Promiscuity, in human sexual behavior, refers to the practice of casual sex with multiple sexual partners.^[1] The term can carry a moral judgement and is viewed in the context of the mainstream social ideal for sexual activity to take place within exclusive committed relationships. A common example of behavior viewed as promiscuous within the mainstream social ideals of many cultures is a one night stand.

What sexual behavior is considered "promiscuous" varies between cultures as does the prevalence of promiscuity, with different standards often being applied to different genders and civil status. Feminism has traditionally argued that there is a significant double standard between how men and women are judged for promiscuity. Historically, stereotypes of the promiscuous woman have tended to be negative, such as "the slut", while male stereotypes have been more varied, some expressing approval, such as "the stud", while others imply societal deviance, such as "a womanizer". One scientific study found that promiscuous men and women are judged equally harshly^[2] and both genders express strong preference for sexually conservative partners.^[3] Promiscuity is very often portrayed in literature, cinema and television, for example in the popular series Sex and the City.

Promiscuity is common in many animal species. Some species have promiscuous mating systems, ranging from polyandry and polygyny to mating systems with no stable relationships where mating between two individuals is a one-time event. Many species form stable pair bonds but still mate with other individuals outside the pair. In biology, incidents of promiscuity in species that form pair bonds are usually called extra-pair copulations.

Human promiscuity[link]

Accurately assessing people's sexual behavior is difficult, since there are strong social and personal motivations, depending on social sanctions and taboos, for either minimizing or exaggerating reported sexual activity. Extensive research has produced mathematical models of sexual behavior comparing the results generated with the observed prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) to statistically estimate the probable sexual behavior of the studied population.

American experiments in 1978 and 1982 found that the great majority of men were willing to have sex with women they did not know, of average attractiveness, who propositioned them. No woman, by contrast, agreed to such propositions from men of average attractiveness. While men were in general comfortable with the requests, regardless of their willingness ("Why do we have to wait until tonight?", "[I'm sorry], I'm married"), women responded with shock and disgust ("You've got to be kidding", "What is wrong with you? Leave me alone").^[4]

The number of sexual partners an individual has varies within a lifetime, and varies widely within a population. In the U.S., a 2007 national survey had the following results: the median number of female sexual partners reported by men was seven; the median number of male partners reported by women was four. It is possible that men exaggerated their reported number of partners, women reported a number lower than the actual number, or a minority of women had a sufficiently larger number than most other women to create a mean significantly higher than the median, or all of the above (see Pareto principle). Twenty-nine percent of men and nine percent of women reported to have had more than 15 sexual partners in their lifetimes^[5]. Studies of the spread of STIs consistently demonstrate that a small percentage of the studied population have more partners than the average man or woman, and a smaller number of people have fewer than the statistical average. An important question in the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections is whether or not these groups copulate mostly at random (with sexual partners from throughout a population) or within their social groups (assortative mixing).

A 2006 comprehensive global study (analyzing data from 59 countries worldwide) found no firm link between promiscuity and STIs, with poverty and mobility being more important factors.^[6][7] This contradicts other studies.^[8][9] In a 2004 news story, the BBC reported, "HIV infection rates have fallen from 15% to 5% in Uganda over the past decade. The experts said a nationwide campaign encouraging people to stick with regular partners contributed to the fall."^[8]

Global studies[link]

In 2008, a U.S. university study of international promiscuity found that Finnish people have had the largest number of sex partners in the industrialized world, British people having the largest number among big western industrial nations. The study measured one-night stands, attitudes to casual sex, and number of sexual partners.^[10][11][12]

Researchers said Britain's position on the international index "may be linked to increasing social acceptance of promiscuity among women as well as men". Britain’s ranking was "ascribed to factors such as the decline of religious scruples about extramarital sex, the growth of equal pay and equal rights for women and a highly sexualised popular culture".^[10][11][12]

The top-10 ranking OECD nations with a population over 10 million on the study's promiscuity index, in descending order, were the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Australia, the United States, France, Turkey, Mexico, and Canada.^[10][11][12]

A non-scientific survey conducted in 2007 by condom-maker Durex measured promiscuity by a total number of sexual partners. The survey found that Austrian men had the highest number of sex partners of males globally with 29.3 sexual partners on average. New Zealand women had the highest number of sex partners for females in the world with an average of 20.4 sexual partners.

Except in New Zealand,^[13] men always reported more sexual partners than women.

One study found that people from developed Western countries had more sex partners than people from developing countries in general, while the rate of STIs was higher in developing countries.^[6]

According to the 2005 Global Sex Survey by Durex people have had on average 9 sexual partners, the most in Turkey (14.5) and Australia (13.3), and the least in India (3) and China (3.1).^[14]

Male promiscuity[link]

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (July 2010)

Portrait of Giacomo Casanova

A 1994 study in the United States, which looked at the number of sexual partners in a lifetime, found that 20% of heterosexual men had 1, 55% had 2–20, and 25% had 20 or more. Early studies found men with homosexual contact were more likely to have a very large number of sexual partners, but a 1989 study found a very high number of partners (over 100) to be present though rare in that demographic. The difference was attributed to sampling problems with earlier studies, and the influence of AIDS.^[15]

The words womanizer, playboy, stud, player, ladies' man, lady killer, roué, and rake may be used in reference to a man who has romantic affairs or sexual relations, or both, with women and will not marry or commit to a relationship. The names of real and fictional seducers have become eponymous for such promiscuous men. The most famous are John F. Kennedy, Wilt Chamberlain, Warren Beatty, Howard Hughes, the historical Giacomo Casanova (1725–98),^[16] the fictional Don Juan, who first appeared in the 17th century, the fictional Vicomte de Valmont from Choderlos de Laclos's 18th-century novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons), and Lothario from Nicholas Rowe's 1703 play The Fair Penitent. James Bond, Chuck Bass, James T. Kirk, Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne, Jack Harkness, Charlie Harper, Sam Malone, and Barney Stinson are famous fictional characters that can be considered womanizers.

