- published: 21 Sep 2010
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- author: DoTheRightThing1958
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![Metallica - St. Anger [Official Music Video]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130204042258im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3rFoGVkZ29w/default.jpg "St. Anger [Official Music Video] From the album")
![Carbon Based Lifeforms - Hydroponic Garden [2003] . HQ](http://web.archive.org./web/20130204042258im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/f5ddAAYasgM/default.jpg "Album: Hydroponic Garden (2003) www.discogs.com")
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- Robin Thicke
- Rock Your Body
- Rod Stewart
- Rodney Atkins
- Rollover DJ
- Ron Goodwin
- Ronan Keating
- Room on Fire
- Rooney (album)
- Rooney (band)
- Roorback
- Rosalyn Tureck
- Rosie Nix Adams
- Rounds (album)
- Rove McManus
- Roxette
- Roy Mayorga
- Ruben Studdard
- Rufio
- Rufus Wainwright
- Run-D.M.C.
- Rupi's Dance
- Rush (band)
- Rush in Rio
- Russians
- RZA
- S Club
- Sacred Love
- Salvatore Sciarrino
- Salzburg Festival
- Sam Philips
- Saosin
- Sara Evans
- Sarah Brightman
- Sarah McLachlan
- Saturday Rock Action
- Saul Williams
- Saves the Day
- Savin Hill (album)
- Say You Will
- Scandinavian Leather
- Scarface (rapper)
- Scissor Sisters
- Scribe (rapper)
- Sean Paul
- Sean Watkins
- Season for Assault
- See If I Care
- Send (album)
- September 12
- September 14
- September 19
- September 22
- September 23
- September 26
- September 27
- September 4
- September 5
- September 7
- Sepultura
- Serart
- Serj Tankian
- Sertab Erener
- Seven Nation Army
- Seven's Travels
- Sevendust
- Severance (album)
- Shadow Zone
- Shake Ya Tailfeather
- Shania Twain
- Shed Seven
- Sheryl Crow
- Shinedown
- Shock'n Y'all
- Shootenanny!
- Show Me Your Tears
- Show of Hands
- Showtune (musical)
- Sick Puppies
- Sieglinde Wagner
- Silence Is Easy
- Silverchair
- Silverstein (band)
- Simon & Garfunkel
- Simple Plan
- Simply Red
- Simply Saucer
- Sing For The Moment
- Sing the Sorrow
- Singles 93–03
- Sister Hazel
- Six Songs (album)
- Skillet (band)
- Skull Ring
- Skyfire (band)
- Slayer
- Sleeping with Ghosts
- Sleepy Brown
- Slick Shoes
- Slim Dusty
- Sloan (band)
- Slow Motion Daydream
- Sly & Robbie
- Smash Mouth
- Smash The Octopus
- Smile Empty Soul
- Smog (band)
- Snoop Dogg
- Snow Patrol
- Snowfield Demo EP
- So Long, Astoria
- So Solid Crew
- So Yesterday
- Softcore Jukebox
- Soilwork
- Some Devil
- Something Corporate
- Something Dangerous
- Somewhere I Belong
- Sonata Arctica
- Songs Ohia
- Sonique (artist)
- Soul Food Taqueria
- Soulfly
- Soulja Slim
- SoulO
- Soulstar (album)
- Southbank Centre
- Southwest (album)
- Speed Graphic (EP)
- Speedway (band)
- Spineshank
- Spitting Games
- Sponge (band)
- St. Anger
- St. Anger (song)
- Stabbing Westward
- Stacie Orrico
- Stacy's Mom
- Staind
- Star Academy France
- Starsailor (band)
- Stash Box EP
- Static-X
- Steely Dan
- Stellastarr
- Stellastarr (album)
- Stereomud
- Stereophonics
- Steve Kmak
- Steve O'Rourke
- Steve Vai
- Still Electric
- Sting (musician)
- Stockholm Pride
- Stone Deaf Forever!
- Stone Temple Pilots
- Stories and Alibis
- Story of the Year
- Strapping Young Lad
- Strawberry Bubblegum
- Street Dogs
- Streetcore
- String quartet
- Styx (band)
- Such Great Heights
- Suede (band)
- Sugababes
- Sugar Ray
- Sum 41
- Summer 2003
- Sunn O)))
- Sunny 16 (EP)
- Super Furry Animals
- Supper (album)
- Sur un air latino
- Susan Chilcott
- Swing, Swing
- Switchfoot
- Swollen Members
- Symptoms of Humanity
- T.A.T.u.
- T.A.T.u. Remixes
- T.I.
- T.Rex (band)
- Taboo (musical)
- Take a Break
- Tallahassee, Florida
- Taste the Secret
- Tasty (Kelis album)
- Teatro Carlo Felice
- Teresa De Sio
- Terri Clark
- Terrorist Threats
- Texas (band)
- Thalía
- The Aggrolites
- The Animals
- The Art of Losing
- The Ataris
- The Bangles
- The Beach Boys
- The Beatles
- The Best of Deicide
- The Best of Run DMC
- The Black Eyed Peas
- The Black Keys
- The Black Mages
- The Bled
- The Blessed Hellride
- The Blueprint 2.1
- The Blues Brothers
- The Bouncing Souls
- The Boy from Oz
- The Byrds
- The Cat Empire
- The Clash
- The Concept EP
- The Coral
- The Creatures
- The Crusader (album)
- The Crüxshadows
- The Curse of Blondie
- The Dandy Warhols
- The Darkness (band)
- The Distillers
- The Doobie Brothers
- The Doors
- The Dresden Dolls
- The Early November
- The Essential Byrds
- The Essential Clash
- The Exies
- The Faint
- The Fall (band)
- The Fashion (band)
- The Fiction We Live
- The Fiery Furnaces
- The Firebird Band
- The Fixx
- The Flaming Lips
- The Full Monty
- The Glorious Burden
- The Guess Who
- The Haunted
- The Isley Brothers
- The Juliana Theory
- The Jungle Book 2
- The Kills
- The Lawrence Arms
- The Libertines
- The Living End
- The Long Road
- The Lost & Found
- The Mars Volta
- The Matches
- The Melvins
- The Mescaleros
- The Moldy Peaches
- The Movie Album
- The Music
- The Music (album)
- The Neptunes
- The No Fun EP
- The Offspring
- The Ownerz
- The Path (album)
- The Phantom Agony
- The Pinwheel Galaxy
- The Planet Smashers
- The Police (band)
- The Pop Hits
- The Postal Service
- The Power to Believe
- The Raveonettes
- The Rising Tour
- The Rocket Summer
- The Rolling Stones
- The Room's Too Cold
- The Roy Clark Method
- The Sauce
- The Senior
- The Shins
- The Slackers
- The Sleepy Jackson
- The Soul Sessions
- The Spill Canvas
- The Starting Line
- The Stills
- The Stooges
- The Streets
- The Strokes
- The Struggle (album)
- The Suicide Machines
- The Terror State
- The Thermals
- The Thrills
- The Transplants
- The Twilight Singers
- The Underdog Project
- The Unseen (band)
- The Used
- The Vertigo of Bliss
- The Vinyl Countdown
- The Voice Within
- The Waifs
- The War on Errorism
- The Way You Move
- The Well's on Fire
- The White Stripes
- The Who
- The Wind
- The Wind (album)
- The Wreckoning
- Thekra
- Therapy?
- There There
- Thickfreakness
- Thickskin
- Third Eye Blind
- Thirteenth Step
- This Is Not a Test!
- This Providence
- Three 6 Mafia
- Three Days Grace
- Thrice
- Throw the Fight
- Throw the Fight (EP)
- Thursday (band)
- Timbaland
- Tindersticks
- Tite Curet Alonso
- TLC (music)
- Toby Keith
- Toby McKeehan
- Tommy Guerrero
- Tommy Mottola
- Toni Braxton
- Tony Capstick
- Tony Thompson
- Toronto, Ontario
- Toyah Willcox
- Trace Adkins
- Tragédie (duo)
- Train (band)
- Transatlantic Demos
- Transatlanticism
- Translating the Name
- Trap Muzik
- Trapt
- Travis (band)
- Tricky
- Trigger (EP)
- Triggernometry
- Trouble (Pink song)
- Trouble No More
- TruANT
- Try This
- Tubular Bells 2003
- Tupac Shakur
- Turbonegro
- Turin Brakes
- Turn It On
- TV on the Radio
- Twiztid
- Ty Longley
- U-Turn (album)
- U.S. Maple
- U2
- Ultimate Kenny G
- Ultimate Run-D.M.C.
- Under the Tray
- Underworld (band)
- Union 13
- Universally Speaking
- Unloco
- Unsane
- Unstable (album)
- Unwell
- Unwritten Law
- Valley of the Damned
- Van Morrison
- Various Artists
- Vehicles and Animals
- Velvet Lined Shell
- Vendetta Red
- Venus and Other Hits
- Vertical Horizon
- Veruca Salt (band)
- Vestal Goodman
- Vienna Philharmonic
- Visions of Gandhi
- Vivir Intentando
- Vulgar (album)
- Vulture Street
- Waking the Fallen
- Want One
- Want That Life
- War at the Warfield
- Warren Zevon
- Watching the Snow
- Wave on Wave
- Weather Systems
- Ween
- Welcome to Dun Vegas
- Welcome to Poppy's
- Wesley Willis
- West for Wishing
- Westlife
- Westside Connection
- What You Want Is Now
- Wheatus
- Where Is the Love?
- White1
- Whitney Houston
- Why Can't I?
- Wicked (musical)
- Widespread Panic
- Wilco
- Will You (song)
- Windir
- Winterheart's Guild
- Wire (band)
- Worm Infested
- WWIII (album)
- Wyclef Jean
- XIII (album)
- Yanni
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Year of the Rabbit
- Year of the Spider
- Yellowcard
- Yes (band)
- Yes Remixes
- Ying Yang Twins
- You Come Before You
- You Said No
- You're the Voice
- Young Liars
- Yusuf Islam
- Zao (US band)
- Zebrahead
- Zero 7
- Zion I
- ZZ Top
- Über Alles
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Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory. The London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra are based in the Barbican Centre's concert hall.
The Barbican Centre is owned, funded, and managed by the City of London Corporation, the third-largest arts funder in the United Kingdom. It was built as the city's gift to the nation at a cost of £161 million (equivalent to £400 million in 2007), and opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 3 March 1982.
The second-floor library is one of the five City of London libraries. It is one of the largest public libraries in London and has a separate arts library, a large music library and a children's library which regularly conducts free events. The Barbican Library houses the 'London Collection' of historical books and resources, some of which date back 300 years, all being available on loan. The library presents regular literary events and has an art exhibition space for hire. The music library has a free practice piano for public use.
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Broadhurst Theatre
Coordinates: 40°45′29″N 73°59′15″W / 40.758146°N 73.987636°W / 40.758146; -73.987636
The Broadhurst Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 235 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan.
It was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, a well-known theatre designer who had been working directly with the Shubert brothers; the Broadhurst opened 27 September 1917. Built back-to-back with the Plymouth, it was meant to resemble the style of the neighboring Shubert and Booth theaters designed by Henry B. Herts, using less expensive brick and terra cotta materials on the discreetly neoclassical facades. Like all of Krapp's work during this period, it features minimal ornamentation, a single balcony, wide space, and excellent sightlines.
It was named after George Howells Broadhurst, an Anglo-American dramatist who came to America in 1886. In addition to writing plays, he managed theaters in Milwaukee, Baltimore, and San Francisco before he decided to open his own in association with the Shubert brothers. The theatre was constructed to house both musicals and plays, which it has done successfully for more than ninety years. It has been designated a New York City landmark.
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Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City. Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.
The Broadway theatre district is a popular tourist attraction in New York. According to The Broadway League, Broadway shows sold approximately $1.081 billion worth of tickets in calendar year 2011, compared with $1.037 billion for 2010. Attendance in 2011 was 12.13 million.
New York did not have a significant theatre presence until about 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street, which held about 280 people. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggar's Opera. In 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice and The Anatomist. The company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the year the 2,000-seat Park Theatre was built on Chatham Street (now called Park Row). The Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, and especially so with the arrival of the Virginia Minstrels in the 1840s.
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California
California (pronounced
i/kælɨˈfɔrnjə/) is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third most extensive (after Alaska and Texas). It is home to the nation's second- and sixth-largest census statistical areas (Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and San Francisco Bay Area), and eight of the nation's fifty most populated cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach and Oakland). The capital city is Sacramento.
California's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west, to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east – from the Redwood–Douglas-fir forests of the northwest, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast. The center of the state is dominated by Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States (Mount Whitney and Death Valley), and has the third-longest coastline of all states (after Alaska and Florida). Earthquakes are a common occurrence due to the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire: about 37,000 are recorded annually.
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Colaba
Colaba ([koˈlaːbaː]) is a part of the city of Mumbai, India, and also a Lok Sabha constituency. During Portuguese rule in the 16th century, the island was known as Candil. After the British took over the island in the late 17th century, it was known as Colio.
The name Colaba, comes from Kolabhat, a word in the language of Kolis, the indigenous inhabitants of the islands, before the arrival of Portuguese. The area that is now Colaba was originally a region consisting of two islands: Colaba and Little Colaba (or Old Woman's Island). The island of Colaba was one of the Seven islands of Bombay ruled by the Portuguese.
The Portuguese had acquired these lands from the Sultanate of Cambay by the Treaty of Bassein (1534). The group of islands was gifted by Portugal to Charles II of England as dowry when he married Catherine of Braganza. The cession of Bombay and dependencies was strongly resented by Portuguese officials in Goa and Bombay, who resisted transfer of possession for several years, while the English representatives were confined to the island of Anjediva while negotiations continued. Angered by the backtracking, Charles II leased these lands to the British East India Company for a nominal annual rent. Gerald Aungier, second Governor of Bombay (1672), and the president of the English settlement of Surat, took possession of Colaba and Old Woman's Island on behalf of the Company in 1675.
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Denver
Denver (
/ˈdɛnvər/) (Arapaho: Niinéniiniicíihéhe' ) is the largest city and the capital of the U.S. state of Colorado. As Denver County, it is the second most populous county in Colorado after El Paso County, which surpassed Denver County as of the 2010 Census. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is located immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile (1.6 km) or 5,280 feet (1,609.344 m) above sea level, which is defined by the elevation of the spot of a benchmark on the steps of the State Capital building. The elevation of the entire city ranges from 5,130 to 5,680 feet. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich passes through Union Station and is the temporal reference for the Mountain Time Zone.
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Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem (often stylized as EMINƎM) and by his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of D12, Eminem is also one half of the hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop. Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200. He has sold more than 42 million tracks and 41 million albums in the United States, and nearly 90 million albums worldwide.
Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album, The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others as his influences.
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Genoa
Genoa
/ˈdʒɛnoʊ.ə/ (Italian: Genova [ˈdʒɛːnova] (
listen); Genoese and Ligurian Zena [ˈzeːna]; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is the capital of Liguria and the sixth largest city in Italy, with a population of 608,676 within its administrative limits on a land area of 243.6 km2 (94 sq mi). The urban zone of Genoa extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 718,896. The urban area of Genoa has a population of 800,709. In the metropolitan area live between 859,000 and 1.4 million or 1.5 million people. Genoa is one of Europe's largest cities on the Mediterranean Sea and the largest seaport in Italy.
Genoa has been nicknamed la Superba ("the Superb one") due to its glorious past and impressive landmarks. Part of the old town of Genoa was inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO) in 2006 (see below). The city's rich art, music, gastronomy, architecture and history, allowed it to become the 2004's European Capital of Culture. It is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.
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Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.
The festival organiser Michael Eavis, a farmer in a Somerset valley stated that he decided to host the first festival, then called Pilton Festival, after seeing an open air Led Zeppelin concert at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music 1970. Fourteen people, including John Hoare, invested everything they had to build the stage.
The first festivals in the 1970s were influenced by hippie ethics and the free festival movement. The festival retains vestiges of this tradition such as the Green Fields area which includes the Green Futures and Healing Field. After the 1970s the festival took place almost every year and grew in size, with the number of attendees sometimes being swollen by gate-crashers.
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Grand Champ
Grand Champ is the fifth album by American rapper DMX, released in 2003. Grand Champ features the popular singles Where the Hood At? and Get It On The Floor. The album sold 312,000 in its first week and debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200.
When compared to the artist's previous releases, this was the greatest under-achiever, eventually achieving a rating of Platinum, although it was #1 on the Billboard 200.
The album originally contained a song entitled "Ruled Out", a hard-hitting diss track aimed towards former collaborator and friend Ja Rule, however, Def Jam Recordings (who coincidentally owned the distributor rights to Rule's The Inc. Records at the time) were highly displeased by the track and urged for its removal . A previous version of "Fuck Y'all" was also considered to be the lead-off single for 'The Great Depression', but due to the obvious explicit content of the title alone, the song would have substantial problems gaining radio airplay (changing the title of the song was out of the question).
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Latvia
Latviai/ˈlætviə/ (Latvian: Latvija), officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Republika), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia (border length 343 km), to the south by Lithuania (588 km), to the east by the Russian Federation (276 km), to the southeast by Belarus (141 km), and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden. With 2,067,887 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2 (24,938 sq mi) it is one of the least populous and least densely populated countries of the European Union. The capital of Latvia is Riga. The official language is Latvian and the currency is called Lats (Ls). The country has a temperate seasonal climate.
The Latvians are a Baltic people, culturally related to the Lithuanians. Together with the Finno-Ugric Livs (or Livonians), the Latvians are the indigenous people of Latvia.Latvian is an Indo-European language and along with Lithuanian the only two surviving members of the Baltic branch. Indigenous minority languages are Latgalian and the nearly extinct Finno-Ugric Livonian language. In terms of geography, territory and population Latvia is the middle of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Latvia and Estonia share a long common history: historical Livonia, times of German (Teutonic Order), Polish-Lithuanian, Swedish, Russian, Nazi German and Soviet rule, 13th century Christianization and 16th century Protestant Reformation. Both countries are home to a large number of ethnic Russians (26.9% in Latvia and 25.5% in Estonia) of whom some are non-citizens. Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant, except for the region of Latgalia in the southeast which is historically predominantly Roman Catholic.
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London Arena
The London Arena (also known as London Docklands Arena) was an indoor arena and exhibition centre, on the Isle of Dogs, in East London, England. Seating capacity was up to 15,000, depending on the type of event held.
It first opened in 1989 and on November 18, the Arenaball Transatlantic Challenge was played there, an exhibition game between the Detroit Drive and the Chicago Bruisers, with the Drive winning 43–14.
It was the home of the London Knights ice hockey team, the London Towers basketball team and later the Greater London Leopards basketball team (from nearby Tower Hamlets).
It also hosted pop concerts, plays, boxing matches and wrestling events.
The first band to ever play at the London Arena were Duran Duran.
In 1991, the Docklands Arena hosted the Great British Beer Festival.
The arena had a £10 million refit in 1998, although it never managed to become a financial success, in part due to its fairly poor transport access and in 2005 it closed. It was superseded as the main arena in East London by The O2 Arena, which is in The O2 entertainment complex (formerly the Millennium Dome).
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Meteora
The Metéora (Greek: Μετέωρα, "suspended rocks", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above" - etymologically similar to "Meteorite") is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos. The six monasteries are built on natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. The nearest town is Kalambaka. The Metéora is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List under criteria I, II, IV, V and VII.
The Theopetra caves 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of Meteora had inhabitants fifty millennia ago. The cave of Theopetra, Kalambaka, radiocarbon evidence for 50,000 years of human presence, Radiocarbon 43(2B): 1029-1048.[citation needed][clarification needed]
In the 9th century, an ascetic group of hermit monks moved up to the ancient pinnacles.
They were the first people to inhabit Metéora. They lived in hollows and fissures in the rock towers, some of which reach 1800 ft (550m) above the plain. This great height, combined with the sheerness of the cliff walls, kept away all but the most determined visitors. Initially the hermits led a life of solitude, meeting only on Sundays and special days to worship and pray in a chapel built at the foot of a rock known as Dhoupiani. As early as the 11th century AD hermit monks were believed to be living among the caves and cutouts in the rocks.
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Mississippi
Mississippi (i/ˌmɪsɨˈsɪpi/) is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi ("Great River"). Mississippi is the 32nd most extensive and the 31st most populous of the 50 United States. The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area, which was cleared for cotton cultivation in the 19th century. Today, its catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States. The state symbol is the magnolia grandiflora tree.
Mississippi is bordered on the north by Tennessee, on the east by Alabama, on the south by Louisiana and a narrow coast on the Gulf of Mexico and on the west, across the Mississippi River, by Louisiana and Arkansas.
In addition to its namesake, major rivers in Mississippi include the Big Black River, the Pearl River, the Yazoo River, the Pascagoula River, and the Tombigbee River. Major lakes include Ross Barnett Reservoir, Arkabutla Lake, Sardis Lake and Grenada Lake. The largest lake in Mississippi is Grenada Lake.
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Purcell Room
The Purcell Room is a concert and performance venue which forms part of the Southbank Centre, one of central London's leading cultural complexes. It is named after the 17th century English composer Henry Purcell and has 370 seats.
The Purcell Room hosts a wide range of chamber music, jazz, mime and poetry recitals. Access is via the same foyer as for the Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH), most easily reached from the upper riverside terrace of the Royal Festival Hall.
In the context of the Southbank Centre it is the smallest of a set of three venues, the other two being the Royal Festival Hall, a large symphony hall, and the QEH, which is used for orchestral, chamber and contemporary amplified music.
The Purcell Room was built at the same time as the QEH, with which it shares a common foyer building and architectural features as an example of Brutalist architecture. The focus of the building is its interior space and it makes few concessions to external decoration. From outside, even its position within Southbank Centre is not easy to discern. The QEH and Purcell Room were designed, with The Hayward, as additions to the Southbank Centre arts complex by Hubert Bennett, head of the architects department of the Greater London Council, with Jack Whittle, F.G West and Geoffrey Horsefall.
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Red Square
Red Square (Russian: Красная площадь, tr. Krásnaja Plóščaď; IPA: [ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ]) is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod. As major streets of Moscow radiate from here in all directions, being promoted to major highways outside the city, Red Square is often considered the central square of Moscow and all of Russia.
The rich history of Red Square is reflected in many artworks, including paintings by Vasily Surikov, Konstantin Yuon and others. The square was meant to serve as Moscow's main marketplace. It was also used for various public ceremonies and proclamations, and occasionally as the site of coronation for Russia's Tsars. The square has been gradually built up since that point and has been used for official ceremonies by all Russian governments since it was established.
The name Red Square derives neither from the colour of the bricks around it (which, in fact, were whitewashed at certain points in history) nor from the link between the colour red and communism. Rather, the name came about because the Russian word красная (krasnaya) can mean either "red" or "beautiful" (the latter being rather archaic; cf. прекрасная, prekrasnaya). This word, with the meaning "beautiful", was originally applied to Saint Basil's Cathedral and was subsequently transferred to the nearby square. It is believed that the square acquired its current name (replacing the older Pozhar, or "burnt-out place") in the 17th century. Several ancient Russian towns, such as Suzdal, Yelets, and Pereslavl-Zalessky, have their main square named Krasnaya ploshchad.
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Rhode Island
Rhode Island (i/ˌroʊd ˈaɪlɨnd/ or /rɵˈdaɪlɨnd/), officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the 8th least populous, but the 2nd most densely populated of the 50 United States. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west and Massachusetts to the north and east, and it shares a water boundary with New York's Long Island to the southwest.
Rhode Island was the first of the 13 original colonies to declare independence from British rule, declaring itself independent on May 4, 1776, two months before any other state in the whole U.S. and the convention. The state was also the last to ratify the United States Constitution.
Rhode Island's official nickname is "The Ocean State", a reference to the state's geography, since Rhode Island has several large bays and inlets that amount to about 14% of its total area. Its land area is 1,045 square miles (2706 km2), but its total area is significantly larger.
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Riga
Riga (Latvian: Rīga, pronounced [riːɡa] (
listen)) is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 657,424 inhabitants ( 2011) Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial, cultural and financial centre of the Baltic Sea region.[citation needed] The city lies on the Gulf of Riga, at the mouth of the river Daugava. Riga's territory covers 307.17 km2 (118.60 sq mi) and lies between 1 and 10 metres (3.3 and 33 ft) above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain.
Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. The city will be the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. The city hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 and the 2006 IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. It is home to the European Union's office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Riga is served by Riga International Airport, the largest airport in the Baltic states.
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Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, UK, on the South Bank of the River Thames between County Hall and Waterloo Bridge. It comprises three main buildings (the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Hayward Gallery), and is Europe’s largest centre for the arts. It attracts more than three million visitors annually. Nearly a thousand paid performances of music, dance and literature are staged at Southbank Centre each year, as well as over 300 free foyer events and an education programme, in and around the performing arts venues. In addition, three to six major art exhibitions are presented at Hayward Gallery yearly, and National Touring Exhibitions reach over 100 venues across the UK.
Nearby, although not part of Southbank Centre, are the National Theatre and BFI Southbank. This is one of the most popular public spaces in London, part of a pedestrian-friendly stretch of the river extending eastwards from Westminster Bridge, past The London Eye, Southbank Centre, Tate Modern and the new Shakespeare's Globe to the east. :D
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Teatro Carlo Felice
The Teatro Carlo Felice is the principal opera house of Genoa, Italy, used for performances of opera, ballet, orchestral music, and recitals. It is located on the Piazza De Ferrari.
The hall is named for Duke Carlo Felice, and dates from December 24, 1824, when the Most Excellent Department of Theatres was established. On January 31, 1825, local architect Carlo Barabino submitted his design for the opera house which was to be built on the site of the church of San Domenico. The Dominican monks were moved elsewhere without delay or ceremony, and the first stone of the new building was laid on 19 March 1826.
The inaugural performance of Bellini's Bianca e Fernando took place on April 7, 1828, even though the structure and decoration were not quite finished. The auditorium accommodated an audience of about 2,500 in five tiers (each with 33 boxes), a gallery above, and standing room in the orchestra pit. The acoustics were considered among the best of the time.
For nearly forty years from 1853, Verdi spent the winter in Genoa, but he had few strong professional ties with the Teatro Carlo Felice. In 1892, Genoa commemorated the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America and to celebrate the occasion the Carlo Felice was renovated and redecorated at a cost of 420,000 lire (nearly £17,000). Verdi was approached to compose a suitable opera, but he declined the honour, making the excuse that he was too old.
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50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005). His album Get Rich or Die Tryin' has been certified eight times platinum by the RIAA.
Born in the South Jamaica of Queens, New York City, Jackson began drug dealing at the age of twelve during the 1980s crack epidemic. After leaving drug dealing to pursue a rap career, he was shot at and struck by nine bullets during an incident in 2000. After releasing his album Guess Who's Back? in 2002, Jackson was discovered by rapper Eminem and signed to Interscope Records. With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre, who produced his first major commercial successes, Jackson became one of the world's highest selling rappers. In 2003, he founded the record label G-Unit Records, which signed several successful rappers such as Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo.
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50 cent
Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005). His album Get Rich or Die Tryin' has been certified eight times platinum by the RIAA.
Born in the South Jamaica of Queens, New York City, Jackson began drug dealing at the age of twelve during the 1980s crack epidemic. After leaving drug dealing to pursue a rap career, he was shot at and struck by nine bullets during an incident in 2000. After releasing his album Guess Who's Back? in 2002, Jackson was discovered by rapper Eminem and signed to Interscope Records. With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre, who produced his first major commercial successes, Jackson became one of the world's highest selling rappers. In 2003, he founded the record label G-Unit Records, which signed several successful rappers such as Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo.
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A Static Lullaby
A Static Lullaby was a post-hardcore band formed in Chino Hills, California in 2001. ASL's music has been classified under many sub-genres of rock. Their musical style has been labeled as post-hardcore, emo, screamo, metalcore, alternative metal and southern rock.
A Static Lullaby came together after a casual high school jam session that led its members to quit their existing bands and come together as one. Formed in 2001 in Chino Hills, CA, the group began with singer Joe Brown, bassist Phil Pirrone, drummer Brett Dinovo, and guitarists Dan Arnold and Nathan Lindeman. Their first show was a mere two weeks after forming, and it started a buzz about the band that continued to be built upon throughout the local circuit.
In September 2001 the band recorded their first home made song called "Withered". They released it as a demo and burned CDs with the song on it. They then recorded 2 other songs; "A Sip of Wine Chased With Cyanide" and "A Song for a Broken Heart" and released them on a demo, when in 2002 they released their EP, Withered, they sold 6,000 copies. After that they toured, performing the songs taken from the EP across the West Coast
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Aaliyah
Aaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001), who performed under the mononym Aaliyah ( /ɑːˈliːə/), was an American recording artist, actress and model. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of 10, she appeared on the television show Star Search and performed in concert alongside Gladys Knight. At age 12, Aaliyah signed with Jive Records and her uncle Barry Hankerson's Blackground Records. Hankerson introduced her to R. Kelly, who became her mentor, as well as lead songwriter and producer of her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number. The album sold three million copies in the United States and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). After facing allegations of an illegal marriage with R. Kelly, Aaliyah ended her contract with Jive and signed with Atlantic Records.
Aaliyah worked with record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott for her second album, One in a Million; it sold 3.7 million copies in the United States and over eight million copies worldwide. In 2000, Aaliyah appeared in her first major film, Romeo Must Die. She contributed to the film's soundtrack, which spawned the single "Try Again". The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 solely on airplay, making Aaliyah the first artist in Billboard history to achieve this feat. "Try Again" earned Aaliyah a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocalist.
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Aaron Carter
Aaron Charles Carter (born December 7, 1987) is an American singer. He came to fame as a pop and hip hop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among pre-teen and teenage audiences during the early-first decade of the 21st century.
Carter was born at the Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Florida, where his parents, Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter, ran the Garden Villa Retirement Home. The family was originally from upstate New York, where his brother Nick, of the boy band Backstreet Boys, was born. Aside from his older brother Nick, he also has three sisters: twin sister Angel (a model), B.J. and Leslie (1986–2012). Carter is named after his maternal grandfather, Douglas "Charles" Spaulding, and paternal grandfather, Aaron Charles Carter. Carter attended the Frank D. Miles Elementary School and the Ruskin School in Florida. Carter has said that the mood in his home was often tense because of his parents' divorce. His parents would often argue about his money and Carter would often be in the middle of the fight, trying to stop it. Carter later felt that he was pushed into show business when he was too young.
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Adam Faith
Terence "Terry" Nelhams-Wright, known as Adam Faith (23 June 1940 – 8 March 2003), was a British teen idol, singer, actor, and financial journalist. He was one of the most charted acts of the 1960s. He became the first UK artist to lodge his initial seven hits in the Top 5. He was also one of the first UK acts to record original songs regularly.
Terence Nelhams-Wright was born at 4 Churchfield Road, Acton, London, England. He was unaware his surname was Nelhams-Wright until he applied for a passport and obtained his birth certificate. He was known as Terry Nelhams. The third in a family of five children, Nelhams grew up in a council house in a working class area of London, where he attended John Perryn Junior School. He started work at 12, delivering and selling newspapers while still at school. His first full-time job was odd-job boy for a silk screen printer.
Faith became one of Britain's significant early pop stars. At the time, he was distinctive for his hiccupping glottal stops and exaggerated pronunciation. He did not write his own material, and much of his early success was through partnership with songwriter Les Vandyke and John Barry, whose arrangements were inspired by the pizzicato arrangements for Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore".
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Adema
Adema is a rock band from Bakersfield, California consisting of guitarists Tim Fluckey, Marc DeLeon, bassist Dave DeRoo, and drummer Kris Kohls. After their first two albums, Adema and Unstable, Mike Ransom left the band in 2003 followed by Chavez later in 2004 due to conflicts between themselves and other members of the band. Luke Caraccioli replaced Chavez in early 2005 for one album, Planets, but then left a few months later in late 2005. In 2006, Adema announced that vocalist Bobby Reeves and guitarist Ed Farris, both from the band LEVEL, had joined the band, but only released one album, Kill the Headlights. However, on August 13, 2009 the original line up was reunited with Bobby Reeves and Ed Faris agreeing to leave the band. However Ransom showed extreme minimal participation in the reunion and left once again in late 2010, followed soon by Chavez in early January 2011.
The band’s eponymous debut album, Adema, was released in August 2001 to moderate success. Its two major singles, "Giving In" and "The Way You Like It," received significant airplay on rock radio. All the lyrics were written by Chavez, and the album was produced by Bill Appleberry (7th House) and Tobi Miller (Wallflowers guitarist). It was certified Gold, and the band received a spot on the main stage during the Ozzfest tour. They kept playing live with the Music as a Weapon, SnoCore Rock, and Projekt Revolution tours.
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Akercocke
Akercocke is an English progressive blackened death metal band from London, England. They take their name from a talking monkey in Robert Nye's interpretation of the Faust-legend, and are notable for their heavily Satanic and sexual lyrical content.
Akercocke was formed in 1997 by guitarist/sound programmer Jason Mendonca (ex-Salem Orchid and Disciples of Belial) and his one-time Salem Orchid colleague drummer David Gray. The band was soon completed by the addition of second guitarist Paul Scanlan (ex-Creaming Jesus) and bassist Peter Theobalds.
Akercocke's first album, Rape of the Bastard Nazarene, was self-released by the band in 1999. The album was met with enough success to get Akercocke signed to the underground metal label Peaceville Records. Their debut release for the new company was 2001's The Goat of Mendes, previously released on the band's own Goat of Mendes label. 2003 saw the release of Choronzon, on Earache Records.The band embarked on an exhaustive tour of the US to promote the album and promptly sacked guitarist Paul Scanlan upon their return. He was replaced by Matt Wilcock, formerly of Australian metal band The Berzerker.
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Al Green
Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together". In 2005, Rolling Stone named him #66 in their list of the '100 Greatest Artists of All Time'. The nomination stated that "people are born to do certain things, and Al was born to make us smile." The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Green in 1995, referring to him as "one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music." Green has sold more than 20 million records.
Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He was the sixth of ten children born to Robert and Cora Greene. The son of a sharecropper, he started performing at age ten in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "E" from his last name years later as a solo artist. They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan. His father kicked him out of the group because he caught Green listening to Jackie Wilson.
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Alan Jackson
Alan Eugene Jackson (born October 17, 1958) is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista Nashville label. More than 50 of his singles have appeared on Billboard's list of the "Top 30 Country Songs". Of Jackson's entries, 35 were number-one hits, with 50 in the Top 10. He is the recipient of 2 Grammys, 16 CMA Awards, 17 ACM Awards and nominee of multiple other awards. Jackson is also a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2001.
Jackson was born to Joseph Eugene Jackson and Ruth Musick in Newnan, Georgia, and has four older siblings. Jackson is of English descent. As a youth, Jackson listened primarily to gospel music. Otherwise he was not a major music fan. However, a friend of his introduced him to the music of Gene Watson, John Anderson and Hank Williams Jr. Jackson attended the local Elm Street Elementary and Newnan High School, starting a band after high school. After a time, he and his wife of six years, Denise Jackson, moved from Newnan to Nashville where Jackson hoped to pursue music full-time.
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Alex Baroni
Alex Baroni, born Alessandro (December 22, 1966 – April 13, 2002) was an Italian white soul singer, active between 1994 and 2002. He released four albums during his lifetime. A fifth posthumous record, a tribute album, and two more collections (one of which double, both of them containing previously unreleased material, and his greatest songs) came out after his death.
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Alexander Kuoppala
Alexander Kuoppala (born 11 April 1974) is a Finnish musician. He was the rhythm guitarist from the Finnish heavy metal band Children of Bodom from 1995 to 2003. He played on their albums Something Wild,Hatebreeder,Follow the Reaper, and Hate Crew Deathroll. He also plays on the Timo Rautiainen album Sarvivuori.
Children of Bodom's first world tour began in 2003 and lasted until late 2004. The tour had many sold-out concerts and marked the consolidation of the band in North America, but was also accompanied by an unexpected announcement: Kuoppala decided to quit Children of Bodom for personal reasons right in the middle of the tour without giving previous warning. In an interview, when Alexi Laiho was asked why Kuoppala left the band, he stated that, "Well, I try to be careful about what I say about him because there is no bad blood between us. He told me that he just got sick of touring and the whole band/rock 'n roll lifestyle living in hotels and tour buses and stuff. For me it was really weird because he was always the one who was SO into it! He was a die hard rock 'n roller and suddenly he made a quick 180 turn in his whole life. This whole situation involves a new girlfriend.". Laiho's bandmate from Sinergy, Roope Latvala assumed the guitars as a session player, until later joining the band as Kuoppala's replacement.[citation needed]
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Alexander Raskatov
Alexander Mikhailovich Raskatov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Раска́тов; born March 9, 1953 in Moscow) is a Russian composer.
Alexander Raskatov, a son of a leading journalist of the magazine Krokodil, studied composition under Albert Leman at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he was composer in residence at Stetson University and 1998 in Lockenhaus. Raskatov was a member of the Union of Soviet Composers; after the collapse of the Soviet Union he is a member of the Composers' Union of Russia. In the early nineties he moved to Germany, then to France in 2004. Raskatov is a member of the Russian Authors' Agency (RAO).
Raskatov’s music, especially his sound development, is influenced by Modest Mussorgski and Anton Webern. His vocal works are often based on texts of Russian poets like Alexander Blok or Joseph Brodsky. His viola concerto 'Path-Put-Chemin-Weg' was commissioned on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Yuri Bashmet and Valeri Gergiev and premiered in Le Chatelet in January 2003. A documentary on the concerto was recorded by the Dutch National Television (NTR) and can be viewed via the link
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Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier; February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer, songwriter, and musician whose career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors, and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal designed to shock.
Originating in Detroit in the late 1960s, Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. The original Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit "I'm Eighteen" from the album Love It to Death, which was followed by the even bigger single "School's Out" in 1972. The band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.
Furnier's solo career as Alice Cooper, adopting the band's name as his own name, began with the 1975 concept album Welcome to My Nightmare; in 2011 he released Welcome 2 My Nightmare, his 19th album as a solo artist, and his 26th album in total. Expanding from his Detroit rock roots, in his career Cooper has experimented with a number of musical styles, including conceptual rock, art rock, hard rock, New Wave, pop rock, experimental rock and industrial rock.
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Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Keys was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano. She attended Professional Performing Arts School and graduated at 16 as valedictorian. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records.
Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.
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Alizée
Alizée Jacotey (French pronunciation: [a.li.ze]; born 21 August 1984) is a French singer, known professionally by her Christian name Alizée She was discovered by Mylène Farmer, following her winning performance in the talent show, Graines de Star, in 1999. While collaborating with Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat, Alizée released two albums, both of which were hits inside and outside of France.
Alizée entered the music business in 2000. She has since released four studio albums, the first two of which were composed by Laurent Boutonnat and written by Mylène Farmer. Her first album was Gourmandises, which received Platinum certification within three months of release. After its international launch in 2001, Gourmandises was a success both in France and abroad, earning Alizée the distinction of being the highest selling female French singer in 2001. The album featured her most successful single "Moi... Lolita" which reached number one in several countries in Europe and East Asia. Gourmandises was followed by a second studio album, Mes Courants Électriques, in 2003. Following its release, Alizée toured during the fall of 2003, performing in 43 concerts throughout France, Belgium and Switzerland.
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Amanda Perez
Amanda Nicole Perez is a female R&B singer-songwriter and record producer of Mexican descent.
Amanda Perez was raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana and grew up in the Waynedale community of Fort Wayne, where she attended North Side High School. In 2001, she and carmen ange l released her first single "Never", which became Perez's first charting single of her career, peaking at #79 on the Billboard Hot 100 sales chart. In April 2002, she released her first album, Where You At?, headed by Los Angeles radio DJ and A&R music producer Mighty Mike Quinn (Mike Q.) under the label Powerhowse Records Beverly Hills, California. Co-production of LP included Los Angeles based producer Tony P. (Palacios). Perez scored her biggest hit in 2003 with the single "Angel" (released February 11, 2003) which peaked at #20 on the Hot 100 sales chart and #3 at radio. This single helped the album (also called Angel) to become a hit.
Quinn also directed and produced four music videos for Perez, which made MTV and charted Perez on TRL (Total Request Live) at #7 on the MTV show. The album was a hit in the United States, and made her a celebrity in her hometown, inking a deal with Universal Records. It also summoned the attention of other major record companies.
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Amiel Daemion
Amiel Muki Daemion (born (1979-08-13)13 August 1979 in New York, United States), also known as just Amiel, is an Australian pop singer, songwriter and actress. She moved to Australia with her family at the age of two and starred in films in the 1990s, including The Silver Brumby which also starred Russell Crowe and Caroline Goodall. Her music career shot to fame in 1999 when she teamed up with producer Josh G. Abrahams for the song "Addicted to Bass" which became a top twenty hit in Australia, this led to Daemion releasing studio albums such as Audio Out in 2003 and These Ties in 2005.
Daemion was raised in a musical household, with her parents being musicians. Her father is a musician, composer and vocalist. Daemion states "ever since I was a little girl he [her father] would have musical instruments around. He really encouraged me to do what I'm doing." Her mother is a singer as well, Daemion states "she [her mother] used to play guitar and write songs with her sister. I remember being about four and listening to her Janis Ian records and singing along and learning all the words." Daemion's first three records she bought were John Lennon, De La Soul and Mariah Carey, where she felt that Carey's album was "overproduced". She wrote and recorded her first song at the age of nine in an effort to help spread the message of ecological awareness. Daemion states "I'd seen a documentary. I turned to Dad and said why? and he had no answer for me so I thought if I wrote a song then maybe I could help the cause. I sang it into a tape recorder. Dad heard it and said 'do you realize what you've just done?' I said 'no.' He said: 'Amiel, you've written a song." She was introduced to the world of entertainment at the of age eleven performing the leading role alongside Russell Crowe in the 1991 feature film The Silver Brumby. She states "I always knew that all I wanted to do was perform."
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Amy Grant
Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, media personality and actress, best known for her Christian music. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christian Pop". As of 2009, Grant remains the best-selling contemporary Christian music singer ever, having sold over 30 million units worldwide.
Grant made her debut as a teenager, and gained fame in Christian music during the 1980s with such hits as "Father's Eyes," "El Shaddai", and "Angels". In 1986, she scored her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 song in a duet with Peter Cetera The Next Time I Fall. During the 1980s and 1990s, she became one of the first gospel artists to cross over into mainstream pop on the heels of her successful albums Unguarded and Heart in Motion, the latter of which included the No. 1 single "Baby Baby."
Grant has won six Grammy Awards, 25 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and had the first Christian album ever to go Platinum.Heart in Motion is her highest-selling album, with over five million copies sold in the United States alone. She was honored with a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005 for her contributions to the entertainment industry.
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Andrea Liberovici
Son of Sergio Liberovici (musician, Torino, 1930–1991) and of Margot Galante Garrone, he studied composition, violin and viola at the Venice and Turin conservatories, acting at the Scuola del Teatro Stabile in Genoa and singing with Cathy Berberian at the International Festival in Montalcino in 1980. As composer and director, he co-founded the teatrodelsuono (theatre of sound), with the poet Edoardo Sanguineti (librettist of Luciano Berio) and Ottavia Fusco. Over the last decade Liberovici created more than 35 projects which explore the relationship between music, poetry, theatre and technology in collaboration with such renowned artists as Peter Greenaway, Claudia Cardinale, Aldo Nove, Judith Malina, Vittorio Gassman, Giorgio Albertazzi, Enrico Ghezzi, Ivry Gitlis, Regina Carter. Most recently, his music has been performed by Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Montreal), Toscanini Orchestra, Teatro Carlo Felice Orchestra and others. This works have also been presented and produced by the landmark cultural institutions such as Teatro di Roma, La Fenice in Venice and Salle Olivier Messiaen in Paris. He has also worked in residence at INA-GRM and France Culture in Paris, Steim Center for research and development in Amsterdam, GMEM National Centre of Musical Creation in Marseille. His music and shows have been presented in Italy and in international cities such as New York, Paris, Athens and Montreal.
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Andrew Bird
Andrew Wegman Bird (born July 11, 1973) is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.
Trained in the Suzuki method from the age of four, Bird graduated from Lake Forest High School in 1991 and Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in violin performance in 1996. That same year he self-released his first solo album, Music of Hair. Vastly different from his later work, this album showcased his violin skills and paid tribute to his fascination with both American and European folk traditions, as well as jazz and blues. Following this, his initial commercial exposure came through collaborative work with the band Squirrel Nut Zippers, appearing on three of their albums (Hot, Sold Out, and Perennial Favorites) between 1996 and 1998.
Taking on the role of bandleader, Bird released Thrills on Rykodisc in 1997 with his group Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, shortly followed by second album Oh! The Grandeur in 1998. Both albums were heavily influenced by traditional folk, pre-war jazz, and swing, with Bird relying on the violin as his primary musical instrument, as well as providing vocals along with his trademark verbose lyrics. The Bowl of Fire featured musicians from Bird's home town of Chicago, including Kevin O'Donnell, Joshua Hirsch, Nora O'Connor, Andy Hopkins, Jimmy Sutton, Colin Bunn, and Ryan Hembrey. During this period, Andrew Bird was a member of the jazz group Kevin O'Donnells Quality Six, for which he was the lead singer and violinist and contributed to arrangements and songwriting for the albums Heretic Blues (Delmark 1999) and Control Freak (Delmark 2000) (both Delmark albums were produced by Raymond Salvatore Harmon).
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André Claveau
André Claveau (17 December 1915, Paris – 4 July 2003, Brassac) was a popular singer in France from the 1940s to the 1960s.
He won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 singing "Dors, mon amour" (Sleep my love) with music composed by Pierre Delanoë and lyrics by Hubert Giraud.
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Angie Aparo
Angie Aparo is an American musician and songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. He is currently recording an album and touring with his long-time drummer, Derek Murphy.
Aparo began playing in a group called Angie's Hope in the early 1990s before making the decision to go solo. After making that decision, Aparo chose to go out on the road touring with his acoustic guitar in the Southeast. In 1996, he released his first CD Out of the Everywhere, recorded at David Briggs Studio in Nashville, Tennessee with Jim Stabile as engineer. Burnard Tate played drums.
In 1999, with Grammy-winning producer Matt Serletic, Aparo released The American. His single, "Spaceship," hit the radio waves in 2000, and The American also includes his original version of the single "Cry", made popular by Faith Hill and featured on her album of the same name. Many songs from The American are also on a live CD 9Live that was released in 2004, from a performance for Atlanta radio station 99X, also featured on 99X Live X 6. Faith Hill's husband Tim McGraw also covered "Free Man" from The American. It was featured on an iTunes-only soundtrack release for an HBO documentary about the election of Barack Obama. [1]
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Ani DiFranco
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, and is widely considered a feminist icon.
DiFranco was born in Buffalo, New York, to Elizabeth and Dante DiFranco, who had met while attending MIT. She started playing Beatles covers at local bars and busking with her guitar teacher, Michael Meldrum, at the age of nine.
In 1989, DiFranco started her own record company, Righteous Records. 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.
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Anita Mui
Anita Mui Yim-fong (10 October 1963 – 30 December 2003) was a Hong Kong singer and actress. During her prime years she made major contributions to the cantopop music scene, while receiving numerous awards and honours. She remained an idol throughout most of her career, and was generally regarded as a cantopop diva. Mui once held a sell-out concert at Hammersmith, London, England, where she was dubbed the "Madonna of Asia" and brought her to further international fame. That title has stayed with her throughout her career, and has been used as a comparison for both Eastern and Western media.
In the 1980s the gangtai style of music was revolutionised by Mui's wild dancing and on stage femininity. She was famed for her outrageous costumes and high-power performances in combination with contralto vocals, which are rare in female artists. Her fanbase reached far beyond Hong Kong into much of Asia, such as Taiwan, Mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as the overseas market. In the Hong Kong entertainment industry, where stars often rise to fall quickly, Mui remained in the spotlight for nearly 20 years. Her career was only halted in 2003 by the surprising diagnosis that Mui had cervical cancer. She died at the early age of 40. Mui left considerable music and film legacies and her involvement in charitable work and humanitarian causes whilst alive give continuing reason for her commemoration by the Hong Kong entertainment industry.
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Annie Lennox
Ann "Annie" Lennox, OBE (born 25 December 1954), is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s as part of the New Wave band The Tourists, she and fellow musician David A. Stewart went on to achieve major international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics. Lennox is the most recognized female artist at the Brit Awards, winning a total of eight awards. She has also been named the "Brits Champion of Champions".
Lennox embarked on a solo career in the 1990s with her debut album, Diva (1992), which produced several hit singles including "Why" and "Walking on Broken Glass". To date, she has released five solo studio albums and a compilation album, The Annie Lennox Collection (2009). She is the recipient of eight Brit Awards, four Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award. In 2002, Lennox received a Billboard Century Award; the highest accolade from Billboard Magazine. In 2004, she won both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Into the West", written for the soundtrack to the feature film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
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Aphex Twin
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is a British electronic musician and composer. He founded the record label Rephlex Records in 1991 with Grant Wilson-Claridge. He was described by The Guardian as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music."
Aphex Twin has also recorded music under the aliases AFX, Blue Calx, Bradley Strider, Caustic Window, DJ Smojphace, GAK, Martin Tressider, Polygon Window, Power-Pill, Prichard D. Jams, Q-Chastic, Tahnaiya Russell, The Dice Man, Soit-P.P., and speculatively The Tuss.
Aphex Twin has released recordings on Rephlex, Warp, R&S, Sire, Mighty Force, Rabbit City, and Men Records.
Richard David James was born to Welsh parents Lorna and Derek James in St. Munchin's Limerick Regional Maternity Hospital, Ireland. He grew up in Lanner, Cornwall, enjoying, along with two older sisters, a "very happy" childhood during which they, according to James, "were pretty much left to do what [they] wanted." He "liked growing up there, being cut off from the city and the rest of the world". James attended Redruth School, located in Redruth, Cornwall.
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April Wine
April Wine is a Canadian rock band formed in 1969. According to the band, they chose the name 'April Wine' simply because members thought the two words sounded good together. The band has released more than twenty albums and forged a live performance reputation that still sees them drawing devoted crowds across Canada and around the world more than forty years after taking their first steps into the hard rock spotlight.
April Wine began in late 1969 in Waverley, Nova Scotia (a suburb of Halifax). The original members were brothers David Henman on guitar and Ritchie Henman on drums. Their cousin Jim Henman joined in on bass, and Myles Goodwyn completed the sound on lead vocals and guitar. In early 1970 the band relocated to Montreal. Shortly after arriving in their new home the band was signed by Aquarius Records. They recorded and released their debut self-titled album April Wine in 1971. The album spawned their first single, "Fast Train", which received fairly steady airplay on radio stations across Canada and established Myles Goodwyn as the band's main songwriter. The single's success gave the band's label confidence and work began on a second album, but not before a change in the line-up (the first of many over the course of the band's career). Jim Henman left the band in the fall of 1971, and was replaced by Jim Clench.
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Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg (help·info) (pronounced [ˈaːɐ̯nɔlt ˈʃøːnbɛɐ̯k]; 13 September 1874 – 13 July 1951) was an Austrian composer and painter, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. He used the spelling Schönberg until after his move to the United States in 1934 (Steinberg 1995, 463), whereupon he altered it to Schoenberg "in deference to American practice" (Foss 1951, 401), though one writer claims he made the change a year earlier (Ross 2007, 45).
Schoenberg's approach, both in terms of harmony and development, is among the major landmarks of 20th-century musical thought; at least three generations of composers in the European and American traditions have consciously extended his thinking or, in some cases, passionately reacted against it. During the rise of the Nazi Party in Austria, his music was labeled, alongside jazz, as degenerate art[citation needed].
Schoenberg was widely known early in his career for his success in simultaneously extending the traditionally opposed German Romantic styles of Brahms and Wagner. Later, his name would come to personify pioneering innovations in atonality (although Schoenberg himself detested the term "atonality" as inaccurate in describing his intentions) that would become the most polemical feature of 20th-century art music. In the 1920s, Schoenberg developed the twelve-tone technique, a widely influential compositional method of manipulating an ordered series of all twelve notes in the chromatic scale. He also coined the term developing variation, and was the first modern composer to embrace ways of developing motifs without resorting to the dominance of a centralized melodic idea.
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Arthur Conley
Arthur Lee Conley (January 4, 1946 – November 17, 2003) was an American soul singer, best known for the 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music".
Conley was born in McIntosh County, Georgia, U.S., and grew up in Atlanta. He first recorded in 1959 as the lead singer of Arthur & the Corvets. With this group, he released three singles in 1963 and 1964 ("Poor Girl", "I Believe", and "Flossie Mae") on the Atlanta based record label, National Recording Company.
In 1964, he moved to a new label (Baltimore's Ru-Jac Records) and released "I'm a Lonely Stranger". When Otis Redding heard this, he asked Conley to record a new version, which was released on Redding's own fledgling label Jotis Records, as only its second release.[citation needed] Conley met Redding in 1967, but after this meeting Redding took Conley under his care, and taught him the finer points of the music industry.[citation needed] Together they re-wrote the Sam Cooke song "Yeah Man" into "Sweet Soul Music", which, at Redding's insistence, was released on the Atco-distributed label Fame Records, and was recorded at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It proved to be a massive hit, going to the number two position on the U.S. charts and the Top Ten across much of Europe. "Sweet Soul Music" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
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Arto Tunçboyacıyan
Arto Tunçboyacıyan (Armenian: Արտո Թունչբոյաջյան) (b. 4 August 1957 in Istanbul) is a Turkish-Armenian musician. A famous avant-garde folk artist (singer, multi-instrumentalist), he appeared on more than 200 records in Europe before arriving in the United States, where he went to work with numerous jazz legends including Chet Baker, Al Di Meola, and Joe Zawinul as well as a semi-regular stint with Paul Winter and the Earth Band. Arto fronts his own group called the Armenian Navy Band. He also worked with Turkish singer Sezen Aksu and the Greek singer Eleftheria Arvanitaki. His brother Onno Tunç was also a musician. He is also a member of the band Night Ark.
His 2001 album Aile Muhabbeti was used as soundtrack in two films: Hemşo (2001) and Mon père est ingénieur (2004).
Serart is one of Arto Tunçboyacıyan's latest efforts, a collaboration between himself and Serj Tankian (singer of the alternative metal band System of a Down), who have found common ground in shared Armenian backgrounds and a passion for sonic explorations in creating music that is claimed to be "completely new."
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Asian Dub Foundation
Asian Dub Foundation are a British electronica band that plays a mix of rapcore, dub, dancehall and ragga, also using rock instruments, acknowledging a punk influence. Their distinctive sound also combines indo-dub basslines, searing sitar-inspired guitars and ‘traditional’ sounds, shot through with fast-chat conscious lyrics.
Asian Dub Foundation is better described as a group that arose from a community rap organisation. The different forms of music include toasting, dub, funky guitars and many other African instrumentals. One of their most influential tracks is named Strong Culture which gives the listener an idea of the Asian culture. "Their distinctive sound is a combination of hard ragga-jungle rhythms, indo-dub basslines, searing sitar-inspired guitars and 'traditional' sounds gleaned from their parents' record collections, shot through with fast-chat conscious lyrics".
Sanjay Gulabhai Tailor, Aka Sun-J, joined the band as live midi/programmer and DJ soon after. This completed the full live line-up of the band. After earning a reputation as formidable live performers, the band — which now included dancer Bubble-E — won widespread acclaim for the 1995 single "Rebel Warrior". Their second album Rafi's Revenge was nominated for a Mercury Prize combining a unique combination of punk energy with a jungle/reggae core. The single, 'Naxalite' was an ode to the militant Naxalite movement in India. Tours to the United States with the Beastie Boys and Japan followed to wide acclaim.[citation needed] Their following album, Community Music, developed their sound further and received a coveted 10/10 review in NME.
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Avril Lavigne
Avril Ramona Lavigne (pronunciation: /ˈævrɨl ləˈviːn/; AV-ril lə-VEEN; born 27 September 1984) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was born in Belleville, Ontario, but spent most of her youth in the small town of Napanee. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain; by 16, she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records worth more than $2 million. In 2002, when she was 17 years old, Lavigne broke onto the music scene with her debut album Let Go.
Let Go made Lavigne the youngest female soloist to reach No. 1 in the UK, and the album was certified four-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. By 2009, over 16 million copies had been sold worldwide. Her breakthrough single, "Complicated", peaked at No. 1 in many countries around the world, as did the album Let Go. Her second album, Under My Skin, was released in 2004 and was her first album to peak at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200, eventually selling more than 10 million copies worldwide. The Best Damn Thing, Lavigne’s third album, was released in 2007, becoming her third No. 1 album in the UK Albums Chart and featuring her first U.S. Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single, "Girlfriend". Lavigne has scored six number-one singles worldwide, including "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending", "Nobody's Home", and "Girlfriend". With more than 30 million copies of her albums sold worldwide, Lavigne is one of the top-selling artists releasing albums in the U.S., with over 10.25 million copies certified by the RIAA. Her fourth studio album, Goodbye Lullaby, was released in March 2011. Goodbye Lullaby gave Lavigne her fourth top 10 album on the U.S. Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart and her third No. 1 album in both Japan and Australia. Three months after the release of Goodbye Lullaby, Lavigne began work on her fifth album, which will be released on Epic Records following her departure from RCA Records.
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Ayumi Hamasaki
Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎 あゆみ, Hamasaki Ayumi?, also 濱崎 歩; born October 2, 1978) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, record producer, model, lyricist, and actress. Also called "Ayu" by her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the "Empress of Pop" because of her popularity and widespread influence in Japan and throughout Asia. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo at fourteen to pursue a career in entertainment. In 1998, under the tutelage of Avex CEO Max Matsuura, she released a string of modestly selling singles that concluded with her 1999 debut album A Song for ××. The album debuted atop the Oricon charts and stayed there for four weeks, establishing her popularity in Japan.
Hamasaki's constantly changing image and tight control over her artistry has helped her popularity extend across Asia; music and fashion trends she has started have spread to countries such as China, Singapore, and Southeast Asia. She has appeared in or lent her songs to many advertisements and television commercials. Though she originally supported the exploitation of her popularity for commercial purposes, she later reconsidered and eventually opposed her status as an Avex "product".
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Babatunde Olatunji
Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927–April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist and recording artist.
Olatunji was born in the village of Ajido, a small town near Badagry, Lagos State, in southwestern Nigeria. A member of the Yoruba people, Olatunji was introduced to traditional African music at an early age. He read in Reader's Digest magazine about the Rotary International Foundation's scholarship program, and applied for it. He went to the United States of America in 1950.
Olatunji received a Rotary scholarship in 1950 and was educated at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he desired to, but never sang in the Morehouse College Glee Club. Olatunji was a good friend of Glee Club director Dr. Wendell P. Whalum and collaborated with him on a staple of the choir's repertoire, "Betelehemu", a Nigerian Christmas carol. After graduating from Morehouse, he went on to New York University to study public administration. There, he started a small percussion group to earn money on the side while he continued his studies.
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Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand (/ˈstraɪsænd/; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, writer, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.
She is one of the most commercially and critically successful entertainers in modern entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped in the United States and 140 million albums sold worldwide. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre. Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an acting Oscar and also recording a number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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Barry White
Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter ((1944-09-12)September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003(2003-07-04)), was an American composer and singer-songwriter.
A two-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring soul, funk, and disco songs such as his two biggest hits, "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" and "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe."
Worldwide, White had many gold and platinum albums and singles, with combined sales of over 100 million, according to critics Ed Hogan and Wade Kergan. His influences include southern soul artists like Isaac Hayes, Clarence Carter, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin plus Motown artists The Supremes, The Four Tops and Marvin Gaye. Along with Isaac Hayes, White is considered by Allmusic.com as the first singer who played disco music before the actual period of the late 1970s.
Barry White was born Barry Eugene Carter in Galveston, Texas, and grew up in the high-crime areas of South Central Los Angeles. White was the elder of two brothers; his brother Darryl is 13 months younger. He grew up listening to his mother's classical music collection, and first took to the piano emulating what he heard on the records. His introduction to music later led to him playing piano on Jesse Belvin's hit single, "Goodnight My Love."
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Bebu Silvetti
Juan Fernando Silvetti Adorno (27 March 1944 — 5 July 2003), professionally known as Bebu Silvetti or simply Silvetti, was an Argentine pianist, composer, conductor, arranger, and record producer. Popularly known for the 1977 instrumental disco hit, "Lluvia De Primavera" ("Spring Rain" in English), Silvetti was also a successful, Grammy-winning producer for a wide variety of Latin and international music performers. He was the father of the actress Anna Silvetti.
Silvetti was born in the city of Quilmes, Argentina, located in the province of Buenos Aires, approximately 17 kilometers from the capital city of Buenos Aires.
He started his piano education at the age of six. During his teenage years he formed his own jazz quartet and a few other musical groups. At 21, Silvetti left Argentina to go to Spain where he stayed a few years working as a pianist at some of the most popular jazz clubs of the time. In the early 1970s he moved to Mexico and started arranging and composing. Upon his return to Spain some years later, he recorded his first album, which contained his hit offering, "Spring Rain." Other albums followed. Silvetti returned to Mexico in the late 1970s, where he continued arranging, composing and producing mostly for other artists. After a stint working in Los_Angeles, California, he eventually settled in Miami, Florida, where he produced, arranged, and composed for a wide variety of Latin and international artists.
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Bee Gees
The Bee Gees were a musical group founded in 1958. The group's line-up consisted of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were successful for most of their decades of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s/early 1970s, and as prominent performers of the disco music era in the late 1970s.
The group sang three-part tight harmonies that were instantly recognisable; Robin's clear vibrato lead was a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the late 1970s and 1980s. The brothers wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists.
Born in the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived their first few years in Chorlton, Manchester, England, then moved in the late 1950s to Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia, where they began their musical careers. After achieving their first chart success in Australia with "Spicks and Specks" (their 12th single), they returned to the United Kingdom in January 1967 where producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience.
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Ben Folds
Benjamin Scott "Ben" Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. From 1995-2000, Folds was the frontman and pianist of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. Since the group disbanded, Folds has performed as a solo artist and has toured all over the world. He has also collaborated with musicians such as William Shatner, Regina Spektor and "Weird Al" Yankovic and undertaken experimental songwriting projects with authors such as Nick Hornby and Neil Gaiman. In addition to contributing music to the soundtracks of the animated films Over the Hedge, and Hoodwinked!, Folds produced Amanda Palmer's first solo album and has been a judge on the NBC a cappella singing contest The Sing-Off since 2009.
Folds became interested in piano at age nine. His father, a carpenter, brought one home through a barter trade with a customer who was unable to pay. During this time, Folds listened to songs by Elton John and Billy Joel on AM radio, and learned them by ear.[citation needed] During his years at R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Folds played in several bands as the pianist, bassist, or drummer.
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Ben Harper
Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper (born October 28, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents. His albums have been commercially successful in North America, Europe and Oceania. Harper is a two-time Grammy Award winner as well, winning awards for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album, in 2005.
Harper was born in Claremont, in California's Inland Empire. His father, Leonard, was of African-American and Cherokee ancestry, and his mother, Ellen Chase-Verdries, is Jewish. His maternal great-grandmother was a Russian-Lithuanian Jew. His parents divorced when he was age five, and he grew up with his mother's family. Harper has two brothers, Joel and Peter.
Harper began playing guitar as a child. His maternal grandparents' music store The Folk Music Center and Museum laid a foundation of folk and blues for the artist, complemented by regular patrons Leonard Cohen, Taj Mahal and David Lindley and quotes of William Shakespeare and Robert Frost made often by his grandfather. At the age of 12, Harper played his first gig. During the '80s, in his teen years, Harper began to play the slide guitar, mimicking the style of Robert Johnson. Next, Harper refined his style, taking up the Weissenborn slide guitar. Harper broke out of the Inland Empire after being offered an invitation by Taj Mahal to tour with the artist. They recorded Taj Mahal's album Follow the Drinking Gourd, released in November 1990, and toured Hawaii.
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Ben Moody
Benjamin Robert Moody (born January 22, 1981, in Little Rock, Arkansas, US) is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor. He is best known as co-founder, lead guitarist, and songwriter of Grammy Award-winning rock band Evanescence from 1995 to October 2003. Since leaving Evanescence, Moody has collaborated with an array of performers vocally, instrumentally, and as a writer. He is now a member of We Are the Fallen.
Moody met Amy Lee in 1994 while at a youth camp and the two eventually became friends. They soon began playing music at local shops. Within a few years, the pair began selling EPs at local shows, culminating in their discovery by Wind-up Records and the release of their major label debut album, Fallen, in 2003. Moody abruptly left the band in October 2003 during their European tour, citing "creative differences".
Beginning in 2004, Moody began collaborating with a variety of artists, working in multiple disciplines. That year, he co-wrote the track "Nobody's Home" for Avril Lavigne's second album, Under My Skin, and wrote and recorded the track "The End Has Come" with Jason C. Miller and Jason "Gong" Jones for The Punisher soundtrack. He then wrote with David Hodges, Kelly Clarkson, and others for Clarkson's second album, Breakaway, working on the songs "Because of You" and "Addicted".
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Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King. In 1958, he performed with Billie Holiday at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival.
The National Endowment for the Arts honored Benny Carter with its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 1986. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, winner of the Grammy Award in 1994 for his solo "Prelude to a Kiss", and also the same year, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2000 awarded the National Endowment for the Arts, National Medal of Arts, presented by President Bill Clinton.
Born in New York in 1907, the youngest of three children and the only boy, received his first music lessons on piano from his mother. Largely self-taught, by age fifteen, Carter was already sitting in at Harlem night spots. From 1924 to 1928, Carter gained valuable professional experience as a sideman in some of New York's top bands. As a youth, Carter lived in Harlem around the corner from Bubber Miley who was Duke Ellington's star trumpeter, Carter was inspired by Miley and bought a trumpet, but when he found he couldn't play like Miley he traded the trumpet in for a saxophone. For the next two years he played with such jazz greats as cornetist Rex Stewart, clarinetist-soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, pianists Earl Hines, Willie "The Lion" Smith, pianist Fats Waller, pianist James P. Johnson, pianist Duke Ellington and their various groups.
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Bette Midler
Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys. During her more than forty-year career, Midler has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and won three Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award. She has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Her voice type is categorized as deep mezzo soprano.
Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents moved from Paterson, New Jersey to Honolulu before she was born, and hers was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood. Her mother, Ruth (née Schindel), was a seamstress and housewife, and her father, Fred Midler, worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter. She was named after actress Bette Davis, though Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one, /ˈbɛt/. She was raised in Aiea and attended Radford High School, in Honolulu. She was voted "Most Talkative" in the 1961 school Hoss Election, and in her Senior Year (Class of 1963), "Most Dramatic". Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii, but left after three semesters. She earned money in the 1966 film Hawaii as an extra, playing an uncredited seasick passenger named Miss David Buff.
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Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (née Beyoncé Giselle Knowles; September 4, 1981), known mononymously as Beyoncé ( /biˈjɒnseɪ/ bee-YON-say), is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child. Knowles rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time.
During the hiatus of Destiny's Child, Knowles released her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love, in 2003, which spawned two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100—"Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy"—and became one of the most successful albums of that year, earning her a then record-tying five Grammy Awards. Following the disbandment of Destiny's Child in 2005, Knowles released her second solo album, B'Day, in 2006, which spawned the top 10 singles "Déjà Vu", "Irreplaceable" and "Beautiful Liar". Her third solo album I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), spawned the hit singles "If I Were a Boy", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", "Halo" and "Sweet Dreams". The album helped Knowles earn six Grammys in 2010, breaking the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artist in one night. Knowles' fourth solo album, 4 (2011), became her fourth consecutive number one album on the Billboard 200 as a solo artist. This made her the third artist in history to have her first four studio albums debut atop the chart.
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Big Moe
Kenneth Moore (August 20, 1974 – October 14, 2007), better known by his stage name Big Moe, was an American rapper from Houston, Texas. He was known for a softer and slower style than other Houston rappers, including a mixture of rapping and singing that he called "rapsinging" as well as for his music that celebrated codeine-laced syrup as a recreational drug.
Kenneth Moore was born in Houston on August 20, 1974, and he grew up in southeast Houston. He was a graduate of Yates High School and a former high school football star.
