An orthography is a standardized system for using a particular writing system (script) to write a particular language. It includes rules of spelling, and may also concern other elements of the written language such as punctuation and capitalization.

Most significant languages in the modern era are written down, and for most such languages a standard orthography has developed, often based on a standard variety of the language, and thus exhibiting less dialect variation than the spoken language. Sometimes there may be variation in a language's orthography, as between American and British spelling in the case of English. If a language uses multiple writing systems, it may have distinct orthographies, as is the case with Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian, Inuktitut and Turkish. In some cases orthography is regulated by bodies such as language academies, although for many languages (including English) there are no such authorities, and orthography develops through less formal processes.

Orthography is distinct from typography, which is concerned with principles of typesetting.

Etymology and meaning[link]

The English word orthography dates from the 15th century. It comes from the French orthographie, from Latin orthographia, which is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós, "correct", and γράφειν gráphein, "to write".^[1]

Orthography is largely concerned with matters of spelling, and in particular the relationship between phonemes and graphemes in a language.^[2][3] Other elements that may be considered part of orthography include hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.^[4] Orthography thus describes or defines the set of symbols used in writing a language, and the rules about how to use those symbols.

Most natural languages developed as oral languages, and writing systems have usually been crafted or adapted as ways of representing the spoken language. The rules for doing this tend to become standardized for a given language, leading to the development of an orthography that is generally considered "correct". In linguistics the term orthography is often used to refer to any method of writing a language, without judgment as to right and wrong, with a scientific understanding that orthographic standardization exists on a spectrum of strength of convention. The original sense of the word, though, implies a dichotomy of correct and incorrect, and the word is still most often used to refer specifically to a thoroughly standardized, prescriptively correct, way of writing a language. A distinction may be made here between etic and emic viewpoints – the purely descriptive (etic) approach which simply considers any system that is actually used, and the emic view which takes account of language users' perceptions of correctness, which are analogous in some ways to a moral sense of right and wrong.

Units and notation[link]

Orthographic units, such as letters of an alphabet, are technically called graphemes. These are a type of abstraction, analogous to the phonemes of spoken languages; different physical forms of written symbols are considered to represent the same grapheme if the differences between them are not significant for meaning. For example, different forms of the letter "b" are all considered to represent a single grapheme in the orthography of, say, English.

Graphemes or sequences of them are sometimes placed between angle brackets, as in ⟨b⟩ or ⟨back⟩. This distinguishes them from phonemic transcription, which is placed between slashes (/b/, /bæk/), and from phonetic transcription, which is placed between square brackets ([b], [bæk]).

Types[link]

The writing systems on which orthographies are based can be divided into a number of types, depending on what type of unit each symbol serves to represent. The principal types are logographic (with symbols representing words or morphemes), syllabic (with symbols representing syllables), and alphabetic (with symbols roughly representing phonemes). Many writing systems combine features of more than one of these types, and a number of detailed classifications have been proposed. For a full discussion, see Writing system: Functional classification of writing systems.

Correspondence with pronunciation[link]

Orthographies that use alphabets and syllabaries are based on the principle that the written symbols (graphemes) correspond to units of sound of the spoken language: phonemes in the former case, and syllables in the latter. However, in virtually all cases, this correspondence is not exact. Different languages' orthographies offer different degrees of correspondence between spelling and pronunciation. English orthography, for example, is highly irregular, whereas the orthographies of languages such as Russian, Spanish and Finnish represent pronunciation much more faithfully, although the correspondence between letters and phonemes is still not exact.

An orthography in which the correspondences between spelling and pronunciation are highly complex or inconsistent is called a deep orthography (or less formally, the language is said to have irregular spelling). An orthography with relatively simple and consistent correspondences is called shallow (and the language has regular spelling).

