+luck&hl=en. 
• Mixed Messages: American Politics and International Organization: 1919–1999. Brookings Institution Press. 1999. ISBN 0-8157-5308-X. http://books.google.com/books?id=Z1zRYeTzcjMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=mixed+messages&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• International Law and Organization: Closing the Compliance Gap. Rowman and Littlefield. 2004. ISBN 978-0-7425-2992-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=Vl9V60W2xBoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=International+Law+and+Organization&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false.  (with Michael W. Doyle)
• UN Security Council: Practice and promise. Routledge. 2006. ISBN 0-415-35531-1. http://books.google.com/books/about/UN_Security_Council.html?id=zyvyR8BsHH4C. 

Monographs[link]

• Summary of discussion: A Joint Meeting on Security and Arms Control Issues, February 14-16, 1983, Moscow, USSR. United Nations Association of the United States of America. 1983. http://books.google.com/books?id=8jxGHAAACAAJ&dq=edward+luck&hl=en.  (with Toby Trister Gati and Çiḡdem A. Kurt)
• Whose collective security?. 1992. http://books.google.com/books?id=smREHQAACAAJ&dq=edward+luck&hl=en.  (with Toby Trister Gati)
• The United Nations: Fifty years after San Francisco: A conference report. Dartmouth College. 1995. http://books.google.com/books?id=J9WIHwAACAAJ&dq=edward+luck&hl=en.  (with Gene M. Lyons)
• Report to the Commission on Global Governance. E.C. Luck. 1998. http://books.google.com/books?id=FMj2HAAACAAJ&dq=edward+luck&hl=en. 
• Reforming the United Nations: Lessons from a history in progress. Academic Council on the United Nations System. 2003. ISBN 1-880660-27-X. http://books.google.com/books?id=wL90AAAACAAJ&dq=edward+luck&hl=en. 
• The United Nations and the responsibility to protect. Stanley Foundation. 2008. http://books.google.com/books?id=ID36cQAACAAJ&dq=edward+luck&hl=en. 

Book chapters[link]

• "Tackling Terrorism" in The UN Security Council: from the Cold War to the 21st century, David M. Malone, ed. Lynne Rienner Pub, 2004, pp. 85ff. ISBN 1-58826-240-5.
• "The Uninvited Challenge: Terrorism targets the United Nations" in Multilateralism Under Challenge: Power, international order, and structural change, Edward Newman, Ramesh Thakur, and John Tirman, eds. Tokyo: United Nations University and the Social Science Research Council, 2006, pp. 336–355. ISBN 978-81-7188-672-2.
• "A Council for All Seasons: The Creation of the Security Council and Its Relevance Today" in The United Nations Security Council and War: The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945, Vaughan Lowe, Adam Roberts, Jennifer Welsh and Dominik Zaum, eds. Oxford University press, May 2010, ISBN 0-19-958330-7.

References[link]

External links[link]

• "IPI's Edward C. Luck Tells Al Jazeera: Good Reason to Believe Crimes Against Humanity Have Occurred in Libya"

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Punjabi: نصرت فتح علی خان (Shahmukhī)) (October 13, 1948 – August 16, 1997), a world-renowned Pakistani musician, was primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis (a mystical tradition within Islam). Considered one of the greatest singers ever recorded, he possessed a six-octave vocal range^{[citation needed]} and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours.^[1] Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely credited with introducing Sufi music to international audiences.^[2][3] He was popularly known as "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", meaning "The King of Kings of Qawwali".^[4]

Born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, Khan had his first public performance at age of 16, at his father's chelum. He officially became the head of the family qawwali party in 1971, and was signed by Oriental Star Agencies (OSA), Birmingham, U.K., in the early 1980s. In subsequent years, Khan released movie scores and albums for various labels in Pakistan, Europe, Japan and the U.S. He engaged in collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a well-known world music artist in the process. He toured extensively, performing in over 40 countries.^[5]

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

Khan was born on October 13, 1948 in the city of Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), Pakistan. He was the fifth child and first son of Fateh Ali Khan, a musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and Qawwal. Khan's family, which included four older sisters and a younger brother, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan, grew up in central Lyallpur. Initially, his father did not want Khan to follow the family's vocation. He had his heart set on Khan choosing a much more respectable career path and becoming a doctor, because he felt Qawwali artists had low social status. However, Khan showed such an aptitude for, and interest in, Qawwali that his father finally relented.^[6] Khan began by learning to play tabla alongside his father before progressing to learn Raag Vidya and Bol Bandish. He then went on to learn to sing within the classical framework of khayal. Khan's training with his father was cut short when his father died in 1964, leaving Khan's paternal uncles, Mubarak Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan, to complete his training. His first performance was at a traditional graveside ceremony for his father, known as chehlum, which took place forty days after his father's death.

In 1971, after the death of Mubarak Ali Khan, Khan became the official leader of the family Qawwali party and the party became known as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan & Party. Khan's first public performance as the leader of the Qawwali party was at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival organised by Radio Pakistan, known as Jashn-e-Baharan. Khan sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and occasionally in Persian, Braj Bhasha and Hindi. His first major hit in Pakistan was the song Haq Ali Ali, which was performed in a traditional style and with traditional instrumentation. The song featured restrained use of Khan's sargam improvisations.