During the English Restoration period (1660–88), the term rake was used glamorously: the Restoration rake is a carefree, witty, sexually irresistible aristocrat typified by Charles II's courtiers, the Earl of Rochester and the Earl of Dorset, who combined riotous living with intellectual pursuits and patronage of the arts. The Restoration rake is celebrated in the Restoration comedy of the 1660s and the 1670s. After the reign of Charles II, and especially after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the rake was perceived negatively and became the butt of moralistic tales in which his typical fate was debtor's prison, permanent venereal disease, and, in the case of William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress, syphilis-induced insanity and internment in Bedlam.

Female promiscuity[link]

In 1994, a study in the United States found that almost all married heterosexual women reported having sexual contact only with their husbands, and unmarried women almost always reported having no more than one sexual partner in the past three months. Lesbians who had a long-term partner reported having fewer outside partners than heterosexual women.^[15] More recent research, however, contradicts the assertion that heterosexual women are largely monogamous. A 2002 study estimated that 45% to 55% of married heterosexual women engage in sexual relationships outside of their marriage.^[17] While the estimates for heterosexual males in the same study were greater (50%–60%), the data indicate that a significant portion of married heterosexual women have or have had sexual partners other than their spouse as well.

Since at least 1450, the word slut has been used, often pejoratively, to describe a sexually promiscuous woman.^[18] In and before the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, terms like "strumpet" and "whore" were used to describe women deemed promiscuous, as seen for example in John Webster's 1612 play The White Devil.

In some tribes of Sierra Leone, promiscuity is a privilege of female nobility. "A woman who is a Paramount Chief may have sexual intercourse with as many men as she pleases."^[19]

Evolution[link]

Evolutionary psychologists propose that a conditional human tendency for promiscuity is inherited from hunter-gatherer ancestors. Promiscuity increases the likelihood of having children, and thus evolutionary fitness. Female promiscuity is advantageous in that it allows females to choose fathers for their children who have better genes than their mate, to ensure better care for their offspring, have more children, and as a form of fertility insurance.^[20] Male promiscuity was likely advantageous because it allowed males to father more children.

Primitive promiscuity[link]

Primitive promiscuity (or original promiscuity), was the (largely discredited) 19th-century hypothesis that humans originally lived in a state of promiscuity or "hetaerism" prior to the advent of society as we understand it.^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

Extra-pair copulation in animals[link]

In the animal world, some species of animals, including birds such as swans, once believed monogamous, are now known to engage in extra-pair copulations. Although social monogamy occurs in about 90 percent of avian species and about 3 percent of mammalian species, investigators estimate that 90 percent of socially monogamous species exhibit individual promiscuity in the form of extra-pair copulations.^[26][27][28]

Two examples of promiscuous animals are the primates chimpanzees and bonobos. These species live in social groups consisting of several males and several females. Each male copulates with many females, and vice-versa. In bonobos, the amount of promiscuity is particularly striking because bonobos use sex to alleviate social conflict as well as to reproduce.

See also[link]

Sexuality portal

• Cottaging
• Hetaera
• Monogamy
• Polygamy
• Polyandry
• Polygynandry
• Polyamory
• Sexual addiction
• Mating system
• Swinging
• Sociosexual orientation

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Chakov, Kelly Nineteen Century Social Evolutionism
• Fortes, Meyer (2005) Kinship and the Social Order: The Legacy of Lewis Henry Morgan ISBN 0-202-30802-2 pp. 7–8
• Lehrman, Sally The Virtues of Promiscuity (2002)
• Lerner, Gerda (1986) Women and History vol. 1: The Creation of Patriarchy [1] ISBN 978-0-19-503996-2
• Lerner, Gerda The Origin of Prostitution in Ancient Mesopotamia Signs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Winter, 1986), pp. 236–254
• Schmitt, David P. Sociosexuality from Argentina to Zimbabwe: A 48-nation study of sex, culture, and strategies of human mating Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2005) 28, 247-311
• Miller, Gerrit S. Jr. (1931) The Primate Basis of Human Sexual Behavior The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Dec., 1931), pp. 379–410
• Westermarck, Edward [1891] (2003) History of Human Marriage Part 1 Kessinger Publishing ISBN 0-7661-4618-9
• Weston, Kath (1998) Long Slow Burn: Sexuality and Social Science ISBN 0-415-92043-4
• Woock, Randy (2002) Promiscuous Women Should Be Praised

Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco performing at the Ancienne Belgique in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Angela Marie DiFranco
Born	(1970-09-23) September 23, 1970 (age 41) Buffalo, New York
Genres	Folk rock, indie, alternative
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Guitar, bass guitar, tenor guitar, vocals, percussion, piano
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Righteous Babe
Website	righteousbabe.com

Ani DiFranco ( /ˈɑːniː/; born Angela Maria DiFranco on September 23, 1970) is an American singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums,^[1] and is widely considered a feminist icon.^[2][3][4]

Biography[link]

DiFranco was born in Buffalo, New York,^[5] to Elizabeth and Dante DiFranco, who had met while attending MIT.^[6][7] She started playing Beatles covers at local bars and busking with her guitar teacher, Michael Meldrum,^[8] at the age of nine.