As one of the founding members of the "Original Screwed Up Click," Big Moe started out in music by freestyling on DJ Screw mixtapes before being signed to Wreckshop Records. Wreckshop Records released Big Moe's debut album, City of Syrup in (2000); the title a nod to Houston's reputation for drinking codeine-laced syrup, which Moe pours from a Styrofoam cup on the album's cover. "City of Syrup" album featured the single, "Mann!", which Moe intended to be The South Side's answer to Black Rob's East Coast hit "Whoa!". A year and half later, Moe returned with his second album, Purple World in (2002). This release showcased a Who's Who of Houston vocalists and two versions of Moe's breakthrough single, "Purple Stuff." The Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-themed video for "Purple Stuff" was played on MTV and the album ranked as high as No. 3 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Big Moe's third and last album, Moe Life, was issued in 2003, including the commercially successful single "Just a Dog." A posthumous album entitled Unfinished Business was released on March 18, 2008 via Wreckshop Records and Koch Records. In 2009 his album City Of Syrup was named number 25 on houstonpress.com's list of the 25 Best Houston Hip Hop Albums.
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Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) – known as Billy Bragg – is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes. His music career has lasted more than 30 years.
Bragg was born in 1957 in Barking, Essex, the son of Dennis Frederick Austin Bragg, an assistant sales manager to a Barking cap and hat maker, and his wife, Marie Victoria D'Urso. Bragg was educated at Barking Abbey Secondary School in Barking.
In 1977, Bragg formed the punk rock/pub rock band Riff Raff, and toured London's pubs and clubs. The band released a series of singles, which did not receive wide exposure. He also worked in Guy Norris Records in Barking. Bragg became disillusioned with his music career, and in May 1981 joined the British Army as a recruit destined for the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars of the Royal Armoured Corps. After three months, he bought his way out of the army for £175 and returned home, having attended basic training but having never served in a regiment as a soldier.
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Billy Currington
William Matthew "Billy" Currington (born November 19, 1973) is an American country music artist. Signed to Mercury Nashville Records in 2003, he has released four studio albums for the label: 2003's Billy Currington, 2005's Doin' Somethin' Right, 2008's Little Bit of Everything, and 2010's Enjoy Yourself. These four albums have produced nine singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including six #1 hits "Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right", "Good Directions", "People Are Crazy", "That's How Country Boys Roll", "Pretty Good at Drinkin' Beer", and "Let Me Down Easy". He has also charted as a duet partner on Shania Twain's single "Party For Two" and his own non-album single "Tangled Up", for a total of eleven Top 40 hits.
Billy Currington was born in Savannah, Georgia, raised in Rincon, Georgia, and currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He has four sisters (Lexie, Ann, Kim, and Kellie) and two brothers (Charles and Jason). When he was one and a half years old, his mother married Laurie (Larry) Currington. He also has a Chocolate Lab named Paco.
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Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( /ˈbjɜrk/; [ˈpjœr̥k ˈkvʏðmʏntsˌtoʊhtɪr] ( listen); born 21 November 1965), known as Björk, is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her musical style is eclectic and she has achieved recognition in rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical, and folk.
Björk's 1990s singles "It's Oh So Quiet", "Army of Me" and "Hyperballad" charted in the UK Top 10.[citation needed] Her record label, One Little Indian, reported that by 2003 she had sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. She has acquired a high level of critical acclaim. She has won four BRIT Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, one MOJO Award, three UK Music Video Awards, and, in 2010, the Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, in recognition for her "deeply personal music and lyrics, her precise arrangements and her unique voice".
Björk has also been nominated for twelve Grammy Awards, one Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. She won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for her performance in Dancer in the Dark. She was ranked thirty-sixth in VH1's "The 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll", eighth in MTV's "22 Greatest Voices in Music", and sixtieth in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".
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Blake Shelton
Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music artist. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin". Released as the lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" went on to spend five weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. This song was the first single from his gold-certified debut album, which also produced two more Top 20 hits. Although the album was released on Giant Records Nashville, Shelton was transferred to Warner Bros. Records Nashville after Giant closed in late 2001.
His second and third albums, 2003's The Dreamer (his first for Warner Bros. proper) and 2004's Blake Shelton's Barn & Grill, were each certified gold as well. Shelton's fourth album, Pure BS, was issued in 2007, and re-issued in 2008 with a cover of Michael Bublé's pop hit "Home" as one of the bonus tracks. This cover was also that album's third single. A fifth album, Startin' Fires, was released in November 2008. It was followed by the extended plays Hillbilly Bone and All About Tonight in 2010, and the album Red River Blue in 2011. He is currently a vocal coach on the NBC reality talent show The Voice with Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, and Cee Lo Green.
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Blu Cantrell
Blu Cantrell (born Tiffany Cobb on March 16, 1976) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter.
Tiffany Cobb was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1976. Her father was a Narragansett Native American and Cape Verdean, and played in the National Basketball Association. Susi Franco, her mother, was a former Miss Rhode Island, actress, and jazz vocalist. Cantrell's parents split when she was a child, and she and her five siblings—Adam, Tino, Nick, Kelli, and Summer—were raised by her mother. At the age of 19 she posed as a nude model for Black Tail. She has defended this by saying: "I have posed nude in the past and I will in the future, I'm not making porn, porn is when you do a video of sex. Posing nude is not making porn."
Her mother used to call her Blu; Cantrell is her grandmother's surname.
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Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS (born Leslie Townes Hope; May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an English-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel. Throughout his long career, he was honored for his humanitarian work. In 1996, the U.S. Congress honored Bob Hope by declaring him the "first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces." Bob Hope appeared in or hosted 199 known USO shows.
Hope was born in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons. His English father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, and his Welsh mother, Avis Townes, was a light opera singer from Barry who later worked as a cleaning woman. She married William Hope in April 1891 and the couple set up home at 12 Greenwood Street in the town, then moved to Whitehall and St George in Bristol, before eventually moving to Cleveland, Ohio in 1908. The family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia, and passed inspection at Ellis Island on March 30, 1908. Hope became a U.S. citizen in 1920 at the age of 17. In a 1942 legal document, Hope's legal name is given as Lester Townes Hope. His name on the Social Security Index is also listed as Lester T. Hope. His name as registered at birth was Leslie Towns [sic] Hope.
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Bobby Hatfield
Robert Lee "Bobby" Hatfield (August 10, 1940 – November 5, 2003) was an American singer, best known as one half of the Righteous Brothers.
Hatfield was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and moved with his family to Anaheim, California when he was four. A 1958 graduate of Anaheim High School, he sang in the school choir and played baseball. He briefly considered signing as a professional ballplayer, but his passion for music led him to pursue a singing career while still attending high school. He would eventually encounter his singing partner Bill Medley while attending California State University Long Beach. Hatfield is an alumnus of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
Hatfield had a short marriage with Joy Ciro, who appeared as a dancer on the T.A.M.I. Show and Where the Action Is. They had two children together, Bobby, Jr. and Kalin. In 1979, Hatfield married his second wife Linda, and they were happily married for 24 years until he died. They had two children together, Vallyn and Dustin.
Hatfield and Medley began singing as a duo in 1962 in the Los Angeles area as part of a five-member group called the Paramours. They were often told they sounded like African-American gospel singers and named their singing act "The Righteous Brothers" after a fan remarked of their singing, "that's righteous, brothers."
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Brad Paisley
Brad Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His style crosses between traditional country music and Southern rock, and his songs are frequently laced with humor and pop culture references.
Paisley was the 2008 CMA and ACM Male Vocalist of the Year winner. Starting with the release of his 1999 album Who Needs Pictures, Paisley has recorded seven studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashville label, with all of his albums certified gold or higher by the RIAA. In addition, he has charted 25 singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 16 of which have reached #1 with a record 10 consecutive singles reaching the top spot on the chart. On November 10, 2010, Paisley won the Entertainer of the Year award at the 44th annual CMA Awards.
Paisley was born on October 28, 1972 in Glen Dale, West Virginia to Douglas Edward "Doug" Paisley, who worked for the West Virginia Department of Transportation, and Sandra Jean "Sandy" (née Jarvis) Paisley, a teacher. He was raised in Glen Dale, West Virginia. He has stated that his love of country music stems from his maternal grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave Paisley his first guitar, a Sears Danelectro Silvertone at 8-years-old and taught him how to play. At age 10, he performed for the first time in public by singing in his church. He later recalled that, "Pretty soon, I was performing at every Christmas party and Mother's Day event. The neat thing about a small town is that when you want to be an artist, by golly, they'll make you one". At age 12, Paisley wrote his first song, entitled, "Born on Christmas Day". He had been taking lessons with local guitarist Clarence "Hank" Goddard. By age 13, Goddard and Paisley formed a band called "Brad Paisley and the C-Notes", with the addition of two of Paisley's adult friends.
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Bradley Joseph
Bradley Joseph (born 1965) is an American composer, arranger, and producer of contemporary instrumental music. His compositions include works for orchestra, quartet, and solo piano, while his musical style ranges from "quietly pensive mood music to a rich orchestration of classical depth and breadth".
Active since 1983, Joseph has performed in front of more than a half million people around the world. He played various instruments in rock bands throughout the Midwest until 1989 when Greek composer Yanni hired him for his core band after hearing a tape of his original compositions. He was a featured concert keyboardist with Yanni through six major tours, most recently in 2003 for the 60-city Ethnicity tour. He appears in the multi-platinum album and concert film, Yanni Live at the Acropolis. Joseph also spent four years as musical director and lead keyboardist for Sheena Easton, including a 1995 performance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
His solo career began when he independently released Hear the Masses, featuring many of his Yanni bandmates. This debut was followed by Rapture, an instrumental album recorded with a 50-piece orchestra in which Joseph wrote and conducted all of the scores. It was released on the Narada label and reached New Age Voice (NAV)'s "Airwaves Top 30". He has produced numerous CDs/DVDs and piano books under his own record label, Robbins Island Music. Two of these recordings, Christmas Around the World and One Deep Breath, also held positions on NAV's Top 100 radio chart. His music is included in multiple various-artist compilation albums including the 2008 release of The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II.
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Brian McKnight
Brian McKnight (born June 5, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, producer, and R&B musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays eight instruments including piano, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet.. McKnight is perhaps most recognized for his strong falsetto range, and is widely regarded as one of the strongest talents in the adult urban contemporary R&B genre, although his recent efforts have received mixed reviews.
McKnight's work has earned him 16 Grammy Awards nominations, but currently holds the record for having won none.
McKnight was born in Buffalo, New York. His musical career began in childhood when he became a member of his church choir and a band leader for his high school, Sweet Home High School..
In 1987, McKnight's older brother, Claude McKnight III, and his band, Take 6, signed a record deal with Warner Brothers. This encouraged McKnight to shop his own demo tapes and by the age of 19, he'd signed his first recording deal with Mercury Records subsidiary, Wing Records. In 1992, Brian McKnight was released, and his self-titled debut peaked at fifty-eight in the Billboard 200 chart, which primarily featured the ballad (and top twenty single) "One Last Cry". It was followed by two more albums for Mercury, 1995's I Remember You and 1997's Anytime. Anytime, McKnight's final album with Mercury, sold over two million copies and was nominated for a Grammy. The video for "Anytime", directed by Darren Grant, was nominated for Best Male Video at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.
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British Sea Power
British Sea Power are an indie rock band based in Brighton, England, although three of the band members originally come from Kendal in Cumbria. The wide-ranging nature of their material has led critics to liken their sound to a variety of groups, from The Cure and Joy Division to the Pixies and Arcade Fire. The band are famed for their live performances, the unusual lyrical content of their songs and the adventurous choice of locations for some of their shows. British Sea Power's members are Yan (Scott Wilkinson; vocals, guitar), Noble (Martin Noble; guitar), Hamilton (Neil Hamilton Wilkinson; bass guitar, vocals, guitar), Wood (Matthew Wood; drums), Phil Sumner (cornet, keyboards) and Abi Fry (viola).
British Sea Power's Yan and Hamilton are brothers and were school friends with Wood in Kendal. They were in a number of bands together while at school, but after finishing his exams Yan moved to study at the University of Reading, where he met guitarist Noble, who was originally from Bury, Greater Manchester. A few years later, Hamilton and Wood joined them and formed a band.
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Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999, which became the best-selling album by a teenage solo artist. During her first decade in the music industry, she became a prominent figure in mainstream popular music and popular culture, followed by a much-publicized personal life. Her first two albums established her as a pop icon and broke sales records, while title tracks "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" became international number-one hits. Spears was credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s, and became the 'best-selling teen aged artist of all time' before she turned 20, garnering her the honorific title of "Princess of Pop".
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Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter-performer who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.
Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and more than 120 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 21 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 23rd Greatest Artist of all time.
Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough. He lived on South Street in Freehold Borough and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry and worked, among other vocations, as a bus driver, although he was frequently unemployed; his surname is Dutch for jump stone. His mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli), was a legal secretary and was of Italian ancestry. His maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense, a city near Naples. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full time; she took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.
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Buckethead
Brian Patrick Carroll (born May 13, 1969), better known by his stage name Buckethead, is a guitarist and multi instrumentalist who has worked within several genres of music. He has released 36 studio albums, four special releases and one EP. He has performed on over 50 more albums by other artists. His music spans such diverse areas as progressive metal, funk, blues, jazz, bluegrass, ambient, and avant-garde music.
Buckethead is famously known for wearing a KFC bucket on his head, emblazoned with an orange bumper sticker that reads FUNERAL in capital black block letters, and an expressionless plain white costume mask. He also incorporates nunchucks and robot dancing into his stage performances.
An instrumentalist, Buckethead is best known for his electric guitar playing. He has been voted number 8 on a list in GuitarOne magazine of the "Top 10 Greatest Guitar Shredders of All Time" as well as being included in Guitar World's lists of the "25 all-time weirdest guitarists" and is also known for being in the "50 fastest guitarists of all time list".
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Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen (April 2, 1908 - July 6, 2003) was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie version of The Beverly Hillbillies. Ebsen also played Fess Parker's sidekick in Walt Disney's Davy Crockett miniseries (1953–54), and was cast as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (1939) until he fell ill due to an allergy to the makeup.
Ebsen was born Christian Rudolph Ebsen, Jr. in Belleville, Illinois. His father, Christian Rudolph Ebsen, Sr., was Danish and his mother, Frances, was Latvian. Ebsen was raised in Belleville until the age of 10, when his family moved to Palm Beach County, Florida. In 1920, Ebsen and his family relocated to Orlando, Florida, in 1920. Ebsen and his sisters learned to dance at a dance studio his father operated in Orlando.
Ebsen graduated from Orlando High School in 1926. Initially interested in a medical career, Ebsen attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, from 1926 to 1927, and then Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, from 1927 to 1928. Family financial problems caused by the collapse of the Florida land boom forced Ebsen to leave college at age 20.
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Buju Banton
Buju Banton (born Mark Anthony Myrie 15 July 1973) is a Jamaican dancehall, ragga, and reggae musician. Banton has recorded pop and dance songs, as well as songs dealing with sociopolitical topics.
He released early dancehall singles in 1991, but came to prominence in 1992 with two albums, including Mr. Mention, which became the best-selling album in Jamaican history upon its release. Banton signed with major label Mercury Records and released Voice of Jamaica the following year. By the mid-1990s, Banton had converted to the Rastafari faith, and his music undertook a more spiritual tone. His 2010 album Before the Dawn was the winner for Best Reggae Album at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards.
Banton gained international notoriety early on in his career for the anti-gay track "Boom Bye Bye", as well as for his 2009 arrest and conviction on drug conspiracy and firearms charges, for which he is currently serving a ten-year federal prison sentence in Federal Transfer Center with a scheduled release date of January 2019.
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Byron Stroud
Byron Stroud (born February 12, 1969 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada) is the former bassist for metal band Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad. and current bassist for metal bands 3 Inches Of Blood, City of Fire and Zimmers Hole.
Byron Stroud has been involved in the Vancouver heavy music scene since the 1980s. His first serious band was Caustic Thought, who were formed in 1987, when he was only eighteen years old. The band also featured Jed Simon and Devin Townsend. Following Caustic Thought he made his way to Front Line Assembly, joining them on the Hard Wired tour as a drum tech. Then he enrolled himself in the lineup for Strapping Young Lad. [1] He currently has one nephew and one niece.
Although he was a staple member of Strapping Young Lad at the time, he joined Fear Factory as a full time member in 2004. He made his Fear Factory debut on their 2004 album Archetype (note: Byron does not play on the album as all bass tracks were recorded by guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers). Byron insisted his allegiance remained with both bands, as well as with Zimmers Hole, a somewhat comedic band he plays in with fellow Strapping Young Lad musician Jed Simon amongst others. Strapping Young Lad disbanded in 2007, allowing him to concentrate more on Fear Factory until his departure in 2012. Throughout his time in Fear Factory he did not record on any of their albums, possibly due to either contractual reasons or other commitments.
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Canibus
Germaine Williams (born December 9, 1974), better known by his stage names Canibus and Can-I-Bus, is a Jamaican-born African-American rapper, actor and member of The HRSMN, Sharpshooterz & Undergods and one-half of T.H.E.M.. Canibus rose to fame in the mid-nineties. Canibus is well known for his extensive vocabulary and vivid imagery, as well as creating intricate rhyme schemes, complex phrases and concepts that he uses in order to provide an artistic depth to his music.
Germaine Williams was born on December 9, 1974 in Kingston, Jamaica. He is of African, and Jamaican descent. His father, Basil Williams, is a former Jamaican cricketer. The family moved frequently, living in The Bronx, Queens, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Buffalo, and London due to his mother's career requiring constant relocation. Canibus stated that he was an introverted child growing up. After completing high school in 1992, he spent a year working for AT&T and another year as a data analyst for the U.S. Department of Justice. His interest in computers and the Internet led him to study computer science at DeKalb College in Atlanta.
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Cappadonna
Darryl Hill (born September 18, 1969) best known by his stage name Cappadonna, is an American rapper and member to the hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. (He once was a close affiliate, then becoming a full fledged member with time) He is also a member of rap duo Wu South, along with Ratchet Rush and the group Theodore Unit with Ghostface Killah.
Cappadonna made his debut on the songs "Ice Cream" & "Ice Water" on Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. In late 1996, he appeared on the track "Winter Warz" off of Ghostface's Ironman and for the soundtrack to Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood alongside Ghostface Killah, Masta Killa, U-God, and Raekwon, and made several prominent appearances on the group's second album Wu-Tang Forever in 1997, most notably on the stand-out lead single "Triumph". In 1998 he released his debut "The Pillage" on Razor Sharp Records and featured production done by RZA, True Master and Goldfingaz and also featured guest appearances by Wu-Tang Members: U-God, Method Man and Wu-Tang affiliates Tekitha and Blue Raspberry.
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Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work. Throughout her career, she has amassed 13 Top 40 hits including "You're So Vain", "Nobody Does It Better", and "Coming Around Again".
The former wife of another notable singer-songwriter, James Taylor, she has two children, Sarah "Sally" Maria Taylor and Ben Taylor, who are also musicians.
She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.
Carly Simon was born in New York City, New York. Her father, of Jewish descent, was Richard L. Simon (co-founder of Simon & Schuster), a pianist who often played Chopin and Beethoven at home. Her mother was Andrea Louise Simon (née Heinemann), a civil rights activist and singer, of black and German descent. In a 2004 interview with fashion designer Michael Kors for the July issue of Interview Magazine, she revealed her full ancestry as Jewish, African, Cuban, and French.
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Carmita Jiménez
Carmita Jiménez (c. 1944 – August 10, 2003) was a Puerto Rican singer who was considered a diva in Puerto Rico. She was born in San Lorenzo.
Carmita Jimenez started her singing career at the young age of six, on the radio show named El Abuelito Welch (Grandpa Welch) with another legendary Puerto Rican show business legend, Jose Miguel Agrelot. This show, as its name suggested, was sponsored by the Welch's grape juice brand.
At 15, Jimenez performed the Habanera from Bizet's opera Carmen. Soon after, she joined popular music groups like the Moncho Usera orchestra, and then she released her first album, which contained the hit Tierra Rica (Rich Earth).
During the 1960s, Jimenez became a popular fixture on Puerto Rico's television and enjoyed great renown. She decided then that it was time to internationalize her career and moved to Peru to promote herself in South America. Her stay in Peru, which lasted until 1968, made her very popular among the citizens of that country too. There she gave birth to her only daughter, María Nahíma, who as her mother, began singing professionally since a child. Carmita kept on releasing albums and scoring more hits.
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Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz (October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003) was a Cuban-American and was one of the most successful salsa performers of the 20th century, having earned twenty-three gold albums. She was renowned internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" as well as "La Guarachera de Cuba."
She spent much of her career living in New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American countries. Leila Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said "Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban music."
Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born on October 21, 1925 in the diverse, working-class neighborhood of Santos Suárez in Havana, Cuba. She was the second eldest of fourteen children born to Catalina Alfonso and Simón Cruz. Simón Cruz worked in the railroads as a stoker, and his wife took care of the extended family.[citation needed]
While growing up in Cuba's diverse 1930s musical climate, Cruz listened to many musicians who influenced her adult career, including Fernando Collazo, Abelardo Barroso, Pablo Quevedo and Arsenio Rodríguez. Cruz also studied the words to Yoruba songs with colleague Mercedita Valdes (an Akpwon santeria singer) from Cuba and Celia made various recordings of this religious genre singing even back up for other female akpwons like Candita Batista.
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Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, CC OQ, (French pronunciation: [selin djɔ̃] ( listen); born March 30, 1968), is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record. In 1990, she released the English-language album Unison, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world.
Dion had first gained international recognition in the 1980s by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. Following a series of French albums in the early 1980s, she signed on to CBS Records Canada in 1986. During the 1990s, with the help of Angélil, she achieved worldwide fame after signing with Epic Records and releasing several English albums along with additional French albums, becoming one of the most successful artists in pop music history. However, in 1999 at the height of her success, Dion announced a hiatus from entertainment in order to start a family and spend time with her husband, who had been diagnosed with cancer. She returned to the top of pop music in 2002 and signed a three-year (later extended to almost five years) contract to perform nightly in a five-star theatrical show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Paradise, Nevada.
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Charles Rosen
Charles Rosen (born May 5, 1927) is an American pianist and author on music.
In his youth he studied piano with Moriz Rosenthal. Rosenthal, born in 1862, had been a student of Franz Liszt. Rosenthal's memories of the 19th century in classical music were communicated to his pupil and appear frequently in Rosen's later writings.
Rosen has said that the pianist Józef Hofmann, whom he heard every year from age three to twelve, was a greater influence on him than Rosenthal. He recalls having played for Leopold Godowsky at age seven; Godowsky asked Rosen what he would like to be when he grew up, and, to Godowsky's amusement, Rosen answered, "I want to be a pianist like Józef Hofmann." Rosen has also named Arturo Toscanini as a great influence.
Following his training Rosen pursued a successful career as a concert pianist, appearing in numerous recitals and orchestral engagements around the world. He recorded a number of 20th century works at the invitation of their composers, including music by Stravinsky, Elliott Carter, and Pierre Boulez. His recordings also include earlier literature such as Debussy's Études, Schumann's works for solo piano, Beethoven's late sonatas and Diabelli Variations, and Bach's Art of Fugue and Goldberg Variations.
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Chimaira
Chimaira ( /kaɪˈmɪərə/) is an American metal band from Cleveland, Ohio. Formed in 1998, the group is a notable member of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal scene. The band's name is derived from the word Chimera, a monstrous creature in Greek mythology. Their musical style is mainly groove metal, tied-along with metalcore, industrial metal, nu metal and death metal influences.
Chimaira was founded during 1998 by guitarist Jason Hager, and vocalist Mark Hunter. The pair contacted friends and recruited Jason Genaro on drums and Andrew Ermlick on bass to complete the required positions for a line-up.
After a few practice sessions, the four decided that the band needed a "thicker" guitar sound. With their suggestions of adding a second guitarist along, Ermlick recommended that Rob Arnold, a former bandmate from his time in Common Thread, could be recruited into the band as a guitarist. Arnold's band at the time, Sanctum had recently split, and the guitarist was available to join Chimaira. By 1999, Arnold joined the band soon after as lead guitarist to which Hager was then moved down to play rhythm.
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Chimène Badi
Chimène Badi, also known by her mononym Chimène is French singer (born October 30, 1982 in Melun, Seine-et-Marne).
Chimène Badi was born in Melun, in the Paris suburbs but she spent her entire childhood in the south-west of France, growing up in Villeneuve-sur-Lot with her parents, Chérifa and Mohammed, her sister, Déborah, and her brother, Karim. Her sister Déborah encouraged her to persevere with her singing and Chimène went on to hone her vocal style still further, performing at family parties and regional song contests from the age of six.
Chimène also made her mark at her school's end-of-year shows, wowing the audience with her confident vocal performance. Teachers barely recognised Chimène who, when she was off stage, was a notoriously shy pupil, given to daydreaming and complexes about her appearance. Meanwhile, Chimène plugged away at her studies, going on to obtain a "BEP" in agribusiness.
She did not win the French reality TV show, Popstars, but Badi released her first single Entre Nous in 2003, which reached number 1 in the French charts. An album of the same name reached number 4 in domestic charts, and became the 5th best selling French album of 2003.
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Chingy
Howard Bailey, Jr. (born March 9, 1980), better known by his stage name Chingy, is an American rapper.
Chingy grew up in the Walnut Park section of St. Louis and began rapping in earnest in his late teens. Chingy toured as an opening act with Nelly in the summer of 2002 and then became a protégé of Ludacris, who signed him to his newly formed Disturbing tha Peace (DTP) record label. The rapper's 2003 summer debut single, "Right Thurr", put him on the musical map as a good-time rapper who specialized in catchy, club-friendly beats. Chingy's 2003 debut album, Jackpot, sold two million copies, thanks to the boost from "Right Thurr." A second album, Powerballin', was released in 2004 to mixed reviews, and his 2006 release Hoodstar spawned the hit singles "Pullin' Me Back" and "Dem Jeans." He released Hate It or Love It in 2007, under DTP records. The album's lead single is "Fly Like Me", featuring Amerie. A mixtape entitled Success & Failure was released in 2010.
As of 2011 Currently Chingy has been working on his new upcoming project No Risk No Reward which will be released under his label Slot-A-Lot Records and distributed by his newly signed label Full Dekk Music Group.
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Chris Cagle
Chris Cagle (born November 10, 1968) is an American country music artist. He was first known for writing songs for David Kersh before signing to Virgin Records Nashville in 2000. Cagle made his debut on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts with the single "My Love Goes On and On", the first single from his debut album Play It Loud. The album, which was certified gold in the United States, also produced the Top 10 hit "Laredo" and "I Breathe In, I Breathe Out", his only number one hit.
Play It Loud was followed in 2002 by Chris Cagle, released on Capitol Records Nashville. Also a gold album in the U.S., it produced the Top 5 hits "What a Beautiful Day" and "Chicks Dig It". Anywhere but Here, his third album, followed in 2005 and produced the number 12-peaking "Miss Me Baby". A fourth studio album, titled My Life's Been a Country Song, was released in 2008, and its lead-off single, "What Kinda Gone", peaked at 3 on the country music charts in early 2008. After exiting Capitol in 2008, he signed with Bigger Picture Music Group in 2011.
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Chris Rea
Chris Rea ( /ˈriːə/ REE-ə; born Christopher Anton Rea, 4 March 1951) is an English singer-songwriter, recognisable for his distinctive, husky voice and slide guitar playing. The British Hit Singles & Albums stated that Rea was "one of the most popular UK singer-songwriters of the late 1980s. He was already a major European star by the time he finally cracked the UK Top 10 with his 18th chart entry; "The Road to Hell (Part 2)". By 2009, Rea had sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.
He is well known for his 1978 hit song "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" that charted #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent three weeks at #1 on the U.S. Billboard adult contemporary chart. The song was later covered by Elkie Brooks and was a top 20 hit in the UK.
Although Rea had limited success in the United States, two of his albums, The Road to Hell and Auberge, topped the UK Albums Chart. The book Guinness Rockopedia described him as a "gravel-voiced guitar stalwart".
Rea was born in Middlesbrough, England, the son of ice cream producer Camillo Rea who together with his brother Gaetano owned an ice cream factory and ran twenty-one cafés.
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Christell
Christell Jazmín Rodriguez Carrillo (Talcahuano, January 2, 1998) is a Chilean child singer. She became known in the popular Chilean TV Show called "Rojo Fama Contrafama" imitating to the young singer Maria Jose Quintanilla in a contest. She has recorded three albums since then. She was nominated for the Grammy Latino by her second record production.
Only daughter of Christian Rodriguez and Myriam Carrillo, both members of the musical Christian group "Misterio Musical Evangelística Piedra Viva", Christell grew up with music around her. As her mother says "Christell from a very young age felt interest for the music, beginning not only singing, but playing some instruments and dancing". At the age of two, Christell took part in a festival of tambourines and percussion. Her father comments that "In the tambourine goes her rhythmic base and the times to enter to a song". Then and until years later, Christell continued accompanying her parents in musical presentations at their church playing the tambourine. At the age of four she took part in a children's festival with an original song called "Mom told a story". That same year she collaborated in a Christian dance group.
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Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 to 1994. Aguilera signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection", the theme song for the animated film Mulan (1998).
In 1999, Aguilera came to prominence following her debut album Christina Aguilera, which was a commercial success spawning three number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100—"Genie in a Bottle", "What a Girl Wants", and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)." Her sophomore and her debut Latin-pop album, Mi Reflejo (2000), a Christmas third studio album, My Kind of Christmas (2000), and several collaborations followed which garnered Aguilera worldwide success, though she was displeased with her lack of input in her music and image. After parting from her management, Aguilera took creative control over her fourth studio album, Stripped (2002). The album's second single, "Beautiful", was a commercial success and helped the album's commercial performance amidst controversy over Aguilera's image. Aguilera followed up Stripped with the soul, jazz and blues inspired, Back to Basics (2006), released to positive critical acclaim. The album produced three singles "Ain't No Other Man", "Hurt" and "Candyman". Four years later Aguilera released her sixth studio album, Bionic (2010), which incorporated aspects of R&B, electropop, and synthpop and was met with mixed reviews and low sales. Aguilera's seventh studio album is set to be released in 2012.
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Clay Aiken
Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken (born November 30, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released in October 2003. He released four more albums on the RCA label: Merry Christmas with Love (2004), A Thousand Different Ways (2006), and the Christmas EP, All is Well (2006). His fourth studio album (the first album of original material since 2003's Measure of a Man), On My Way Here was released on May 6, 2008.
After the release of On My Way Here, Aiken left RCA and later signed with Decca Records. His first album with Decca, Tried and True, was released June 1, 2010 and his second Steadfast, was released March 26, 2012.
In the years following his American Idol appearance, Aiken has launched ten tours, authored a New York Times best-selling book Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life with Allison Glock, and was the executive producer for a 2004 televised Christmas special, A Clay Aiken Christmas and his televised live concert special in 2010 on PBS Tried & True Live!. He has been a frequent talk show guest, particularly on The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He appeared as a guest star on Scrubs, Drop Dead Diva, 30 Rock and participated in comedy skits on numerous other shows.
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Clay Walker
Ernest Clayton "Clay" Walker, Jr. (born August 19, 1969) is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1993 with the single "What's It to You," which reached Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts, as did its follow-up, 1994's "Live Until I Die." Both singles were included on Walker's self-titled debut album, also released in 1993 via Giant Records. He stayed with the label until its 2001 closure, later recording for Warner Bros. Records and RCA Records before joining his current label, Asylum-Curb Records, in 2007.
Walker has released a total of 11 albums, including a greatest hits package and an album of Christmas music. His first four studio albums all achieved platinum certification in the United States, and his greatest hits collection and fifth studio album were each certified gold. In addition, he has charted 30 singles on the country charts, including four more Number One hits for a total of six: "Dreaming with My Eyes Open," "If I Could Make a Living," "This Woman and This Man" and "Rumor Has It." His most recent album, She Won't Be Lonely Long, was released in mid-2010.
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Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist. With his backing group The Shadows, Richard, originally positioned as a rebellious rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard and Elvis Presley, dominated the British popular music scene in the pre-Beatles period of the late 1950s and early 1960s. His 1958 hit single "Move It" is often described as Britain's first authentic rock and roll song, and John Lennon once claimed that "before Cliff and the Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music." A conversion to Christianity and subsequent softening of his music later led to a more middle of the road pop image, sometimes venturing into gospel music.
Over a 53-year career, Richard has become a fixture of the British entertainment world, amassing many gold and platinum discs and awards, including three Brit awards and two Ivor Novello awards. He has had more than 130 singles, albums and EPs make the UK Top 20, more than any other artist and holds the record (with Elvis Presley) as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its first six decades (1950s–2000s). He has achieved 14 UK No. 1 singles (or 18, depending on the counting methodology) and is the only singer to have had a No. 1 single in the UK in six consecutive decades: the 1950s through to the 2000s (discounting digital downloads and counting only CDs, he had a UK No. 1 single in the 2000s). Richard is the biggest selling singles artist of all time in the UK, with total sales of over 21 million and has reportedly sold an estimated 250 million records worldwide.
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Coal Chamber
Coal Chamber is an American alternative metal band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1993. Prior to Coal Chamber, Dez Fafara and Meegs Rascón formed the band She's In Pain in 1992. The two decided to create Coal Chamber. They disbanded in 2003 after ten years together, but announced a reunion in September 2011. Their first drummer, John Thor, was eventually replaced by Mike Cox (who beat out his older brother for the spot). After bass guitarist Rayna Foss joined, the Coal Chamber lineup was complete.
In 1997, their first album, Coal Chamber, was released. They toured very heavily supporting this album. The album produced one single and a video, "Loco". The video was also added as an extra after the ending credits of Dee Snider's film, Strangeland. The band also recorded an exclusive song for the soundtrack, titled "Not Living".
Chamber Music followed two years later. Between the two releases and after the band's tour with the metal act Sevendust, bass guitarist Rayna Foss married Sevendust's drummer Morgan Rose and became pregnant, necessitating another bass guitar player on tour, a role filled by Nadja Peulen.
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Colin James
Colin James (born Colin James Munn, August 17, 1964, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, who plays in the blues, rock, and neo-swing genres. He grew up as a Quaker.
James and his band The Hoodoo Men opened for Stevie Ray Vaughan for several tour dates in the U.S.. James also played guitar on Richard Marx's song "Thunder and Lightning".
In 1988, following his association with Vaughan, James released his self-titled debut album, which yielded several international hit singles, as did the followup Sudden Stop. He presaged the mid-1990s swing music revival with his Colin James and the Little Big Band project, which released a successful first CD in 1993, followed by two others in 1998 and 2006, as well as a Christmas album in 2007.
James's worldwide popularity waned somewhat in the late 1990s, but he continued to release albums in rock, blues, and acoustic styles, in addition to his Little Big Band. In 2005, he gave a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to his home province of Saskatchewan.
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Concrete Blonde
Concrete Blonde is an alternative rock band based in the United States. They were initially active from 1982 to 1995, and again from 2001 to 2004, and once again in 2010.
Singer-songwriter/bassist Johnette Napolitano formed the band Dream 6 with guitarist James Mankey in Los Angeles in 1982, releasing an eponymous EP in France on the Happy Hermit label in 1983. When they signed with I.R.S. Records in 1986, labelmate Michael Stipe suggested the name Concrete Blonde, describing the contrast between their hard rock music and introspective lyrics. A "Concrete Blonde" is also a derogatory term for the heavily hair-sprayed, permed and big haired appearance adopted by "Sunset Strip Metal" bands, such as Poison and Ratt. During an MTV interview, Napolitano can also be quoted as saying that the name Concrete Blonde is just "two words that sound good together." They were joined by drummer Harry Rushakoff on their eponymous debut album. Roxy Music drummer Paul Thompson replaced Rushakoff on Bloodletting and several tracks on Mexican Moon, while Rushakoff was in treatment for drug addiction. Rushakoff rejoined the band to record 2002's Group Therapy, but was kicked out of the band for failing to show up for shows.[citation needed] He was replaced by Gabriel Ramirez.
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Conrad Leonard
George Conrad Leonard (10 October 1898 – 19 April 2003) was a British composer and pianist. He was born in South Norwood.
Leonard served in the Middlesex Regiment during the First World War; he left the army in 1919 with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Leonard then studied music at the Guildhall School of Music, and he subsequently toured the country as a professional musician. From the 1930s, he performed with stars like Fred Astaire, Cole Porter and Gracie Fields. He composed over 400 ballads; the most famous being "My Love is Only For You" (1946) and "I heard a Robin singing" (1948).
During the Second World War, Leonard joined Laurence Wright, a music publishing firm, as an arranger - a position he held until 1969.
He continued to be an active musician into his extremely old age. When he was 99 years old, his doctor advised him to "ease up a bit", and he accordingly cut his engagements to 75 per year. Until the age of 103 years, he played the piano every Thursday at lunchtime in the Plantation Cafe at Squire's Garden Centre in Twickenham.
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Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (born June 22, 1953 in Queens, New York) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and LGBT rights activist.
She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the debut solo album She's So Unusual in 1983, which spawned four Billboard Hot 100 top-five songs—"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop" and "All Through the Night"—She's So Unusual was the first album in history to have four top five singles by a female. The album earned Lauper Best New Artist at the 27th Grammy Awards in 1985.
Her success continued with the follow-up, True Colors in 1986, which spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"True Colors" and "Change of Heart", and earned two nominations at the 29th Grammy Awards.
Since 1989 released from a nine studio albums acclaimed critical, A Night to Remember (1989), Hat Full of Stars (1993), Sisters of Avalon (1996), Merry Christmas... Have a Nice Life (1998),Shine (2001), At Last (2003), The Body Acoustic (2005), Bring Ya to the Brink (2008).
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Damien Rice
Damien Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter, musician and record producer who plays guitar, piano, clarinet and percussion.
Rice was raised in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland and began his musical career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper. After leaving the band he worked as a farmer in Tuscany and busked throughout Europe before returning to Ireland in 2001 and beginning a solo musical career.
In 2002 his debut album O reached #8 on the UK albums chart, won the Shortlist music prize and generated three top-30 singles in the UK. Rice released his second album 9 in 2006 and his songs have appeared in numerous films and television episodes.
Rice's personal activities include musical contributions to charitable projects such as the Songs for Tibet, Freedom Campaign and the Enough Project.
Rice was born to George and Maureen Rice and raised in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland.
Rice began his music career using the stage name "Dodima" Rice[citation needed] and formed the rock band Juniper along with Paul Noonan, Dominic Philips, David Geraghty and Brian Crosby in 1991. The band met whilst they were attending Salesian College secondary school in Celbridge, Co. Kildare as students. After touring throughout Ireland the band released their debut EP Manna in 1995.
Based in Straffan, Kildare the band continued touring and signed a six album record deal with Polygram. Their recording projects generated the singles “Weatherman” and “Single of the Fortnight” which received favorable reviews.
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Dannii Minogue
Danielle Jane Minogue also known as "Dannii" Minogue (born 20 October 1971) is an Australian singer-songwriter, actress, television personality, radio personality, fashion designer and model. She rose to prominence in the early 1980s for her roles in the Australian television talent show Young Talent Time and the soap opera Home and Away, before commencing her career as a pop singer in the early 1990s. Minogue achieved early success with hits such as "Love and Kisses" and "This is It", though by the release of her second album, her popularity as a singer had declined, leading her to make a name for herself with award-winning performances in musicals with Grease and also in Notre Dame De Paris, as well as other acting credits in The Vagina Monologues and as Lady Macbeth. The late 1990s saw a brief return to music after Minogue reinvented herself as a dance artist with "All I Wanna Do", her first number one UK Club hit.
In 2001, Minogue further returned to musical success with the release of her biggest worldwide hit to date, "Who Do You Love Now?", while her subsequent album, Neon Nights, became the most successful of her career. In the UK, she has achieved twelve consecutive number one dance singles, becoming the best-performing artist on the UK Upfront Club Chart. Since 2007, Minogue has established herself as a successful talent show judge and television personality. She is currently a judge on Australia's Got Talent in Australia and, until 2010, The X Factor in the UK, where she was the winning judge in both 2007 and 2010 with Leon Jackson and Matt Cardle, respectively. On 9 November 2011, Dannii received an honorary doctorate degree in Media and Arts from Southampton Solent University for her 30-year varied career in the showbiz and media industry.
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Daphne Oram
Daphne Oram (31 December 1925 – 5 January 2003) was a British composer and electronic musician. She was the creator of the "Oramics" technique for creating electronic sounds.
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Darryl Worley
Darryl Wade Worley (born October 31, 1964) is an American country music artist. Signed to DreamWorks Records Nashville in 2000, Worley released four albums for the label: Hard Rain Don't Last (2000), I Miss My Friend (2002), Have You Forgotten? (2003), and Darryl Worley in 2004. After the label closed in 2005, he moved to 903 Music, an independent label owned by Neal McCoy, releasing Here and Now in 2006, shortly before that label's closure. His most recent studio release is 2009's Sounds Like Life via Stroudavarious Records, owned by James Stroud.
Worley's six albums have produced 18 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including three Number Ones: "I Miss My Friend", "Have You Forgotten?", and "Awful, Beautiful Life", from 2002, 2003 and 2004–2005, respectively. "Have You Forgotten?" spent seven weeks at Number One. Nine other singles have reached the Top 40.
Darryl Wade Worley was born October 31, 1964 in Memphis, Tennessee to Tommy and Bonnie Worley. His family moved to Pyburn, Tennessee when he was young and he was raised there. His father was a Methodist preacher and his mother sang in the church choir. Worley attended the University of North Alabama and earned a degree in biology and chemistry. He worked in the chemical industry prior to pursuing country music, and wrote for FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. One of his first cuts as a songwriter was a track on Archer/Park's 1994 debut album.
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Dave Dudley
Dave Dudley (May 3, 1928 – December 22, 2003), born David Darwin Pedruska, was an American country music singer best known for his truck-driving country anthems of the 1960s and 1970s and his semi-slurred baritone. His signature song was "Six Days on the Road," and he is also remembered for "Vietnam Blues," "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun," and "Me and ol' C.B.". Other recordings included Dudley's duet with Tom T. Hall, "Day Drinking," and his own Top 10 hit, "Fireball Rolled A Seven," supposedly based on the career and death of Edward Glenn "Fireball" Roberts.
Born in Spencer, Wisconsin, Dudley had a short career as a semi-professional baseball player.[citation needed] After he suffered an arm injury, he was no longer able to play baseball. He then decided to pursue a career in country music. He was one of the earliest artists to record for the National Recording Corporation, with "Where's There's A Will" (1959).
Dudley was injured once again in 1960, this time in a car accident, setting back his career in music.[citation needed] He first appeared on the Country charts in 1961 with "Maybe I Do," released by Vee Records.[citation needed] He later moved to Golden Ring Records.
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Dave Gahan
Dave Gahan ( /ˈɡɑːn/; born 9 May 1962) is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the baritone lead singer for the British electronic music band Depeche Mode since their debut in 1980. He is also an accomplished solo artist, releasing albums in 2003 (Paper Monsters) and 2007 (Hourglass). Despite his bandmate Martin Gore continuing to be the main Depeche Mode songwriter, Gahan has contributed a number of songs to the band's most recent albums, Playing the Angel (2005) and Sounds of the Universe (2009). Two of these songs were released as singles, including "Suffer Well" in 2006 and "Hole to Feed" in 2009. Q magazine ranked Gahan no. 73 on the list of the "100 Greatest Singers" and no. 27 on "The 100 Greatest Frontmen".
David Gahan was born into a working class family, to parents Len Callcott[citation needed] (a bus driver) and his wife Sylvia (a conductress or "clippy" on London's buses), Dave was six months old when his father left the family. Sylvia and Len divorced two years later and his mother moved Dave and sister Sue (born 1960) to Basildon, Essex, after Sylvia met and married her second husband Jack Gahan (an administrator with Shell Oil). The Gahan family continued to grow with the birth of two more brothers Peter (born 1966) and Phil (born 1968). Dave and Sue were raised under the impression that their mother's second husband, Jack, was their natural father.
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Dave Matthews
David John "Dave" Matthews (born January 9, 1967) is a South African-American musician and actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band. He performs mainly with acoustic guitar and favors rhythm rather than solos in his playing.
David John Matthews was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the third of four children of parents John and Valerie Matthews. At two years old, Matthews' family moved to Yorktown Heights in Westchester County, New York, where his father, a physicist, started working for IBM.
In 1974, the family moved to Cambridge, England, for a year before returning to New York, where his father died from lung cancer in 1977. Biographer Nevin Martell argues that Dave's father's death may be an impetus for his "carpe diem" lyrics. At some point while residing in New York, Matthews attended his first concert, when his mother took him to a performance by Pete Seeger. The family moved back to Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1977.
Upon Matthews' graduation from St Stithians College high school in 1985, he was faced with conscription into the South African military just as civil disobedience to the practice was becoming widespread. A Quaker (and consequently pacifist), Matthews left South Africa to avoid service.
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Dave Rowberry
Dave Rowberry (4 July 1940 – 6 June 2003) was an English piano and organ player, most known for being a member of the rock and R&B group The Animals in the 1960s.
Born David Eric Rowberry in Mapperley, Nottinghamshire, Rowberry entered the Newcastle-upon-Tyne blues and jazz music scene in the early 1960s, when he was at Newcastle University. He joined The Mike Cotton Jazzmen (later The Mike Cotton Sound) in 1962, who made a living backing American blues and pop acts touring England. Rowberry Played on the groups singles 1962-1965, their hit Swing That Hammer, as well as their self titled album.
The Animals were already one of the major British Invasion groups in May 1965 when founding keyboardist Alan Price suddenly left due to fear of flying and other issues. According to lead singer Eric Burdon, Rowberry, while considered a good musician, was chosen partly because of his passing physical resemblance to Price. On the other hand, Burdon's crony Zoot Money claims that he was approached first, and Rowberry only selected as a second choice.
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David Bowie
David Bowie ( /ˈboʊ.i/ BOH-ee; born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He is known for his distinctive voice and the intellectual depth and eclecticism of his work.
Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in July 1969, when his song "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie's impact at that time, as described by biographer David Buckley, "challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day" and "created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture." The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona proved merely one facet of a career marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation and striking visual presentation.
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David Byrne
David Byrne (born May 14, 1952) is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography, opera, and non-fiction. He has received Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe awards and been inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, to Tom and Emma Byrne. He was the elder of two children. Two years later, his parents moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and then to Arbutus, Maryland, when he was 8 or 9 years old. His father worked as an electronics engineer. Before high school, David Byrne already knew how to play the guitar, accordion, and violin. He was rejected from his middle school’s choir because they claimed he was "off-key and too withdrawn." From a young age, Byrne had a strong interest in music. His parents say that he would constantly play his phonograph from age three and he learned how to play the harmonica at age five. In his journals he says, "I was a peculiar young man — borderline Asperger's, I would guess." As revealed by Tina Weymouth in the commentary for the concert film Stop Making Sense, Byrne is left handed but plays guitar right handed.
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David Usher
David Usher (born April 24, 1966) is a British-born Canadian singer-songwriter. Formerly the frontman for the alternative rock band Moist, he embarked on a solo career beginning in 1997 and has released seven solo albums to date.
David Usher was born in Oxford, England to a Thai Buddhist, artist Samphan Usher, and a Jewish Montrealer, Dan Usher, who is a professor of economics at Queen's University. He has lived in various places such as Malaysia, New York City, California and Thailand since early childhood, before his family settled in Kingston, ON. He attended high school at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute. Usher attended Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, majoring in political science. His degree would later influence his music career. Usher is a humanist, and has been involved in such causes as War Child Canada, White Ribbon Campaign and Amnesty International. Usher is featured in the acclaimed 2001 MuchMusic special Musicians in the WarZone, a humanitarian documentary produced by War Child Canada, directed by filmmaker Liz Marshall. In it Usher journeys to the northern border of Thailand to visit a large Burmese refugee community.
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Daz Dillinger
Delmar Drew Arnaud (born May 25, 1973, Long Beach, California), better known by his stage name Daz Dillinger (formerly Dat Nigga Daz) is an American hip hop producer and rapper mostly known for his membership in the rap duo Tha Dogg Pound, with Kurupt, and his work with Death Row Records.
Daz began his career on Death Row Records as a producer for co-founder Suge Knight's then-girlfriend, Paradise. He was signed to the label and subsequently began working with Dr. Dre on the breakthrough west coast album, The Chronic; during its recording, he met and grew close to Kurupt, whom he would soon work with professionally. The two formed Tha Dogg Pound for Doggystyle, the debut album of his cousin the record label's up-and-coming star Snoop Dogg. The critically acclaimed album, as well as their later single "What Would You Do?", saw Tha Dogg Pound partake in the rivalry between Dr. Dre and former N.W.A. groupmate Eazy-E, by dissing artists on Eazy's Ruthless Records.
Dillinger was more heavily involved in Doggystyle than was his groupmate; while it was produced and mixed by Dre, Arnaud was featured on one track and received co-production credit on two ("Serial Killa" and "For All My Niggaz and Bitches") he also produced tracks for Above The Rim and Murder Was the Case soundtracks. Following Daz and Kurupt put out their debut group album, Dogg Food, to rave reviews and platinum sales. While the duo dissed Ruthless act Bone Thugs-N-Harmony on the album, Dogg Food also saw the duo engage in yet another conflict, this time the beef Suge and new signee 2Pac initiated against Bad Boy Entertainment's Puff Daddy and Notorious B.I.G.; Daz and Kurupt would expand the feud to include Capone-N-Noreaga, Tragedy Khadafi and Mobb Deep with their Snoop-assisted single "New York, New York."
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Death by Stereo
Death by Stereo (also referred to as D. B. S.) is a hardcore punk band formed in Orange County, California circa 1996 by frontman Efrem Schulz. They are well known for their energetic performances and intricate guitar work. Their name can be attributed to the 1987 horror film The Lost Boys, for which Corey Haim speaks the line.
Death by Stereo has released five full-length studio albums and one live album. Their most recent studio album, Death Is My Only Friend, was released on July 7, 2009 in the United States. They also have a DVD in the works.
The band was formed by Ian Fowles, Jarrod Alexander, Efrem Schulz, Paul Miner and Jim Miner out of what were the remnants of their former bands. Jarrod and Ian were from the band D-Cons, Efrem was from Clint and Paul and Jim, who are brothers, were from CleanX. All five members had known each other long before Death by Stereo formed, as their former bands had toured and recorded together previously. Paul's record label Dental Records had released music by Clint and D-cons and would later go on to put out the first Death by Stereo release.
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Deborah Drattell
Deborah Drattell (born 1956) is an American composer. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and started her career in music as a violinist. Her compositions have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Tanglewood and Caramoor Music Festivals, and many other groups and venues. Renowned for her operas, she rewrote the role of the villain in Nicholas and Alexandra, Rasputin, from baritone to tenor when Plácido Domingo expressed interest in the role.
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Delta Goodrem
Delta Lea Goodrem (born 9 November 1984) is an Australian singer-songwriter and pianist. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she enrolled in dancing, acting, singing and piano classes at a young age. She began her career as a child actress, starring in various television shows and rose to prominence in 2002 in the Australian soap opera Neighbours as Nina Tucker.
Venturing into the music industry, Goodrem recorded an album entitled Delta through an independent label, which was never released due to legal reasons. Subsequently signing to Sony at the age of 15, she released her multi-platinum album Innocent Eyes which topped the Australian albums chart and UK Albums Chart. It became one of the highest selling albums in Australian history, with 4.5 million copies sold worldwide and all five of its singles— "Born to Try", "Lost Without You", "Innocent Eyes", "Not Me, Not I", and "Predictable"—reaching number one in Australia and three of them reaching the top ten in the UK. This gave her the record for becoming the first ever artist to have five Number 1 singles from a debut album.
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Denis Quilley
Denis Clifford Quilley OBE (26 December 1927 - 5 October 2003) was an English theatre, television and film actor who was long associated with the Royal National Theatre.
Quilley was born in Islington, North London. He attended Bancroft's School in Woodford Green. One of his best-known roles was as Commander Traynor in the children's science fiction TV series Timeslip. He was also heard in many television voiceovers.
Quilley played in the first London production of the musical The Boys from Syracuse (Antipholus of Ephesus) in 1963 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, alongside Bob Monkhouse and Ronnie Corbett.
He had long runs on London's West End during the 1950s in Wild Thyme and Grab Me a Gondola. In the 1970s he appeared with the Royal National Theatre in Macbeth, Hamlet, The Tempest and Long Day's Journey into Night, alongside Laurence Olivier in the last. He starred as Charles Condomine in the hit show High Spirits, a successful musical version of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit.
In 1980, he played the title role in Stephen Sondheim's Grand Guignol musical Sweeney Todd and in 1982 he played Terri Dennis in Peter Nichols' play, Privates on Parade (he appeared in the film version of Privates on Parade as well). This camp performance was repeated in 1985 in La Cage Aux Folles in which he starred with George Hearn.
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DevilDriver
DevilDriver is an American heavy metal band from Santa Barbara, California, formed in 2002. The band was originally named Deathride, however, due to copyright issues and the name being taken by several bands, Deathride changed its name to DevilDriver, which refers to bells Italian Wiccans used to drive evil forces away.
The band's self-titled album was not well received by some music critics. Their second album, The Fury of Our Maker's Hand received a better reception with critics, and entered the Billboard 200 at number 117.
At the age of fifteen, bassist Jon Miller had formed a band with drummer John Boecklin and guitarist Jeff Kendrick in high school. The band was called Area-51 and played cover versions of Metallica, Slayer, and Pantera. Miller, Boecklin and Kendrick met Coal Chamber vocalist Dez Fafara while he was in the process of recording the album Dark Days with Coal Chamber in 2002. The three were playing in a local band and talked to Fafara who said he was thinking about leaving Coal Chamber. Fafara said "Hey you guys write some heavy shit, and I want to get out of Coal Chamber". Fafara hosted several barbecues after moving from Orange County to Santa Barbara and would jam with musicians he met, which led to the formation of the band. Guitarist Evan Pitts met Fafara in a restaurant and gave him his phone number for a jam session, while John Boecklin who originally played guitar then played drums, met Fafara at a bar.
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Dierks Bentley
Dierks Bentley (born November 20, 1975) is an American country music artist who has been signed to Capitol Records Nashville since 2003. That year, he released his self-titled debut album. Both it and its follow-up, 2005's Modern Day Drifter, are certified platinum in the United States. A third album, 2006's Long Trip Alone, is certified gold. It was followed in mid-2008 by a greatest hits package. His fourth album, Feel That Fire was released in February 2009. A bluegrass studio album, Up on the Ridge, was released on June 8, 2010, and then a sixth album, Home, followed in February 2012.
Bentley's studio albums have accounted for eighteen singles on the country singles charts, of which nine have reached No. 1: his debut single "What Was I Thinkin'", as well as "Come a Little Closer", "Settle for a Slowdown", "Every Mile a Memory", "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)", "Feel That Fire", "Sideways", "Am I the Only One", and "Home". Four more of his singles have reached Top Five on the country charts as well.
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Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir ( /ˌdɪmuː ˈbɔrɡɪər/) is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. Dimmu Borgir means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The name is derived from a volcanic formation in Iceland, Dimmuborgir. The band has been through numerous line-up changes over the years; guitarist Silenoz and vocalist Shagrath are the only founding members remaining.
Dimmu Borgir was founded in 1993 by Shagrath, Silenoz, and Tjodalv, the band released an EP in 1993 entitled Inn i evighetens mørke ("Into the Darkness of Eternity" in English). This short EP sold out within weeks, and the band followed up with the 1994 full length album For All Tid ('For All Time' in English) This album featured vocal contributions by Vicotnik of Ved Buens Ende and Dødheimsgard and Aldrahn of Dødheimsgard and Zyklon-B. The initial lineup consisted of Shagrath playing drums with Tjodalv on guitar and Silenoz contributing lead vocals. This line-up changed before the release of Stormblåst (translates to "Storm Blown") on Cacophonous Records in 1996, an album considered by many to be their finest. It is also the last album which features all lyrics written and sung in Norwegian. This album was criticized by Allmusic because of bad sound quality and inaccessibility to wide audience.
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Dizzee Rascal
Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a UK and US-based rapper, songwriter and record producer of Ghanaian and Nigerian descent. His music is a blend of garage, hip hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music, with eclectic samples and more exotic styles. Best known for his number-one hits "Dance wiv Me", "Bonkers", "Holiday", "Dirtee Disco" & "Shout", his debut album, Boy in da Corner, won him the 2003 Mercury Prize. Follow-up albums Showtime, Maths + English and Tongue n' Cheek have all been critically acclaimed and certified gold, the last going platinum for sales exceeding 300,000 units.
Mills' Nigerian father died when he was young, and he was raised in Bow, in the East End of London in a single-parent family by his Ghanaian mother Priscilla, about whom he says: "I had issues as a kid. I was violent and disruptive. The way my mum helped was by finding me a different school every time I got kicked out, always fighting to keep me in the school system" he attended St Pauls Way Community School.
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DJ Bobo
Peter René Cipiriano Baumann (born January 5, 1968), better known as DJ BoBo, is a Swiss singer, songwriter, dancer and music producer. He has sold 14 million records worldwide and has released 10 studio albums as well as a few compilation albums which have included his previous hits in a reworked format. DJ BoBo has also released as many as 34 singles to date, some of which have charted quite high, not only in German speaking countries, but also in other European territories.
As a dance music producer, his first big success came with the single "Somebody Dance with Me", which borrows its melody from Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me. After this, he charted well with the singles "Keep on Dancing", "Take Control", "Everybody", "Let the Dream Come True", "Love Is All Around", "Freedom", "Pray" and "What a Feeling", as well as "Chihuahua", almost all of which comprised fast-paced Eurodance techno sound with female catchy refrains and rap performed by René. Between 1992 through 2007, he had 27 single chart-hits in Switzerland and Germany, and has won 10 World Music Awards for being Switzerland's best selling artist. René has received numerous Gold and Platinum certifications for his singles and albums and has found success in Europe (primarily in Germany and Switzerland), Asia and South America.
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DJ Quicksilver
Orhan Terzi (born 28 June 1964), better known by his stage name DJ Quicksilver is a Turkish born German DJ and music producer.
Terzi moved to Germany with his family in the late 1960s. His stage name derives from his days taking part in DJ contests, where a mercury column would gauge audience reaction.
He began working with Tommaso de Donatis on DJ Quicksilver material, and released tracks for a variety of record labels, including Avex Trax, Positiva, Telstar, Edel, Alphabet City, and Sub Terranean.
In 1997 they released "Bellissima" a hit double A-sided single after contributions from Alice Deejays' Marc Lee-Smith. The song became a big hit on the UK dance charts and then crossed over into pop, reaching #4 on the UK Singles Chart and selling enough copies to become a gold record, selling well throughout Europe. It remains his biggest single so far. Other releases include "Boombastic", which sampled the Shaggy track.
He released the track "Heart of Asia" under the alias "Watergate" in 1999
Terzi has also worked as a remixer, on tracks by Ian van Dahl, Faithless, and The Verve ("Bittersweet Symphony").
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Dog Fashion Disco
Dog Fashion Disco was an Avant-Garde Metal band from Rockville, Maryland, that was active from 1995 to 2007.
Combining many different music styles (70's psychedelic, jazz, piano recital, heavy metal, circus music and vocals, among others) Dog Fashion Disco was primarily considered an avant-garde metal band. The band's lyrical content is often highly esoteric and satirical, with constant tongue-in-cheek references to the occult, drug use, and mutilation. A major influence on the band's sound was the California genre-defying act, Mr. Bungle.
Dog Fashion Disco, or DFD as many fans refer to them as, was originally formed as Hug The Retard in 1995 but changed their name to Dog Fashion Disco before releasing any material, as they felt the name Hug The Retard was too offensive and might cost them fans. Their first two releases were self released and low budget products. The first - Erotic Massage - was funded by a loan taken out by drummer John Esminger, which his father had to co-sign on and "took nearly a year of local shows to pay off the part of the loan that was used for studio time, printing and pressing" and was released independently by the band in 1997. The second self-released album was titled Experiments In Alchemy and released in 1998. Experiments saw more heavy metal numbers, as opposed to the more ballady feel on many of Massage's songs.
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Don Estelle
Don Estelle (22 May 1933 – 2 August 2003) was a British actor and singer.
Born Donald Edwards in Crumpsall, Manchester, he was brought up in a house on Russell Street, Crumpsall. During World War II, at the age of eight, he was evacuated to Darwen, Lancashire, twenty miles away from his home town, to escape the German bombing of the city. It was here that he found his voice as a treble at the local Holy Trinity Parish Church (now called St Peter's) and, on returning home after the war, carried on singing at St Mary's Church, Crumpsall. He later joined a charity group, the Manchester Kentucky Minstrels, and with them, performed the Mario Lanza hit "Granada" in the talent show What Makes a Star? in 1954 at BBC Radio's northern studios in Manchester.
He gained theatre experience by singing one song 12 times a week in the show The Backyard Kids at the Hulme Hippodrome in Manchester. He later toured the Northern club circuit where he met the comedy actor Windsor Davies with whom he teamed up and toured the UK for four years. In the 1960s he had some cameo roles in Coronation Street and Dad's Army (in the latter he played a Pickfords man in one episode (1969), and an ARP Warden called Gerald in three episodes (1970)) and eventually landed the perfect role for his talents playing the part of Gunner 'Lofty' Sugden in the 1970s British sitcom, It Ain't Half Hot Mum. The character was dubbed with the ironic nickname of "Lofty" on account of Don Estelle's small stature (4 feet, 9 inches). He had a powerful tenor voice and as a spin-off from the series Estelle, and his co-star Windsor Davies, had a number one hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1975 with a semi-comic version of "Whispering Grass". He also acted in the films Not Now Comrade, A Private Function (1984) and Santa Claus: The Movie (1984).
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Don Gibson
Donald Eugene "Don" Gibson (April 3, 1928 – November 17, 2003) was an American songwriter and country musician. A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Gibson penned such country standards as "Sweet Dreams" and "I Can't Stop Loving You", and enjoyed a string of country hits from 1957 into the early 1970s.
Don Gibson was born in Shelby, North Carolina, into a poor working-class family, and he dropped out of school in the second grade.
His first band was called Sons of the Soil, with whom he made his first recording in 1948.
In 1957, he journeyed to Nashville to record "Oh Lonesome Me" and "I Can't Stop Loving You" for RCA. The afternoon session resulted in a double-sided hit on both the country and pop charts.
"Oh Lonesome Me" set the pattern for a long series of other RCA hits. "Blue Blue Day", recorded prior to "Oh, Lonesome Me" was a number 1 hit in 1958. Later singles included "Look Who's Blue" (1958), "Don't Tell Me Your Troubles" (1959), "Sea of Heartbreak" (1961); "Lonesome No. 1", "I Can Mend Your Broken Heart" (1962), and "Woman (Sensuous Woman)", a number one country hit in 1972.
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Dorothy Loudon
Dorothy Loudon (September 17, 1925 – November 15, 2003) was an American comedy actress and singer. She won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Miss Hannigan in Annie.
Loudon was born in Boston and raised in Indianapolis and Claremont, New Hampshire. She attended Syracuse University on a drama scholarship but did not graduate, and moved to New York City to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She began singing in night clubs, mingling song with ad-libbed comedy patter, and was featured on television on The Perry Como Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Loudon made her stage debut in 1962 in The World of Jules Feiffer, a play with incidental music by Stephen Sondheim, under the direction of Mike Nichols. That same year she made her Broadway debut in Nowhere to Go But Up, which ran only two weeks but earned her good reviews and the Theatre World Award. In 1969, The Fig Leaves Are Falling ran for only four performances, although it won her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance and a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. She followed this with a revival of Three Men on a Horse directed by George Abbott; Lolita, My Love, which closed out-of-town during its pre-Broadway tryout; and a revival of the Clare Boothe Luce comedy The Women.
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Earl King
This article is about the musical artist. For the Earl King convicted of murdering a ship's officer, see Earl King, Ernest Ramsay, and Frank Conner
Earl King (February 7, 1934 – April 17, 2003) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, most active in blues music. A composer of well known standards such as "Come On" (covered by Jimi Hendrix) and Professor Longhair's "Big Chief", he is an important figure in New Orleans R&B music.
King was born Earl Silas Johnson IV in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, a local piano player, died when King was still a baby, and he was brought up by his mother. With his mother, he started going to church at an early age. In his youth he sang gospel music, but took the advice of a friend to switch to blues to make a better living.
King started to play guitar at age 15. Soon he started entering talent contests at local clubs including the Dew Drop Inn. It was at one of those clubs where he met his idol Guitar Slim. King started imitating Slim, and his presence gave a big impact on his musical directions. In 1954, when Slim was injured in an automobile accident (right around the time Slim had the #1 R&B hit with "The Things That I Used To Do"), King was deputized to continue Slim's band tour, representing himself as Slim. After succeeding in this role, King became a regular at the Dew Drop Inn.
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Ed Townsend
Edward Benjamin 'Ed' Townsend (April 16, 1929 - August 13, 2003) was an American attorney, songwriter, and producer. He was best known for performing his composition, "For Your Love," a rhythm and blues doo wop classic, and as the co-writer of "Let's Get It On" with Marvin Gaye.
Although he was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee, his family soon moved to Memphis where his father was called to pastor an African Methodist Episcopal church.
The year Townsend graduated from high school, he was elected to the International American Methodist Episcopal Youth Council (IAMEYC). The honor let him travel worldwide before enrolling in college the next year at Arkansas State College. After graduating, he taught for a year. Although he never formally practiced law, he frequently used his law training to assist other entertainers in negotiating their recording and performance contracts.
In 1951, Townsend joined the United States Marine Corps and served in Korea. After his discharge, he recorded a number of singles for various labels, none of which made the charts. Ironically, in 1958 he took his ballad, "For Your Love" to Capitol Records, hoping to interest Nat “King” Cole, but, impressed with his voice, Capitol signed him to record it himself. Dick Clark had just started American Bandstand on television and invited Townsend to sing the very first month the show aired. He was an overnight success and the song shot up the charts, reaching #13 on the US pop chart.
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Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. Known for his powerful vocals, he is widely considered an icon of alternative rock.
He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums by other artists. In 2007, Vedder released his first solo album as a soundtrack for the film Into the Wild (2007). His second album, Ukulele Songs, along with a live DVD titled Water on the Road, was released on 31 May 2011.
Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, son of Karen Lee Vedder and Edward Louis Severson, Jr. His parents divorced in 1965, when Vedder was one year old. His mother soon remarried a man named Peter Mueller, an attorney, and Vedder was raised believing that Mueller was his biological father. His adopted name became Edward Mueller. While living in Evanston, Vedder's family fostered seven younger children in a group home.
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Edguy
Edguy is a power metal band from Fulda, Germany that was formed in 1992.
Edguy was founded in 1992 by 14-year-old students Tobias Sammet, Jens Ludwig, Dominik Storch and Dirk Sauer. The name "Edguy" was an affectionate epithet for Mr. Edgar Siedschlag, their math teacher at the time. In 1994, the band released two demos, Evil Minded and Children of Steel. These tapes were sent to many record labels, all of whom rejected the band, believing they would have no future in the music business. The following year they self released their ‘unofficial’ debut album, Savage Poetry. They signed with AFM Records shortly after, who offered to re-release Savage Poetry with more widespread distribution. The band rejected this proposal in favour of recording a new album, Kingdom of Madness, which was released in 1997. 1998 saw the release of their sophomore album, Vain Glory Opera, with friend Frank Lindenhall filling in on drums. This album helped expose Edguy to a wider audience, thanks in part to guest appearances from Timo Tolkki (Stratovarius) and Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian). The band was joined by new drummer Felix Bohnke and bassist Tobias ‘Eggi’ Exxel later that year, allowing Tobias Sammet to solely focus on vocals (he had previously played bass as well handling vocal duties).
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Edoardo Sanguineti
Edoardo Sanguineti (9 December 1930 – 18 May 2010) was an Italian writer who was born in Genoa.
During the 1960s he was a leader of the neo avant-garde Gruppo 63 movement, founded in 1963 at Solunto.