One of the main reasons for which spelling and pronunciation deviate is that sound changes taking place in the spoken language are not always reflected in the orthography, and hence spellings correspond to historical rather than present-day pronunciation. One consequence of this is that many spellings come to reflect a word's morphophonemic structure rather than its purely phonemic structure (for example, the English regular past tense morpheme is consistently spelt -ed in spite of its different pronunciations in various words). This is discussed further at Phonemic orthography: Morphophonemic features.

The syllabary systems of Japanese (hiragana and katakana) are examples of almost perfectly shallow orthographies – the kana correspond with almost perfect consistency to the spoken syllables, although with a few exceptions where symbols reflect historical or morphophonemic features: notably the use of ぢ di and づ du (rather than じ ji and ず zu, their pronunciation in standard Tokyo dialect) when the character is a voicing of an underlying ち or つ (see rendaku), and the use of は, を, and へ to represent the sounds わ, お, and え, as relics of historical kana usage.

The Korean hangul system was also originally an extremely shallow orthography, but as a representation of the modern language it frequently also reflects morphophonemic features.

For full discussion of degrees of correspondence between spelling and pronunciation in alphabetic orthographies, including reasons why such correspondence may break down, see Phonemic orthography.

Defective orthographies[link]

In some cases an orthography based on the principle that symbols correspond to phonemes may lack characters to represent all the phonemes or all the phonemic distinctions in the language. This is called a defective orthography. An example in English is that the digraph th is required to represent two different phonemes (as in either and ether). A more systematic example is that of abjads like the Arabic and Hebrew alphabets, in which the short vowels are normally left unwritten and have to be inferred by the reader.

When an alphabet is borrowed to represent a different language than that for which it originally developed (as has been done with the Latin alphabet for many languages in Europe and elsewhere), it often proves to be defective in representing the new language's phonemes. Sometimes this problem is addressed by the use of such devices as digraphs (such as sh and ch in English, where pairs of letters represent single sounds), diacritics (like the caron on the letters š and č, which represent those same sounds in Czech), or the addition of completely new symbols (as some languages have introduced the letter w to the Latin alphabet).

See also[link]

References[link]

• Smalley, W.A. (ed.) 1964. Orthography studies: articles on new writing systems (United Bible Society, London).
• Venezky, Von Richard L.; Tom Trabasso, John P. Sabatini, Dominic W. Massaro, Robert Calfee (2005). From Orthography to Pedagogy. Routledge. ISBN 0-8058-5089-9, 9780805850895. 

External links[link]

• The CODE and the Challenge of Learning to Read It
• Videos: The History and Impact of Writing in the West
• Omniglot – writing systems & languages of the world – a privately run orthography website
• Phonemic awareness page of the CTER wiki
• lonestar.texas.net/~jebbo/learn-as/ orthography of Old English

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2009)

The Honourable David Robert Peterson PC OOnt LLB BA
The Hon. David Peterson
20th Premier of Ontario
In office June 26, 1985 – October 1, 1990
Lieutenant Governor	John Black Aird, Lincoln Alexander
Preceded by	Frank Miller
Succeeded by	Bob Rae
MPP for London Centre
In office 1975–1990
Preceded by	riding created
Succeeded by	Marion Boyd
25th Ontario Liberal Party Leader
In office 1982–1990
Preceded by	Stuart Smith
Succeeded by	Robert Nixon
23rd Leader of the Opposition in the Ontario Legislature
In office 1982–1985
Preceded by	Robert Nixon
Succeeded by	Frank Miller
Chancellor of the University of Toronto
In office 2006–2012
Preceded by	Vivienne Poy
Succeeded by	Michael Wilson
Personal details
Born	(1943-12-28) December 28, 1943 (age 68) Toronto, Ontario
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Shelley Peterson
Alma mater	University of Western Ontario University of Toronto Faculty of Law

David Robert Peterson, PC, O.Ont (born December 28, 1943) was the 20th Premier of the Province of Ontario, Canada, from June 26, 1985 to October 1, 1990. He was the first Liberal premier of Ontario in 42 years.