In 1989, DiFranco started her own record company, Righteous Records.^[1] Early in her career DiFranco worked with manager Dale Anderson, a writer for the Buffalo News, who started another record label called Hot Wings Records, after the two parted ways, that released similar sounding material. Her self-titled debut album was issued on the label in the winter of 1990. Later, she relocated to New York City, where she took poetry classes at The New School and toured vigorously for the next 15 years, essentially pausing briefly only to record albums.

Righteous Records was renamed Righteous Babe Records in 1994.

In 1998, DiFranco's drummer, Andy Stochansky, left the band to pursue a solo career as a singer-songwriter. Their rapport during live shows is showcased on the 1997 album Living in Clip.

In 2002 her rendition of Greg Brown's "The Poet Game" appeared on Going Driftless: An Artists' Tribute to Greg Brown.

Her father died early in the summer of 2004.^[9] In July 2005, DiFranco developed tendonitis and took a hiatus from touring. Her 2005 tour concluded with an appearance at the FloydFest World Music and Genre Crossover festival in Floyd, Virginia. She returned to touring in late April 2006, including a performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on April 28 and a performance at the Calgary Folk Music Festival on July 30, 2006.

In 2005 she collaborated with fellow folk singer Dar Williams on "Comfortably Numb", a Pink Floyd cover song from Williams' album My Better Self.

DiFranco's album Reprieve was released on August 8, 2006. It was previously leaked on iTunes for several hours around July 1, 2006, due to an error saying it was released in 2002.^[10] DiFranco performed with Cyndi Lauper on "Sisters of Avalon", a track from Lauper's 2005 collection The Body Acoustic.

On September 11, 2007, she released the first retrospective of her career, titled Canon and for the first time, a collection of poetry in a book titled Verses.

Red Letter Year was released on September 30, 2008. Says DiFranco about the album:

"When I listen to my new record, I hear a very relaxed me, which I think has been absent in a lot of my recorded canon. Now I feel like I’m in a really good place. My partner Mike Napolitano co-produced this record – my guitar and voice have never sounded better, and that’s because of him. I’ve got this great band and crew. And my baby, she teaches me how to just be in my skin, to do less and be more."^[11]

DiFranco performed a live webcast from Ex'pression College for Digital Arts^[12] on June 24, 2010. She debuted a selection of new material, including the songs "Which Side Are You On?" (a reworking of the Florence Reece song with different lyrics penned by DiFranco), "Life Boat", "Unworry", "Promiscuity", "Splinter", "Amendment", "See See..." and "Hearse".

In 2010, DiFranco sued hip-hop horrorcore artist Necro for sampling her song, "Used to You" in a response track called "The Asshole Anthem" on his DIE! album. Due to the lawsuit, the album was reissued without the track.^[13]

She has continued touring through 2011. As of 2008 her backing band consists of Todd Sickafoose on upright bass, Allison Miller on drums, and Mike Dillon on percussion and vibes. DiFranco returned to the Calgary Folk Music Festival in July 2008.

She is also a poet and has been featured on Def Jam's poetry hour.

DiFranco released an album of new material on January 17, 2012, titled "¿Which Side Are You On?". It includes collaborations with Pete Seeger, Ivan Neville, Cyril Neville, Skerik, Adam Levy, Righteous Babe recording artist Anaïs Mitchell, CC Adcock, and a host of New Orleans-based horn players known for their work in such outfits as Galactic, Bonerama, and Rebirth Brass Band.

She and her husband currently reside in New Orleans.^[14][15]

Ani DiFranco, RZA, and Steve Albini at
The New Yorker festival in September 2005.

Relationships[link]

DiFranco identifies herself as bisexual,^[16][17] and has written songs about love and sex with women and men. She addressed the controversy about her sexuality with the song "In or Out". In 1998, she married sound engineer Andrew Gilchrist in a Unitarian Universalist service in Canada, overseen by folk singer Utah Phillips.^{[citation needed]} DiFranco and Gilchrist divorced five years later.

DiFranco gave birth to a daughter, Petah Lucia DiFranco Napolitano,^[18] at her Buffalo home on January 20, 2007. She married the child's father Mike Napolitano,^[19] also her regular producer, in 2009.

Critical reception[link]

DiFranco has been a critical darling for much of her career, if not always a commercial one, with a career album average of 72 on Metacritic.^[20] DiFranco has been toasted by the Buffalo News as the "Buffalo's leading lady of rock music." The News further said:

"Through the Righteous Babe Foundation, DiFranco has backed various grassroots cultural and political organizations, supporting causes ranging from abortion rights to gay visibility."^[21]

Starting in 2003, DiFranco was nominated four consecutive times for Best Recording Package at the Grammy Awards, winning in 2004, for Evolve.

On July 21, 2006, DiFranco received the "Woman of Courage Award"^[22] at the National Organization for Women (NOW) Conference and Young Feminist Summit in Albany, New York. Past winners have included singer and actress Barbra Streisand and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. DiFranco is one of the first musicians to receive the award, given each year to a woman who has set herself apart by her contributions to the feminist movement.

Music[link]

Guitar style and collaborations[link]

DiFranco's guitar playing is often characterized by a signature staccato style,^[23][24] rapid fingerpicking and many alternate tunings. She delivers many of her lines in a speaking style notable for its rhythmic variation. Her lyrics, which often include alliteration, metaphor, word play and a more or less gentle irony, have also received praise for their sophistication.