In 1979, Khan married his first cousin, Naheed (the daughter of Fateh Ali Khan's brother, Salamat Ali Khan); they had one daughter, Nida.^[7]

Early in his career, Khan was signed up by Oriental Star Agencies in the U.K. to their Star Cassette Label. OSA sponsored regular concert tours by Khan to the U.K. from the early '80s onwards, and released much of this live material on cassette, CD, videotape and DVD.G

Later career[link]

In the 1992–93 academic year, Khan was a Visiting Artist in the Ethnomusicology department at the University of Washington, Seattle.^[8]

Khan teamed with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ in 1985, with Canadian musician Michael Brook on the albums Mustt Mustt (1990) and Night Song (1996),^[9] and with Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder in 1995 on two songs for the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking. One of these songs ("The Long Road") was re-used on the soundtrack for Eat Pray Love in 2010. Khan also contributed to the soundtrack of Natural Born Killers. He composed the music for the 1994 film Bandit Queen in collaboration with Roger White.

Peter Gabriel's Real World label later released five albums of Khan's traditional Qawwali, together with some of his experimental work which included the albums Mustt Mustt and Star Rise. Khan provided vocals for The Prayer Cycle, which was put together by Jonathan Elias, but died before the vocals could be completed. Alanis Morissette was brought in to sing with his unfinished vocals. Khan also collabrated with Michael Brook to create music for the song "Sweet Pain" used in the movie Any Given Sunday. He also performed traditional Qawwali before international audiences at several WOMAD world music festivals and the single "Dam Mast Qalandar" was remixed by electronic trip hop group Massive Attack in 1998.

His album Intoxicated Spirit was nominated for a Grammy award in 1997 for best traditional folk album.

Khan contributed songs to, and performed in, several Pakistani films. Shortly before his death, he recorded a song each for two Bollywood films, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya (in which he also sang the song onscreen) and Kachche Dhaage. He sang the title song of the film Dhadkan. He also sang "Saya bhi saath jab chhod jaye" for Sunny Deol's movie Dillagi. The song was released in 1999, two years after Khan's death.

Khan contributed the song "Gurus of Peace" to the album Vande Mataram, composed by A. R. Rahman, and released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India's independence. Rahman, who was a big fan of Khan could not do further songs with him. As a tribute, Rahman later released an album titled Gurus of Peace, which featured "Allah Hoo" by Khan. Rahman's 2007 song "Tere Bina" was also done as a tribute to Khan.^[10]

After his death, the song "Solemn Prayer", on which Khan provided vocals, was used on the Peter Gabriel song "Signal to Noise" (on the album Up), and on the soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Khan Fateh Ali Khan holds the world record for the largest recorded output by a Qawwali artist—a total of 125 albums as of 2001.

Death[link]

Khan was taken ill with kidney and liver failure on August 11, 1997 in London, England, while on the way to Los Angeles in order to receive a kidney transplant. He died of a sudden cardiac arrest at Cromwell Hospital, London, on Saturday, August 16, 1997, aged 48.^[11] His body was returned to Faisalabad, Pakistan, and his funeral was attended by the public.

Composition of Nusrat's qawwali party[link]

The composition of Khan's ensemble, called a "party" (or "Humnawa" in Urdu), changed over its 26 years. Listed below is a snapshot of the party, circa 1983:

1. Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan: Khan's first cousin, vocals
2. Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan: Khan's brother, vocals and lead harmonium
3. Rehmat Ali: vocals and second harmonium
4. Maqsood Hussain: vocals
5. Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Khan's nephew and pupil, vocals
6. Dildar Hussain: percussion
7. Majawar Abbas: mandolin and guitar/chorus, handclapping
8. Mohammed Iqbal Naqvi: secretary of the party, chorus, handclapping
9. Asad Ali: chorus, handclapping. Khan's cousin
10. Ghulam Farid: chorus, handclapping
11. Kaukab Ali: chorus, handclapping

The one significant member of the party who does not appear on this list is Atta Fareed. For many years, he alternated with Rehmat Ali on vocals and second harmonium. He is easily identifiable in videos since he plays the harmonium left-handed.

This snapshot is non-representative in one respect: harmoniums were usually the only instruments. Only rarely were instruments like mandolin or guitar used.

Awards and titles[link]

Khan is widely considered to be the most important qawwal in history.^[12][13] In 1987, Khan received the President of Pakistan’s Award for Pride of Performance for his contribution to Pakistani music.^[8][14] In 1995 he received the UNESCO Music Prize.^[15][16] In 1996 he was awarded Grand Prix des Amériques at Montreal World Film Festival for exceptional contribution to the art of cinema.^[17] In 2005, Khan was awarded the "Legends" award at the UK Asian Music Awards.^[18] Time magazine's issue of November 6, 2006, "60 Years of Asian Heroes", lists him as one of the top 12 artists and thinkers in the last 60 years.^[19] He also appeared on NPR's 50 Great Voices list in 2010.^[20] In August 2010 he was included in CNN's list of the twenty most iconic musicians from the past fifty years.^[21]

Many honorary titles were bestowed upon Khan during his 25-year music career. He was given the title of Ustad after performing classical music at a function in Lahore on his father's death anniversary.^[22]

Tributes, legacy and influence[link]

Alexandra A. Seno of Asiaweek wrote:^[23]

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's voice was otherworldly. For 25 years, his mystical songs transfixed millions. It was not long enough ... He performed qawali, which means wise or philosophical utterance, as nobody else of his generation did. His vocal range, talent for improvisation and sheer intensity were unsurpassed.

