Water, Rabbit, and Deer: three of the 20 day symbols in the Aztec calendar, from the Aztec calendar stone.

A day is a unit of time, commonly defined as an interval equal to 24 hours.^[1] It also can mean that portion of the full day during which a location is illuminated by the light of the sun, also known as daytime. The period of time measured from local noon to the following local noon is called a solar day.^[2][3]

Several definitions of this universal human concept are used according to context, need and convenience. In 1967, the second was redefined in terms of the wavelength of light, and it became the SI base unit of time. The unit of measurement for time called "day", redefined in 1967 as 86,400 SI seconds and symbolized d, is not an SI unit, but it is accepted for use with SI.^[1] A civil day is usually also 86,400 seconds, plus or minus a possible leap second in Coordinated Universal Time UTC, and, in some locations, occasionally plus or minus an hour when changing from or to daylight saving time. The word day may also refer to a day of the week or to a calendar date, as in answer to the question "On which day?" Day also refers to the part of the day that is not night — also known as 'daytime'. The life patterns of humans and many other species are related to Earth's solar day and the cycle of day and night (see circadian rhythms).

The average length of a solar day on Earth is about 86,400 seconds (24 hours) and there are about 365.2422 solar days in one mean tropical year. Because celestial orbits are not perfectly circular, and thus objects travel at different speeds at various positions in their orbit, a solar day is not the same length of time throughout the orbital year. A day, understood as the span of time it takes for the Earth to make one entire rotation^[4] with respect to the celestial background or a distant star (assumed to be fixed), is called stellar day. This period of rotation is about 4 minutes less than 24 hours and there are about 366.2422 in one mean tropical year (one more stellar day than the number of solar days). Mainly due to tidal effects, the Earth's rotational period is not constant, resulting in further minor variations for both solar days and stellar 'days'. Other planets and moons also have stellar and solar days.

Introduction[link]

Dagr, the Norse god of the day, rides his horse in this 19th-century painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo.

Besides the day of 24 hours (86,400 seconds), the word day is used for several different spans of time based on the rotation of the Earth around its axis. An important one is the solar day, defined as the time it takes for the sun to return to the zenith (its highest point in the sky). Because the Earth orbits the Sun elliptically as the Earth spins on an inclined axis, this period can be up to 7.9 seconds more than (or less than) 24 hours. On average over the year this day is equivalent to 24 hours (86,400 seconds).

A day, in the sense of daytime that is distinguished from night-time, is commonly defined as the period during which sunlight directly reaches the ground, assuming that there are no local obstacles. The length of daytime averages slightly more than half of the 24-hour day. Two effects make daytime on average longer than nights. The Sun is not a point, but has an apparent size of about 32 minutes of arc. Additionally, the atmosphere refracts sunlight in such a way that some of it reaches the ground even when the Sun is below the horizon by about 34 minutes of arc. So the first light reaches the ground when the centre of the Sun is still below the horizon by about 50 minutes of arc. The difference in time depends on the angle at which the Sun rises and sets (itself a function of latitude), but can amount to around seven minutes.

Ancient custom has a new day start at either the rising or setting of the Sun on the local horizon (Italian reckoning, for example) The exact moment of, and the interval between, two sunrises or two sunsets depends on the geographical position (longitude as well as latitude), and the time of year. This is the time as indicated by ancient hemispherical sundials.

A more constant day can be defined by the Sun passing through the local meridian, which happens at local noon (upper culmination) or midnight (lower culmination). The exact moment is dependent on the geographical longitude, and to a lesser extent on the time of the year. The length of such a day is nearly constant (24 hours ± 30 seconds). This is the time as indicated by modern sundials.

A further improvement defines a fictitious mean Sun that moves with constant speed along the celestial equator; the speed is the same as the average speed of the real Sun, but this removes the variation over a year as the Earth moves along its orbit around the Sun (due to both its velocity and its axial tilt).

The Earth's day has increased in length over time. This phenomenon is due to tides raised by the Moon which slow Earth's rotation. Because of the way the second is defined, the mean length of a day is now about 86,400.002 seconds, and is increasing by about 1.7 milliseconds per day every century ( an average over the last 2,700 years. See tidal acceleration for details. The length of one day has been estimated as 21.9 hours 620 million years ago from rhythmites (alternating layers in sandstone). The length of day for the Earth or Proto-Earth before the event which created our moon by an impact is yet unknown.

Etymology[link]

The term comes from the Old English dæg, with its cognates such as Tag in German, and dag in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Dutch. "Day" is the 98th most common word in English according to AskOxford.com.^{[citation needed]}

International System of Units (SI)[link]

A day, symbol d, is defined as 86,400 seconds. The second is the unit of time in SI units.

A day on the UTC time scale can include a negative or positive leap second, and can therefore have a length of 86,399 or 86,401 seconds.

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) currently defines a second as

… the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.^[5]

This makes the SI-based day last exactly 794,243,384,928,000 of those periods.

Decimal and metric time[link]

In the 19th century it had also been suggested to make a decimal fraction (¹⁄_10,000 or ¹⁄_100,000) of an astronomic day the base unit of time. This was an afterglow of decimal time and calendar, which had been given up already for its difficulty to comply with familiar units. The still most successful candidate is the centiday = 14.4 minutes, as a shorter quarter of an hour and also close to the SI target kilosecond and old Chinese ke.