He was also an active translator of Joyce, Molière, Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, and select Greek and Latin authors.
From 1979 until 1983, Sanguineti was a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. He was elected as an independent on the list of the PCI.
He was an atheist.
Sanguineti died on 18 May 2010 at Villa Scassi Hospital in Genoa following emergency surgery for an abdominal aneurysm. He was 79.
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Edwin McCain
Edwin McCain (born January 20, 1970 in Greenville, South Carolina) is an American singer-songwriter and musician.
Long time touring friends with Hootie and the Blowfish, the Edwin McCain band signed with same label, Atlantic Records. In 1994, he recorded his first major-label album, Honor Among Thieves under the Lava Records imprint (Matchbox Twenty, Kid Rock and Jewel). The record was then released in 1995. His second album, Misguided Roses, spawned "I'll Be", a major hit single in 1998. This song is also featured on the charitable album, Live in the X Lounge, along with a live version of "Solitude". It was also featured and included in the soundtrack of the 2004 teen flick, A Cinderella Story.
Summer of 1999 marked the arrival of McCain's third album, Messenger, which included a second Top 40 hit, the Diane Warren-penned "I Could Not Ask For More." Produced by Matt Serletic (Matchbox Twenty, Collective Soul) and Noel Golden, Messenger was recorded at Tree Sound Studios and Southern Tracks in Atlanta as well as Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles. "I Could Not Ask For More" was also featured on the soundtrack for the 1999 film Message in a Bottle.
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Edwin Starr
Edwin Starr (January 21, 1942 – April 2, 2003) was an American soul music singer. Starr is most famous for his Norman Whitfield produced singles of the 1970s, most notably the number one hit "War".
Starr was born Charles Edwin Hatcher in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1942. He and his cousins, soul singers Roger and Willie Hatcher, moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where they were raised.
In 1957, Starr formed a doo-wop group, The Future Tones, and began his singing career. Starr lived in Detroit, Michigan, in the 1960s and recorded at first for the small record label Ric-Tic, and later for Motown Records after the latter absorbed Ric-Tic in 1968.
The song which began his career was "Agent Double'O'Soul" (1965), a reference to the James Bond films popular at the time. Other early hits included "Headline News", "Back Street", a cover of The Miracles "Way Over There", and "S.O.S. (Stop Her On Sight)". He recorded more soul music for the next three years before having an international hit in "25 Miles" (1968), which peaked at #6 in the United States the following year.
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Elliott Smith
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity. His primary instrument was the guitar, but he was also proficient at piano, clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and harmonica. Smith had a distinctive vocal style characterized by his "whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery" and use of multi-tracking to create vocal layers, textures, and harmonies.
After playing in the rock band Heatmiser for several years, Smith began his solo career in 1994 with releases on the independent record labels Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars. In 1997 he signed a contract with DreamWorks Records, for which he recorded two albums. Smith rose to mainstream prominence when his song "Miss Misery"—included in the soundtrack for the film Good Will Hunting—was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category in 1998.
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Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date.
In his four-decade career John has sold more than 250 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single "Candle in the Wind 1997" has sold over 33 million copies worldwide, and is the best selling single in Billboard history. He has more than 50 Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 56 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, four No. 2 hits, and nine No. 1 hits. He has won six Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.
John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Having been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, John received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998.
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Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus, 25 August 1954) is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader than that of most popular songs. His music has drawn on many diverse genres; one critic described him as a "pop encyclopaedia", able to "reinvent the past in his own image".
Costello has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male. In 2003, Elvis Costello & the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Costello was born Declan Patrick MacManus in St Mary's Hospital, London, the son of Lilian Alda (née Ablett, b. 1927, Liverpool) and Ross MacManus (1927–2011), a musician and bandleader. He is of Irish heritage. Costello lived in Twickenham, attending Hounslow Secondary Modern School, which is now St Mark's Catholic Secondary School, in neighbouring Hounslow. With a musically inclined father (who was a jazz trumpeter and sang with The Joe Loss Orchestra), Costello's first broadcast recording was alongside his dad in a television commercial for R. White's Lemonade (I'm a Secret Lemonade Drinker). His father wrote and sang the song; Costello provided backing vocals. The advertisement won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival.
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Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem (often stylized as EMINƎM) and by his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of D12, Eminem is also one half of the hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop. Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200. He has sold more than 42 million tracks and 41 million albums in the United States, and nearly 90 million albums worldwide.
Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album, The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others as his influences.
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Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Iglesias (born Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler; May 8, 1975) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and occasional actor, popular in both the Latin market and the Hispanic American market in the United States. He is the son of the famous Spanish singer Julio Iglesias. Within five years of beginning his musical career in the 1990s, he became the biggest seller of Spanish-language albums of that decade. He made his crossover into the mainstream English language market before the turn of the millennium, signing a multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for an unprecedented US$50,000,000 with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope to release English albums. In 2010, he parted with Interscope and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Universal Republic.
Iglesias has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling Spanish language artists of all time. He has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two number-ones, and holds the record for producing 22 number-one Spanish-language singles on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks. He has also had ten number-one songs on Billboard's Dance charts, more than any other single male artist. Altogether, Iglesias has amassed 55 number-one hits on the various Billboard charts. Billboard has called him The King of Latin Pop and The King of Dance. Billboard also named Enrique the number two Latin artist of the years 1986–2011 (Luis Miguel taking the first spot).
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Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), better known by her stage name Erykah Badu /ˈɛrɨkə bɑːˈduː/, is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, record producer, activist and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical stylings and sense of fashion. She is known as the "First Lady of Neo-Soul" or the "Queen of Neo-Soul".
Early in her career, Badu was recognizable for wearing very large and colorful headwraps. For her musical sensibilities, she has often been compared to jazz great Billie Holiday. She was a core member of the Soulquarians, and is also an actress having appeared in a number of films playing a range of supporting roles in movies such as Blues Brothers 2000, The Cider House Rules and House of D. She also speaks at length in the documentary Before the Music Dies.
Erykah Badu was born Erica Abi Wright in Dallas, Texas, on February 26, 1971. Her mother raised her and her brother and sister alone; their father, William Wright, Jr., had deserted the family early in their lives. To provide for her family, the children's grandmother often helped looking after them while Erykah's mother, Kolleen Maria Gipson (Wright), performed as an actress in theatrical productions. Influenced by her mother, Erykah had her first taste of show business at the age of 4, singing and dancing with her mother at the Dallas Theatre Centre. Erykah Badu was the owner of Focal point in Dallas, Texas.
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Eugene Istomin
Eugene George Istomin (November 26, 1925 – October 10, 2003) was an American pianist.
Istomin was born in New York City of Russian parents. He was famous for his work in a piano trio in which he collaborated with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose. The Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio made many recordings, particularly of music by Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert. He also was known as a soloist, performing many concerts of orchestral music, with conductors such as Eugene Ormandy and Bruno Walter.
He was a child prodigy. His earliest public performances began at age six with his mother, and at 12 he entered the Curtis Institute. He went on to study under Rudolf Serkin and also Mieczysław Horszowski.
In 1943, at the age of 17, he won the Leventritt award and the Philadelphia Youth Award. He made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy, playing a concerto by Chopin, and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Artur Rodziński playing Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 in the same week in 1943.
He performed with the conductor Rodzinski and the New York Philharmonic a second time in December 1944, playing Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto.
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Fabolous
John David Jackson (born November 18, 1977), better known by his stage name Fabolous, is an American rapper. His first music appearance was with his 2001 release Ghetto Fabolous. He is also known for his hit singles "Can't Deny It", "Young'n (Holla Back)", "Breathe", "Make Me Better" and "Throw It in the Bag". Fabolous is also signed to Diddy's Ciroc Management company.
Fabolous was born John David Jackson on November 18, 1977 of Dominican and African American descent. He grew up in Brevoort Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
While in high school in twelfth grade, Fabolous began to pursue a rap career. He was invited to rap live on DJ Clue's radio show and on WQHT Hot 97, where he was signed to Desert Storm Records. He was featured on several DJ Clue mixtapes and mixtapes with Roc-A-Fella artists.[citation needed] This earned Fabolous and Desert Storm a distribution deal with Elektra Records.
Fabolous released his debut album, Ghetto Fabolous, on September 11, 2001. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, selling over 143,000 copies in its first week. The album's first single, "Can't Deny It", was produced by Rick Rock and features a chorus by Nate Dogg interpolating Tupac Shakur's song "Ambitionz Az a Ridah". It charted on the Billboard Hot 100, along with two of the subsequent singles. The other charting singles were "Young'n (Holla Back)", which is produced by The Neptunes and "Trade It All", which features vocals from Jagged Edge and is produced by DJ Clue and Duro.
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Feeder
Feeder are an alternative rock band from Newport, Wales, formed in 1991. Feeder's line-up from 1994 had consisted of founding members vocalist and guitarist Grant Nicholas alongside drummer Jon Lee, before the line-up was later completed with bassist Taka Hirose. The band had previously employed Simon Blight from Raindancer, a previous Feeder incarnation. On January 7, 2002 Jon took his own life in his Miami home, which saw the band keep out of the public eye for the rest of the year until August, when they made their live return with then former Skunk Anansie drummer Mark Richardson, who also recorded with the band. In May 2009, Mark parted company with Feeder to return to a reformed Skunk Anansie, before Karl Brazil took over as the band's studio and live drummer. Although the band have also employed Damon Wilson and former Mexicolas member Tim Trotter for live duties, Tim has recorded with the band on occasions.
Feeder first attracted national attention with the 2001 album Echo Park, due to the popularity and frequent airplay of its lead and UK top 5 single "Buck Rogers", although the band had released two albums before this being Polythene (1997) and Yesterday Went Too Soon (1999). Feeder's overall mainstream success is seen as moderate in comparison to their peers, but have seen very positive critical reviews for their early work, which includes a perfect 10/10 score for Yesterday Went Too Soon by Metal Hammer magazine. Two years previously Polythene was their album of the year, while in November 2004 Kerrang!'s writers have also approved of "Buck Rogers" as one of their "666 Songs You Must Own". Feeder's chart successes up until the end of 2006, enabled them to become one of the most successful UK chart acts between 1952-2006 based on the ranking system used in the now defunct Guinness publication British Hit Singles & Albums. Total combined domestic sales from all their albums that have been certified at least gold, currently stands at over 1.5 million.
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Fefe Dobson
Felicia Lily "Fefe" Dobson (born February 28, 1985) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Her self-titled debut album earned her two Juno Award nominations. Her second album, Sunday Love, was not released and she was terminated from her recording company. During production of Dobson's subsequent studio album Joy, with her manager's recording company (21 Music), she was re-signed to her original major recording company (Island Records). Both companies continued working on Joy, and after experiencing numerous delays, it was released on November 22, 2010 in Canada and November 30, 2010 in the United States. Her music has been covered by other artists and featured in cinema, television, and more.
Dobson was born on February 28, 1985, in Scarborough, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. Dobson's mother is of English, Aboriginal, and French ancestry and her father is of Jamaican heritage. She went to high school at Wexford Collegiate Institute. During her childhood, she took singing lessons at the New Conservatory of Music in Agincourt, Scarborough to improve her singing.
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Florent Pagny
Florent Pagny (b. 6 November 1961 in Chalon-sur-Saône, Saône-et-Loire) is a French musician. He has also acted in many French films. He records work in French, Italian, Spanish and English, and his greatest hits include "N'importe quoi", "Savoir aimer", "Ma Liberté de penser" (all three were #1 in France) and "Caruso" (#2 in France).
As of 2008, he has sold 4,268,980 copies of singles, 7,273,606 copies of albums and total over 11,542,586 copies of records in France, he was the 25th best selling artist in France from 1955 to 2008.
Pagny began his artistic career as an actor in popular films and television dramas. He appeared in La Balance, L'As des as, A Captain's Honor or Fort Saganne.
In 1987, he wrote his first song : "N'importe quoi." Pagny's first album, Merci, was released in 1990. The album's songs, mainly written by himself, began to attract controversy, with the press eventually boycotting some of them. This led to a decline in sales, culminating in personal problems. His follow-up album, Réaliste, was also not as successful.
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Four Tet
Kieran Hebden (born 1978, Putney, London) is a post-rock and electronic musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist under the moniker of Four Tet.
Hebden's music typically eschews the traditional pop song format in favour of a more abstract approach—his sound and melodies incorporate elements of hip hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and folk music with live instrumentation.
Alongside recording his own material, Hebden has also performed remixes for a number of artists including Aphex Twin, Anti-Pop Consortium, Bonobo, Beth Orton, Born Ruffians, Explosions in the Sky, Super Furry Animals, Radiohead, Manic Street Preachers, Matthew Dear, Sia, Nathan Fake, Bloc Party, Andrew Bird, Kings of Convenience, Battles, Juana Molina, Madvillain, The xx, Foals, and Black Sabbath, as well as producing two albums by psychedelic improvisational group Sunburned Hand of the Man. Hebden's recent output includes a number of improvisational works with the late jazz drummer Steve Reid and collaborations with both Burial and Thom Yorke.
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Franco Bonisolli
Franco Bonisolli (May 25, 1938 - October 30, 2003) was an Italian operatic tenor, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, notably as Manrico and Calaf.
Bonisolli was born in Rovereto, Italy. He studied with Alfredo Lattaro, and, after winning an international voice contest, he made his debut in Spoleto, as Ruggero, in 1962. He quickly established himself throughout Italy, appearing first in lyric roles such as, Nemorino, Duca di Mantua, Alfredo, Rodolfo, des Grieux, Hoffmann, etc.
He took part in revivals of neglected opera such as La donna del lago, opposite Montserrat Caballé, and Le siège de Corinthe, opposite Beverly Sills, and took part in the creation of new works, such as La lampada di Alidino by Rota, and Luisilla by Mannino.
He began an international career in the early 1970s, with debut at the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the Paris Opéra, the Metropolitan Opera, etc., and began expanding his repertory to include more dramatic roles, notably Arnold, Don Jose, Manrico, Radames, Otello, Cavaradossi, Calaf, etc.
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Franco Corelli
Franco Corelli (8 April 1921 – 29 October 2003) was a famous Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian repertory, he was celebrated universally for his powerhouse voice, electrifying top notes, clear timbre, a very elegant and passionate singing and remarkable performances. Dubbed the "Prince of tenors", Corelli possessed handsome features and a charismatic stage presence which endeared him to audiences. He had a long and fruitful partnership with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City between 1961 and 1975. He also appeared on the stages of most of the major opera houses in Europe and with opera companies throughout North America.
Corelli was born Dario Franco Corelli in Ancona into a family many have thought to have little or no musical background. While his parents were not particularly musical, his paternal grandfather Augusto had actually quit working at 35 to establish a successful career as an operatic tenor. His older brother Aldo subsequently quit school to become an operatic baritone, and two of his uncles sang in the Teatro delle Muse chorus in Ancona. His father was a shipbuilder for the Italian navy and the family lived along the Adriatic Sea. Corelli loved the sea and initially decided to follow in the footsteps of his father by pursuing a degree in naval engineering at the University of Bologna. While studying there he entered a music competition under the dare of a friend who was an amateur singer. While he did not win the competition, he was encouraged by the judges to pursue a singing career and Corelli entered the Pesaro Conservatory of Music to study opera.
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Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, recording engineer, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band The Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for percussion-based avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse and 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands; he later switched to electric guitar.
He was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often impossible to categorize. His 1966 debut album with The Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. His later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was one of rock, jazz or classical. His lyrics—often humorously—reflected his iconoclastic view of established social and political processes, structures and movements. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship.
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Gabriella Gatti
Gabriella Gatti (July 5, 1908 - October 22, 2003) was an Italian operatic soprano, primarily based in Italy and associated with the Italian repertory.
Born Gabriella Pesci in Rome, where she studied voice and piano. She made her stage debut in 1934, at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Monteverdi's Orfeo. Thereafter she quickly appeared in all the major opera houses throughout Italy, most often in Rome and Florence, but also sang at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, from 1938 to 1947.
Her voice was lyrical in character, graceful in timbre and expression, and she stood as an example of the refined, classical style at a time when the opposite manner prevailed among Italian sopranos. She was admired in roles such as; Countess Almaviva, Semiramide, Mathilde, Desdemona, etc.
She sang Marie at the Italian premiere of Wozzeck in Rome, in 1942.
She can be heard in a few recordings , notably in Le nozze di Figaro, opposite Sesto Bruscantini, Alda Noni, Italo Tajo, and as Fenena in Nabucco.
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Gary Allan
Gary Allan Herzberg (born December 5, 1967) is an American country music artist, known professionally as Gary Allan.
Signed to Decca Records in 1996, Allan made his debut on the United States country music scene with the release of his single "Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album Used Heart for Sale, which was released in 1996 on Decca Records. A second album, It Would Be You, followed in 1998 on Decca. Allan's third album, Smoke Rings in the Dark, was his first album for MCA Nashville (to which he has been signed ever since) and the first platinum album of his career. Its successors, Alright Guy (2001) and See If I Care (2003), were all certified platinum as well, while 2005's Tough All Over and 2007's Greatest Hits were both certified gold. A seventh studio album, Living Hard, was released later in 2007.
Overall, Allan's seven studio albums and Greatest Hits package have produced 24 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including three that reached Number One: "Man to Man" and "Tough Little Boys" in 2003, and "Nothing On but the Radio" in 2004. Seven more of his singles have reached the Top Ten on this chart as well: "Her Man", "It Would Be You", "Right Where I Need to Be", "The One", "Best I Ever Had" (a cover of a Vertical Horizon song), "Life Ain't Always Beautiful", and "Watching Airplanes". Allan's latest album, Get Off on the Pain, was released on March 9, 2010.
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Gary Jules
Gary Jules (born March 19, 1969 as Gary Jules Aguirre, Jr.) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his cover version of the Tears For Fears classic "Mad World", which Gary recorded with friend Michael Andrews for the film Donnie Darko. It became the UK Christmas Number One single of 2003. Since then, Gary's version has been used on popular American TV shows, in a commercial for the critically acclaimed video game Gears of War, an episode of CSI: Las Vegas, and a Season 5 episode of the medical drama House.
Some of Gary's early projects/bands were The Ivory Knights, Our Town Pansies, Woodenfish, Kofi, The Origin, Invisible, No poetry, and Heroes and Heroin.[citation needed] Gary's 2003 residency at the Los Angeles Hotel Café helped develop the venue as a successful singer/songwriter venue for other artists such as Gary.
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Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 1952 – 6 February 2011), was a Northern Irish musician, most widely recognised as a blues singer and guitarist.
In a career dating back to the 1960s, Moore played with artists including Phil Lynott and Brian Downey during his teens, leading him to memberships with the Irish bands Skid Row and Thin Lizzy on three separate occasions. Moore shared the stage with such blues and rock luminaries as B.B. King, Albert King, Colosseum II, George Harrison and Greg Lake, as well as having a successful solo career. He guested on a number of albums recorded by high profile musicians, including a cameo appearance playing the lead guitar solo on "She's My Baby" from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
Moore started performing at a young age, having picked up a battered acoustic guitar at the age of eight. He got his first quality guitar at the age of 14, learning to play the right-handed instrument in the standard way despite being left-handed. He moved to Dublin in 1968 at the age of 16. His early musical influences were artists such as Albert King, Elvis Presley, The Shadows and The Beatles. Later, having seen Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in his home town of Belfast, his own style was developing into a blues-rock sound that would be the dominant form of his career in music.
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Gene Anthony Ray
Gene Anthony Ray (May 24, 1962 – November 14, 2003) was an American actor, dancer, and choreographer. He was best known for his portrayal of dancer Leroy Johnson in both the 1980 film Fame and the 1982–1987 Fame television series based upon the film.
Born in Harlem, New York, Ray grew up in the neighborhood of West 153rd Street. He attended the New York High School of the Performing Arts, the inspiration for the film Fame, but was kicked out after one year. "It was too disciplined for this wild child of mine," Ray's mother, Jean E. Ray said. Ray also studied dance at the Julia Richman High School, where he would audition for Fame choreographer, Louis Falco. Much like his Fame character, Ray had little professional training, but a raw talent that won him his role for the film.
Fame was syndicated by MGM Television from 1983 to 1987. In 1987 he won the role of Billy Nolan in the ill-fated musical adaptation of Carrie by Stephen King. Ray played the role in the original opening in Stratford-Upon-Avon which closed after less than a month, he then transferred to Broadway and continued to play the role until the musical closed after only twenty-one public performances.
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George Crumb
George Crumb (born October 24, 1929) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello (ex. Vox Balaenae), metallic vibrato for the piano (ex. Five Pieces for Piano), and using a mallet to play the strings of a contrabass (ex. Madrigals, Book I), among numerous others. He is not an electronic music composer, however many works call for amplification of instruments, such as Black Angels (string quartet) or Ancient Voices of Children (mixed ensemble). Crumb's music contains an intense humanism, which is reflected in his personal definition of music: "a system of proportions in the service of spiritual impulse."
Crumb was born in Charleston, West Virginia, and began to compose at an early age. He studied music first at the Mason College of Music in Charleston where he received his Bachelor's degree in 1950. He obtained his Master's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and then briefly studied in Berlin before returning to the United States to study at the University of Michigan, from which he received his D.M.A. in 1959.
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Gianna Nannini
Gianna Nannini (born 14 June 1954) is an Italian female singer-songwriter and pop musician. She may be best known for her 1986 song "Bello e Impossibile".
Born in Siena on 14 June 1954, Nannini studied piano in Lucca and then composition in Milan. She is the older sister of former Formula One racing driver Alessandro Nannini. She graduated in philosophy from the University of Siena in 1994. The following year she took part in a protest organized by Greenpeace at the French embassy in Rome against the decision of the French government to pursue nuclear experiments at Mururoa. In August 2010 she announced that she was pregnant and that she would dedicate the upcoming album to her child. Gianna showed off her pregnancy on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine wearing a T-shirt with the inscription ‘God is a woman’. On 26 November 2010 at 12am Nannini's daughter Penelope Jane Charlotte was born on the seventh floor of the Madonnina Clinic in Milan. The girl weighed 2.530 kilos and was 48 cm long.
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Gino Paoli
Gino Paoli (born 23 September 1934 in Monfalcone) is an Italian singer-songwriter. He wrote four masterpieces of Italian popular music: "Il cielo in una stanza", "Che cosa c'è", "Senza fine" and "Sapore di sale".
Paoli was born in Monfalcone, a little town near Trieste, but moved very early to Genoa.
After several different jobs, he was called by Ricordi with his friends Luigi Tenco and Bruno Lauzi. His first success was the single "La gatta," which has been used in world language Italian task disks in America for middle schools and high schools.
Another early song was "Il cielo in una stanza" composed in 1959. According to Paoli, the lyrics had come to him while lying on the bed of a brothel. Looking at the purple ceiling, he thought, "Love can grow at any moment at any place".Mina's single release of the song topped the list of annual sales in Italy and reached Billboard Hot 100. Video performances of the song were included in the movies "Io bacio... tu baci" and "Appuntamento a Ischia". Later it was featured in the "Goodfellas" movie. Carla Bruni Sarkozy covered the song (mixing French with her native Italian) in her debut album ("Quelqu'un m'a dit").
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Ginuwine
Elgin Baylor Lumpkin (born October 15, 1970), better known by his stage name Ginuwine is an American singer-songwriter dancer and actor. Signed to Epic Records since the mid-1990s, Ginuwine had released a number of multi-platinum and platinum-selling albums and singles, becoming one of R&B's top artists during the late 1990s and early 2000s .
Ginuwine was born on October 15, 1970 in Washington, D.C. He is named after NBA legend Elgin Baylor, who is also a Washington native. In 1989, he graduated from Forestville High School (now known as Forestville Military Academy) in Forestville, Maryland and later graduated from Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland with a paralegal associate's degree. Soon afterward he broke into the music industry.
Ginuwine lost both his parents in 2000; his father committed suicide and his mother died of cancer less than a year later. Ginuwine struggled with grief and depression; he also thought of committing suicide. He received counseling by his pastor, which turned him to a more positive path.
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Giorgio Gaber
Giorgio Gaber, byname of Giorgio Gaberscik (25 January 1939 - 1 January 2003), was an Italian singer-songwriter, actor and playwright. He was also an accomplished guitar player and author of one of the first rock songs in Italian ("Ciao ti dirò", 1958). Together with Sandro Luporini, he pioneered the musical genre known as teatro canzone ("song theatre").
The new underground auditorium of the Pirelli Tower in Milan is dedicated to him.
He was born in Milan into a lower middle-class family. His father, Guido Gaberscik, was born in Trieste, when the city was still part of Austria-Hungary, most probably to Italianized Slovene immigrants from the Gorizia region. The surname Gaberscik is in fact of Slovene origin (Gaberščik). His mother was from the Veneto region. The two met and married in Veneto and later moved to Milan, where Giorgio was born.
Gaber began to play as rehabilitation for an injury to his hand which required constant but not strenuous activity to recover his motor skill. Since his health as a child was not the best and his older brother Marcello played guitar, he was encouraged to play as well. The outcome was good both in terms of his health and artistically, and at only fourteen years of age he was engaged to play at a New Eve's party and earned his first paycheck of 1,000 lire.
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Gisele MacKenzie
Gisèle MacKenzie (January 10, 1927 – September 5, 2003) was a Canadian-American singer, most famous for her performances on the popular television program Your Hit Parade.
She was born Gisèle Marie-Louise Marguerite LaFlèche in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and studied violin and voice at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Ontario. She had at least two Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio programs, Meet Gisèle and Gisele and Mr. Cable, before moving to Los Angeles, California, in 1951. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1955.
MacKenzie possessed a crystalline, resonant singing voice, and perfect pitch. She recorded albums and singles on various record labels, most notably Capitol and RCA. In 1953 she reached #6 in the UK Singles Chart, with her rendition of "Seven Lonely Days". Her biggest selling song was "Hard To Get" in 1955.
MacKenzie was an accomplished violinist and performed many comedic musical duets with mentor Jack Benny. She remarked that Benny was so enthusiastic about his own violin playing that at each break in rehearsal he would get his violin and they would play duets. In an often-played clip, she and Benny perform a violin duet of "Getting To Know You", in which she breaks their synchronization several times to add some extra musical flourishes, to his mock irritation. Finally, he breaks in with a lengthy (and stereotypically mediocre) flourish of his own, and evokes audience laughter with mock indignation: "Fool around with ME, sister!
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Glen Phillips
Glen Phillips (born December 29, 1970) is a songwriter, lyricist, singer and guitarist. He is best known as the singer and songwriter of 1990s alternative rock group Toad the Wet Sprocket.
Phillips was born in Santa Barbara, California, United States, and began making music at age 14. Glen grew up in a household where Reform Judaism was practiced and Eastern Religion was studied, and his spiritual curiosity has been one of the major themes of his writing.
Phillips and his wife, Laurel, have three girls (Sophia, Freya, and Zola).
Phillips injured his arm on October 8, 2008 at a friend's house when a glass coffee table he was sitting on collapsed. Phillips had surgery to repair a damaged ulnar nerve and muscle in his left arm. His ability to play guitar was hampered during his recovery, but he had been actively touring in spite of his injury. Sean Watkins and Jonathan Kingham have recently joined Phillips on the road to provide accompaniment.
Phillips is frequently barefoot when performing with the band.
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Gloria Estefan
Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan, known professionally as Gloria Estefan (born September 1, 1957) is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Known as the "Queen Of Latin Pop", she is in the top 100 best selling music artists with over 100 million albums sold worldwide, 31.5 million of those in the United States alone. She has won three Grammy Awards, and 4 Latin Grammys, and is the most successful crossover performer in Latin music to date.
Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo was born September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba, to Jose and Gloria Fajardo. Her maternal grandfather, Leonardo Garcia, immigrated to Cuba from Pola de Siero, Asturias, Spain, where he married Gloria's maternal grandmother, originally from Logroño, Spain. Prior to the Cuban Revolution, her father was a Cuban soldier and a bodyguard to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The Fajardo family fled to Miami, Florida as a result of the Cuban Revolution and settled down there. Shortly after they moved to the United States, Gloria's father joined the US military and fought in the Vietnam War and moved to Houston, Texas, also having participated in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Gloria attended St. Michael-Archangel School and Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami. Her father became ill after returning from Vietnam and Gloria helped her mother, Gloria Fajardo, care for him. Her mother worked as a school teacher for the Dade County Public School system. Gloria Estefan graduated from college in 1979 with a B.A. in psychology, with a minor in French, from the University of Miami. When she was studying at the university, she worked as an English/Spanish/French translator at Miami International Airport Customs Department and, because of her language abilities, was once approached by the CIA as a possible employee. Estefan was raised Catholic.
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Godsmack
Godsmack is an American heavy metal band from Lawrence, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. The band is composed of founder, frontman and songwriter Sully Erna, guitarist Tony Rombola, bassist Robbie Merrill, and drummer Shannon Larkin. Since its formation, Godsmack has released five studio albums, one EP, four DVDs, one compilation album collection and one live album.
The band has had three consecutive number one albums (Faceless, IV, and The Oracle) on the Billboard 200. The band also has parked a ratified 20 top ten rock radio hits, including 15 songs in the Top Five, a record number of top ten singles by a rock artist.
Since its inception, Godsmack has toured on Ozzfest on more than one occasion, and has toured with many other large tours and festivals, including supporting its albums with its own arena tours. Godsmack has sold over 20 million records in just over a decade, yet despite the decline of album sales in recent years, they have proven to be one of the highest-grossing artists in the United States.
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Green Carnation
Green Carnation is a band from Kristiansand, Norway formed in 1990 that has created songs from both the progressive rock and progressive metal genres. Some also describe their music as art rock. Green Carnation's trend of music has continuously become less and less heavy after every release; from straight forward death metal, to a gothic metal/doom metal/progressive metal sound, to a melancholic hard rock-sounding form of progressive rock and in 2006, went as far as to releasing an entirely acoustic album Acoustic Verses.
Green Carnation is the creation of former Emperor bass player Terje Vik Schei (a.k.a. Tchort), founded before Tchort joined Emperor in 1990. It eventually split, with the remaining members X-Botteri, Cm:Botteri and Anders Kobro creating avant-garde metal band In the Woods....
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Gregory Hines
Gregory Oliver Hines (February 14, 1946 – August 9, 2003) was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.
Born in New York City to Maurice Hines Sr. and Alma Hines, Gregory Hines began tapping when he was around three years old, and began dancing semi-professionally at the age of five. Since then, he and his older brother Maurice performed together, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang. The two brothers were known as "The Hines Kids", making nightclub appearances, and later as "The Hines Brothers". When their father joined, Maurice Hines, Sr., the name changed again in 1963 to "Hines, Hines, and Dad".
Hines performed as the lead singer and musician in a rock band called Severance in 1975/1976 based in Venice, California. Severance was one of the house bands at an original music club called Honky Hoagies Handy Hangout, otherwise known as the 4H Club. In 1986, he sang a duet with Luther Vandross, entitled "There's Nothing Better Than Love", which reached the #1 position on the Billboard R&B charts.
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Guy Sebastian
Guy Theodore Sebastian (born 26 October 1981) is an Australian pop, R&B, and soul singer-songwriter who was the first winner of Australian Idol in 2003. Since 2010 he has been a judge on Australia's The X Factor. Sebastian has released six top ten platinum/multi-platinum albums, including a number one and two. He has also released 11 top 15 singles, including eight top tens, with five achieving number one. He has the most number one singles for an Australian male artist in Australian music history, and is equal third overall for all Australian acts. Four of his singles have reached multi-platinum certification, with "Angels Brought Me Here", "Who's That Girl" and "Don't Worry Be Happy" achieving 4× platinum. "Angels Brought Me Here" was the highest selling song in Australia last decade. With 30 platinum and two gold certifications and combined album and single sales of over 2.2 million in Australia, Sebastian has the highest certifications and sales of any Australian Idol contestant.
"Angels Brought Me Here" also reached number one in four Asian countries and New Zealand. Sebastian had a second number one in New Zealand with "Who's That Girl", two other top ten singles and a number three album, and gained four platinum and two gold certifications there. He has worked with a number of well-known American musicians. He co-wrote songs with Brian McKnight and Robin Thicke for his album Beautiful Life, which also included a duet with Mýa. The Memphis Album was recorded with members of the MGs including Steve Cropper, and they were his band on his 2008 Australian tour. Like It Like That has three tracks with John Mayer on guitar and backing vocals, and "Art of Love" featuring Jordin Sparks. "Who's That Girl" from his album Twenty Ten features US rapper Eve.
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György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti (Hungarian: Ligeti György Sándor, [ˈliɡɛti ˈɟørɟ ˈʃaːndor]; May 28, 1923 – June 12, 2006) was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born into a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he lived in Hungary before emigrating and becoming an Austrian citizen.
Ligeti was born in Dicsőszentmárton, which was renamed Târnăveni in 1945, in Transylvania to a Hungarian Jewish family. Ligeti recalls that his first exposure to languages other than Hungarian came one day while listening to a conversation among the Romanian-speaking town police. Before that he hadn't known that other languages existed. He moved to Kolozsvár (Cluj) with his family when he was 6, and he was not to return to the town of his birth until the 1990s.
Ligeti received his initial musical training in the conservatory at Kolozsvár (Cluj), and during the summers privately with Pál Kadosa in Budapest.
In 1940, Northern Transylvania was occupied by Hungary following the Second Vienna Award. In 1944, Ligeti's education was interrupted when he was sent to a forced labor brigade by the Horthy regime. His brother, age 16, was deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp, and both of his parents were sent to Auschwitz. His mother was the only other survivor of his immediate family.
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Hank Ballard
Note: for the separate listing on the vocal group, see The Midnighters
Hank Ballard (November 18, 1927 – March 2, 2003), born John Henry Kendricks, was a rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of Hank Ballard and The Midnighters and one of the first proto-rock 'n' roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s. He played an integral part in the development of rock music, releasing the hit singles "Work With Me, Annie" and answer songs "Annie Had a Baby" and "Annie's Aunt Fannie" with his Midnighters. He later wrote and recorded "The Twist" and invented the dance, which was notably covered by Chubby Checker. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
Born John Henry Kendricks in Detroit, Michigan, Ballard along with his brother, Dove Ballard, grew up and attended school in Bessemer, Alabama after the death of their father.[citation needed] He lived with his paternal aunt and her husband, and began singing in church. His major vocal inspiration during his formative years was the "Singing Cowboy", Gene Autry, and in particular, his signature song, "Back in the Saddle Again". Ballard returned to Detroit in his teens and later worked on the assembly line for Ford.
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Heather Mills
Heather Anne Mills (born 12 January 1968) is an English charity campaigner and former model.
Mills came to public attention in 1993, when a collision with a police motorcycle in London resulted in the amputation of her left leg below the knee. She continued to model using a prosthetic limb and sold her story to a tabloid newspaper, using the proceeds to establish the Heather Mills Health Trust, which recycles used prosthetic limbs to amputees unable to afford new ones and campaigns to remove and ban land mines.
She came to further public attention in 2000 when it was announced that she was dating the former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney. They married in June 2002 and Mills gave birth to Beatrice Milly McCartney on 28 October 2003. The couple separated in 2006 and finalised their highly publicised divorce in 2008.
After her marriage to McCartney, Mills became involved in animal rights advocacy and as of 2012 is a patron of Viva! (Vegetarians' International Voice for Animals) and the Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation. She is also vice-president of the Limbless Association and skis in the British disabled ski team's development squad for the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games, winning several Gold medals in the interim.
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Herbie Mann
Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinets (including bass clarinet), but Mann was among the first jazz musicians to specialize on the flute and was perhaps jazz music's preeminent flutist during the 1960s. His most popular single was "Hijack," which was a Billboard number-one dance hit for three weeks in 1975.
Mann emphasized the groove approach in his music. Mann felt that from his repertoire, the "epitome of a groove record" was Memphis Underground or Push Push, because the "rhythm section locked all in one perception."
Herbie Mann was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents of Romanian and Russian descent. He attended Lincoln High School in Brighton Beach. His first professional performance was playing the Catskills resorts at age 15. In the 1950s Mann was primarily a bop flutist, playing in combos with artists such as Phil Woods, occasionally playing bass clarinet, tenor saxophone and solo flute.
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Hikaru Utada
Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル, Utada Hikaru?, born January 19, 1983), known by her stage name Utada (English /uːˈtɑːdə/) in America and Europe, is a Japanese-American singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer. Since the release of her Japanese debut album First Love, which went on to become the best-selling album in Oricon history, Utada has had three of her Japanese studio albums in the list of Top 10 best-selling albums ever in Japan (number 1, 4, 8) and six of her albums (including one English-language and one compilation) charting within the 275 Best-Selling Japanese albums list. Utada has had twelve number-one singles on the Oricon Singles chart, with two notable record achievements for a female solo or group artist: five million-sellers and four in the Top 100 All-Time Best-selling Singles. Utada has an estimated more than 52 million records sold worldwide.
She was described by Time Magazine as a "Diva On Campus," a reference to her having attended Columbia University for a brief, career-break semester in 2000. In 2009, she was considered "the most influential artist of the decade" in the Japanese landscape by The Japan Times.
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Hilary Duff
Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress, author, entrepreneur and recording artist. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Duff appeared in local theatre plays and television commercials before coming to prominence in the title role of the Disney Channel's teen comedy Lizzie McGuire and The CW's teen drama Gossip Girl as movie star Olivia. Established as a teen idol, Duff reprised that role in the The Lizzie McGuire Movie and subsequently ventured into motion pictures, appearing in a string of successful films that include Agent Cody Banks, Cheaper by the Dozen, A Cinderella Story and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. Most recently, she has performed in a legion of television dramas and independent films.
Duff expanded her repertoire to include pop music and has released three RIAA-certified platinum albums including Metamorphosis (2002), her debut studio album which was certified triple platinum, Hilary Duff (2004) and Most Wanted (2005), which were both certified platinum. Her most recent studio album Dignity (2007) was certified gold and spawned her highest charting US single to date "With Love". Followed by Best of Hilary Duff (2008), a compilation of her greatest hits, Duff has since sold thirteen million albums worldwide.
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Holly Valance
Holly Valance (born Holly Rachel Vukadinović, Melbourne, 11 May 1983) is an Australian actress, singer, and model. Valance began her career as Felicity "Flick" Scully on the Australian soap opera Neighbours. In 2002 she released her first album, Footprints, which included the international number-one hit single "Kiss Kiss".
As a teenager, in 1999 she was cast in the long-running Australian soap Neighbours as Felicity "Flick" Scully. Valance left the series in 2002 to pursue a music career.
In 2004 Valance returned to acting, this time in the United States, appearing in episodes of the television series CSI: Miami and Entourage. In 2005 she appeared in an episode of CSI: NY. She guest-starred in Prison Break in 2006 as Nika Volek, a role which she continued to portray in the show's second season.
In 2006 Valance appeared in the National Lampoon comedy Pledge This!, alongside American socialite Paris Hilton. The same year, she was in DOA: Dead or Alive, an adaptation of the popular video game Dead or Alive, where she played Christie. In 2007 she appeared in the TV series Shark and Moonlight. In 2008 she had a role in the film Taken alongside Liam Neeson and Famke Janssen, and appeared in an episode of the The CW series Valentine. In 2009 Valance played Brenda Snow for the video game Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising. She is also set to appear as Angela in the movie Red Herring and as Sally in the upcoming thriller titled Luster.[citation needed]
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Howie Epstein
Howard Norman "Howie" Epstein (July 21, 1955 – February 23, 2003) was a musician best known for his work with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as bassist.
Epstein was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and grew up in a musical household, but didn’t start playing the bass until a couple of years before joining the Heartbreakers. His father, Sam, was a top local record producer who worked with various Rock and Soul groups in the 50s and 60s. Howie got to hang around the studios watching his father work, as well as do a little recording under his dad’s watchful eye at a very young age. "I would go into the bars with my father to check out the bands he was thinking of working with," Epstein recalls, "and a couple of times he let me use groups he was working with as back up musicians for stuff I’d record." Howie attended Nicolet High School in Glendale, WI and was part of the class of 1973.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Howie played in a number of both rock and roll and country Milwaukee bands that were regionally popular, like MHG Experience, Egz, Winks, Forearm Smash, and The Craze. When he’d gone as far as he could go in Milwaukee, Epstein decided to move to New York, but before he could pack his gear, he was lured to the West Coast by a drummer friend to play bass in a new band that singer-songwriter John Hiatt was forming in LA. He stuck with Hiatt for two years and two albums (Slug Line and Two Bit Monsters) and also toured briefly with Cindy Bullens.
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Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop (born James Newell "Jim" Osterberg, Jr.; April 21, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues. Pop became known as 'Iggy' in high school, during which time he served as drummer for local blues band The Iguanas. He is vocalist of influential protopunk band The Stooges (Pop and the other surviving members of the group reunited in 2003), having become known, since the late 1960s, for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics.
Though the singer's popularity has waned and waxed throughout his career, Pop has recorded a number of well-known songs, including "Lust for Life", "Real Wild Child", "I Wanna Be Your Dog," "Candy" (a duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52's), "China Girl", "Nightclubbing", "Search and Destroy", and "The Passenger". The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010
Iggy Pop (AKA Iggy Stooge) was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the son of Louella (née Christensen) and James Newell Osterberg, Sr., a former high school English teacher and baseball coach at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. Osterberg was raised in a trailer park in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is of Irish and English descent on his father's side, and of Norwegian and Danish ancestry on his mother's. His father was adopted by a Swedish American family and took on their surname (Österberg).
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Immortal Technique
Felipe Andres Coronel (born February 19, 1978), better known by the stage name Immortal Technique, is an American rapper of Afro-Peruvian descent as well as an urban activist. He was born in Lima, Peru and raised in Harlem, New York. Most of his lyrics focus on controversial issues in global politics. The views expressed in his lyrics are largely commentary on issues such as class struggle, poverty, religion, government and institutional racism.
Immortal Technique has voiced a desire to retain control over his production, and has stated in his music that record companies, not artists themselves, profit the most from mass production and marketing of music. He claimed in an interview to have sold close to 200,000 copies of his three official releases.
Coronel is African-Peruvian and was born in 1978 in a military hospital in Lima. His family emigrated in 1980 to Harlem. During his teenage years he was arrested multiple times due in part to what he has said was "selfish and childish" behavior. He attended Hunter College High School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Shortly after enrolling in Pennsylvania State University, he was arrested and charged with assault-related offenses due to his involvement in an altercation between fellow students, the charges stemming from this incident led to him being incarcerated for a year. After being paroled, he took political science classes at Baruch College in New York City for two semesters at the behest of his father, who allowed Coronel to live with him on the condition that he go to school. Honing his rapping skills in jail, and unable to find decent wage-paying employment after his release, Coronel began selling his music on the streets of New York while battling with MCs whenever the opportunity arose. This, coupled with his victories in numerous freestyle rap competitions of the New York underground hip hop scene such as Rocksteady Anniversary, Braggin Rites and others, led to his reputation as a ferocious Battle MC.
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Imperio Argentina
Magdalena Nile del Río (December 26, 1906 – August 22, 2003) was a professional singer and movie actress who was better known as Imperio Argentina. Although born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she became a citizen of Spain.
Del Río performed in Argentina's theaters, where she had a long and successful career. At that time, her stage name was Pettit Imperio. But her most successful moments came after she moved to Spain. It was there that she changed her name to Imperio Argentina, as a way to honor her "other country". While in Spain, del Río participated in many movies, and she participated frequently on television and radio. Imperio Argentina obtained Spanish citizenship in 1999.
She died in Benalmádena, Málaga in 2003, aged 96.
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Inspectah Deck
Jason Hunter, (born July 6, 1970) better known by his stage name Inspectah Deck, is an American rapper, producer, and member of the Wu-Tang Clan. Although he has not gained the same level of mainstream success in his solo career as some of his Wu-Tang counterparts like Method Man, he has acquired critical praise for his intricate lyricism, and for his verses on many of the group's most revered songs. He has growingly become a producer in his own right, taking up tracks for fellow clansmen and his own projects.
Born July 6, 1970, Hunter routinely mentions the Park Hill Projects in Clifton, Staten Island, where he grew up, going to school with the future Method Man, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killah. Coming from a musical family, his father died when he was six years old, and seeing his mother support the family contributed to his laid-back, quiet mentality; this led to his stage name, as he decided to play a low-key counterbalance to the antics of Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and RZA. This is also referenced by Method Man at the end of the track "Can it Be All So Simple?" on Wu-Tang's debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) :
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Ivo Žídek
Ivo Žídek (4 June 1926-19 May 2003) was a celebrated Czech lyric tenor, known for his vivid portrayals of character roles in the operas of Smetana, Dvorák and Janáček.
Ivo Zídek was born in Kravaře, Czechoslovakia near the Czech-Polish border in the region formerly known as Silesia. He was descended from a long family line of music teachers and cantors. His father, Libor Zídek, was also an actor and a singer. As a youth, he was schooled in Outrava (Moresque Ostrava) where he studied painting because the local music schools had been closed under the Nazi occupation. However, he studied voice privately with Rudolf Vašek (at first, as a baritone) and studied music theory with Josef Schreiber. He was invited by conductor Zdeněk Chalabala to sing with the opera company in Ostrava, making his debut in the title role of Jules Massenet's Werther" in 1944. He continued singing in Ostrava until 1948.
In 1947, he was invited to Prague to appear as guest soloist with the National Theatre as Jeník in Bedřich Smetana's Prodaná nevesta (The Bartered Bride) – a signature role he would repeat over 500 times – as well as parts in Smetana's Tajemství (The Secret) and Zdeněk Fibich's Bouře (The Tempest). The following year, he joined the national company as a principal soloist and remained there for the next 37 years.
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Ivry Gitlis
Ivry Gitlis (Hebrew: עברי גיטליס; born Haifa, August 25, 1922) is an Israeli violinist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. He has performed with the world's top orchestras (New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic), and many of his recordings are considered classics.
Born in Haifa, Palestine Mandate, to Jewish immigrants from Russia, Gitlis studied violin at an early age. When violinist Bronisław Huberman first heard him play, he sent him to study at the Conservatoire de Paris, where Gitlis won a first prize, aged 13. His teachers include Carl Flesch, George Enescu, and Jacques Thibaud. In 1951, Gitlis made his debut in Paris.
His first recording, Concerto à la mémoire d'un ange by Alban Berg, won the Grand Prix du Disque in France.
In 1968 he participated in John Lennon's Dirty Mac project on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus program.
In 1971 Bruno Maderna wrote Piece for Ivry for him.
In 1990 Gitlis was designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. His stated aim is the "support of education and culture of peace and tolerance".
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Izhak Graziani
Izhak (Ziko) Graziani (Hebrew: יצחק גרציאני; August 4, 1924 in Ruse - July 7, 2003) was born in Bulgaria and studied music and conducting.
In 1948 he moved to Israel where he became the conductor of the IDF Orchestra. He eventually became conductor of the IBA Radio Orchestra (eventually renamed IBA Radio and TV Orchestra).
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Ja Rule
Jeffrey Atkins (born February 29, 1976), better known by his stage name Ja Rule or Mockaveli, is an American rapper, singer, and actor from Queens, New York City.
Born in Hollis, Queens, he began his career in the group Cash Money Click and debuted in 1999 with Venni Vetti Vecci and its single "Holla Holla". From 2000 to 2004, Ja Rule had several hits that made the top 20 of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, including "Between Me and You" with Christina Milian, "I'm Real (Murder Remix)" with Jennifer Lopez, "Always on Time" with Ashanti, "Mesmerize" also with Ashanti, and "Wonderful" with R. Kelly and Ashanti. During the 2000s, Ja Rule was signed to The Inc. Records, which was formerly known as Murder Inc. and was led by Irv Gotti. Ja Rule has sold over 30 million records worldwide and was the fastest selling rapper in 2001[citation needed]. He is also known for some well-publicized feuds with other rappers (in-particular 50 Cent and Eminem).
Atkins was born in the Queens borough of New York City. He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness by his mother, health care worker Debra Atkins, and grandparents. At the age of five his sister died from breathing complications, leaving him as an only child. He attended Public School 134 in Hollis, a school he has described as having a predominantly black student body. He has said got into many fights at the school because of his small size, so his mother transferred him to Middle School 172 in Glen Oaks, which he has described as a "white school".
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Jag Panzer
Jag Panzer was an American power metal band from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Jag Panzer came together in late 1981, being inspired by the onslaught of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The original line-up consisted of Harry Conklin on vocals (later nicknamed the "Tyrant"), Mark Briody (who was the sole guitarist of the group in its first incarnation), John Tetley who played the bass, and Rick Hilyard as the drummer. The band was known as Tyrant in its first incarnation. They soon had to change their name, because another such named band existed in California.
They saw a poster featuring a German World War II tank, named Jagdpanzer (literally "hunting tank" in German, but actually referring to what in English would be called a tank destroyer) which they decided to name their band after. They were however, unable to pronounce the name correctly and as a result, dropped the letter "D" from the name and simply called it Jag Panzer. The band, who were all in their late teens at the time, played at local venues in the Denver club circuit, and recorded an EP in 1983, later known as "Tyrants". In early 1984, the band recruited Joey Tafolla, a native of California, and promptly recorded their first album, Ample Destruction. The album was released in August of that year by the independent record label, Azra Records. The album was an underground hit in the United States, and in Europe and Japan it was available on import only.
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James Broughton
James Broughton (November 10, 1913 – May 17, 1999) was an American poet, and poetic filmmaker. He was part of the San Francisco Renaissance. He was an early bard of the Radical Faeries as well as a charter member of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence serving her community as Sister Sermonetta.
A selected collection of his work, All: A James Broughton Reader, edited by Jack Foley, was released in 2007 by White Crane Books.
"The Selected Films of James Broughton" is a DVD compilation of seventeen films on 3 discs, released in 2006 by Facets Multimedia.
Born to wealthy parents, he lost his father early to the 1918 influenza epidemic and spent the rest of his life getting over his high-strung, overbearing mother.
Before he was three, "Sunny Jim" experienced a transformational visit from his muse, Hermy, which he describes in his autobiography, Coming Unbuttoned (1993):
I remember waking in the dark and hearing my parents arguing in the next room. But a more persistent sound, a kind of whirring whistle, spun a light across the ceiling. I stood up in my crib and looked into the backyard. Over a neighbor’s palm tree a pulsing headlamp came whistling directly toward me. When it had whirled right up to my window, out of its radiance stepped a naked boy. He was at least three years older than I but he looked all ages at once. He had no wings, but I knew he was angel-sent: his laughing beauty illuminated the night and his melodious voice enraptured my ears…. He insisted I would always be a poet even if I tried not to be….Despite what I might hear to the contrary the world was not a miserable prison, it was a playground for a nonstop tournament between stupidity and imagination. If I followed the game sharply enough, I could be a useful spokesman for Big Joy.
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Jamie Cullum
Jamie Cullum (born 20 August 1979) is a British pop and jazz-pop singer-songwriter, of Anglo-Burmese and Jewish extraction. Though he is primarily a vocalist/pianist he also accompanies himself on other instruments including guitar and drums. Since April 2010, he has been presenting a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast on Tuesdays from 19:00.
Cullum was born in Rochford, Essex. He was brought up in Hullavington, Wiltshire.
His mother, Yvonne, is a secretary of Anglo-Burmese origin, whose family settled in North England after Burma's independence; his father, John Cullum, worked in finance. His paternal grandfather was a British Army officer, while his paternal grandmother was a Jewish refugee from Prussia who sang in Berlin nightclubs.
Cullum was educated at Grittleton House School, an independent school in the village of Grittleton, near the market town of Chippenham in Wiltshire, followed by the sixth form of Sheldon School, a state comprehensive school in the same county. He then rejected a place at the University of Oxford to go on to study English Literature and Film Studies at the University of Reading, where he graduated with First Class Honours.
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Jann Arden
Jann Arden (born Jann Arden Anne Richards; March 27, 1962) is a Canadian singer-songwriter.
Arden was born in Calgary and moved as a child to Springbank, Alberta, where she attended Springbank Community High School.
Her breakthrough came with her critically acclaimed 1993 debut album Time for Mercy and her first single "I Would Die For You". Her success grew with 1994's Living Under June, which featured her biggest hit to date outside of Canada, "Insensitive", which was released as a single from the soundtrack to the Christian Slater film Bed of Roses (number 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100). Another single from that same album, "Could I Be Your Girl", has also had significant, and consistent airplay on Canadian adult contemporary radio since its release, and featured a dance remix version which circulated on pop radio at the time.
Subsequent albums include 1997's Happy?, 2000's Blood Red Cherry, and 2003's Love Is the Only Soldier. She also released a greatest hits album, Greatest Hurts, in 2001, and a live album, Jann Arden Live with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (2002). In 2005, she released her eighth album (her sixth album of new material) titled simply Jann Arden.
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Jason Mraz
Jason Mraz ( /məˈræz/; born June 23, 1977 in Mechanicsville, Virginia) is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, Mr. A-Z, in 2005, that Mraz achieved major commercial success. The album peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and sold over 100,000 copies in the US. In 2008, Mraz released his third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and was a commercial success worldwide, peaking in the top ten of many international charts.
Mraz's international breakthrough came with the release of the single "I'm Yours" from the album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. The single peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Mraz his first top ten single. The song was on the Hot 100 for 76 weeks, beating the previous record of 69 weeks held by LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live". The song was a huge commercial success in the US, receiving a 5x platinum certification from the RIAA for sales of over five million. The song was successful internationally, topping the charts in New Zealand and Norway and peaking in the top ten of multiple international charts.
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Jedi Mind Tricks
Jedi Mind Tricks (JMT) is a hip hop duo with Vinnie Paz from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Jus Allah from Camden, New Jersey. The group was founded by two high school friends, rapper Vinnie Paz (Vincenzo Luvineri) and former producer/DJ Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind (Kevin Baldwin). In 1999 the New Jersey rapper Jus Allah (James Bostick) joined the group to record the second studio album by JMT, Violent by Design but left shortly after for reasons that remain unexplained. The track "The Rebuilding" (2006) marked his unofficial return to JMT since the split, but made a full fledged return aside Vinnie Paz for the sixth studio album, A History of Violence (2008). In September 2011, Vinnie Paz officially announced the departure of Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind from the group, because "his heart wasn't in making JMT records anymore".
DJ Kwestion is also a part of the group, mainly scratching choruses on the turntable. Kwestion (or Kwes) is also a part of the group Skratch Makaniks. Kwestion was a replacement for JMT's previous tour DJ, Drew Dollars, who is no longer affiliated with the group.
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Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds (Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page are the other two). Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice.
Much of Beck's recorded output has been instrumental, with a focus on innovative sound and his releases have spanned genres ranging from blues-rock, heavy metal, jazz fusion and an additional blend of guitar-rock and electronica. Although he recorded two hit albums (in 1975 and 1976) as a solo act, Beck has not established or maintained the sustained commercial success of many of his contemporaries and bandmates. Beck appears on albums by Mick Jagger, Kate Bush, Roger Waters, Donovan, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Zucchero, Cyndi Lauper, Brian May and ZZ Top. In 1988, he made a cameo appearance in the movie Twins.
He was ranked 5th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and the magazine has described him as "one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock".MSNBC has called him a "guitarist's guitarist". Beck has earned wide critical praise and received the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance six times and Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance once. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of The Yardbirds (1992) and as a solo artist (2009).
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Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969) is an American actress, businesswoman, dancer and recording artist. Often referred to as J.Lo, she is reportedly the highest earning actress of Latin descent. Born and raised in The Bronx, New York, she enrolled in singing and dancing classes as a child and grew up in a musically influenced household. She started her career as a fly girl on the television comedy program In Living Color and a back-up dancer for Janet Jackson. Lopez gained recognition in the action-thriller Money Train (1995). Her first leading role was in the biographical film Selena (1997), which was her breakthrough role, earning her an ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress and Golden Globe nomination. She earned her second ALMA Award for her performance in Out of Sight (1998), which made her the highest-paid Latin actress. She has since appeared in various films including The Cell (2000), The Wedding Planner (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004), Monster-in-Law (2005), The Back-up Plan (2010) and What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012).
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Jerry Herman
Jerry Herman (born July 10, 1931) is an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He has been nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles. In 2009, Herman received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He is a recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors.
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Jessica Andrews
Jessica Danielle Andrews (born December 29, 1983) is an American country music singer. At age 15 in mid-1999, she made her debut on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts with the single "I Will Be There for You", from her debut album Heart Shaped World, released in 1999 on DreamWorks Records Nashville.
Andrews saw her biggest chart success in 2001 with the song "Who I Am", a #1 country hit and the title track to her second studio album, which was certified gold in the United States. A third album, Now was released in 2003 to lower sales, while a fourth album (tentatively titled Ain't That Life) was never released due to DreamWorks' closure. In late 2008, Andrews signed to Carolwood Records, an imprint of Lyric Street Records, however, she was dropped from the label in 2009 without issuing an album.
Jessica Andrews was born in Huntingdon, Tennessee to parents Jessie and Vicki Andrews. When she was seven, a bone was growing through her spinal cord, a condition that required surgery. She had a 50/50 chance of coming out of it paralyzed. Andrews learned her passion for singing in the fourth grade. Andrews planned on dancing in her school's talent show, but her sister convinced her to sing Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" instead. At 11, she put her first band together. Meanwhile, after someone sent a song of her singing to producer Byron Gallimore, Andrews signed with DreamWorks Records Nashville and soon began working on her first album. Prior to its release, she began opening for Faith Hill on her Fall 1998 tour, as well as for Tim McGraw (also produced by Gallimore) for his New Year's Eve concert.
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Jessica Simpson
Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10, 1980) is an American recording artist, actress, television personality and fashion designer whose rise to fame began in 1999. Since that time, Simpson has achieved many recording milestones, starred in several television shows, movies and commercials, launched a line of hair and beauty products and designed fragrances, shoes and handbags for women. She has devoted time to philanthropic efforts including Operation Smile and a USO-hosted tour for troops stationed overseas. She started the Jessica Simpson Collection in 2005.
She has achieved seven Billboard Top 40 hits, three gold and two multi-platinum Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified studio albums, four of which have reached the top 10 on the US Billboard 200. She has sold 30 million albums worldwide. Simpson starred with her then-husband Nick Lachey in the MTV reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica. She ventured into the country music market in 2008 and released Do You Know.
During the first part of 2010, Simpson released her second reality show on VH1 "The Price of Beauty." In October 2010 she released her first compilation album and last album under the label of Epic Records , with the name Playlist: The Very Best of Jessica Simpson. A month later she released her second Christmas album Happy Christmas under the label Primary Wave Records, owned by EMI.
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Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez ( /ˈbaɪ.ɛz/) (born January 9, 1941 as Joan Chandos Báez) is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice.
Baez has a distinctive vocal style, with a strong vibrato. Her recordings include many topical songs and material dealing with social issues.
Baez began her career performing in coffeehouses in Boston and Cambridge, and rose to fame as an unbilled performer at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. She began her recording career in 1960, and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2, and Joan Baez in Concert all achieved gold record status, and stayed on the charts for two years.
Baez has had a popular hit song with "Diamonds & Rust" and hit covers of Phil Ochs's "There but for Fortune" and The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". Other songs associated with Baez include "Farewell, Angelina", "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word", "Joe Hill", "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "We Shall Overcome". She performed three of the songs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, helped to bring the songs of Bob Dylan to national prominence, and has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights and the environment.
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Jocelyne Labylle
Jocelyne Labylle (born 1973 in Saint-Claude, Guadeloupe) is a Guadeloupean zouk musician.
In 1992 Labylle joined the group Elodie; in 1994 she joined Zouk Orchestra. She appeared on the covers of all their albums.
After performing on three of their albums, Labylle left to pursue a solo career. She teamed up with Federick Caracas, Harry Diboula, Jacob Desvarieux and Liso to record the single "Quand tu veux". Months later the album On Verra was released.
In 2000 she returned to the studio to record her second album. The single "J'ai depose les clefs" ("I left my keys") was released followed by the album Ma Petite Lumiere ("My little light"). The album features "Parle-moi d'elle" written by Harry Diboula.
In 2003, Labylle teamed up with Cheela, Passi and Jacob Desvarieux for the single "Laisse Parler Les Gens". The song sold more than 1 million copies and was nominated for a Victoires de la Musique award. In 2007 she collaborated with Haitian musician Roberto Martino of the Compas group T-Vice for his single "J'aimerais te revoir".
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Joe Budden
Joe Budden (born August 31, 1980) is an American rapper from Jersey City, New Jersey.
In the year 2003, Budden released his debut solo studio album, Joe Budden. It included Budden's 2003 Grammy-nominated summer hit "Pump It Up", and was also featured in the soundtrack for the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious and the video games Def Jam Vendetta, Def Jam Fight for NY, and Madden NFL 2004. The song "Focus" was also featured in the game and Joe Budden was also a character. Its second single was "Fire" featuring Busta Rhymes, which was in the movie Mean Girls. The song "Drop Drop" was featured on the soundtrack for the movie Cradle 2 the Grave. Joe has hinted in many songs that he was a recovering drug addict and has reaffirmed his position several times through multiple outlets.
After his debut album, Budden's sophomore release titled ‘The Growth’ was hampered due to the label's problems with Joe and his Def Jam seniors not happy with the direction of his music. The production of the album appeared to end up in a development hell and was ultimately not released. Continued disagreements between Budden and Def Jam forced the two sides to part ways. However, Budden managed to release the first and second installments of his Mood Muzik mixtape series while on Def Jam, and the series has been met with critical acclaim.
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Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani (born July 15, 1956) is an American instrumental rock guitarist of Italian origin, multi-instrumentalist and multiple Grammy Award nominee. Early in his career, Satriani worked as a guitar instructor, and some of his former students have achieved fame such as Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan and Alex Skolnick. Satriani has been a driving force in music credited to other musicians throughout his career, as a founder of the G3 tour, as well as performing in various positions with other musicians.
In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for Jagger's first solo tour. In 1994, Satriani was the lead guitarist for Deep Purple. Satriani worked with a range of guitarists, including Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Larry LaLonde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May, Patrick Rondat, Andy Timmons, Paul Gilbert, Adrian Legg, and Robert Fripp through the annual G3 Jam Concerts. He is currently the lead guitarist for the supergroup Chickenfoot. Since 1988, Satriani has been using his own signature guitar, the Ibanez JS Series, which is sold in music stores worldwide.
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Joe Strummer
John Graham Mellor (21 August 1952 – 22 December 2002), best remembered by his stage name Joe Strummer, was an English musician who was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of the British punk rock band The Clash. His musical experience included his membership of The 101ers, Latino Rockabilly War, The Mescaleros and The Pogues, in addition to his own solo music career. Strummer's work as a musician allowed him to explore other interests, which included acting, creating film scores for television and movies, songwriting, radio broadcasting, and a position as a radio host. Strummer is one of the iconic figures of the British punk movement.
Strummer and The Clash were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 2003. In his remembrance, Strummer's friends and family have established the Strummerville Foundation for the promotion of new music, and each year there are many festivals and both organised and spontaneous ceremonies worldwide to celebrate his memory.
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John Farnham
John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham (born 1 July 1949), is an English-born Australian pop singer. As Johnny Farnham he was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as lead singer of Little River Band during 1982–1985. In September 1986 his solo single, "You're the Voice" peaked at No. 1 on the Australian singles charts. The associated album, Whispering Jack, held the No. 1 position for a total of 25 weeks, and is the highest-selling album in Australian history. Both the single and the album had Top Ten success internationally including No. 1 in Sweden.
Domestically he has remained one of Australia's best-known performers with a career spanning over 40 years, and he is the only Australian artist to have a number one record in five consecutive decades (echoing Sir Cliff Richard in the UK) with singles: "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)" in 1967, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" in 1969/1970, and "Age of Reason" in 1988; and albums: Age of Reason, Chain Reaction in 1990, Then Again... in 1993, Anthology 1: Greatest Hits 1986-1997 in 1997, 33⅓ in 2000 and The Last Time in 2002.
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John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp,(born October 7, 1951) is an American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock which emphasizes traditional instrumentation. He has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and has amassed 22 Top 40 hits in the United States. In addition, he holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit number-one on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with seven, and has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning one. His latest album, No Better Than This, was released on August 17, 2010 to widespread critical acclaim.
Mellencamp is also one of the founding members of Farm Aid, an organization that began in 1985 with a concert in Champaign, Illinois to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. The Farm Aid concerts have remained an annual event over the past 26 years, and as of 2012 the organization has raised over $39 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture.
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Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Although he is primarily remembered as a country music icon, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice; for the "boom-chicka-boom" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his rebelliousness, coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; for providing free concerts inside prison walls; and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black". He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." and usually following it up with his standard "Folsom Prison Blues".
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Johnny Paycheck
Johnny Paycheck was the stage name of Donald Eugene Lytle (May 31, 1938 – February 19, 2003), a country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member most famous for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It". He achieved his greatest success in the 1970s as a major force in country music's "Outlaw Movement" popularized by artists such as David Allan Coe, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver and Merle Haggard. In the 1980s, his music career suffered from his problems with drugs, alcohol, and legal difficulties. He served a prison sentence in the early 1990s but his declining health effectively ended his career in early 2000.
Born in Greenfield, Ohio, Donald Lytle was playing in talent contests by the age of 9.
He took a job with country music legend George Jones for whom he played bass and steel guitar. He later co-wrote Jones' hit song "Once You've Had the Best." PayCheck was a tenor harmony singer with numerous hard country performers in the late 1950s and early 1960s including Ray Price. Lytle, along with Willie Nelson, worked in Price's band the Cherokee Cowboys. He is featured as a tenor singer on recordings by Faron Young, Roger Miller, and Skeets McDonald.[citation needed] All of these recordings are recognizable by their honky tonk purism. The recordings shun vocal choruses and strings that became known as the "Countrypolitan" sound in favor of steel guitar, twin fiddles, shuffle beats, high harmony and self-consciously miserable lyrics. As George Jones' tenor singer, PayCheck has been credited with the development of Jones' unique vocal phrasing.[citation needed]
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Jonatan Cerrada
Jonatan Cerrada (born 12 September 1985 as Jonatan Cerrada Moreno) is a Belgian-born singer who became the first French Pop Idol. He has had hit singles across Western Europe especially in France, Belgium, and Spain.
Jonatan was born in Liège, Belgium, and grew up in the city of Ans with his four siblings (Julien, Rafaël, Audrey and Rachel) and his Spanish parents María Victoria Moreno, a secretary, and Valentín Cerrada, a mechanical technician. He was eight years old when he entered the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège where he stayed until age fourteen. He speaks fluent French and Spanish.
Jonatan is the winner in the first season of A La Recherche De La Nouvelle Star. Soon after winning the competition, he released his debut single "Je voulais te dire que je t'attends", a revival of a song originally by Michel Jonasz, and then "Rien ne me changera". His debut album, Siempre 23, was released after that and was successful across France and Belgium.
He represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 singing a power ballad song, "À chaque pas", and came 15th out of 24 finalist countries.
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Jonny Greenwood
Jonathan Richard Guy "Jonny" Greenwood (born 5 November 1971) is an English musician and composer best known as a member of the English rock band Radiohead. Noted for his aggressive playing style, Greenwood is consistently named as one of the greatest guitarists of the modern era. Beyond his primary roles as the band's lead guitarist and keyboardist, Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist and also plays viola, harmonica, glockenspiel, ondes Martenot, banjo and drums, and works with computer-generated sounds and sampling; he is also a computer programmer and writes music software used by Radiohead.
Outside his work with Radiohead, Greenwood wrote the soundtracks for the films Bodysong (2003), There Will Be Blood (2007), Norwegian Wood (2010) and We Need To Talk About Kevin (2010), and serves as composer-in-residence for the BBC Concert Orchestra. He is the younger brother of Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood.
Greenwood had begun studying music and psychology at Oxford Brookes University when Radiohead, then known as On A Friday, signed a recording contract with EMI in 1991. He left the university shortly after. While Greenwood is the only member of Radiohead to have been classically trained on any instrument (he took viola lessons as a child), he is also the only band member without a university degree.