Jeff Buckley cited Khan as a major influence, saying of him "He's my Elvis", and performing the first few minutes of Khan's hit "Yeh Jo Halka Halka Suroor Hai" (including vocals) at live concerts.^[24][25] Many other artists have also cited Khan as an influence, such as A. R. Rahman,^[26] Sheila Chandra,^[27] and Alim Qasimov.^[28]

Paul Williams picked a concert performance by Khan for inclusion in his 2000 book The 20th Century's Greatest Hits: a 'top-40' list, in which he devotes a chapter each to what he considers the top 40 artistic achievements of the 20th century in any field (including art, movies, music, fiction, non-fiction, science-fiction).^[29]

In 2008, Khan was listed in 14th position in UGO's list of the best singers of all time.^[30]

In 2004, a tribute band called (Brooklyn Qawwali Party) (formerly Brook's Qawwali Party) was formed in New York City by percussionist Brook Martinez to perform the music of Khan. The 13-piece group still performs mostly instrumental jazz versions of Khan's qawwalis, using the instruments conventionally associated with jazz rather than those associated with qawwali.^[31]

Films[link]

Documentaries[link]

• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: le dernier prophète (1996). Directed by Jérôme de Missolz.
• Nusrat has Left the Building... But When? (1997). Directed by Farjad Nabi. (This 20-minute docudrama focuses on Khan's early career.)
• A Voice from Heaven (1999). Directed by Giuseppe Asaro. New York, NY: Winstar TV & Video. (This 75-minute documentary, available on VHS and DVD, provides an introduction to Khan's life and work.)
• Samandar Main Samandar (2007). A documentary aired on Geo TV detailing Khan's career.
• The King of Qawalli (2009). A short film aired on Dawn News about Khan's life and career.

Concert films[link]

• The JVC Video Anthology of World Music and Dance (1990). Video 14 (of 30) (South Asia IV). Produced by Ichikawa Katsumori; directed by Nakagawa Kunikiko and Ichihashi Yuji; in collaboration with the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka. [Tokyo]: JVC, Victor Company of Japan; Cambridge, Massachusetts: distributed by Rounder Records. Features a studio performance by Khan and Party (two Urdu-language songs: a Hamd, and a Manqabat for Khwaja Mu`inuddin Chishti. Filmed in Tokyo, Japan, September 20, 1987, for Asian Traditional Performing Arts).
• Nusrat! Live at Meany (1998). Produced by the University of Washington. (87-minute recording of a January 23, 1993 concert at Meany Hall, University of Washington in Seattle, during Khan's residency at the Ethnomusicology Program there.)
• Live in Concert in the U.K. (DVD, vols. 1–17) [OSA]; recorded between 1983 and 1993; first thirteen listed below:
  • Live in Concert in UK (DVD vol. 1)
  • Live in Concert (DVD vol. 2)
  • Live in Concert (DVD vol. 3)
  • Live in UK (DVD vol. 4)
  • Live in UK (DVD vol. 5)
  • Live in Concert (DVD vol. 6)
  • Live in UK (DVD vol. 7)
  • Live in UK (DVD vol. 8)
  • Live in UK (DVD vol. 9)
  • Live in UK (DVD vol. 10)
  • Live in UK (DVD vol. 11)
  • Digbeth Birmingham 12 November 1983 (DVD vol. 12)
  • Digbeth 30 October 1983 (DVD vol. 13)
• Akhiyan Udeek Diyan (DVD) [Nupur Audio]
• Je Tun Rab Nu Manauna (DVD) [Nupur Audio]
• Yaadan Vicchre Sajan Diyan Aayiyan (DVD) [Nupur Audio]
• Rang-e-Nusrat (DVD, vols. 1–11) [Music Today]; recorded between 1983 and 1993 (same material as the OSA DVDs)
• VHS videotapes, vols. 1–21 [OSA]; recorded between 1983 and 1993 (same material as the OSA DVDs)
  • Luxor Cinema Birmingham (VHS vol. 1, 1979)
  • Digbeth Birmingham (VHS vol. 2, 1983)
  • St. Francis Hall Birmingham (VHS vol. 3, 1983)
  • Royal Oak Birmingham (VHS vol. 4, 1983)
  • Private Mehfil (Wallace Lawley Centre, Lozells Birmingham, November 1983) (VHS vol. 5)
  • Private Mehfil (VHS vol. 6, 1983)
  • Natraj Cinema Leicester (VHS vol. 7, 1983)
  • Live In Southall (VHS vol. 8)
  • Live In Bradford (VHS vol. 9, 1983)
  • Live In Birmingham (VHS vol. 10, 1985)
  • Allah Ditta Hall (VHS vol. 11, 1985)
  • Harrow Leisure Centre (VHS vol. 12)
  • University Of Aston (VHS vol. 13, 1988)
  • Aston University (VHS vol. 14, 1988)
  • WOMAD Festival Bracknell (VHS vol. 15, 1988)
  • Live In Paris (VHS vol. 16, 1988)
  • Poplar Civic Centre London (VHS vol. 17)
  • Imperial Hotel Birmingham (VHS vol. 18, 1985)
  • Slough Gurdawara (SHABADS) (VHS vol. 19)
  • Imran Khan Cancer Appeal (VHS vol. 20)
  • Town Hall Birmingham (VHS vol. 21, 1993)