Astronomy[link]

A day of exactly 86,400 SI seconds is the astronomical unit of time (the second is not preferred in astronomy).^[6]

For a given planet, there are three types of day defined in astronomy:

• stellar day - an entire rotation of a planet with respect to the distant stars
• sidereal day - a single rotation of a planet with respect to the vernal equinox
• mean solar day - average time of a single rotation of a planet with respect to the sun as the central star

For Earth, the stellar day and the sidereal day are nearly of the same length and about 3 minutes 56 seconds shorter than the solar day. Relative to the fixed stars, the Earth spins just over 366 times upon its axis during one complete orbit. The Earth's orbit around the Sun reduces (by one) the number of transits the Sun makes across the Earth's sky in a sidereal year.

Colloquial[link]

The word refers to various relatedly defined ideas, including the following:

• 24 hours (exactly)
• the period of light when the Sun is above the local horizon (that is, the time period from sunrise to sunset);
• the full day covering a dark and a light period, beginning from the beginning of the dark period or from a point near the middle of the dark period;
• a full dark and light period, sometimes called a nychthemeron in English, from the Greek for night-day;
• the time period from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM or 9:00 PM or some other fixed clock period overlapping or set off from other time periods such as "morning", "evening", or "night".

Civil day[link]

For civil purposes a common clock time has been defined for an entire region based on the mean local solar time at some central meridian. Such time zones began to be adopted about the middle of the 19th century when railroads with regular schedules came into use, with most major countries having adopted them by 1929. For the whole world, 40 such time zones are now in use. The main one is "world time" or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The present common convention has the civil day starting at midnight, which is near the time of the lower culmination of the mean Sun on the central meridian of the time zone. A day is commonly divided into 24 hours of 60 minutes of 60 seconds each.

Leap seconds[link]

To keep the civil day aligned with the apparent movement of the Sun, positive or negative leap seconds may be inserted.

A civil clock day is typically 86,400 SI seconds long, but will be 86,401 s or 86,399 s long in the event of a leap second.

Leap seconds are announced in advance by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service which measures the Earth's rotation and determines whether a leap second is necessary. Leap seconds occur only at the end of a UTC month, and have only ever been inserted at the end of June 30 or December 31.

Boundaries of the day[link]

Sun and Moon, Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493

For most diurnal animals, the day naturally begins at dawn and ends at sunset. Humans, with our cultural norms and scientific knowledge, have supplanted Nature with several different conceptions of the day's boundaries. The Jewish day begins at either sunset or at nightfall (when three second-magnitude stars appear). Medieval Europe followed this tradition, known as Florentine reckoning: in this system, a reference like "two hours into the day" meant two hours after sunset and thus times during the evening need to be shifted back one calendar day in modern reckoning. Days such as Christmas Eve, Halloween, and the Eve of Saint Agnes are the remnants of the older pattern when holidays began the evening before. Present common convention is for the civil day to begin at midnight, that is 00:00 (inclusive), and last a full 24 hours until 24:00 (exclusive).

In ancient Egypt, the day was reckoned from sunrise to sunrise. Muslims fast from daybreak to sunset each day of the month of Ramadan. The "Damascus Document", copies of which were also found among the Dead Sea scrolls, states regarding Sabbath observance that "No one is to do any work on Friday from the moment that the sun's disk stands distant from the horizon by the length of its own diameter," presumably indicating that the monastic community responsible for producing this work counted the day as ending shortly before the sun had begun to set.

In the United States, nights are named after the previous day, e.g. "Friday night" usually means the entire night between Friday and Saturday. This is the opposite of the Jewish pattern. This difference from the civil day often leads to confusion. Events starting at midnight are often announced as occurring the day before. TV-guides tend to list nightly programs at the previous day, although programming a VCR requires the strict logic of starting the new day at 00:00 (to further confuse the issue, VCRs set to the 12-hour clock notation will label this "12:00 AM"). Expressions like "today", "yesterday" and "tomorrow" become ambiguous during the night.

Validity of tickets, passes, etc., for a day or a number of days may end at midnight, or closing time, when that is earlier. However, if a service (e.g. public transport) operates from for example, 6:00 to 1:00 the next day (which may be noted as 25:00), the last hour may well count as being part of the previous day (also for the arrangement of the timetable). For services depending on the day ("closed on Sundays", "does not run on Fridays", and so on) there is a risk of ambiguity. As an example, for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways), a day ticket is valid 28 hours, from 0:00 to 28:00 (that is, 4:00 the next day). To give another example, the validity of a pass on London Regional Transport services is until the end of the "transport day" -- that is to say, until 4:30 am on the day after the "expiry" date stamped on the pass.