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Josh Turner
Joshua Otis "Josh" Turner (born November 20, 1977) is a country music singer and actor signed to MCA Nashville Records in 2003, Turner has released four studio albums for the label. The first of these was 2003's Long Black Train, whose title track was his breakthrough single release. 2005's Your Man accounted for his first two Number One hits: "Your Man" and "Would You Go with Me," while 2007's Everything Is Fine included a #2 in "Firecracker." Haywire, released in 2010, produced his biggest hit, the #1 "Why Don't We Just Dance." Josh also released a Cracker Barrel album called "Live at the Ryman" in 2007. Overall, Turner has charted ten times on the Billboard country singles charts, with all but one of his singles reaching Top 40 or higher.
Josh Turner was raised in Hannah, South Carolina. Growing up in the church, he found himself singing the bass and baritone parts in numerous choirs. His parents are both of English ancestry. After high school, he moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music and enrolled in Belmont University. After college, his fledgling career got a boost on Dec. 21, 2001, during his debut on the Grand Ole Opry, when he debuted a song he wrote titled "Long Black Train." He received a standing ovation in the middle of the song, then sang it again for an encore.
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Joss Stone
Jocelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987), better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer-songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist. Her second album, the equally multiplatinum Mind Body & Soul, topped the UK Albums Chart for one week and spawned the top ten hit "You Had Me", Stone's most successful single on the UK Singles Chart to date. Both album and single each received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards, while Stone herself was nominated for Best New Artist, and in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2004 was ranked fifth as a predicted breakthrough act of 2004. She became the youngest British female singer to top the UK Albums Chart in history to have her first album at number one. In early 2009, she joined the eclectic supergroup SuperHeavy.
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Julius Baker
Julius Baker (September 23, 1915 – August 6, 2003) was one of the foremost American orchestral flute players.
He was well known as a teacher and served as a faculty member at the Juilliard School,Curtis Institute of Music, and Carnegie Mellon University. He made many recordings with conductors such as Bruno Walter and Leonard Bernstein, and played second flute with the Cleveland Orchestra from 1937-1941. He went to principal flute with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1941–1943, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1951–1953, and the New York Philharmonic for 18 years, beginning in 1965. During that time he also played in the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. Baker loved chamber music and was one of the founding members of the Bach Aria Group, with whom he played from 1946 to 1964. Baker also performed on several notable film scores, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Love Sick. He appeared opposite violinist Oscar Shumsky in filming Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, with pianist Glenn Gould on harpsipiano.
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June Carter Cash
Valerie June Carter Cash (June 23, 1929 – May 15, 2003) was an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, comedian, and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. She played the guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009. She was ranked #31 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music in 2002.
June Carter Cash was born Valerie June Carter in Maces Spring, Virginia to Maybelle Addington Carter and Ezra Carter. She was born into country music and performed with the Carter Family from the age of ten, beginning in 1939. In March 1943, when the Carter Family trio stopped recording together at the end of the WBT contract, Maybelle Carter, with encouragement from her husband Ezra, formed "Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters" with her daughters, Helen, Anita, and June. The new group first aired on radio station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia, on June 1. Doc (Addington) and Carl (McConnell)—Maybelle's brother and cousin, respectively— known as "The Virginia Boys," joined them in late 1945. June, then 16, was a co-announcer with Ken Allyn and did the commercials on the radio shows for "Red Star Flour", "Martha White," and "Thalhimers Department Store", just to name a few. For the next year, the Carters and Doc and Carl did show dates within driving range of Richmond, through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. June later said she had to work harder at her music than her sisters, but she had her own special talent—comedy. A highlight of the road shows was her "Aunt Polly" comedy routine. Carl McConnell wrote in his memoirs that June was "a natural born clown, if there ever was one." She attended John Marshall High School during this period.
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Justin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, actor, and businessman. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez. Timberlake became famous in the late 1990s as the lead singer and youngest member of the boy band 'N Sync, whose launch was financed by Lou Pearlman.
In 2002, he released his debut solo album, Justified, which sold more than seven million copies worldwide. The album was a commercial success, spawning the hits "Cry Me a River" and "Rock Your Body". Timberlake continued his success with his second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006), debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and produced the US number-one hit singles "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around".
Timberlake has won six Grammy Awards and four Emmy Awards. His first two albums made him one of the most commercially successful singers in the world, each selling in excess of 7 million copies. He also has an acting career, having starred in films such as The Social Network, Bad Teacher and Friends with Benefits. His other ventures include record label Tennman Records, fashion label William Rast, and the restaurants Destino and Southern Hospitality.
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Kaki King
Kaki King (b. Katherine Elizabeth King, August 24, 1979 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American guitarist and composer. King is known for her percussive and jazz-tinged melodies, energetic live shows, use of multiple tunings on acoustic and lap steel guitar, and her diverse range in different genres.
In February 2006, Rolling Stone released a list of "The New Guitar Gods," on which King was the sole woman and youngest artist (beating Derek Trucks in age by two months as the youngest on the list). In addition to a 10-year career that includes five LP and two EP albums, King has also scored music for television and film. She worked alongside Eddie Vedder and Michael Brook contributing music for the soundtrack to Sean Penn's Into the Wild, for which the trio received nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.
King was born the first of two daughters. While still a small child, her father noticed her natural musical ability, and encouraged her interest in music. She was introduced to the guitar at the age of four and played for several years, but after taking up the drums a few years later, they became her primary instruments as an adolescent.
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Kamelot
Kamelot is an American heavy metal band from Tampa, Florida, formed by Thomas Youngblood and Richard Warner in 1991. The Norwegian vocalist Roy Khan joined for the album Siége Perilous, and shared wrote songs with Youngblood until his departure in April 2011.
Up to 2010, Kamelot had released nine studio albums (excluding two reissues), two live albums, one live DVD, and seven music videos. Its latest studio album is Poetry for the Poisoned, which was released in September 2010.
Kamelot was founded in Florida by Thomas Youngblood and Richard Warner in 1991. Three years later, the band signed a deal with Noise Records and released its first album, Eternity, in 1995. The next album, Dominion, was released in 1997. Later that year, the drummer and founder Warner and the lead vocalist Mark Vanderbilt were replaced by drummer Casey Grillo and vocalist Roy Khan (formerly of Conception). With these two new members, Kamelot released its third studio album, Siege Perilous, in 1998. The band undertook its first tour during the fall, playing shows across Europe. Following this, the band returned to Tampa to write music for a new album titled The Fourth Legacy.
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Kathleen Edwards
Kathleen Edwards (born July 11, 1978 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. Her 2003 debut album, Failer, contained the singles "Six O'Clock News" and "Hockey Skates".
Edwards, the daughter of a diplomat, spent portions of her youth in Korea and Switzerland. Her father is Leonard Edwards, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. At age 5, Edwards began classical violin studies that continued for the next 12 years. As a teenager she lived overseas, where she spent much of her time listening to her brother's records of Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Her brother also bought her first record, a Tom Petty album. After high school she decided not to attend college, instead opting to play local clubs to pay the bills. Her musical sound has been compared to Suzanne Vega meets Neil Young.
In 2011, she divorced longtime collaborator Colin Cripps and began a relationship with Justin Vernon, American singer/songwriter and front man of the band Bon Iver.
In 1999, Edwards recorded a six-song EP entitled Building 55 and pressed 500 copies. By the fall of 2000, she was on tour across Canada managing her own gigs. In 2001, she wrote seven of the ten songs for her 2003 debut release Failer.
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Katie Melua
Ketevan "Katie" Melua /ˈmɛluːə/ (Georgian: ქეთევან "ქეთი" მელუა listen (help·info); born 16 September 1984) is a Georgian-born British singer, songwriter and musician. She moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eight and then to England at fourteen. Melua is signed to the small Dramatico record label, under the management of composer Mike Batt, and made her musical debut in 2003. In 2006, she was the United Kingdom's best-selling female artist and Europe's highest selling European female artist.
In November 2003, at the age of nineteen, Melua released her first album, Call off the Search, which reached the top of the United Kingdom album charts and sold 1.8 million copies in its first five months of release. Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released in September 2005 and to date[update] has gone platinum four times. Melua released her third studio album Pictures in October 2007.
According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, Melua has a fortune of £18 million, making her the seventh richest British musician under thirty. It was reported in 2009 that she may have lost millions as a result of the global economic downturn. As of May 2011 the singer could have a £12m fortune and she came second in the under 30 rich list.
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Keith Sweat
Keith Sweat (born July 22, 1961) is an American R&B/soul, singer-songwriter, record producer, radio personality and an innovator of the New Jack Swing.
Sweat started his musical career as a member of a Harlem band called "Jamilah" in 1975. With the help of Jamilah, Sweat was able to hone his craft as a lead singer by performing regionally throughout the tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The group was started by bassist Larry Peoples, guitarist Michael Samuels, and drummer Walter Bradley. Additional members of the group included Peter DaCosta (vocals), Joseph McGeachy (sax), Dwight Banks (trumpet), and Kenneth Varner (keyboards).
After leaving the group in 1984 to aspire for a solo career, he sang at nightclubs throughout New York City and landed a chance to record for the independent label, Stadium Records. Sweat recorded only one tune for Stadium called "My Mind Is Made Up", which was their third ever release, but on Stadium's first release, he is credited as co-writer and co-producer of "You Are The One For Me", the last recording ever made by the group GQ. One of GQ's original members is his uncle, Keith "Sabu" Crier.
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Kelis
Kelis Rogers ( /kəˈliːs/; born August 21, 1979), better known mononymously as Kelis, is an American singer-songwriter. She has won Brit Awards, Q Awards, and NME Awards, and was nominated for two Grammy Awards. Outside her native United States, she has had nine top ten singles in the United Kingdom alone. Kelis appeared on Moby's Area One Tour, supported U2 on the European leg of their Elevation Tour and headlined her own All Hearts Tour with Robyn.
Kelis was born and raised in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Her first name is a portmanteau of her father's name, Kenneth (1944–2000), and her mother's name, Eveliss. Her father Kenneth was an African American jazz musician and Pentecostal minister, and was formerly a professor at Wesleyan University. Her mother Eveliss is a Puerto Rican-Chinese fashion designer who inspired Kelis to pursue her singing career. She has three sisters, Kelis being the third born of the four girls.
As a child, Kelis sang in church choirs and played violin, piano, and saxophone while attending Manhattan Country School, a private school. At the age of 13, Kelis shaved off all of her hair. In an interview with Charlotte Roche, Kelis says she was kicked out of her parents house at the age of sixteen for having bad behavior stating that she would sometimes clash with her mother, but continued her education at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she formed the R&B trio BLU (Black Ladies United). Kelis was also a bartender and a sales associate at a clothing store before graduating high school saying that she stole certain items from her job to get by from living out of her parents house; afterwards, a friend introduced Kelis to The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo); they formed a strong bond and with their support, landed herself a record deal.
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Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and occasional actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and later was the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003.
In 2003, Clarkson released her debut album, Thankful, which was a commercial success and established herself in the pop music industry. The release of its first single, "A Moment Like This" (2002), broke The Beatles' record for the biggest leap to number one, from 52, in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. After parting ways with her management, Clarkson developed a more rock-oriented music with the release of her critically acclaimed sophomore album, Breakaway (2004), which sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and which garnered Clarkson more worldwide success as a pop rock artist. The album's single, "Because of You" (2005), became the best-selling single by an Idol contestant worldwide. In 2007, Clarkson took full creative control for her third album My December, which had a more rock-inspired sound and was met with controversy and moderate success. Clarkson later returned to a more pop-oriented sound with All I Ever Wanted (2009), which became a commercial and critical success. The album's lead single, "My Life Would Suck Without You" (2009), surpassed "A Moment Like This"'s record for the biggest leap to number one on a single week in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, a milestone it still holds today. Furthermore, it also became her first number one single in the United Kingdom. Clarkson's fifth studio album, Stronger, was released in 2011, containing elements from synthpop, R&B and country music. The album's single, "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" (2012), became her longest number one single and eventually became her best-selling single in the United States.
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Kelly Osbourne
Kelly Michelle Lee Osbourne (born 27 October 1984) is an English media personality, television personality, host, fashion designer, singer and actress, best known for being the daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. She was thrust into the limelight after appearing on the reality series The Osbournes with her family, for which they won a 2002 Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Programme. She has also appeared on Dancing with the Stars, in which she and professional dance partner Louis van Amstel took third place, and has made forays into music, acting, theatre, writing, columnist and broadcast presenting.
Osbourne was born in Westminster, London. She has an elder sister, Aimee, and a younger brother, Jack. She has two half-siblings: Jessica Hobbs and Louis John Osbourne from Ozzy's first marriage. She had an unofficially "adopted" brother, Robert Marcato, whom Sharon and Ozzy took in after Marcato's mother died. Kelly grew up travelling with her father as he went on tour, and lived in more than 20 homes between the UK and the US.
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Ken Jay
Kenneth "Ken Jay" Lacey (born June 10, 1971) is an American musician, best known as the original drummer for Static-X.
Jay was born in Jamaica, Illinois. He started Static-X with Wayne Static in 1994. Ken played drums on the band's first two albums, Wisconsin Death Trip and Machine, but before Static-X could begin recording their third album, Shadow Zone, Jay left the band because of musical and political differences.
Shortly after his departure, he joined Godhead as a replacement drummer for a brief time. He has kept out of the media limelight since his departure.
In 2010, Ken stepped back into music to produce the debut album for Texas based band, Blood Red Summer. He connected with the band through their guitar player, Erik Fincher, who had worked with Ken at a Virgin Records store in Los Angeles, CA, and later became Static-X's long time guitar tech.
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Kenna
Kenna Zemedkun, known professionally as simply Kenna, (b. 1978 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is an Ethiopian-born American musician. His track "Say Goodbye To Love" was nominated for Best Urban/Alternative Performance in the 2009 Grammy Awards.
Kenna is the eldest son of an Ethiopian family that immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio. He was later raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Kenna began to express an interest in music upon receiving a copy of U2's The Joshua Tree.
With the release of his first single in 2001, "Hell Bent", Kenna gained moderate popularity and an underground following of fans who eagerly awaited the release of his debut album, New Sacred Cow. After many delays and swapping of record labels, the album was finally released under the Sony imprint Flawless in 2003. A subsequent North American tour was launched in the Summer of 2003 with Depeche Mode front man Dave Gahan.
The album, which was co-produced by Chad Hugo of The Neptunes, contained elements of electronica, synth pop, post rock, and house music. Two singles, "Sunday After You" and "Freetime" followed the release of the album; the music video of the latter, along with "Hell Bent", appeared sporadically on MTV2. "Freetime" reached #19 on the U.S. Dance charts.
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Kenny G
Kenneth Bruce Gorelick (born June 5, 1956), better known by his stage name Kenny G, is an American adult contemporary and smooth jazz saxophonist. His fourth album, Duotones, brought him breakthrough success in 1986. Kenny G is the biggest-selling instrumental musician of the modern era, with global sales totaling more than 75 million albums.
Kenny G was born in Seattle, Washington to a Jewish family and grew up in the city's Seward Park neighborhood, which is a center of the city's Jewish community. He came into contact with a saxophone when he heard someone performing with one on The Ed Sullivan Show. He started playing the saxophone in 1966 when he was 10 years old. He learned how to play under the direction of local trumpeter Gerald Pfister and by practicing along with records (mostly of Grover Washington, Jr.), trying to emulate the sounds that he was hearing. His first saxophone was a Buffet Crampon alto.
Kenny G attended Whitworth Elementary School, Sharples Junior High School, Franklin High School, and the University of Washington, all in his home town of Seattle. When he entered high school, he failed on his first try to get into the jazz band, but tried again the following year and earned first chair. In addition to his studies while in high school, he took private lessons on the saxophone and clarinet from Johnny Jessen, once a week for a year.
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Kevin Devine
Kevin Devine is an American songwriter and musician from Brooklyn, New York, who is known for alternately introspective and political lyrics and melodic acoustic guitar songs. He cites his influences as Neutral Milk Hotel,Bob Dylan, Elliott Smith, Pavement and Nirvana, among others.
Devine grew up in Brooklyn and Staten Island and has spent significant time in Manhattan and Queens. Devine graduated from Fordham University at Lincoln Center in 2001, majoring in journalism. He played in the band Miracle of 86 (named after the 1986 New York Mets), as well as the popular Staten Island band Delusion. At Fordham he was able to hone his solo, acoustic style by playing at various open-mic and college events. Devine released his first solo album, entitled Circle Gets the Square, in 2002 under the record label Immigrant Sun Records, as well as being produced by Bill Manoudakis. During this time he also appeared in regular stints at the Wetlands Preserve venue in New York City.
His brother, Dan Devine, is a columnist for Yahoo! Sports.
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Kid Loco
Jean-Yves Prieur, aka Kid Loco is a French electronic musician, DJ, remixer and producer. He was born on June 16, 1964 in Antony, Hauts-de-Seine, France. Allmusic considers his style to be similar to Air and Dimitri from Paris. His best-known album is A Grand Love Story (1997), and he has also compiled and mixed a DJ mix album for the Another Late Night series on Azuli Records.
He has worked with Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp), with Italian band The Transistors (Maurizio Mansueti and Luca Cirillo) and Glasgow bands A Band Called Quinn and Mogwai, and produced the album Too Late To Die Young by the British group Departure Lounge.
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Kid Rock
Robert James "Bob" Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist and rapper with five Grammy Awards nominations. Kid Rock released several studio albums that mostly went unnoticed before his 1998 record Devil Without a Cause, released with Atlantic Records, sold 11 million albums behind the hits, "Bawitdaba", "Cowboy", and "Only God Knows Why". In 2000, he released The History of Rock, a compilation of remixed and remastered versions of songs from previous albums as well as the hit single, "American Bad Ass" and the previously unreleased "Abortion".
Kid Rock released the follow-up in 2001, Cocky. After a slow start, his country-flavored hit "Picture" with Sheryl Crow resurrected the album and it went gold as a single and pushed the album's sales over 5 million. It was followed by 2003's self-titled release, which went platinum in the USA and reached No. 8 on the Billboard charts. In 2006 he released Live Trucker, a greatest hits live album that went mostly unnoticed.
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Killah Priest
Walter Reed, better known as Killah Priest, Iron Sheik from the Middle East, or Masada, is an African-American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan affiliate who was raised in Brooklyn. He is known for intensely spiritual lyrics loaded with metaphors and religious references. He is connected to the Black Hebrew Israelites through his rhymes, and is known for controversial and Afrocentric subject matter. He is also a part of supergroup the HRSMN along with Canibus, Ras Kass, and Kurupt. He has a hardcore fan base and has been known to be very generous and giving of his time to his fans and various charitable organizations.
Priest first made himself known to the hip hop world rapping on two songs on the Gravediggaz album 6 Feet Deep in 1994, and followed this with two appearances on each of two Wu-Tang Clan solo albums, Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version and GZA's Liquid Swords, both from 1995 (see 1995 in music). Liquid Swords in fact included a Killah Priest solo track titled "B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)". Also in 1995, Priest's group Sunz Of Man with rappers Hell Razah, 60 Second Assassin, Prodigal Sunn were signed to Wu-Tang Records and released three 12" singles through the label. Initially Sunz Of Man included Shabazz the Disciple, who had previously been in a duo with Priest called The Disciples, but Shabazz basically left the group before the contract with Wu-Tang Records was signed, thus only appearing on the B-side "5 Arch Angels".
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Killer Mike
Michael Render (born April 20, 1975), better known by his stage name Killer Mike, is an American rapper, signed to Grind Time Official through the SMC/Fontana Distribution. He made his debut on "Snappin' and Trappin'" on OutKast's 2000 LP Stankonia, and also appeared on the Grammy-winning song, "The Whole World", the single from OutKast's greatest hits album Big Boi and Dre Present...OutKast. He was featured in the movies 20 Funerals, Idlewild, and ATL.
Killer Mike released his debut album, Monster, in 2003. The album's lead single was "Akshon (Yeah!)", which featured rap group OutKast on guest vocals, and was included on the soundtrack to the 2004 version of EA Sports popular video game Madden NFL. He even made a Madden '04 remix of "Akshon (Yeah!)" for the game. The album's second single was "A.D.I.D.A.S.", featuring Big Boi and Sleepy Brown, which peaked at #60 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is Killer Mike's highest charting single to date as a lead artist. The song's title was an acronym for "All day I dream about sex". Following the release of his own material, he appeared on "Flip Flop Rock" and "Bust" on the Speakerboxx half of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. He also appeared on "Southern Takeover" with Pastor Troy on Chamillionaire's CD The Sound of Revenge. Killer Mike appeared on the song "Never Scared" by fellow rapper Bone Crusher, also with T.I., from AttenCHUN! It peaked at #26 on the Hot 100, becoming Mike's first top 40 hit. The song was also used on the Madden NFL 04 game and even by the Atlanta Braves for their 2003 season. His second album Ghetto Extraordinary has had its release date pushed back several times due to disputes between Big Boi and Sony Records.
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Krayzie Bone
Anthony Henderson (born June 17, 1973) better known as Krayzie Bone, is a Grammy award-winning American rapper, singer, performer, writer and a former member of the rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.
Krayzie Bone recorded his solo debut, Thug Mentality 1999, in 1998. The album was released as a double disc set, featuring a large selection of guest appearances, including Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Mo Thugs, The Marley Brothers, Big Pun, Fat Joe, Cuban Link, Gangsta Boo, E-40, 8 Ball & MJG, Kurupt, Naughty By Nature and Snoop Dogg. The album was certified platinum by the RIAA.
In 2001, Krayzie released Thug On Da Line. The album didn't do as well as his previous release, and was criticized for its frequent guest appearances from fellow Thugline members by a few hardcore fans. However his album received plenty of positive reviews from music critics and went gold. Amazon.com went as far as labeling it one of the best albums of 2001.
In 2006 Krayzie Bone was featured in a song "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire. "Ridin'" was awarded "Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group" at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards. It was also nominated for Best Rap Song. It became number one in December on the Piczo Chart 3 months after its physical release. The song also topped the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart when it was released there.
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Kreator
Kreator is a thrash metal band from Essen, Germany, formed in 1978, but formalized in 1982 under the name Tormentor. They originally performed a speed metal style with Venom influences. Their style of music is similar to their compatriots Destruction and Sodom, the other two big German thrash metal bands. All three of these bands are often credited with helping pioneer death metal, by containing several elements of what was to become the genre. Kreator's work began in the vein of pure thrash metal but ventured into industrial and gothic from 1992 to 1999, before eventually returning to their classic thrash sound to date.
To date, Kreator has released twelve studio albums, two EPs, one live album and three compilation albums. The band released its debut album Endless Pain in 1985. Although many of their previous albums, including Pleasure to Kill (1986), were quite popular in the United States, Kreator did not experience major American commercial success until the 2009 release of their twelfth studio album, Hordes of Chaos, which peaked at number 165 on the Billboard 200 and debuted at #16 on the Media Control Charts, the band's highest ever chart position in Germany. The band is currently working on new material for a thirteenth studio album Phantom Antichrist, which is due to be released on 1 June 2012 in Europe, with a release date of 4 and 5 June for the UK and USA respectively.
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Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer Kristian "Kris" Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for such hits as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Kristofferson is the sole writer of most of his songs, and he has collaborated with various other figures of the Nashville scene such as Shel Silverstein.
Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas, to Mary Ann (née Ashbrook) and Lars Henry Kristofferson, a U.S. Army Air Corps officer (later a U.S. Air Force Major General). His paternal grandparents immigrated from Sweden, and Kristofferson's paternal grandfather was an officer in the Swedish Army. When Kristofferson was a child, his father pushed him toward a military career. Like most "military brats", Kristofferson moved around frequently as a youth, finally settling down in San Mateo, California, where he graduated from San Mateo High School. An aspiring writer, Kristofferson enrolled in Pomona College in 1954. He experienced his first dose of fame when he appeared in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" for his achievements in collegiate rugby union, football, and track and field. He and fellow classmates revived the Claremont Colleges Rugby Club in 1958, which has remained a Southern California rugby dynasty.[clarification needed] Kristofferson became a member of Kappa Delta at Pomona College, graduating in 1958 with a BA, summa cum laude in Literature. In a 2004 interview with Pomona College Magazine Kristofferson mentioned philosophy professor Frederick Sontag as an important influence in his life.
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Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkʂɨʂtɔf pɛndɛˈrɛt͡skʲi] (Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki), born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these works exhibit novel compositional techniques. Since the 1970s Penderecki's style has changed to encompass a post-Romantic idiom.
He has won prestigious awards including Grammy Awards in 1987 and 1998 and 2001, and the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1992. He has been called Poland's greatest living composer.
As well as the works already mentioned, his compositions include four operas, eight symphonies and other orchestral pieces, a variety of instrumental concertos, choral settings of mainly religious texts, as well as chamber and instrumental works.
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Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling (born November 2, 1967) is an American jazz vocalist, composer, lyricist and vocalese performer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling first became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church. Growing up, Elling sang in choirs and played various musical instruments, but wasn't exposed to jazz until he attended Gustavus Adolphus College. Elling enrolled in graduate school at the University of Chicago Divinity School, but left school one credit short of a master's degree to pursue a career as a jazz vocalist.
Elling began to perform around Chicago, scat singing and improvising his own lyrics. He recorded a demo in the early 1990s and was signed by Blue Note Records, releasing a total of seven albums with the label. He has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Vocal Jazz Album for Dedicated to You (2009) on the Concord Jazz label. Elling often leads the Down Beat critics poll, and he was awarded the Prix Billie Holiday from the Académie du Jazz. Since 1995, Elling has collaborated with pianist, composer, and arranger Laurence Hobgood, leading a quartet that regularly tours the world.
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Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE ( /ˈkaɪliː mɨˈnoʊɡ/; born 28 May 1968) — often known simply as Kylie — is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, showgirl, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing her career as a recording artist in 1987. Her first single, "Locomotion", spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart and became the highest selling single of the decade. This led to a contract with songwriters and producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Her debut album, Kylie (1988), and the single "I Should Be So Lucky", each reached number one in the United Kingdom, and over the next two years, her first 13 singles reached the British top ten. Her debut film, The Delinquents (1989) was a box-office hit in Australia and the UK, and received generally positive reviews.
Initially presented as a "girl next door", Minogue attempted to convey a more mature style in her music and public image. Her singles were well received, but after four albums her record sales were declining, and she left Stock, Aitken & Waterman in 1992 to establish herself as an independent performer. Her next single, "Confide in Me", reached number one in Australia and was a hit in several European countries in 1994, and a duet with Nick Cave, "Where the Wild Roses Grow", brought Minogue a greater degree of artistic credibility. Drawing inspiration from a range of musical styles and artists, Minogue took creative control over the songwriting for her next album, Impossible Princess (1997). It failed to attract strong reviews or sales in the UK, but was successful in Australia.
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Lana Clarkson
Lana Jean Clarkson (April 5, 1962 – February 3, 2003) was an American actress and fashion model. Clarkson was a native of Los Angeles County. She played roles in science fiction and fantasy movies. On April 13, 2009, songwriter and producer Phil Spector was convicted of second degree murder in relation to her death by gunshot.
Born in Long Beach, California, to Donna and James M. Clarkson, Lana Clarkson was raised in the hills of Napa Valley, California. She had a brother, Jesse J. Clarkson, and a sister Fawn. While living in Northern California, she attended Cloverdale High School and also Pacific Union College Preparatory School. During the Christmas season of 1978 and after her father's death, Clarkson's family moved back to Southern California and settled down in the Los Angeles region of San Fernando Valley. Right after Clarkson's family moved back to Los Angeles County, Lana pursued a career in entertainment industry as a performer and fashion model.
In the early 1980s, Clarkson landed bit parts in film and television. In 1982, she made her screen debut as a cameo character in director Amy Heckerling's coming-of-age comedy based on the Cameron Crowe book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, as the wife of science teacher Mr. Vargas (Vincent Schiavelli). The film was her first speaking role. In 1983, she also peeks into the frame in Scarface behind Michelle Pfeiffer dancing the floor of the Babylon Club.
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LeAnn Rimes
Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982), best known as LeAnn Rimes, is an American country/pop singer. She is known for her rich vocals and her rise to fame as an eight-year-old champion on the original Ed McMahon version of Star Search, followed by the release of the Bill Mack song "Blue" when she was 13 to become the youngest country music star since Tanya Tucker in 1972.
Rimes made her breakthrough into country music in 1996 with her debut album, Blue, which reached #1 on the Top Country Albums chart and was certified multiplatinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's eponymous leadoff single, "Blue," was originally intended to be recorded by Patsy Cline in the early 1960s. It became a Top 10 hit and Rimes gained national acclaim for her similarity to Cline's vocal style. When she released her sophomore studio effort in 1997, You Light up My Life: Inspirational Songs, she moved towards country pop material, which set the trend for a string of albums released into the next decade.
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Lemar
Lemar Obika (born 4 April 1978), professionally known simply as Lemar, is an English soul and R&B singer. Obika has had a run of chart success in the UK, Europe and Australia. He rose to fame after finishing in third place on the first series of British talent show Fame Academy, which was won by songwriter David Sneddon.
Since then Lemar has had seven top ten UK singles and sold over two million albums. He is seen as one of the most successful artists to come out of a reality TV show. Lemar has won two Brit Awards and three Mobo Awards to date. Lemar is due to release his fifth studio album in the summer of 2012.
Lemar Obika was born in Muswell Hill, North London, England to Igbo parents of Enugu State, South Eastern Nigeria. He grew up listening to R&B and soul music. He used to sing at home with his brothers and sister, pretending to be The Jacksons.
He was 17 when he had his first concert at the Junior Jam at the Temple in Tottenham supporting Usher.[citation needed] Later on he gave up an opportunity to study pharmacy at Cardiff University to pursue a musical career. Lemar had some success supporting various artists such as Destiny's Child, Total, Uncle Sam and Usher Raymond on their UK club tours and after some years, managed to secure a recording contract with BMG. Following this, he released his debut single "Got Me Saying Ooh". Unfortunately his record deal with BMG fell through in less than a year due to restructuring at the record label. He had to eventually take a job working as an accounts manager at NatWest in Enfield, north London.
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Lene Marlin
Lene Marlin (born Lene Marlin Pedersen, 17 August 1980, Tromsø, Norway) is a Norwegian singer and musician.
Marlin made her Norwegian debut on 12 October 1998, with the single "Unforgivable Sinner", which proved to be a hit as it reached number one and kept that position for eight weeks. It was also the fastest selling single in Norwegian music history, and appeared in the soundtrack of the Norwegian movie Schpaaa. It was followed by her first album, Playing My Game. She won an MTV Europe award in 1999. Her single "Where I'm Headed", from the French film, Mauvaises fréquentations, topped the charts in France and Italy. Her song "Sitting Down Here" became a top 5 hit in the UK Singles Chart, and reached number 5 in The Netherlands in the year 2000.
Lene Marlin's second album, Another Day, was released on 22 September 2003. With two singles being released "You Weren't There" and "Another Day". "You Weren't There" achieved success in Norway, as the song debuted at No. 1 on Norway Singles Top 20 and remained on the chart for 11 weeks. It also stayed for 24 weeks in Italy Singles Top 50 chart, peaking at No. 1. In other countries, however, "You Weren't There" was less successful; failing to reach the UK Top 40, reaching a low #59. Single Another Day was released in Italy and Norway only, and did not do as well as "You Weren't There", as it only peaked at No. 17 on Italy Singles chart. She also released "Sorry" but in Italy only.
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Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour.
While giving the speech at Cohen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 10 March 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."
Cohen was born on 21 September 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec, into a middle-class Jewish family. He attended Roslyn Elementary School. His mother, Marsha Klinitsky, of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, emigrated from Lithuania while his great-grandfather emigrated from Poland. He grew up in Westmount on the Island of Montreal. His grandfather was Lyon Cohen, founding president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His father, Nathan Cohen, who owned a substantial Montreal clothing store, died when Cohen was nine years old. On the topic of being a Kohen, Cohen has said that, "I had a very Messianic childhood." He told Richard Goldstein in 1967. "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest." Cohen attended Westmount High School, beginning in 1948 where he was involved with the Student Council and studied music and poetry. He became especially interested in the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca. As a teenager, he learned to play the guitar, and formed a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. Although he initially played a regular acoustic guitar as a teenager, he soon switched to playing a classical guitar after meeting a young Spanish flamenco guitar player who taught him "a few chords and some flamenco."
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Leonardo Balada
Leonardo Balada (born September 22, 1933, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain), is a Catalan American composer, now teaching and composing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
After studying piano at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona, in 1956 he emigrated to the United States to study at the Juilliard School in New York, from which he graduated in 1960. He studied composition with Vincent Persichetti, Alexandre Tansman and Aaron Copland, and conducting with Igor Markevitch. In 1981, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Since 1970 he has been teaching at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
His works in the early 1960s are somewhat neo-classical in nature, but the composer was dissatisfied and in 1966 saw a change to an avant-garde style, producing such works like Guernica. The composer felt a need for a change again in 1975, and the works from then onwards are characterized by the combination of folk dance rhythms with avant-garde techniques of the previous period. Harmonically, there is a combination of tonality (folk music) with atonality. Works marking this new trend including Homage to Sarasate and Homage to Casals.
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Leslie Cheung
Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing (12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003), nicknamed Gor Gor (哥哥), which means elder brother, was a Hong Kong film actor and musician. Cheung was considered as "one of the founding fathers of Cantopop", and "combining a hugely successful film and music career".
In 2000, Cheung was named Asian Biggest Superstar by China Central Television, and voted/ranked the 1st as The Most Favorite Actor in 100 Years of Chinese Cinema in 2005. Recently, he was voted the third of the CNN's "top five most iconic musician of all time" placing behind Michael Jackson and The Beatles.
Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing was born in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Cheung was the youngest of ten children in a middle-class Hakka family. Cheung Wut Hoi, his father, was a fairly well known tailor, whose customers included American actors William Holden, Marlon Brando, and Cary Grant. His parents divorced when he was quite young. While in Hong Kong, Cheung attended Rosaryhill School (Stubbs Road, Hong Kong).
At the age of 13, he was sent to England as a boarder at Eccles Hall School. After six month study, he transferred himself to a school in Chelmsford, and obtained a scholarship. He worked as a bartender at his relatives' restaurant and sang during the weekends. It was around this period that he chose his name, "Leslie". According to Cheung, he chose this name because "I love the film Gone with the Wind. And I like Leslie Howard. The name can be a man's or woman's, it's very unisex, so I like it."
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Lisa Marie Presley
Lisa Marie Presley (born February 1, 1968) is an American singer and songwriter, also known as the "Princess of Rock and Roll". She is the only child of Elvis Presley, and daughter of Priscilla Presley.
Lisa Marie Presley was born at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, exactly nine months after her parents' wedding. She lived at Graceland, Elvis' Memphis estate, until her parents separated in 1972. Following their separation and subsequent divorce, she divided her time between living at Graceland with her father and in Beverly Hills with her mother. This arrangement continued until her father died on August 16, 1977, after which she lived exclusively in Beverly Hills.
When her father died, Lisa Marie became joint-heir to his estate with her grandfather Vernon Presley, and her great grandmother Minnie Mae Presley. Following the deaths of Vernon in 1979 and Minnie Mae in 1980, Lisa became the sole heir and inherited Graceland. In 1993, on her 25th birthday, she inherited the estate, which had grown to an estimated $100 million.
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Little Eva
Eva Narcissus Boyd (June 29, 1943 – April 10, 2003), known by the stage name of Little Eva (after a character from Uncle Tom's Cabin), was a Puerto Rican American pop singer.
Born in Belhaven, North Carolina, she moved to the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York at a young age. As a teenager, she worked as a maid and earned extra money as a babysitter for songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin. It is often claimed that Goffin and King were amused by Boyd's individual dancing style, so they wrote "The Loco-Motion" for her and had her record it as a demo (the record was intended for Dee Dee Sharp).
However, as King said in an interview with NPR and in her "One to One" concert video, they knew she could sing when they met her, and it would be just a matter of time before they would have her record songs they wrote, the most successful being "The Loco-Motion".
Music producer Don Kirshner of Dimension Records was impressed by the song and Boyd's voice and had it released. The song reached #1 in the United States in 1962. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. After the success of "The Loco-Motion", Boyd was stereotyped as a dance-craze singer and was given limited material.
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Liz Phair
Elizabeth Clark "Liz" Phair (born April 17, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Phair began her career in the early 1990s by self-releasing audio cassettes under the moniker Girly Sound, before signing with the independent record label Matador Records. Her 1993 debut studio album Exile in Guyville was released to acclaim: by the turn of the 21st century, it had been ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Ten years after the release of her debut, Phair's fourth album, Liz Phair, was released on Capitol Records and her music began to move in a more pop rock-oriented approach. Phair has sold nearly three million records worldwide. Her latest album, Funstyle, was released on July 3, 2010.
Phair was born in New Haven, Connecticut, but was raised in Winnetka, Illinois, by wealthy adoptive parents. She graduated from New Trier High School in 1985. During high school, Phair was involved in student government, yearbook, and the cross country team, and took AP Studio Art her senior year, among many other advanced-level classes. She attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and majored in art history.
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Lola Bobesco
Lola Bobesco (9 August 1921 –4 September 2003) was a Belgian violinist of Romanian origin.
She was born in Craiova, Romania, and began her career as a child prodigy, giving her first recital there at the age of 6 with her father, composer and conductor Aurel Bobesco. She continued her studies at the Ecole Normale Musique de Paris (1928-1935) with Marcel Chailley (violin), and at the Conservatoire de Paris (1931-1935) with Jules Bucher, where she gained her first prize in 1934, and graduated with the "Prix d'Excellence." She took private violin lessons with George Enescu and Jacques Thibaud. She became known internationally after appearing in Paris (1936) aged 17 with the Colonne Orchestra under the baton of Paul Paray, where she performed a concerto by Romanian composer Stan Golestan. The following year, 1937, she obtained the seventh prize at the Eugène Ysaÿe contest.
Although established abroad even before the end of World War II, she returned to Romania and regularly appeared in concerts with the Radio Philharmonic in Bucharest, and the provinces in Craiova, Brasov, Iasi, Timisoara.
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Lorenzo Ferrero
Lorenzo Ferrero (born 1951) is a contemporary Italian composer with a predilection for opera, a librettist, author, and book editor. He started composing at an early age and wrote over a hundred compositions thus far, including twelve operas, three ballets, and numerous orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works. His musical idiom is characterized by eclecticism, stylistic versatility, and a neo-tonal language.
Born in Turin, he was initially self-taught, then studied composition from 1969 to 1973 with Massimo Bruni and Enore Zaffiri at Turin Music Conservatory, and philosophy with Gianni Vattimo and Massimo Mila at the University of Turin, earning a degree in aesthetics with a thesis on John Cage in 1974.
His early interest in the psychology of perception and psychoacoustics led him to IMEB, the International Electroacoustic Music Institute of Bourges, France where he did research on electronic music between 1972 and 1973, IRCAM in Paris, and to the Musik/Dia/Licht/Film Galerie in Munich, Germany in 1974.
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Lorie
Laure Pester, professionally known as Lorie, is a French singer. Her fame can be attributed to producer, songwriter and composer Johnny Williams (grandson of 'musette' accordion star André Verchuren) and her father–manager Dominique Pester (a former studio manager at French radio station RTL). She is sometimes also referred to as the French version of Britney Spears.
Lorie is a multi-platinum singer who has sold over eight million albums and singles worldwide as of December 2007. Her first studio album Près de toi was certified triple platinum in France and she followed it with five other certified albums. It was expected that Lorie would start working on a new album, the follow-up to her 2007 record 2Lor en moi?
Lorie is also a comedian. She lent her voice for many French versions of international movies such as Stuart Little 2. She stars in the TF1 TV film De feu et de glace, and guest-starred as a Parisian model on the highly successful American soap opera The Young and the Restless.
She has also launched a clothing line, “Lorie”, only found in the Z stores in France. Her contract with Z was over in early 2009.
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Lou Harrison
Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo (formerly called K.R.T. Wasitodiningrat, informally called Pak Cokro).
Harrison is particularly noted for incorporating elements of the music of non-Western cultures into his work, with a number of pieces written for Javanese style gamelan instruments, including ensembles constructed and tuned by Harrison and his partner William Colvig. The majority of his works are written in just intonation rather than the more widespread equal temperament. Harrison is one of the most prominent composers to have worked with microtones.
Harrison was born in Portland, Oregon, but moved with his family to a number of locations around the San Francisco Bay Area as a child. He graduated from Burlingame High School in Burlingame, California in 1934, then he moved to San Francisco. The diverse music which he was to be exposed to there, including Cantonese opera, Native American music, Mexican music, and jazz as well as classical music, was to have a major influence on him. He also heard recordings of Indonesian music early in life.
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Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition Sinfonia for voices and orchestra and his series of numbered solo pieces titled Sequenza) and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.
Berio was born at Oneglia (now part of Imperia). He was taught the piano by his father and grandfather who were both organists. During World War II he was conscripted into the army, but on his first day he injured his hand while learning how a gun worked, and spent time in a military hospital. Following the war, Berio studied at the Milan Conservatory under Giulio Cesare Paribeni and Giorgio Federico Ghedini. He was unable to continue studying the piano because of his injured hand, so instead concentrated on composition. In 1947 came the first public performance of one of his works, a suite for piano. Berio made a living at this time accompanying singing classes, and it was in doing this that he met American mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian, whom he married shortly after graduating (they divorced in 1964). Berio would write many pieces aimed at exploiting her very distinctive voice.
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Ludacris
Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), better known by his stage name Ludacris, is an American rapper and actor. Along with his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings. Ludacris has won a Screen Actors Guild, Critic's Choice, MTV, and three Grammy Awards during his career. Along with fellow Atlantans Big Boi and Andre 3000 of OutKast, Ludacris was one of the first and most influential Dirty South artists to achieve mainstream success.
Born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludacris moved to Atlanta, Georgia at age nine, where he began rapping. After a brief stint as a disc jockey, he released his debut album Back for the First Time in 2000, which contained the singles "Southern Hospitality" and "What's Your Fantasy". In 2001, he released Word of Mouf, followed by Chicken-n-Beer in 2003. He took a more serious approach with his next three albums, The Red Light District (2004), Release Therapy (2006), and Theater of the Mind (2008). His latest record, Battle of the Sexes, was released in 2010.
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Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono (Italian pronunciation: [luˈiːdʒi ˈnɔːno]; January 29, 1924 – May 8, 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music and remains one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century.
Born in Venice, he was a member of a wealthy artistic family, and his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono began music lessons with Gian Francesco Malipiero in 1941 at the Venice Conservatory where he acquired knowledge of the Renaissance madrigal tradition, amongst other styles. After graduating with a degree in law from the University of Padua, he was given encouragement in composition by Bruno Maderna. Through Maderna, he became acquainted with Hermann Scherchen—then Maderna's conducting teacher—who gave Nono further tutelage and was an early mentor and advocate of his music.
It was Scherchen who presented Nono's first acknowledged work, the Variazioni canoniche sulla serie dell'op. 41 di A. Schönberg in 1950, at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt. The Variazioni canoniche, based on the twelve-tone series of Arnold Schoenberg's Op. 41, including the Ode-to-Napoleon hexachord, marked Nono as a committed composer of anti-fascist political orientation (Annibaldi 1980). (Variazioni canoniche also used a six-element row of rhythmic values). Nono had been a member of the Italian Resistance during the Second World War (Schoenberg-Nono, 2008). In fact Nono's striking political commitment, while allying him with some of his contemporaries at Darmstadt such as Henri Pousseur and in the earlier days Hans Werner Henze, distinguished him from others, including Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Nevertheless, it was with Boulez and Stockhausen that Nono became one of the leaders of the New Music during the 1950s.
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Luis Miguel
Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri (April 19, 1970) is a Mexican singer. He is widely known only by the name Luis Miguel. An icon in the Spanish-speaking countries, he is often referred to as "El Sol de México" (The Sun of Mexico) or simply "El Sol" (The Sun).
Beginning his musical career in his childhood, Luis Miguel has won five Grammys and four Latin Grammys among other numerous awards. He is considered as one of the top male pop vocalists in the world nowadays. His contribution to Latin pop music, along with his hermetic personal life, has made him a global figure of Latin music for almost three decades. He debuted on the professional music at 11 years old. At the age of fifteen, Luis Miguel received his first Grammy for his duet "Me Gustas Tal Como Eres" (I Like You Just The Way You Are) with Sheena Easton. In 1991, the RIAA gave him a recognition for the high sales of the albums Romance and Segundo Romance. Luis Miguel is the only Latin artist to have two Spanish-language albums (Romance and Segundo Romance) go platinum in the USA. He has achieved a long string of distinctions. Also among those was having his album Luis Miguel achieve gold and platinum certifications in four countries, including the United States, within just three days of its release.
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Lumidee
Lumidee Cedeño (born August 24, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter and rapper. Cedeño was born in Spanish Harlem where she was raised by her grandparents. She quickly rose to fame in 2003 with the release of her song "Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)", which reached the top ten in over ten countries and number one in various European countries.
Cedeño's father died in 1995, and she and her four siblings were raised by her grandparents. She began singing and rapping at the age of twelve. She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of fourteen, after she was misdiagnosed with lupus.
After graduating high school, she collaborated with a local neighborhood producer named DJ Tedsmooth to record her debut single, "Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)" for an independent record label called Straight Face. Lumidee cites Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliot, MC Lyte and Mary J. Blige as her major influences.
She signed with Universal Records, where she released her debut album called Almost Famous on June 23, 2003. Her single peaked at number 3 in the U.S. and number 2 in the UK, but it was her only hit until the 2007 release of "She's Like The Wind." According to Nielsen SoundScan, Almost Famous sold 276,000 copies in the U.S.
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Luther Vandross
Luther Vandross (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times. He won four Grammy Awards in 2004 including the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for the track "Dance with My Father", co-written with Richard Marx.
Luther Vandross was born on April 20, 1951 at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, New York City, United States. He was the fourth child and second son to Mary Ida Vandross and Luther Vandross, Sr.
Born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City in the NYCHA Alfred E. Smith Houses public housing development, Vandross began playing the piano at the age of three. He grew up in a musical family that moved to the Bronx when he was thirteen. His sister, Patricia, sang with the vocal group The Crests, who had a number two hit in 1958 with "16 Candles", though she left the group before the recording. Vandross's father died of diabetes when Vandross was eight years old. Luther Vandross was in a high school group, Shades of Jade, that once played at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. He was also a member of a theater workshop, "Listen My Brother" who released the singles "Only Love Can Make a Better World" and "Listen My Brother", and appeared on the second and fifth episodes of Sesame Street in November 1969.
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Macy Gray
Macy Gray (born Natalie McIntyre, 6 September 1967 in Canton, Ohio, USA) is a Grammy Award-winning American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress, famed for her distinctive raspy voice, and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday and Betty Davis.
Gray has released six studio albums, and has received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild and For Colored Girls. Gray is best known for her international hit single "I Try," taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.
Macy Gray, was born to Laura McIntyre, a math teacher, and Otis Jones; Laura later remarried Richard McIntyre, who adopted Macy and fathered her brother Nathon and sister Nehlia.[citation needed] Gray was born in Canton, Ohio, where she briefly worked at age 12, before being fired for lateness. She decided to pursue a career in music after being expelled from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, which she had attended from the age of 14. However, Gray's initial success came as a surprise. While attending the University of Southern California (graduated 1990) she agreed to write songs for a friend, and a demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer. When the vocalist failed to turn up, Gray recorded them herself. She then met writer/producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a large collection of songs and recorded them in Solo's studio. The demo tape landed Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles, California. Despite Gray's dislike of her own voice,Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of her A&R man Tom Carolan, who signed her to the label. In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She was on one of the songs from The Black Eyed Peas' debut album, "Love Won't Wait".
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Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO (honorary), CBE (21 November 1931 – 2 March 2003) was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.
Williamson was born in Sydney and studied composition and horn at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His teachers included Eugene Goossens. In 1950 he moved to London where he worked as an organist, a proofreader, and a nightclub pianist. From 1953 he studied with Elisabeth Lutyens. Williamson was a prolific composer at this time, receiving many commissions and often performed his own works, both on organ and piano.
In 1975, the death of Sir Arthur Bliss left the title of Master of the Queen's Music vacant. The selection of Williamson to fill this post was a surprise, over other composers such as Benjamin Britten, Michael Tippett and Malcolm Arnold, such that William Walton had remarked that "the wrong Malcolm" had been chosen. In addition, Williamson was the first non-Briton to hold the post. He wrote a number of pieces connected to his royal post, including Mass of Christ the King (1978) (see below) and Lament in Memory of Lord Mountbatten of Burma (1980). However, controversy attended his tenure, notably his failure to complete the intended "Jubilee Symphony" for the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977. He became less prolific in "Royal" works during the last twenty years or so of his life, although he never completely ceased to take interest in writing music for the Royal Family (see list of "Royal Works" below). His overall compositional output slowed considerably due to a series of illnesses. He died in 2003 in a hospital in Cambridge.
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Mandy Moore
Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and fashion designer. Moore became famous as a teenager in the late 1990s, after the release of her teen pop albums So Real, I Wanna Be with You, and Mandy Moore. In 2007, she took an adult pop-folk direction with the release of Wild Hope. Her most recent album, Amanda Leigh, was released on May 26, 2009. Moore has sold more than 10 million records worldwide. Moore subsequently branched out into film, starring in 2002's A Walk to Remember and later in other movies, such as Chasing Liberty, Saved! and License to Wed. Most recently Moore provided the voice of Rapunzel in Tangled. In April 2011, she ranked 5th in People's annual Most Beautiful issue.
Moore was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. Her mother, Stacy (née Friedman), is a former news reporter who once worked for the Orlando Sentinel, and her father, Donald "Don" Moore, is a pilot for American Airlines. Moore's father is of Irish and Cherokee descent, and her mother is of half-English and half-Jewish ancestry. Moore, who has an older brother Scott and a younger brother Kyle, grew up in Longwood, Florida, outside of Orlando, where the family moved shortly after her birth because of her father's job as an airline pilot. She was raised Catholic (though she is no longer practicing), and attended Bishop Moore High School, in Orlando, as well as Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs.
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Marc Lavoine
Marc Lucien Lavoine (born 6 August 1962 in Longjumeau, Essonne) is a French singer and actor. In 1985, his hit single "Elle a les yeux revolver" allowed him to reach the top of the French chart and marked the beginning of his successful singing career.
Marc Lavoine is a French singer born near Paris. He was labeled a heart throb at the beginning of his career and remains popular. He released his first album, Le Parking des Anges, in 1985 with his song "Elle a les yeux revolver" as a favorite among teens. In 1987, Lavoine released his second album Fabriqué. His single, "Qu'est-ce que t'es belle", was a duet with Les Rita Mitsouko leader Catherine Ringer. His third album Les Amours Du Dimanche was released in 1989, which sold 300,000 albums.
In 1992, the singles "Paris", also the title track of his fourth album, and "L'Amour de trente secondes" gained success. In 1993, Lavoine released his fifth album Faux Rêveur. Lavoine's sixth album Lavoine-Matic, released in 1996, included the single "C'est ça la France", which is a song of tolerance and was awarded Best Video from the Victoire de la Musique. In 1999, his seventh album Septième Ciel was released, with the first single as "Les Tournesols"
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Marcella Pobbé
Marcella Pobbé (July 13, 1921 - June 17, 2003), was an Italian operatic soprano who sang a wide range of roles in both the lyric and spinto repertory.
Pobbé was born in Vicenza, where she studied with Elena Fava, and later entered the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, where she studied with Rinalda Pavoni. She also studied at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Giorgio Favaretto. She made her stage debut in Spoleto, as Gounod's Marguerite, in 1949, and the same year, first appeared at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, where she was to appear regularly until 1973.
She made her debut at the Rome Opera in 1954, in the title role of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, and at La Scala in 1955, as Bathseba in the premiere of Darius Milhaud's David. She appeared at the Baths of Caracalla in 1957, as Mathilde in Guglielmo Tell, and in 1959 as Elsa in Lohengrin. She also sang at most major opera houses in Italy, Venice, Parma, Bologna, Florence, Mantua, Palermo, etc., as well as on Italian radio and television.
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Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, and released her self-titled debut studio album, Mariah Carey. The album went multi-platinum and spawned four consecutive number one singles, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola in 1993, a series of hit records, including Emotions (1991), Music Box (1993) and Merry Christmas (1994), established her position as Columbia's highest-selling act. Daydream (1995), made music history when the second single, "One Sweet Day" a duet with Boyz II Men, spent a record sixteen weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100, and remains the longest running number one song in US chart history. During the recording of the album Carey began to deviate from her pop background, and slowly traversed into R&B and Hip-hop. After her separation from Mottola, this musical change was evident with the release of Butterfly (1997).
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Mario Davidovsky
Mario Davidovsky (born March 4, 1934) is an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the US, where he lives today. He is best known for his series of compositions called Synchronisms, which in live performance incorporate both acoustic instruments and electroacoustic sounds played from a tape.
Davidovsky was born in Médanos, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, a town nearly 600 km southwest of the city of Buenos Aires and close to the seaport of Bahía Blanca. He is a first-generation Argentinian, his family having emigrated there from Lithuania.[citation needed] Along with the surrounding South American culture, including a strong agrarian economy and Catholic faith, his family's European values and Jewish history shaped his growth and education.[citation needed] At seven he began his musical studies on the violin. At thirteen he began composing. He studied composition and theory under Guillermo Graetzer at the University of Buenos Aires, from which he eventually graduated.
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Mark Lanegan
Mark Lanegan (born November 25, 1964) is an American alternative rock musician and singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Ellensburg, Washington, Lanegan began his musical career in 1985, forming the grunge band Screaming Trees with Gary Lee Conner, Van Conner and Mark Pickerel. During his time in the band, Lanegan also started a low-key solo career and released his first solo studio album, The Winding Sheet, in 1990. Since 1990, he has released a further six studio albums and has received critical recognition and moderate commercial success.
Lanegan has also collaborated with various artists and bands throughout his career. Following the dissolution of The Screaming Trees in 2000, he became a member of Queens of the Stone Age and is featured on three of the band's albums—Rated R (2000), Songs for the Deaf (2002) and Lullabies to Paralyze (2005). Lanegan also formed The Gutter Twins with Greg Dulli in 2003, released three collaboration albums with former Belle and Sebastian singer Isobel Campbell, and contributed to releases by Melissa Auf der Maur, Martina Topley Bird, Creature with the Atom Brain, Bomb the Bass, Soulsavers and Mad Season.
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Mark Owen
Mark Anthony Patrick Owen (born 27 January 1972), is an English singer-songwriter. He is a member of pop band Take That. The band were hugely successful during the 1990s and have enjoyed even more success since their reunion in 2005. As a solo artist, Mark Owen had sold over 400,000 records worldwide and 80 million with Take That.
Take That formed in 1990 and during his time with the group, Owen sang lead vocals on "Babe", which was released in December 1993 from the Everything Changes album. It reached number one in the UK, but was knocked off the top spot at Christmas by Mr Blobby. He also sang lead vocals on "The Day After Tomorrow" from the Nobody Else album, and that concludes Owen's vocal contributions to the band the first time around. Despite this, Owen was the most popular member of the group, on account of his boyish good looks and sweet demeanour, regularly earning awards such as Smash Hit's "Most Fanciable Male in the World" and "Best Haircut".
After Take That split, Owen became the second of the band's ex-members to release a solo record. He reached number three in the UK Singles Chart with his debut single, "Child". His second single, "Clementine", also went to number three. In 1997 his album Green Man was released, charting at a number 33. After another single, "I Am What I Am", charted at number 29, Owen was dropped by BMG Records in late 1997.
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Marques Houston
Marques Barrett Houston (born August 4, 1981) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, rapper, and actor. A member of the R&B singing group Immature/IMx until 2002, he went solo in 2003. He is also the cousin of J-Boog, former member of the R&B group B2K.
Born in Inglewood, California to Michael and Carolyn, Houston lost his mother to lymphoma in 1997. This affected him deeply: he wrote songs about his mother's battle with the disease and her eventual death, including the song "All Alone" on Immature's album The Journey.[citation needed] He is of African American and Mexican American descent.
Houston became a founding member of the R&B group Immature, known from 1999 as IMx. The group included Jerome "Romeo" Jones and Don "Half Pint" Santos (later replaced by Kelton "LDB" Kessee), with Chris Stokes acting as their manager. At this period Houston went by the nickname "Batman". The group released four albums under the name Immature.
In 1999, the group underwent a name change but continued on to release two albums under the name IMx: Introducing IMx (1999) and IMx (2001). The group also branched out into film (such as House Party 4: Down to the Last Minute) and television (such as A Different World) before disbanding in 2002.
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Martina McBride
Martina McBride (born July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer and songwriter. McBride has been called the "Céline Dion of Country Music" for her big-voiced ballads and soprano range.
McBride was signed to RCA Records in 1991, and made her debut the following year as a neo-traditionalist country singer with the single, "The Time Has Come." It was not until 1997, when she released her fourth album, Evolution, that she broke through into the country music industry with a new pop-styled crossover sound, similar to that of Faith Hill and Shania Twain. From that point on, McBride has had a string of major hit singles on the Billboard country chart and occasionally on the adult contemporary chart. Five of these singles went to No. 1 on the country chart between 1995 and 2001, and one peaked at No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart in 2003.
McBride has recorded a total of nine studio albums, one greatest hits compilation, one "live" album, a Christmas compilation, as well as two additional compilation albums. Seven of her studio albums and two of her compilations have received an RIAA Gold certification, or higher. In the U.S. she has sold over 14 million albums. In addition, McBride has won the Country Music Association's "Female Vocalist of the Year" award four times (tied with Reba McEntire for the most wins) and the Academy of Country Music's "Top Female Vocalist" award three times.
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Matthew Good
Matthew Frederick Robert Good (born June 29, 1971) is a Canadian rock musician. He was the lead singer for the Matthew Good Band, one of Canada's most successful alternative rock bands in the 1990s, before dissolving the band in 2002. Other band members included drummer Ian Browne, guitarist/keyboardist Dave Genn, and original bassist Geoff Lloyd, later replaced by Rich Priske. In the years since the Matthew Good Band's disbanding, Good has pursued a solo career and established himself as a political activist and blogger. He is also credited with coining the phrase first world problems.
Good's early career in music involved a variety of folk demos and a stint as the lead singer of a folk band, the Rodchester Kings. Matthew Good and guitarist Simon Woodcock were discovered at an open mic at Simon Fraser University by manager Brent Christensen. Early Rodchester Kings demos were recorded at Fragrant Time Records in Burnaby by Greg Wasmuth and Steven Codling.
The Matthew Good Band was formed in Coquitlam, British Columbia in 1993. In late 1993 they recorded a short demo tape called "Euphony", which featured acoustic songs like "Mercy Misses You", "Heather's Like Sunday", and the title track "Euphony". In 1994, they won a prize in CFOX 99.3's annual local Vancouver independent artist competition "Vancouver Seeds". The prize included recording time at a local studio/recording school, where, in September 1994, they recorded "15 hours on a September Thursday". This demo tape included songs like "Second Sun", "Dancing Invisible", and "Push". In December 1994, the band signed a publishing deal with EMI Publishing.
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Matthew Sweet
Sidney Matthew Sweet (born October 6, 1964, in Lincoln, Nebraska) is an American alternative rock/power pop musician. He was part of the burgeoning Athens, Georgia, music scene in the early and mid-1980s before gaining commercial success during the early 1990s. He continues to release albums and to tour.
As a teenager in Lincoln, Sweet wrote and recorded songs on four-track cassettes, and in the ninth grade joined the band the Specs which resulted in his first recording on a battle of the bands LP produced by a local radio station. Sweet set off to Athens, Georgia in the early 1980s after graduating from Lincoln Southeast High School in 1983 to attend college and join the vibrant Athens music scene, most famous as the home base for R.E.M. and The B-52's. In 1983, Sweet collaborated with R.E.M. member Michael Stipe under the name Community Trolls as well as being in Stipe's sister Lynda Stipe's band Oh-OK, and that year also formed the power-pop duo, The Buzz of Delight with drummer David Pierce (Oh-Ok). They released an EP Sound Castles on DB Recs later that year.
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Maurice Gibb
Maurice Ernest Gibb, CBE (22 December 1949 – 12 January 2003) was a musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He was born in the Isle of Man to English parents, the twin brother of Robin Gibb and younger brother to Barry. He is best known as a member of the singing/songwriting trio the Bee Gees, formed with his brothers. Their younger brother Andy was a popular solo singer. The trio got their start in Australia, and found major success when they returned to England. The Bee Gees became one of the most successful pop groups ever.
Born Maurice Ernest Gibb to Barbara (née Pass) and Hugh Gibb (d.1992) on the Isle of Man, Maurice was the fraternal twin brother of Robin Gibb, and the younger of the two by 35 minutes. The fourth-born of five children, he had one older sister, Lesley (b. 1945), and three brothers, Barry (b. 1946), twin Robin (1949–2012), and Andy (1958–1988). In the 1950s, the family moved to Chorlton-cum-Hardy in Manchester, England, then in late 1958, they moved to Brisbane, Australia, settling in one of the city's poorest suburbs, Cribb Island, which was subsequently demolished to make way for the Brisbane Airport.
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Max Cavalera
Massimiliano Antonio "Max" Cavalera (born August 4, 1969) is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the heavy metal band Sepultura, before forming Soulfly in the late 1990s. Cavalera was also involved in a short-lived side project, Nailbomb, and is currently performing with Soulfly and another project, Cavalera Conspiracy.
His father, Graziano Cavalera, was an employee of the Italian Consulate in São Paulo and died at 40 years of age and is buried in Belo Horizonte; Max was only 9 when his father died.
Max's family was in a state of financial crisis and family turbulence when he formed Sepultura with his younger brother Igor and Wagner Lamounier, later adding Paulo Jr. and Jairo Guedes after Lamounier left the band. Andreas Kisser later replaced Guedes after the latter left Sepultura.
In the early 1990s he relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. He did not begin to make "spiritual" music until after he quit Sepultura. His earlier lyrics for Soulfly were influenced by religion and spirituality, though he is very critical of religion. His later albums, starting with Dark Ages, began to incoporate lyrical themes of violence, warfare, anger, and hatred. His albums have all been dedicated to God, and he has often been depicted by the press as a man of religion, especially in America, something that Cavalera himself says he does not understand. As he himself put it:
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Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947), better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor. He is noted for the Bat Out of Hell album trilogy consisting of Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. Bat Out of Hell has sold more than 43 million copies. After more than 30 years, it still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually and stayed on the charts for over nine years, making it one of the best selling albums of all time.
Although he enjoyed success with Bat Out of Hell and Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and earned a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo for the song "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" on the latter album, Meat Loaf experienced some initial difficulty establishing a steady career within his native US. However, he has retained iconic status and popularity in Europe, especially the UK, where he ranks 23rd for the number of weeks overall spent on the charts. He ranked 96th on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".
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Memphis Bleek
Malik Cox (born June 23, 1978), better known by his rap persona of Memphis Bleek or "Bleek", is a New York rapper mainly known for his tenure with Roc-a-Fella Records and CEO of his own label Get Low Records. He has released four albums during his career (all of which went Gold) , and had planned to release The Process in 2011, although the album has yet to be completed.
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Michael Bolton
Michael Bolotin (born February 26, 1953), better known as Michael Bolton, is an American singer and songwriter. Bolton originally performed in the hard rock and heavy metal genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, both on his early solo albums and those recorded as the frontman of the band Blackjack. He is best known, however, for his series of soft rock ballads, recorded after a stylistic change in the late 1980s. He is noted for his distinctive tenor/countertenor vocals.
Bolton's achievements include selling eight top 10 albums, achieving two number one singles on the Billboard charts, and receiving awards from both the American Music Awards and Grammy Awards.
Bolton was born Michael Bolotin in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Helen (Gubin) and George Bolotin. He has a brother, Orrin, and a sister, Sandra, both older. His family was Jewish, and all of his grandparents had been immigrants from Russia. His parents were divorced when he was very young and his father died when Michael was 13 years old.
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Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé ( /ˈbuːbleɪ/; born 9 September 1975) is an Italian Canadian singer and actor. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found a worldwide audience with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible which reached number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, the U.K. Albums Chart, the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart, the Australian ARIA Albums Chart and several European charts. Bublé has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.
Michael Bublé was born in the City of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada to Lewis Bublé, a salmon fisherman, and Amber (née Santagà). He has two younger sisters, Crystal (an actress) and Brandee. He attended Seaforth Elementary School and Cariboo Hill Secondary School. According to an Oprah interview on 9 October 2009, Bublé dreamed of becoming a famous singer since age two. When he was a teenager, he slept with his Bible and prayed to become a singer. Bublé's interest in jazz music began around age five when his family played Bing Crosby's White Christmas album at Christmas time. The first time that his family noticed his singing talent was at Christmas time when Bublé was 13 years old, and they heard him powerfully sing the phrase "May your days be merry and bright" when the family was singing to the song "White Christmas" in a car ride.
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Michael Eavis
Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis, CBE (born 17 October 1935), is an English dairy farmer and the founder of the Glastonbury Festival, which takes place on his farm.
His family hails from Dorset and, after his great grandfather walked the family dairy herd north, settled at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset. His father was a local Methodist preacher, while his mother was a school teacher. Eavis was educated at the fee-paying Wells Cathedral School, followed by the Thames Nautical Training College after which he joined the Union-Castle Line, which comprised part of the British Merchant Navy, as a trainee Midshipman. His plan was to spend 20 years at sea, returning with a pension to subsidise the income from the farm. After his father died in 1958, Eavis returned to inherit the family farm of 150 acres (0.61 km2) and 60 cows. Michael had 3 children with his first wife Juliet,Rebecca and Jane and 2 children with Jean Patrick and Emily.
Divorcing his first wife Ruth in 1964, with whom he had three children, in 1969 Eavis and his second wife Jean Hayball visited the Bath Festival of Blues. Inspired by seeing the performance of Led Zeppelin, they hosted a free festival the following year. This developed into the Glastonbury Festival as it is known today. Jean died in 1999; since then their daughter Emily has taken a more active role in running the event. In common with his mother and his second wife, Eavis remains a regular Methodist chapel-goer. Eavis has since married his third wife, Liz.
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Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.
In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.
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Michael Kamen
Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, song writer, and session musician.
Kamen was born in New York City, USA. He was the second of four sons. His father Saul Kamen was a dentist, and his mother was a teacher.
While attending the The High School of Music & Art in New York City, Michael Kamen met and became friends with Martin Fulterman (later known as Mark Snow, who composed the theme music for The X-Files among other projects). While studying the oboe, he formed a rock classical fusion band called New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, together with classmates Fulterman and Dorian Rudnytsky. The group performed their music while dressed in tuxedos. In the middle of the concert, Fulterman and Kamen would play an oboe duet. The group backed up friend and classmate Janis Ian in a concert at Alice Tully Hall in late 1967.
After graduating high school, Kamen attended The Juilliard School, also in New York City.
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Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE (born 23 March 1944 in Stratford, London) is a British composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano. His operas include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Letters, Riddles and Writs, Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs, Facing Goya, Man and Boy: Dada, Love Counts, and Sparkie: Cage and Beyond, and he has written six concerti, four string quartets, and many other chamber works, many for his Michael Nyman Band, with and without whom he tours as a performing pianist. Nyman stated that he prefers to write opera rather than other sorts of music.
Nyman was born in Stratford, London. He was educated at the Sir George Monoux Grammar School, Walthamstow. He studied at King's College, London under Alan Bush., and was accepted at the Royal Academy of Music in September, 1961, and studied with Bush and Thurston Dart, focusing on piano and seventeenth-century baroque music. He won the Howard Carr Memorial Prize for composition in July 1964.
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Michaël Youn
Michaël Youn (born 2 December 1973 in Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine as Michaël Benayoun) is a French actor, singer, comedian, and TV and radio personality.
After his education as an announcer and theater actor, Youn joined the Paris radio station Skyrock in 1998. There, he made sketches and further entertainment during the morning show.
The popularity and success of Michael Youn, at the most important French private broadcast station brought Youn to the attention of French TV executives. In July 2000 he was hired for the new morning show "Morning Live" shown on Métropole 6. With Vincent Desagnat and Benjamin Morgaine, Youn did the entertainment part of the show. Like their sketches and public events (e.g. foam bath in a Paris fountain, and waking random Parisians up shooting the slogan of the show at them), their parodies were particularly successful. In particular, they parodied the music scene of Jean-Michel Jarre, casting-popstars, the Grand Prix and French rappers.