See also[link]

• List of Pakistani musicians
• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan albums

References[link]

Additional reading[link]

• Baud, Pierre-Alain. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, The Messenger of Qawwali. Editions Demi-Lune, 2008. (A biography of Nusrat)

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

• Article with brief 1993 interview (edwebproject.org)
• King of Qawali documentary on YouTube
• NPR Audio Report: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: The Voice Of Pakistan
• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at the Internet Movie Database

Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber at the NRJ Music Awards in Cannes, France in 2012
Background information
Birth name	Justin Drew Bieber[1]
Born	(1994-03-01) March 1, 1994 (age 18)[2] London, Ontario, Canada
Origin	Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Pop, R&B, teen pop[3][4][5]
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, percussion,[6] trumpet[7]
Years active	2008–present
Labels	Island, RBMG
Associated acts	Usher, Ludacris
Website	justinbiebermusic.com

Justin Drew Bieber ( /ˈbiːbər/ BEE-bər, born March 1, 1994)^[2] is a Canadian Pop/R&B singer-songwriter, musician, and actor.^[3][5] Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun,^[8] who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with Usher in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher,^[9] and then to a recording contract with Island Records offered by L.A. Reid.^[6][10] Bieber's debut single, "One Time", was released in 2009 and peaked in the top twenty in Canada and charted in the top thirty in several international markets. His debut album, the seven-track EP My World, followed in November 2009, and was soon certified platinum in the United States. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart on the Billboard Hot 100.^[11]

Bieber's first full-length studio album, My World 2.0, was released in March 2010. It debuted at number one or within the top ten in several countries and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the worldwide top-ten single, "Baby". The music video of "Baby" is currently ranked as the most viewed and most discussed YouTube video.^[12] Bieber followed up the release of his debut album with his first headlining tour, the My World Tour, the remix albums My Worlds Acoustic and Never Say Never – The Remixes, and the 3D biopic-concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, that nearly matched the record for the biggest opening weekend gross for a concert-film. Bieber released his second studio album, Under the Mistletoe, in November 2011, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Bieber has received numerous awards, including Artist of the Year at the 2010 American Music Awards, and has been nominated for such awards as Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards. In 2012, Bieber was named Forbes 3rd most powerful celebrity in the world, earning $55 million. As of May 2012, Bieber has sold 15 million albums.^[13]

Early life[link]

Bieber was born on March 1, 1994, in London, Ontario in St Joseph's Hospital,^[14][15] and was raised in Stratford, Ontario.^[16] Bieber's mother, Patricia Lynn "Pattie" Mallette, was 18 years old when she became pregnant. Mallette, originally from Stratford, raised her son with the help of her parents, Bruce and Diane.^[17] Mallette worked a series of low-paying office jobs, raising Bieber as a single mother in low-income housing. Bieber has maintained contact with his father, Jeremy Jack Bieber, who married another woman and had two children.^[18][19][20] Bieber's great-grandfather was from Germany.^[21] Bieber's mother's ancestry is French Canadian.^[22] Bieber attended a French immersion elementary school in Stratford called Jeanne Sauvé Catholic School.^[17]

During his childhood, Bieber was interested in hockey, soccer, and chess; he often kept his musical aspirations to himself.^[18] As he grew up, Bieber taught himself to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet.^[16][23] In early 2007, when he was twelve, Bieber sang Ne-Yo's "So Sick" for a local singing competition in Stratford and was placed second.^[6][23] Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see. She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, and Bieber's popularity on the site grew.^[10] Chris Hicks, Bieber's A&R at Island/Def Jam, explained the young artist's huge online following to HitQuarters by saying:

"He was doing something different. He was an attractive white kid singing very soulful R&B hits. That set him apart immediately from anyone in his range because no one was covering or singing these kind of records. But equally important was that you believed in these songs – it was real. And you wanted to hear more."^[24]

Career[link]

