Estelle
Background information
Birth name	Estelle Fanta Swaray
Born	(1980-01-18) 18 January 1980 (age 32)
Origin	Hammersmith, London, England
Genres	R&B, soul, hip hop, hip hop soul, reggae
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, model
Years active	2004–present
Labels	V2, Atlantic
Associated acts	David Guetta, Kanye West,
Website	www.estellemusic.com

Estelle Fanta Swaray (born 18 January 1980^[1][2]) commonly known as Estelle, and formerly as Est'elle, is an English Grammy Award winning R&B singer-songwriter, rapper and record producer. Estelle was born in London. After meeting John Legend, Estelle signed a record deal with V2 and Atlantic Records.

In 2004 Estelle released her debut album The 18th Day, which peaked with in the top 40 of the official UK charts. The album released three singles "1980", "Free" ,and "Go Gone" which all charted with in the top 40 also of the UK charts. In 2008 Estelle released her second studio album Shine which was certified Gold in the UK. The lead single "Wait A Minute" failed to chart anywhere. The second single "American Boy" peaked at number one in the UK and also became Estelle's first song to chart in the US at a position of nine. The album released a further three singles. In 2012 Estelle released her third album All of Me. The lead single "Break My Heart" featured American rap artist Rick Ross, the single charted at number 30 on the US R&B Chart. The second single "Thankyou" peaked at 120 on the US Billboard and 22 on the US R&B chart and the third single "Back to Love" was released.

Estelle's work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including one BET award, 2 MOBO awards, one UMA award, a World Music Award and also one Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "American Boy".^{[citation needed]}

Biography[link]

Early life and career beginnings[link]

Estelle Fanta Swaray was born 18 January 1980 in Hammersmith, London, England. Born of a Senegalese mother and a Grenadian father, Estelle grew up in West London in a large family of eight brothers and sisters and an extended family of cousins. During childbirth, Estelle’s mother had a near death experience, which influenced Estelle's choice for her first album title, The 18th Day.^[3] Her mother was a huge reggae fan and her father built home-made speaker cabinets. She spent her childhood listening to her parent’s reggae records and her aunt’s soul collection. Estelle's parents were very religious when she was growing up and secular music was not allowed in the family's home. Instead, spiritual music — particularly American gospel and traditional African music — were what Estelle grew up listening to.^[4] Then she discovered hip hop. "I got into hip hop from my uncle, he was always playing us Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane; he was a bad boy and my mum wasn’t really happy that I was hanging out with him."^[3] Estelle got her break from Deal Real as her co-workers encouraged her to sing on-stage. Her performance led to gigs^[5]

Her career got a jump-start in the early 2000s when she happened to see Kanye West sitting in a restaurant while on a trip to Los Angeles. Estelle approached Kanye, introduced herself and asked for an introduction to John Legend. She eventually got that introduction, and Legend eventually helped produce two songs on her debut album.^[4]

[edit] 2004–10: The 18th Day and Shine

In 2004 she broke into the charts with "1980" and "Free" and won a MOBO Award for Best Newcomer. Both of the videos were directed by Andy Hylton^[6] and received much airplay on music channels. "Free" was written by Estelle and produced by Jimmy Hogarth. Her first album, The 18th Day charted at number 35 in the UK Albums Chart.^[7] Estelle teamed up with short lived pop band 3SL for their single "Touch Me Tease Me".

Shine is the second album by hip hop singer Estelle. The album was released on 31 March 2008 with the lead single, "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)", released in November 2007. The second single, "American Boy" featuring Kanye West reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on downloads alone and was released physically on 24 March. In 2008, Estelle rose to fame with her collaboration with rapper Kanye West, titled "American Boy". This song reached the top 10 in many countries worldwide, including the United States and Canada, as well as achieving number-one status on the UK Singles Chart^[7][8] and in Belgium^[9] and Israel. The song won many awards worldwide, including Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. It was also nominated for Song of the Year at the 51st Grammy Awards. "American Boy" was Number 7 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008.^[10] Shine was released following the single on John Legend's HomeSchool label, reaching the albums chart in most countries worldwide, including number 6 in the UK.^[7] Shine sold enough copies to be certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry, and was shortlisted for the prestigious 2008 Mercury Music Prize. Shine has been certified Gold in the UK, denoting 100,000 copies sold. The album has sold 233,000 copies in the United States as of January 2012.^[11] Shine was one of the twelve nominees for the 2008 Mercury Prize.