Peterson is married to actress Shelley Peterson, and is the younger brother of Jim Peterson, formerly a federal Liberal MP and cabinet minister. Both his sister-in-law Deb Matthews and Tim Peterson, a third brother, were elected to the Ontario legislature in the 2003 provincial election while Deb Matthews was re elected in 2007 and 2011. He has three children named Benjamin, Chloe and Adam.

Background[link]

David Peterson earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario and his law degree from the University of Toronto. He was called to the bar in 1969. Despite his legal background, most of Peterson's early career was spent in the world of private enterprise. At the age of twenty-six, he became president of C.M. Peterson Company Limited, a wholesale electronics firm founded by his father, and joined the Chamber of Commerce's Young Presidents Club in the same period.

Conferred upon David Peterson was an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Western Ontario on June 15, 2006.

Early political career[link]

Peterson was first elected as the Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament for London Centre in the 1975 provincial election. Less than one year later, he campaigned for the leadership of the party following Robert Nixon's resignation. Despite his inexperience, Peterson nevertheless came within 45 votes of defeating Stuart Smith on the third and final ballot of a delegated convention held on January 25, 1976. Smith represented the left-wing of the party, while Peterson was seen as representing its right-wing. Some blamed Peterson's loss on the banal delivery of his convention speech.

Peterson was re-elected in the provincial elections of 1977 and 1981, and ran for the Liberal leadership a second time after Smith's resignation in 1982; Smith had managed to maintain the party's standing in the legislature but was unable to make gains in both elections. Again considered to be on the right of the party, he defeated the more left-leaning Sheila Copps on the second ballot of a convention vote, held on February 21, 1982. One of his most prominent organizers during this period was Keith Davey.

Liberal leader[link]

Peterson was not initially regarded as a strong challenger to the Progressive Conservative government of Bill Davis. The Liberals lost two seats to the NDP in late 1984 by-elections, and another caucus member defected to the Progressive Conservatives that same year, claiming that Peterson was an ineffective leader. Polling in late 1984 showed Peterson's Liberals in third place, behind the Progressive Conservatives and Bob Rae's New Democratic Party.

Peterson's fortunes improved when Davis retired as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in early 1985. His successor, Frank Miller, took the party further to the right, and was unable to convince the electorate of his leadership abilities.

Though Miller's Tories began the election in 1985 with a significant lead, Peterson's Liberals gradually increased their support throughout the campaign. To the surprise of many, Peterson won a narrow plurality of the popular vote. However, at the time rural areas were still slightly overrepresented in the Legislative Assembly. As a result, the Liberals won 48 seats, while the Progressive Conservatives 52 which was enough for a minority government.

The Ontario New Democratic Party, with 25 seats, held the balance of power. Following the election, NDP leader Bob Rae entered negotiations with both the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives, seeking a formal accord in which the NDP would pledge not to defeat the government in return for the passage of certain progressive legislation. Miller's Tories attempted to win the NDP's support, but were unable to agree to Rae's terms. Negotiations with the Liberals were more fruitiful, and the two parties signed an accord allowing the Liberals to govern for a two-year period. This accord was not a formal coalition, as the NDP did not receive any cabinet seats, something that Peterson was not willing to consider during discussions with Rae.

Premier[link]

The Liberals and NDP defeated Miller's government on June 18, 1985 on a motion of no confidence on the speech from the throne, and Peterson was sworn in as Premier of Ontario eight days later. Robert Nixon, Sean Conway, and Ian Scott were Peterson's top cabinet ministers.

After the expiration of the Liberal-NDP Accord in 1987, the Liberals called another provincial election, and won the second-largest majority government in Ontario's history, taking 95 seats out of 130, at the expense of the NDP and the Progressive Conservatives who dropped to third place in the legislature.

Peterson's government introduced several pieces of progressive legislation. It eliminated "extra billing" by doctors, brought in pay equity provisions, and reformed the province's rent review and labour negotiation laws. His government also brought in pension reform, expanded housing construction, and resolved a long-standing provincial controversy by extended full funding to Catholic secondary schools. Peterson was also a vocal opponent of free trade with the United States in 1988. His administration was less activist in its later years, though it still introduced progressive measures on environmental protection, eliminated health insurance premiums, and brought in no-fault automobile insurance for the province.