24 hours vs daytime[link]

To distinguish between a full day and daytime, the word nychthemeron (from Greek for a night and a day) may be used in English for the former, or more colloquially the term 24 hours. In other languages, the latter is also often used. Other languages also have a separate word for a full day, such as vuorokausi in Finnish, ööpäev in Estonian, dygn in Swedish, døgn in Danish, døgn in Norwegian, sólarhringur in Icelandic, etmaal in Dutch, doba in Polish, сутки (sutki) in Russian, суткі (sutki) in Belarusian, доба́ (doba) in Ukrainian, денонощие in Bulgarian and יממה in Hebrew. In Italian, giorno is used to indicate a full day, while dì means daytime. In Spanish, singladura is used, but only as a marine unit of length, being the distance covered in 24 hours.^{[7][not relevant]}

See also[link]

• 10⁴ s, times from 10 kiloseconds to 100 kiloseconds
• Calculating the day of the week
• Daylight
• Daylight saving time
• Meteorological day
• Season, for a discussion of daylight and darkness at various latitudes
• Synodic day

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Day

Look up day in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Definitions of day, night, twilight (USA navy site)
• Formulas to calculate the length of day and night
• Sunrise and sunset, all year long, anywhere
• Show where it is daytime at the moment

v t e Time Major concepts Time Eternity Arguments for eternity Immortality History Past Present Future Futures studies Deep time Time Portal Measurement and standards Chronometry UTC UT TAI Second Minute Hour Sidereal time Solar time Time zone Metric time Decimal time Hexadecimal time Clock Astrarium History of timekeeping devices Horology Marine chronometer Sundial Water clock Calendar Day Week Month Year Tropical year Gregorian Islamic Julian Intercalation Leap second Leap year Chronology Astronomical chronology Calendar era Chronicle Dating methodologies Geochronology Geologic Time Geological history Periodization Regnal year Timeline Religion and mythology Dreamtime Kāla Kalachakra Prophecy Time and fate deities Wheel of time Philosophy A-series and B-series B-Theory of time Causality Endurantism Eternal return Eternalism Event Perdurantism Presentism Temporal finitism Temporal parts The Unreality of Time Physical sciences Time in physics Absolute time and space Arrow of time Chronon Coordinate time Planck epoch Planck time Proper time Spacetime Theory of relativity Time dilation Gravitational time dilation Time domain T-symmetry Biology Chronobiology Circadian rhythms Psychology Mental chronometry Sense of time Specious present Sociology and anthropology Long Now Foundation Time discipline Time use research Economics Time value of money Time-based currency Time Banking Related topics Carpe diem Duration Space System time Tempus fugit Time capsule Time signature Time travel

v t e Parts of a day Dawn · Twilight–Sunrise · Morning · Daylight · Evening · Sunset–Twilight–Dusk · Night Related articles: Blue hour · Golden hour · Terminator · Forenoon · Noon · Afternoon · Midnight · Daytime · Midnight sun

v t e SI units Base units Ampere · Candela · Kelvin · Kilogram · Metre · Mole · Second Derived units Becquerel · Coulomb · Degree Celsius · Farad · Gray · Henry · Hertz · Joule · Katal · Lumen · Lux · Newton · Ohm · Pascal · Radian · Siemens · Sievert · Steradian · Tesla · Volt · Watt · Weber Accepted for use with SI Dalton (Atomic mass unit) · Astronomical unit · Day · Decibel · Degree Celsius · Degree of arc · Electronvolt · Hectare · Hour · Litre · Minute · Minute of arc · Neper · Second of arc · Tonne Atomic units · Natural units See also SI prefixes · Systems of measurement · Conversion of units · New SI definitions · History of the metric system Book:International System of Units  · Category:SI base units

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David Pomeranz is an American singer, composer, lyricist, and writer for musical theatre. He is also ambassador for Operation Smile

Born in Reno and raised on Long Island, Pomeranz expressed interest in music from an early age, singing in the synagogue choir, learning to play the piano, guitar, and drums, and writing and recording songs by the age of fourteen. He is also an avid rock climber and medical student in Los Angeles. When he was nineteen, MCA/Decca signed him to a contract that yielded two albums, New Blues and Time To Fly (the latter featuring Chick Corea), and he began touring the country as the opening act for Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Three Dog Night, and The Doors, among others.

In the late 1980s, Pomeranz collaborated with Russian rock star Alexander Malinin on the pre-glasnost "Faraway Lands," which they performed live in Moscow's Gorky Park for an episode of the television sitcom Head Of The Class, the first time an American series filmed there. He also sang the song "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now", which was the theme song for the television series Perfect Strangers.

Pomeranz continued to tour as a solo act, appearing in such venues as the Hollywood Bowl, Kennedy Center, Olympic Stadium in Munich, and the Kremlin. He and David Shire collaborated on the theme song for the United Nations World Summit For Children entitled "In Our Hands," which the duo performed at the closing ceremonies for Ted Turner's Goodwill Games in Seattle. In 1999, Pomeranz recorded the CD Born For You - His Best And More, a compilation of past and new love songs that became the best-selling album of all time in the Philippines. Additional recordings include The Eyes of Christmas and On This Day.

Pomeranz's songs include "Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again" and "The Old Songs," both recorded by Barry Manilow, and a cover of "It's In Every One Of Us," from the Dave Clark musical Time which was also featured in the film big and later at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea. His work has been performed by artists as diverse as Bette Midler, Phoebe Snow, Freddie Mercury, Richie Sambora, Missy Elliott, The Carpenters, Harry Belafonte, Andrea Marcovicci, Donna Summer, Lillias White, and Cliff Richard, and his various songwriting projects have amassed a total of twenty-two platinum and eighteen gold albums.