The success of "Morning Live" was mainly due to Youn and his colleagues[citation needed] – when they left the show, it remained on the air for just one more year.
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Michelle Branch
Michelle Jacquet DeSevren Branch (born July 2, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and actress. During the early 2000s, she released two top-selling albums, The Spirit Room and Hotel Paper, and was subsequently nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2003. In 2005, she formed the country music duo The Wreckers with friend and fellow musician Jessica Harp, and produced the Grammy-nominated single "Leave the Pieces". The Wreckers disbanded in 2007 to pursue their respective solo careers. She has had several commercially successful songs, most notably winning a Grammy with Santana for "The Game of Love".
Michelle Jacquet DeSevren Branch was born on July 2, 1983, in Phoenix, Arizona, to David and Peggy Branch, six months after they were married. Her father is of Irish descent, and her mother is of Dutch Indonesian and French descent. Her siblings include an older half-brother named David and a younger sister named Nicole.
Beginning to sing at the age of three, Branch enrolled in voice lessons at Northern Arizona University when she was eight, and received her first guitar for her fourteenth birthday. After teaching herself chords, she composed her first song "Fallen" within a week of receiving her guitar. She initially attended Sedona Red Rock High School, but finished the last two years of her high school education through home schooling so that she could focus on her music career. To support Branch's interests, her parents helped her book local gigs in Sedona, AZ, and later financed her independent album Broken Bracelet. Her set list at these gigs included covers by Sheryl Crow, Lisa Loeb, Jewel, and Fleetwood Mac.
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Mickie Most
Mickie Most (20 June 1938 – 30 May 2003) was an English record producer, with a string of hit singles with acts such as The Animals, Arrows, Herman's Hermits, Donovan, Suzi Quatro and the Jeff Beck Group often issued on his own RAK Records label.
Most was born as Michael Peter Hayes in Aldershot, Hampshire. The son of a regimental sergeant-major, he moved with his parents to the north London suburb of Harrow in 1951. Most was influenced by skiffle and early rock and roll in his youth. Leaving school at 15, he worked as a singing waiter at London's The 2i's Coffee Bar where he made friends with future business partner Peter Grant, and formed a singing duo with Alex Wharton (aka Alex Murray) who billed themselves as The Most Brothers. They recorded with Decca Records a single "Takes A Whole Lotta Loving to Keep My Baby Happy" before disbanding. Wharton went on to produce the Moody Blues single "Go Now". After changing his name to Mickie Most in 1959, he travelled to South Africa with his wife Christina, and formed a pop group, Mickie Most and the Playboys. The band scored 11 consecutive No. 1 singles there, mostly with cover versions of Ray Peterson, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran songs. Returning to London in 1962, Most appeared on package tours as well as recording "Mister Porter", a No. 45 hit in the UK Singles Chart in July 1963.
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Midnight Syndicate
Midnight Syndicate is an American musical group that has been working mainly in the genre of gothic music since 1997 and is based out of Chardon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. The band refers to their CDs as "soundtracks for the imagination" or "soundtracks to imaginary films." Most of the songs on their thirteen albums are characterized by a blend of instrumental music and sound effects and are commonly used to provide atmosphere during the Halloween season, in haunted attractions, and in the role-playing game industry.
Composer/filmmaker Edward Douglas formed Midnight Syndicate in 1996 shortly after releasing a micro-budget, direct-to-video horror film called The Dead Matter (1996) which he directed and scored and would later remake. Midnight Syndicate's self-titled debut album was released the following year. A majority of music on the album was written, arranged, and performed by Edward Douglas. Contributors included Scott Angus, Mark Rakocy, Dennis Carleton, Jamie Barbour, Ray Portler, the rap act Dark Side, and Christopher Robichaud. Douglas coined the term cine-fusion to describe the album. Cine-fusion is described in the album's liner notes as
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Mike Doling
Mikey Doling is a guitarist. He is the current guitarist for Channel Zero, and a former member of Soulfly and Snot.
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Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature. He is best known for his hit 1973 album Tubular Bells, which launched Virgin Records, and for his 1983 hit single "Moonlight Shadow". He is also well known for his hit rendition of the Christmas piece, "In Dulci Jubilo".
Oldfield's parents are Raymond Oldfield, a general practitioner, and his wife Maureen Liston, a nurse. His sister Sally and brother Terry are successful musicians in their own right and have appeared on several of his albums. Mike Oldfield was born in the Battle Hospital, Reading, Berkshire, and he attended St Joseph's Convent School, Highlands Junior School in Tilehurst, St Edward's Preparatory School, and Presentation College in Reading. When he was 13 he moved with his parents to Harold Wood in northeast London, where he attended Hornchurch Grammar School. He only stayed there long enough to take one GCE examination, in English, as he had already begun his music career.
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Missy Elliott
Melissa Arnette "Missy" Elliott (born July 1, 1971) is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer and actress. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Elliott, with record sales of over seven million in the United States, is the only female rapper to have six albums certified platinum by the RIAA, including one double platinum for her 2002 album Under Construction. Elliott is known for a series of hits and diverse music videos, including "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", "Hot Boyz", "Get Ur Freak On", "One Minute Man", "4 My People", "Work It", "Pass That Dutch", and "Lose Control". In addition, she has worked extensively as a songwriter and producer for other artists, both alone and with her fellow producer and childhood friend Timbaland, with whom she received her first production credit on R&B singer Ginuwine's 1996's album Ginuwine...the Bachelor.
Elliott was born on July 1, 1971, in Portsmouth, Virginia. She is the only child of mother Patricia, a power-company coordinator, and father Ronnie, a Marine. At the age of four in 1975, she wanted to be a performer, though she knew no one took her seriously, as she was always the class clown. While her father was a Marine, the family lived in Jacksonville, North Carolina, in a mobile home. Elliott enjoyed school for the friendships she formed and had little interest in school work, though an IQ test classified her above average and she was able to jump two years ahead of her class. This made her feel increasingly isolated, so she purposely failed all her classes, eventually returning to her age-appropriate class. When her father returned from the Marines, they moved back to Virginia, where they lived in a vermin-infested shack.
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Mnemic
Mnemic ( /ˈniːmɨk/) is a Danish metal band, formed in Aalborg, Denmark in 1998. Their music has been described as a fusion between metalcore, melodic death metal, industrial metal and progressive metal, with additional elements of thrash metal and groove metal, to form a style the band themselves have described as "Future Fusion Metal." Named as one of Metallica's favorite bands, they have opened for Metallica in Europe both in 2007 and 2008.
The band have charted in the Top 100 in Denmark with The Audio Injected Soul and were the first Danish metal band to open the Orange Stage at Roskilde Festival in 2004, one of Europe's biggest mainstream festivals with 80,000 spectators. They have worked with Down and The Fugees producer Warren Riker on the Passenger album, collaborated with Roy Z (Judas Priest and Bruce Dickinson producer) and are featured on the soundtracks of Alone in the Dark, Echo (with Kim Bodnia) and Nordkraft movies.
They have released four full length albums, and have toured with bands such as Metallica, Deftones, Machine Head, Meshuggah, Arch Enemy, All That Remains, Fear Factory, The Haunted, Soilwork and God Forbid.
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Moby
Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.
Moby gained attention in the early 1990s with his electronic dance music work, which dabbled in the techno and breakbeat hardcore (also known as "rave") genres. With his fifth studio album, the electronica and house-influenced Play, he gained international success. Originally released in mid-1999 to an unflattering response, it re-entered the charts in early 2000 and slowly became an unexpected hit, producing eight singles and eventually selling over 10 million copies worldwide.
Moby followed the album in 2002 with 18, which was also successful, selling over 5 million copies worldwide and receiving mostly positive reviews, though some criticizing it for being too similar to Play. His next offer, 2005's mostly upbeat Hotel was a stylistic departure, incorporating more alternative rock elements than previous albums, and received mixed reviews. However, it still sold around 2 million copies worldwide. After 2008's dance-influenced Last Night (2008), he returned to the downtempo electronica of Play and 18 with 2009's mostly-ambient Wait for Me, finding higher critical acclaim and moderate sales. Moby's latest album, Destroyed., was released on May 13, 2011.
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Mongo Santamaría
Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez (April 7, 1917 in Havana, Cuba – February 1, 2003 in Miami, Florida) was a rumba quinto master and an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All Stars, etc. He was an integral figure in the fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with R&B and soul, paving the way for the boogaloo era of the late 1960s. His 1963 hit rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
Mongo Santamaría was one of a handful of Cuban congueros ('conga players') who came to the United States in the 1940s and 50s. Other notable congueros who came to the U.S. during that time include Armando Peraza, Chano Pozo, Francisco Aguabella, Julito Collazo, Carlos Vidal Bolado and Modesto Durán. Many consider Santamaría to have been the greatest conga drummer of the twentieth century.
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Morcheeba
Morcheeba are a British band, mixing influences from trip hop, rock, R&B, and pop. They have produced 7 albums since 1995, two of which reached the UK top ten.
At some point in the mid-1990s, the Godfrey brothers (DJ Paul Godfrey and multi-instrumentalist Ross Godfrey) recruited Skye Edwards as vocalist, during a chance meeting at a party in which both brothers were introduced to Edwards. This led to the formation of Morcheeba.
The band's debut album, Who Can You Trust? was released on China Records in April 1996 and fitted smoothly into the then-modish trip hop genre, with instrumentation based predominantly around Rhodes piano, electric guitar and DJ scratching, with the songs carried by Edwards' relaxed soul-styled vocals.
The follow-up, 1998's Big Calm, moved slightly away from trip-hop towards a more pop-oriented, song-based sound. This was exemplified by the band's remaking of "Moog Island" (a song from the previous album) in a more summery, upbeat style, with the new title of "The Music That We Hear". One of the album's singles, "The Sea", became a hit and a radio favourite. The album proved to be a big seller and ensured Morcheeba's success as a breakthrough act. In 1998, Morcheeba collaborated with Hubert Laws to record for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease.
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Murphy Lee
Torhi Harper (born December 18, 1978 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States), best known by his stage name Murphy Lee, is a Grammy Award-winning American rapper, best known as a member of the hip hop group St. Lunatics. Lee is also the chief executive of his own label, U C Me Entertainment.
Murphy Lee formed the St. Lunatics with fellow rappers Nelly, Ali, Kyjuan, City Spud. They scored a regional hit with the song "Gimmie What You Got", but the crew found it hard to get a record deal. Nelly secured a deal as a solo act, and released Country Grammar in 2000. After his appearances on Country Grammar, the St. Lunatics released their debut album Free City in 2001. A second St. Lunatics Who's The Boss was released in 2006. It is not supported by the members as the music recording studio Fast Life released the CD because they owned the music. It is a CD of the group's 1996 songs, which are raps over the music of popular 90s songs. In 2002, he was featured on Jermaine Dupri's hit single "Welcome to Atlanta" remix. In 2003, his biggest hit came with "Shake Ya Tailfeather," featuring Nelly and P. Diddy, which appeared on the Bad Boys II soundtrack. That song would later win him a Grammy. Riding the success of "Shake Ya Tailfeather," Murphy Lee released his debut album Murphy's Law later that year.You can download his new mixtapes off his website "murphyleeucme.com".
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Muthuswami Dikshitar
Muthuswami Dikshitar (Tamil:முத்துஸ்வாமி தீக்ஷிதர, Devanagari:मुत्तुस्वामि दीक्षित:, Telugu:ముత్తు స్వామీ దీక్షితులు, Kannada:ಮುತ್ತು ಸ್ವಾಮೀ ದೀಕ್ಷಿತರು, March 24, 1775 – October 21, 1835) is a South Indian poet and composer and is one of the Musical Trinity of Carnatic music. His compositions, of which around 500 are commonly known, are noted for their contemplative nature and for capturing the essence of the raga forms through the vainika (veena) style that emphasises gamakas. They are typically in a slower speed (chowka kala). He is also known by his signature name of Guruguha. His compositions are widely sung and played in classical concerts of Carnatic music.
The musical trinity consists of Dikshitar, Thyagaraja (1767–1847), and Syama Sastri (1762–1827) although, unlike the Telugu compositions of the others, his compositions are predominantly in Sanskrit.
Muthuswami Dikshitar was born in Tiruvarur (of Thiruvarur district in what is now the state of Tamil Nadu) to a Tamil Iyer Brahmin couple Ramaswami Dikshitar and Subbamma, as the eldest son. According to the account of Subbarama Dikshitar, Muttuswami Dikshitar was born in the manmatha year, in the month of Panguni under the asterism Krittikaa. He was named after the temple deity, Muttukumaraswamy; legend has it that he was born after his parents prayed for a child in the Vaitheeswaran Temple. He had two younger brothers Baluswami, Chinnaswami and a sister Balambal.
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Mýa
Mýa Marie Harrison (born October 10, 1979), professionally referred to as Mýa, is an American R&B and pop recording artist, entertainer, philanthropist, and occasional actress. A Washington, D.C. native, as a young child, Harrison took ballet lessons from the age of two and added jazz and tap dancing lessons to her schedule two years later. As she entered her teens, Harrison began to shift her focus to music. Gifted and musically-inclined, with the help of her father she put together a demo tape when she was 15 and begin to scout around for a record deal while still attending high school. At the age of 16, she signed a recording contract with Interscope Records.
Harrison's eponymous debut album with (through) Interscope Records was released in the spring of April 1998. It sold over one million copies in the United States, producing the gold-certified top ten single "It's All About Me" featuring Sisqó. Her second studio album, platinum-plus selling Fear of Flying was released in 2000 and became a worldwide success, with single "Case of the Ex" becoming Mýa's breakthrough hit; topping the Australian Singles Chart for two consecutive weeks.
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Name Taken
Name Taken was a rock band from Orange, California. They were originally known as All That's Left in October 1999 until they discovered that the name was already taken; thus the name "Name Taken". The band started in the eighth grade where they would play shows in their amphitheatre at lunch. They later succeeded to record for such compilations as Atticus I and Warped Tour 2002.
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Napalm Death
Napalm Death are an extreme metal band formed in Birmingham, England in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent for most of the band's career.
Napalm Death are credited with defining the grindcore genre by incorporating elements of hardcore punk and death metal, short songs, fast tempos, deep guttural vocals and sociopolitical lyrics. The band's debut album Scum, released in 1987 by Earache Records, proved substantially influential throughout the global metal community.
Napalm Death have released fifteen studio albums and are listed by Nielsen SoundScan as the seventh best-selling death metal band in the United States.
Napalm Death were formed in the village of Meriden near Birmingham, in the United Kingdom, in May 1981 by Nic Bullen and Miles Ratledge while the duo were still in their early teenage years. The duo had been playing in amateur bands since 1980 as an extension of their fanzine writing, and went through a number of names (including "Civil Defence," "The Mess," "Evasion" and "Undead Hatred") before choosing Napalm Death in mid 1981.
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Natacha Atlas
Natacha Atlas (Arabic: نتاشا أطلس ; born 20 March 1964) is a Belgian singer known for her fusion of Arabic and Western electronic music, particularly hip-hop. She once termed her music "cha'abi moderne" (modern popular music). Her music has been influenced by many styles including Arabic, hip hop, drum 'n' bass and reggae.
Atlas began her career as part of the world fusion group Transglobal Underground. In 1995, she began to focus on her solo career with the release of Diaspora. She has since released seven solo albums and been a part of numerous collaborations. Her version of "Mon Amie La Rose" became a surprise success in France, reaching 16 on the French Singles Charts in 1999. She is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Conference Against Racism.
Atlas was born to a father of Moroccan, Egyptian, and Palestinian ancestry who was born in Jerusalem and a British mother who had converted to Islam. Her paternal grandfather was born in Egypt, but grew up in Palestine, immigrating to Europe at age 15. She concedes to being "maybe 10 percent Jewish or something." Atlas says the claim that her father is purely Jewish and not Arab is "one of those things where someone had a grudge against me and wanted to hurt me. My great-great-grandfather was Jewish. But Jews have always been part of Arab society, so it’s not so unusual for someone to find out that they have Jewish blood. At the end of the day, we really are so connected."
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Nate Dogg
Nathaniel Dwayne Hale (August 19, 1969 – March 15, 2011), better known by his stage name Nate Dogg, was an American musician. He is noted for his membership of rap trio 213 and his solo career in which he collaborated with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Warren G, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg on many hit releases. Nate Dogg released three solo albums, G-Funk Classics, Vol. 1 & 2 in 1998, Music and Me in 2001 and Nate Dogg in 2008.
Nate Dogg died in 2011 in Long Beach, California of complications from multiple strokes.
Nate Dogg was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He moved to Long Beach, California when he was 14 following his parents' divorce. He was the friend and partner in the rap game with rappers Snoop Dogg, Warren G, RBX, Daz Dillinger and was the cousin of Butch Cassidy and Lil' ½ Dead. He began singing as a child in the New Hope Baptist Church in Long Beach and Life Line Baptist Church in Clarksdale, Mississippi where his father Daniel Lee Hale was pastor. At the age of 16 he dropped out of high school in Long Beach and left home to join the United States Marine Corps, serving for three years.
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Neal Morse
Neal Morse (born on August 2, 1960 in Van Nuys, California) is an American multi-instrumentalist and progressive rock composer based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Morse grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles as one of four children. His sister is now a teacher in the Walnut Creek School District. His father was a choral director. Morse started to play the piano at the age of five and started to learn to play the guitar soon after that. During his twenties he wrote two musicals (Hit Man and Homeland), did some session jobs, tried to get a deal as a singer/songwriter in Los Angeles, and recorded a few country and western demos with his brother Richard.
After about ten years, Morse grew tired of the Los Angeles music scene and traveled through Europe for several years, busking and playing in small clubs. On his return to the U.S. he formed the band Spock's Beard with his brother Alan. Their first album, The Light (1995), was moderately successful. Spock's Beard would soon become one of the more successful progressive rock bands of the late nineties (along with Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, and The Flower Kings).
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Neil Young
Neil Percival Young,OC,OM (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation.
Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960, before moving to California in 1966, where he co-founded the band Buffalo Springfield along with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, and later joined Crosby, Stills & Nash as a fourth member in 1969. He forged a successful and acclaimed solo career, releasing his first album in 1968; his career has since spanned over 40 years and 34 studio albums, with a continual and uncompromising exploration of musical styles. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website describes Young as "one of rock and roll’s greatest songwriters and performers". He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice: first as a solo artist in 1995, and second as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997.
Young's work is characterized by his distinctive guitar work, deeply personal lyrics and signature alto or high tenor singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments, including piano and harmonica, his idiosyncratic electric and clawhammer acoustic guitar playing are the defining characteristics of a varyingly ragged and melodic sound. While Young has experimented with differing music styles, including swing and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into two primary styles: acoustic (folk and country rock) and electric (amplified hard rock, very often in collaboration with the band Crazy Horse). Young has also adopted elements from newer styles such as alternative rock and grunge. His influence on the latter caused some to dub him the "Godfather of Grunge".
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Nell Carter
Nell Carter (September 13, 1948 – January 23, 2003) was an American singer, and film, stage, and television actress. She won a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical Ain't Misbehavin', as well as an Emmy Award for her reprisal of the role on television. She also received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her starring role in the long-running 1980s’ sitcom Gimme a Break!.
Born Nell Ruth Hardy to Horace and Edna Mae Hardy in Birmingham, Alabama, Carter was one of nine children. She overcame adversity and personal hardships before finding success as an actress. Her father died in an accident with a power line. Carter was raped when she was 16, and she became pregnant from the attack, giving birth to a daughter, Tracey.
She was in the 1971 rock opera Soon, which closed after three performances. She was the Music Director for the 1974 Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective's production of "What Time of Night It Is". Carter appeared alongside Bette Davis in the 1974 stage musical Miss Moffat, based on Davis' earlier film The Corn Is Green. The show closed before making it to Broadway. She broke into stardom in the musical Ain't Misbehavin, for which she won a Tony Award in 1978. She also won an Emmy for the same role in a televised performance in 1982. Additional Broadway credits included Dude and Annie.
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Nelly
Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American Grammy Award winning hip hop artist, entrepreneur and occasional actor. He has performed with the rap group St. Lunatics since 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly began his solo career in 2000 with his debut album Country Grammar, the title track of which was a top ten hit. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and went on to peak at number one. Country Grammar is Nelly's best-selling album to date, selling over 8.4 million copies in the United States. His following album, Nellyville, produced the number-one hits "Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma" featuring Kelly Rowland. Other singles included "Work It" featuring Justin Timberlake, "Air Force Ones" featuring Murphy Lee and the St. Lunatics, "Pimp Juice" and "#1".
With the same-day dual release Sweat and Suit (2004) and the compilation Sweatsuit (2006), Nelly continued to generate many chart-topping hits. Sweat debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 342,000 copies in its first week. On the same week of release, Suit debuted at number one selling around 396,000 copies in its first week on the same chart. Nelly's fifth studio album, Brass Knuckles, was released on September 16, 2008 after several delays. It produced the singles "Party People" featuring Fergie, "Stepped on My J'z" featuring Jermaine Dupri and Ciara and "Body on Me" featuring Akon and Ashanti. In 2010, Nelly released the album 5.0. The lead single, "Just a Dream", has appeared in the top ten of several singles charts and were certified platinum in the United States. The second single is "Move That Body" featuring T-Pain and Akon. "Gone" is the sequel to Nelly's 2002 worldwide number one single "Dilemma", also with Rowland, and serves as third single from Nelly's album.
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Nelly Furtado
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.
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Nick Cannon
Nicholas Scott "Nick" Cannon (born October 8, 1980) is an American actor, and television personality. On television, Cannon began as a teenager on All That before going on to host The Nick Cannon Show, Wild 'N Out, and America's Got Talent. He acted in the films Drumline, Love Don't Cost a Thing, and Roll Bounce. As a "rapper," he released his debut self-titled album in 2003 with the hit single "Gigolo", a collaboration with singer R. Kelly. In 2006, Cannon recorded singles "Dime Piece" and "My Wife" for a planned album Stages, which was never released. Cannon married American R&B/pop singer Mariah Carey on April 30, 2008.
Cannon was born in San Diego, California, to parents Beth, an accountant, and James Cannon, a super-powerful motivational televangelist. Growing up, he divided his time between San Diego, where his mother lived, and Charlotte, North Carolina, where his father had worked. At age 11, Cannon received his first break doing stand-up comedy on his father's local cable access program.
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Nick Lachey
Nicholas Scott "Nick" Lachey ( /ləˈʃeɪ/ lə-SHAY; born November 9, 1973) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and television personality. Lachey rose to fame as a member of the boy band 98 Degrees. He later starred in the reality television series Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica with his then-wife, Jessica Simpson. He has released two solo albums, SoulO and What's Left of Me. As a solo artist Nick Lachey sold over 600,000 records and with 98 Degrees, over 10 million records worldwide. He had a recurring role on the television series Charmed.
Lachey was born near the border of Kentucky and Virginia in Harlan, Kentucky to Cate Fopma-Leimbach and John Lachey. He has a brother, Drew, a stepsister, Josie, a half brother, Isaac, and two adopted siblings, Zach and Caitlin Leimbach. Growing up in Ohio, he attended Cincinnati Public Schools-School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), developing his vocal talent while excelling in sports and academics. After graduation he attended the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California. After a year at USC, he wanted to be closer to his family and transferred to Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, where he studied sports medicine and became a brother in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
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Nick Oshiro
Nick Oshiro (born July 29, 1978) is an American musician, best known as the current drummer of the industrial metal band Static-X. He has previously played with the South African post grunge band/alternative metal Seether. He started out with a drumkit made by his father as he stated in an interview with Tama.[citation needed] It was made of pots and pans, of which his father made a whole kit from. Already at the age of nine, he wanted to be a rockstar after seeing a Whitesnake video. He then created a large following in his home town of Las Vegas, NV. Leaving Seether in 2003, he joined Static-X as a touring drummer but eventually became a full-time member. While on tour on April 11, 2007 in Abilene, Texas he broke his hand and was back in four weeks. Nick Oshiro uses a Tama drumkit (it's a Starclassic Maple in Blue Galaxy Fade), Sabian cymbals, Vater drumsticks and Remo drumheads. Some of his influences are Abe Cunningham, Morgan Rose and Tim Alexander.[citation needed]
†Josh Freese played the actual drums on this album, however, as Nick was not in the band during the recording. He is shown to be in the band and credited as the band's drummer in the album booklet. However, Josh Freese still gets mentioned as performing the drumming of the album.
††Nick played drums on the track "Hang On" and was credited as drummer for the original release of "Disclaimer".
†††Although part of the band at the time of the release, Nick actually did not play on any of the tracks.
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Nightmares on Wax
George Evelyn, better known as Nightmares on Wax and also known as DJ EASE (Experimental Sample Expert), is a DJ and electronic music composer from Leeds, UK. His music is released on Warp Records and was one of the first releases on the label. Evelyn got his start in the music industry through an interest in hip hop and on joining a local breakdancing crew. He met Kevin Harper and together they released their first album in 1991, a techno-edged record entitled "A Word Of Science: The First And Final Chapter". This was the beginning of NoW's career. Today, Harper is a solo DJ and Evelyn is accompanied by Robin Taylor-Firth and has created a sound that is not classifiable, a "sound of the beats is what makes nightmares."
It is not a coincidence that the name Nightmares on Wax is an acronym for NOW, as they describe their music as "the sound of N.O.W." to exemplify the raw honesty and artistic freedom. George elaborates, "Today’s music is inspired by whatever has gone on before. That’s what fascinates me. Soul music is the earliest form of hip hop. That’s why I want to create it. It might seem like recreating what was done in the past, but what I want to do is merge soul and hip hop together. That’s why I’ll bring in the live aspect of what happened back then into current hip hop trends. That’s the angle I’m arriving at."
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Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Count Nikolaus de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt) (born 6 December 1929) is an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble in the 1950s, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement. Around 1970, Harnoncourt started to conduct opera and concert performances, soon leading renowned international symphony orchestras, and appearing at leading concert halls, operatic venues and festivals. His repertoire has since widened to include composers of the 19th and 20th century. In 2001 and 2003, he conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert. Harnoncourt is also the author of several books, mostly on questions of performance history and musical aesthetics.
Harnoncourt was born in Berlin, Germany. He was raised in Graz, Austria and studied music in Vienna. His mother, Ladislaja Gräfin von Meran, Freiin von Brandhoven, was the granddaughter of the Habsburg Archduke Johann, the 13th child of the Emperor Leopold II. He is thus descended from various Holy Roman Emperors and other European royalty. His father, Eberhard de la Fontaine Graf d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt, was an engineer working in Berlin who had two children from a previous marriage. Two years after Nikolaus's birth, his brother Philipp was born. The family eventually moved to Graz, where Eberhard had obtained a post in the state-government (Landesregierung) of Styria.
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Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone /ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.
Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist as a child. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. She then began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education to become a classical pianist and was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendition of "I Loves You Porgy" became a smash hit in the United States in 1958. Over the length of her career, Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958 — when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue — and 1974.
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Noel Redding
Noel Redding (25 December 1945 – 11 May 2003) was an English rock bassist best known for his work with The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Born as David Noel Redding in Folkestone, he was selected by Chas Chandler to join Hendrix's band at its inception in 1966 and left in 1969. Although he played in other bands before, after, and even during his stint with the Experience, he never achieved a similar level of success and retired to Clonakilty, Ireland in 1972.
At age nine, Redding played violin at school and then mandolin and guitar. His first public appearances were at the Hythe Youth Club then at Harvey Grammar School where he was a student.
His first local bands were:
At 17 Redding went professional and toured clubs in Scotland and Germany with Neil Landon and the Burnettes(formed in late 1962) and The Loving Kind(formed in November 1965). In addition, The Lonely Ones reunited in September 1964, and Redding remained with them a year before taking his leave.
Redding was the first person to join the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the first to leave. His final concert with them was in June 1969. With the band, he helped create the 3 landmark albums Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland, as well as performing in some of Hendrix's most celebrated concerts. His playing style was distinguished by the use of a pick, a mid-range "trebly" sound, and in later years the use of fuzz and distortion effects through overdriven Sunn amps. His role in the band was that of a time-keeper. He would typically lay down a bass groove which Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell would loosely play on top of. He wrote two album tracks, "Little Miss Strange" and "She's So Fine". He played the bass line on "Red House" using the bass strings on a normal six-string guitar.
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Nolwenn Leroy
Nolwenn Leroy, (born 28 September 1982 in Saint-Renan, Finistère, Brittany), is a French singer and songwriter, discovered by the French television reality show Star Academy. She is best known for her two Number One singles "Cassé" and "Nolwenn Ohwo!".
Leroy's parents left Saint-Renan, with her, when she was four years old. After living in Paris, Lille, and Guingamp, her mother Murielle Leroy and her younger sister settled with Leroy's grandparents in Saint-Yorre. Her mother had been divorced from her father, professional footballer Jean-Luc Le Magueresse, in 1993.
She studied at the "Collège des Célestins" in Vichy. When Leroy was eleven, her music teacher noticed her musical talents and encouraged her to learn the violin. At the age of thirteen she won "Les écoles du désert", a contest sponsored by the Cora supermarket chain, consequently travelling with a humanitarian mission from Gao to Timbuktu, Mali; she later claimed this had a profound influence on her.
In July 1998, she was awarded a scholarship by the Vichy Rotary Club to travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, as an exchange student. While there, she also attended the Performing Arts School. Returning to France, and speaking fluent English, she began classical singing classes at the Vichy music conservatory. From 2001 she studied law at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, for a potential alternative career to music.
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Norah Jones
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress. She is the daughter of Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. She is also the paternal half-sister of Anoushka Shankar.
In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, a fusion of jazz, pop, and country music, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies. The record earned Jones five Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist. Her subsequent studio albums, Feels Like Home, released in 2004, Not Too Late, released in 2007, the same year she made her film debut in My Blueberry Nights, and her 2009 release The Fall all gained Platinum status after selling over a million copies and were generally well received by critics. Jones' fifth studio album, Little Broken Hearts was released on April 27, 2012.
Jones has won nine Grammy Awards and was Billboard magazine's 60th-best-selling music artist of the 2000–2009 decade. Throughout her career, Jones has won numerous awards and has sold over 40 million albums worldwide.Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000–2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time.
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Obie Trice
Obie Trice III (born November 14, 1977) is an American rapper and songwriter. He began rapping at the age of 11, and is most known for his time spent signed to Shady Records. Obie Trice has formed his own record label, Black Market Entertainment.
Obie Trice III was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan by his mother, along with three brothers. He is of African American descent. Trice was given a karaoke machine by his mother when he was eleven and he used it to rhyme over instrumentals from artists such as N.W.A. By the age of fourteen, he was attending rap battle spots around Detroit, notably including the Hip Hop Shop, on which Trice commented,
Obie Trice went by the name of Obie 1 during this time, but when he first met Proof, who was about to introduce him at the Hip Hop Shop, Proof asked him, "What's your name? Your real name, no gimmicks." He was then introduced as Obie Trice, and has kept his real name as his rap name. Trice was introduced to Eminem through D12 member Bizarre. Eminem was impressed when Trice freestyled for him in a car park through a window, whilst Eminem was in a car. Later, Trice received a call from his manager informing him that he would be having dinner with Eminem, and later that night they went to a Kid Rock party.
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Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Noé Golijov (born December 5, 1960) is an Argentine Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.
Osvaldo Golijov (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈɡolixof]) was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.
Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of a lifetime of experience with various types of music. His Romanian Jewish parents exposed him to the traditional Klezmer music and liturgical music of their faith. Growing up and going to public school in Argentina showed him the many musical styles of his family's adopted country, including the tango. Once Golijov traveled abroad to continue his studies, the influences of other people and other styles became part of him. What is considered so remarkable about his musical language is that, rather than a pastiche of styles, it is wholly cohesive. It is thought of as vibrant and alive, growing and changing as he does.
Golijov's mother was a piano teacher, his father, a physician. He was raised "surrounded by chamber classical music, Jewish liturgical and klezmer music, and the new tango of Ástor Piazzolla," according to his official website. He studied piano at the local conservatory in La Plata and studied composition with Gerardo Gandini.
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Othar Turner
Othar "Otha" Turner (June 2, 1907 – February 26, 2003) was one of the last well-known fife players in the vanishing American fife and drum blues tradition. He was born in Madison County, Mississippi, and lived his entire life in northern Mississippi as a farmer, where in 1923, aged 16, he learned to play fifes fashioned out of rivercanes.
Turner's Rising Star Fife and Drum Band (which consisted of friends and relatives) primarily played at farm parties. They began to receive wider recognition in the 1990s. They appeared on Mississippi Blues in Memphis Vol. 1 in 1993, followed by inclusion in many other blues collections. They released their own critically acclaimed album Everybody Hollerin' Goat in 1998. This was followed by From Senegal to Senatobia in 1999, which combined bluesy fife and drum music with musicians credited as "the Afrossippi Allstars".
The title, Everybody Hollerin' Goat, refers to a tradition Turner began in the late 1950s of hosting Labor Day picnics where he would personally butcher and cook a goat in an iron kettle, and his band would provide musical entertainment. The picnics began as a neighborhood and family gathering; it grew over the years to attract musical fans, first from Memphis, Tennessee, and later from all over the world.
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Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English band Black Sabbath, whose dark and hard sound helped spawn the heavy metal genre. Due to Sabbath's dark style, Osbourne became known as the "Prince of Darkness". Osbourne is also known as the "Godfather of Heavy Metal".
In the early 2000s, Osbourne's career expanded when he became a star in his own reality show The Osbournes, alongside wife/manager Sharon and two of their three children, Kelly and Jack. A documentary about his life and career, God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, premiered in April 2011 at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released on DVD in November 2011. Osbourne has achieved multi-platinum status as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath and has sold over 100 million albums worldwide.
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, England, on 3 December 1948. His father Jack worked shifts as a toolmaker at GEC. His mother Lillian worked for the car components firm Lucas. John was the fourth of six children. Ozzy had two brothers (Paul and Tony) and three sisters (Jean, Iris and Gillian); they lived in a small two bedroom home at 14 Lodge Road in Aston. The nickname "Ozzy" was first used when he was in primary school. Although called "John" by his first wife Thelma, Osbourne states that it has been a long time since he's recognised himself when called by his formal name.
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Pascal Obispo
Pascal Michel Obispo (born 8 January 1965 in Bergerac, Dordogne, France) is a French singer/songwriter.
Pascal Obispo started singing in 1980. He got his first record deal in 1990, Le long du fleuve. With his second album, Plus que tout au monde, selling over 2 million albums, his songs became a popular success. Some of his most famous songs are "Plus que tout au monde", "Laurelenn", "Tombé pour elle", "L'important c'est d'aimer", "Personne" and "Fan". With his 2007 release of Les Fleurs du Bien (a play on Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal) he makes allusions to Rosa Parks, Pablo Picasso and others. He is also well known for his various escapades, his unconservative behavior, his haircut, etc. His name is an anagram of painter Pablo Picasso's name. Most of his albums have now sold more than 1 million copies.
Obispo used his popularity to help with humanitarian work and particularly with work to stop the AIDS epidemic. He has worked with many other well-known artists such as Jean-Jacques Goldman, Florent Pagny, Johnny Hallyday, Patricia Kaas, Amel Bent, and Natasha St-Pier.
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Passi
Passi is a French hip hop artist who became famous in the mid-1990s with the group Ministère AMER, which included himself and Stomy Bugsy. He is most widely known, however, as a solo artist, as well as a participant in many other groups, such as Bisso Na Bisso and Dis l'heure 2 zouk.
Passi was born on 21 December 1972, in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. In 1979, his family moved to Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris. He graduated from lycée and created the band Ministère AMER with Stomy Bugsy, who he had gone to school with. The group's first album, Pourquoi tant de haine?, was released in 1992, and Passi was forced to end his agronomy studies at the University of Paris (Nanterre) to be able to focus on music. Ministère AMER followed up with "95200" which was released in 1994.
Passi's first solo album, Les tentations, was released in 1997, and it sold 450,000 copies. The project Bisso na Bisso (meaning 'Just between ourselves' in Lingala, Congo's most widely spoken language), which was a collective of French hip hop artists with African origins, including names such as Ärsenik, released their album Racines in 1999. The same year, Passi released his second solo album, Genèse.
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Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar (born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski; January 10, 1953) is an American singer and four-time Grammy winner. She had considerable commercial success, particularly in the United States. During the 1980s, Benatar had two RIAA-certified Multi-Platinum albums, five RIAA-certified Platinum albums, three RIAA-certified Gold albums and 19 Top 40 singles, including "Love Is a Battlefield", "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", and "We Belong". Benatar was one of the most heavily played artists in the early days of MTV.
Patricia Mae Andrzejewski was born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York City. Her Polish father, Andrew, was a sheet-metal worker, and her Irish mother, Mildred, a beautician. Her family later moved to North Hamilton Avenue in Lindenhurst, New York, a village within the Long Island town of Babylon.
Patti (as she was known)[citation needed] became interested in theater and began voice lessons, singing her first solo at age eight, at Daniel Street Elementary School, a song called "It Must Be Spring".[citation needed] At Lindenhurst Senior High School (1967–71),[citation needed] Benatar participated in musical theater, playing Queen Guinevere in the school production of Camelot, marching in the homecoming parade, singing at the annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony, and performing a solo of "The Christmas Song" on a holiday recording of the Lindenhurst High School Choir her senior year.[citation needed]
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Pat Green
Patrick Craven "Pat" Green (born April 5, 1972 in San Antonio, Texas) is an American Texas Country artist. Active since 1995, he has recorded a total of ten studio albums, including several independent works, three for Republic Records and two for BNA. Fifteen of his singles have charted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which the highest-peaking is the #3 "Wave on Wave" from his gold-certified album of the same name.
Green was born in San Antonio to Craven Earl Green and Patricia Burgess. He was raised in Waco, Texas, where he attended Vanguard College Preparatory School for grades 7-12. Green's father was a former Air Force officer and stage actor who influenced his son's love of music. His parents divorced when he was seven. His mother later remarried.
After high school, Green attended Texas Tech University where he was a member of FarmHouse Fraternity. Green started his music career as an 18 year old at Texas Tech playing small gigs at bars and clubs around Lubbock. In 1995, Green independently recorded and released a series of albums produced by Lloyd Maines using money borrowed from his parents. Green did not commit fully to his music career until 1997 when his stepfather fired him from his job as a fuel wholesaler. Green had been counting his money from a weekend of singing and his stepfather knew he would need motivation to fully pursue music as a career.
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Patrick Wolf
Patrick Wolf (born Patrick Denis Apps on 30 June 1983) is an English singer-songwriter from South London. Patrick utilises a wide variety of instruments in his music, most commonly the ukulele, piano and viola. Known for combining electronic sampling with classical instruments, Wolf's styles range from romantic folk to techno-pop.
Patrick Wolf was born in St Thomas' Hospital,South London, into a creative family. He started his musical education with Piano lessons but soon got bored and progressed onto violin lessons and church choirs and made his first theremin at age eleven, and first began recording songs with his violin, voice, and car boot sale organs on a four-track tape recorder at age twelve. At fourteen, he joined and performed with pop art collective Minty. Two years later, he dropped his music A-Levels, which he was studying at Davies Laing and Dick Sixth Form College off Bond Street, and left home. During this period, as well as working in Super Lovers clothing store in Covent Garden, Wolf earned money from busking in a string quartet and formed a group called 'Maison Crimineaux', a noisy trio built on destructive ethics around white noise and pop music. He also continued to write and record his own material. A Maison Crimineaux gig in Paris was attended by electronic maestro Kristian Robinson (aka Capitol K), who would then go on to release Wolf's debut album Lycanthropy.
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Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin, born Patricia Jean Griffin, March 16, 1964, is an American Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter and musician. She is especially known for her down-home crafting of songs and her connection to musicians including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, Rory Block and the Dixie Chicks, who have played with her onstage as well as performing cover songs of Griffin's work, exposing many of her compositions to mainstream pop and country music audiences outside Griffin's folk music circle of fans. She was also recipient of the Americana Music Association's highest honor as "Artist of the Year" in 2007, as well as taking home the award for best album for Children Running Through. In 2011, Griffin won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Gospel Album for Downtown Church.
Patty Griffin is from Old Town, Maine, United States, next to the Penobscot Native American reservation. She is primarily a guitarist, pianist, and vocalist, with a distinctive voice. The youngest child in her family with six older siblings, she bought a guitar for $50 at age 16, and sang and played, but had no inclination at the time to become a professional musician. After a short marriage which ended in 1992, Griffin began playing in Boston coffee houses, and was scouted by A&M Records, who signed Griffin on the strength of her demo tape; however A&M thought it to be overproduced, so Nile Rodgers and A&M instead released a stripped-down reworking of her demo tape, as an album called Living with Ghosts.
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Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of the Beatles (1960–1970) and Wings (1971–1981), he has been described by Guinness World Records as "The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time", with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million singles. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and with Lennon formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After leaving the Beatles, he began a solo career and later formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine.
According to the BBC, his Beatles song "Yesterday" has been covered by over 2,200 artists—more than any other song. Wings' 1977 release, "Mull of Kintyre", became one of the best-selling singles ever in the UK, and he is "the most successful songwriter" in UK chart history, according to Guinness. As a songwriter or co-writer, he is included on thirty-one number one titles on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2012 he has sold over 15.5 million RIAA certified units in the United States.
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Paul Oakenfold
Paul Mark Oakenfold (born 30 August 1963) is an English record producer and a trance DJ.
Paul Oakenfold was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band. He describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew up listening to The Beatles. Later 21-year-old Oakenfold and Ian Paul moved to 254 West 54th Street. Studio 54's Steve Rubell ran the place and only allowed popular people inside. Oakenfold and Paul used fake passes to sneak into places in New York where they met Maze, Bobby Womack and Bob Marley, whom they also interviewed, claiming to be NME and Melody Maker journalists.
Oakenfold's musical career began in the late 1970s, when he started playing soul in a Covent Garden wine bar. Here, he met Trevor Fung as well as Rumours in London where he played Earth, Wind and Fire and popular British bands. In 1984, he spent several months in New York City's West Harlem. During this time hip-hop was the most popular sound in the area (see 1984 in music). He began breaking into the mainstream as he was working as an A&R man for Champion Records. At that time, he signed DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, as well as Salt-n-Pepa. Oakenfold appeared on the Blue Peter BBC programme for children with a breakdancing crew. He became a promoter and British agent for the Beastie Boys and Run-D.M.C.. Since then, he appeared at The Project in Streatham playing soul and jazz music.
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Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg (born December 31, 1959) is an American musician, best known as the former lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter of The Replacements, one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the 1980s. He launched a solo career after the dissolution of that band. In recent years, he has cultivated a more independent-minded approach, primarily recording his music at home in his basement.
In the late 1970s Westerberg was working as a janitor for U.S. Senator David Durenberger, and one day while walking home from work, he happened to hear a band practicing Yes's "Roundabout" in a basement. He talked his way into the band by convincing the singer that the other band members — Bob Stinson, Chris Mars and Tommy Stinson — were going to fire him. The singer quit and Westerberg joined the group. The band was originally called "The Impediments," and played their first gig in the basement of a church, playing to members of a nearby halfway house who did not appreciate their drunken shenanigans, but they soon changed their name to "The Replacements" after several venues declined to advertise the band under their original name.
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Pete Murray
Peter "Pete" Kenneth Murray is an Australian singer-songwriter whose first three full-length albums have all reached #1 on the Australian music charts. He has been nominated several times at the ARIAs and has had several songs reach the top forty in Australia.
His first LP, Feeler, reached number 1 a few months after its mid-2003 release, and his follow-up record, See The Sun reached a similar level of success, with all of the singles receiving widespread airplay. His third studio album, Summer At Eureka, was released in May 2008. To date Pete Murray has sold over 1 million records. Some of the greatest influences on his career are Nick Drake, Neil Young and Bob Dylan.
Pete Murray was born on 14 October 1969 and attended St. Joseph's Nudgee College. At Nudgee College, he showed a great deal of talent in sport especially rugby union, athletics and swimming. He briefly played Brisbane club rugby for GPS and Brothers. When he was 18, his father died while he was contesting the Australian championships of the 400 meters.
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Pete Rock
Peter Phillips (born June 21, 1970), better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American record producer, DJ and rapper. He rose to prominence in the early 1990s as one half of the critically acclaimed group Pete Rock & CL Smooth. After the duo went their separate ways, Rock continued with a solo career that has garnered him worldwide respect, though little in the way of mainstream success. Along with groups such as Stetsasonic, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots and Gang Starr, Rock played a major role in the merging of elements from jazz into hip hop music (also known as jazz rap). He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned alongside DJ Premier, the RZA, and J Dilla as one of the mainstays of 1990s East Coast hip hop production. Pete Rock is also the older brother and younger cousin, respectively, of rappers Grap Luva and the late Heavy D.
Pete Rock was born in The Bronx, New York, the sixth of seven children of Jamaican immigrant parents. His family moved to Mount Vernon, New York when he was seven years old. During high school, he met his future recording partner CL Smooth. According to Rock, his father was also a part-time DJ who had an impressive record collection. Rock would often accompany his father to a cricket club called Wembley in The Bronx and watch as he spun records for the guests. His first job was as a paperboy, in his neighborhood.
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Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend (born 19 May 1945) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career. His career with The Who spans more than 40 years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the 1960s and 1970s, and, according to Eddie Vedder, "possibly the greatest live band ever."
Townshend is the primary songwriter for The Who, having written well over 100 songs for the band's 11 studio albums, including concept albums and the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia, plus popular rock and roll radio staples like Who's Next, and dozens more that appeared as non-album singles, bonus tracks on reissues, and tracks on rarities compilations like Odds & Sods. He has also written over 100 songs that have appeared on his solo albums, as well as radio jingles and television theme songs. Although known primarily as a guitarist, he also plays other instruments such as keyboards, banjo, accordion, synthesiser, bass guitar and drums, on his own solo albums, several Who albums, and as a guest contributor to a wide array of other artists' recordings. Townshend has never had formal lessons in any of the instruments he plays.
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Pete Yorn
Peter Joseph Yorn (born July 27, 1974, Montville, New Jersey, United States) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who first gained international recognition after his debut record, Musicforthemorningafter, was released to critical acclaim in 2001.
Yorn's father is a retired dentist and his mother is a former school teacher and real estate agent. His brother Rick is a major talent manager in Hollywood, while his brother Kevin is an entertainment lawyer who represents stars such as Scarlett Johansson. He grew up in Montville, New Jersey, where he attended Montville Township High School.
Yorn was encouraged enough to maintain a focus on music while attending Syracuse University (class of 1996) where he was a major in the department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies and a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. After graduating, Yorn moved to Los Angeles, where he began to attract a following with his performances at Cafe Largo. He was signed to Columbia records in 1999. Shortly after, film producer Bradley Thomas (Kingpin & There's Something About Mary) liked Yorn's act enough to request Yorn send him some rough demos for possible inclusion in the Farrelly Brothers' film Me, Myself and Irene. Soon after, Yorn landed a job scoring all of the music to the film and also contributed the songs "Strange Condition" and "Just Another" to the film and its soundtrack.
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Peter Dolving
Peter Dolving is a guitarist, songwriter, and spoken-word is an former singer of the Swedish metal band The Haunted.
Dolving began as a singer-songwriter playing in cafes in Sweden. He joined the band Mary Beats Jane and organized raves to support himself. He then opened the highly successful rock club called "Underground" in the basement of restaurant Kompaniet, Gothenburg. Mary Beats Jane released their first album in 1994 and toured through 1997. Dolving has said Mary Beats Jane will never re-form.
Dolving then joined Swedish heavy metal band The Haunted in 1997 with former members of At The Gates (at the time they were experimenting with the name Death & 1/2 Prod.), supporting himself by drawing fetish art and working as a carpenter. He left The Haunted after the first album, then returned in 2004 on the album rEVOLVEr. He eventually formed The Peter Dolving Band to perform his own songs and wrote spoken-word material for the short film No Justice No Peace by Jonas Olsen. The Peter Dolving Band no longer exists, with that style of music taken up by his BringTheWarHome project. Recently Dolving incited the wrath of some Metal fans with his unique soul-searching and frequent ranting in the Blog section of his official MySpace page.[citation needed] A candid interview with him appears in the documentary Working Class Rock Star. In 2011 Dolving joined the Swedish hardcore band Rosvo.
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Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. His 1986 album, So, is his most commercially successful, and the album's biggest hit, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and the song is the most played music video in the history of the station.
More recently, Gabriel has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts. Gabriel has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1987, six Grammy Awards, thirteen MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2007 he was honoured as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his “influence on generations of music makers.” Gabriel was also awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.
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Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE (born 8 September 1934) is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.
Davies was born in Salford, Lancashire, the son of Thomas and Hilda Davies. He took piano lessons and composed from an early age. As a 14-year-old he submitted a composition called "Blue Ice" to BBC Children's Hour in Manchester. Producer Trevor Hill showed it to resident pianist Violet Carson who said "He's either quite brilliant or mad". Conductor Charles Groves nodded his approval and said, "I'd get him in". They did and his rise to fame began under the careful mentorship of Hill who made him their resident composer and introduced him to various professional musicians both in the UK and Germany. (The full story can be found in Over the Airwaves, the autobiography of Trevor Hill published by Book Guild in 2005). After education at Leigh Boys Grammar School, Davies studied at the University of Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music (amalgamated into the Royal Northern College of Music in 1973), where his fellow students included Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Elgar Howarth and John Ogdon. Together they formed New Music Manchester, a group committed to contemporary music. After graduating in 1956, he studied on an Italian government scholarship for a year with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome before working as Director of Music at Cirencester Grammar School from 1959 to 1962.
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Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector (born Harvey Phillip Spector on December 26, 1939) is an American record producer and songwriter.
The originator of the "Wall of Sound" production technique, Spector was a pioneer of the 1960s girl-group sound and produced over 25 Top 40 hits in 1960–1965. Some of his famous girl groups are The Ronettes and The Crystals. After this initial success, Spector later worked with artists including Ike and Tina Turner, John Lennon, George Harrison, and the Ramones with similar acclaim. He produced The Beatles' Academy Award winning album Let It Be, and the Grammy Award–winning Concert for Bangladesh by former Beatle George Harrison. In 1989, Spector was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. The 1965 song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", produced and co-written by Spector for The Righteous Brothers, is listed by BMI as the song with the most U.S. airplay in the 20th century.
In 2009 Spector was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra, California home. He is serving a prison sentence of 19 years to life.
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Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer. One of the highest profile composers writing "classical" music today, he is often said to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. His music is also often controversially described as minimalist, along with the work of the other "major minimalists" La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Steve Reich.
He has lately distanced himself from the "minimalist" label, describing himself instead as a composer of "music with repetitive structures." Though his early mature music shares much with what is normally called "minimalist", he has since evolved stylistically. Currently, he describes himself as a "Classicist", pointing out that he is trained in harmony and counterpoint and studied such composers as Franz Schubert, Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with Nadia Boulanger.
Glass is a prolific composer: he has written works for the musical group which he founded, the Philip Glass Ensemble (with which he still performs on keyboards), as well as operas, musical theatre works, ten symphonies, eleven concertos, solo works, chamber music including string quartets and instrumental sonatas, and film scores. Three of his film scores have been nominated for Academy Awards.
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Powerman 5000
Powerman 5000 (sometimes abbreviated to PM5K) is an American heavy metal band formed in 1991. Through the span of over two decades, the group has released several albums and gained their highest commercial success with 1999's science fiction themed Tonight the Stars Revolt!. Frontman Spider One is the younger brother of Rob Zombie, and their styles have often been a source for comparison. He is also the founder and only original member.
In 1991, Spider dropped out of art school, bought a cheap 4-track home studio and drum machine and recorded Much Evil with producer Lamar Lowder. Building on local success, Powerman 5000 was born. In 1993, longtime guitarist Adam 12 joined the band. In 1994 and 1995, Powerman released two independent records, True Force and The Blood Splat Rating System. Both albums were local successes. In 1996, they performed on the second stage of Ozzfest and appeared in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 where David and Donna filmed a music video for their song "Strike the Match".
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Rachel Portman
Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman,OBE (born 11 December 1960) is a British composer, best known for her film work. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Score (for Emma in 1996). (Previously, female songwriters Barbra Streisand, in 1977, Buffy Sainte-Marie, in 1983, and Carly Simon, in 1989, each won Oscars, but in the category of Best Original Song).
Portman was born on 11 December 1960 in Haslemere, England, the daughter of Penelope (née Mowat) and Berkeley Charles Portman. She was educated at Charterhouse School and Worcester College, Oxford.
Portman was nominated for an Academy Award for her scores for The Cider House Rules in 1999 and Chocolat in 2000. She has also composed the scores for dozens of other feature films, as well as an unused score for the film Dangerous Beauty (George Fenton replaced her, but some of her material still remains in the film). For television, she composed the score for all thirteen episodes of Jim Henson's The Storyteller, and two episodes of The Jim Henson Hour ("Monster Maker" and "Living with Dinosaurs").
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Rachel Stevens
Rachel Lauren Stevens (born 9 April 1978) is an English singer-songwriter, actress, presenter, dancer, television personality and model. She is a former member of the successful pop group S Club, and launched a solo recording career in 2003, releasing seven singles and two albums in the UK between 2003 and 2005. In 2008, she came second in the sixth series of the BBC One series Strictly Come Dancing with her dance partner Vincent Simone.
Born in Southgate, London, she attended Osidge JMI School and Ashmole School in London. Stevens has two brothers, Jason and Leigh. Stevens is Jewish, and has stated that she "observe[s] some of the holidays and I’ll go to the synagogue on special occasions".
In 1993 she first caught attention while beating out 5,000 competitors and winning a modelling contest sponsored by UK teen magazine Just 17.[citation needed] Following her first modelling jobs, she decided to study at the London College of Fashion, where she achieved a diploma in business. During that time she also worked in a film company and later ended up working in public relations, but began to lose interest and decided to pursue a career in singing instead.
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Raekwon
Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by the stage name Raekwon, is an American rapper and a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. He released his solo debut, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... in 1995, and has since recorded numerous solo albums, as well as work with Wu-Tang and an extensive amount of guest contributions with other hip hop artists.
Raekwon is often cited as one of the pioneers of the Mafioso rap sub-genre. In 2007, The editors of About.com placed him on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007). The Miami New Times described Raekwon's music as being "street epics" that are "straightforward yet linguistically rich universes not unlike a gangsta Iliad."
Corey Woods joined the Wu-Tang Clan, a nine-member hip hop group based in the Staten Island borough of New York City, in 1992. He went under the stage name Raekwon the Chef and aliases Raekwon, Shallah Raekwon, and Lex Diamonds. Wu-Tang Clan debuted one year later with Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers. Singles from the album included "Protect Ya Neck" and "C.R.E.A.M.", the latter of which reached #8 on the Billboard rap chart.Wu-Tang Forever followed in 1997 and was certified four times platinum by the RIAA, quadruple the certification given Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Alongside other solo albums by its members, Wu-Tang continued recording as a group, releasing The W in 2000, Iron Flag in 2001, and 8 Diagrams in 2007.
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Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955) is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band, on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma City, which caught the attention of country artist Red Steagall. He brought her to Nashville, Tennessee, where she eventually signed a contract with Mercury Records in 1975. She released her first solo album in 1977 and released five additional studio albums under the label until 1983.
Signing with MCA Nashville Records, McEntire took creative control over her second MCA album, My Kind of Country (1984), which had a more traditional country sound and produced two number one singles: "How Blue" and "Somebody Should Leave". The album brought her breakthrough success, bringing her a series of successful albums and number one singles in the 1980s and 1990s. McEntire has since released 26 studio albums, acquired 35 number one singles, and 28 albums have been certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America.
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Ricky Martin
Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991. Throughout his career, he has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. He is the founder of the Ricky Martin Foundation (in Spanish Fundación Ricky Martin), a non-profit charity organization aimed at human trafficking.
Martin got his start at age twelve with the all-boy pop group Menudo; after five years with the group, he released his Spanish-language solo album, Ricky Martin, in 1991. He also acted on stage and on TV in Mexico, becoming a modest star in the country. In 1994 he starred on the American TV soap opera General Hospital, playing a Puerto Rican singer. In 1999, after several albums in Spanish, he released his first English-language album (also titled Ricky Martin), which included "Livin' la Vida Loca". The album sold 22 million copies and brought Martin international fame. His other studio albums include: Me Amarás (1993), A Medio Vivir (1995), Vuelve (1998), Sound Loaded (2000), Almas del Silencio (2003), Life (2005), and Música + Alma + Sexo (2011).
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Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE (born 7 July 1940), better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He joined the Beatles in August 1962, taking the place of Pete Best. In addition to his drumming, Starr is featured on lead vocals on a number of successful Beatles songs (in particular, "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Yellow Submarine", and the Beatles version of "Act Naturally"). He is credited as a co-writer of the songs "What Goes On" and "Flying", and as the writer of "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".
As drummer for the Beatles, Starr was musically creative, and his contribution to the band's music has received high praise from notable drummers in more recent times. Starr described himself as "your basic offbeat drummer with funny fills". Drummer Steve Smith said that Starr's popularity "brought forth a new paradigm" where "we started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect" and that Starr "composed unique, stylistic drum parts for The Beatles songs". In 2011, Starr was picked as the fifth-best drummer of all-time by Rolling Stone readers.
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Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie (born Robert Bartleh Cummings; January 12, 1965) is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. Zombie's lyrics are noted for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live shows for their elaborate shock rock theatricality.
Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the movies House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, the 2007 remake of Halloween, its sequel, and The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. His next film will be the upcoming The Lords of Salem which is scheduled to premiere in theaters sometime in 2012.
Born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, he was the first of two brothers. His younger brother Michael David Cummings was born on August 25, 1968 and is better known as Spider One, the frontman of alternative metal group Powerman 5000.
Based in New York, White Zombie was originally a noise rock band in the vein of fellow New York band Sonic Youth and Texas experimental punk band Butthole Surfers. White Zombie was known for combining heavy-metal music with driving guitar riffs (as on "Super-Charger Heaven"), overlayed with lyrics heavily influenced by horror films and pseudo-Satanic imagery.
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Robbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That.
Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch his solo career. On 15 July 2010, it was announced he had rejoined Take That and that the group intended to release a new album in November 2010 which became the second fastest-selling album of all-time in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century.
Williams has sold over 70 million records worldwide, which ranks him among the best-selling music artists worldwide. He is the best-selling British solo artist in the United Kingdom and the best selling non-Latino artist in Latin America. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the United Kingdom. He has also been honoured with seventeen BRIT Awards—more than any other artist—and seven ECHO Awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted as the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s."
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Robert Cray
Robert Cray (born August 1, 1953, Columbus, Georgia, United States) is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.
Cray started playing guitar in his early teens. At Denbigh High School in Newport News, Virginia, his love of blues and soul music flourished as he started collecting records. Originally, he wanted to become an architect, but around the same time that he began to study architectural design, he formed the band Steakface, described as "the best band from Lakewood you never heard of". Cray's guitar and vocals contributed greatly to Steakface's set list of songs by Jimi Hendrix, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Fleetwood Mac, The Grease Band, Blodwyn Pig, Jethro Tull, Spirit and The Faces.
By the age of twenty, Cray had seen his heroes Albert Collins, Freddie King and Muddy Waters in concert and decided to form his own band; they began playing college towns on the West Coast. In the late 1970s he lived in Eugene, Oregon, where he formed the Robert Cray Band and collaborated with Curtis Salgado in the Cray-Hawks. In the 1978 film, National Lampoon's Animal House, Cray was the uncredited bassist in the house party band Otis Day and the Knights. After several years of regional success, Cray was signed to Mercury Records in 1982. His third album release, Strong Persuader, produced by Dennis Walker, received a Grammy Award, while the crossover single "Smokin' Gun" gave him wider appeal and name recognition.
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Robert Earl Keen
Robert Earl Keen, Junior (born January 11, 1956) is an American Texas country music and folk guitarist and singer-songwriter from the southern state of Texas. He is popular with fans of various musical genres including traditional country, alternative country, folk, Americana, and college radio. Keen currently resides in Kerrville, Texas, and maintains a ranch in Medina, Texas.
Growing up in Houston, Texas, Keen was interested in music, sports, movies and writing. Keen graduated from Sharpstown High School in 1974.
Keen attended Texas A&M University, where he majored in English. Disappointed in the College Station music scene, he began playing guitar and learned to read and write music, basing his style on folk, country, blues and rock roots. In 1974 he rented a house from landlord Jack Boyett, where his neighbor was a then-unknown Lyle Lovett. The two became fast friends and performed together on the front porch many evenings. This eventually grew into inspiration for a song entitled "The Front Porch Song", which both would add to their repertoire.
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Robert Moulson
Robert Moulson (26 November 1932 - 15 August 2003) was an American classical tenor who had an active international career in operas and concerts from the late 1950s through the 1980s. He became particularly associated with the role of Lenny Small in Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men; a role which he recorded and portrayed in its original production at the Seattle Opera in 1970.
Born in [[cleveland,ohio. Moulson studied with Frederick Jagel and Samuel Margolis in New York City before making his professional opera debut in 1958 with the New York City Opera as Sam Polk in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. The New York Times stated of his performance that "Moulson's singing was excellent. His voice is a light but brilliant and well focused instrument of the sort that carries well in performance." He returned to that house several times up through 1983 in such roles as Pinkerton in Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, and Lenny Small in Floyd's Of Mice and Men.
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Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career. In 2007, Plant released Raising Sand, an album produced by T-Bone Burnett with American bluegrass soprano Alison Krauss, which won the 2009 Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 51st Grammy Awards.
With a career spanning more than 40 years, Plant is regarded as one of the most significant singers in the history of rock music, and has influenced contemporaries and later singers such as Freddie Mercury and Axl Rose. In 2006, heavy metal magazine Hit Parader named Plant the "Greatest Metal Vocalist of All-Time". In 2009, Plant was voted "the greatest voice in rock" in a poll conducted by Planet Rock. In 2011, a Rolling Stone readers' pick placed Plant in first place of the magazine's "Best Lead Singers of All Time".
Plant was born in the Black Country town of West Bromwich (then in Staffordshire now in West Midlands) to parents Robert C. who worked as a civil engineer and Annie C. (Cain) Plant, but grew up in Kidderminster, in Worcestershire. Plant gained an interest in singing and rock and roll music at an early age.
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Roberto Abbado
Roberto Abbado (born 30 December 1954, in Milan, Italy) is an Italian conductor. He is the son of musician Marcello Abbado and the nephew of conductor Claudio Abbado. He studied conducting under Franco Ferrara at La Fenice, Venice, and at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia where he became the only student of the academy ever to be asked to conduct the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He led his first opera, Simon Boccanegra, at the age of 23, and during his 20s performed at numerous opera houses in Italy and elsewhere. He has since conducted many operas and orchestras worldwide.
Abbado was Chief Conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra from 1991 to 1998. In the U.S., Abbado was appointed an Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) starting with the 2005-2006 season. In November 2006, he extended this contract with the SPCO through the 2010-2011 season.
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Robin Thicke
Robin Charles Thicke ( /ˈθɪk/; born March 10, 1977) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and actor. Thicke's albums, which he previously released under the name Thicke, are noted for their feature of a predominantly R&B sound. Thicke has written hits for popular artists such as Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Mary J. Blige and Raven-Symoné. Thicke has also been acknowledged for his work in popular albums such as Confessions and Tha Carter III.
Thicke is a judge on the ABC show Duets.
Before his days as a singer-songwriter, Thicke had written "Love Is On My Side" on Brandy's self-titled album and a number of songs for 3T's "Sexual Attention" and collaborated with Jordan Knight, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on several songs in Knight's 1999 album Jordan Knight. He also co-wrote the songs "When You Put Your Hands On Me" for Christina Aguilera's debut album and "No Tears on My Pillow" for Mýa's sophomore release, Fear of Flying. As an artist, he recorded and performed solely under his surname, Thicke. He would continue to do so until 2005.
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Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE (born 10 January 1945) is a British singer-songwriter, born and raised in North London, England, and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry.
With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with The Jeff Beck Group and then Faces. He launched his solo career in 1969 with his debut album An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (US: The Rod Stewart Album). His work with The Jeff Beck Group and Faces influenced heavy metal genres.
With his career in its fifth decade, Stewart has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling artists of all time. In the UK, he has had six consecutive number one albums, and his tally of 62 hit singles include 31 that reached the top 10, six of which gained the number one position. He has had 16 top ten singles in the U.S, with four of these reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked him the 17th most successful artist on the "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists". He was voted at #33 in Q Magazine's list of the top 100 Greatest Singers of all time, and #59 on Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Singers of all time. As a solo artist, Stewart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and was inducted a second time, as a member of Faces, in April 2012.
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Rodney Atkins
Rodney Allan Atkins (born March 28, 1969) is an American country music artist. Signed to Curb Records in 1996, he charted his first single on the Billboard country chart in 1997, but did not release an album until 2003's Honesty, which included the number 4 hit "Honesty (Write Me a List)".
If You're Going Through Hell, his second album, was released in 2006. Its first two singles, "If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)" and "Watching You", each spent four weeks at the top of the country music chart, and were respectively ranked as the top country songs of 2006 and 2007 according to Billboard Year-End. The album, which has since been certified platinum in the United States, produced two more number 1 singles in "These Are My People" and "Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)". It's America (2009) included the number 1 single "It's America" and the top 5 hit "Farmer's Daughter", which was added to a later reissue of the album. Take a Back Road (2011) produced his sixth number 1 in its title track.
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Ron Goodwin
Ronald Alfred Goodwin (17 February 1925 – 8 January 2003) was a British composer and conductor known for his film music. He scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years. His most famous works included Where Eagles Dare, Battle of Britain, 633 Squadron and Operation Crossbow.
Born in Plymouth, Devon, Goodwin learned to play the piano and trumpet from the age of five which allowed him to join the school band. When he was nine, the family moved to Harrow, London, where he attended Willesden County School and Pinner County Grammar School, in Middlesex. From there he went on to study the trumpet in London at the Guildhall School of Music.
Whilst working as a copyist, he formed his own orchestra in his spare time and began arranging and conducting recordings for over fifty artists, which resulted in more than 100 chart successes. He wrote his first feature film score for Whirlpool, with screenplay by Lawrence P. Bachmann. After Bachmann became executive producer at MGM-British Studios in 1959, Goodwin composed and conducted the music for most of its productions, as well as working for other film studios.
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Ronan Keating
Ronan Patrick John Keating (born 3 March 1977) is an Irish recording artist, singer-songwriter, musician, and philanthropist. Keating debuted on the professional music scene alongside Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch and Stephen Gately, in 1994 as the lead singer of Boyzone. His solo career started in 1999, and resulted in 9 albums. Keating gained worldwide attention when his single "When You Say Nothing at All" was featured in the film Notting Hill and peaked at number one in several countries. As a solo artist, Keating has sold over 22 million records worldwide, and in Australia he is best known as a judge on The X Factor.
Keating has worked as a charity campaigner most notably for the Marie Keating Foundation, a foundation that raises awareness for breast cancer. It is named after his mother, who died of the disease in 1998. Keating's fortune is around €15 million.
Ronan Keating was born on 3 March 1977, the youngest of five children. He grew up on the Northside of Dublin and Co Meath. His father Gerry Keating was a lorry driver; his mother Marie was a hairdresser and had her own salon in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath. He has one sister: Linda, and three brothers: Ciaran, Gerard and Gary. He was a track and field athlete and represented Ireland in several tournaments, winning the All Ireland under-13 200m title. He also worked as an assistant in a shoe shop just as his siblings emigrated to the United States.
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Rosalyn Tureck
Rosalyn Tureck (December 14, 1914 – July 17, 2003) was an American pianist and harpsichordist who was particularly associated with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. She was born in Chicago, Illinois.
Tureck did not play only Bach, but had a wide-ranging repertoire which included works by composers including Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Frédéric Chopin, as well as more modern composers such as David Diamond, Luigi Dallapiccola, and William Schuman. Diamond's Piano Sonata No. 1 was inspired by Tureck's playing.