Estelle has also released a new single with American rapper Busta Rhymes called "World Go Round", from his album Back on My B.S., which was released on 19 May 2009. In February 2009, the song "Star" was released; it is also used for Crystal Light commercials. In 2009, Estelle started working on her upcoming third studio album, All of Me. On 21 August it was confirmed that Estelle was working with David Guetta on the upcoming album.^[12] Estelle recently made a cameo appearance in the video for new star Mr Hudson for his single "Supernova". Estelle made an appearance on 11 August 2009 episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. She performed the song "Good Girls Go Bad" with Cobra Starship in Leighton Meester's absence. Estelle also appears on the song "Rollacoasta", co-written by her and American singer-songwriter Robin Thicke, with whom the song appears on his album, Sex Therapy.

[edit] 2011–present: All of Me

Estelle confirmed her third album would be entitled All of Me. The album was originally led by the single "Freak" featuring Kardinal Offishall and produced by David Guetta. The video premiered on her website on 26 February 2010.^[13] The original second single from the album was announced as being "Fall in Love", which featured versions featuring Nas and John Legend. Due to the underperformance of both "Freak" and "Fall in Love", both songs were ultimately left off the final track listing for All of Me.^[14] However, "Freak" was featured on both the Step Up 3D soundtrack and the reissue of David Guetta's album One Love, entitled One More Love. In 2010, Estelle also modelled at Naomi Campbell's Fashion For Relief runway show for The White Ribbon Alliance to raise funds for mothers in Haiti. She was also featured on Reflection Eternal's new album with the song Midnight Hour and last track of Gucci Mane's album The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted.

In 2011, it was announced that "Break My Heart", featuring Rick Ross would be released as the new lead single from All of Me. It was released for download on 26 April 2011 and released to US urban radio stations on 17 May 2011.^[15][16] The song peaked at 33 on the U.S. Hip-Hop/R&B, the week of 2 July 2011.^[17] The following week the song rose to 37.^[18] Dual second singles were released in the US and UK. In the US, the second single was announced as being "Thank You" whereas "Back to Love" was issued in the UK. Estelle subsequently confirmed on Twitter that All of Me will be released on 28 February 2012 in the US.^[19] In the UK, All of Me will be released on 12 March 2012.^[14] The last single on the album featuring Trey Songz and Chris Brown is Track No. 2 on the album and is a close version of what was American Boy on her last album.

Artistry[link]

Influences[link]

Estelle's taste in music ranges from Kanye West, Nas, Jill Scott and Jay-Z. Her main female musical influences are Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliot saying in a interview "I like female artists who show that women don't have to strip off or compromise themselves to be recognized as musicians."^[20]

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• The 18th Day (2004)
• Shine (2008)
• All of Me (2012)

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Book: Estelle
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• Official website
• Estelle interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' March 2008
• Interview with Estelle on Holy Moly
• Interview at britishhiphop.co.uk, June 2008

Estelle has a number of references as specified below.

Proper name[link]

• For the female given name and list of namesakes see Estelle (given name)
• Estelle (musician), British singer/rapper
• Don Estelle (1933–2003), British actor
• Princess Estelle, Duchess of Östergötland, daughter and heiress apparent of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden

Fictional characters[link]

• Estelle Costanza, a character on the TV series Seinfeld
• Estelle Leonard, a character in the TV series Friends
• Estelle, a character in Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit
• Estelle Green, a character in Diana Wynne Jones' fantasy novel Witch Week
• Estellise Sidos Heurassein, a main character in the video game Tales of Vesperia

Computer science[link]

• A Formal Description Technique standardized in 1989 by ISO as International Standard ISO/IEC 9074:1989 ("Information processing systems - Open Systems Interconnection
• Estelle: A formal description technique based on an extended state transition model") and withdrawn in 1999

Law[link]

• Estelle v. Williams, U.S. Supreme Court case 425 U.S. 501 (1976) (holding that a state cannot compel a criminal defendant, over his objection, to stand trial in his jail clothes)

Places[link]

• Estelle (Arrigas), hamlet in France, part of the commune of Arrigas, Gard
• Estelle (Saint-Jory), hamlet in France, part of the commune of Saint-Jory, Haute-Garonne
• Estelle, California, United States
• Estelle, Louisiana, United States

Ships[link]

• Estelle Maersk (IMO: 9321495, Port of Registry: Hellerup, Denmark) the largest container ship, capacity 11,000 TEU
• The fair trade sailboat S/v Estelle
• USS Estelle (SP-747), a United States Navy patrol boat commissioned in 1917 and stricken in 1933

Other[link]

• Estelle Designs, Canadian giftware and crafts line
• Hurricane Estelle, several hurricanes in the eastern North Pacific Ocwean; see Hurricane Estelle (disambiguation)
• Skoda Estelle, the British name for the Škoda 105/120 car

See also[link]

• Estella (disambiguation)

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.