Pomeranz has composed for feature films, television (earning a 1981 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics for the CBS television movie Homeward Bound), and the stage, including the hit West End musical Time; Little Tramp, based on the life and career of Charles Chaplin, staged for the 1995 Eugene O'Neill Theater Festival in Waterford, Connecticut and presented in a 1996 concert version in St. Petersburg, Russia; and a musical adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities, produced by Bill Kenwright for the Theatre Royal, Windsor (1998) and the Alexandria Theatre in Birmingham (1999). With Kathie Lee Gifford he has written two projects, Under The Bridge, which premiered off-Broadway in January 2005, and Saving Aimee, based on the life of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, which debuted at the White Plains Performing Arts Center in October 2005 and was staged at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia in April–May 2007.

He is a member of the Church of Scientology, has been married twice, and was involved in the dedication of the church's new mission in Manila.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

Scientology portal

• Official website
• David Pomeranz at the Internet Movie Database

Harry Belafonte
Belafonte at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival Vanity Fair party
Background information
Birth name	Harold George Bellanfanti, Jr.
Born	(1927 -03-01) March 1, 1927 (age 85) Harlem, New York, U.S.
Genres	Calypso, vocal, folk
Occupations	Actor, activist, singer
Years active	1949–2003
Labels	RCA Victor CBS EMI Island

Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. (born March 1, 1927) is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". Throughout his career he has been an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes and was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush Administration.

Early life[link]

Born Harold George Bellanfanti, Jr.,^[1] at Lying-in Hospital, Harlem, New York, Belafonte was the son of Melvine (née Love) – a housekeeper of Jamaican descent – and Harold George Bellanfanti, Sr., a Martiniquan who worked as a chef in the National Guard.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} From 1932 to 1940, he lived with his grandmother in her native country of Jamaica. When he returned to New York City, he attended George Washington High School^[8] after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II.^[5] In the 1940s, he was working as a janitor's assistant in NYC when a tenant gave him, as a gratuity, two tickets to see the American Negro Theater. He fell in love with the art form and also met Sidney Poitier. The financially struggling pair regularly purchased a single seat to local plays, trading places in between acts, after informing the other about the progression of the play.^[9] At the end of the 1940s, he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the American Negro Theatre. He subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac.

Music career[link]

Belafonte in John Murray Anderson's Almanac on Broadway, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1954

Belafonte started his career in music as a club singer in New York to pay for his acting classes. The first time he appeared in front of an audience, he was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Charlie Parker himself, Max Roach and Miles Davis, among others. At first he was a pop singer, launching his recording career on the Roost label in 1949, but later he developed a keen interest in folk music, learning material through the Library of Congress' American folk songs archives. With guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard. In 1952 he received a contract with RCA Victor.

[edit] Calypso

His first widely-released single, which went on to become his "signature" song with audience participation in virtually all his live performances, was "Matilda", recorded April 27, 1956. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) became the first LP to sell over 1 million copies.^{[citation needed]} The album is number four on Billboard's "Top 100 Album" list for having spent 31 weeks at number 1, 58 weeks in the top ten, and 99 weeks on the U.S. charts. The album introduced American audiences to Calypso music (which had originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 20th century), and Belafonte was dubbed the "King of Calypso", a title he wore with reservations, since he had no claims to any Calypso Monarch titles.

One of the songs included in the album is the now famous "Banana Boat Song" (listed as "Day O" on the original release), which reached number five on the pop charts, and featured its signature lyric "Day-O."^[10] Belafonte based his version on a 1954 recording by Jamaican folk singer Louise Bennett.^[11] His other smash hit was "Jump in the Line."

Many of the compositions recorded for Calypso, including "Banana Boat Song" and "Jamaica Farewell", gave songwriting credit to Irving Burgie, Belafonte and his team, but were really previously recorded Jamaican mento songs sold as calypso. The original Jamaican versions can now be heard on the "Jamaica—Mento1951–1958"^[12] CD released in 2010.

Middle career[link]

While primarily known for Calypso, Belafonte has recorded in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. His second-most popular hit, which came immediately after "The Banana Boat Song", was the novelty tune "Mama Look at Bubu", also known as "Mama Look a Boo-Boo" (originally recorded by Lord Melody in 1956), in which he sings humorously about misbehaving and disrespectful children. It reached number eleven on the pop chart.

In 1959 he starred in Tonight With Belafonte, a nationally televised special that featured Odetta, who sang "Water Boy" and who performed a duet with Belafonte of '"There's a Hole in My Bucket" that hit the national charts in 1961.^[13] Belafonte continued to record for RCA through the 1950s to the 1970s. Two live albums, both recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1959 and 1960, enjoyed critical and commercial success. From his 1959 album, Hava Nagila became part of his regular routine and one of his signature songs.^[14] He was one of many entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the inaugural gala of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. That same year he released his second calypso album, Jump Up Calypso, which went on to become another million seller. During the 1960s he introduced several artists to American audiences, most notably South African singer Miriam Makeba and Greek singer Nana Mouskouri. His album Midnight Special (1962) featured the first-ever record appearance by a then young harmonica player named Bob Dylan.