Tureck studied at the Juilliard School of music, where one of her teachers was Leon Theremin. She continued her studies in Chicago with pianist and harpsichordist Gavin Williamson. Later in her career, Tureck joined the faculty at the Juilliard School. She made her debut at Carnegie Hall playing the theremin, an electronic instrument.
For a while she followed Wanda Landowska in playing Bach's keyboard music on a harpsichord, but later returned to playing the piano. In 1970, Tureck performed in Boston for the Peabody Mason Concert series. She was an honorary fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford.
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Rosie Nix Adams
Rosie Nix Adams (July 13, 1958 - October 24, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. She was born July 13, 1958, the daughter of June Carter Cash and her second husband Edwin "Rip" Nix, and the stepdaughter of the famous country singer Johnny Cash. She was married to Philip Adams.
Nix was a singer/songwriter and performed as a back-up singer for The Johnny Cash Show, David Grey, and Slim Whitman. She was also a semi-regular performing member of the legendary Carter Family.
She and Jimmy Campbell, a bluegrass fiddle player, were found dead on a bus in Montgomery County, Tennessee, on October 24, 2003. It was determined that the deaths were caused by carbon monoxide from the six propane heaters, used without ventilation, in the bus. Nix was 45 when she died.
Nix was buried near her mother and stepfather (who had both died earlier that same year) in the Hendersonville Memory Gardens, Hendersonville, Tennessee.
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Rove McManus
John Henry Michael "Rove" McManus (born 21 January 1974) is an Australian comedian, television presenter, producer and media personality. He was the host of the self-titled variety show Rove, and is the owner of the production company Roving Enterprises. He is a three time Gold Logie Award winner.
McManus was born in Perth, Western Australia to John and Coralie McManus. He acquired the nickname "Rove" from his sister.
He married actress and singer Belinda Emmett in 2005 at the Mary Immaculate Church in Waverley, a suburb in the east of Sydney. Emmett died of metastatic breast cancer on 11 November 2006 at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney.
McManus began dating actress Tasma Walton in October 2007. They married on 16 June 2009 in a private ceremony on a beach in Broome, Western Australia.
In 1997 McManus began hosting The Loft Live, which was produced by RMIT University's Student television stationRMITV, on the community television station, Channel 31 where he was given a budget of $50 a week. It was there where he met his now long-time co-host, Peter Helliar.[citation needed] Rove then worked for Foxtel as a roving reporter on a show called In Fashion which was hosted by Hugh Jackman. He then received an offer for ten late night episodes of his own variety show, Rove for the Nine Network in 1999, but Nine cancelled the series at the end of its run. In 2000, McManus was offered the opportunity to produce a new version of the Rove show for Network Ten. The resulting Rove Live was almost identical to Nine's Rove. Rove Live became a flagship show for Network Ten, and it was also broadcast on TV3 in New Zealand. The show followed a variety show format and showcased weekly celebrity guests; comedy acts; variety segments; local and international comedians; and live bands.
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Roy Mayorga
Roy Maurice Mayorga (born April 6, 1970 in New York City, New York) is the drummer for the hard rock band Stone Sour. He is of Ecuadorian and Cuban descent.
Roy Mayorga was the original drummer for metal band Soulfly 1997-1999. Prior to joining Soulfly, he also played with New York Hardcore band Shelter in 1996. He also played drums for one of the most influential political bands from New York in the late 80s/early 90s, Nausea. Also Nausea was the band he did his first proper tour of Europe and U.S. and recorded his first album with in 1989 following. Mayorga played drums on the album 'The Hollowing' with metal band Crisis in 1996.
He was briefly a member of the band Medication from 1999–2001, when he left the group to rejoin Soulfly with which he recorded 3 and toured with them soon after. He parted ways with the group in 2003.
In 2004 he helped create rock band ABLOOM as with vocalist Jasan Radford and lead guitarist Levon Sultanian. Also part of the band was Mike Doling (Snot, Soulfly) and John Fahnestock (Snot). Fahnestock left and was replaced by Marcelo Dias aka Marcello D. Rapp (Soulfly). The band is currently on hiatus but are looking to start up again in the near future.
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Ruben Studdard
Christopher Theodore Ruben Studdard (born September 12, 1978), best known as Ruben Studdard, is an American R&B, pop, and gospel singer. He rose to fame as winner of the second season of American Idol. He received a Grammy Award nomination in December 2003 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Superstar."
In the years following Idol, Studdard has released four studio albums, including his most recent disc, 2009's Love Is.
In addition to appearing on various television shows he has toured with Robin Givens in the comedy-drama Heaven I Need a Hug and in 2008 accepted the role of Fats Waller in a national tour of Ain't Misbehavin'.
Studdard, who was born in Frankfurt, Germany while his American father was stationed there with the U.S. Army, grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. The youngest son of two teachers, at the age of three he sang for the first time at the Rising Star Baptist Church in his hometown of Birmingham. He continued singing gospel in church, performing solos as a child while his mother sang in the local choir. While at Huffman High School, he played football for which he received a scholarship to Alabama A&M University. While at Alabama A&M he joined the Omicron Delta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the men's music fraternity of America.
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Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer. He has recorded seven albums of original music and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written a classical opera and set Shakespeare sonnets to music for a theater piece by Robert Wilson.
Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. His parents divorced when he was three, and he lived with his mother in Montreal for most of his youth. Wainwright has dual US and Canadian citizenship. He attended high school at the Millbrook School in New York (which would later inspire his song "Millbrook"), and later briefly studied piano at McGill in Montreal. He began playing the piano at age six, and started touring at 13 with "The McGarrigle Sisters and Family", a folk group featuring Rufus, his sister Martha, his mother Kate, and aunt Anna. His song "I'm a-Runnin'", which he performed in the film Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller at the age of 14, earned him a nomination for a 1989 Genie Award for Best Original Song. He was nominated for a 1990 Juno Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year.
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Russians
The Russian people (Russian: русские, russkiye) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries.
The English term Russians is also used to refer to the citizens of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity; the demonym Russian is translated into Russian as rossiyanin (россиянин, plural rossiyane), while the ethnic Russians are referred to as russkiye (sg. русский, russkiy).
According to the 2010 census, ethnic Russians make up about 81% of the population of Russia.
The modern Russian is formed from two groups, Northern and Southern, which were made up of Kriviches, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs, Vyatiches and Severians East Slavic tribes. Genetic studies show that modern Russians do not differ significantly from Poles or Slovenians or Ukrainians. Some ethnographers, like Zelenin, affirm that Russians are more similar to Belarusians and Ukrainians than southern Russians to northern Russians. Russians in northern European Russia share moderate genetic similarities with Uralic peoples, who lived in modern north central European Russia and were partly assimilated by the Slavs as the Slavs migrated northeastwards. Among those peoples were Merya and Muromian.
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RZA
Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known by his stage name RZA ( /ˈrɪzə/; born July 5, 1969), is an American Grammy-winning music producer, multi-instrumentalist, author, emcee, and occasional actor, director, and screenwriter. A prominent figure in Hip Hop, RZA is a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. He has produced almost all of Wu-Tang Clan's albums as well as many Wu-Tang solo and affiliate projects. He is widely considered one of the most influential and landmark hip-hop producers of all time. He subsequently gained attention for his work scoring and then later acting in films. His revolutionary techniques of sampling, speeding up tracks to fit the beat laced, and his cinematic skits sprinkled throughout albums have greatly inspired other producers in the industry. He produced for a slew of Wu Tang solo albums as well as group albums that dominated not only commercially, but also thematically and artistically. His production from the mid 90's to the late 90's brought about one of the greatest 'bouts' or 'runs' of inspiration the industry has seen, creating various classics.
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Salvatore Sciarrino
Salvatore Sciarrino (born Palermo, Italy, on April 4, 1947) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music.
In his youth, Salvatore Sciarrino was attracted to the visual arts, but began experimenting with music when he was twelve. Though he had some lessons from Antonino Titone and Turi Belfiore, he is primarily self-taught as a composer. After his classical studies and a few years of university in his home city, in 1969 he moved to Rome, where he attended Franco Evangelisti's course in electronic music at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Osmond-Smith 2001).
In 1977, Sciarrino moved from Rome to Milan, where he taught at the conservatory until 1982. By this time his compositional career had expanded to the point where he could withdraw from teaching, and he moved to Città di Castello, in Umbria, where he has resided ever since. He nevertheless has continued to teach sporadically in Florence and Bologna, as well as in Città di Castello. Some of his notable students include Francesco Filidei, Lucia Ronchetti, Fabrizio De Rossi Rei, and Maurizio Pisati.
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Sara Evans
Sara Lynn Evans (born February 5, 1971) is an American country singer and songwriter. For her entire career, she has been signed to RCA Records Nashville.
Evans' debut, Three Chords and the Truth, did not produce a Top 40 hit on the Hot Country Songs charts. She followed this up with No Place That Far (1998), Born to Fly (2000), Restless (2003) and Real Fine Place (2005). No Place That Far received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), while the other three albums all were certified platinum. These discs include the number 1 singles "No Place That Far", "Born to Fly", "Suds in the Bucket" and "A Real Fine Place to Start", plus the top 10 hits "I Could Not Ask for More" (a cover of the Edwin McCain song), "I Keep Looking", "Perfect" and "Cheatin'". Her 2007 Greatest Hits included the top 20 hits "You'll Always Be My Baby" and "As If". Stronger (2011) included her fifth number 1 hit, "A Little Bit Stronger", which was co-written by Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum.
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Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. She is famous for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves. She sings in many languages including English, Spanish, French, Latin, German, Italian, Russian, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese.
Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, she made her West End musical theatre debut in Cats and met composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, whom she married. She went on to star in several Broadway musicals, including The Phantom of the Opera, where she originated the role of Christine Daaé. The Original London Cast Album of the musical was released in CD format in 1987 and sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest-selling cast album of all time.
After retiring from the stage and divorcing Lloyd Webber, Brightman resumed her music career with former Enigma producer Frank Peterson, this time as a classical crossover artist. She is often credited as the creator of this genre and remains among the most prominent performers, with worldwide sales of more than 30 million records and 2 million DVDs, establishing herself as the world's best-selling soprano of all time. Her duet with the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, "Time To Say Goodbye", topped charts all over Europe and became the highest and fastest selling single of all time in Germany, where it stayed at the top of the charts for fourteen consecutive weeks and sold over 3 million copies. It subsequently became an international success selling 12 million copies worldwide. She has now collected over 180 gold and platinum sales awards in 38 different countries. In 2010 she was named by Billboard the 5th most influential and top-selling classical artist of the 2000s decade in the US.
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Sarah McLachlan
Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range, as of 2009, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards (out of four nominations) and four Juno Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians. The Lilith Fair concert tours took place from 1997 to 1999, and resumed in the summer of 2010. Since 2006 she has also been known as a highly visible supporter of the ASPCA, as well as various other charities.
Sarah McLachlan was born on January 28, 1968, and adopted in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. As a child, she took voice lessons, along with studies in classical piano and guitar. When she was 17 years old and still a student at Queen Elizabeth High School, she fronted a short-lived rock band called The October Game. One of the band's songs, "Grind", credited as a group composition, can be found on the independent Flamingo Records release Out of the Fog and the CD Out of the Fog Too. It has yet to be released elsewhere. Her high school yearbook predicted that she was "destined to become a famous rock star."
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Saul Williams
Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.
The youngest of three children, Williams was born in Newburgh, New York. He attended Newburgh Free Academy for high school, where he would write his song "Black Stacey." After graduating from Morehouse College with a B.A. in acting and philosophy, Williams moved to New York City to earn an MFA in Acting from New York University's prestigious Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts. There he found himself at the center of the New York cafe poetry scene.
Williams and artist Marcia Jones began their relationship in 1995 as collaborative artists on the Brooklyn performance art and spoken word circuit. Their daughter, Saturn, was born in 1996. His collection of poems S/HE is a series of reflections on the demise of the relationship. Marcia Jones, a visual artist and art professor, created the cover artwork for The Seventh Octave, images throughout S/HE in response to Williams, and set-designed his 2001 album Amethyst Rock Star. Saturn has recently been performing with her father on his 2008 concert tour.
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Sean Paul
Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques (born January 9, 1973), who performs under stage name Sean Paul, is a Jamaican dancehall and reggae artist.
Sean Paul was born in Kingston and spent his early years in Upper Andrew Parish, a few miles north of Kingston. His parents, Garth and Frances, were both talented athletes, and his mother is a well-known painter. His paternal grandfather was a Sephardic Jew whose family emigrated from Portugal, and his paternal grandmother was Afro-Caribbean; his mother is of English and Chinese Jamaican descent. Sean Paul was raised as a Catholic. Many members of his family are swimmers. His grandfather was on the first Jamaican men's national water polo team. His father also played water polo for the team in the 1960s, and competed in long-distance swimming, while Sean Paul's mother was a backstroke swimmer. Sean Paul played for the national water polo team from the age of thirteen to twenty-one, when he gave up the sport in order to launch his musical career. He attended the Wolmers High School for Boys, Belair School, Hillel Academy High School, and the College of Arts, Science, and Technology, now known as the University of Technology, where he was trained in commerce with a view to pursuing an occupation in hotel management.
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Sean Watkins
Sean Charles Watkins (born February 18, 1977) is a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is a member of the contemporary folk band Nickel Creek, the duo Fiction Family and the supergroup Works Progress Administration.
Sean Watkins began his tenure with Nickel Creek playing mandolin, but later switched to guitar. The band has released three albums and a CD composed of their hits (called Reasons Why: The Very Best) and won a Grammy for This Side -- a coveted trophy that Watkins reportedly put on top of his toilet at home. Explaining the somewhat odd situation, Watkins said that "it seems like a humble place. I didn't want to put it out in plain view of my house. I didn't feel like displaying it right when you walk in. It's a nice crown for the porcelain." In addition to playing with Nickel Creek, Watkins has released 3 solo albums and appeared on several others. Of this experience, Watkins has said, "I've learned now to look back to music that has lasted through the years and to appreciate the timeless value that it has."
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Serj Tankian
Serj Tankian (Western Armenian: Սերժ Թանգեան [ˈsɛɾʒ tʰɑnˈkʰjɑn]; born August 21, 1967) is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer–songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, record producer, poet, and political activist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional live rhythm guitarist of the rock band System of a Down.
During his musical career, Tankian has released five albums with System of a Down, one with Arto Tunçboyacıyan (Serart), as well as three solo albums Elect the Dead, Imperfect Harmonies and Harakiri. A live orchestral version of Elect the Dead incorporating the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra named Elect the Dead Symphony was released. In 2002, Tankian and Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello co-founded a non-profit political activist organization, Axis of Justice. Tankian also founded the music label Serjical Strike Records.
Tankian is ranked 26th in the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time.
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Sertab Erener
Sertab Erener (born 4 December 1964 in Istanbul) is a Turkish pop music singer and also a cross-over soprano with a vocal range that extends to high F. She is one of the most successful female Turkish pop singers in her homeland, and is considered one of the divas of Turkish pop music. In Europe, she is best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with her hit song "Every Way That I Can", although she has had many other achievements outside Turkey.
A native of Istanbul, Erener studied history of music in a university in the city before beginning her musical career working with Turkish music icon Sezen Aksu.
She released her first album, Sakin Ol, in 1992, and followed it with four more Turkish-language albums over the next decade. Her album Lâ'l was included by Sony Music in its "Soundtrack For A Century" collection.
After competing unsuccessfully in two national Eurovision Song Contest finals in 1989 and 1990, she was internally selected in 2003 and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, representing Turkey with the song "Every Way That I Can", co-written by Demir Demirkan. The song went on to top charts in countries all over Europe, including Sweden and Greece.
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Shania Twain
Shania Twain, OC ( /ʃəˌnaɪ.ə ˈtweɪn/; born Eilleen Regina Edwards; August 28, 1965) is a Canadian country pop singer-songwriter. Her album The Woman in Me (1995), brought her fame and her 1997 album Come On Over, became the best-selling album of all time by a female musician in any genre, and the best-selling country album of all time. It has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and is the ninth best-selling album in the U.S. Her fourth album, Up!, was released in November 2002. To date it has sold 20 million copies worldwide.
Twain has won five Grammy Awards and 27 BMI Songwriter awards. She has had three albums certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America and is the second best-selling artist in Canada, behind Céline Dion, with three of her studio albums certified double diamond by the Canadian Recording Industry Association. She is the first (and currently only) female artist in history to have 3 consecutive albums reach diamond status, indicating sales of at least 10 million, certified by the RIAA. Sometimes referred to as "The Queen of Country Pop", Twain has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide and is ranked 10th best-selling artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era. She was also ranked 72nd on Billboard's "Artists of the decade" (2000–10). Most recently, Twain has her own TV series, Why Not? with Shania Twain, that premiered on the OWN on May 8, 2011. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on June 2, 2011.
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Shed Seven
Shed Seven are an English indie rock band from York and were one of the groups which contributed to the Britpop music scene that evolved during the 1990s, yet never received the degree of mainstream success achieved by bands such as Oasis and Blur. They formed in 1990 and originally comprised Rick Witter (vocals), Joe Johnson (guitar and keyboards, later replaced by Paul Banks), Tom Gladwin (bass) and Alan Leach (drums).
They belonged to the post-Smiths wave of UK musicians such as The Sundays and Marion, with a sound relying heavily on complex guitar arpeggios often in a minor key, and wailing vocals. At the height of their popularity between 1994 and 1999 they had fifteen Top 40 singles and four Top 20 albums in the UK. The band officially broke up in 2003, but reformed for a greatest hits tour in July 2007. The band has continued to play shows around the UK periodically but has not released a new studio album.
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Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop. She has won nine Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
She has performed with The Rolling Stones and has sung duets with Mick Jagger,Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Luciano Pavarotti, John Mellencamp, Kid Rock, Michelle Branch, and Sting among others. She has performed backing vocals for Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Don Henley and Belinda Carlisle. She also sang as part of the back up vocals for the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary celebrating Dylan's 30 years as a recording artist. Crow has released seven studio albums, two compilations, and a live album, and has contributed to film soundtracks. She has sold 16 million albums in the United States and 35 million albums worldwide and her newest album, 100 Miles from Memphis, was released on July 20, 2010. Recently she appeared on NBC's 30 Rock, ABC's GCB and Cougar Town, Disney Channel's Hannah Montana Forever, and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
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Sieglinde Wagner
Sieglinde Wagner (21 April 1921 – 31 December 2003) was an Austrian operatic contralto, who could also sing mezzo-soprano roles.
Wagner was born in Linz, and studied in Linz and Munich. In 1947, she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera. Two years later, she was hired by Wilhelm Furtwängler to sing in The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival. After this successful collaboration, Furtwängler signed her to sing Floßhilde and Grimgerde in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at La Scala. This was the beginning of a career that included many of Wagner's alto roles (she and the composer were not related).
In 1950, Sieglinde Wagner sang as a contralto, as Orlovsky, a blase young nobleman in Die Fledermaus.
In 1952, she made her first appearance at the Städtischen Oper in Berlin as Maddalena in Rigoletto. She sang Carmen there in December of the same year. This was the start of a 34-year relationship.
Sieglinde Wagner had a very wide repertoire, including Clairon in Richard Strauss's Capriccio, Annina in Der Rosenkavalier, Magdalena in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Fenena in Nabucco, the mother in Hansel and Gretel and Mary in The Flying Dutchman.
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Sleepy Brown
Patrick "Sleepy" Brown (born January 24, 1970 in Savannah, Georgia) is an R&B singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is one-third of the successful Atlanta-based production team of Organized Noize, which has created hits for acts such as OutKast, Goodie Mob, and TLC. TLC's "Waterfalls", penned by Brown and Organized Noize's Rico Wade and Ray Murray, was a #1 hit single on Billboard's Hot 100 in the summer of 1995.
Patrick Brown was born on January 24, 1970. In his early days, Brown was fascinated with music and often used to carry around an old four-track machine and small keyboard everywhere he went. That earnestness appealed to Wade and Murray when they first met Brown around 1990. A talented keyboardist and advocate for live instrumentation, Brown developed into a multi-instrumentalist, mastering various types of synthesizers and electric pianos; however, his inclination for using samplers and drum machines always kept him rooted in hip hop. A personal milestone for Brown, however, was the opportunity to work with funk legend Curtis Mayfield in 1996, on his final album New World Order. In the early 2000s, Brown gradually ascended from behind the studio boards into the artist spotlight.
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Slim Dusty
David Gordon "Slim Dusty " Kirkpatrick AO, MBE (13 June 1927—19 September 2003) was an Australian country music singer-songwriter and producer, with a career spanning nearly seven decades. He was known to record songs in the legacy of Australian poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson that represented the Australian Bush Lifestyle, and also for his many trucking songs. Dusty was the first Australian to have a No. 1 Hit song with Gordon Parsons (Pub With No Beer). He received an unequalled 37 Golden Guitar and two ARIA awards and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and the Country Music Roll of Renown. At the time of his death at the age of 76, Dusty had been working on his 106th album for EMI Records. In 2007 his domestic record sales in Australia surpassed seven million.
David Gordon Kirkpatrick was born on 13 June 1927 in Kempsey, New South Wales, the son of a cattle farmer. Kirkpatrick adopted the stage name "Slim Dusty" in 1938 at eleven years of age. His earliest musical influences included Jimmie Rodgers. In 1945, Dusty wrote When the Rain Tumbles Down in July and released his first record that year at the age of eighteen. In 1946, he signed his first recording contract with Columbia Graphophone for the Regal Zonophone label.
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Smile Empty Soul
Smile Empty Soul is an American post-grunge band from Santa Clarita, California.
Smile Empty Soul formed in 1998, while its original members were attending different high schools in the Santa Clarita area. The band, originally a three-piece group, consisted of vocalist and guitarist Sean Danielsen, bassist Ryan Martin and drummer Derek Gledhill.
After playing numerous hometown gigs, Smile Empty Soul ventured to the Castro District, and later passed a demo to John Parker of the West Hollywood indie label, ThroBack Records. That later led to a record deal with Jason Flom's Lava Records.
On May 27, 2003, the band released their self titled debut album Smile Empty Soul. The album was produced by John Lewis Parker, and three successful singles were released. In March 2005, the album was certified gold with sales in excess of 500,000+.
Sometime after the recording of their second album "Anxiety" was finished, drummer Derek Gledhill was replaced by Dominic Weir.
On September 22, 2005, during a concert at The Beaumont Club in Kansas City, Missouri, frontman Sean Danielsen stated that their new album Anxiety, would not be released due to issues with Lava Records. The band told fans that in order to receive the new album they could purchase one of a very limited number of burned copies or attempt to download the album online via BitTorrent.
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Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. (born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school. Shortly after graduation, he was arrested for cocaine possession and spent six months in Wayside County Jail. His music career began in 1992 after his release when he was discovered by Dr. Dre. He collaborated on several tracks on Dre's solo debut, The Chronic and on the titular theme song to the film Deep Cover.
Snoop's debut album Doggystyle, was released in 1993 under Death Row Records making a debut at No.1 on both the Billboard 200 and R&B charts. Selling almost a million copies in the first week of its release, Doggystyle quickly became certified 4× platinum in 1994 and spawned several hit singles, including "What's My Name" and "Gin & Juice". In 1994, Snoop released a soundtrack on Death Row Records for the short film Murder Was The Case, starring himself. In early 1996, Snoop Dogg was cleared of charges over his bodyguard's 1993 murder of Philip Woldemariam. His second album, late 1996's Tha Doggfather, also debuted at No.1 on both charts with "Snoop's Upside Ya Head" as the lead single. The album sold only half as well, being certified double platinum in 1997.
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Sonata Arctica
Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, originally assembled in 1995. Their later works (most notably The Days of Grays, Unia and a few tracks on Reckoning Night and Winterheart's Guild) contain several elements typical of progressive metal.
The band was founded by Marko Paasikoski, Jani Liimatainen and Tommy Portimo in Kemi at the end of 1995 (Tony Kakko and Pentti Peura joined in early 1996). Originally named Tricky Beans, they played hard rock rather than the power metal with which they grew to fame. During their early career, they recorded three demos which were never sent to any recording label — Friend 'till the End, Agre Pamppers and PeaceMaker.
In 1997 the band changed their name to Tricky Means, and from that point until 1999 their style was thoroughly worked upon and ultimately was drastically changed, acquiring strong emphasis on the keyboard melodies and relying on an easily distinguishable rhythm line maintained both by the bass and the guitar. Vocalist Tony Kakko developed a clean singing style which relies both on falsetto and tenor voices and second guitarist Marko Paasikoski left the band. Kakko has stated that the change of sound was influenced by fellow Finnish power metal band Stratovarius.
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Soulja Slim
James Tapp, Jr. (September 9, 1977 – November 26, 2003), better known by his stage name Soulja Slim, was an American rapper who achieved massive success on Master P's No Limit record label. He also achieved fame throughout New Orleans and Nation Wide from his work done with B.G., UNLV, and other local artists. He is known for writing the U.S. No. 1 hit "Slow Motion".
James Tapp was raised either in the Magnolia Projects or in the 3rd Ward of New Orleans. He attended Booker T. Washington High School before dropping out of school his sophomore year. Tapp released his debut album, Soulja fa Lyfe, on Parkway Pumpin' Records in 1994 under the name Magnolia Slim. In 1995, he released the four-song e.p. The Dark Side on Hype Enough Records. In the same year, the song "You Got It" appeared on No Limit Records double-CD compilation Down South Hustlers: Bouncin' and Swingin' . In 1998, Tapp, now calling himself Soulja Slim, released Give It 2 'Em Raw on No Limit Records with his single and video "From What I Was Told." Soulja Slim was convicted of armed robbery and incarcerated. He reappeared three years later with Streets Made Me, which was again released on the No Limit label. From there, he started his own label, Cut Throat Committee Records and released Years Later in late 2002. In 2003, he released Years Later...A Few Months After, his last album before his death. The album featured the hit "I'll Pay for It". In 2003 he also collaborated with fellow New Orleans rapper Juvenile to make the song "Slow Motion". The song was released on Juvenile's album Juve the Great and reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Soulja Slim and Juvenile's first No. 1 hit, and as the song was released after Soulja Slim's death he became only the sixth artist to have a posthumous No. 1 song.
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Stacie Orrico
Stacie Joy Orrico (born March 3, 1986) is a Contemporary Christian and R&B singer, songwriter, and occasional actress. In 1998, she signed to ForeFront Records when she was 12 years old, and recorded her first album Genuine (2000), which sold 13,000 in the first week of release.
After her first album she signed to a new record label, Virgin Records, and started to record her self-titled album Stacie Orrico (2003). The album, which debuted at No. 59 on the Billboard 200, was certified gold with over 500,000 sales in the U.S. The first single "Stuck" reached number No. 52 on Billboard Hot 100, but achieved greater success worldwide. Her second single "(There's Gotta Be) More to Life" debuted at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her self-titled album has achieved sales worldwide of over 3.5 million. In the same year, she made her first television appearance as an actress in two episodes of American Dreams.
She lost her label ForeFront Records in 2005 after 7 years and decided to concentrate on her music career and began writing her third album, Beautiful Awakening (2006). The first single "I'm Not Missing You" was released in August 2006. The second single, "So Simple", is the last single from her third album which never charted in the U.S.
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Stereophonics
Stereophonics are a Welsh rock band that formed in 1992 in the village of Cwmaman in Cynon Valley, Wales. The band currently comprises lead vocalist and guitarist Kelly Jones, bassist and backing vocalist Richard Jones, drummer Javier Weyler, guitarist and backing vocalist, Adam Zindani and touring member Tony Kirkham (keyboards), the group having originally also included Stuart Cable on drums. Stereophonics have released seven studio albums, five of which have topped the UK Albums Chart. Their seventh, Keep Calm and Carry On, was released in November 2009 but did not make the Top 10. A successful compilation album was also released in November 2008 – Decade in the Sun charting at number two in the United Kingdom. The band is part of the Cardiff music scene.
Described as "classic UK rock delivered with whiskey vocals," the band have been summarised as possessing a sound akin to the genres of alternative rock and "British traditional rock." Stereophonics' debut album, Word Gets Around, was released in August 1997 and instantly charted at number six in the UK, aided by the singles "Local Boy in the Photograph", "More Life in a Tramps Vest" and "A Thousand Trees", all of which failed to affect the top 20. The band reached mainstream success with the release of Performance and Cocktails (and its promotional singles "The Bartender and the Thief", "Just Looking" and "Pick a Part That's New") in 1999 and have achieved a total of ten top-ten singles as well as one number-one: 2005's "Dakota". The band have also been praised for their live performances, which have landed them headlining slots at many of the UK and Ireland's most high-profile music festivals, including Reading and Leeds in 2000, Glastonbury in 2002, V festival in 2002, the Isle of Wight in 2004 and 2009, and Oxegen in 2010.
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Steve Kmak
Steve "Fuzz" Kmak (born September 5, 1970) is an American bass guitar player, best known for his work with the heavy metal band Disturbed.
Kmak founded the band Brawl in 1994 with guitarist Dan Donegan and drummer Mike Wengren. They played small clubs in Chicago before singer David Draiman answered their ad, after which they changed the band name to Disturbed. They then produced their first studio album The Sickness, released in 2000.
Before joining Marilyn Manson's 2001 European tour, Kmak was unable to play with the band due to a shattered ankle, caused by falling out of a fire escape outside Disturbed's rehearsal hall in Chicago. He took the fire escape to exit the building while the elevator was being used to move their equipment downstairs. After a successful operation, doctors highly recommended that Kmak skip the tour to avoid more severe damage to his foot. But he did perform with the band on January 11 and 12, 2001 at Disturbed's show in Chicago. During the European tour, Marty O'Brien replaced Kmak until he was able to tour again.
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Steve Vai
Steven Siro Vai (born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. After starting his career as a music transcriptionist for Frank Zappa, Vai recorded and toured in Zappa's band for two years, from 1980 to 1982. He began a solo career in 1983, has released eight solo albums and won three Grammy Awards. He has also recorded and toured with Public Image Ltd., Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake. Vai has been a regular touring member of the G3 Concert Tour which began in 1996. In 1999 Vai started his own record label Favored Nations, intending to showcase as he describes, "...artists that have attained the highest performance level on their chosen instruments."
Vai began playing guitar in 1973, at the age of 13. In 1974, he took guitar lessons from guitarist Joe Satriani and played in local bands, one of which was called "The Steve Vais". He was influenced by guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Jimmy Page, Glen Buxton, and jazz fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Vai attended the Berklee College of Music, afterwards recording a promotional piece for them in which he spoke about auditioning for Frank Zappa at age 20.
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Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band that lean towards psychedelic rock and electronic experimentation. Since their formation in Cardiff, Wales in 1993, the band has consisted of Gruff Rhys (lead vocals, guitar), Huw Bunford (lead guitar, vocals), Guto Pryce (bass guitar), Cian Ciaran (keyboards, synthesisers, various electronics, occasional guitar, vocals) and Dafydd Ieuan (drums, vocals). Actor Rhys Ifans is also a former member. The band are part of the Cardiff music scene.
The band formed in Cardiff after being in various other Welsh bands and techno outfits in the area. Ifans, Ieuan and Pryce had been together since the early 1990s and had toured the north coast of France as a techno group. After Bunford and Ciaran (the latter Ieuan's younger brother) joined, they wrote some songs, and in 1995 signed to Ankst, the Welsh indie label. The band are considered to be part of the renaissance of Welsh music (and art, and literature) in the 1990s: other Welsh bands of the time include the Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia, and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.
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Susan Chilcott
Susan Chilcott (8 July 1963 – 4 September 2003) was an English soprano, considered one of the best of her generation. She died of breast cancer at the age of 40. She had success in many of the major opera houses around the world and was particularly known for her interpretations of Britten and Janáček.
Susan Chilcott was born in the village of Timsbury, near Bath, England. Her talent was obvious from an early age. She sang in chapels and community halls in the area as well in school assemblies at Writhlington School, near Bath, which she attended between 1974 and 1979.
At the age of 12 her talent was noted by Mollie Petrie, a singing teacher, who remained with her as a singing coach and advisor for the rest of her career. In 1982, she started studying at the Guildhall School of Music, where her tutor was Noelle Barker.
Her operatic debut was as the First Lady in The Magic Flute, in Oviedo in 1991. In that year she also sang with the Scottish Opera. The performance which could be described as her major breakthrough, bringing her to the attention of a wider audience, was her interpretation of Ellen Orford in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes at La Monnaie in Belgium in 1994. During the next few years, she had huge success in Europe, singing roles from Verdi, Boesman, Dvořák, Britten and Janáček. Indeed, her performance in 1999 in Janáček's Katya Kabanova was considered by many critics to be one of her best.
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Teresa De Sio
Teresa De Sio (born November 3, 1955) is an Italian folk singer-songwriter and the sister of the actress Giuliana De Sio.
She was born in Naples and lived in Cava de' Tirreni, the originary town of her family. In 1976 she started her career as singer with Eugenio Bennato and the "Musicanova", a group which centered in Neapolitan folk music.
In 1980 she launched her first album as single artist (Sulla terra sulla luna) and in 1982 she gained a national success in Italy with the album Teresa De Sio, sung in neapolitan which sold over 500,000 copies. Also in 1983 she sold, with the album Tre, over 500,000 copies; writing in this period her most famous songs: Voglia 'e turnà, Aumm aumm, 'E pazzielle, Terra 'e nisciuno and Ario'.
In the albums Africana (1985) and Sindarella suite (1988) she had the collaboration of Brian Eno and in the 1990s she started writing texts regarding social issues. For her album Un libero cercare (1995) she had also the collaboration of Fabrizio De André and Fiorella Mannoia.
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Terri Clark
Terri Lynn Sauson (born August 5, 1968), known professionally as Terri Clark, is a Canadian country music artist who has had success in both Canada and the United States. Signed to Mercury Records in 1995, she released her self-titled debut that year. Both it and its two follow-ups, 1996's Just the Same and 1998's How I Feel, were certified platinum in both countries, and produced several Top Ten country hits.
Her fourth album, 2000's Fearless, though certified gold in Canada, was not as successful in the U.S., producing no Top 10 hits. Pain to Kill from 2003 restored her chart momentum in the U.S. with "I Just Wanna Be Mad" and "I Wanna Do It All", while a 2004 greatest hits album produced the Number One "Girls Lie Too". A non-album single, "The World Needs a Drink", and the 2005 album Life Goes On were her last releases for Mercury before she signed to BNA Records in 2007. There, she released the singles "Dirty Girl" and "In My Next Life". Although the latter went to Number One in Canada, she has not released an album for BNA.
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Thalía
Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda (born August 26, 1971), known mononymously as Thalía (Spanish pronunciation: [taˈli.a]), is a Mexican singer, songwriter and actress. She has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. She has sung in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and Tagalog.
Thalia has been nominated for various Latin Grammy, Latin Billboard and many other awards throughout her career, being considered as one of the best known Latin singers globally.
Apart from her success in music, she also rose to international fame because of her starring in very successful soap operas like Marimar and María la del Barrio. Thalía has achieved to maintain her autonomy and her status as a powerful woman within the recording industry because of her multifaceted career in many different fields of art. She is also an occasional author, businesswoman and fashion designer.
Thalía was born on August 26, 1971 in Mexico City, Mexico. She is the daughter of Ernesto Sodi Pallares, a scientist, doctor of pathology, criminologist and writer, and Yolanda Miranda Mange, a painter and Thalía's manager from 1980 to 1999. She is the youngest of five children. She has four sisters, Laura Zapata, Federica, Gabriela and Ernestina Sodi. When Thalía was five years old, her father died and this loss had a devastating effect on her. As a youth, Thalia was a good student throughout her school years and studied at the prestigious Lycée Franco-Mexicain whose French-Spanish curriculum made her bilingual at an early age. Thalia said that if she were not in show business, she would become a biologist or psychologist.
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The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. They were managed early on by the Wilsons' father, Murry. The band's leader, composer, arranger and producer Brian Wilson was responsible for writing most of the band's early singles and albums. After signing with Capitol Records in mid-1962, Wilson wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen Top 40 hits including "Surfin' Safari", "Surfin' USA", "Surfer Girl", "Little Deuce Coupe", "Be True to Your School", "In My Room", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "I Get Around", "Dance Dance Dance", "Help Me Rhonda" and "California Girls". These songs and their accompanying albums were internationally popular, making The Beach Boys one of the biggest acts of their time. The band's early music gained popularity across the United States for its close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a Southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance. By the mid-1960s, Brian's growing creative ambition and songwriting ability would dominate the group's musical direction. The primarily Brian-composed Pet Sounds album and "Good Vibrations" single (both released in 1966) featured a complex, intricate and multi-layered sound.
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The Dandy Warhols
The Dandy Warhols are an American alternative rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1994. The band was founded by singer-guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor and guitarist Peter Holmström, with keyboardist Zia McCabe and drummer Eric Hedford. Hedford left in 1998 and was replaced by Taylor-Taylor's cousin Brent DeBoer. The band's name is a play on the name of American pop artist Andy Warhol.
The band gained popularity after they were signed to Capitol Records and released their major label album debut ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down in 1997, featuring the popular single "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth". In 2001, the band rose to international attention after their song "Bohemian Like You" was featured in a Vodafone advertisement. The band have released nine studio albums to date.
The band was formed in Portland, Oregon in 1994 by Courtney Taylor-Taylor and Peter Holmström. Soon after, drummer Eric Hedford joined, and following an unsuccessful experiment with Taylor-Taylor's girlfriend on bass guitar, keyboardist Zia McCabe joined the band after Taylor-Taylor saw her working in a coffee house. Taylor-Taylor described the band's beginning as a group of friends who "needed music to drink to". The Dandy Warhols performed in bars throughout Portland and became well known for their nudity-filled live shows. At their first gig in 1994, they were approached by Tim/Kerr Records, who offered to pay for the recording of an album. The result was 1995's Dandys Rule OK, which combined elements of 1960s garage rock and 1990s shoegaze music.
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The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers ( /ˈaɪzliː/ YZ-lee) are an American musical group consisting of brothers Ron and Ernie Isley. The founding members of the band were Ronald Isley, older brothers Rudy and Kelly and younger brother Vernon. Originally formed as a gospel quartet, following the death of brother Vernon, the remaining trio launched a career into doo-wop scoring with their first million-selling hit single, "Shout", in 1959. Follow-up successes came with the 1962 single, "Twist and Shout" and the 1966 Motown single, "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)".
Following the release of their 1969 Grammy Award winning hit, "It's Your Thing" and subsequent other hits on their own label, the family eventually grew to include younger brothers Ernie and Marvin Isley as well as brother-in-law Chris Jasper. From 1973 until 1983, the group would release a successive string of hit albums and singles on the R&B charts, becoming one of the few successful black groups to successfully cross over into the pop charts due to their mixture of soul, funk and rock thanks to the albums, 3 + 3 and The Heat Is On and also helped pioneer the quiet storm format with a string of ballads on their 1970s and 1980s albums.
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The Neptunes
The Neptunes are a record production duo consisting of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, who are credited with contributing the sound for many successful hip hop, R&B and pop artists in the late-1990s and 2000s. The Neptunes' sound is a distinctive brand of off-kilter, stripped-down electronic funk with sounds from Middle Eastern and Asian music including percussion and woodwind. Pharrell sings and (later) raps on records and appears in videos, unlike his production partner Chad, and sometimes vocal partner Shay Haley, who tends to stay behind the scenes.
The Neptunes are estimated to have a net worth of $155 million and are considered one of the most successful producers in music history, noted by twenty-four Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits during the late 1990's and 2000's. In 2009 Billboard ranked The Neptunes No. 1 on their list of Top 10 producers of the decade. Readers of Vibe Magazine named The Neptunes as the 3rd greatest hip-hop producers of all time behind Dr. Dre and DJ Premier.
Pharrell and Chad met at a summer camp from the school of The Gifted and Talented in Virginia Beach, where Williams was a drummer and Hugo played tenor saxophone. They were also both members of a marching band; Pharrell played kettle drum and Chad was a student conductor. In 1990 Chad and Pharrell formed a 4-piece "R&B type" group along with friends Shay and Mike Etheridge, which they named The Neptunes. Upon entering a local talent contest, they were discovered by Teddy Riley, whose studio was close to Pharrell's school. After graduating from high school, they signed with Riley as a group.
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The Raveonettes
The Raveonettes are a Danish indie rock duo, consisting of Sune Rose Wagner (born 1973, Sønderborg, Denmark) on guitar, instruments, and vocals, and Sharin Foo (born 22 November 1973, Emmelev, Denmark) on bass, guitar and vocals. Their music is characterized by close two-part vocal harmonies inspired by The Everly Brothers coupled with hard-edged electric guitar overlaid with liberal doses of noise, very similar to The Jesus and Mary Chain. Their songs juxtapose the structural and chordal simplicity of '50s and '60s rock with intense electric instrumentation, driving beats, and often dark lyrical content (e.g., crime, drugs, murder, suicide, love, lust, and betrayal), similar to another of the band's influences, The Velvet Underground.
The duo met in Copenhagen and, after forming the band, began recording Whip It On at Once Was & Sauna Recording Studio, a former Sony Studios facility. They booked the studio for three weeks during non-session down time late in 2001 and handled all production chores by themselves. Adding guitarist Manoj Ramdas and jazz drummer Jakob Hoyer, The Raveonettes booked one of their first gigs at the SPOT festival in Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. After the release of Whip It On on the seminal Danish Crunchy Frog label, Hoyer and Ramdas would contribute to the next three Raveonettes albums, along with other additional musicians. However, by the time Lust Lust Lust was released in 2007, Sune and Sharin would be the only two musicians credited, showing a return to the dynamic around the time of the mini-album.
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The Rocket Summer
The Rocket Summer is the solo-project of Bryce Avary who is based in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Avary is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and producer. He writes and produces every song on his records, and plays every instrument on them.
He has released four studio albums and several EPs. His most recent release, Of Men and Angels, held the #1 Top Album spot on iTunes upon its release on February 23, 2010. In April 2008, AP Magazine called him one of "100 bands you need to know."
Avary was born on December 31, 1982, in Fort Worth, Texas. He first became interested in music around the age of 12 when his father bought him his first guitar which was an imitation brand from a pawn shop for 50 dollars. Avary subsequently began teaching himself other instruments including the drums and piano. He also picked up saxophone by playing one his father had had since his high school band days.
Avary joined his first band, at the age of 14. He later joined a high school "indie rock punk" band inspired by Pavement, Archers of Loaf and Weezer, called Charlie 27. After the band broke up, Avary began performing local acoustic shows as a teenager in Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton.
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Thekra
Thekra Mohammed Abdullah Al Dali (Arabic: ذكرى محمد عبدالله الدالي; September 16, 1966 – November 28, 2003), better known as Thekra (Arabic: ذكرى also spelled Thikra, Zekra or Zikra) was a Tunisian singer. The word "Thekra" is Arabic for a memory or memorial.
She was the eighth youngest among her siblings Tawfeeq, Mohsin, Al Sayyidah, Salwa, Al Habeeb, Hajar, Kawthar and Wedaad. She attended elementary school in Wadi Al Lail and later transferred to Al Khaznadar (Arabic script: الخزندار) elementary school to complete her studies.
Thekra started performing at school. Her father was very supportive, but her mother was not. After her father's death, her mother started to support her as her brothers and sisters did. In 1980, she performed on the TV show "Fan Wa Mawahib" (Arabic: فن و مواهب), where she impressed the judges and was brought to the attention of Ez Al Deen Al Ayyashi, so she joined the show's chorus. In 1983, her first recording was made, which was of a song composed by Abdul Hameed Khareef. In the same year, she performed at the Carthage festival.
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Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972) better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper. Timbaland's first full credit production work was in 1996 on Ginuwine...the Bachelor for R&B singer Ginuwine. After further work on Aaliyah's 1996 album One in a Million and Missy Elliott's 1997 album Supa Dupa Fly, Timbaland became a prominent producer for R&B and hip-hop artists. As a rapper he initially released several albums with fellow rapper Magoo, but later released his debut solo album Tim's Bio in 1998. In 2007, Timbaland released the first album in his Shock Value series, Timbaland Presents: Shock Value. Then In 2009 Timbaland Presents: Shock Value II. It is expected that Timbaland will release Timbaland Presents: Shock Value III in June 2012.
Timothy Zachery Mosley was born on March 10, 1972 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he was raised. He graduated from Salem High School. During his time as a DJ, he was known as "DJ Tim" or "DJ Timmy Tim". His brother, Sebastian, is nine years younger. Timbaland began making hip hop backing tracks on a Casio keyboard. While attending high school, he began a long-term collaboration with rapper Melvin Barcliff, who performed under the name of Magoo. The teenaged Mosley also joined the production ensemble S.B.I. (which stood for surrounded by idiots) which also featured Neptunes producer Pharrell. Mosley was also high school friends with Terrence and Gene Thorton, who would go on to be known as Pusha T and Malice of the rap group Clipse. In 1986, when Timbaland was 15 years old, he was shot while working a part time job at his local Red Lobster and was partially paralyzed for nine months. During this time, he began to learn how to DJ using his left hand.
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Tindersticks
Tindersticks are an Indie rock band from Nottingham, England that formed in 1991. They released six albums before singer Stuart A. Staples took on a solo career. The band reunited briefly in 2006, but more permanently the following year. The band have recorded several film soundtracks.
Staples, Boulter, Fraser, Macauley and Hinchliffe, all former members of Asphalt Ribbons, formed the band in 1991. The final line-up for the Old Horse mini-LP (1991) was: Stuart Staples (vocals) Dave Boulter (organ and accordion) Neil Fraser (guitar) Dickon Hinchliffe (guitar and strings) Al Macauley (percussion and drums) John Thompson (bass). Mark Colwill was recruited when Thompson left the Asphalt Ribbons, but it is not known if he played any gigs under the Asphalt Ribbons name. They then changed their name to Tindersticks after Staples discovered a box of German matches on a Greek beach.
Tindersticks started recording demo tapes in 1992, and formed their own label Tippy Toe Records to release their first single, "Patchwork", in the same year.
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Tite Curet Alonso
Tite Curet Alonso (February 26, 1926 - August 5, 2003) was a renowned composer of over 2,000 salsa songs.
Curet Alonso (birth name: Catalino Curet Alonso) was born in the southern town of Guayama in Puerto Rico. Curet Alonso's mother was a seamtress and his father a Spanish teacher and musician in the band of Simon Madera. He was two years old in 1928 when his parents divorced and he, his mother and sister moved to Barrio Obrero, located in the Santurce section of San Juan, with his grandmother. Living in Barrio Obrero and his experiences there greatly influenced his music. He was raised by his grandmother and he received his primary and secondary education. In 1941 when he was 15 years old, he wrote his first song. Among his childhood friends were Rafael Cortijo, Ismael Rivera and Daniel Santos.
After he graduated from high school, he enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico where he studied journalism and sociology. He worked for the United States Postal Service, a job which he held for more than twenty years. All the while he continued to compose songs. In 1960 he moved to New York City and worked for the newspaper "Diario/La Prensa" as a sports columnist. In 1965, Curet Alonso met salsa singer Joe Quijano who recorded Alonso's Efectivamente which became a hit. Curet Alonso developed a unique style of his own which is known as "salsa with a conscience". He wrote songs about social and romantic themes which told about the poor blacks and the hardships that they faced. He also focused many of his songs on what he called the beauty of the black Caribbeans.
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Toby Keith
Toby Keith Covel (born July 8, 1961) best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin', plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of Mercury Records before leaving Mercury in 1998. These albums all earned gold or higher certification, and produced several chart singles, including his debut "Should've Been a Cowboy", which topped the country charts and was the most played country song of the 1990s. The song has received three million spins since then, according to Broadcast Music Incorporated.
Signed to Nashville DreamWorks in 1998, Keith released his breakthrough single "How Do You Like Me Now?!" that year. This song, the title track to his 1999 album of the same name, was the Number One country song of 2000, and one of several chart-toppers during his tenure on DreamWorks Nashville. His next three albums, Pull My Chain, Unleashed, and Shock'n Y'all, produced three more Number Ones each, and all of the albums were certified multi-platinum. A second Greatest Hits package followed in 2004, and after that, he released Honkytonk University.
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Tommy Guerrero
Tommy Guerrero (born September 9, 1966 in San Francisco) is an American skateboarder and musician. As a teen, he was one of the prominent members of the Bones Brigade, Powell Peralta's professional skateboarding team that was successful during the 1980s. He was well known for his relaxed style of street skating in his hometown of San Francisco, which was depicted in most of the Brigade's videos (Future Primitive, The Search for Animal Chin, Public Domain, and Ban This). After riding for Powell Peralta, Guerrero and Jim Thiebaud (a hometown friend and PP teammate) started the skateboarding company "Real".
After his success in the world of skateboarding, he decided to pursue his musical interests. Guerrero was a member of the skate rock band Free Beer and the experimental group Jet Black Crayon, but has had more success as a solo artist. His critically acclaimed albums, EPs, and singles combine various types of music from rock, rap, funk, soul, and jazz. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine named Guerrero's third studio album, Soul Food Taqueria (2003), #2 on its 2003 "best of list".
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Tommy Mottola
Thomas Daniel "Tommy" Mottola (born July 14, 1949) is an American music executive, co-owner of Casablanca Records in a joint venture with the Universal Music Group. He is the ex-husband of Mariah Carey and is married to Mexican singer Thalía. He headed Sony Music Entertainment, parent of the Columbia label, for nearly 15 years.
Apart from his experience in managing music outfits, Mottola is known as a mentor and former talent manager. His most famous proteges were Hall & Oates, Carly Simon, John Mellencamp,Diana Ross, and Taylor Dayne in the 1980s, Mariah Carey (his second wife) in the 1990s, Gloria Estefan, Shakira, Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez in the early 2000s.
During his tenure, he transformed Sony into one of the most successful global music companies, expanding its businesses into over 60 countries, while creating one of the strongest management teams in the industry.[citation needed] He revitalized Sony Music's publishing division by making such acquisitions as the Beatles catalogue 2 weeks after and that was once owned by Michael Jacksons death, and enabled Sony to become the first major music company to make available commercial digital downloads.[citation needed] Additionally, Mottola was the architect for some of Sony's biggest global brands such as Celine Dion and Mariah Carey.[citation needed] During his 15 year tenure, Mottola built Sony up from a company with revenues of $800 million a year to one with over $6 billion of annual revenue by the year 2000.[citation needed]
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Toni Braxton
Toni Michelle Braxton (born October 7, 1967) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Braxton has won six Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, and five Billboard Music Awards and has sold over 60 million records worldwide. She has a contralto vocal type.[citation needed]
Braxton topped the Billboard 200 with her 1993 self-titled debut album and continued that streak with her second studio album Secrets, which spawned the number-one hits "You're Makin' Me High" and "Un-Break My Heart". Although she had successful albums and singles, Braxton shortly filed for bankruptcy, but then returned with her chart-topping third album, The Heat. In 2009, she returned to the spotlight with "Yesterday", a #12 R&B hit which serves as the first single off her new album Pulse, released on May 4, 2010, which debuted at #1 on Billboard R&B Album Chart. Braxton was involved in the 7th season of the reality show Dancing with the Stars. Her professional partner was Alec Mazo. She was voted off in week five of the competition. It was announced on October 6, 2010 that Braxton once again had filed for bankruptcy. A reality series entitled Braxton Family Values, starring Toni and her sisters, debuted April 12, 2011 on WE tv. WE tv ordered a 13-episode second season of the show after the third episode of the first season. On September 18, 2011, Braxton was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
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Tony Capstick
Joseph Anthony 'Tony' Capstick (27 July 1944 – 23 October 2003) was an English comedian, actor, musician and broadcaster.
First son of Joe Capstick, a rear gunner in the RAF, he was born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, and spent most of his childhood in Mexborough, also in South Yorkshire, and for over thirty years he was a presenter on BBC Radio Sheffield. Outside Sheffield, he is perhaps better known as one of the policemen in the long-running British sitcom, Last of the Summer Wine, where he played the role until his death in October 2003, with his final appearance on the show broadcast in April 2004.
A regular performer on the folk circuit, he recorded many albums. The first was for the Newcastle based record label Rubber Records (His Round with Hedgehog Pie, Punch and Judy Man, Tony Capstick Does a Turn, Songs of Ewan MacColl with Dick Gaughan and Dave Burland and There Was This Bloke with Mike Harding, Derek Brimstone and Bill Barclay). In 1981, he reached #3 in the UK Singles Chart with "The Sheffield Grinder" / "Capstick Comes Home". It was recorded with the Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band. His recitation, "Capstick Comes Home", was based on the well-known Hovis wholemeal bread television commercials directed by Ridley Scott.
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Toyah Willcox
Toyah Ann Willcox (born 18 May 1958, Kings Heath, Birmingham) is an English actress and singer. In a career spanning more than thirty years, Toyah has had 13 Top 40 singles, released 22 studio albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays and ten feature films, and voiced and presented numerous television shows, including Brum, Watchdog and Songs of Praise.
Toyah Willcox was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham. Her father Beric Willcox ran a successful joinery business and owned three factories. Her mother Barbara Joy (née Rollinson) was a professional dancer whom he fell in love with after seeing her on stage in Weston-super-Mare, with Flanagan and Allen and married in 1949. Barbara Willcox had to give up her career after giving birth to Nicola (b. 1950) and Kim (b. 1953), Toyah's older sister and brother, respectively. Asked why her parents might have called her so, Toyah said in a 1981 interview: "I don’t know, they won’t tell me, but its definitely my birth name. There is a town in Texas, called Toyah, and Toyah in Red Indian means 'water'. My parents deny that's where they got it from".
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Trace Adkins
Tracy Darrell "Trace" Adkins (born January 13, 1962) is an American country music artist and actor. He made his debut in 1996 with the album Dreamin' Out Loud, released on Capitol Records Nashville. Since then, Adkins has released seven more studio albums and two Greatest Hits compilations. In addition, he has charted more than 20 singles on the Billboard country music charts, including the Number One hits "(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing", "Ladies Love Country Boys", and "You're Gonna Miss This", which peaked in 1997, 2007, and 2008, respectively. "I Left Something Turned on at Home" went to #1 on Canada's country chart. All but one of his studio albums have received gold or platinum certification in the United States; his highest-selling to date is 2005's Songs About Me, which has been certified 2× Multi-Platinum for shipping two million copies.
He has also made several appearances on television, including as a panelist on the game shows Hollywood Squares and Pyramid, as a finalist on The Celebrity Apprentice, as the voice for recurring character Elvin on King of the Hill, and in television commercial voice-overs for the KFC fast food restaurant chain. In addition, Adkins has written an autobiography entitled A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Free-Thinking Roughneck, which was released in late 2007. He has appeared in numerous films, including The Lincoln Lawyer.
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Tricky
Tricky (born Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, 27 January 1968) is an Englishmusician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky blends different styles, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop culture. His debut album Maxinquaye was nominated for the Mercury Prize and voted Album of the Year by NME Magazine.
Tricky was born in Knowle West, Bristol, England to a Jamaican father and a mixed-race Ghanaian-English mother. His father left the family before he was born and his mother, Maxine Quaye, committed suicide when he was only four. He named his solo album after her - Maxinquaye - and once said that though he hardly knew her, he feels like she's speaking through him with his words.
He spent his youth in the care of his grandmother, who often let him watch old horror movies instead of going to school. At 15 he began to write lyrics ("I like to rock, I like to dance, I like pretty girls taking down their pants" MixMag 1996).[citation needed] At 17, he spent some time in prison because he bought forged £50 notes from a friend, who later informed the police. In an interview, Tricky said: "Prison was really good. I'm never going back".
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Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), known by his stage names 2Pac, Pac, and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million records worldwide as of 2010, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time. The themes of most of Tupac's songs are the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, social problems, and conflicts with other rappers during the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground.
Both of his parents and several other family members were members of the Black Panthers, and Tupac made reference to the organization in the song "Changes". Shakur was involved in a West-coast East-coast rivalry after a major feud with East-coast rappers, producers and record-label members of staff.
On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was taken to the University Medical Center, where he died six days later.
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Twiztid
Twiztid is an American hip hop duo from Warren, Michigan. The group is composed of Jamie Spaniolo and Paul Methric, who perform under the respective personas of Jamie Madrox and Monoxide Child. Twiztid performs a style of hardcore hip hop known as horrorcore, and have released eight studio albums, six EPs extended play and seven compilations.
Prior to Twiztid, Jamie Spaniolo and Paul Methric were members of the hip hop trio House of Krazees, under the names Mr. Bones and Hektic, along with the third member, the R.O.C. The group released five albums before disbanding in 1997. After the split, Methric and Spaniolo sent a demo tape to Insane Clown Posse member Joseph Bruce. The demo contained the tracks "2nd Hand Smoke," "Diemuthafuckadie," and "How Does It Feel?" Bruce was extremely impressed, invited Methric and Spaniolo to perform on 'The House of Horrors Tour', and signed them to Psychopathic Records. Before the tour kicked off, Bruce, Methric and Spaniolo decided on a name that they felt would fit the duo—"Twiztid". Twiztid's 1997 debut album, Mostasteless, was originally released independently by Psychopathic. When Insane Clown Posse signed with Island Records, they helped get a deal for Twiztid as well. After a show in Indianapolis, Twiztid's tour bus stopped at a Waffle House in Greenfield, Indiana. Spaniolo and Joseph Bruce became involved in an altercation with a customer causing a fight to break out between the lone customer and all of the bands' members. Months later on June 4, 1998, Twiztid were charged with battery.
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Ty Longley
Ty Longley (September 4, 1971 – February 20, 2003) was an American guitarist and vocalist. He was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Brookfield High School in Brookfield, Ohio.
Longley joined the band Great White in 2000, played in Samantha 7, and played in Nick Menza's solo project which included Anthony Gallo and Jason Levin. He died in the The Station nightclub fire on February 20, 2003, which claimed 99 other lives as well.
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Unsane
Unsane is an influential noise rock trio that formed in New York City in 1988. Their music also touches on elements of hardcore punk and metal. Writer Patrick Kennedy writes that "while developing the blueprint for noise-metal bands to follow, Unsane cut a remarkable swath through underground music, inspiring a devoted, cult-like following around the globe."
In 1988, singer/guitarist Chris Spencer, bass guitarist Pete Shore and drummer Charlie Ondras were students at Sarah Lawrence College when they formed as Lawn-Chair-Blisters before changing their name to Unsane. The band signed to Circuit Records and recorded tracks with Wharton Tiers for what was supposed to be their first album Improvised Munitions, but the label ended up never releasing it.
Unsane then became a part of a scene of loud, noisy, like-minded rock groups in New York City's East Village in the early 1990s. They often played gigs with bands like Pussy Galore, Cop Shoot Cop, Surgery, Helmet and the Reverb Motherfuckers. Members of Unsane concurrently played in other bands such as Boss Hog and the Action Swingers.
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Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE (born George Ivan Morrison; 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely viewed as among the greatest ever made.
Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison started his professional career when, as a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish showbands covering the popular hits of the day. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band Them, with whom he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria". His solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. After Berns' death, Warner Bros. Records bought out his contract and allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks in 1968. Even though this album would gradually garner high praise, it was initially poorly received; however, the next one, Moondance, established Morrison as a major artist, and throughout the 1970s he built on his reputation with a series of critically acclaimed albums and live performances. Morrison continues to record and tour, producing albums and live performances that sell well and are generally warmly received, sometimes collaborating with other artists, such as Georgie Fame and The Chieftains. In 2008 he performed Astral Weeks live for the first time since 1968.
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Vestal Goodman
Vestal Goodman (December 13, 1929 – December 27, 2003) was a singer who performed in the Southern Gospel genre for more than half a century. She is known both as a solo performer and as a founding member of official The Happy Goodman Family, the first was actually her husband and his brothers and sisters, one of the pioneering groups in southern Gospel.
Vestal Goodman was the fourth of six children. She began singing in her home church. Her original intent was to study for the Metropolitan Opera, but being raised in church she felt compelled to sing Gospel music.
She married Howard Goodman, a preacher nine years her senior, on November 7, 1949. They had a son Rick, and a daughter Vicki. They pastored churches and sang for congregations across the country, and they, along with Howard's two brothers Sam and Rusty, soon became known as "The Happy Goodman Family," helping pave the way for Southern Gospel music during the 1960s.
With the formation of Word Records in the early 1960s, Vestal and The Happy Goodman Family were the flagship artists signed to the company. In 1969, she won the first ever Female Vocalist of the Year Dove Award. As a natural step in her career, Vestal Goodman released her first solo album, "Hallelujah!" in 1971, from which came the well-known single, "It'll All Be Over But the Shoutin'."
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Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon /ˈziːvɒn/ (January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003) was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.
Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known musicians, including Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young. His best-known compositions include "Werewolves of London", "Lawyers, Guns and Money", "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" and "Johnny Strikes Up The Band," all of which are featured on his third album, Excitable Boy (1978). Other well-known songs written by Zevon have been recorded by other artists, including "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" (a top 40 hit by Linda Ronstadt), "Accidentally Like a Martyr," "Mohammed's Radio", "Carmelita", and "Hasten Down the Wind".
Along with his own compositions, Zevon recorded or performed occasional covers, including Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan". He was a frequent guest on Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Show with David Letterman. Letterman later performed guest vocals on "Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)" with Paul Shaffer and members of the CBS Orchestra on Warren Zevon's "My Ride Is Here" album.
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Wesley Willis
Wesley Willis (May 31, 1963 – August 21, 2003) was a musician and artist from Chicago. A diagnosed chronic schizophrenic, he gained an enormous cult following in the 1990s after releasing several hundred songs of simple but unique music, with emphasis on his humorous, bizarre, and frequently obscene lyrics. In addition to his large body of solo musical work, Willis fronted the punk rock band the Wesley Willis Fiasco. He was also a visual artist long before his forays into music, and produced hundreds of intricate, unusual, colored ink-pen drawings, most of them of Chicago streetscapes and CTA buses.
Willis was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 31, 1963. In 1989, Willis began hearing what he called "demons" and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He was institutionalized for two months after his diagnosis. He often mentioned that his demons were named "Heartbreaker", "Nervewrecker", and "Meansucker". He called his psychotic episodes "hell rides", and alternatively, he declared rock and roll to be "the joy ride music".
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Westside Connection
Westside Connection was an American gangsta rap supergroup formed by Ice Cube, WC and Mack 10. The group's debut album, Bow Down, reached the number 2 position on the Billboard 200 in 1996, going platinum that year.
Westside Connection began performing together in 1994, appearing on Mack 10's self-titled debut album, Mack 10, on the song "Westside Slaughterhouse". A few months later, the group again joined forces, this time appearing on WC's album, Curb Servin', on the song "West Up!". Around this time the group began working on their debut album, Bow Down, which was released October 22, 1996.
Individually, Ice Cube, DUBC and Mack 10 continued working on solo projects in between group albums. Together, as Westside Connection, they produced several songs released on film soundtracks and compilations including "Bangin'" (from West Coast Bad Boyz II), "Let It Reign" (from Thicker than Water) and "It's The Holidaze" (from Friday After Next).
On December 9, 2003 the group released their second album Terrorist Threats, hallmarked by the lead single "Gangsta Nation" Produced by Fredwreck and featuring Nate Dogg.
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Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all-time. Houston was one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. She released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know", influenced several African American female artists to follow in her footsteps.
Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album") on the Billboard magazine year-end charts. Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
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Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jeanelle Jean (/ˈwaɪklɪf ˈʒɑːn/; Haitian Creole pronunciation: [wajklɛf ʒã]; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian American musician, record producer, and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country. He first received fame as a member of the acclaimed New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees.
On August 5, 2010, Jean filed for candidacy in the 2010 Haitian presidential election, although the Electoral Commission subsequently ruled him ineligible to stand as he had not met the requirement to have been resident in Haiti for five years.
Although his birth date was widely given as October 17, 1972, papers filed for his run as a candidate for the presidency of Haiti, disclosed that he was, in fact, born in 1969. Born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, the son of a Nazarene pastor, Wyclef moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York, when he was nine before moving again to northern New Jersey. Jean has cited reggae artist Bigga Haitian as one of his early influences, as well as neighborhood heroes MC Tiger Paw Raw and producer Lobster v. Crab. Jean graduated from Vailsburg High School in Newark, briefly attended Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts, and finished one semester at Five Towns College in New York. Jean has been a resident of Saddle River, South Orange, and North Caldwell, New Jersey. In 2009, Jean enrolled in the Berklee College of Music.
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Yanni
Yanni (/ˈjɑːni/YAH-nee), born Yiannis Hrysomallis (Greek: Γιάννης Χρυσομάλλης Giannis Chrysomallis; born November 14, 1954) is a Greek self-taught pianist, keyboardist, and composer.
He earned Grammy nominations for his 1992 album, Dare to Dream, and the 1993 follow-up, In My Time. His breakthrough success came with the 1994 release of Yanni Live at the Acropolis, deemed to be the second best-selling music video of all time. Yanni has since performed live in concert before in excess of two million people in more than 20 countries around the world. He has accumulated more than 35 platinum and gold albums globally, with sales totaling over 20 million copies. Yanni is considered to be one of the top fundraisers of all time for public television. His compositions have been included in all Olympic Games television broadcasts since 1988, and his music has been used extensively in television and televised sporting events.
Yanni was born on November 14, 1954, in Kalamata, Greece, and began his career by giving recitals for family members though he had no formal training and could not read musical notes. He was also a competitive swimmer in Greece and set a national record in the 50-meter freestyle competition at the age of 14. At the age of 18, he attended the University of Minnesota. As a student, Yanni joined an upcoming local group called Chameleon where he met drummer Charlie Adams. Chameleon earned some modest commercial success touring throughout the Midwest, particularly in the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and South Dakota. After receiving a B.A. in psychology in 1976, he sought a life in music. He moved to Los Angeles, in pursuit of movie soundtrack work. In 1987 he put together a small band which included John Tesh and Charlie Adams, and began touring to promote his earliest instrumental albums, Keys to Imagination, Out of Silence, and Chameleon Days.
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Michael Jackson - YEAR 2003 (In his hometown) - part 3
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 11:40
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
Michael Jackson was presented the key to the city by Gary Mayor Scott L. King during a news conference. Fans came from as far away as Europe and Japan to witness the historic event, which took place at the Gary City Hall. After city hall, he visited his childhood home, the modest, one-story house, located on 2300 Jackson Street, that his siblings paid tribute to with the 1989 song and album, both titled 2300 Jackson Street. Michael Jackson's final stop was a local high school. There the acclaimed performer was given an honorary diploma by administrators at Roosevelt High School, where his older brothers graduated.
http://wn.com/Michael_Jackson_YEAR_2003_In_his_hometown_part_3
Michael Jackson was presented the key to the city by Gary Mayor Scott L. King during a news conference. Fans came from as far away as Europe and Japan to witness the historic event, which took place at the Gary City Hall. After city hall, he visited his childhood home, the modest, one-story house, located on 2300 Jackson Street, that his siblings paid tribute to with the 1989 song and album, both titled 2300 Jackson Street. Michael Jackson's final stop was a local high school. There the acclaimed performer was given an honorary diploma by administrators at Roosevelt High School, where his older brothers graduated.