Although DiFranco's music has been classified as both folk rock and alternative rock, she has reached across genres since her earliest albums. DiFranco has collaborated with a wide range of artists including musician Prince, who recorded two songs with DiFranco in 1999 ("Providence" on her To the Teeth album, and "I Love U, but I Don't Trust U Anymore" on Prince's Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic album); folk musician and social activist Utah Phillips (on The Past Didn't Go Anywhere in 1996 and Fellow Workers in 1999); funk and soul jazz musician Maceo Parker; and rapper Corey Parker. She has used a variety of instruments and styles: brass instrumentation was prevalent in 1998's Little Plastic Castle; a simple walking bass in her 1997 cover of Hal David and Burt Bacharach's "Wishin' and Hopin'"; strings on the 1997 live album Living in Clip and 2004's Knuckle Down; and electronics and synthesisers in 1999's To the Teeth and 2006's Reprieve. Samples from the track "Coming Up" were used by DJ Spooky in his album Live Without Dead Time, produced for AdBusters Magazine in 2003.

DiFranco herself noted that "folk music is not an acoustic guitar – that's not where the heart of it is. I use the word 'folk' in reference to punk music and rap music. It's an attitude, it's an awareness of one's heritage, and it's a community. It's subcorporate music that gives voice to different communities and their struggle against authority."^[25]

Lyrics, politics and religion[link]

Although much of DiFranco's material is autobiographical, it is often also strongly political. Many of her songs are concerned with contemporary social issues such as racism, sexism, sexual abuse, homophobia, reproductive rights, poverty, and war. In 2008, she donated a song to Aid Still Required's CD to assist with the restoration of the devastation done to Southeast Asia from the 2004 Tsunami. The combination of personal and political is partially responsible for DiFranco's early popularity among politically active college students, particularly those of the left wing, some of whom set up fan pages on the web to document DiFranco's career as early as 1994. DiFranco's rapid rise in popularity in the mid-1990s was fueled mostly by personal contact and word of mouth rather than mainstream media.^{[citation needed]}

DiFranco has expressed political views outside of her music. During the 2000 U.S. presidential election, she actively supported and voted for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.^[26][27][28] She supported Dennis Kucinich in the 2004 and 2008 Democratic primaries. Kucinich appeared with her at a number of concerts across the country during both primary seasons.^[29][30] DiFranco went on to perform at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Early in her career, DiFranco considered herself an atheist. On the subject of religion, DiFranco has stated:

"Well, I'm not a religious person myself. I'm an atheist. I think religion serves a lot of different purposes in people's lives, and I can recognize the value of that, you know, the value of ceremony, the value of community, or even just having a forum to get together and talk about ideas, about morals – that's a cool concept. But then, of course, institutional religions are so problematic."^[31]

Since becoming a mother and releasing her Red Letter Year album in 2009, DiFranco has talked in concert about "finding religion".^{[citation needed]} At concerts she has stated that her song "The Atom" is an "alternative Christian proposal". In "The Atom" she sings ”Oh holy is the atom/ The truly intelligent design/ To which all of evolution/ Is graciously aligned.” In Reno in 2008 prior to singing "The Atom", she said "I've kind of gotten religion lately, I took a sweet religion, one I am sort of familiar with and sprayed a can of patriarchy-off and this is what I came up with."^{[citation needed]}

Label independence[link]

DiFranco was one of the first independent artists to own her own label, which has allowed her a considerable degree of creative freedom over the years, including, for example, providing all instrumentals and vocals and recording the album herself at her home on an analog 8-track reel to reel, and handling much of the artwork and packaging design for her 2004 album Educated Guess.^[32] She has referenced this independence from major labels in song more than once, including "The Million You Never Made" (Not A Pretty Girl), which discusses the act of turning down a lucrative contract, "The Next Big Thing" (Not So Soft), which describes an imagined meeting with a label head-hunter who evaluates the singer based on her looks, and "Napoleon" (Dilate), which sympathizes sarcastically with an unnamed friend who did sign with a label.

DiFranco has occasionally joined with Prince in discussing publicly the problems associated with major record companies. Righteous Babe Records employs a number of people in her hometown of Buffalo. In a 1997 open letter to Ms. magazine^[33] she expressed displeasure that what she considers a way to ensure her own artistic freedom was seen by others solely in terms of its financial success.

[edit] Discography

Studio albums[link]

	"Napoleon" noicon from Dilate
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

• 1990 – Ani DiFranco
• 1991 – Not So Soft
• 1992 – Imperfectly
• 1993 – Puddle Dive
• 1994 – Out of Range
• 1995 – Not a Pretty Girl
• 1996 – Dilate
• 1998 – Little Plastic Castle
• 1999 – Up Up Up Up Up Up
• 1999 – To the Teeth
• 2001 – Revelling/Reckoning
• 2003 – Evolve
• 2004 – Educated Guess
• 2005 – Knuckle Down
• 2006 – Reprieve
• 2008 – Red Letter Year
• 2012 - ¿Which Side Are You On?