As The Beatles and other stars from Britain began to dominate the U.S. pop charts, Belafonte's commercial success diminished; 1964's Belafonte at The Greek Theatre was his last album to appear in Billboard's Top 40. His last hit single, "A Strange Song", was released in 1967 and peaked at number 5 on the Adult contemporary music charts. Belafonte has received Grammy Awards for the albums Swing Dat Hammer (1960) and An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965). The latter album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under Apartheid. He earned six Gold Records.^[15]

Later recordings and other activities[link]

Belafonte's recording activity slowed after leaving RCA in the 1970s. From the mid-1970s to early 1980s he spent the greater part of his time touring Japan, Europe, Cuba and elsewhere. His involvement in USA for Africa during the mid-1980s resulted in renewed interest in his music, culminating in a record deal with EMI. He subsequently released his first album of original material in over a decade, Paradise in Gazankulu, in 1988. The album contains ten protest songs against the South African former Apartheid policy and as of 2011 was his last studio album. In the same year Belafonte, as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, attended a symposium in Harare, Zimbabwe to focus attention on child survival and development in Southern African countries. As part of the symposium, he performed a concert for UNICEF. A Kodak video crew filmed the concert, which was released as a 60-minute concert video entitled "Global Carnival." It features many of the songs from the album Paradise in Gazankulu and some of his classic hits. Also in 1988, Tim Burton used "The Banana Boat Song" and "Jump in the Line" in his movie Beetlejuice.

Following a lengthy recording hiatus, An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends, a soundtrack and video of a televised concert were released in 1997 by Island Records. The Long Road to Freedom, An Anthology of Black Music, a huge multi-artist project recorded during the 1960s and 1970s with RCA, was finally released by the label in 2001. The album was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Awards for Best Boxed Recording Package, for Best Album Notes and for Best Historical Album.^{[citation needed]}

Belafonte was the first African American to win an Emmy, with his first solo TV special Tonight with Belafonte (1959).^{[citation needed]} During the 1960s he appeared on TV specials alongside such artists as Julie Andrews, Petula Clark, Lena Horne and Nana Mouskouri. He was also a guest star on a memorable episode of The Muppet Show in 1978, in which he performed his signature song "Day-O" on television for the first time. The episode is best known for Belafonte's rendition of the spiritual song, "Turn the World Around", which he performed with Muppets that resembled African tribal masks. It became one of the series' most famous performances. It was reportedly Jim Henson's favorite episode, and Belafonte reprised the song at Henson's memorial in 1990. "Turn the World Around" was also included in the 2005 official hymnal supplement of the Unitarian Universalist Association, "Singing the Journey."^[16]

Belafonte received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1989. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994 and he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. He performed sold-out concerts globally through the 1950s to the 2000s. Due to illness he was forced to cancel a reunion tour with Nana Mouskouri planned for the spring and summer of 2003 following a tour in Europe. His last concert was a benefit concert for the Atlanta Opera on October 25, 2003.^[17] In a 2007 interview he stated that he had since retired from performing.^[18]

Film career[link]

Belafonte at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival

Belafonte has starred in several films. His first film role was in Bright Road (1953), in which he appeared alongside Dorothy Dandridge. The two subsequently starred in Otto Preminger's hit musical Carmen Jones (1954). Ironically, Belafonte's singing in the film was dubbed by an opera singer, as Belafonte's own singing voice was seen as unsuitable for the role. Using his star clout, Belafonte was subsequently able to realize several then-controversial film roles. In 1957's Island in the Sun, there are hints of an affair between Belafonte's character and the character played by Joan Fontaine. The film also starred James Mason, Dandridge, Joan Collins, Michael Rennie and John Justin. In 1959, he starred in and produced Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow, in which he plays a bank robber uncomfortably teamed with a racist partner (Robert Ryan). He also co-starred with Inger Stevens in The World, the Flesh and the Devil. Belafonte was offered the role of Porgy in Preminger's Porgy and Bess, where he would have once again starred opposite Dandridge, but he refused the role because he objected to its racial stereotyping.

Dissatisfied with the film roles available to him, he returned to music during the 1960s. In the early 1970s Belafonte appeared in more films among which are two with Poitier: Buck and the Preacher (1972) and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). In 1984 Belafonte produced and scored the musical film Beat Street, dealing with the rise of hip-hop culture. Together with Arthur Baker, he produced the gold-certified soundtrack of the same name. Belafonte next starred in a major film again in the mid-1990s, appearing with John Travolta in the race-reverse drama White Man's Burden (1995); and in Robert Altman's jazz age drama Kansas City (1996), the latter of which garnered him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also starred as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in the TV drama Swing Vote (1999). In late 2006, Belafonte appeared in the role of Nelson, a friend of an employee of the Ambassador Hotel played by Anthony Hopkins, in Bobby, Emilio Estevez's ensemble drama about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

Personal life[link]

Belafonte and Marguerite Byrd were married from 1948 to 1957. They have two daughters: Adrienne and Shari. Shari Belafonte, married to Sam Behrens, is a photographer, model, singer and actress. In 1997 Adrienne Biesemeyer and her daughter Rachel Blue founded the Anir Foundation/Experience.^[19] Anir focuses on humanitarian work in southern Africa.

On March 8, 1957, Belafonte married second wife Julie Robinson (former dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company). They had two children, David and Gina Belafonte. David Belafonte (a former model and actor) is an Emmy-winning producer and the executive director of the family-held company Belafonte Enterprises Inc. A music producer, he has been involved in most of Belafonte's albums and tours. David married Danish model, singer and TV personality Malena Belafonte, born Mathiesen, who won silver in Dancing with the Stars in Denmark in 2009. Malena Belafonte founded Speyer Legacy School, an award-winning private elementary school for gifted and talented children. David and Malena's daughter Sarafina attended this school. Gina Belafonte is a TV and film actress and worked with her father as coach and producer on more than six films. Gina helped found The Gathering For Justice, an intergenerational, intercultural non-profit organization working to reintroduce nonviolence to stop child incarceration. She is married to actor Scott McCray.