[edit] 2008–09: Discovery and My World

While searching for videos of a different singer, Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive of So So Def, clicked on one of Bieber's 2007 videos by accident.^[18] Impressed, Braun tracked down the theater Bieber was performing in, located Bieber's school, and finally contacted Mallette. Mallette was reluctant because of Braun's Jewish religion; she remembered praying, "God, I gave him to you. You could send me a Christian man, a Christian label! ... you don’t want this Jewish kid to be Justin’s man, do you?"^[18] However, after praying with her church elders and receiving their encouragement, she permitted Braun to fly Bieber, then 13,^[10] to Atlanta, Georgia, to record demo tapes.^[18] A week after arriving, Bieber sang for R&B singer/songwriter Usher.^[25] Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher.^[9] Justin Timberlake was also reportedly in the running to sign Bieber, but lost the bidding war to Usher.^[9][26] Usher then sought assistance in finding a label home for the artist from then manager Chris Hicks, who helped engineer an audition with his contact Antonio L.A. Reid of Island Def Jam Music Group.^[24] Reid signed Bieber to Island Records in October 2008 (resulting in a joint venture between RBMG and Island Records) and appointed Hicks as executive Vice-President of Def Jam where he would be able manage Bieber's career at the label.^{[6][9][10][24]} At that point, Bieber and his mother moved to Atlanta temporarily, also the home of Usher and Braun, to record and get counseling from Braun.^[9] Braun became Bieber's manager.^[10]

Bieber in September 2009 at the Nintendo World Store

Bieber's first single, "One Time", was released to radio while Bieber was still recording his debut album.^[27] The song reached number 12 on the Canadian Hot 100 during its first week of release in July 2009,^[10] and later peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. During fall 2009 it had success in international markets.^[28] The song was certified Platinum in Canada and the US and Gold in Australia and New Zealand.^[29][30][31] Bieber's first release, an extended play entitled My World, was released on November 17, 2009. The album's second single, "One Less Lonely Girl", and two promo singles, "Love Me", and "Favorite Girl", were released exclusively on the iTunes store and charted within the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100.^[28] "One Less Lonely Girl" was later also released to radio and peaked within the top fifteen in Canada and the US, being certified Gold in the latter.^[28] My World was eventually certified Platinum in the US and Double Platinum in both Canada and the UK.^[31][32][33] To promote the album, Bieber performed on several live shows such as mtvU's VMA 09 Tour, European program The Dome, YTV's The Next Star, The Today Show,^[34][35] The Wendy Williams Show, Lopez Tonight, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, It's On with Alexa Chung, Good Morning America, Chelsea Lately, and BET's 106 & Park with Rihanna. Bieber also guest starred in an episode of True Jackson, VP in late 2009.^[36]

Bieber performed Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas" for U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House for Christmas in Washington, which was broadcast on December 20, 2009, on U.S. television broadcaster TNT.^[37] Bieber was also one of the performers at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on December 31, 2009.^[38] Bieber was a presenter at the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. He was invited to be a vocalist for the remake of We Are The World (a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie) for its 25th anniversary to benefit Haiti after the earthquake. Bieber sings the opening line, which was sung by Lionel Richie in the original version.^[39] On March 12, 2010, a version of K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" recorded by a collective of Canadian musicians known as Young Artists for Haiti was released. Bieber is featured in the song, performing the closing lines.

[edit] 2010–11: My World 2.0 and Never Say Never film

"Baby", the lead single from his debut album, My World 2.0, which features Ludacris, was released in January 2010 and became his biggest hit thus far, charting at number five in the U.S. and reaching the top ten in seven other countries.^[28] Two promo singles "Never Let You Go", and "U Smile" were top thirty hits on the U.S. Hot 100, and top twenty hits in Canada.^[28] According to review aggregator Metacritic, the album has received "generally favorable reviews".^[40] It debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, making Bieber the youngest solo male act to top the chart since Stevie Wonder in 1963.^[41] My World 2.0 also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, Irish Albums Chart, Australian Albums Chart, and the New Zealand Albums Chart^[28] and reached the top ten of fifteen other countries.^[42][43] To promote the album, Bieber appeared on several live programs including The View, the 2010 Kids Choice Awards, Nightline, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Dome and 106 and Park.^[44] Bieber collaborated with Sean Kingston on his single "Eenie Meenie" which also appeared on Bieber's debut album. The song reached the top ten in the United Kingdom and Australia, and the top-twenty of most other markets.

Bieber performing at the Conseco Fieldhouse, in August 2010

On April 10, 2010, Bieber was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live.^[45] On July 4, 2010, Bieber performed at the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular in New York City.^[46] The second single from My World 2.0, "Somebody to Love", was released in April 2010, and a remix was released featuring Bieber's mentor Usher. The single reached number ten in Canada, number fifteen in the United States, and the top twenty in multiple international countries.

On June 23, 2010, Bieber went on his first official headlining tour, the My World Tour, starting in Hartford, Connecticut, to promote My World and My World 2.0.^[47] In July 2010, it was reported that Bieber was the most searched for celebrity on the Internet.^[48] That same month his music video, "Baby", surpassed Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" to become the most viewed, and most disliked YouTube video ever.^[49] In September 2010, it was reported that Bieber accounted for three percent of all traffic on Twitter, according to an employee of the social-networking site.^[50]

Bieber began recording his second album in July 2010 in New York City.^[51] At this point, because of puberty, his voice was deeper than it was when he recorded his first album. In April 2010, the singer discussing his vocals remarked, "It cracks. Like every teenage boy, I'm dealing with it and I have the best vocal coach in the world. [...] Some of the notes I hit on "Baby" I can't hit anymore. We have to lower the key when I sing live."^[52]

Bieber performing in Jakarta during his My World Tour.