Metallica - St. Anger [Official Music Video]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:49
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
St. Anger [Official Music Video] From the album "St. Anger" Director: The Malloys Filmed in May 2003 in San Quentin, CA Video Premiere Date: May 27, 2003 © 2003 Metallica
http://wn.com/Metallica_St_Anger_Official_Music_Video_
St. Anger [Official Music Video] From the album "St. Anger" Director: The Malloys Filmed in May 2003 in San Quentin, CA Video Premiere Date: May 27, 2003 © 2003 Metallica
- published: 27 Oct 2009
- views: 563374
- author: MetallicaTV
John Mayer - Live at Music Max in Australia, September 23, 2003 (FULL CONCERT VIDEO)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 68:27
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
Playlist (click to go): 03:56 Clarity 09:02 My Stupid Mouth 14:14 No Such Thing 19:09 Wheel 26:42 Bigger Than My Body 36:14 Your Body Is a Wonderland 42:52 Come Back To Bed with solo 52:45 Why Georgia 57:52 Daughters 01:03:02 Back To You Downloaded at Score1More4Me
http://wn.com/John_Mayer_Live_at_Music_Max_in_Australia,_September_23,_2003_FULL_CONCERT_VIDEO
Playlist (click to go): 03:56 Clarity 09:02 My Stupid Mouth 14:14 No Such Thing 19:09 Wheel 26:42 Bigger Than My Body 36:14 Your Body Is a Wonderland 42:52 Come Back To Bed with solo 52:45 Why Georgia 57:52 Daughters 01:03:02 Back To You Downloaded at Score1More4Me
- published: 22 Feb 2012
- views: 72444
- author: John Mayer Tapes
Michael Jackson @ the Radio Music Awards 2003
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:06
- Updated: 27 Jan 2013
Beyonce is presenting the King of Pop with the special RMA Humanitarian Award
http://wn.com/Michael_Jackson_@_the_Radio_Music_Awards_2003
Beyonce is presenting the King of Pop with the special RMA Humanitarian Award
- published: 18 Dec 2007
- views: 403705
- author: bebebebovo
Beyoncé - Crazy In Love ft. JAY Z
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:56
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
Music video by Beyoncé ft. Jay-Z performing Crazy In Love. (C) 2003 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
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Music video by Beyoncé ft. Jay-Z performing Crazy In Love. (C) 2003 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
- published: 03 Oct 2009
- views: 62303070
- author: beyonceVEVO
Andain - Beautiful Things (Taken from Tiësto In Concert DVD)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:24
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
One of the biggest trance classics taken from the Tiësto In Concert DVD, recorded May 10th 2003 in Gelredome, Arnhem. Get your copy of the DVD on www.finenight.com Get this track and other trance classics here : itunes.apple.com
http://wn.com/Andain_Beautiful_Things_Taken_from_Tiësto_In_Concert_DVD
One of the biggest trance classics taken from the Tiësto In Concert DVD, recorded May 10th 2003 in Gelredome, Arnhem. Get your copy of the DVD on www.finenight.com Get this track and other trance classics here : itunes.apple.com
- published: 14 Jun 2011
- views: 1127904
- author: BlackHoleRecordings
Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:42
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
Music video by Duran Duran performing Hungry Like The Wolf (2003 Digital Remaster).
http://wn.com/Duran_Duran_Hungry_Like_The_Wolf
Music video by Duran Duran performing Hungry Like The Wolf (2003 Digital Remaster).
- published: 26 Feb 2009
- views: 6241668
- author: emimusic
Carbon Based Lifeforms - Hydroponic Garden [2003] . HQ
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 76:33
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
Album: Hydroponic Garden (2003) www.discogs.com
http://wn.com/Carbon_Based_Lifeforms_Hydroponic_Garden_2003_HQ
Album: Hydroponic Garden (2003) www.discogs.com
- published: 20 Jul 2011
- views: 194994
- author: ElectronicHQ
Coldplay - Clocks
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:18
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
Coldplay Live 2012, out now on DVD/CD/Blu-ray/digital. Get it from your local retailer at smarturl.it This video was directed by Dominic Leung in 2003 and shot at the Docklands Excel Centre, London. Music video by Coldplay performing Clocks. (C) 2005 EMI Records Ltd This label copy information is the subject of copyright protection. All rights reserved.
http://wn.com/Coldplay_Clocks
Coldplay Live 2012, out now on DVD/CD/Blu-ray/digital. Get it from your local retailer at smarturl.it This video was directed by Dominic Leung in 2003 and shot at the Docklands Excel Centre, London. Music video by Coldplay performing Clocks. (C) 2005 EMI Records Ltd This label copy information is the subject of copyright protection. All rights reserved.
- published: 27 May 2011
- views: 16750664
- author: ColdplayVEVO
Duran Duran - Ordinary World
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:40
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
Music video by Duran Duran performing Ordinary World (2003 Digital Remaster).
http://wn.com/Duran_Duran_Ordinary_World
Music video by Duran Duran performing Ordinary World (2003 Digital Remaster).
- published: 07 Mar 2009
- views: 12931320
- author: emimusic
Simple Minds - Alive And Kicking
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:27
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
Music video by Simple Minds performing Alive And Kicking (2003 Digital Remaster).
http://wn.com/Simple_Minds_Alive_And_Kicking
Music video by Simple Minds performing Alive And Kicking (2003 Digital Remaster).
- published: 02 Jun 2009
- views: 4738497
- author: emimusic
Johan Gielen @ Trance Energy 2003 - Full Set
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 42:41
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
Johan Gielen @ Trance Energy 2003 - Full Set, Excellent sound quality, Bangin' Tunes... enjoy
http://wn.com/Johan_Gielen_@_Trance_Energy_2003_Full_Set
Johan Gielen @ Trance Energy 2003 - Full Set, Excellent sound quality, Bangin' Tunes... enjoy
- published: 02 Mar 2011
- views: 111704
- author: ToxRiotz
Duran Duran - Save A Prayer
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:06
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
Music video by Duran Duran performing Save A Prayer (2003 Digital Remaster).
http://wn.com/Duran_Duran_Save_A_Prayer
Music video by Duran Duran performing Save A Prayer (2003 Digital Remaster).
- published: 26 Feb 2009
- views: 4091265
- author: emimusic
The Human League - Human
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:52
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
Music video by The Human League performing Human (2003 Digital Remaster).
http://wn.com/The_Human_League_Human
Music video by The Human League performing Human (2003 Digital Remaster).
- published: 14 Sep 2007
- views: 3109510
- author: Astralwerks
REM - The One I Love
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:17
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
Music video by REM performing The One I Love (2003 Digital Remaster).
http://wn.com/REM_The_One_I_Love
Music video by REM performing The One I Love (2003 Digital Remaster).
- published: 04 Mar 2009
- views: 3337378
- author: emimusic
Steve Vai - "I Know You're Here"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:58
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
Steve Vai performs "I Know You're Here" at The Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO. on October 20, 2003. Playing alongside Steve are The Breed: Billy Sheehan on bass; Tony MacAlpine on guitar and keyboards; Jeremy Colson on drums; and Dave Weiner on 7-string guitar. From the DVD "G3 - Live In Denver" featuring Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen. "G3 - Live In Denver" is available through all major music retailers such as Amazon.com, and also through the official Steve Vai website: www.vai.com http www.myspace.com
http://wn.com/Steve_Vai_I_Know_You're_Here
Steve Vai performs "I Know You're Here" at The Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO. on October 20, 2003. Playing alongside Steve are The Breed: Billy Sheehan on bass; Tony MacAlpine on guitar and keyboards; Jeremy Colson on drums; and Dave Weiner on 7-string guitar. From the DVD "G3 - Live In Denver" featuring Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen. "G3 - Live In Denver" is available through all major music retailers such as Amazon.com, and also through the official Steve Vai website: www.vai.com http www.myspace.com
- published: 11 Jun 2008
- views: 9660179
- author: SteveVaiHimself
Queens Of The Stone Age - Concerts For The Deaf (Big Day Out Pinkpop 2003)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 71:58
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
I don't own this music and I am not trying to profit from it. Just sharing it with fans. Note: In NO WAY do I intend to infringe upon anyone's copyright of this video. It is my firm belief that "sharing" - ie, letting someone VIEW my own content - does NOT infringe upon any copyright. Sharing it via a link to DOWNLOAD it clearly WOULD violate copyright.
http://wn.com/Queens_Of_The_Stone_Age_Concerts_For_The_Deaf_Big_Day_Out_Pinkpop_2003
I don't own this music and I am not trying to profit from it. Just sharing it with fans. Note: In NO WAY do I intend to infringe upon anyone's copyright of this video. It is my firm belief that "sharing" - ie, letting someone VIEW my own content - does NOT infringe upon any copyright. Sharing it via a link to DOWNLOAD it clearly WOULD violate copyright.
- published: 24 Aug 2011
- views: 265152
- author: clubfootforyou
![[DVD] Radiohead - Glastonbury 2003 [Full Concert]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130204042258im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jFjAWhY1Amg/default.jpg "[DVD] Radiohead - Glastonbury 2003 [Full Concert]")
[DVD] Radiohead - Glastonbury 2003 [Full Concert]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 88:53
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
As part of an ongoing effort to YouTube HD everything, here is Glastonbury 2003 in YouTube HD :)! I'm not overly happy with the quality, but it's as good as it gets for under 1gb :( Here is a picture of the photo on Thom's piano, not his son, not the pope, but an old comedian Sid James! radiohead.com --Track Listing-- There There 2+2=5 Lucky The National Anthem Talk Show Host Where I End And You Begin Climbing Up The Walls The Gloaming No Surprises Fake Plastic Trees Sit Down, Stand Up Go To Sleep Sail To The Moon Paranoid Android Idioteque Everything In It's Right Place --Encore-- Just Karma Police Street Spirit (Fade Out) ------------- Torrent for the DVD (will require DVD burner): www.demonoid.com
http://wn.com/_DVD_Radiohead_Glastonbury_2003_Full_Concert_
As part of an ongoing effort to YouTube HD everything, here is Glastonbury 2003 in YouTube HD :)! I'm not overly happy with the quality, but it's as good as it gets for under 1gb :( Here is a picture of the photo on Thom's piano, not his son, not the pope, but an old comedian Sid James! radiohead.com --Track Listing-- There There 2+2=5 Lucky The National Anthem Talk Show Host Where I End And You Begin Climbing Up The Walls The Gloaming No Surprises Fake Plastic Trees Sit Down, Stand Up Go To Sleep Sail To The Moon Paranoid Android Idioteque Everything In It's Right Place --Encore-- Just Karma Police Street Spirit (Fade Out) ------------- Torrent for the DVD (will require DVD burner): www.demonoid.com
- published: 03 Jan 2009
- views: 642146
- author: AustinBrock
REM - It's The End Of The World
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:04
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
Music video by REM performing It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) (2003 Digital Remaster).
http://wn.com/REM_It's_The_End_Of_The_World
Music video by REM performing It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) (2003 Digital Remaster).
- published: 17 Mar 2009
- views: 7421128
- author: emimusic
![Dream Theater - Train of Thought 2003 [Full Album]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130204042258im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/90WFqH08UpQ/default.jpg "Dream Theater - Train of Thought 2003 [Full Album]")
Dream Theater - Train of Thought 2003 [Full Album]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 69:23
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
Songlist: 1. As I Am 0:00 2. This Dying Soul 7:47 3. Endless Sacrifice 19:14 4. Honor Thy Father 30:38 5. Vacant 40:51 6. Stream of Consciousness 43:49 7. In the Name of God 55:04 ______ Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. I DO NOT OWN ANY CLIPS OR MUSIC. ALL CLIPS AND MUSIC BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTFULL OWNERS. I DO NOT EARN ANY MONEY WITH THIS VIDEO. THIS VIDEO IS FOR ENJOYMENT PURPOSES ONLY.
http://wn.com/Dream_Theater_Train_of_Thought_2003_Full_Album_
Songlist: 1. As I Am 0:00 2. This Dying Soul 7:47 3. Endless Sacrifice 19:14 4. Honor Thy Father 30:38 5. Vacant 40:51 6. Stream of Consciousness 43:49 7. In the Name of God 55:04 ______ Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. I DO NOT OWN ANY CLIPS OR MUSIC. ALL CLIPS AND MUSIC BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTFULL OWNERS. I DO NOT EARN ANY MONEY WITH THIS VIDEO. THIS VIDEO IS FOR ENJOYMENT PURPOSES ONLY.
- published: 01 Aug 2012
- views: 72684
- author: Urkakkable
![Sean Paul ft. Sasha - I'm Still In Love With You [Official Music Video]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130204042258im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HKOC28_n8mo/default.jpg "Sean Paul ft. Sasha - I'm Still In Love With You [Official Music Video]")
Sean Paul ft. Sasha - I'm Still In Love With You [Official Music Video]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:34
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
©WMG 2003
http://wn.com/Sean_Paul_ft_Sasha_I'm_Still_In_Love_With_You_Official_Music_Video_
Pet Shop Boys - Domino Dancing
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:28
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
Music video by Pet Shop Boys performing Domino Dancing (2003 Digital Remaster).
http://wn.com/Pet_Shop_Boys_Domino_Dancing
Music video by Pet Shop Boys performing Domino Dancing (2003 Digital Remaster).
- published: 27 Feb 2009
- views: 5953051
- author: parlophone
Coldplay - See You Soon
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:25
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
This is a clip from Coldplay Live 2003 dvd. the song is called "See You Soon" check out this band - Polar Jet polarjet.bandcamp.com
http://wn.com/Coldplay_See_You_Soon
This is a clip from Coldplay Live 2003 dvd. the song is called "See You Soon" check out this band - Polar Jet polarjet.bandcamp.com
- published: 12 Jul 2006
- views: 27972314
- author: tsvorvitaliy
See also: 2003 in music (UK) and Category:Record labels established in 2003
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2010) |
| List of years in music (table) |
|---|
| ... 1993 . 1994 . 1995 . 1996 . 1997 . 1998 . 1999 ... 2000 2001 2002 -2003- 2004 2005 2006 ... 2007 . 2008 . 2009 . 2010 . 2011 . 2012 . 2013 ... |
| Art . Archaeology . Architecture . Literature . Music . Science +... |
Contents |
Events[link]
January–February[link]
- January – following an investigation by The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in England and the Netherlands recover nearly 500 original Beatles studio tapes, recorded during the Let It Be sessions. Five people are arrested. The tapes have been used for bootleg releases for years.
- January 6 – The annual Park Lane Group Young Artists festival of contemporary music opens with two concerts in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre, London. The first concert, given by the Gallimaufry Ensemble, included the premiere of a new wind quintet by 23-year-old Benjamin Wallfisch; the second concert featured solo bass clarinettist Sarah Watts, who premiered Marc Yeats Vox for solo bass clarinet and Michael Smetanin's Ladder of Escape for bass clarinet with prerecorded ensemble of six bass and two contrabass clarinets.[1]
- January 7 – Opening of the Philip on Film Live festival (until 11 January) at the Barbican Centre, London, featuring films with music by Philip Glass performed live by the Philip Glass Ensemble, conducted by Michael Riesman.[2]
- January 9 – The Vienna Philharmonic belatedly announce that violist Ursula Plaichinger has become the first official female member of the orchestra, 158 years after their founding and six years after they had been forced to allow women to audition, under threat of having their state subsidies stopped. At the same time, it was disclosed that orchestra boss Clemens Hellsberg had formally banned Plaichinger from giving interviews to the press.[3]
- January 10 – Andrew Lack, former chief of NBC news, is named the new head of Sony's music division, to the surprise of the music industry, because he had no previous experience of the record industry.[4] He replaced Tommy Mottola, who resigned the previous day amidst reports of friction with higher Sony executives over huge financial losses in the music division.[5]
- January 13 – The Who guitarist, Pete Townshend, is arrested by Scotland Yard on suspicion of possessing and making indecent images of children and of incitement to distribute such images, after pornographic images are found on his home computer. [Inaccurate, needs going through by someone familiar with case]
- January 17 - The All-American Rejects release their self-titled debut album.
- January 18 – The Indian Air Force band, the Air Warriors, played a concert in the Homi Baba Auditorium in Colaba (Mumbai), which included Muthuswami Dikshitar's Vathapiganapathi in a version combining military band with traditional Carnatic instruments.[6]
- January 18 – A two-day festival of the music of Mark-Anthony Turnage is given at the Barbican Centre, London, with three world premieres and chamber concerts by the Nash Ensemble and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.[7]
- January 22 – Nikolaus Harnoncourt cancels a European tour after being ordered by his doctors to take a two-month rest.[8]
- February 3 – Police respond to a 911 phone call from one of Phil Spector's neighbors and discovered the body of actress Lana Clarkson, with a gunshot wound, at Spector's his home in Alhambra, California. Spector is arrested on suspicion of murder."[9]
- February 8 – Avril Lavigne scores her third #1 single "I'm with You", making her the second artist in history to have three consecutive #1 songs from a début album in the Billboard Mainstream Top 40.
- February 20 – The Station nightclub fire: Fire engulfs a Rhode Island nightclub during a fireworks display which was part of the performance by rock band Great White. The fire quickly spreads across the ceiling, filling the building with thick, black smoke, killing 100 people and injuring 160 others as audience members rush for the exits. Many people are missing for some time, including Great White guitarist Ty Longley, who is later confirmed to be dead.[10]
- February 23 – New York City is the site of The 45th Annual Grammy Awards, featuring Nickelback, No Doubt, Foo Fighters, Beyoncé, and other performers.
- February 27 – Othar Turner, one of the last remaining and most well-known African-American fife-and-drum musicians, dies at the age of 93 in Gravel Springs, Mississippi. Fife-and-drum bands were a significant influence of early blues.[citation needed]
March–April[link]
- March 3 – Avril Lavigne kicks off her first headlining tour the "Try To Shut Me Up Tour".
- March 10 – Johnny Cash is admitted to Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee to undergo treatment for pneumonia.
- March 24
- Meteora by Linkin Park debuts at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart.
- Ex-Neighbours star, Delta Goodrem releases debut album Innocent Eyes which became a monster smash hit of 2003 and included the releases of the new singles Born to Try & Lost Without You.
- April 1 – Dozens of fans walk out during a Pearl Jam concert when lead singer Eddie Vedder makes anti-war comments and insulting remarks about U.S. President George W. Bush. Other audience members booed and shouted at Vedder telling him to "shut up." Vedder attempted to calm the crowd by adding "just to clarify... we support the troops."
- April 8 – Godsmack releases their third studio album Faceless.
- April 21 – S Club announce live on stage at London's Docklands Arena that they've decided to split up after five years together. Their final single, "Say Goodbye", enters the chart at #2 a month after the announcement. Rachel Stevens from the group launched her successful solo career shortly afterwards with the song Sweet Dreams My LA Ex.
May–June[link]
- May 24
- Turkish singer Sertab Erener wins the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Riga, Latvia, with the song "Everyway That I Can". It is the last time that the contest is a one-night event.
- After a 40-year wait, Russian fans of The Beatles finally get to see former Beatle Paul McCartney perform on their soil, on the Red Square in Moscow.
- June – Alexander Kuoppala quit Children of Bodom.
- David Del Tredici's Wondrous the Merge for string quartet and narrator, based on a homoerotic poem by James Broughton, makes its controversial debut at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.
- Henry Ranta quits Soilwork.[11]
- Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera kicked off their summer Justified & Stripped Tour.
- June 14 – The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ-FM airs the 11th Annual of the Weenie Roast show with AFI, The Ataris, Blur, Chevelle, Deftones, Finch, Foo Fighters, Godsmack, Good Charlotte, Hot Hot Heat, Interpol, Jane's Addiction, Less Than Jake, Liam Lynch, Staind, Sum 41, Thrice, The Transplants, The Used, The White Stripes, and Pete Yorn.
- Alice Cooper begins production of his 26th album. It is a departure from the heavy metal sound of previous albums and is more influenced by his albums of the 1970s.
- June 22 – Nick Oshiro replaces Ken Jay in Static-X.
- June 27 – June 29 – Glastonbury Festival, U.K., headline acts included David Gray, R.E.M., Primal Scream, Morcheeba, The Flaming Lips, Radiohead, Super Furry Animals, Lamb, Macy Gray, Feeder, Manic Street Preachers, Moby, and Doves. The weather is mostly dry and the festival deemed a success from both a security and entertainment viewpoint by Michael Eavis.
July–August[link]
- July – A-Teens and many others perform at the Stockholm Pride festival.
- July 2 – Delta Goodrem is diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease.
- July 30 – The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, The Guess Who, and others headline a benefit concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to prove that the city is safe from SARS. With 450 000 spectators, it is the largest concert in Canadian history.
- June 25 – Beyoncé releases her No.1 debut solo album "Dangerously In Love", which earned her 5 grammys in a single night. It also spawned two No.1 singles in the US and has sold 11 million copies to date.
- August 19 – Jessica Simpson releases her third studio album In This Skin. The album would later go triple platinum in the U.S. and would produce the hit single "With You".
- August 28 – Madonna sparks media controversy by kissing popstars Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. The situation even ignited a quick war of words between Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera over the kiss.
September–October[link]
- September 22 – Max Cavalera & Gloria Cavalera fire Marcello D. Rapp causing Roy Mayorga & Mike Doling to leave the band Soulfly in protest.
- September 23 – Limp Bizkit release Results May Vary their first album in 3 years and their 4th album overall.
- October 4 – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's The Rising Tour concludes after 120 shows over 14 months, with record-setting sales in U.S. stadiums during the summer and early autumn.
- October 15 – A two-week-long international conference, "Fuori tempo, dire, fare, sentire la musica oggi", opens in Genoa, Italy, bringing together performers, composers, scholars, and administrators from classical, folk, and popular music, with a keynote address by Charles Rosen. Featured participants included Nuria Schoenberg (daughter of Arnold Schoenberg and widow of Luigi Nono), musicologist James Harrison, the opera conductor Roberto Abbado, violinist Ivry Gitlis, composers Salvatore Sciarrino, Lorenzo Ferrero, and Andrea Liberovici, poet Edoardo Sanguineti, popular singer-songwriters Teresa De Sio, Gianna Nannini, and Gino Paoli, rock and jazz artists Peppe Servalo and Peppe D'Argenzio of the Piccola Orchestra Avion Travel, and administrators Anna Cammarano (director of classical music at RAI Trade), Gennaro di Benedetto (superintendent of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa), and Joseph Hussek (director of the artistic programme at the Salzburg Festival).[12]
- October 16 – Simon & Garfunkel begin their "Old Friends" U.S. reunion tour, twenty years after their 1983 world tour.
- October 20 – Britney Spears releases the first single, "Me Against The Music" Ft. Madonna, from her upcoming album In the Zone, marketed as a comeback single in the US; it goes on to be an international success, reaching the top three in several countries.
- October 21 – Delta Goodrem wins 7 ARIA Awards and defeats Amiel's "Lovesong" for and a Gold ARIA for Single of the Year, Born to Try. ARIAs host Rove McManus announced that John Farnham will raise the very loud speakers to 1985/1986's "You're the Voice" after being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
November–December[link]
- November – Cryptopsy rehires Lord Worm.
- November 5 – Evanescence's lead guitarist and founding member Ben Moody leaves the band on their first world tour.
- 6 - Marco Aro quits The Haunted from his vocalist position. The band rehires their first vocalist, Peter Dolving who had quit from the band in the past.[13]
- November 7 – Steve Kmak, aka "Fuzz," is fired from Disturbed as a result of personality clashes with others in the band.
- November 11 – Dream Theater releases their seventh studio album titled Train of Thought, widely regarded as their heaviest album to date.
- November 14
- The legal incarnation of the band Pink Floyd reunites to perform at the funeral of their manager Steve O'Rourke.
- Byron Stroud is confirmed as an official member of Fear Factory.
- November 18
- Britney Spears releases In the Zone. She breaks her own record as the first female artist to have 3 albums in #1 to become the first female artist to have 4 albums in #1 consecutively.
- Michael Jackson releases the compilation album Number Ones.
- November 19 – Guy Sebastian becomes the winner on Australian Idol, receiving a contract with BMG Australia. He subsequently records the studio album, Just As I Am.
- November 21 – Korn releases their sixth studio album, Take a Look in the Mirror. It is the last album that features the original lineup of Korn.
- November 22 – The band Five Iron Frenzy plays its last show at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver.
- November 30 – Michael Jackson is arrested on charges of child molestation.
- December 6 – P-Funk founder George Clinton is arrested and charged with drug possession in Tallahassee, Florida.
- December 13/14 – The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ-FM airs the 14th Annual of the Acoustic Christmas show with AFI, Blink-182, Brand New, Chevelle, The Distillers, Jane's Addiction, Jet, KoЯn, Linkin Park, The Offspring, P.O.D., Pennywise, Puddle of Mudd, Rancid, Staind, 311, Thrice and Trapt.
- December 30/31 – The New Year's Eve Falls Festival in Australia, traditionally held in Lorne, Victoria, holds events in both Lorne and Marion Bay, Tasmania at the same time. The same artists perform at both events, alternating between the two venues each night.
.
Bands formed[link]
See Musical groups established in 2003
Bands reformed[link]
Bands disbanded[link]
Albums released[link]
|
Contents
|
January[link]
| Day | Album | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Hate Crew Deathroll | Children of Bodom | - |
| Inertia | The Exies | - | |
| 13 | Epica | Kamelot | - |
| Up All Night | The Waifs | - | |
| Le Chemin | Kyo | - | |
| 14 | Pain to Kill | Terri Clark | - |
| Failer | Kathleen Edwards | - | |
| What You Want Is Now | House of Heroes | - | |
| 19 | Summer 2003 | Anthrax | EP |
| 21 | Such Great Heights | The Postal Service | EP |
| The Lost & Found | Rasputina | EP | |
| Live in Japan 2002 | Simple Plan | Live | |
| Music in High Places | Unwritten Law | Live | |
| Simple Things Remixes | Zero 7 | Remix | |
| 25 | The Heartless Control Everything | Chiodos | EP |
| 28 | New Arrival | A*Teens | - |
| Master and Everyone | Bonnie 'Prince' Billy | - | |
| Other People's Songs | Erasure | Covers album | |
| This Is It: The Best of Faith No More | Faith No More | Compilation | |
| Playin' Around | Play | - | |
| ...And Don't Forget to Breathe | A Static Lullaby | - | |
| 31 | The Dreamer | Blake Shelton | - |
February[link]
March[link]
April[link]
May[link]
June[link]
July[link]
August[link]
September[link]
October[link]
November[link]
December[link]
| Day | Album | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daft Club | Daft Punk | Remix |
| The Firebird Suite - Archives | The Firebird Band | - | |
| 2 | The Diary of Alicia Keys | Alicia Keys | US |
| And Then ... | Joe | - | |
| Comin' on Strong | Trace Adkins | - | |
| 8 | Lichtspielhaus | Rammstein | DVD |
| 9 | Big Money Heavyweight | Big Tymers | - |
| Nick Cannon | Nick Cannon | - | |
| Fefe Dobson | Fefe Dobson | - | |
| Marvelous Things | Eisley | EP | |
| The Reason | Hoobastank | - | |
| Tasty | Kelis | - | |
| Live at Brixton Academy | Motörhead | Live | |
| Soulstar | Musiq | - | |
| Splinter | The Offspring | - | |
| Tha Dogg: Best of the Works | Snoop Dogg | - | |
| Soulful | Ruben Studdard | - | |
| Terrorist Threats | Westside Connection | - | |
| 16 | Extended Play | Denver Harbor | EP |
| M.A.D.E. | Memphis Bleek | - | |
| The Lex Diamond Story | Raekwon | - | |
| 17 | Legendary | Zao | Compilation |
| 23 | Juve the Great | Juvenile | - |
| 27 | I Look I See | Yusuf Islam | - |
| 30 | Lighthouse | The Waifs | EP |
| 31 | Porch Life | Big D and the Kids Table | - |
Release date unknown[link]
- As the Eternal Cowboy – Against Me!
- For Stars and Moon – Angie Aparo
- Arcade Fire (EP) – Arcade Fire
- Bayside/Name Taken Split – Bayside / Name Taken
- Prime Time – Bell, Book & Candle
- Try Honesty / Living in the Shadows – Billy Talent
- Blitzen Trapper – Blitzen Trapper
- Freedom Band – Delinquent Habits
- Snowfield Demo EP – Editors (as Snowfield)
- To Madagascar and Back EP/DVD – Flickerstick
- 25 Miles to Kissimmee – Fools Garden
- Saturday Rock Action EP – Hawk Nelson
- Ghost of the sun – Katatonia
- My First Time – Look What I Did
- Louis XIV – Louis XIV
- E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals – The Matches (as The Locals)
- Frengers – Mew
- Alive Again – Nightingale
- Bootlegged, Distorted, Remixed and Uploaded – Pitchshifter
- Still Electric – Primitive Radio Gods
- Under the Tray – Reggie and the Full Effect
- The Sauce – Eddie Spaghetti
- The Concept EP – The Spill Canvas
- For All the Drugs in the World – Sponge
- All Got Our Runnins EP – The Streets
- Strawberry Bubblegum – 10cc
- The Sunday Best EP – This Providence
- Throw the Fight (EP) – Throw the Fight
- Velvet Lined Shell – Toyah
- Hunted EP – Year of the Rabbit
- Watching the Snow – Michael Franks (Japanese release)
Top 5 albums of Billboard year[link]
- Beyoncé – Dangerously in Love
- 50 cent – Get Rich or Die Tryin'
- Norah Jones – Come Away With Me
- Michael Jackson – Number Ones
- Dixie Chicks – Home
Top 10 Selling Albums Of the Year[link]
- Get Rich Or Die Tryin' – 50 Cent
- Come Away with Me – Norah Jones
- Number Ones – Michael Jackson
- Life For Rent – Dido
- Dangerously In Love – Beyoncé
- A Rush Of Blood To The Head – Coldplay
- Fallen – Evanescence
- In The Zone – Britney Spears
- Let Go – Avril Lavigne
- One Heart – Celine Dion
Top hits on record[link]
- "2+2=5" – Radiohead
- "Addicted" – Simple Plan
- "Angels or Devils" – Dishwalla
- "All I Have" – Jennifer Lopez
- "American Life" – Madonna
- "Angel" – Amanda Perez
- "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" – Jet
- "Are You Ready For Love?" (re-mix) – Elton John
- "Baby Boy" – Beyoncé featuring Sean Paul
- "Beautiful" – Christina Aguilera
- "The Beautiful Occupation" – Travis
- "Be Mine" – David Gray
- "Behind Blue Eyes" – Limp Bizkit
- "Bottom of a Bottle" – Smile Empty Soul
- "The Boys of Summer" – Ataris
- "Born to Try" – Delta Goodrem
- "Breathe" – Blu Cantrell
- "Bring Me to Life" – Evanescence
- "California" – Phantom Planet
- "Cannonball" – Damien Rice
- "Can't Hold Us Down" – Christina Aguilera featuring Lil' Kim
- "Cassé" – Nolwenn Leroy
- "Chihuahua" – DJ Bobo
- "Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)" – The Darkness
- "Clocks" – Coldplay
- "C'mon C'mon" – Sheryl Crow
- "COLORS – Hikaru Utada
- "Come Clean" – Hilary Duff
- "Come Over" – Aaliyah
- "Crazy in Love" – Beyoncé Knowles
- "Cry Me A River" – Justin Timberlake
- "Did My Time" – KoЯn
- "Don't Look Back into the Sun" – The Libertines
- "Don't Know Why" – Norah Jones (held over from 2002)
- "Don't Steal Our Sun" – The Thrills
- "Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling" – Dannii Minogue
- "Entre Nous" – Chimène Badi
- "Everyway That I Can" – Sertab Erener
- "Faint" – Linkin Park
- "Fan" – Pascal Obispo
- "Feel" – Robbie Williams
- "Feeling This" – Blink-182
- "Feel Good Time" – Pink
- "Fighter" – Christina Aguilera
- "Forever and for Always" – Shania Twain
- "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" – Coldplay
- "Go to Sleep" – Radiohead
- "Growing on Me" – The Darkness
- "Girls & Boys" – Good Charlotte
- "Headstrong" – Trapt
- "Hold On"- Good Charlotte
- "Hey Oh" – Tragédie
- "Hey Ya!" – OutKast
- "Hurt" – Johnny Cash
- "I Begin to Wonder" – Dannii Minogue
- "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" – The Darkness
- "I'm with You" – Avril Lavigne
- "In Da Club" – 50 Cent
- "Innocent Eyes" – Delta Goodrem
- "Into the West" – Annie Lennox
- "Intuition" – Jewel
- "Invisible" – Clay Aiken
- "It's My Life" – No Doubt
- "It's Showtime!!" – B'z
- "Je voulais te dire que je t'attends" – Jonatan Cerrada
- "Just Because" – Jane's Addiction
- "Just the Way I'm Feeling" – Feeder
- "L'Orange" – Star Academy 3
- "Laisse parler les gens" – Jocelyne Labylle and Cheela featuring Jacob Desvarieux and Passi
- "Laura" – Scissor Sisters
- "Le Frunkp" – Alphonse Brown
- "Like a Stone" – Audioslave
- "Lonely Day" – Phantom Planet
- "Losing Grip" – Avril Lavigne
- "Lost Without You" – Delta Goodrem
- "Love at First Sight" – Kylie Minogue
- "Mad World" – Gary Jules and Michael Andrews
- "Ma Liberté de penser" – Florent Pagny
- "Mandy" – Westlife (UK)
- "Maybe Tomorrow" – Stereophonics
- "Me Against the Music" – Britney Spears featuring Madonna
- "Me Myself and I" – Beyoncé
- "Ménage à Trois" – Alcazar
- "Miss Independent" – Kelly Clarkson
- "Milkshake" – Kelis
- "Minerva" – Deftones
- "Molly's Chambers" – Kings of Leon
- "Mueve el Ombligo" – Christell
- "My Love Is Like...Wo" – Mýa
- "Never Leave You" – Lumidee
- "No Good Advice" – Girls Aloud
- "Not Gonna Get Us" – t.A.T.u.
- "Not a Sinner Nor a Saint" – Alcazar
- "Not Me, Not I" – Delta Goodrem
- "Novocaine" – Alice Cooper
- "Numb" – Linkin Park
- "One Horse Town" – The Thrills
- "One More Chance" – Michael Jackson
- "Ourselves" – Ayumi Hamasaki
- "Out of Time" – Blur
- "Papi chulo... (te traigo el mmmm...)" – Lorna
- "Paris-Latino" – Star Academy France
- "Perfect" – Simple Plan
- "P.I.M.P." – 50 Cent
- "Pump It Up" – Joe Budden
- "Right Thurr" – Chingy
- "Remember" – Disturbed
- "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)" – Ashanti
- "Rock Your Body" – Justin Timberlake
- "Rollover DJ" – Jet
- "Santa's List" – Cliff Richard
- "Save Yourself/Genie in a Bottle" – Speedway
- "Say You Will" – Fleetwood Mac
- "Seven Nation Army" – The White Stripes
- "Sing For The Moment" – Eminem
- "Shake Ya Tailfeather" – Nelly, P. Diddy & Murphy Lee
- "So Yesterday" – Hilary Duff
- "Someday" – Nickelback
- "Somewhere I Belong" – Linkin Park
- "Songbird" – Oasis
- "Spitting Games" – Snow Patrol
- "St. Anger" – Metallica
- "Stacy's Mom" – Fountains of Wayne
- "Stupid Girl" – Cold
- "Summer Jam" – The Underdog Project and Sunclub
- "Sur un air latino" – Lorie
- "Swing, Swing" – All American Rejects
- "The Anthem" – Good Charlotte
- "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" – Jason Mraz
- "The Voice Within" – Christina Aguilera
- "The Way You Move" – OutKast & Sleepy Brown
- "There There" – Radiohead
- "Times Like These" – Foo Fighters
- "Trouble" – Pink
- "Universally Speaking" – Red Hot Chili Peppers
- "Unwell" – Matchbox Twenty
- "We Used To Be Friends" – The Dandy Warhols
- "What Do You Want From Me?" – Alice Cooper
- "Where Is the Love?" – The Black Eyed Peas
- "White Flag" – Dido
- "Will You" – P.O.D.
- "The Wreckoning" – Boomkat
- "Why Can't I?" – Liz Phair
- "Why Not?" – Hilary Duff
- "You Said No" – Busted
See also: Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 2003 (USA)
Classical music[link]
- Leonardo Balada – Ebony Fantasies (Cantata for Choir and Orchestra)
- George Crumb
- A Journey Beyond Time for soprano, percussion quartet and piano.
- Otherworldly Resonances for two pianos
- River of Life for soprano, percussion quartet and piano
- Mario Davidovsky – Duo Capriccioso for piano and violin
- Peter Maxwell Davies
- Naxos Quartet No. 2
- Naxos Quartet No. 3
- Andrew Glover- The Death of Angels: A Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
- Haflidi Hallgrímsson – Cello Concerto
- György Ligeti – Hamburg Concerto for solo Horn and Chamber Orchestra with 4 obligato Natural Horns (1998–99, 2003)
- Alexander Raskatov – The Last Freedom
- Karlheinz Stockhausen –
- Amour, for saxophone
- Klavierstück XIX
- Mixtur 2003, for 5 instrumental groups, 4 sinewave-generator players, 4 sound mixers with 4 ring modulators, and sound director
- Vibra-Elufa, for vibraphone,
Opera[link]
- Deborah Drattell – Nicholas and Alexandra
- Osvaldo Golijov – Ainadamar
- Michael Nyman – Man and Boy: Dada
- Krzysztof Penderecki – Ubu Rex
- Rachel Portman – The Little Prince
- Karlheinz Stockhausen – Sonntag aus Licht (and with it, the entire Licht cycle of seven operas)
Musical theater[link]
- Avenue Q Broadway production
- Bounce
- The Boy from Oz Broadway production
- Fame On 42nd Street opened at the Little Shubert Theatre on November 11 and ran for 264 performances
- The Full Monty Melbourne production
- Jerry Springer - The Opera London production
- Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat London revival
- Never Gonna Dance Broadway production opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on December 4 and ran for 84 performances
- Showtune, a Jerry Herman musical revue, off-Broadway production
- Taboo Broadway production opened November 13 and ran for 103 performances.
- Thoroughly Modern Millie London production
- Tonight's The Night London production
- Wicked Broadway production opened at the George Gershwin Theatre on October 30.
Musical film[link]
- Brother Bear (animated feature)
- Camp
- From Justin to Kelly
- Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
- Love Under the Sun
- Pas sur la bouche
- Pop Carn
- The Adventure of Iron Pussy
- The Jungle Book 2 (animated feature)
- The Singing Detective
- The Cheetah Girls (Disney Channel Original Movie - the first musical film by Disney Channel, bringing in over 84 million viewers)
- Vivir Intentando
Births[link]
- October 28 – Beatrice Millie McCartney, daughter of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills. The McCartneys fooled the press into publishing misleading details about the birth.
- date unknown - Keshav, tabla prodigy
Deaths[link]
- January 1 – Giorgio Gaber (63), actor, singer-songwriter
- January 5 – Daphne Oram (77), composer and electronic musician
- January 8 – Ron Goodwin (77), composer and conductor
- January 11 – Mickey Finn (55), bongo player and T.Rex sideman (liver failure)
- January 12 – Maurice Gibb (53), Bee Gees singer and bassist (cardiac arrest)
- January 15 – Doris Fisher (87), singer-songwriter
- January 23 – Nell Carter (54), singer and actress (heart disease)
- February 1 – Mongo Santamaría (80), Latin jazz percussionist
- February 2 – Lou Harrison (85), composer
- February 19 – Johnny Paycheck (65), country singer
- February 20 – Ty Longley (31), guitarist of Great White (fire accident)
- February 23 – Howie Epstein (47), bassist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
- March 3
- Hank Ballard (74), R&B singer (throat cancer)
- Malcolm Williamson (71), composer
- March 8 – Adam Faith (62), singer, actor (heart attack)
- April 1 – Leslie Cheung (46), actor, musician (suicide)
- April 2 – Edwin Starr (61), soul singer (heart attack)
- April 6 – Babatunde Olatunji (75), drummer (diabetes)
- April 13 – Alex Baroni (35), singer (motorbike accident)
- April 15 – Little Eva (59), singer (cervical cancer)
- April 17 – Earl King (69), blues musician
- April 19 – Conrad Leonard (104), composer and pianist
- April 21 – Nina Simone (70), singer and pianist
- April 22 – Felice Bryant (77), Hall of Fame songwriter
- May 11 – Noel Redding (57), bassist of The Jimi Hendrix Experience
- May 15 – June Carter Cash (73), musician and singer
- May 19 - Ivo Žídek (76), operatic tenor
- May 27 – Luciano Berio (77), composer
- May 30 – Mickie Most (64), record producer (mesothelioma)
- June 6 – Dave Rowberry (63) (The Animals)
- June 17 - Marcella Pobbé (81), operatic soprano
- July 1 – Herbie Mann (73), jazz flautist (prostate cancer)
- July 4
- André Claveau (87), singer
- Barry White (58), singer and record producer (renal failure)
- July 5 – Bebu Silvetti (59), pianist, composer, arranger and record producer; respiratory failure
- July 6 – Buddy Ebsen (95), actor and singer
- July 7 – Izhak Graziani (79), conductor
- July 12 – Benny Carter (95), jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger and bandleader (bronchitis)
- July 16 – Celia Cruz (77), salsa singer (brain tumor)
- July 17 – Rosalyn Tureck (88), pianist
- July 25 – Erik Braunn, Iron Butterfly
- July 26 – Richard Wayne Dirksen (81), organist and choirmaster
- July 27 – Bob Hope (100), actor, comedian and singer
- July 30 – Sam Philips (80)
- August 2 – Don Estelle (70), actor and singer
- August 5 – Tite Curet Alonso (77), songwriter; heart attack
- August 8 – Julius Baker (87), flautist
- August 9 – Gregory Hines (58), actor, singer and dancer
- August 10 – Carmita Jiménez, singer
- August 13 – Ed Townsend (74), singer-songwriter
- August 15 - Robert Moulson (70), operatic tenor
- August 21 – Wesley Willis (40), novelty musician
- August 23 – Imperio Argentina (96), singer and actress
- September 4
- Lola Bobesco (82), violinist
- Susan Chilcott (40), operatic soprano (breast cancer)
- Tibor Varga (82), violinist and conductor
- September 5 – Gisele MacKenzie (76), singer
- September 7 – Warren Zevon (56), rock and roll singer; mesothelioma
- September 12 – Johnny Cash (71), country and rock 'n roll singer
- September 14 – John Serry, Sr. (88) concert accordionist, organist, composer, arranger
- September 19 – Slim Dusty (76), country singer
- September 26 – Robert Palmer (54), singer (heart attack)
- September 27 – Donald O'Connor (78), actor, singer and dancer (congestive heart failure)
- October 5 – Denis Quilley (75), actor and singer (liver cancer)
- October 10 – Eugene Istomin (77), pianist (liver cancer)
- October 21 – Elliott Smith (34), singer-songwriter
- October 22 - Gabriella Gatti (95), operatic soprano
- October 23 – Tony Capstick (59), comedian, actor and musician
- October 24 – Rosie Nix Adams, singer-songwriter
- October 29 – Franco Corelli (82), operatic tenor
- October 30 - Franco Bonisolli (65), operatic tenor
- November 5 – Bobby Hatfield (63), singer (The Righteous Brothers)
- November 12 – Tony Thompson (48), drummer of Chic (kidney cancer)
- November 14 – Gene Anthony Ray (41), actor and dancer (complications of a stroke)
- November 15 – Dorothy Loudon (70), actress and singer
- November 17
- Arthur Conley (57), soul singer (intestinal cancer)
- Don Gibson (75), country musician
- November 18 – Michael Kamen (55), composer, conductor and musician (heart attack)
- November 26 – Soulja Slim (26), rapper (homicide)
- November 28 – Thekra, Tunisian singer (murdered by her husband)
- December 8 – Rubén González (84), pianist
- December 16 – Gary Stewart (58), country singer (suicide)
- December 22 – Dave Dudley (75), country singer (heart attack)
- December 27 – Vestal Goodman (74), gospel singer (influenza complications)
- December 30 – Anita Mui (40), Hong Kong pop singer
- December 31 - Sieglinde Wagner (82), operatic contralto
Awards[link]
The following artists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: AC/DC, The Clash, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, The Police, The Righteous Brothers
Miscellaneous[link]
- Leonard Cohen is made a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest honour.
ARIA Music Awards[link]
Country Music Association Awards[link]
Eurovision Song Contest[link]
Grammy Awards[link]
Mercury Music Prize[link]
- Boy in Da Corner – Dizzee Rascal wins.
Charts[link]
Triple J Hottest 100[link]
References[link]
- ^ Richard Morrison, "PLG Young Artists", The Times (Wednesday 8 January 2003): 15.
- ^ John L Walters, "Philip on Film Live: Barbican, London", The Guardian (Thursday 09 January 2003); Geoff Brown,"Glass Shorts", The Times (09 January 2003): 23.
- ^ Irene Zoech, "Orchestra Falls Quiet over First Female", The Times (10 January 2003): 15.
- ^ Anon., "Sony Names Music Chief", The Times (11 January 2003): 52.
- ^ Laura M. Holson and Lynette Holloway, "Top Music Executive Is Leaving Sony: After Tumultuous Year, He Plans to Start His Own Label", The New York Times (10 January 2003).
- ^ Anon., "Air Warriors Hit High Note with Concert", The Times of India (Tuesday 21 January 2003): 2.
- ^ Ivan Hewett, "Momentum: The Music of Mark-Anthony Turnage: Barbican, London EC2, Jan 18-19", The Times (18 January 2003): 10; Richard Morrison, "Blood on the Floor", The Times (20 January 2003): 17.
- ^ Andrew Pierce, "Conductor's Illness Robs London of the Voice of St Cecilia", The Times (22 January 2003): 6.
- ^ "Specs a maniac". The Sun (London). http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/papercolumnists/donaldmacleod/1766800/Specs-a-maniac.html?print=yes.
- ^ Grossberg, Josh (February 24, 2003). "Great White Guitarist Declared Dead". E! Online. http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,11323,00.html.
- ^ http://legacy.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=12516
- ^ Alessandra Pieracci, "Da Abbado alla Nannini a musica va in analisi", La Stampa, no. 277 (9 October 2003): 33.
- ^ http://the-haunted.com/site/?p=archive&a=news
http://wn.com/2003_in_music
Related pages:
http://ru.wn.com/2003 год в музыке
http://pt.wn.com/2003 na música
http://fr.wn.com/2003 en musique
http://pl.wn.com/2003 w muzyce
http://cs.wn.com/2003 v hudbě
http://es.wn.com/Anexo Música en 2003
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_in_music
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
For other people named Michael Jackson, see Michael Jackson (disambiguation).
| Michael Jackson | |
|---|---|
 Jackson at the White House in 1984 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Michael Joseph Jackson[1] |
| Also known as | King of Pop, MJ |
| Born | (1958-08-29)August 29, 1958 Gary, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | June 25, 2009(2009-06-25) (aged 50) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres | R&B, pop, rock, soul, dance, funk, disco, new jack swing |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, musician, composer, dancer, choreographer, record producer, actor, businessman, philanthropist |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1964–2009 |
| Labels | Motown, Epic, Legacy, MJJ Productions |
| Associated acts |
 Michael Jackson's Signature |
| Website | www.michaeljackson.com |
Michael Joseph Jackson[1] (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ,[2] Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.
In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.
Jackson's 1982 album Thriller is the best-selling album of all time. His other records, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He was also inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the first (and currently only) dancer from the world of pop and rock 'n' roll. Some of his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records; 13 Grammy Awards (as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award); 26 American Music Awards (more than any other artist, including the "Artist of the Century"); 13 number-one singles in the United States in his solo career (more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era); and the estimated sale of over 750 million records worldwide. Jackson won hundreds of awards, which made him the most-awarded recording artist in the history of popular music.[3] He was also one of the world's most prominent humanitarians and philanthropists; personally, and through his Heal the World Foundation, he donated more than $300 million in charity, and held the Guinness World Record for having supported the most charities out of any pop star.[4][5]
Aspects of Jackson's personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In 1993, he was accused of child sexual abuse, but the case was settled out of court and no formal charges were brought. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges after the jury found him not guilty on all counts. While preparing for his concert series titled This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson's death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and as many as one billion people around the world reportedly watched his public memorial service on live television. In March 2010, Sony Music Entertainment signed a $250 million deal with Jackson's estate to retain distribution rights to his recordings until 2017, and to release seven posthumous albums over the decade following his death.[6]
Life and career[link]
Early life and The Jackson 5 (1958–1975)[link]
Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, the eighth of ten children in an African American working-class family who lived in a small 3-room house in Gary, Indiana,[7] an industrial city near Chicago. His mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovah's Witness, and his father, Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson, was a steel mill worker who performed with an R&B band called The Falcons. Jackson had three sisters: Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet, and five brothers: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy.[8] A sixth brother, Brandon, died shortly after birth.[9]
Jackson had a troubled relationship with his father, Joe.[10][11][12] Joseph acknowledged in 2003 that he regularly whipped Jackson as a boy.[12] Jackson stated that he was physically and emotionally abused during incessant rehearsals, though he also credited his father's strict discipline with playing a large role in his success.[10] Jackson first spoke openly about his childhood abuse in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, broadcast in February 1993. He admitted that he had often cried from loneliness and he would vomit on the sight of his father. Jackson's father was also said to have verbally abused Jackson, saying that he had a fat nose on numerous occasions.[13] In fact, Michael Jackson's deep dissatisfaction with his appearance, his nightmares and chronic sleep problems, his tendency to remain hyper-compliant especially with his father, and to remain child-like throughout his adult life are in many ways consistent with the effects of this chronic maltreatment he endured as a young child.[14]
In an interview with Martin Bashir, later included in the 2003 broadcast of Living with Michael Jackson, Jackson acknowledged that his father hurt him when he was a child, but was nonetheless a "genius", as he admitted his father's strict discipline played a huge role in his success. When Bashir dismissed the positive remark and continued asking about beatings, Jackson put his hand over his face and objected to the questions. He recalled that Joseph sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his siblings rehearsed, and that "if you didn't do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you".[15][16]
In 1964, Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers—a band formed by brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine. Jackson later began performing backup vocals and dancing. When he was eight, Jackson began sharing the lead vocals with his older brother Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to The Jackson 5.[8] The band toured the Midwest extensively from 1966 to 1968, frequently performing at a string of black clubs known as the "chitlin' circuit", where they often opened stripteases and other adult acts. In 1966, they won a major local talent show with renditions of Motown hits and James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)", led by Michael.[17]
The Jackson 5 recorded several songs, including "Big Boy", for the local record label Steeltown in 1967, before signing with Motown Records in 1968.[8] Rolling Stone magazine later described the young Michael as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts," writing that he "quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer."[18] The group set a chart record when its first four singles ("I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There") peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.[8] Between 1972 and 1975, Michael released four solo studio albums with Motown, among them Got to Be There and Ben, released as part of the Jackson 5 franchise, and producing successful singles such as "Got to Be There", "Ben", and a remake of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin".
The Jackson 5 "became a cutting-edge example of black crossover artists... five working-class black boys with afros and bell bottoms, and they really didn't have to trade any of that stuff in order to become mainstream stars."[19]
The group's sales began declining in 1973, and the band members chafed under Motown's strict refusal to allow them creative control or input. Although they scored several top 40 hits, including the top 5 disco single "Dancing Machine" and the top 20 hit "I Am Love", the Jackson 5 left Motown in 1975.[20]
[edit] Move to Epic and Off the Wall (1975–81)
In June 1975, the Jackson 5 signed with Epic Records, a subsidiary of CBS Records[20] and renamed themselves the Jacksons. Younger brother Randy formally joined the band around this time, while Jermaine left to pursue a solo career.[21] They continued to tour internationally, releasing six more albums between 1976 and 1984, during which Michael was the lead songwriter, writing hits such as "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", "This Place Hotel", and "Can You Feel It".[17] In 1978, he starred as the scarecrow in the musical, The Wiz, a box-office disaster. It was here that he teamed up with Quincy Jones, who was arranging the film's musical score. Jones agreed to produce Jackson's next solo album, Off the Wall.[22] In 1979, Jackson broke his nose during a complex dance routine. His subsequent rhinoplasty was not a complete success; he complained of breathing difficulties that would affect his career. He was referred to Dr. Steven Hoefflin, who performed Jackson's second rhinoplasty and subsequent operations.[23]
Jones and Jackson produced the Off the Wall album together. Songwriters for the album included Jackson, Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney. Released in 1979, it was the first solo album to generate four U.S. top 10 hits, including the chart-topping singles "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You".[24][25] It reached number three on the Billboard 200 and eventually sold over 20 million copies worldwide.[26] In 1980, Jackson won three awards at the American Music Awards for his solo efforts: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, and Favorite Soul/R&B Single for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".[27][28] That year, he also won Billboard Year-End for Top Black Artist and Top Black Album and a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, also for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".[24] Jackson again won at the American Music Awards in 1981 for Favorite Soul/R&B Album and Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist.[29] Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt Off the Wall should have made a much bigger impact, and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release.[30] In 1980, he secured the highest royalty rate in the music industry: 37 percent of wholesale album profit.[31]
[edit] Thriller and Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1982–83)
In 1982, Jackson contributed the song "Someone In the Dark" to the storybook for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; the record won a Grammy for Best Recording for Children in 1984. In the same year he won another seven Grammys and eight American Music Awards (including the Award of Merit, the youngest artist to win it), making him the most awarded in one night for both award shows.[32][33] These awards were thanks to the Thriller album, released in late 1982, which was 1983's best-selling album worldwide[34][35] and became the best-selling album of all time in the United States,[36] as well as the best-selling album of all time worldwide, selling an estimated 110 million copies so far.[37] The album topped the Billboard 200 chart for 37 weeks and was in the top 10 of the 200 for 80 consecutive weeks. It was the first album to have seven Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles, including "Billie Jean", "Beat It", and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".[38] Thriller was certified for 29 million shipments by the RIAA, giving it Double Diamond status in the United States. The album won also another Grammy for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical in 1984, awarding Bruce Swedien for his work.[39] Jackson's attorney John Branca noted that Jackson had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point: approximately $2 for every album sold. He was also making record-breaking profits from sales of his recordings. The videocassette of the documentary The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller sold over 350,000 copies in a few months. The era saw the arrival of novelties like dolls modeled after Michael Jackson, which appeared in stores in May 1984 at a price of $12.[40] Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli writes that, "Thriller stopped selling like a leisure item—like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and started selling like a household staple."[41] In 1985, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Longform.[32] In December 2009, the music video for "Thriller" was selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, "Thriller" is the first music video ever to be inducted.[42][43][44]
Time described Jackson's influence at that point as "Star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too".[40] The New York Times wrote that, "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else".[45]
On March 25th 1983, Michael Jackson reunited with his brothers for a legendary live performance which was taped for a Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special. The show aired on May 16, 1983, to an audience of 47 million viewers, and featured the Jacksons and a number of other Motown stars. It is best remembered for Jackson's solo performance of "Billie Jean". Wearing a distinctive black sequin jacket and golf glove decorated with rhinestones, he debuted his signature dance move, the moonwalk, which former Soul Train dancer and Shalamar member Jeffrey Daniel had taught him three years before. The Jacksons' performance drew comparisons to Elvis Presley's and The Beatles' appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.[46] Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times later wrote, "The moonwalk that he made famous is an apt metaphor for his dance style. How does he do it? As a technician, he is a great illusionist, a genuine mime. His ability to keep one leg straight as he glides while the other bends and seems to walk requires perfect timing."[47]
Pepsi, "We Are the World" and business career (1984–85)[link]
On January 27, 1984, Michael and other members of the Jacksons filmed a Pepsi Cola commercial, overseen by executive Phil Dusenberry,[48] from ad agency BBDO and Pepsi's Worldwide Creative Director, Alan Pottasch at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. In front of a full house of fans during a simulated concert, pyrotechnics accidentally set Jackson's hair on fire. He suffered second-degree burns to his scalp. Jackson underwent treatment to hide the scars on his scalp, and he also had his third rhinoplasty shortly thereafter.[23] Jackson never recovered from this injury. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated his $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California, which now has a "Michael Jackson Burn Center" in honor of his donation.[49] Dusenberry later recounted the episode in his memoir, Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising.
On May 14, 1984, Jackson was invited to the White House to receive an award from President Ronald Reagan for his support of charities that helped people overcome alcohol and drug abuse.[50] Jackson won eight awards during the Grammys that year. Unlike later albums, Thriller did not have an official tour to promote it, but the 1984 Victory Tour, headlined by The Jacksons, showcased much of Jackson's new solo material to more than two million Americans. He donated all the funds (around $8 million) raised from the Victory Tour to charity.[51] He also co-wrote the charity single "We Are the World" in 1985 with Lionel Richie, which was released worldwide to aid the poor in the U.S. and Africa. It became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with nearly 30 million copies sold and millions of dollars donated to famine relief. In 1986, "We Are the World" won four Grammys (one for Jackson for Song of the Year). American Music Award directors removed the charity song from the competition because they felt it would be inappropriate, but recognized it with two special honors (one for the creation of the song and one for the USA for Africa idea). They are the only AMAs that Jackson won as non-solo artist.[52][53][54][55]
In 1984, ATV Music Publishing, which had the copyrights to nearly 4000 songs, including the Northern Songs catalog that contained the majority of the Lennon–McCartney compositions recorded by The Beatles, was put up for sale by Robert Holmes à Court.[56] Jackson had become interested in owning music catalogs after working with Paul McCartney in the early 1980s: Jackson had learned McCartney made approximately $40 million a year from other people's songs.[57] In 1981,[58] McCartney was offered the ATV music catalog for £20 million ($40 million).[57][59] According to McCartney, he contacted Yoko Ono about making a joint purchase by splitting the cost equally at £10 million each, but Ono thought they could buy it for £5 million each.[57][59] When they were unable to make the joint purchase, McCartney let the offer fall through, not wanting to be the sole owner of the Beatles' songs.[58][59]
According to a negotiator for Holmes à Court in the 1984 sale, "We had given Paul McCartney first right of refusal but Paul didn't want it at that time."[60] Also, an attorney for McCartney assured Jackson's attorney, John Branca, that McCartney was not interested in bidding: McCartney reportedly said "It's too pricey".[57][58] But there were several other companies and investors bidding. In September 1984, Jackson was first informed about the sale by Branca and sent a bid of $46 million on November 20, 1984.[56] Jackson's agents thought they had a deal several times, but encountered new bidders or new areas of debate.[56] In May 1985, Jackson's team walked away from talks after having spent over $1 million on four months of due diligence and on the negotiations.[56]
In June 1985, Jackson and Branca learned that Charles Koppelman's and Marty Bandier's The Entertainment Co. had made a tentative agreement with Holmes à Court to buy ATV Music for $50 million.[56] But in early August, Holmes à Court's team contacted Jackson and talks resumed. Jackson raised his bid to $47.5 million and it was accepted because he could close the deal more quickly, having already completed due diligence of ATV Music.[56] He also agreed to visit Holmes à Court in Australia, where he would appear on the Channel Seven Perth Telethon.[56][60] Jackson's purchase of ATV Music was finalized August 10, 1985.[56]
[edit] Appearance, tabloids, Bad, films, autobiography and Neverland (1986–90)
See also: Michael Jackson's health and appearance
File:Michael Jackson King of Pop 1988.jpg
Jackson two years after he was diagnosed with vitiligo, here in the early stages of the disease
Jackson's skin had been a medium-brown color for the entire duration of his youth, but starting in the mid 1980s, it gradually grew paler. The change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that he might be bleaching his skin.[61] According to J. Randy Taraborrelli's biography, in 1986, Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus; the vitiligo partially lightened his skin, and the lupus was in remission; both illnesses made him sensitive to sunlight. The treatments he used for his condition further lightened his skin tone, and, with the application of pancake makeup to even out blotches, he could appear very pale.[62] Jackson was also diagnosed with vitiligo in his autopsy.[63] By the mid 1990s several surgeons speculated that he had undergone various nasal surgeries, a forehead lift, thinned lips, and cheekbone surgery—although Jackson denied this and insisted that he only had surgery on his nose.[64] Jackson claimed that he had only two rhinoplasties and no other surgery on his face, although at one point he mentioned having a dimple created in his chin.[65] Jackson lost weight in the early 1980s because of a change in diet and a desire for "a dancer's body".[65] Witnesses reported that he was often dizzy and speculated that he was suffering from anorexia nervosa; periods of weight loss would become a recurring problem later in life.[66]
During the course of his treatment, Jackson made two close friends: his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, and Klein's nurse Debbie Rowe. Rowe eventually became Jackson's second wife and the mother of his two eldest children. Long before becoming romantically involved with her, Jackson relied heavily on Rowe for emotional support. He also relied heavily on Klein, for medical and business advice.[67]
Jackson became the subject of increasingly sensational reports. In 1986, the tabloids ran a story claiming that Jackson slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow the aging process; he was pictured lying down in a glass box. Although the claim was untrue, according to tabloid reports that are widely cited, Jackson had disseminated the fabricated story himself.[68][69] When Jackson bought a chimpanzee called Bubbles from a laboratory, he was reported to be increasingly detached from reality.[70] It was reported that Jackson had offered to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick (the "elephant man") and although untrue, Jackson did not deny the story.[68][69] Although initially he saw these stories as opportunities for publicity, he stopped leaking untruths to the press as they became more sensational. Consequently the media began making up their own stories.[69][71][72] These reports became embedded in the public consciousness, inspiring the nickname "Wacko Jacko", which Jackson came to despise.[73] Responding to the gossip, Jackson remarked to Taraborrelli:
Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars? Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, "I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight," people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a single word that comes out of his mouth."[74]
Jackson collaborated with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola on the 17-minute 3-D film Captain EO, which debuted in September 1986 at both the original Disneyland and at EPCOT in Florida, and in March 1987 at Tokyo Disneyland. The $30 million movie was a popular attraction at all three parks. A Captain EO attraction was later featured at Euro Disneyland after that park opened in 1992. All four parks' Captain EO installations stayed open well into the 1990s: Paris' installation was the last one to close, in 1998.[75] The attraction would later return to Disneyland in 2010 after Jackson's death.[76]
In 1987, Jackson disassociated himself from the Jehovah's Witnesses, in response to their disapproval of the Thriller video.[77] With the industry expecting another major hit, Jackson's first album in five years, Bad (1987), was highly anticipated.[78] It did not top Thriller as a commercial or artistic triumph, but Bad was still a substantial success in its own right.
The Bad album spawned seven hit singles in the U.S., five of which ("I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty Diana") reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. This was a record for most number one Hot 100 singles from any one album, including Thriller.[79] Although the title track's video was arguably derivative of the video for the earlier single "Beat It", the "Bad" video still proved to be one of Jackson's iconic moments. It was a gritty but colorful epic set against the backdrop of the New York City Subway system, with costuming and choreography inspired by West Side Story. As of 2012, the album sold between 30 and 45 million copies worldwide.[80][81][82][83][84][85][86] Thanks to the Bad album, Bruce Swedien and Humberto Gatica won one Grammy in 1988 for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical and Michael Jackson won one Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form for "Leave Me Alone" in 1989.[32][39] In the same year, Jackson won an Award of Achievement at the American Music Awards because Bad is the first album ever to generate five number one singles in the US, the first album to top in 25 countries and the best-selling album worldwide in 1987 and in 1988.[87][88][89][90] In 1988, "Bad" won an American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Single.[91]
The Bad World Tour began on September 12 that year, finishing on January 14, 1989.[92] In Japan alone, the tour had 14 sellouts and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record of 200,000 in a single tour.[93] Jackson broke a Guinness World Record when 504,000 people attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium. He performed a total of 123 concerts to an audience of 4.4 million people. The Bad Tour turned out to be the last of Jackson's concert tours to include shows in the continental United States, although later tours did make it to Hawaii.