In April 2008, Belafonte married photographer Pamela Frank.^[20] Belafonte lived in a 21-room apartment at 300 West End Avenue (corner of 74th Street) in New York City for 50 years. In 2007 he sold his fifth-floor apartment to Abigail Disney for 10.8 million dollars. In October 1998 Belafonte contributed a letter to Liv Ullmann's book Letter to My Grandchild.^[21]

Political and humanitarian activism[link]

Belafonte's political beliefs were greatly inspired by the singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson, who mentored him. Robeson opposed not only racial prejudice in the United States, but also western colonialism in Africa. Belafonte's success did not protect him from racial discrimination, particularly in the American South. He refused to perform there from 1954 until 1961. In 1960 he appeared in a campaign commercial for Democratic Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy.^[22] Kennedy later named Belafonte cultural advisor to the Peace Corps.

Belafonte gave the keynote address at the ACLU of Northern California's annual Bill of Rights Day Celebration In December 2007 and was awarded the Chief Justice Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival featured the documentary film Sing Your Song, a biographical film focusing on Belafonte's contribution to and his leadership in the civil rights movement in America and his endeavours to promote social justice globally.^[23] In 2011 Belafonte also presented his memoir My Song.

Civil-rights activist[link]

Belafonte supported the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and was one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s confidants. He provided for King's family, since King made only $8,000 a year as a preacher. Like many other civil rights activists, Belafonte was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. He bailed King out of Birmingham City Jail and raised thousands of dollars to release other civil rights protesters. He financed the Freedom Rides, supported voter registration drives, and helped to organize the March on Washington in 1963.

Belafonte (center) at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C with Sidney Poitier (left) and Charlton Heston.

During "Freedom Summer" in 1964 Belafonte bankrolled the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, flying to Mississippi that August with Sidney Poitier and $60,000 in cash and entertaining crowds in Greenwood. In 1968 Belafonte appeared on a Petula Clark primetime television special on NBC. In the middle of a song, Clark smiled and briefly touched Belafonte's arm, which made the show's sponsor, Plymouth Motors, nervous. Plymouth wanted to cut the segment, but Clark, who had ownership of the special, told NBC that the performance would be shown intact or she would not allow the special to be aired at all. Newspapers reported the controversy, and when the special aired it attracted high ratings.

Belafonte appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and performed a controversial "Mardi Gras" number intercut with footage from the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. CBS censors deleted the segment.

Humanitarian activist[link]

In 1985, he helped organize the Grammy Award-winning song "We Are the World", a multi-artist effort to raise funds for Africa. He performed in the Live Aid concert that same year. In 1987 he received an appointment to UNICEF as a goodwill ambassador. Following his appointment Belafonte traveled to Dakar, Senegal, where he served as chairman of the International Symposium of Artists and Intellectuals for African Children. He also helped to raise funds—alongside more than 20 other artists—in the largest concert ever held in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1994 he went on a mission to Rwanda and launched a media campaign to raise awareness of the needs of Rwandan children.

In 2001 he went to South Africa to support the campaign against HIV/AIDS. In 2002 Africare awarded him the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award for his efforts to assist Africa. In 2004 Belafonte went to Kenya to stress the importance of educating children in the region.

Belafonte has been involved in prostate cancer advocacy since 1996, when he was diagnosed and successfully treated for the disease.^[24]

On June 27, 2006, Belafonte was the recipient of the BET Humanitarian Award at the 2006 BET Awards. He was named one of nine 2006 Impact Award recipients by AARP The Magazine.^[25]

On October 19, 2007, Belafonte represented UNICEF on Norwegian television to support the annual telethon (TV Aksjonen) in support of that charity and helped raise a world record of $10 per inhabitant of Norway. Belafonte was also an ambassador for the Bahamas.^{[citation needed]} He is on the board of directors of the Advancement Project.^[26]

Political activist[link]

Belafonte has been a longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy. He began making controversial political statements on this subject in the early 1980s. He has at various times made statements opposing the U.S. embargo on Cuba; praising Soviet peace initiatives; attacking the U.S. invasion of Grenada; praising the Abraham Lincoln Brigade; honoring Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and praising Fidel Castro.^[27] Belafonte is additionally known for his visit to Cuba which helped ensure hip-hop’s place in Cuban society. According to Geoffrey Baker’s article “Hip hop, Revolucion! Nationalizing Rap in Cuba”, in 1999 Belafonte met with representatives of the rap community immediately before meeting with Fidel Castro. This meeting resulted in Castro’s personal approval of, and hence the government’s involvement in, the incorporation of rap into his country’s culture.^[28] In a 2003 interview Belafonte reflected upon this meeting’s influence:

Belafonte speaking at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C

“When I went back to Havana a couple years later, the people in the hip-hop community came to see me and we hung out for a bit. They thanked me profusely and I said, 'Why?' and they said, 'Because your little conversation with Fidel and the Minister of Culture on hip-hop led to there being a special division within the ministry and we've got our own studio'."^[29]

Belafonte was active in the anti-apartheid movement. He was the Master of Ceremonies at a reception honoring African National Congress President Oliver Tambo at Roosevelt House, Hunter College, in New York City. The reception was held by the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) and The Africa Fund.^[30] He is a current board member of the TransAfrica Forum and the Institute for Policy Studies.^[31]

In 2004 he was awarded the Domestic Human Rights Award by Global Exchange, in San Francisco.