Bieber guest-starred in the season premiere of the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which aired on September 23, 2010. He played a "troubled teen who is faced with a difficult decision regarding his only brother", who is also a serial bomber. Bieber was also in a subsequent episode which aired on February 17, 2011, in which his character is killed.^[53] Bieber performed a medley of "U Smile", "Baby", and "Somebody to Love" and briefly played the drums at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010.^[54] Bieber announced in October 2010 that he would release an acoustic album, called My Worlds Acoustic.^[55] It was released on Black Friday in the United States and featured acoustic versions of songs from his previous albums, and accompanied the release of a completely new song titled "Pray".^[56]

A 3-D part-biopic, part-concert film starring Bieber entitled Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, was released on February 11, 2011, directed by Step Up 3D director Jon Chu. It topped the box office with an estimated gross of $12.4 million on its opening day from 3,105 theaters.^[57] It grossed $30.3 million for the weekend and was narrowly beaten by the romantic comedy Just Go With It, which grossed $31 million.^[58] Never Say Never is said to have exceeded industry expectations, nearly matching the $31.1 million grossed by Miley Cyrus's 2008 3-D concert film, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, which holds the record for the top debut for a music-documentary.^[59][60] Never Say Never grossed a total of $98,441,954 worldwide.^[61] The film is accompanied by his second remix album, Never Say Never – The Remixes, released February 14, 2011, and features remixes of songs from his debut album, with guest appearances from Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown, and Kanye West, among others.^[62]

[edit] 2011–present: Under The Mistletoe and Believe

On February 27, 2011, Bieber attended the 2011 Vanity Fair Oscar Party with American actress and singer Selena Gomez,^[63] confirming several months of media speculation about a romantic relationship between the pair.^{[64][65][66][67][68][69]}

In June 2011, Bieber was ranked number 2 on the Forbes list of Best-Paid Celebrities under 30. He is the youngest star and 1 of 7 musicians on the list raking in with $53 million earned in a 12 month period.^[70] On November 1, 2011, Bieber released Under the Mistletoe, his second studio album.^[71] It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 210,000 copies in its first week of release.^[72]

In late 2011, Bieber began recording his third studio album, entitled Believe. Kanye West and Drake are confirmed to be featured on the album.^[73] On February 22, 2012, Bieber announced via Twitter that the first single off Believe will be released in March 2012.^[74] The following week, Bieber appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to announce that the first single will be called "Boyfriend" and was released on March 26, 2012.^[75] The song was co-written by Mike Posner.^[76] The second single, Die In Your Arms, was released on May 29th, 2012. ^[77]

Image[link]

Justin Bieber has a higher score on the Klout online "influence" scale than Barack Obama or The Dalai Lama.^[78] According to Jan Hoffman of The New York Times, part of Bieber's appeal stems from his YouTube channel. Long before he released his EP, My World, in mid-November, the YouTube videos attracted millions of views.^[18] Braun recognized the appeal. Prior to flying him to Atlanta, Braun wanted to "build him up more on YouTube first" and had Bieber record more home videos for the channel. "I said: 'Justin, sing like there’s no one in the room. But let's not use expensive cameras.' We'll give it to kids, let them do the work, so that they feel like it's theirs", recalled Braun.^[18] Bieber continues to upload videos to the same channel and has opened a Twitter account, from which he interacts with fans regularly;^[10] his account was reported in November 2010 to have over 6 million followers.^[79] Since then he has been consistently gaining followers at an average of 24,000 per day.^[80] The accounts also serve marketing purposes; for example, Bieber's music video for "One Time" only began selling quickly after it was uploaded to YouTube.^[81]

Bieber performing "Favorite Girl" in Zurich, Switzerland April 2011.

Usher comments that while he and Bieber were both signed at the same age, "I had the chance to ramp up my success, where this has happened to Bieber abruptly." As a result, Usher, Braun, Bieber's bodyguard Kenny, and other adults surrounding Bieber constantly coach him on handling fame and his public image.^[18] After signing Bieber, Usher appointed one of his former assistants, Ryan Good, to be Bieber's road manager and stylist. Good, once nicknamed Bieber's "swagger coach", created a "streetwise look" for the singer which consisted of baseball caps, hoodies, dog chains and flashy sneakers. Amy Kaufman of The Los Angeles Times comments, "Though a product of a middle-class suburban upbringing in Stratford, Ontario, Bieber's manner of dress and speech ("Wassup man, how you doin'?" or "It's like, you know, whateva' ") suggest he's mimicking his favorite rappers."^[82]

Bieber is often featured in teen magazines such as Tiger Beat,^[18] and has been labeled as a "teen heartthrob".^[83] Bieber has released a collection of nail varnishes to raise awareness for charity.^[84] Wax statues of Bieber are on display at Madame Tussauds wax museums in New York, Amsterdam and London.^[85] His change of hairstyle in 2010, and the consequent alterations to Bieber products, led to it being called 'the most expensive musical haircut of all time;^[86] one company spent $100,000 to fix its dolls for the 2011 Christmas season.^[87]