Compilations[link]

• 1993 – Like I Said: Songs 1990–91^[34]
• 2007 – Canon

Live albums[link]

• 1994 – An Acoustic Evening With
• 1994 – Women in (E)motion (German Import)
• 1997 – Living in Clip
• 2002 – So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter
• 2004 – Atlanta – 10.9.03 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2004 – Sacramento – 10.25.03 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2004 – Portland – 4.7.04 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2005 – Boston – 11.16.03 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2005 – Chicago – 1.17.04 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2005 – Madison – 1.25.04 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2005 – Rome – 11.15.04 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2006 – Carnegie Hall – 4.6.02 (Official Bootleg series – available in stores)
• 2007 – Boston – 11.10.06 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2008 – Hamburg – 10.18.07 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2009 – Saratoga, CA – 9.18.06 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2009 – Chicago – 9.22.07 (Official Bootleg series)
• 2010 – Live at Bull Moose Music (Limited edition)^[35]

EPs[link]

• 1996 – More Joy, Less Shame
• 1999 – Little Plastic Remixes (limited distribution)
• 2000 – Swing Set

Demos[link]

• 1989 – Demo tape (unreleased)

Videos[link]

• 2002 – Render: Spanning Time with Ani DiFranco
• 2004 – Trust
• 2008 – Live at Babeville

Poetry[link]

• 2004 – "Self-evident: poesie e disegni"
• 2007 – Verses

Other contributions[link]

• 2004 – WFUV: City Folk Live VII – "Bliss Like This"
• 2006 – Jason Karaban – "Doomed to Make Choices"
• 2008 – The City That Care Forgot – Contributed backing vocals to the title track of Dr. John's 2008 album.
• 2009 – Jason Karaban – "Sobriety Kills"
• 2010 – Anais Mitchell – "Hadestown"
• 2011 – Twilight Singers – "Blackbird and the Fox"
• 2011 – Every Mother Counts – "Present/Infant" (Remix)

See also[link]

• Righteous Babe Records
• Category:Righteous Babe artists

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ani DiFranco

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ani DiFranco

• The Righteous Babe homepage
• Ani DiFranco at the Internet Movie Database
• Ani DiFranco discography at MusicBrainz
• Ani DiFranco at Rolling Stone
• Works by or about Ani DiFranco in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Kerry Cohen (born September 15, 1970 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American author. She also writes as Kerry Cohen Hoffmann

Cohen grew up in suburban New Jersey.^[1] She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Oregon and an MA in counseling psychology from Pacific University. A practicing psychotherapist and writing instructor, she lives with her husband and two sons in Portland, Oregon.^[1][2] She is the author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity, based on her own promiscuity during her teens. In 2006 she published Easy, a young adult novel.^[3]

Bibliography[link]

• Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity (Hyperion, 2008)
• Easy (Simon & Schuster, 2006)
  • 2006 ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults and 2006 Oregon Book Award finalist
• The Good Girl (Delacorte, 2008)
• It's Not You, It's Me (Delacorte, 2009)
  • 2010 Oregon Book Award finalist
• Seeing Ezra (Seal Press, 2011)
• Dirty Little Secrets (Sourcebooks, 2011)

External links[link]

• Official site

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Kerry Cohen On Her Publishing And Her Promiscuous Past". The Huffington Post. 2008-06-06. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-kramer-bussel/kerry-cohen-on-her-publis_b_105724.html. Retrieved 2008-08-20. 
2. ^ Cohen, Kerry (2008-06-19). "Confessions of a psychotherapist: ‘Some girls turn to drugs or alcohol. I chose promiscuity’". The Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/you/article-1027134/Confessions-psychotherapist--8216-Some-girls-turn-drugs-alcohol-I-chose-promiscuity-8217.html. Retrieved 2008-08-20. 
3. ^ "Author Details for Kerry Cohen". Random House. http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/catalog/author.htm?authorID=57219. Retrieved 2008-08-20. 

This article about a novelist of the United States born in the 1970s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Gillian Jacobs
Jacobs in March 2012.
Born	(1982-10-20) October 20, 1982 (age 29) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2005–present

Gillian Jacobs ( /ˈɡɪlɪən/; born October 20, 1982)^[1] is an American film, theater and television actress, best known for her role as Britta Perry on the NBC comedy series Community.

Personal life[link]

Jacobs was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.^[2]

She made her name locally at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. There she was a perennial contender in the Public's Shakespeare Monologue Contest, which led to her being cast as Titania in its production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[3] After graduating from Mt. Lebanon High School in 2000, Jacobs moved to New York City, New York, to study acting at The Juilliard School, where she was a member of the Drama Division's Group 33.

Jacobs is of Irish, Scottish, German and French heritage.^[4]

Career[link]

Jacobs's first national exposure came as Adele Congreve on the television series The Book of Daniel. Although she played Kimberly in the television pilot of Traveler, the role was recast when ABC acquired the series. She subsequently made guest appearances on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Fringe.

In 2006, Jacobs starred in an Off-Off-Broadway theatre production of playwright Chris Denham's cagelove. While overall critical reaction to the play was negative, Jacobs earned praise in several reviews.^[5][6][7] The New York Times advised readers to "make sure to remember the name of Gillian Jacobs, a stunning Juilliard graduate who has the glow of a star in the making".^[8]

She has also appeared in theatrical productions of The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero (2007), A Feminine Ending (2007)^[9] and The Little Flower of East Orange (2008), directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.^[10]

Jacobs's film work includes Gardens of the Night (2007); writer-director Adam Rapp's Blackbird (2007); Choke (2008), based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel, and The Box (2009).^[11]

Jacobs at PaleyFest in March 2010.