In December 2007 he endorsed John Edwards for the 2008 Presidential Election.

Opposition to the George W. Bush administration[link]

Belafonte achieved widespread attention for his political views in 2002 when he began making a series of comments about President George W. Bush, his administration and the Iraq War. During an interview with Ted Leitner for San Diego's 760 KFMB, in October 2002, Belafonte referred to a quote made by Malcolm X.^[32] Belafonte said:

Belafonte used the quote to characterize former United States Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both African Americans. Powell and Rice both responded, with Powell calling the remarks "unfortunate"^[33] and Rice saying: "I don't need Harry Belafonte to tell me what it means to be black."^[34]

Harry Belafonte at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival in February 2011

The comment was brought up again in an interview with Amy Goodman for Democracy Now! in 2006.^[35] In January 2006, Belafonte led a delegation of activists including actor Danny Glover and activist/professor Cornel West to meet with President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez. In 2005 Chávez, an outspoken Bush critic, initiated a program to provide cheaper heating oil for poor people in several areas of the United States. Belafonte supported this initiative.^[36] He was quoted as saying, during the meeting with Chávez, "No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people support your revolution."^[37] Belafonte and Glover met again with Chávez in 2006.^[38] The comment ignited a great deal of controversy. Hillary Clinton refused to acknowledge Belafonte's presence at an awards ceremony that featured both of them.^[39] AARP, which had just named him one of its 10 Impact Award honorees 2006, released this statement following the remarks: "AARP does not condone the manner and tone which he has chosen and finds his comments completely unacceptable."^[40] During a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day speech at Duke University in 2006 Belafonte compared the American government to the 9/11 hijackers, saying, "What is the difference between that terrorist and other terrorists?" ^[41] In response to criticism about his remarks Belafonte asked, "What do you call Bush when the war he put us in to date has killed almost as many Americans as died on 9/11 and the number of Americans wounded in war is almost triple? [...] By most definitions Bush can be considered a terrorist." When he was asked about his expectation of criticism for his remarks on the war in Iraq, Belafonte responded: "Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy."^[42][43]

In another interview Belafonte remarked that while his comments may have been "hasty", nevertheless he felt the Bush administration suffered from "arrogance wedded to ignorance" and its policies around the world were "morally bankrupt."^[44] In January 2006, in a speech to the annual meeting of the Arts Presenters Members Conference, Belafonte referred to "the new Gestapo of Homeland Security" saying, "You can be arrested and have no right to counsel!"^[45] During the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day speech at Duke University in January 2006 Belafonte said that if he could choose his epitaph it would be, "Harry Belafonte, Patriot."^[46]

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

Belafonte with wife Pamela in April 2011

• Bright Road (1953)
• Carmen Jones (1954)
• Island in the Sun (1957)
• The Heart of Show Business (1957) (short subject)
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
• Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
• King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970) (documentary) (narrator)
• The Angel Levine (1970)
• Buck and the Preacher (1972)
• Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
• Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker (1981) (documentary)
• A veces miro mi vida (1982)
• Drei Lieder (1983) (short subject)
• Sag nein (1983) (documentary)
• Der Schönste Traum (1984) (documentary)
• We Shall Overcome (1989) (documentary) (narrator)
• The Player (1992) (Cameo)
• Ready to Wear (1994) (Cameo)
• Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream (1995)
• White Man's Burden (1995)
• Jazz '34 (1996)
• Kansas City (1996)
• Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist (1998) (documentary)
• Fidel (2001) (documentary)
• XXI Century (2003) (documentary)
• Conakry Kas (2003) (documentary)
• Ladders (2004) (documentary) (narrator)
• Mo & Me (2006) (documentary)
• Bobby (2006)
• Motherland (2009) (documentary)
• Sing Your Song (2011) (documentary)

Television work[link]

• Sugar Hill Times (1949–1950)
• Tonight With Belafonte (1959)
• Petula (1968)
• A World in Music (1969)
• Harry & Lena, For The Love Of Life (1969)
• A World in Love (1970)
• Free to Be… You and Me (1974)
• The Muppet Show (1978)
• Grambling's White Tiger (1981)
• Don't Stop The Carnival (1985)
• An Evening With Harry Belafonte And Friends (1997)
• Swing Vote (1999)
• Tanner on Tanner (2004)
• That's What I'm Talking About (2006) (miniseries)
• When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) (miniseries)

Concert videos[link]

• Don't Stop The Carnival (1985)
• Global Carnival (1988)
• An Evening With Harry Belafonte And Friends (1997)

Stage work[link]

• John Murray Anderson's Almanac (December 10, 1953 – June 26, 1954)
• 3 for Tonight (April 6 – June 18, 1955)
• Moonbirds (October 9–10, 1959) (producer)
• Belafonte at the Palace (December 15, 1959 – closing date unknown)
• Asinamali! (April 23 – May 17, 1987) (producer)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Harry Belafonte

• Harry Belafonte at the Internet Movie Database
• Harry Belafonte at the Internet Broadway Database
• Harry Belafonte at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Harry Belafonte discography
• [4] English version of the text found at the bottom of the page.
• 2004 Global Exchange Human Rights Award – Belafonte's acceptance speech in San Francisco
• Ubben Lecture at DePauw University
• Democracy Now! transcript/MP3/video of interview by Amy Goodman, January 30, 2006
• The Bigotry of Belafonte – by Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com, Oct. 25, 2002
• "The Man Behind Belafonte's Music – Irving Burgie" – by Ronald David Jackson, with video
• Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
• The HistoryMakers Biography and video clips
• Harry Belafonte: Belafonte At Carnegie Hall
• Belafonte and Nat King Cole sing "Mama Look at Bubu"
• Belafonte: "Iraq & Afghanistan Wars Are Immoral" – video report by Democracy Now!