Bieber has been criticized for looking and sounding younger than his age, his teen-pop music, image, and frequent media attention.^[88] He has been a frequent target of Internet bloggers and message board posters, notably by users of Internet message board 4chan and users of YouTube.^[89] Nick Collins of The Daily Telegraph speculated that "Bieber's character also appears to strike a particularly sour note with his Internet critics, with many remarks commenting on his youthful appearance, his teen-pop songs, his image as a heart-throb to young teenage girls and his manner of speech".^[90]

Personal views and life[link]

Bieber is a Christian,^[91] and said he has a relationship with Jesus, talks to him and that "he's the reason I'm here".^[92]

Bieber's comments in a February 2011 profile in Rolling Stone sparked controversy.^[93] Asked about abstinence, Bieber responded, "I don't think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them." He said he does not "believe in abortion" and that it is "like killing a baby".^[94] He described sexual orientation as "everyone's own decision."^[95] Bieber has contributed to the It Gets Better Project,^[96] which aims to prevent suicide among LGBT youth.^[97]

Bieber has said he is not interested in obtaining United States citizenship and has criticized America's health care system. Praising Canada as being "the best country in the world", he cited its health care system as a model example.^[94]

In May 2012, Bieber purchased a 10,000 square-foot mansion on 1.3 acres of land, located in the community of Calabasas, California, a suburb of Los Angeles.^[98]

Twitter[link]

As of April 2012^[update], Bieber's Twitter account (@justinbieber) is the second most popular celebrity account behind that of Lady Gaga.^[99] By mid-April 2012, he had over 20 million followers.^[100][101] His follower acquisition is one new follower every other second.^[102][103] His popularity on Twitter at one point accounted for three percent of all Twitter related traffic, with a Twitter employee commenting that "racks of servers are dedicated" to Bieber.^{[103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112]} This resulted in over 180 million page views for the service each month.^[105] Bieber was frequently a trending topic on Twitter when the feature first launched^[105] because his fans frequently discussed him on the network. ^[113] and was named the top trending star on Twitter in 2010;^[114] Klout gave his account a score of 100.^[115][116]

The size of Bieber's and Gaga's follower bases are cited as a reason why marketers should pay attention to Twitter:^[117] with an ability to reach millions of people with a single tweet.^[117] 8.3% of tweets mentioning "bieber" were semi-automated and probably Twitter related spam.^[118] Research done about Twitter and the 2011 Egyptian revolution includes Bieber as he made tweets about the topic at a time when he had roughly 8 million followers. His multiple tweets resulted in 32,000 responses each, which made Bieber's Twitter account one of the single largest nodes for discussion about the uprising one of the largest on Twitter.^[119][120]

In March 2012, Bieber fans launched an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Lady Gaga as the most popular celebrity on Twitter. Neither Bieber nor Lady Gaga discussed their mutual fanbase's campaigns on Twitter.^[121]

Discography[link]

Justin Bieber portal

• My World 2.0 (2010)
• Under the Mistletoe (2011)
• Believe (2012)

Tours[link]

• 2009: Urban Behavior Tour
• 2010–2011: My World Tour
• 2012-2013: Believe Tour

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Justin Bieber

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Justin Bieber

• Official website
• Justin Bieber at the Internet Movie Database
• Justin Bieber at the Open Directory Project
• Justin Bieber on Twitter

Abigail Loraine Hensel and Brittany Lee Hensel (born March 7, 1990) are dicephalic parapagus twins, meaning that they are conjoined twins of whom each has a separate head, but whose bodies are joined. They are highly symmetric, giving the appearance of having just a single body with little variation from normal proportion. In fact, several vital organs are doubled up, each twin having a separate heart, stomach, spine and spinal cord.

Each twin controls her half of their body, operating one of the arms and one of the legs. This means that as infants, the initial learning of physical processes that required bodily coordination, such as clapping, crawling, and walking required the cooperation of both children. While each is able to eat and write separately and simultaneously, activities such as running and swimming must be coordinated and alternate symmetrically. Other activities as diverse as brushing hair and driving a car require that each twin perform a sequence of quite separate actions that coordinate with the other.

Despite the curiosity that their condition has generated, the Hensel twins have managed to live private lives with relatively little press attention. At the age of 16, they gave an interview on The Learning Channel on December 17, 2006, in which they discussed aspects of their daily lives and plans for the future.

Background[link]

Abigail and Brittany Hensel were born in Carver County, Minnesota, the daughters of Patty, a registered nurse, and Mike Hensel, a carpenter and landscaper. The twins have a younger brother named Dakota, or Koty for short, a younger sister named Morgan, and a dog named Sadie. They were raised in New Germany and attended Lutheran High School in Mayer, Minnesota.

Physiology[link]

The Hensel twins have a single body with separate heads and necks, a chest that is wider than normal, two arms and two legs. At birth, they had a rudimentary arm attached to a shoulder blade at the back. The arm was removed, leaving the shoulder blade.