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (March 2012)

A musician usually plays a musical instrument, especially (although not necessarily) as a profession.^[1] Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music. It's also a person who makes music a profession, anyone (professional or not) who's skilled in making music or performing music creatively, or one who composes, conducts, or performs music (especially instrumental music).^[2]

Musicians can be of any music style not limited to classical, orchestral or choral, and musicians can have skills in many different styles outside of their professional experience. Examples of musicians' skills are the orchestration of music, improvisation, conducting, singing, composing, arranging, and/or being an instrumentalist.^[3]

Medieval Musicians (400-1450)[link]

For further information, see Medieval Music

During this time period, instrumental musicians mostly improvised and with soft ensembles with soft (bas) or loud (haut) instruments, categorized by their use (indoor or outdoor). Most musicians during this time period catered to the influences of the Roman Catholic Church, providing arrangements structured around Gregorian chant structure and Masses from church texts.^[4]

	"It Was A Lover And His Lass" Written by Thomas Morley.
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Notable Musicians:[link]

• Phillipe de Vitry
• Guillaume Dufay
• Guillaume de Machaut
• Hildegard of Bingen

Renaissance Musicians (1450-1600)[link]

For further information, see Renaissance Music

Musicians in the Renaissance produced pieces of music that needed to be able to be played during masses for any church and important chapel. Vocal pieces were in Latin, as it was the basis for church texts of the time, and they typically were known as Church-polyphonic or "made up of several simultaneous melodies". By the end of the sixteenth century, however, patronage was split among many areas: the Catholic Church, Protestant churches and courts, wealthy amateurs, and music printing—all were sources of income for composers.^[5]

	"Combattimento" Written by Claudio Monteverdi.
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Notable Musicians:[link]

• Giovanni Gabrieli
• Thomas Tallis
• Claudio Monteverdi

Baroque Musicians (1600-1750)[link]

For further information, see Baroque Music

From about 1600 to 1750, the Baroque period was an era of music encompassed by counterpoint and basso continuo characteristics. Vocal and instrumental “color” became more important compared to the Renaissance style of music, and emphasized much of the volume, texture and pace of each piece.^[6]

	"Hallelujah Chorus" from George Frideric Handel's The Messiah.
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Notable Musicians:[link]

• George Frideric Handel
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Antonio Vivaldi

Classical Musicians (1750-1820)[link]

For further information, see Classical Music

Classical music was created by musicians that lived during a time of a rising middle class called the bourgeoisie. Many middle class inhabitants of France during this time were living under the absolute power of their absolute monarchy that had been in power for some time. This caused much of the music to be made an performed in more constraint environments compared to the flourishing times of the Renaissance and the Baroque Era's.^[7]

	"Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor" Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
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Notable Musicians:[link]

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Franz Joseph Haydn
• Franz Schubert

Romantic Musicians (1820-1910)[link]

" The early Romantic period thus coincides with what is often called the "age of revolutions"--including, of course, the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions--an age of upheavals in political, economic, and social traditions, the age which witnessed the initial transformations of the Industrial Revolution. A revolutionary energy was also at the core of Romanticism, which quite consciously set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry (and all art), but the very way we perceive the world. Some of its major precepts have survived into the twentieth century and still affect our contemporary period".^[8]

	"Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major- Andante con moto" Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven.
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Notable Musicians[link]

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• Frédéric Chopin
• Ludwig van Beethoven

Twentieth-Century (1920-2000)[link]

The world made the transition from 19th-century Romanticism to 20th century Modernism and its inhabitants witnessed a drastic musical change. Twentieth-Century music started from composers and musicians rejecting the emotion-dominated Romantic period and represented the world as "it was actually perceived". Artists wrote to be "objective, while objects existed on their own terms. While past eras concentrated on spirituality, this new period placed emphasis on physicality and things that were concrete."^[9]

	"3 Pieces for Clarinet Alone" Composed by Igor Stravinsky, who also arranged The Rite of Spring
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Notable Musicians[link]

• Igor Stravinsky
• Claude Debussy
• Arnold Schoenberg
• Philip Glass
• John Cage

See also[link]

• Renaissance music
• Baroque music
• Classical music
• Romantic music
• Twentieth-Century music
• Singer
• Composer
• Music Artist (Occupation)
• American Federation of Musicians
• Eastern Fare Music Foundation

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Musician

Look up musician in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Media related to Musicians at Wikimedia Commons