The Peterson administration also developed a reputation for fiscal prudence, under the management of Treasurer Robert Nixon. The Liberal government was able to introduce a balanced budget for 1989–90 following several years of deficit spending in Ontario, at a time when deficit spending was commonplace in most of North America.

Peterson remained personally popular during his time in power, and some spoke of him as a future Prime Minister of Canada. Peterson improved his public speaking abilities in the early 1980s, and projected the image of an active, charismatic figure when in office. Some believed his image was perfectly suited to the young, urban professional demographic of the 1980s.

Warning signs[link]

Both Peterson and his government were still popular at the beginning of 1990. The end of his career in politics came suddenly, and was the result of several factors.

The first was Peterson's prominent role in creating and promoting the "Meech Lake" constitutional accord. While initially popular, this attempt at revising Canada's constitution proved extremely divisive in most of English-speaking Canada. Many believed that it gave too many concessions to Quebec, while others believed that it weakened the federal government's authority in relation to the provinces. Peterson's continued support for the accord, in the face of increased opposition, damaged his personal popularity in Ontario. The accord was not endorsed by Manitoba and Newfoundland, and did not pass.

The second reason for Peterson's downfall was the Patti Starr scandal. Starr, a prominent Liberal fundraiser, was found to have improperly diverted money from land-development and charitable organizations to the provincial Liberal Party. She was eventually sentenced to six months' jail time. Although no-one in Peterson's administration was accused of criminal activity, the scandal eroded public confidence in the integrity of the ministry.

The third reason was the weakening North American economy. Productivity levels were falling throughout the United States and Canada during this period, and were likely worsened in Ontario and other jurisdictions by the recent passage of a Free Trade Accord involving the two countries. While there was little that Peterson, or any other Ontario Premier, could have done to prevent this downturn, it weakened his government's reputation for fiscal competence. (Indeed, the government's projected surplus budget for 1990–91 ultimately yielded a deficit of at least three billion dollars.)

Defeat[link]

Notwithstanding all of this, Peterson's Liberal Party still retained a comfortable lead over the Progressive Conservatives and NDP in mid-1990 public opinion polls. As a result, Peterson decided to call an snap election, less than three years into his mandate. This proved to be his greatest mistake.

Many voters saw the early election as a mark of arrogance, and a sign that Peterson's Liberals had become detached from the electorate. There was no defining issue behind the campaign, and many believed that Peterson was simply trying to win re-election before the economic downturn reached its worst phase. Some Liberal cabinet ministers, most notably Greg Sorbara and Jim Bradley, were strongly opposed to the early election call. Sean Conway, a member of Peterson's inner circle, would later acknowledge that most backbench MPPs also opposed the timing of the campaign.

At the time the writ was dropped, the Liberals stood at 50% support in the polls. Peterson himself had a 54% approval rating. However, his luck turned immediately upon calling the election. One of the seminal moments in the campaign was at a press conference called to announce the forthcoming election. It was soon interrupted by Greenpeace activist Gord Perks, who arrived with a briefcase handcuffed to his arm, with a tape recorder inside playing a pre-recorded list of broken Liberal environmental promises. David Peterson sat in front of the room full of reporters, awkwardly silent and clearly uncomfortable.^[1]

Disappointed by high expectations, groups representing various interests (such as teachers, doctors, and environmentalists), came out against Peterson on television, radio, in print, and at Liberal campaign events. Protesters would follow the Premier throughout the campaign, and often received considerable media coverage.^[2] The media reported the election call as cynical, and the party appeared desperate when they unexpectedly proposed to cut the provincial sales tax halfway through the campaign. It did not help that the provincial election campaign was being run in the aftermath of the failed Meech Lake constitutional accord of Brian Mulroney's federal government, with which Peterson had significant media exposure in association with the other first ministers.