Abigail's head tilts laterally outward about 5 degrees to the right, while Brittany's head tilts laterally at about 15 degrees to the left, causing Brittany to appear shorter. At age 12, they underwent surgery at Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare to correct scoliosis and to expand their chest cavity to prevent future difficulties with breathing.^[1]

Each of the twins manages one side of their conjoined body. The sense of touch of each is restricted to her body half; this shades off at the midsagittal plane such that there is a small amount of overlap at the midline. They are effective in cooperatively using their limbs when both hands or both legs are required. By coordinating their efforts, they are able to walk, run, swim and ride a bicycle normally—all tasks that they learned at a normal speed. Together, they can type on a computer keyboard at a normal speed and drive a car.

Organ distribution[link]

Abigail and Brittany have individual organs in the upper part of their body, while most of the organs located at or below the level of the navel are shared, the exception being the spinal cord.^[2]

• 2 heads
• 2 spines merging at the coccyx and joined at the thorax by sections of ribs. Surgery was employed to correct scoliosis.
• 2 completely separate spinal cords
• 2 arms (originally 3, but rudimentary central arm was surgically removed, leaving central shoulder blade in place)
• 1 broad ribcage with 2 highly fused sternums and traces of bridging ribs. Surgery was employed to expand the pleural cavities.
• 2 breasts
• 2 hearts in a shared circulatory system (nutrition, respiration, medicine taken by either affects both)
• 4 lungs with the medial lungs moderately fused, not involving Brittany's upper right lobe; three pleural cavities
• 1 diaphragm with well-coordinated involuntary breathing, slight central defect
• 2 stomachs
• 2 gallbladders
• 1 liver, enlarged and elongated right lobe
• Y-shaped small intestine, which experiences a slightly spastic double peristalsis at the juncture
• 1 large intestine with one colon
• 3 kidneys: 2 left, 1 right
• 1 bladder
• 1 set of reproductive organs
• 2 separate half-sacrums, which converge distally
• 1 slightly broad pelvis
• 2 legs

Separation[link]

Upon their birth, their parents rejected the option to attempt surgical separation after hearing from doctors that it was not likely that both girls would survive the operation. As the girls grew and learned to walk and develop other skills, the parents confirmed their decision against separation, arguing that the quality of life for the surviving twin or twins living separately would be less than their quality of life as conjoined beings.^[3]

Adulthood[link]

The Hensel twins both successfully passed their drivers license exams, both the written and driving tests. They had to take the tests twice, once for each twin. Abby controls the pedals, radio, heat, defogger, and other devices located to the right of the driver's seat, while Brittany controls the turn signal and lights; together, they control the steering wheel.

They both graduated from high school in 2008. They began college at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.

In conversation, the twins are clearly distinct persons, with distinct likes and dislikes. Their preferences in food, clothing color, etc., differ. Some of their clothes are altered by their seamstress so that they have two separate necklines in order to emphasize their individuality. They will usually have separate meals, but sometimes will share a single meal for the sake of convenience (e.g., each takes a bite of the same hamburger). Abigail is better at mathematics, and Brittany is better at writing. For tasks such as responding to e-mail, they type and respond as one, anticipating each other's feelings with little verbal communication between them. In such cases as the latter, their choice of grammatical person is to use the first person singular out of habit when they agree, but when their responses do differ, they use their names in the third person singular.

There is some concern about their ability to have continued good health, because only four known sets of conjoined twins who share an undivided torso and two legs have ever survived into adulthood, and most have congenital heart defects or other organ anomalies. None have shown up in the Hensels' case. They have so far had no desire to make themselves available for any medical studies. They intend to make a rather limited number of media appearances in the future, primarily just to appease the world's curiosity and to reduce the number of people who might otherwise be taken aback by their unusual body configuration. They intensely dislike being stared at or photographed by strangers while going about their private lives.^[4] In the interviews made for Discovery Channel in 2006, the girls, then 16, said that they hoped to date, get married, and have children. They also stated that they hoped that by providing some information about themselves, they would be able to lead otherwise fairly typical social lives as together, they continue to make new friends.^[4][5]

Media appearances[link]

In April 2006, they appeared in Joined for Life, a TV documentary produced by Advanced Medical and distributed on the Discovery Health Channel. They also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 8 and April 29, 1996. In April 1996, the twins were featured on the cover of Life under the caption "One Body, Two Souls", and their daily lifestyle was depicted in the corresponding article entitled "The Hensels' Summer". Life followed up with another story in September 1998. In 2003, an updated story of them at age 11 (filmed in 2001) was published in Time and again in Life. They appeared in a follow-up documentary on The Learning Channel on December 17, 2006, filmed around the time of their 16th birthday, in which they discuss dealing with puberty and getting their driver's licenses. In the summer of 2006, they had a vacation in Texas at the home of a family whose dicephalus twin girls had died at a few hours old.^{[3][6][7][8][9][10]}

Filmography[link]

Documentaries and other television appearances include:

References[link]

External links[link]

• Abby Hensel at the Internet Movie Database
• Britty Hensel at the Internet Movie Database