In 2009, she became a regular on Community. Jacobs comments on it in an interview in Venus Zine's Fall 2010 Issue, "There's an absurdity to the show. We exist in a world in which anything can happen week to week, and that pushes me in so many ways."^[12]

Filmography[link]

Television work[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gillian Jacobs on Twitter
• Gillian Jacobs at the Internet Movie Database
• Gillian Jacobs at the Internet Off-Broadway Database

Nelly Furtado
Nelly Furtado at the red carpet receiving a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Nelly Kim Furtado
Born	(1978-12-02) December 2, 1978 (age 33)
Origin	Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Genres	Pop, rock, folk, R&B, Latin pop, hip hop, dance pop, world music
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, actress
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, keyboards, ukulele, trombone
Years active	1996–present
Labels	DreamWorks, Geffen, MMG, Universal Music Latino
Website	NellyFurtado.com

Nelly Kim Furtado (born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, and its single "I'm Like a Bird", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Her second studio album, Folklore, was released. It was less commercially successful in the US but produced three international singles: "Powerless (Say What You Want)", "Try", and "Força" (the theme of the 2004 European Football Championship). Her third studio album, Loose was her biggest success worldwide. It produced the number-one hits "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Say It Right" and "All Good Things (Come to an End)". After a three-year break, she released her first full-length Spanish album, Mi Plan. For Mi Plan, Furtado received the Latin Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Album. Furtado's fourth English-language studio album, The Spirit Indestructible, is set for release on September 18, 2012.

Biography[link]

Early life and career beginnings[link]

Furtado was born on December 2, 1978, in Victoria, British Columbia, to Portuguese parents, Maria Manuela and António José Furtado, both immigrants from the Azores.^[1] She was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim.^[2] Her parents were born on São Miguel Island and emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s.^[3] Her siblings are Michael Anthony and Lisa Anne. She was raised in a Roman Catholic home.^[2][4] At age four, she began performing and singing in Portuguese.^[1][3] Furtado's first public performance was when she sang a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day. She began playing musical instruments at the age of nine, learning the trombone, ukulele and – in later years – the guitar and keyboards. At the age of 12, she began writing songs,^[2] and as a teenager, she performed in a Portuguese marching band.^[3] Furtado has acknowledged her family as the source of her strong work ethic; she spent eight summers working as a chambermaid with her mother, along with her brother and sister, who was a housekeeper in Victoria.^[5] She has stated that coming from a working class background has shaped her identity in a positive way.

During a visit with her sister Lisa Anne in Toronto, the summer after eleventh grade, Furtado met Tallis Newkirk, member of the hip hop group Plains of Fascination. She contributed vocals to their 1996 album, Join the Ranks, on the track "Waitin' 4 The Streets".^[6] After graduating from Mount Douglas Secondary School in 1996, she moved to Toronto to reside with her sister Lisa Anne. The following year, she formed Nelstar, a trip hop duo with Newkirk. Ultimately, Furtado felt the trip-hop style of the duo was "too segregated", and believed it did not represent her personality or allow her to showcase her vocal ability.^[6] She left the group and planned to move back home. In 1997, she performed at the Honey Jam talent show.^[6][7] Her performance attracted the attention of The Philosopher Kings singer Gerald Eaton, who then approached her to write with him. He and fellow Kings member Brian West helped Furtado produce a demo. She left Toronto, but returned again to record more material with Eaton and West. The material recorded during these sessions led to her 1999 record deal with DreamWorks Records, where she was signed by A&R executive Beth Halper, partner of Garbage drummer and record producer Butch Vig.^[8] Furtado's first single, "Party's Just Begun (Again)", was released that year on the Brokedown Palace: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

[edit] 2000–05: Whoa, Nelly!, motherhood and Folklore

Furtado continued the collaboration with Eaton and West, who co-produced her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, which was released in October 2000. The album was an international success, supported by three international singles: "I'm like a Bird", "Turn off the Light", and "...On the Radio (Remember the Days)". It received four Grammy nominations in 2002, and her debut single won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Furtado's work was also critically acclaimed for her innovative mixture of various genres and sounds. Slant Magazine called the album "a delightful and refreshing antidote to the army of 'pop princesses' and rap-metal bands that had taken over popular music at the turn of the millennium".^[9] The sound of the album was strongly influenced by musicians who had traversed cultures and "the challenge of making heartfelt, emotional music that's upbeat and hopeful".^[10] According to Maclean's magazine, Whoa, Nelly! had sold six million copies worldwide as of August 2006.^[11] Portions of the song "Scared of You" are in Portuguese, while "Onde Estás" is entirely in Portuguese, reflecting Furtado's Portuguese heritage.^[3] Following the release of the album, Furtado headlined the "Burn in the Spotlight Tour" and also appeared on Moby's Area:One tour.

In 2002, Furtado appeared on the song "Thin Line", on underground hip hop group Jurassic 5's album Power in Numbers.^[12] The same year, Furtado provided her vocals to the Paul Oakenfold's song "The Harder They Come" from the album Bunkka and also made the song "These words are my own". She also had a collaboration with Colombian artist Juanes, in the song "Fotografia" where she showed her diversity of yet another language. Furtado was also featured in "Breathe" from Swollen Members "Monsters in the Closet" release; the video for "Breathe," directed by Spawn creator Todd MacFarlane, won the 2003 Western Canadian Music Awards Outstanding Video and MuchVIBE Best Rap Video.^[13] In 2003, in Toronto, Furtado gave birth to a daughter, Nevis Chetan Furtado, whose father is Jasper Gahunia. Furtado and Gahunia, who had been good friends for several years, remained together for four years until their breakup in 2005. Furtado told Blender magazine that they continue to be good friends and jointly share responsibility of raising Nevis.^[14]