The campaign also took place at a time when the federal NDP was performing well in the polls. In the federal election two years earlier, the federal NDP won 44 seats, its highest seat count until the 2011 Canadian federal election. This trend carried over to the provincial level; the provincial NDP under Rae ran a strong campaign and saw its fortunes gradually increase as election day approached. Some voters believed that Peterson deserved to be reduced to a minority government, while others believed the NDP should be given a chance to govern. On September 5, 1990, the NDP scored one of the greatest upsets in Canadian political history, taking 74 seats for a strong majority government. While the NDP only outpolled the Liberals by a narrow six-point margin, they managed to unseat many Liberal incumbents in the Greater Toronto Area. The Liberals suffered their worst defeat ever, falling from 95 seats to 36; the 59-seat loss surpassed the 48-seat loss in 1943 that began the Tories' long rule over the province. This was also the second-worst defeat for a governing party in Ontario.

Peterson even lost his own seat, having been resoundingly defeated by NDP candidate Marion Boyd in London Centre by over 8,200 votes. It is almost unheard of for a provincial premier to be unseated in his own riding. The loss ended Peterson's political career. He announced his resignation as Liberal leader on the night of the election, and formally resigned as premier on October 1, 1990.

In 1992, Peterson endorsed former Minister of Health Murray Elston as the next leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. Elston was narrowly defeated, in part because many party delegates saw him as a throwback to the Peterson years.

Legacy[link]

Peterson's 1985 election victory was part of a trend in the improvement of Liberal Party fortunes in Canada. Prior to that Ontario election, the future of the Liberal Party looked bleak. They governed in no province, and, federally, were down to 40 seats. In some provinces, the Liberals had been completely wiped from both federal and provincial representation in the legislatures. Peterson's surprise victory is regarded by many as the start of the party's comeback. Peterson's successor, Bob Rae, took power during one of the worst recessions since the 1930s, which contributed heavily to the NDP's decimation in 1995. Rae has since left the NDP and joined the Liberal party.

After politics[link]

David Peterson was the founding chairman of the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association, and was a member of Toronto's Olympics Bid Committee. Since leaving politics, he has been a professor at York University in Toronto, a senior partner and chairman of the Toronto law firm Cassels, Brock & Blackwell, and has been director or member of several charitable, cultural, and environmental organizations. He is or has been a member on several corporate boards, being particularly associated with the Rogers family of businesses. In his legal practice he provides international advice to a wide range of clients about public policy issues and government affairs in Canada.

In 1999, Peterson found himself at the centre of controversy due to his membership on the board of YBM Magnex, a firm which was discovered to have links to the Russian mafia. Peterson maintained that he was unaware of illegal activities at the company, and referred to the accusations against him as "guilt by association". A subsequent investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission found that Peterson's actions met "the legal test of due diligence", but expressed disappointment that he had not shown more leadership on the board.^[3] A 2004 report from the Globe and Mail newspaper notes that Peterson was chastened by this experience, and has become "a cautious and more conscientious director" since this time.^[4]

Since 2003, Peterson has been contracted by the federal government to be its chief negotiator in talks with the government of the Northwest Territories and aboriginal leaders to transfer federal powers over lands and resources. Mr. Peterson noted this as an opportunity to play again a part in nation-building.

Peterson has continued to organize and fund-raise for the federal and Ontario provincial Liberals. In May 2005, he played the central role in persuading Belinda Stronach, a federal Conservative MP, to cross the floor to the ruling Liberal Party, days before a crucial confidence motion on the federal budget of Paul Martin's Liberal minority government. The defection proved critical to the survival of Martin's government, with the final outcome of the budget vote 153–152 in favour of the government.