Look up banana boat in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

banana boat may refer to:

• Banana boat (boat), an unpowered recreational boat
• Banana boat (ship), a ship whose primary role is the transportation of bananas as cargo
• Banana boat (food), campfire delicacy
• "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", a 1956 traditional Jamaican folk song
• Banana Boat, a Polish a capella group created in 1994
• A dish used to serve the banana split dessert
• A brand of sunscreen manufactured by Sun Pharmaceuticals Corp, owned by Energizer Holdings
• A liqueur based cocktail.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Cody Simpson
Simpson on Radio Disney in August 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Cody Robert Simpson
Born	(1997-01-11) 11 January 1997 (age 15) Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Origin	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Genres	Pop, R&B[1]
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, musician and dancer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar and piano
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Warner Bros. Records/Atlantic (2010–present)
Website	codysimpson.com

Cody Robert Simpson (born 11 January 1997) is an Australian pop singer from Gold Coast, Queensland, who is currently signed to US record label Atlantic Records.^[2]

Early life[link]

Simpson was born to Brad and Angie Simpson. He has two younger siblings, Tom and Alli.^[3] He is also a talented swimmer, winning two gold medals at the Queensland Swimming Championships.^[4] Simpson trained at the Miami Swimming Club under coach Ken Nixon.^[5] Simpson's mother Angie works as a volunteer at the club.^[6]

Simpson began to record songs in his bedroom during the summer of 2009 on YouTube, performing "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz,^[7] "Cry Me a River"^[8] and "Señorita"^[9] by Justin Timberlake, "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5,^[10] and his own songs, "One"^[11] and "Perfect".^[12] He was subsequently discovered on YouTube by Shawn Campbell,^[13] a Grammy-nominated record producer who has produced for Jay-Z and other artists.

Career[link]

Simpson's rise to recognition was featured on The 7.30 Report in December 2009.^[14] He released his debut single, "iYiYi" (which features American rapper Flo Rida), on 15 May 2010. It was digitally released on 30 May 2010.^[15] The music video for "iYiYi" was released on 30 June 2010.

^[16] The music video for Simpson's second single, "Summertime", was released on 20 September 2010.^[17]

Simpson relocated to Los Angeles in June 2010 with his family to record his songs with Atlantic Records and his producer Shawn Campbell.^[18] His manager is Michael 'Blue' Williams. ^[19] That same month, Simpson appeared on Sunrise.^[20] On 22 June 2010, it was announced that Simpson would participate in the Camplified 2010 Tour, along with other artists, touring across the United States. The tour began on 5 July 2010 and ended on 14 August 2010. It was also Simpson's first public tour.^[21] While on tour, Simpson performed a song called "Love So Strong". In an interview with Popstar Magazine, Simpson stated that his inspiration for the song was "A girl, back home. That's all I can say."^[22]

On 4 December 2010, it was announced on Simpson's official website that an EP entitled 4 U would be released through iTunes on 21 December 2010. The EP includes five tracks in total, four of them being previously unreleased.^[23]

Simpson recorded a remake of the song "I Want Candy" by The Strangeloves as the main theme song for the Easter-themed live-action/CGI-animated film Hop.

On 23 April 2011, Simpson released the single "On My Mind" through his website. It was released on iTunes on 23 May 2011 and the music video was released on 17 June 2011.

Simpson is currently working on tracks for an upcoming EP on Atlantic Records. It will be released on 20 September 2011. Simpson's best friend, Campbell Carsley announced the release date on twitter on 18 July 2011. It will be called Coast To Coast, the same name as his current mall tour. On 22 September, it was announced that Cody Simpson hired Justin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun as his manager.^[24][25]

In December 2011 The Wish Factory released a Cody Simpson doll in two formats.^[26]

Touring[link]

Simpson in concert at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell, Connecticut on 5 June 2011

Simpson has been on tour recently promoting his new EP, making stops at various locations in the United States. Most notably, Simpson participated in the "Camplified 2010" tour in June.^[27] Other tours include a middle school tour that took place from October–November 2010 and covered 9 U.S states.^[28]

In May 2011, Simpson was "egged" during a live performance at Miranda Fair in Sydney. Simpson told Australian radio show The Kyle & Jackie O Show that he wasn't in fact hit by the eggs and that he was upset on behalf of his fans because the remainder of his show was cancelled because of security concerns.^[29][30]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• Paradise (2012)

Extended plays

• 4 U (2010)
• Coast to Coast (2011)

Tours[link]

• Waiting 4U Tour
• Coast to Coast Mall Tour
• Welcome to Paradise

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cody Simpson

• Official website
• Cody Simpson at the Internet Movie Database
• Cody Simpson on Twitter
• Cody Simpson's's channel on YouTube