Furtado's second album, Folklore, was released in November 2003. The final track on the album, "Childhood Dreams", was dedicated to her daughter, Nevis. The album includes the single "Força" (meaning "strength"/ "power" or "you can do it!" in Portuguese), the official anthem of the 2004 European Football Championship. Furtado performed this song in Lisbon at the championship's final, in which the Portugal national team played.^[15] The lead single is "Powerless (Say What You Want)" and the second single is the ballad "Try". The album was not as successful as her debut, partly due to the album's less "poppy" sound,^[16] as well as underpromotion from her label DreamWorks Records. DreamWorks had just been sold to Universal Music Group. In 2005, DreamWorks Records, along with many of its artists including Furtado, was absorbed into Geffen Records. "Powerless (Say What You Want)" was later remixed, featuring Colombian rocker Juanes, who had previously worked with Furtado on his track "Fotografía" ("Photograph"). The two would collaborate again on "Te Busqué" ("I searched for you"), a single from Furtado's 2006 album Loose.^[17]

[edit] 2006–09: Loose and marriage

Furtado performing live in Nuremberg, in 2006

Furtado's third album, named Loose, after the spontaneous, creative decisions she made while creating the album, was released in June 2006.^[18][19] In this album, primarily produced by Timbaland, Furtado experiments with sounds from R&B, hip hop, and 1980s music.^[20] Furtado herself describes the album's sound as punk-hop, described as "modern, poppy, spooky" and as having "a mysterious, after-midnight vibe... extremely visceral".^[18] She attributed the youthful sound of the album to the presence of her two-year-old daughter.^[20] The album received generally positive reviews from critics,^[21] with some citing the "revitalising" effect of Timbaland on Furtado's music,^[22][23] and others calling it "slick, smart and surprising".^[24] Some have labeled her a "sellout" for seemingly abandoning her folk and rock roots in favour of hip hop and R&B, while others have accused her of attempting to "sex up" her music and appearance to sell more records.^[25][26] Loose has become the most successful album of Furtado's career so far, as it reached number one, not only in Canada and the United States, but also several countries worldwide. The album produced her first number-one hit in the United States, "Promiscuous", as well as her first number-one hit in the United Kingdom, "Maneater". The single "Say It Right" eventually became Furtado's most successful song worldwide, due to its huge success in Europe and in the United States, where it became her second number-one hit. "All Good Things (Come to an End)" became her most successful song in Europe, topping single charts in numerous countries there.

In June 2006 in an interview with Genre magazine, when asked if she had "ever felt an attraction to women", Furtado replied "Absolutely. Women are beautiful and sexy".^[27] Some considered this an announcement of bisexuality,^[28] but in August 2006, she stated that she was "straight, but very open-minded".^[29] In November 2006, Furtado revealed that she once turned down $500,000 to pose fully clothed in Playboy.^[30] On February 16, 2007, Furtado embarked on the "Get Loose Tour". She returned in March 2007 to her hometown of Victoria to perform a concert at the Save-On Foods Memorial Centre. In honour of her visit, local leaders officially proclaimed March 21, 2007, the first day of spring, as Nelly Furtado Day.^[31] After the tour, she released her first live DVD/CD named Loose the Concert.^[32] On April 1, 2007, Furtado was a performer and host of the 2007 Juno Awards in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She won all five awards for which she was nominated, including Album of the Year and Single of the Year. She also appeared on stage at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium in London on July 1, 2007, where she performed "Say It Right", "Maneater", and "I'm like a Bird". In 2007, Furtado and Justin Timberlake were featured on Timbaland's single "Give It to Me",^[33] which became her third number-one single in the U.S. and second in the UK. In late 2008, Furtado collaborated with James Morrison on a song called "Broken Strings" for his album Songs for You, Truths for Me. The single was released on December 8^[34] and peaked at No.2 on the UK Singles Chart in early January. In 2008, she sang with the Italian group "Zero Assoluto" the ballad Win or Lose – Appena prima di partire, released in Italy, France and Germany and whose video was shot in Barcelona. Furtado made a guest appearance on Flo Rida's new album, R.O.O.T.S..^[35] Furtado also made a guest appearance on Divine Brown's Love Chronicles, co-writing and singing on the background of the song "Sunglasses". Furtado married Cuban sound engineer Demacio "Demo" Castellón, with whom she had worked on the Loose album, on July 19, 2008.^[36][37]

[edit] 2009–2012: Mi Plan and greatest hits

Furtado's debut Spanish album, Mi Plan was released with the first single, "Manos Al Aire" ("Hands in the Air").^[38] She had formed her own record label, Nelstar, in conjunction with Canadian independent label group Last Gang Labels. The first act signed to Nelstar is Fritz Helder & the Phantoms.^[39] "Manos al Aire" was released on the new label.^[40] The second, third and fourth singles were "Más", "Mi Plan" and "Bajo Otra Luz" respectively. Furtado won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Album for Mi Plan. She is the first Canadian to win a Latin Grammy award. Furtado also recorded "Manos al Aire" in Simlish for the new Sims 3 expansion, World Adventures.^[41] Lifestyle, her planned fourth English studio album, was not released during the summer of 2010 in favor a second leg of her Mi Plan Tour. To promote the tour in Brazil, on March 24, 2010, Furtado made a "VIP Pocket Show" in reality show program Big Brother Brasil 10 from Rede Globo, the country's leading channel. Furtado participated in the live DVD recording of the Brazilian singer Ivete Sangalo in Madison Square Garden on September 4, 2010. Furtado released Mi Plan Remixes featuring 12 tracks of remixed hits from "Mi Plan." This album included the Original Spanglish Version of "Fuerte", her final release from Mi Plan.