After Martin resigned the party leadership in the wake of the Liberal defeat in the 2006 election, Peterson planned to support former New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna who chose ultimately not to run. Peterson then backed Michael Ignatieff, criticizing former political opponent Bob Rae's entry into the race due to the latter's record as provincial premier. Peterson insisted he did not hold a personal grudge against Rae.^[5]

Peterson became Chancellor of the University of Toronto effective July 1, 2006. The appointment is a three-year term. In 2009, he was made a member of the Order of Ontario.^[6]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ontario Legislative Assembly Parliamentarian History

v t e Leaders of the Ontario Liberal Party Brown · McKellar · Blake · Mowat · Hardy · Ross · Graham · MacKay · Rowell · Proudfoot · Dewart · Hay · Sinclair · Hepburn · Conant† · H. Nixon · Hepburn · Oliver · Thomson · Oliver · Wintermeyer · Thompson · R. Nixon · Smith · Peterson · R. Nixon† · Elston† · Bradley† · McLeod · McGuinty † Interim leader

v t e   Premiers of Ontario Macdonald · Blake · Mowat · Hardy · Ross · Whitney · Hearst · Drury · Ferguson · Henry · Hepburn · Conant · Nixon · Drew · Kennedy · Frost · Robarts · Davis · Miller · Peterson · Rae · Harris · Eves · McGuinty Book:Premiers of Ontario · Category:Premiers of Ontario · Portal:Ontario

The Script
The Script, Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2008
Background information
Origin	Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Soft rock, alternative rock, blue-eyed soul, worldbeat
Years active	2001–present[1]
Labels	Sony Music Entertainment
Associated acts	mytown (1996-2001)
Website	thescriptmusic.com
Members
Danny O'Donoghue Mark Sheehan Glen Power

The Script are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Based in London after signing to Sony Label Group imprint Phonogenic, the band released their eponymous debut album in August 2008, featuring the hit songs "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" and "Breakeven". The album debuted at number one in Ireland and the UK.^[2] Their second album, Science & Faith, was released in September 2010, and contains the hit songs "For the First Time" and "Nothing". The album debuted at number one in Ireland and the UK, and number three on the US Billboard 200.^[2][3]

Their music has been featured in many video games and many popular television programs including 90210, Ghost Whisperer, The Hills, Waterloo Road, EastEnders, Made in Chelsea and The Vampire Diaries. Frontman Danny O'Donoghue is also a coach on The Voice UK.

Biography[link]

Danny O'Donoghue and Mark Sheehan met in a club in The Liberties area of Dublin, Ireland near the Guinness brewery, gravitating to each other through a shared liking of music, and in particular a love of R & B music (Rhythm and Blues). "At that time, MTV only came on in Dublin after midnight, it was the fuzzy channel, and for my generation urban culture was just a wave through us all," explains Sheehan. "It wasn't about gangs and guns; it was fashion and fun, singing and dancing." ^[4]

Mark and Danny were formerly part of a band that had formed in 1996 called mytown. Striking up a songwriting and production partnership, O'Donoghue and Sheehan's talent was recognized early, and, to their astonishment, they found themselves invited to Canada to collaborate with some of their production heroes, including such legends of modern R&B as Dallas Austin, Montell Jordan and Teddy Riley. They were based in the US for many years, but moved back to Dublin where they recruited Glen Power for their new band. He had been playing sessions from the age of fifteen, using the money to work on a solo project in his home. But that went on hold when his collaboration with Mark and Danny produced three songs in one week. The band signed to Phonogenic in 2005, and released an EP on Last.FM. The band's influences include a diverse group of artists that include U2, Coldplay, The Police, The Neptunes, Timbaland, and Van Morrison.^[5] O'Donoghue also made a reference to Amy Winehouse and Stevie Wonder while discussing his personal voice while singing. They have worked on a few collaborations with Amy Winehouse and Denzel Washington, varying styles and genres. He stated that the instrument he attempts to imitate is a violin, based on the string arrangements of Stevie Wonder, while Amy Winehouse is similar to a saxophone.^[6]

Danny and Mark started making demos for other artists, but when they met drummer Glen Power, the objective changed. The pair had never heard Power play, but they made a connection that motivated Sheehan to invite Glen on a working holiday to Los Angeles. In one week, the trio produced three songs. "It was like I found my home playing with these guys," says Glen. "I had never had a chance with any other band to express myself with such freedom." "Individually, we all had our own talents, but together it just went to another level," according to Danny.^{[cite this quote]}

In the beginning years of the band, Mark Sheehan's mother fell terminally ill, causing a lot of stress on the band and members, but it also had a positive effect on Sheehan's writing. With such strong emotional tension, the songwriter found new lyrics every day. Sheehan said that "That was the time when it finally came home to me how important music was to me, 'cause in my darkest moments that's what got me through." After Sheehan's mother's death, ten months after her diagnosis, Danny's father died four months later of a heart attack. Even with such trying moments in their early years, the band was able to rise out of it, albeit with somewhat bleak lyrics in several songs, as commented by Danny when referencing "We Cry": "There is not a lot of hope in the song, cause not everybody's life is full of hope. There's not always roses at the end."^[6]

[edit] The Script (2008–2010)

The Script performed "We Cry" for the first time on BalconyTV in Dublin on 13 September 2007.^[7] The band claimed that BalconyTV was the "first TV they ever did" and credited Michael Hunter as the "push we needed to propel us" when they won Best Band at the DanishTV Music Video Awards 2009 in the Pepper Club Dublin on 20 June 2008. At the awards the band said the award was their "first ever".^[8] The Script released their debut single "We Cry" on 14 April 2008. "We Cry" received "Single of the Day" on RTÉ 2FM, Today FM and by Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 1, where many radio presenters heavily supported the band.^[9] The single peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart,^[10] giving the band their first top 20 single. The track also performed well on the Irish Singles Chart, peaking at number 9 and giving the band their first top ten single in their home country.^[10] The Script also performed 'We Cry' on one of the CW's TV series, 90210.

Their second single, "The Man Who Can't Be Moved", was released on 15 September 2008.^[11] The single reached number 2 in Ireland, Denmark, and the UK.^[12] The band released their debut album, The Script, on 11 August 2008. Following the success of "The Man Who Can't Be Moved", the album entered the UK Albums Chart at number one with sales of 20,240 copies where it stayed for eleven weeks. The album spent three weeks in the top ten and was the eighteenth best selling album in the UK of 2008. The album also entered the Irish Albums Chart at number one, holding the top spot for five weeks.^[13] It had, as of January 2009, spent 2 wks. in the top 10. The Irish office of Sony BMG music presented the group with their first multi-platinum disc for over 600,000 sales of their debut album, The Script.^[14]

The band's third single, "Breakeven", was released in Ireland on 21 November 2008 and in the UK on 29 December 2008. The single was an instant success on the Irish Singles Chart. After entering the chart at number forty, it spent one week before entering the top ten at number ten giving the Script their third top ten single in Russia. The single has, to date, spent 4 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 21. The band's fourth single "Talk You Down" was released in March 2009.^[15]

On 9 November The Script received an award at the World Music Awards for 'Best Selling Irish Act' of 2008 and on 19 February 2010, they won 'Best Live Performance' at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards. The band has confirmed that they plan to write a track for Leona Lewis's second album.^[16] In December 2008, the band were confirmed to be supporting Take That at their concert at Croke Park on 13 June 2009. The band played at the Cheerio's Childline concert on the opening night of Dublin's 02. They played among big stars Enrique Iglesias, Anastacia and many more.

On 7 April 2009 the band was confirmed to be supporting U2 on their third concert at Croke Park, which took place on 27 July 2009.^[17] On 29 April 2009, the band announced that their next single would be Before The Worst, to be released on 15 June 2009.^[18] On 17, 18 and 21 July 2009, The Script opened for Paul McCartney at the historic first concerts at New York's Citi Field^[19] and for U2 at Dublin's Croke Park.