Furtado made a guest appearance on Canadian singer k-os's new album Yes!, collaborating alongside Saukrates on the song "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman," released in early July 2009. Nelly Furtado also made a guest appearance on Tiësto's single "Who Wants to Be Alone"^[42] on his new album Kaleidoscope. Furtado sang in a duet with Bryan Adams at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. The song was called "Bang The Drum" released on EMI album Sounds Of Vancouver 2010 (a commemorative album). Furtado is featured in a new song by N.E.R.D. called "Hot N Fun". She also participated in the Young Artists for Haiti song, in which many Canadian artists came together and sang K'naan's inspirational song "Wavin' Flag" to raise money for the victims of the Haiti Earthquake. Furtado was honoured with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in October 2010.^[43]

Furtado released her first greatest hits album titled The Best of Nelly Furtado on November 16, 2010. Three new songs were included on the greatest hits album, including "Night Is Young", "Girlfriend in the City", and the Lester Mendez produced track, left over from the Loose sessions, "Stars". The album's first single, "Night Is Young",^[44] was released on October 12, 2010.^[45] Furtado had previously sang two of the new songs: "Girlfriend in the City" and "Night Is Young" at her concert in Warsaw, Poland.^[46] Furtado was one of several celebrities who have come under fire after 2011 reports from the New York Times and a WikiLeaks document revealed several entertainers had received extravagant sums to perform for the family of Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi. She promised to donate to charity the $1 million she received for a 2007 concert,^[47] which ended up going to Free the Children.^[48]

Furtado publicly endorsed Green Party leader Elizabeth May in Saanich-Gulf Islands during the federal election in 2011.^[49] Furtado was featured on one of the Game's The R.E.D. Album tracks, titled "Mamma Knows" (produced by The Neptunes).^[50] For the Canadian film The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom, Furtado lent her vocals for the Dolly Parton gospel cover "The Seeker" featured during the credits of the film.^[51][52] Furtado collaborated with recording artist Alex Cuba and K'naan once again. The duet with K'naan "Is Anybody Out There", was released as the first single from his extended play More Beautiful than Silence.^[53][54]

[edit] 2012–present: The Spirit Indestructible

The Spirit Indestructible will be released in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2012 and a day later in the US.^[55] Furtado proclaims that The Spirit Indestructible would be most like her 2000 debut Whoa, Nelly!, but containing elements from urban, alternative, and reggae.^[56][57] The influences for the album range from Janelle Monae, The xx, to Florence + the Machine.^[58] The album has attracted producers such as The Neptunes, Tiësto, Timbaland, Rick Nowels, Ryan Tedder and Rodney Jerkins.^{[59][60][61][62]} The first single from The Spirit Indestructable, "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)", was released digitally on April 17, 2012^[63] and was sent to North American radio stations on May 1, 2012.^[64] Furtado continued to collaborate with hip-hop producer Salaam Remi, who previously worked on the 2010 single "Night Is Young", on "The Edge". The lyrics for the Salaam Remi produced track are reported to be influenced by the Tiger Woods cheating scandal, in which was originally referred to as "Elin's Song".^[65] On July 2, 2011 Furtado performed a new track, an acoustic ballad titled "Mystery", from her upcoming studio album. Furtado intends on promoting the album for at least two years while embarking on a tour.^[66][67]

Furtado has simultaneously begun work on a full-length Portuguese album, as a follow-up to her Spanish effort, Mi Plan.^[68]

Philanthropy[link]

For World AIDS Day in 2006, Furtado took part in an AIDS awareness concert in South Africa hosted by MTV, BET, and Nike; fellow performers included Enrique Iglesias, Kanye West, Kelly Rowland, Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson.^[69] Furtado also hosted a program about AIDS on MTV, which also featured guests Alicia Keys and Justin Timberlake.^[69] On September 27, 2011, Furtado announced during Free the Children's WeDay Toronto, that she was giving $1,000,000 to Free the Children's effort to build girls' schools in the Maasai region of Kenya.^[48]

Artistry[link]

Influences[link]

During her pre-teenage to teenage years, Furtado embraced many musical genres, listening heavily to mainstream R&B, hip hop, alternative hip hop, drum and bass, trip hop, world music (including Portuguese fado, Brazilian bossa nova and Indian music), and a variety of others.^[2] Her biggest influence when growing up was Ani DiFranco, she explained that "[w]hen I was a teenager, I wanted to be (the feminist punk-folk singer) Ani DiFranco. I never wanted to be part of corporate music."^[70] She cites diverse influences, which include soul-trip/hip hop artists such as De La Soul, TLC, world music artists Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Amalia Rodrigues, as well as Caetano Veloso, Juanes, Jeff Buckley, Esthero, Björk, Cornershop, Oasis, Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins and Beck.^[2][8] Furtado's music has also been influenced by her current residence, Toronto, which she calls "the most multicultural city in the entire world" and a place where she "can be any culture". Regarding Toronto's cultural diversity, she has said that she did not have to wait for the Internet revolution to learn about world music; she began listening to it at the age of five and continues to discover new genres.

Discography[link]

• Whoa, Nelly! (2000)
• Folklore (2003)
• Loose (2006)
• Mi Plan (2009)
• The Spirit Indestructible (2012)

Tours[link]

• Burn in the Spotlight Tour (2001)
• Come as You Are Tour (2004)
• Get Loose Tour (2007-2008)
• Mi Plan Tour (2010)

Filmography[link]