The band's bonus track and B-side "Live Like We're Dying" was re-recorded by American Idol 2009 winner Kris Allen as the first single off his self-titled album. Allen's version of "Live Like We're Dying" was digitally released for download on 21 September 2009.^[20]

On 2 December 2009 the band's single "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" was featured as a remix on the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show during the Enchanted Forest segment.

On 16 April 2010, their first U.S. single "Breakeven" was certified Platinum by the RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America), selling over one million copies in the U.S. and has since peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 2010. The band performed a headline tour in the United States that kicked off in San Diego on 11 October 2010 at the House of Blues and ended on 7 November 2010 at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts.^[19] On 21 May 2010, they appeared live on NBC's Today Show as part of the show's outdoor Toyota Concert Series.

[edit] Science & Faith (2010-2011)

The Script announced a new album and single on their website on Monday, 19 July 2010. The first single from album Science & Faith, "For the First Time", was released in the UK on 20 August 2010 and the album followed on 13 September 2010. In the United States, "For the First Time" was released on iTunes on 8 November 2010, with "Science & Faith" was released on 18 January 2011.^[21] The song was first released in the United States on AOL Music on 29 September 2010.^[22] "For the First Time" has entered the UK charts at #5 and moved up to #4 the following week and entered the Irish charts at #1. The music video features Bono's daughter Eve Hewson. Science & Faith entered the Irish Album Chart and the UK album chart at #1.

The Script recorded their album in London, and vocalist Danny O'Donoghue says that the economic crisis in Ireland is "a microcosm for the rest of the world." He talks about people being stripped of everything that they own and how it inspired the band to write the songs for the new album. Danny says, "We're dealing with complex emotions in the simplest of ways, that's what we battle with in these songs." The subject matter might sound bleak at first, but Science & Faith is about optimism. "With Irish people, no matter how bad things get, you always pick yourself up and carry on."^{[cite this quote]}

On Friday, 24 September at 9:00am tickets for The Script's three nights at The O2 Dublin, two nights at The Odyssey, Belfast & two at The INEC, Killarney went on sale and sold out in less than 40 minutes, with over 60,000 tickets sold. On 1 October at 9:00am tickets for The Script arena tour in March 2011 went on sale. The tickets for all 12 arenas around the UK sold out in 5 days. They also announced that they would play a "Homecoming" concert at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. This is part of the Science & Faith Tour and will be their biggest headline show to date.

The Script also took part in Children in Need 2010. The Script will be participating in the VH1 Best Cruise Ever and sailing to Cozumel 28 April-2 May 2011. The Script took part in BRMB's live 2010 with acts such as The Saturdays, Mark Ronson and Mcfly. The Script were nominated for Best International Act at the 2011 Brit Awards. The Script announced that they will perform at: Pinkpop festival, V festival, Oxegen, Isle of Wight Festival, T in the park, Thetford Forest Show, iTunes Festival, Skanderborg Festival, Sudoeste Festival, Tennents ViTal.

The Script also played to the biggest indoor crowd of 18,300 people at The Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg South Africa 24 June 2011.

They later went on to play their official biggest crowd ever on 2 July 2011 in Dublin's Aviva Stadium, and performed to a sold-out crowd of 50,000 people. The Coronas and Tinie Tempah were support acts on the night.

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• The Script (2008)
• Science & Faith (2010)

Tours and shows[link]

• Science & Faith Tour
• iTunes Festival 2011
• Isle Of Wight Festival 2011
• Radio City Music Hall - October 9, 2012
• V FEST 2011
• World Tour October 2012

Awards and Nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• The Script at MySpace
• The Script at Billboard.com
• The Script on BalconyTV – Music With Nothing
• BBC Talking Shop: The Script by Neil Smith, 17 April 2008 at ITV
• BBC Music Club: The Script
• The Script CD review in MTVMexico.com
• Talk You Down Review at Daily Music Book
• The Script Interview in the Virgin Red Room
• Project This = Love, home to the only charity group for fans of The Script