In 1988, Jackson released his first and only autobiography, Moonwalk, which took four years to complete and sold 200,000 copies.[94] Jackson wrote about his childhood, The Jackson 5, and the abuse he had suffered.[95] He also wrote about his facial appearance, saying he had had two rhinoplastic surgeries and a dimple created in his chin.[65] He attributed much of the change in the structure of his face to puberty, weight loss, a strict vegetarian diet, a change in hair style, and stage lighting.[65] Moonwalk reached the top position on The New York Times best sellers' list.[96] The musician then released a film called Moonwalker, which featured live footage and short films that starred Jackson and Joe Pesci. The film was originally intended to be released to theaters but due to financial issues, the film was released direct-to-video. It saw a theatrical release in Germany, though. It debuted atop the Billboard Top Music Video Cassette chart, staying there for 22 weeks. It was eventually knocked off the top spot by Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues.[97]
In March 1988, Jackson purchased land near Santa Ynez, California, to build Neverland Ranch at a cost of $17 million. He installed Ferris wheels, a menagerie, and a movie theater on the 2,700-acre (11 km2) property. A security staff of 40 patrolled the grounds. In 2003, it was valued at approximately $100 million.[18][98] In 1989, his annual earnings from album sales, endorsements, and concerts was estimated at $125 million for that year alone.[99] Shortly afterwards, he became the first Westerner to appear in a television ad in the Soviet Union.[97]
His success resulted in his being dubbed the "King of Pop".[100][101][102][103] The nickname was popularized by Elizabeth Taylor when she presented him with the Soul Train Heritage Award in 1989, proclaiming him "the true king of pop, rock and soul."[104] President George H. W. Bush designated him the White House's "Artist of the Decade".[105] From 1985 to 1990, he donated $500,000 to the United Negro College Fund, and all of the profits from his single "Man in the Mirror" went to charity.[106][107] Jackson's live rendition of "You Were There" at Sammy Davis Jr.'s 60th birthday celebration received an Emmy nomination.[97]
[edit] Dangerous, Heal the World Foundation and Super Bowl XXVII (1991–93)
In March 1991, Jackson renewed his contract with Sony for $65 million, a record-breaking deal at the time,[108] displacing Neil Diamond's renewal contract with Columbia Records.[109] He released his eighth album Dangerous in 1991. As of 2008, Dangerous had shipped seven million copies in the U.S. and had sold 32 million copies worldwide. The Dangerous album was co-produced by Teddy Riley, one of the pioneers of "new jack swing" which convinced Michael to feature a rapper on his album for the first time, the act worked and it turned out to be the best-selling album associated with that movement.[110][111][112] In the United States, the album's first single "Black or White" was its biggest hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining there for seven weeks, with similar chart performances worldwide.[113] The album's second single "Remember the Time" spent eight weeks in the top five in the United States, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.[114] At the end of 1992, Dangerous was awarded 1992's best-selling album worldwide and "Black or White" was awarded 1992's best-selling single worldwide at the Billboard Music Awards. Additionally, he won an award as best-selling artist of the '80s.[115] In 1993, Jackson performed the song at the Soul Train Music Awards in a chair, saying he had suffered an injury in rehearsals.[116] In the UK and other parts of Europe, "Heal the World" was the biggest hit from the album; it sold 450,000 copies in the UK and spent five weeks at number two in 1992.[114]
Jackson founded the Heal the World Foundation in 1992. The charity organization brought underprivileged children to Jackson's ranch to enjoy theme park rides that Jackson had built on the property. The foundation also sent millions of dollars around the globe to help children threatened by war, poverty, and disease. In the same year Jackson published his second book, the bestselling collection of poetry, Dancing the Dream. While it was a commercial success and revealed a more intimate side to Jackson's nature, the collection was mostly critically unacclaimed at the time of release. In 2009, the book was republished by Doubleday and was more positively received by some critics in the wake of Jackson's untimely death. The Dangerous World Tour grossed $100 million. The tour began on June 27, 1992, and finished on November 11, 1993. Jackson performed to 3.5 million people in 67 concerts.[114][117] He sold the broadcast rights to his Dangerous world tour to HBO for $20 million, a record-breaking deal that still stands.[118]
Following the illness and death of Ryan White, Jackson helped draw public attention to HIV/AIDS, something that was still controversial at the time. He publicly pleaded with the Clinton Administration at Bill Clinton's Inaugural Gala to give more money to HIV/AIDS charities and research.[119][120] In a high-profile visit to Africa, Jackson visited several countries, among them Gabon and Egypt.[121] His first stop to Gabon was greeted with a sizable and enthusiastic reception of more than 100,000 people, some of them carrying signs that read, "Welcome Home Michael."[121] In his trip to Côte d'Ivoire, Jackson was crowned "King Sani" by a tribal chief.[121] He then thanked the dignitaries in French and English, signed official documents formalizing his kingship and sat on a golden throne while presiding over ceremonial dances.[121]
In January 1993, Jackson made a memorable appearance at the halftime show at Super Bowl XXVII. The performance began with Jackson catapulting onto the stage as fireworks went off behind him. As he landed on the canvas, he maintained a motionless "clenched fist, standing statue stance", dressed in a gold and black military outfit and sunglasses; he remained completely motionless for a minute and a half while the crowd cheered. He then slowly removed his sunglasses, threw them away and sang four songs: "Jam", "Billie Jean", "Black or White" and "Heal the World". It was the first Super Bowl where the audience figures increased during the half-time show, and was viewed by 135 million Americans alone; Jackson's Dangerous album rose 90 places up the album chart.[61] Jackson was given the "Living Legend Award" at the 35th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. "Black or White" was Grammy-nominated for best vocal performance. "Jam" gained two nominations: Best R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.[114] The Dangerous album won a Grammy for Best Engineered – Non Classical, awarding the work of Bruce Swedien and Teddy Riley. In the same year, Michael Jackson won three American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Album (Dangerous), Favorite Soul/R&B Single ("Remember the Time") and was the first to win the International Artist Award, for his global performances and humanitarian concerns. This award will bear his name in the future.[32][39][122]
First child sexual abuse allegations and first marriage (1993–94)[link]
Jackson gave a 90-minute interview to Oprah Winfrey on February 10, 1993, his second television interview since 1979. He grimaced when speaking of his childhood abuse at the hands of his father; he believed he had missed out on much of his childhood years, admitting that he often cried from loneliness. He denied tabloid rumors that he had bought the bones of the Elephant Man, slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, or bleached his skin, stating for the first time that he had vitiligo. The interview was watched by an American audience of 90 million. Dangerous re-entered the album chart in the top 10, more than a year after its original release.[16][61][114]
In the summer of 1993, Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by a 13-year-old boy named Jordan Chandler and his father, Dr. Evan Chandler, a dentist.[123][124][125] The Chandler family demanded payment from Jackson, and the singer initially refused. Jordan Chandler eventually told the police that Jackson had sexually abused him.[126] Dr. Chandler was tape-recorded discussing his intention to pursue charges, saying, "If I go through with this, I win big-time. There's no way I lose. I will get everything I want and they will be destroyed forever ... Michael's career will be over". Jordan's mother was, however, adamant that there had been no wrongdoing on Jackson's part.[125] Jackson later used the recording to argue that he was the victim of a jealous father whose only goal was to extort money from the singer.[125]
Later that year, on December 20, Jackson's home was raided by the police, and Jackson submitted to a 25-minute strip search.[127] Jordan Chandler had reportedly given police a description of Jackson's intimate parts, notably claiming that his bleach-damaged penis was circumcised; the strip search revealed, to the contrary, that Jackson was actually uncircumcised,[128] a fact confirmed in his autopsy.[129] His friends said he never recovered from the humiliation of the strip search. The investigation was inconclusive and no charges were ever filed.[130][131] Jackson described the search in an emotional public statement, and proclaimed his innocence.[123][127][132] On January 1, 1994, Jackson's insurance carrier settled with the Chandlers out of court for $22 million. A Santa Barbara County grand jury and a Los Angeles County grand jury disbanded on May 2, 1994 without indicting Jackson.[133] After which time the Chandlers stopped co-operating with the criminal investigation around July 6, 1994.[134][135][136] The out-of-court settlement's documentation specifically stated Jackson admitted no wrongdoing and no liability; the Chandlers and their family lawyer Larry Feldman signed it without contest.[137] The Chandlers' lawyer Mr. Feldman also explicitly stated "nobody bought anybody's silence".[138] A decade after the fact, during the second round of child abuse allegations, Jackson's lawyers would file a memo stating that the 1994 settlement was done without his consent.[135]
In May 1994, Jackson married the daughter of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie Presley. They had first met in 1975, when a seven-year-old Presley attended one of Jackson's family engagements at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and were reconnected through a mutual friend.[139] According to a friend of Presley's, "their adult friendship began in November 1992 in L.A."[140] They stayed in contact every day over the telephone. As the child molestation accusations became public, Jackson became dependent on Presley for emotional support; she was concerned about his faltering health and addiction to drugs.[141] Presley explained, "I believed he didn't do anything wrong and that he was wrongly accused and yes I started falling for him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it."[142] She eventually persuaded him to settle the allegations out of court and go into rehabilitation to recover.[141]
Jackson proposed to Presley over the telephone towards the fall of 1993, saying, "If I asked you to marry me, would you do it?"[141] They married in the Dominican Republic in secrecy, denying it for nearly two months afterwards.[143] The marriage was, in her words, "a married couple's life ... that was sexually active".[144] At the time, the tabloid media speculated that the wedding was a ploy to prop up Jackson's public image.[143] The marriage lasted less than two years and ended with an amicable divorce settlement.[145] In a 2010 interview with Oprah, Presley admitted that they spent four more years after the divorce "getting back together and breaking up", until she decided to stop.[146]
[edit] HIStory, second marriage and fatherhood (1995–99)
In 1995, Jackson merged his ATV Music catalog with Sony's music publishing division creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Jackson retained half-ownership of the company, earned $95 million upfront as well as the rights to even more songs.[147][148] He then released the double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The first disc, HIStory Begins, was a 15-track greatest hits album, and was later reissued as Greatest Hits: HIStory, Volume I in 2001, while the second disc, HIStory Continues, contained 15 new songs. The album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for seven million shipments in the US.[149] It is the best-selling multiple-disc album of all-time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide.[113][150] HIStory received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.[151]
The first single released from the album was the double A-side "Scream/Childhood". "Scream" was a duet, performed with Jackson's youngest sister Janet. The song fights against the media, mainly for what the media made him out to be during his 1993 child abuse allegations. The single had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five, and received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals".[151] "You Are Not Alone" was the second single released from HIStory; it holds the Guinness World Record for the first song ever to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[99] It was seen as a major artistic and commercial success, receiving a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Vocal Performance".[151] In late 1995, Jackson was rushed to a hospital after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance; the incident was caused by a stress-related panic attack.[152] "Earth Song" was the third single released from HIStory, and topped the UK Singles Chart for six weeks over Christmas 1995; it sold a million copies, making it Jackson's most successful single in the UK.[151] The track "They Don't Care About Us" became controversial when the Anti-Defamation League and other groups criticized its allegedly antisemitic lyrics. Jackson quickly put out a revised version of the song without the offending lyrics.[153] In 1996, Jackson won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form for "Scream" and an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist.[32][154]
The album was promoted with the successful HIStory World Tour. The tour began on September 7, 1996, and finished on October 15, 1997. Jackson performed 82 concerts in 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans, and grossed up a total of $165 million. The show, which visited five continents and 35 countries, became Jackson's most successful in terms of audience figures.[92] During the tour, Jackson married his longtime friend Deborah Jeanne Rowe, a dermatology nurse, in an impromptu ceremony in Sydney, Australia. Rowe was approximately six months pregnant with the couple's first child at the time. Originally, Rowe and Jackson had no plans to marry, but Jackson's mother Katherine persuaded them to do so.[155] Michael Joseph Jackson Jr (commonly known as Prince) was born on February 13, 1997; his sister Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson was born a year later on April 3, 1998.[145][156] The couple divorced in 1999, and Jackson got full custody of the children. The divorce was relatively amicable, but a subsequent custody suit was not settled until 2006.[157][158]
In 1997, Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which contained remixes of hit singles from HIStory and five new songs. Worldwide sales stand at 6 million copies as of 2007, it is the best selling remix album ever released.[159] It reached number one in the UK, as did the title track.[159][160] In the US, the album was certified platinum, but only reached number 24.[110][151] Forbes placed his annual income at $35 million in 1996 and $20 million in 1997.[98] Throughout June 1999, Jackson was involved in a number of charitable events. He joined Luciano Pavarotti for a benefit concert in Modena, Italy. The show was in support of the nonprofit organization War Child, and raised a million dollars for the refugees of Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia, as well as additional funds for the children of Guatemala.[161] Later that month, Jackson organized a set of "Michael Jackson & Friends" benefit concerts in Germany and Korea. Other artists involved included Slash, The Scorpions, Boyz II Men, Luther Vandross, Mariah Carey, A. R. Rahman, Prabhu Deva Sundaram, Shobana, Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti. The proceeds went to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the Red Cross and UNESCO.[162]
[edit] Label dispute, Invincible and third child (2000–03)
At the turn of the century, the American Music Awards honored Jackson as Artist of the '80s.[163] Throughout 2000 and 2001, Jackson worked in the studio with Teddy Riley and Rodney Jerkins, as well as other collaborators. These sessions would result in the album Invincible, released in October 2001. Invincible was Jackson's first full-length album in six years, and it would be the last album of new material he released while still alive. The release of the album was preceded by a dispute between Jackson and his record label, Sony Music Entertainment. Jackson had expected the licenses to the masters of his albums to revert to him sometime in the early 2000s. Once he had the licenses, he would be able to promote the material however he pleased and he would also be able to keep all the profits. However, due to various clauses in the contract, the revert date turned out to be many years away. Jackson discovered that the attorney who represented him in the deal was also representing Sony.[160] Jackson was also concerned about the fact that for a number of years, Sony had been pressuring him to sell his share in their music catalog venture. Jackson feared that Sony might have a conflict of interest, since if Jackson's career failed he would have to sell his share of the catalog at a low price.[164] Jackson sought an early exit from his contract.[160] Just before the release of Invincible, Jackson informed the head of Sony Music Entertainment, Tommy Mottola, that he was leaving Sony.[160] As a result, all singles releases, video shootings and promotions concerning the Invincible album were suspended.
In September 2001, two 30th Anniversary concerts were held at Madison Square Garden to mark the singer's 30th year as a solo artist. Jackson appeared onstage alongside his brothers for the first time since 1984. The show also featured performances by Mýa, Usher, Whitney Houston, 'N Sync, Destiny's Child, Monica, Luther Vandross, and Slash, among other artists.[165] The second of the two shows took place the night before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.[166] After 9/11, Jackson helped organize the United We Stand: What More Can I Give benefit concert at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The concert took place on October 21, 2001, and included performances from dozens of major artists, including Jackson, who performed his song "What More Can I Give" as the finale.[164] Jackson's solo performances were omitted from the televised version of the benefit concert, although he could still be seen singing background vocals. This omission happened because of contractual issues related to the earlier 30th Anniversary concerts: those concerts were boiled down into a two-hour TV special titled Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration: The Solo Years which debuted in November 2001.
In spite of the events preceding its release, Invincible came out in October 2001 to much anticipation. Invincible proved to be a hit, debuting atop the charts in 13 countries and going on to sell approximately 13 million copies worldwide. It received double-platinum certification in the US.[110][113][167] However, the sales for Invincible were lower than those of his previous releases, due in part to a lack of promotion, no supporting world tour and the label dispute. The album also came out at a bad time for the music industry in general.[164] The album cost $30 million to record, not including promotional expenditures.[168] Invincible spawned three singles, "You Rock My World", "Cry" and "Butterflies", the latter without a music video. Jackson alleged in July 2002 that Mottola was a "devil" and a "racist" who did not support his African-American artists, using them merely for his own personal gain.[164] He charged that Mottola had called his colleague Irv Gotti a "fat nigger".[169] Sony refused to renew Jackson's contract, and claimed that a $25 million promotional campaign had failed because Jackson refused to tour in the United States.[168]
In 2002, Michael Jackson won his 22nd American Music Award for Artist of the Century.[170] In the same year, Jackson's third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (nicknamed "Blanket") was born.[171] The mother's identity is unknown, but Jackson has said the child was the result of artificial insemination from a surrogate mother and his own sperm.[157] On November 20 of that year, Jackson brought his newborn son onto the balcony of his room at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, as fans stood below, holding him in his right arm, with a cloth loosely draped over the baby's face. The baby was briefly extended over a railing, four stories above ground level, causing widespread criticism in the media. Jackson later apologized for the incident, calling it "a terrible mistake".[172] Sony released Number Ones, a compilation of Jackson's hits on CD and DVD. In the US, the album was certified triple platinum by the RIAA; in the UK it was certified six times platinum for shipments of at least 1.2 million units.[110][173]
Second child sexual abuse allegations and acquittal (2003–05)[link]
Further information: Living with Michael Jackson and People v. Jackson
Beginning in May 2002, Jackson allowed a documentary film crew, led by British TV personality Martin Bashir, to follow him around just about everywhere he went. Bashir's film crew was with Jackson during the "baby-dangling incident" in Berlin. The program was broadcast in March 2003 as Living with Michael Jackson, and painted an extraordinarily unflattering portrait of the singer.
In a particularly controversial scene, Jackson was seen holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with a young boy.[174] As soon as the documentary aired, the Santa Barbara county attorney's office began a criminal investigation. Jackson was arrested in November 2003, and was charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent in relation to the 13 year old boy shown in the film.[174] Jackson denied the allegations, saying the sleepovers were not sexual in nature. The People v. Jackson trial began on January 31, 2005, in Santa Maria, California, and lasted five months, until the end of May. On June 13, 2005, Jackson was acquitted on all counts.[175][176][177] After the trial, in a highly publicized relocation he moved to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, as a guest of Sheikh Abdullah.[178] Bahrain was also where the family intended to send Jackson if he was convicted (though Jackson did not know about the plan), according to a statement by Jermaine Jackson printed in The Times of London in September 2011.[179]
[edit] Closure of Neverland, final years and This Is It (2006–09)
In March 2006, the main house at the Neverland Ranch was closed as a cost-cutting measure.[180] There were numerous reports around that time that Jackson was having financial problems. Jackson had been delinquent on his repayments of a $270 million loan secured against his music publishing holdings, even though those holdings were reportedly making him as much as $75 million a year.[181] Bank of America sold the debt to Fortress Investments. Sony reportedly proposed a restructuring deal which would give them a future option to buy half of Jackson's stake in their jointly owned publishing company (leaving Jackson with a 25% stake).[148] Jackson agreed to a Sony-backed refinancing deal in April 2006, although the exact details were not made public.[182] Jackson did not have a recording contract in place with Sony or any other major record label at the time.
In early 2006, there was an announcement that Jackson had signed a contract with a Bahrain-based startup called Two Seas Records. However, nothing ever came of that deal, and the CEO of Two Seas, Guy Holmes, later stated that the deal had never been finalized.[183][184] Throughout 2006, Sony repackaged 20 singles from the 1980s and 1990s as the Michael Jackson: Visionary series, which subsequently became a box set. Most of those singles returned to the charts as a result. In September 2006, Jackson and his ex-wife Debbie Rowe confirmed reports that they had settled their long-running child custody suit. The terms were never made public. Jackson continued to be the custodial parent of the couple's two children.[158] In October 2006, Fox News entertainment reporter Roger Friedman said that Jackson had been recording at a studio in rural Westmeath, Ireland. It was not known at the time what Jackson might be working on, or who might be paying for the sessions, since his publicist had recently issued a statement claiming that he had left Two Seas.[184][185]
In November 2006, Jackson invited an Access Hollywood camera crew into the studio in Westmeath, and MSNBC broke the story that he was working on a new album, produced by will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas.[113] Jackson performed at the World Music Awards, in London on November 15, 2006, and accepted a Diamond Award for selling over 100 million records.[113][186] Jackson returned to the United States after Christmas 2006 to attend James Brown's funeral in Augusta, Georgia. He gave one of the eulogies, saying that "James Brown is my greatest inspiration."[187] In the spring of 2007, Jackson and Sony teamed up to buy yet another music publishing company: Famous Music LLC, formerly owned by Viacom. This deal gave him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira and Beck, among others.[188] Jackson recorded extensively during this period in New York with songwriter and producer will.i.am and also in Las Vegas with producers Akon and RedOne.[189][190] In March 2007, Jackson gave a brief interview to the Associated Press in Tokyo, where he said, "I've been in the entertainment industry since I was 6 years old, and as Charles Dickens would say, 'It's been the best of times, the worst of times.' But I would not change my career ... While some have made deliberate attempts to hurt me, I take it in stride because I have a loving family, a strong faith and wonderful friends and fans who have, and continue, to support me."[191]
In September 2007, Jackson was reportedly still working with will.i.am, but the album was apparently never completed.[192] However, in 2008, Jackson and Sony released Thriller 25 to mark the 25th anniversary of the original Thriller. This album featured the previously unreleased song "For All Time" (an outtake from the original sessions) as well as remixes, where Jackson collaborated with younger artists who had been inspired by his work.[193] Two of the remixes were released as singles with only modest success: "The Girl Is Mine 2008" (with will.i.am) and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 2008" (with Akon). The first single was based on an early demo version, without Paul McCartney. The album itself was a hit, however.[193][194][195][196] In anticipation of Jackson's 50th birthday, Sony BMG released a series of greatest-hits albums called King of Pop. Slightly different versions were released in various countries, based on polls of local fans.[197] King of Pop reached the top 10 in most countries where it was issued, and also sold well as an import in other countries (such as the United States.)[198][199]
In the fall of 2008, Fortress Investments threatened to foreclose on Neverland Ranch, which Jackson used as collateral for loans running into many tens of millions of dollars. However, Fortress opted to sell Jackson's debts to Colony Capital LLC. In November, Jackson transferred Neverland Ranch's title to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company LLC, which was a joint venture between Jackson and Colony Capital LLC. This deal cleared Jackson's debt, and he reportedly even gained an extra $35 million from the venture. At the time of his death, Jackson still owned a stake in Neverland/Sycamore Valley, but it is unknown how large that stake was.[200][201][202] In September 2008, Jackson entered negotiations with Julien's Auction House to display and auction a large collection of memorabilia amounting to approximately 1,390 lots. The auction was scheduled to take place between April 22 and April 25.[203] An exhibition of the lots opened as scheduled on April 14, but the actual auction was eventually cancelled at Jackson's request.[204]
In March 2009, Jackson held a press conference at London's O2 Arena and announced a series of comeback concerts titled This Is It. The shows would be Jackson's first major series of concerts since the HIStory World Tour finished in 1997. Jackson suggested possible retirement after the shows; he said it would be his "final curtain call". The initial plan was for 10 concerts in London, followed by shows in Paris, New York City and Mumbai. Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live, stated that the first 10 dates alone would earn the singer approximately £50 million.[205] The London residency was increased to 50 dates after record breaking ticket sales: over one million were sold in less than two hours.[206] Jackson rehearsed in Los Angeles in the weeks leading up to the tour under the direction of choreographer Kenny Ortega. Most of these rehearsals took place at the Staples Center, which was owned by AEG.[207] The concerts would have commenced on July 13, 2009, and finished on March 6, 2010. Less than three weeks before the first show was due to begin in London and with all concerts being sold out, Jackson died after suffering cardiac arrest.[208] Some time before his death, it was widely stated that he was starting a clothing line with Christian Audigier; due to his death, the current status of the label remains unknown.[209][210]
Jackson's first posthumous single was a song titled "This Is It" which Jackson cowrote in the 1980s with Paul Anka. It was not on the set lists for the concerts, and the recording was based on an old demo tape. The surviving brothers reunited in the studio for the first time since 1989 to record backing vocals. On October 28, 2009, a documentary film about the rehearsals titled Michael Jackson's This Is It was released.[211] Even though it ran for a limited two-week engagement, it became the highest grossing documentary or concert movie of all time, with earnings of more than $260 million worldwide.[212] Jackson's estate received 90% of the profits.[213] The film was accompanied by a compilation album of the same name. Two versions of the new song appear on the album, which also featured original masters of Jackson's hits in the order in which they appear in the movie, along with a bonus disc with previously unreleased versions of more Jackson hits as well as a spoken-word poem titled "Planet Earth".[214] At the 2009 American Music Awards Jackson won four posthumous awards, two for him and two for his album Number Ones, bringing his total American Music Awards to 26.[215][216]
Death and memorial[link]
Main articles: Death of Michael Jackson and Michael Jackson memorial service
File:MJ's tomb.jpg
Michael Jackson's Tomb in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
On June 25, 2009, Jackson died while in his bed at his rented mansion at 100 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles. Attempts at resuscitating him by Conrad Murray, his personal physician, were unsuccessful.[217] Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics received a 911 call at 12:22 (PDT, 19:22 UTC), arriving three minutes later at Jackson's location.[218][219] He was reportedly not breathing and CPR was performed.[220] Resuscitation efforts continued en route to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and for more than an hour after arriving there at 1:13 (20:13 UTC). He was pronounced dead at 2:26 local time (21:26 UTC).[221][222] Jackson's death triggered a global outpouring of grief.[217]
The news spread quickly online, causing websites to slow down and crash from user overload. Both TMZ and the Los Angeles Times suffered outages.[223] Google initially believed that the input from millions of people searching for "Michael Jackson" meant that the search engine was under DDoS attack, and blocked searches related to Michael Jackson for 30 minutes. Twitter reported a crash, as did Wikipedia at 3:15 p.m. PDT (22:15 UTC).[224] The Wikimedia Foundation reported nearly a million visitors to Jackson's biography within one hour, probably the most visitors in a one-hour period to any article in Wikipedia's history.[225] AOL Instant Messenger collapsed for 40 minutes. AOL called it a "seminal moment in Internet history", adding, "We've never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth."[226]
Around 15% of Twitter posts—or 5,000 tweets per minute—reportedly mentioned Jackson after the news broke,[227][228] compared to the 5% recalled as having mentioned the Iranian elections or the flu pandemic that had made headlines earlier in the year.[228] Overall, web traffic ranged from 11% to at least 20% higher than normal.[227][229] MTV and Black Entertainment Television (BET) aired marathons of Jackson's music videos.[230] Jackson specials aired on multiple television stations around the world. The British soap opera EastEnders added a last-minute scene, in which one character tells another about the news, to the June 26 episode.[231] Jackson was the topic of every front-page headline in the daily British tabloid The Sun for about two weeks following his death.[232] During the same period, the three major U.S. networks' evening newscasts—ABC World News, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News—devoted 34% of their broadcast time to him.[233] Magazines including Time published commemorative editions.[234] A scene that had featured Jackson's sister La Toya was cut from the film Brüno out of respect toward Jackson's family.[235]
Jackson's memorial was held on July 7, 2009, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, preceded by a private family service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park's Hall of Liberty. Jackson's casket was present during the memorial but no information was released about the final disposition of the body. While some unofficial reports claimed a worldwide audience as high as one billion people,[236][237] the U.S. audience was estimated by Nielsen to be 31.1 million, an amount comparable to the estimated 35.1 million that watched the 2004 burial of former president Ronald Reagan, and the estimated 33.1 million Americans who watched the 1997 funeral for Princess Diana.[238]
Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, John Mayer, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Jermaine Jackson, and Shaheen Jafargholi performed at the event. Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson gave eulogies, while Queen Latifah read "We had him", a poem written for the occasion by Maya Angelou.[239] The Reverend Al Sharpton received a standing ovation with cheers when he told Jackson's children, "Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway."[240] Jackson's 11-year-old daughter, Paris Katherine, cried as she told the crowd, "Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine ... I just wanted to say I love him ... so much."[166] Reverend Lucious Smith provided a closing prayer.[241] On August 24, several news outlets quoted anonymous sources as stating that the Los Angeles coroner had decided to treat Jackson's death as a homicide; this was later confirmed by the coroner on August 28.[242][243] At the time of death, Jackson had been administered propofol, lorazepam and midazolam.[244] Law enforcement officials conducted a manslaughter investigation of his personal physician, Conrad Murray.[245] On February 8, 2010, Murray was charged with involuntary manslaughter by prosecutors in Los Angeles.[246] Jackson was entombed on September 3, 2009, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[247]
On June 25, 2010, the first anniversary of Jackson's death, fans traveled to Los Angeles to pay their tribute to him. They visited Jackson’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and his family’s home, as well as Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Many of the fans were carrying sunflowers and other tribute items to drop off at the sites. Members of the Jackson family and close friends arrived to pay their respects.[248][249] Katherine returned to Gary, Indiana to unveil a granite monument constructed in the front yard of the family home. The memorial continued with a candlelight vigil and a special performance of "We Are the World".[250][251] On June 26, there was a protest march in front of the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division at the old Parker Center building and a petition with thousands of signatures demanding justice was delivered.[252][253] The Jackson Family Foundation in conjunction with Voiceplate presented "Forever Michael", an event bringing together Jackson family members, celebrities, fans, supporters and the community to celebrate and honor his legacy. A portion of the proceeds were presented to some of Jackson's favorite charities. Katherine also introduced her new book "Never Can Say Goodbye".[254][255][256]
Death aftermath[link]
After his death, Jackson became the best-selling albums artist of 2009. In the United States selling over 8.2 million albums and a total of 35 million albums worldwide in the 12 months that followed his death.[257][258] Following this surge in sales, Sony announced that they had extended their relationship with his material. The distribution rights held by Sony Music were due to expire in 2015.[259] On March 16, 2010, Sony Music Entertainment, in a move spearheaded by its Columbia/Epic Label Group division, signed a new deal with the Jackson estate to extend their distribution rights to his back catalogue until at least 2017, as well as to obtain permission to release ten new albums with previously unreleased material and new collections of released work. On November 4, 2010 Sony announced the release of Michael, the first posthumous album set to be released on December 14, with the promotional single released to the radios on November 8, titled "Breaking News".[260] The deal was unprecedented in the music industry as it is the most expensive music contract pertaining to a single artist in history; it reportedly involved Sony Music paying $250 million for the deal, with the Jackson estate getting the full sum as well as its share of royalties for all works released.[259][261] Video game developer Ubisoft announced it would release a new dancing-and-singing game featuring Michael Jackson for the 2010 holiday season. The game titled Michael Jackson: The Experience will be among the first to use Kinect and PlayStation Move, the respective motion-detecting camera systems for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 due out later that year.[262]
On November 3, 2010, the theatrical performing company Cirque du Soleil announced that it would launch "Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour" in October 2011 in Montreal, while a permanent show will reside in Las Vegas.[263] The 90-minute US$57M production will combine Jackson's iconic musical oeuvre and choreography with the Cirque's signature artistry, dance and aerial displays involving 65 artists.[264] The tour was written and directed by Jamie King[265] and centers on Jackson's "inspirational Giving Tree – the wellspring of creativity where his love of music and dance, fairy tale and magic, and the fragile beauty of nature are unlocked."[266] On October 3, 2011, the accompanying compilation soundtrack album Immortal was announced to have over 40 Jackson’s original recordings re-produced by Kevin Antunes.[267]
In April 2011, Jackson's longtime friend and billionaire businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, chairman of Fulham F.C., unveiled a statue of Jackson outside the club's stadium, Craven Cottage.[268] Fulham fans were however bemused by the statue and failed to understand the relevance of Jackson to the club.[269] Al Fayed however defended the statue and told the fans to 'go to hell' if they didn't appreciate the statue.[270]
Artistry[link]
Influences[link]
Jackson's music took root in R&B, pop and soul. He had been influenced by the work of contemporary musicians such as Little Richard, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Diana Ross, David Ruffin, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis, Jr., The Isley Brothers, the Bee Gees and the West Side Story dancers, to whom he made a tribute in "Beat It" and in the "Bad" video.[271] According to David Winters, who met and befriended Jackson while choreographing the 1971 Diana Ross TV Special "Diana!", (which was also Jackson's first solo debut outside of The Jackson 5), Jackson watched West Side Story almost every week and it was his favorite film.[272][273][274] While Little Richard had a substantial influence on Jackson,[275][276] James Brown was Jackson's greatest inspiration. In reference to Brown, Jackson declared: "Ever since I was a small child, no more than like six years old, my mother would wake me no matter what time it was, if I was sleeping, no matter what I was doing, to watch the television to see the master at work. And when I saw him move, I was mesmerized. I had never seen a performer perform like James Brown, and right then and there I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because of James Brown."[277]
The young Michael Jackson owed his vocal technique in large part to Diana Ross. Not only a mother figure to him, she was often observed in rehearsal as an accomplished performer. He later expressed: "I got to know her well. She taught me so much. I used to just sit in the corner and watch the way she moved. She was art in motion. I studied the way she moved, the way she sang – just the way she was." He told her: "I want to be just like you, Diana." She said: "You just be yourself."[278] But Jackson owed part of his enduring style—especially his use of the oooh interjection—to Ross. From a young age, Jackson often punctuated his verses with a sudden exclamation of oooh. Diana Ross had used this effect on many of the songs recorded with The Supremes.[279]
Musical themes and genres[link]
Unlike many artists, Jackson did not write his songs on paper. Instead he would dictate into a sound recorder, and when recording he would sing the lyrics from memory.[280] In most of his songs, such as "Billie Jean", "Who Is It", and "Tabloid Junkie", he would beatbox and imitate the instruments using his voice instead of playing the actual instruments, along with other sounds. Jackson noted that it is easier to sing a drum line, or sing a bass, instead of playing a drum line or a bass with an instrument. Several critics have said that Jackson's distinct voice was able to replace any instrument convincingly. Steve Huey of Allmusic said that, throughout his solo career, Jackson's versatility allowed him to experiment with various themes and genres.[281] As a musician, he ranged from Motown's dance fare and ballads to techno and house-edged new jack swing to work that incorporates both funk rhythms and hard rock guitar.[18][282][283]
According to Huey, Thriller refined the strengths of Off the Wall; the dance and rock tracks were more aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads were softer and more soulful.[281] Notable tracks included the ballads "The Lady in My Life", "Human Nature" and "The Girl Is Mine"; the funk pieces "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"; and the post-disco set "Baby Be Mine" and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)".[281][282][283][284][285] With Thriller, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone commented that Jackson developed his long association with the subliminal theme of paranoia and darker imagery.[285] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted this is evident on the songs "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".[283] In "Billie Jean", Jackson sings about an obsessive fan who alleges he has fathered a child of hers.[281] In "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" he argues against gossip and the media.[285] "Beat It" decried gang violence in an homage to West Side Story, and was Jackson's first successful rock cross-over piece, according to Huey.[18][281] He also observed that the title track "Thriller" began Jackson's interest with the theme of the supernatural, a topic he revisited in subsequent years.[281] In 1985, Jackson co-wrote the charity anthem "We Are the World"; humanitarian themes later became a recurring theme in his lyrics and public persona.[281]
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One of Jackson's signature pieces, "Thriller", released as a single in 1984, utilizes cinematic sound effects, horror film motifs and vocal trickery to convey a sense of danger.[22]
A single from the album Bad, released 1988, "Smooth Criminal" features digital drum sounds, keyboard-created bass lines and other percussion elements designed to give the impression of a pulsing heart.[286]
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In Bad, Jackson's concept of the predatory lover can be seen on the rock song "Dirty Diana".[290] The lead single "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" is a traditional love ballad, while "Man in the Mirror" is an anthemic ballad of confession and resolution.[78] "Smooth Criminal" was an evocation of bloody assault, rape and likely murder.[78] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that Dangerous presents Jackson as a very paradoxical individual.[291] He comments the album is more diverse than his previous Bad, as it appeals to an urban audience while also attracting the middle class with anthems like "Heal the World".[291] The first half of the record is dedicated to new jack swing, including songs like "Jam" and "Remember the Time".[292] The album is Jackson's first where social ills become a primary theme; "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", for example, protests against world hunger, AIDS, homelessness and drugs.[292] Dangerous contains sexually charged efforts such as the multifaceted love song, "In the Closet".[292] The title track continues the theme of the predatory lover and compulsive desire.[292] The second half includes introspective, pop-gospel anthems such as "Will You Be There", "Heal the World" and "Keep the Faith"; these songs show Jackson opening up about various personal struggles and worries.[292] In the ballad "Gone Too Soon", Jackson gives tribute to his friend Ryan White and the plight of those with AIDS.[293]
HIStory creates an atmosphere of paranoia.[294] Its content focuses on the hardships and public struggles Jackson went through just prior to its production. In the new jack swing-funk-rock efforts "Scream" and "Tabloid Junkie", along with the R&B ballad "You Are Not Alone", Jackson retaliates against the injustice and isolation he feels, and directs much of his anger at the media.[295] In the introspective ballad "Stranger in Moscow", Jackson laments over his "fall from grace", while songs like "Earth Song", "Childhood", "Little Susie" and "Smile" are all operatic pop pieces.[294][295] In the track "D.S.", Jackson launched a verbal attack against Tom Sneddon. He describes Sneddon as an antisocial, white supremacist who wanted to "get my ass, dead or alive". Of the song, Sneddon said, "I have not—shall we say—done him the honor of listening to it, but I've been told that it ends with the sound of a gunshot".[296] Invincible found Jackson working heavily with producer Rodney Jerkins.[281] It is a record made up of urban soul like "Cry" and "The Lost Children", ballads such as "Speechless", "Break of Dawn" and "Butterflies" and mixes hip-hop, pop and R&B in "2000 Watts", "Heartbreaker" and "Invincible".[297][298]
Vocal style[link]
Jackson sang from childhood, and over time his voice and vocal style changed noticeably. Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson's voice descended from boy soprano to high tenor.[299] His vocal range as an adult was F2-E♭6. Jackson first used a technique called the "vocal hiccup" in 1973, starting with the song "It's Too Late to Change the Time" from The Jackson 5's G.I.T.: Get It Together album.[300] Jackson did not use the hiccup technique— somewhat like a gulping for air or gasping— fully until the recording of Off the Wall: it can be seen in full force in the "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" promotional video.[20] With the arrival of Off the Wall in the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded. At the time, Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbred tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly".[301][302] 1982 saw the release of Thriller, and Rolling Stone was of the opinion that Jackson was then singing in a "fully adult voice" that was "tinged by sadness".[285]
A distinctive deliberate mispronunciation of "come on", used frequently by Jackson, occasionally spelled "cha'mone" or "shamone", is also a staple in impressions and caricatures of him.[303] The turn of the 1990s saw the release of the introspective album Dangerous. The New York Times noted that on some tracks, "he gulps for breath, his voice quivers with anxiety or drops to a desperate whisper, hissing through clenched teeth" and he had a "wretched tone".[292] When singing of brotherhood or self-esteem the musician would return to "smooth" vocals.[292] When commenting on Invincible, Rolling Stone were of the opinion that—at the age of 43—Jackson still performed "exquisitely voiced rhythm tracks and vibrating vocal harmonies".[304] Nelson George summed up Jackson's vocals by stating "The grace, the aggression, the growling, the natural boyishness, the falsetto, the smoothness—that combination of elements mark him as a major vocalist".[286]
Music videos and choreography[link]
Jackson has also been referred to as the King of Music Videos,[305] Steve Huey of Allmusic observed how Jackson transformed the music video into an art form and a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameo appearances; simultaneously breaking down racial barriers.[281] Before Thriller, Jackson struggled to receive coverage on MTV, allegedly because he was African American.[306] Pressure from CBS Records persuaded MTV to start showing "Billie Jean" and later "Beat It", leading to a lengthy partnership with Jackson, also helping other black music artists gain recognition.[307] MTV employees deny any racism in their coverage, or pressure to change their stance. MTV maintains that they played rock music, regardless of race.[308] The popularity of his videos on MTV helped to put the relatively young channel "on the map"; MTV's focus shifted in favor of pop and R&B.[309][307] His performance on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever changed the scope of live stage show; "That Jackson lip-synced 'Billie Jean' is, in itself, not extraordinary, but the fact that it did not change the impact of the performance is extraordinary; whether the performance was live or lip-synced made no difference to the audience" thus creating an era in which artists re-create the spectacle of music video imagery on stage.[310] Short films like Thriller largely remained unique to Jackson, while the group dance sequence in "Beat It" has frequently been imitated.[311] The choreography in Thriller has become a part of global pop culture, replicated everywhere from Indian films to prisons in the Philippines.[312] The Thriller short film marked an increase in scale for music videos, and has been named the most successful music video ever by the Guinness World Records.[99]
In the 19-minute music video for "Bad"—directed by Martin Scorsese—Jackson began using sexual imagery and choreography not previously seen in his work. He occasionally grabbed or touched his chest, torso and crotch. When asked by Oprah in the 1993 interview about why he grabbed his crotch, he replied, "I think it happens subliminally" and he described it as something that was not planned, but rather, as something that was compelled by the music. "Bad" garnered a mixed reception from both fans and critics; Time magazine described it as "infamous". The video also featured Wesley Snipes; in the future Jackson's videos would often feature famous cameo roles.[71][313] For "Smooth Criminal", Jackson experimented with an innovative "anti-gravity lean" in his performances. The maneuver required special shoes for which he was granted U.S. Patent No. 5,255,452.[314] Although the music video for "Leave Me Alone" was not officially released in the US, in 1989, it was nominated for three Billboard Music Video Awards;[315] the same year it won a Golden Lion Award for the quality of the special effects used in its production. In 1990, "Leave Me Alone" won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form.[97]
He received the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 1988 and the MTV Video Vanguard Artist of the Decade Award in 1990 to celebrate his accomplishments in the art form in the 1980s; in 1991 the first award was renamed in his honor.[114] "Black or White" was accompanied by a controversial music video, which, on November 14, 1991, simultaneously premiered in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people, the largest viewing ever for a music video.[113] It featured scenes construed as having a sexual nature as well as depictions of violence. The offending scenes in the final half of the 14-minute version were edited out to prevent the video from being banned, and Jackson apologized.[316] Along with Jackson, it featured Macaulay Culkin, Peggy Lipton and George Wendt. It helped usher in morphing as an important technology in music videos.[317]
"Remember the Time" was an elaborate production, and became one of his longest videos at over nine minutes. Set in ancient Egypt, it featured groundbreaking visual effects and appearances by Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson, along with a distinct complex dance routine.[318] The video for "In the Closet" was Jackson's most sexually provocative piece. It featured supermodel Naomi Campbell in a courtship dance with Jackson. The video was banned in South Africa because of its imagery.[114]
The music video for "Scream", directed by Mark Romanek and production designer Tom Foden, is one of Jackson's most critically acclaimed. In 1995, it gained 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than any other music video—and won "Best Dance Video", "Best Choreography", and "Best Art Direction".[319] The song and its accompanying video are a response to the backlash Jackson received from the media after being accused of child molestation in 1993.[320] A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form; shortly afterwards Guinness World Records listed it as the most expensive music video ever made at a cost of $7 million.[151][321]
"Earth Song" was accompanied by an expensive and well-received music video that gained a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form in 1997. The video had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, wars end, and the forests re-grow.[151][322] Released in 1997 and premiering at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, Michael Jackson's Ghosts was a short film written by Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston. The video for Ghosts is over 38 minutes long and holds the Guinness World Record as the world's longest music video.[151][160][323][324]
Legacy and influence[link]
Jackson throughout his career transformed the art of the music video and paved the way for modern pop music. Daily Telegraph writer Tom Utley described Jackson in 2003 as "extremely important" and a "genius".[239] For much of his career, he had an "unparalleled" level of worldwide influence over the younger generation through his musical and humanitarian contributions.[153] Jackson's music and videos, such as Thriller, fostered racial diversity in MTV's roster, helped to put the relatively new channel into public awareness, and steered the channel's focus from rock to pop music and R&B, shaping the channel into a form that proved enduring. Jackson's work continues to influence numerous hip hop, rock, pop and R&B artists, including Patrick Stump,[325] Jennifer Lopez,[326] Beyoncé,[327] Mariah Carey,[328] Mýa,[329] Usher,[330] Adam Lambert,[331] Green Day,[332] Justin Timberlake,[333] Britney Spears,[334] Madonna,[335] Alien Ant Farm[164] and Ludacris, among others.[336]
Allmusic's Steve Huey describes Jackson as "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the skills to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power".[281] In the mid-1980s, Time magazine's pop music critic, Jay Cocks, noted "Jackson is the biggest thing since The Beatles. He is the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley. He just may be the most popular black singer ever".[40] In 1990, Vanity Fair cited Jackson as the most popular artist in the history of show business.[97] In 2007, Jackson said, "Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it, my music, I know I will live forever."[337]
Shortly after Jackson's death, on June 25, 2009, MTV briefly returned to its original music video format to celebrate and pay tribute to his work.[338] The channel aired many hours of Jackson's music videos, accompanied by live news specials featuring reactions from MTV personalities and other celebrities. The temporary shift in MTV's programming culminated the following week in the channel's live coverage of Jackson's memorial service.[339] At the memorial service on July 7, 2009, founder of Motown Records Berry Gordy proclaimed Jackson as "the greatest entertainer that ever lived".[340][341][342]
In 2010, two university librarians found that Jackson's influence extended into academia, and was detectable in scholarly literature pertaining to a range of subject matter.[343][344] The two researchers combed through various scholars' writings, and compiled an annotated bibliography of those writings that appeared to meet at least one of several criteria. Among these criteria were appearance in a peer-reviewed journal, and the provision of insight into the nature of "popular icons including Jackson".[345] The bibliography located references to Jackson in research reports concerning music, popular culture, and an array of other topics. The bibliographers identified as their most peculiar finding an argument that certain aspects of chemistry can be effectively taught by altering and imitating elements of Jackson's singing.[346] One of the research librarians later reflected that "the fact that someone would take a Michael Jackson song and co-opt it as a means to convey chemistry concepts just shows the pervasiveness of Jackson's influence".[343]
Honors and awards[link]
Michael Jackson was inducted onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1980 as member of The Jacksons and in 1984 as solo artist. Throughout his career he received numerous honors and awards, including the World Music Awards' Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, the American Music Award's Artist of the Century Award and the Bambi Pop Artist of the Millennium Award.[165][347] He was a double-inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and later as a solo artist in 2001. Jackson was also inducted in several other hall of fames, including Vocal Group Hall of Fame (as The Jackson 5 member) in 1999, Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and Hit Parade Hall of Fame (with his brothers) in 2009.[165][348] In 2010, Jackson was inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the first (and currently only) dancer from the world of pop and rock 'n' roll.[349] His awards include many Guinness World Records (eight in 2006 alone),[350] 13 Grammy Awards (as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), 26 American Music Awards (24 only as a solo artist, including the "Artist of the Century", but not the poll of "Artist of the '80s")—more than any artist—, 13 number one singles in the US in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era[351]—and estimated sales of up to 750 million records worldwide, making him the world's best selling male solo pop artist.[32][99][113][163][215][216][352][353][354][355][356] On December 29, 2009, the American Film Institute recognized Jackson's death as a "moment of significance" saying, "Michael Jackson's sudden death in June at age 50 was notable for the worldwide outpouring of grief and the unprecedented global eulogy of his posthumous concert rehearsal movie This Is It."[357] Michael Jackson also received a Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from the United Negro College Fund[358] and also an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Fisk University.[359]
Lifetime earnings[link]
His total lifetime earnings from royalties on his solo recordings and music videos, revenue from concerts and endorsements have been estimated at US$500 million; some analysts have speculated that his music catalog holdings could be worth billions of dollars.[98][360] This speculation however is contradicted by financial documents obtained by the Associated Press, which showed that as of March 31, 2007, Jackson's 50 percent stake in the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog (his most prized asset) was worth $390.6 million and Michael Jackson's net worth was $236 million.[361] Billboard has estimated that Jackson has generated at least $1 billion in revenue in the year following his death.[362]
Discography[link]
Main articles: Michael Jackson albums discography, Michael Jackson singles discography, and Michael Jackson videography
See also: Jackson 5 discography
- Got to Be There (1972)
- Ben (1972)
- Music & Me (1973)
- Forever, Michael (1975)
- Off the Wall (1979)
- Thriller (1982)
- Bad (1987)
- Dangerous (1991)
- HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995)
- Invincible (2001)
Filmography[link]
Main article: Michael Jackson videography
| Year | Film | Role | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | The Wiz[363] | Scarecrow | Lumet, SidneySidney Lumet |
| 1986 | Captain EO[364] | Captain EO | Coppola, Francis FordFrancis Ford Coppola |
| 1988 | Moonwalker[365] | Himself | Kramer, JerryJerry Kramer |
| 1997 | Michael Jackson's Ghosts[366] | Maestro/Mayor/Ghoul/Skeleton | Winston, StanStan Winston |
| 2002 | Men in Black II[367] | Agent M (cameo) | Sonnenfeld, BarryBarry Sonnenfeld |
| 2004 | Miss Cast Away and the Island Girls[368] | Agent MJ (cameo) | Stoller, Bryan MichaelBryan Michael Stoller |
| 2009 | Michael Jackson's This Is It[369] | Himself | Ortega, KennyKenny Ortega |
Tours[link]
- Bad World Tour (1987–89)
- Dangerous World Tour (1992–93)
- HIStory World Tour (1996–97)
- This Is It (2009–10) (cancelled)
See also[link]
 |
Book: Michael Jackson |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
- Honorific nicknames in popular music
- Michael Jackson-related games
- List of awards received by Michael Jackson
- List of best-selling albums
- List of best-selling music artists
- List of best-selling music artists in the United States
- List of most expensive music videos
- List of unreleased Michael Jackson material
- List of cover versions of Michael Jackson songs
References[link]
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- ^ Lewis, p. 47
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- ^ a b c Cocks, Jay (March 19, 1984). "Why He's a Thriller". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,950053-1,00.html. Retrieved April, 25 2010.
- ^ Taraborrelli, p. 226
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- ^ Alex Dobuzinskis (December 30, 2009). "Jackson "Thriller" film picked for U.S. registry". Reuters (Thomas Reuters). http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/12/30/us-thriller-idUSTRE5BT43W20091230?type=musicNews. Retrieved July 2, 2011.
- ^ Dave Itzkoff (December 30, 2009). "'Thriller' Video Added to U.S. Film Registry". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/arts/music/31arts-THRILLERVIDE_BRF.html. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
- ^ Pareles, John. Michael Jackson at 25: A Musical Phenomenon, The New York Times, January 14, 1984.
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- ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 279–287
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- ^ "Bruce shows who's Boss". The Montreal Gazette. (January 28, 1986). http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=MRgiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7aUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1658,3425033&dq=american+music+awards&hl=en. Retrieved June 16, 2010.
- ^ Lisa D. Campbell (1993). Michael Jackson: the King of Pop. Branden Books. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-8283-1957-7. http://books.google.com/?id=BVC9zltjf-EC&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=Michael+Jackson+won+American+Music+Awards+Appreciation&q=Michael%20Jackson%20won%20American%20Music%20Awards%20Appreciation. Retrieved June 16, 2010.
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- ^ a b c "Paul McCartney refused an offer to buy the ATV Catalog for £20 million". Audio & transcript of McCartney at a 1990 press conference. November 13, 2010. http://mjjinfo.blogspot.com/2010/11/paul-mccartney-refused-to-buy-atv.html.
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- ^ a b c Campbell (1995), pp. 14–16
- ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 434–436
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- ^ a b Taraborrelli, pp. 355–361
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- ^ Goldberg, 1Michael; Handelman, David (September 24, 1987). "Is Michael Jackson for Real?". Rolling Stone (Wenner Media LLC).
- ^ a b Taraborrelli, pp. 370–373
- ^ "Newswatch Magazine – The Man, His Weird Ways". Newswatchngr.com. July 5, 2009. http://www.newswatchngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1080&Itemid=1. Retrieved October 24, 2009.
- ^ Jackson, Michael (September 12, 1997). Interview with Barbara Walters. 20/20. ABC.
- ^ Taraborrelli, p. vii
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- ^ "Captain EO is Back to Change the World – Movies News at IGN". Movies.ign.com. February 23, 2010. http://movies.ign.com/articles/107/1071393p1.html?RSSwhen2010-02-23_111800&RSSid=1071393. Retrieved August 22, 2010.
- ^ Ebony, Vol. 42, No. 11, September 1987, and Vol. 45, No. 12, October 1990.
- ^ a b c Cocks, Jay. The Badder They Come, Time, September 14, 1987.
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- ^ "50 fastest selling albums ever". NME.com. 2011. http://www.nme.com/photos/50-fastest-selling-albums-ever/213617/40/1. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
- ^ Gil Kaufman (2010). "Michael Jackson's New Album Cover Decoded Painting is packed with iconic MJ images". mtv.com. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1651633/michael-jacksons-new-album-cover-decoded.jhtml. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
- ^ Piya Sinha-Roy (2012). "Michael Jackson is still "Bad," 25 years after". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/entertainment-us-michaeljackson-bad-idUSBRE84K0Z120120521. Retrieved May 22, 2012.
- ^ Piya Sinha-Roy (2012). "Michael Jackson is still "Bad", 25 years after album". Chicagotribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-22/entertainment/sns-rt-us-michaeljackson-bad25bre84l17s-20120522_1_conrad-murray-dirty-diana-grammy-winning-album. Retrieved May 22, 2012.
- ^ "25th Anniversary Of Michael Jackson’s Landmark Album Bad Celebrated With September 18 Release Of New Bad 25 Packages". Yahoo. 2012. http://news.yahoo.com/25th-anniversary-michael-jackson-landmark-album-bad-celebrated-140242006.html. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
- ^ contactmusic (2012). "Michael Jackson - Michael Jackson's Bad To Get 25Th Anniversary Release". contactmusic. http://www.contactmusic.com/news/michael-jacksons-bad-to-get-25th-anniversary-release_1330641. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
- ^ "Michael, Travis top Music Award winners". Lodi News-Sentinel. (January 30, 1989). http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=lZozAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lTIHAAAAIBAJ&pg=4477,3617735&dq=american+music+awards&hl=en. Retrieved June 16, 2010.
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- ^ Lisa D. Campbell (1993). Michael Jackson: the King of Pop. Branden Books. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-8283-1957-7. http://books.google.com/?id=BVC9zltjf-EC&pg=PA251&dq=Michael+Jackson+Moonwalker+251&q=Michael%20Jackson%20Moonwalker%20251. Retrieved July 5, 2010.
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- ^ a b Lewis, pp. 95–96
- ^ Harrington, Richard.Jackson to Make First Solo U.S. Tour, The Washington Post, January 12, 1988.
- ^ Shanahan, Mark and Golstein, Meredith (June 27, 2009). "Remembering Michael". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2009/06/27/writer_stephen_davis_remembers_michael_jackson. Retrieved March 14, 2010.
- ^ Jackson, pp. 29–31
- ^ George, p. 42
- ^ a b c d e George, pp. 43–44
- ^ a b c Gunderson,, Edna (February 19, 2007). "For Jackson, scandal could spell financial ruin". USA Today (Gannett Co. Inc). http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-11-24-jackson-finances_x.htm. Retrieved March 14, 2010.
- ^ a b c d "Jackson receives his World Records". Yahoo!. (November 14, 2006). http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/14112006/344/jackson-receives-world-records.html&e=l_news_dm. Retrieved November 16, 2006. [dead link]
- ^ Press references to Jackson as a music "king" appeared as early as 1984 after he swept the Grammy Awards, and "king of pop" appeared as early as 1987. MTV and Fox used the title in joint press releases and ads for the "Black or White" video at Jackson's request, but MTV denied a report that VJs were required to use it on-camera. Writers described the title as self-proclaimed from then on.
- ^ Arar, Yardena (February 29, 1984). "Michael Jackson coronated latest king of rock 'n' roll". Boca Raton News: p. 7A.
- ^ Staff writer (July 27, 1987). "Is the thrill gone for singer Michael Jackson?". Sacramento Bee: p. B3.
- ^ Browne, David (November 29, 1991). "Michael Jackson's Black or White Blues". Entertainment Weekly.
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- ^ Hicklin, Aaron (2011-12-07). "Adam Revisited". http://www.out.com/out-exclusives/out100/2011/11/07/adam-revisited?page=0%2c1. Retrieved 2012-02-24.
- ^ "Green Day Look Forward To Janet Jackson's VMA Tribute To Michael". MTV. September 13, 2009. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1621362/20090913/green_day.jhtml. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
- ^ "Justin Timberlake: ‘Michael Jackson Will Always Will be The King of Pop’ « Showbiz Spy – celebrity news, rumors & gossip". Showbizspy.com. 2009-07-01. http://www.showbizspy.com/article/188706/justin-timberlake-michael-jackson-will-always-will-be-the-king-of-pop.html. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
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- ^ Monroe, Bryan (December 2007). "Michael Jackson in His Own Words" (Print/Magazine). Ebony.
- ^ Barnes, Brokes (June 25, 2009). "A Star Idolized and Haunted, Michael Jackson Dies at 50". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/arts/music/26jackson.html?ref=obituaries. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
- ^ "More adds, loose ends, and lament". The 120 Minutes Archive. July 25, 2009. http://altmusictv.blogspot.com/2009/07/more-adds-loose-ends-and-lament.html. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
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- ^ a b Chandler, Cory. "Librarians Prove Michael Jackson Was a Rock Star in Academic Literature". Texas Tech University. http://today.ttu.edu/2010/05/librarians-prove-michael-jackson-was-a-rock-star-in-academic-literature/. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
- ^ Hidalgo, Susan and Weiner, Robert G. (2010). "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin': MJ in the Scholarly Literature: A Selected Bibliographic Guide". The Journal of Pan African Studies 3 (7): 14–28. http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol3no7/3.7MJ-Wanna-3.pdf.
- ^ Hidalgo and Weiner (2010), p. 15.
- ^ Hidalgo and Weiner (2010), p. 25.
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- ^ "Santana wins top album honors at American Music Awards". Times Daily. (January 18, 2000). http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=essyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bskEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3817,2301247&dq=american+music+awards&hl=en. Retrieved June 16, 2010.
- ^ Serjeant, Jill (December 29, 2009). "Michael Jackson's Death Among 2009's Major Moments". ABC News (The Walt Disney Company).
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- ^ "Pop Star Michael Jackson Influenced Academics, Received PhD". Discovery.com. June 23, 2010. http://news.discovery.com/human/pop-star-michael-jackson-influenced-academics-received-phd.html. Retrieved January 4, 2011.
- ^ "Witness: Jacko Lived Way Above Means". Fox News Channel. (May 3, 2005). http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155356,00.html. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
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- ^ Christman, Ed, Ann Donahue, Gail Mitchell, Glenn Peoples and Ray Waddell (June 21, 2010). "How Michael Jackson Made $1 Billion Since His Death". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media. http://www.billboard.com/news/how-michael-jackson-made-1-billion-since-1004099450.story#/news/how-michael-jackson-made-1-billion-since-1004099450.story. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
- ^ Jones, pp. 229, 259
- ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 355–356
- ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 413–414
- ^ Taraborrelli, p. 610
- ^ Scott, A. O (July 3, 2002). "Defending Earth, With Worms and a Talking Pug". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/03/movies/03BLAC.html?ex=1234155600&en=1e9c4a5a1eafc54f&ei=5070. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
- ^ Chaney, Jen (July 19, 2005). "'Miss Cast Away': You Know It's Bad". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/18/AR2005071800641_pf.html. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
- ^ Le, Danny (August 11, 2009). "'Michael Jackson's "This Is It," to be Presented In Theaters Around The World". MichaelJackson.com. http://www.michaeljackson.com/us/news/michael-jacksons-it-be-presented-theaters-around-world. Retrieved August 11, 2009.
- Bibliography
- Brackett, Nathan; Christian Hoard (2004). The Rolling Stone Album Guide. Fireside. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
- Campbell, Lisa (1993). Michael Jackson: The King of Pop. Branden. ISBN 0-8283-1957-X.
- Campbell, Lisa (1995). Michael Jackson: The King of Pop's Darkest Hour. Branden. ISBN 0-8283-2003-9. http://books.google.ca/books?id=BVC9zltjf-EC&lpg=PP1&dq=michael%20jackson&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true.
- George, Nelson (2004). Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection booklet. Sony BMG.
- Guinness World Records (2003). Guinness World Records 2004. Guinness. ISBN 1-892051-20-6.
- Guinness World Records (2005). Guinness World Records 2006. Guinness. ISBN 1-904994-02-4.
- Jackson, Michael (2009) [First published 1988]. Moonwalk. Random House. ISBN 978-0-307-71698-9. http://books.google.ca/books?id=E9sGl5P8vQMC&lpg=PP1&dq=Moonwalk&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true.
- Ramage, John D.; Bean, John C.; Johnson, June (2001). Writing arguments: a rhetoric with readings. Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0-205-31745-6.
- Taraborrelli, J. Randy (2009). Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958–2009. Terra Alta, WV: Grand Central Publishing, 2009. ISBN 0-446-56474-5, 9780446564748.
Further reading[link]
- Dineen, Catherine (1993). Michael Jackson: In His Own Words. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-3216-6. http://books.google.ca/books?id=DEspWj_IN_UC&lpg=PP1&dq=Michael%20Jackson%3A%20In%20His%20Own%20Words&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true.
- Grant, Adrian (1994, 1997, 2002 and 2005). Michael Jackson: The Visual Documentary. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-432-2.
- Jackson, Michael (2006). My World, The Official Photobook, Vol. 1. Triumph International. ISBN 0-9768891-1-0.
- Jones, Bob (2005). Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask. Select Books Inc. ISBN 1-59079-072-3. http://books.google.ca/books?id=8j4ILUllObsC&lpg=PP1&dq=Michael%20Jackson%3A%20The%20Man%20Behind%20the%20Mask&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true.
- Jefferson, Margo; Brown (2007). On Michael Jackson. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-307-27765-7. http://books.google.com/?id=WJiPk-3oPGkC&lpg=PP1&dq=Michael%20Jackson&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true.
- Noonan, Damien (1994) (Audio book). Michael Jackson. Carlton Books. ISBN 1-85797-587-1.
External links[link]
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Jackson, Michael Joseph |
| Alternative names | Jackson, Michael Joe; Jackson, Michael J. |
| Short description | Singer |
| Date of birth | August 29, 1958 |
| Place of birth | Gary, Indiana, United States |
| Date of death | June 25, 2009 |
| Place of death | Los Angeles, California, United States |
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
For other people named John Mayer, see John Mayer (disambiguation).
| John Mayer | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Mayer at the Mile High Music Festival on July 20, 2008 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | John Clayton Mayer |
| Born | (1977-10-16) October 16, 1977 (age 34) Bridgeport, Connecticut United States |
| Genres | Pop rock, blues rock, acoustic rock, blue-eyed soul |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter, record producer, columnist, graphic designer, photographer, comedian, television host |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals, omnichord, piano, vibraphone, harmonica, percussion, clarinet, violin |
| Years active | 1998 (1998)–present |
| Labels | Arista, Aware, Columbia |
| Associated acts | John Mayer Trio, Fall Out Boy |
| Website | johnmayer.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Fender Stratocaster Martin Guitars Gibson Guitars |
|
John Clayton Mayer ( /ˈmeɪ.ər/ MAY-ər;[1] (born October 16, 1977) is an American pop and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer.[2] Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his skills and gained a following, and he now lives in New York City.[3][4] His first two studio albums, Room for Squares and Heavier Things, did well commercially, achieving multi-platinum status. In 2003, he won a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Your Body Is a Wonderland."[5]
Mayer began his career performing mainly acoustic rock, but gradually began a transition towards the blues genre in 2005 by collaborating with renowned blues artists such as B. B. King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton, and by forming the John Mayer Trio. The blues influence can be heard throughout his 2005 live album Try! with the John Mayer Trio and his third studio album Continuum, released in September 2006. At the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007 Mayer won Best Pop Vocal Album for Continuum and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Waiting on the World to Change". He released his fourth studio album, Battle Studies, in November 2009. His fifth album, Born and Raised, was released on May 22, 2012. He has sold over 10 million albums in the U.S. and 20 million albums worldwide.
Contents |
Early life[link]
John Clayton Mayer was born on October 16, 1977 in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Margaret, an English teacher, and Richard, a high school principal.[6] He grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut, the second of three children.[7] His father is Jewish, and Mayer has said that he "relat[es] to Judaism".[8] He attended Fairfield High School in Fairfield[9] although he was enrolled in the Center for Global Studies at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk for his junior year (then known as the Center for Japanese Studies Abroad, it is a magnet program for students wanting to learn Japanese).[10]
After watching Michael J. Fox's guitar performance as Marty McFly in Back to the Future, Mayer became fascinated with the instrument, and when he turned 13, his father rented one for him.[11][12] A neighbor gave Mayer a Stevie Ray Vaughan cassette, which cultivated Mayer's love of blues music.[13]a[›] Mayer started taking lessons from a local guitar-shop owner, Al Ferrante, and soon became consumed with playing the instrument.[3][14] His singular focus concerned his parents, and they took him twice to see a psychiatrist—but Mayer was determined to be fine.[3][14] Mayer says that the contentious nature of his parents' marriage led him to "disappear and create my own world I could believe in".[3] After two years of practice, he started playing at blues bars and other venues in the area, while he was still in high school.[10][12] In addition to performing solo, he was a member of a band called Villanova Junction (named for a Jimi Hendrix song) with Tim Procaccini, Joe Beleznay, and Rich Wolf.[3][15] Mayer considered skipping college to pursue his music, but the disapproval of his parents dissuaded him from doing so.[3]
When Mayer was seventeen, he was stricken with cardiac dysrhythmia and was hospitalized for a weekend. Reflecting on the incident, Mayer said, "That was the moment the songwriter in me was born," and he penned his first lyrics the night he got home from the hospital.[4] Shortly thereafter, he began suffering from panic attacks, and lived with the fear of having to enter a mental institution.[3] He continues to manage such episodes with Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug.[4][16] After graduation, he worked for fifteen months at a gas station until he saved enough money to buy a 1996 Stevie Ray Vaughan signature Stratocaster.[17]
Career[link]
Early career[link]
Mayer enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 19.[7] However, at the urging of his college friend an Atlanta, Georgia native, Clay Cook, he left school after two semesters and moved with Cook to Atlanta.[18] In Atlanta they formed a two-man band called LoFi Masters and began performing in local coffee houses and club venues such as Eddie's Attic.[12] According to Cook, they began to experience musical differences due to Mayer’s desire to move more towards pop music.[19] As a result, the two parted ways, and Mayer embarked on a solo career.[18]
With the help of local producer and engineer Glenn Matullo, Mayer recorded the independent EP Inside Wants Out. Cook co-wrote many of the songs from the EP including Mayer's first commercial single release, "No Such Thing".[19] The EP includes eight songs with Mayer on lead vocals and guitars. However, Cook's only contribution was backing vocals on the song "Comfortable". For the opening track, "Back To You", a full band was enlisted, including the EP’s co-producer David "DeLa" LaBruyere on bass guitars.[20] Mayer and LaBruyere then began to perform throughout Georgia and nearby states.
Major label success[link]
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Mayer’s reputation began to build, and a March 2000 appearance at South by Southwest brought him to the attention of "launch" label, Aware Records.[14][21][22] After including him in the Aware Festival concerts and having his songs included on Aware compilations, in early 2001, Aware released Mayer's internet-only album titled, Room for Squares. During this time, Aware inked a deal with Columbia Records that gave Columbia first pick in signing Aware artists, and so in September of the same year, Columbia remixed and re-released Room for Squares.[23] As part of the major label "debut", the album's artwork was updated, and the track "3x5" was added. The re-release also included reworked studio versions of the first four songs from his indie album, Inside Wants Out.[24]
By the end of 2002, Room for Squares had spawned several radio hits, including "No Such Thing," "Your Body Is a Wonderland", and ultimately, "Why Georgia". In 2003, Mayer won a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Your Body Is a Wonderland." In his acceptance speech he remarked, "This is very, very fast, and I promise to catch up."[25] He also figuratively referred to himself as being sixteen, a remark that many mistook to mean that he was only sixteen years old at the time.[26]
In 2003, Mayer released a live CD and DVD of a concert in Birmingham, Alabama titled Any Given Thursday. The concert featured songs previously not recorded, such as "Man on the Side" (co-written with Cook) and "Something's Missing", which later appeared on Heavier Things. The concert also included "Covered In Rain". According to the accompanying DVD documentary, this song is "part two" of the song "City Love", which features the line "covered in rain". Commercially, the album quickly peaked at number seventeen on the Billboard 200 chart. The CD/DVD received conservative, although consistent, praise, with critics torn between his pop-idol image, and (at the time) emerging guitar prowess. Erik Crawford (of Allmusic) asked "Is he the consummate guitar hero exemplified when he plays a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'Lenny', or is he the teen idol that the pubescent girls shriek for after he plays 'Your Body Is a Wonderland?'"[27][28]
Heavier Things, Mayer's second album, was released in 2003 to generally favorable reviews. Rolling Stone, Allmusic and Blender all gave positive, although reserved, feedback. PopMatters said that it "doesn't have as many drawbacks as one might assume".[29] The album was commercially successful, and while it did not sell as well as Room for Squares, it peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. Mayer earned his first number one single with the song "Daughters" as well as a 2005 Grammy for Song of the Year, beating out fellow contenders Alicia Keys and Kanye West. He dedicated the award to his grandmother, Annie Hoffman, who died in May 2004. He also won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, beating Elvis Costello, Prince, and Seal for the award. In a February 9, 2009 interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Mayer said that he thought he should not have won the Grammy for Song of the year because he thought that Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You was the better song. Because of this, he removed the top half of the Grammy and gave it to Keys, and kept the bottom part for himself. At the 37th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2006, Mayer was honored with the Hal David Starlight Award.[30]
Mayer again recorded live concerts across seven nights of his U.S. tour in 2004. These recordings were released to the iTunes Store under the title As/Is, indicating that the errors were included along with the good moments. A few months later, a "best of" CD was compiled from the As/Is nights. The album included a previously unreleased cover of Marvin Gaye's song "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", featuring a solo from Mayer's support act, jazz and blues turntablist DJ Logic. All the album covers of the As/Is releases feature drawings of anthropomorphic bunnies.[31]
With increased exposure, Mayer's talent came into demand in other areas. Steve Jobs invited Mayer to perform during the keynote address of Apple's annual Macworld Conference & Expo, in January 2004, as Jobs introduced the software application GarageBand.[32] The gig led to Mayer becoming a fixture of the event. He rejoined Jobs on stage for a solo performance at Macworld 2007, following the announcement of the iPhone.[33] Mayer has also done endorsements, such as a Volkswagen commercial for the Beetle's guitar outlet and for the BlackBerry Curve.[34]
Change in musical direction[link]
Mayer began to collaborate extensively, often working with artists outside of his own genre. He appeared on Common's song "Go!" and on Kanye West's "Bittersweet Poetry".b[›] Following these collaborations, Mayer received praise from rap heavyweights Jay-Z and Nelly.[35] When asked about his presence in the hip hop community, Mayer said, "It's not music out there right now. That's why, to me, hip-hop is where rock used to be."[36]
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It was around this time that Mayer began hinting a change in his musical interests, announcing that he was "closing up shop on acoustic sensitivity."[36] In 2005, he began a string of collaborations with various blues artists, including Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, as well as jazz artist John Scofield. He also went on tour with legendary jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, which included a show at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. These collaborations led to recordings with several of these artists, namely, Clapton (Back Home, Crossroads Guitar Festival), Guy (Bring 'Em In), Scofield (That's What I Say), and King (80). Although Mayer has maintained a reputation for being a sensitive singer-songwriter, he has also gained distinction as an accomplished guitarist, influenced by the likes of the above artists, as well as Eric Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and Freddie King.[38]
John Mayer Trio[link]
Main article: John Mayer Trio
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From the album Try! The first single, "Who Did You Think I Was?," lyrically underscores Mayer's decision to move away from acoustic pop music and towards blues, with lines such as, "Got a brand new blues that I can't explain."[39] This sample features an extended electric guitar solo.
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In the spring of 2005, Mayer formed the John Mayer Trio with bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan, both of whom he had met through previous studio sessions. The trio played a combination of blues and rock music. In October 2005, the Trio opened for The Rolling Stones during a sold-out club tour of their own,[40] and that November, released a live album called Try! The band took a break in mid-2006. In September 2006, Mayer announced plans for the Trio to begin work on a future studio album.[41]
[edit] Continuum
Mayer's third studio album, titled Continuum, was released on September 12, 2006, and was produced by Mayer and Steve Jordan. Mayer suggested the album was intended to combine his signature pop music with the feel, sound, groove, and sensibilities of the blues. In that vein, two of the tracks from his Trio release Try!—"Vultures" and "Gravity"—also were included on Continuum.[7]
The first single from Continuum was "Waiting on the World to Change", which debuted on The Ron and Fez Show. The song was the third most downloaded song of the week on the iTunes Store following its release on July 11, 2006, and debuted at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.
On August 23, 2006, Mayer debuted the entire album on the Los Angeles radio station Star 98.7, giving commentary on each track.[42] A subsequent version was released the next day on the Clear Channel Music website as a streaming sneak preview. On September 21, 2006, Mayer appeared on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing "Waiting on the World to Change" and "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room." The song "Gravity" was featured on the television series House, in the episode "Cane & Able", and Numb3rs. He recorded a session for the British program Live from Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios on October 22, 2006.
On December 7, 2006, Mayer was nominated for five 2007 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. The John Mayer Trio also received a nomination for their album, Try!. He won two: Best Pop Song with Vocal for "Waiting on the World to Change" and Best Pop Album for Continuum. Mayer remixed an acoustic version of his single "Waiting on the World to Change" with vocal additions from fellow musician Ben Harper. In preparation for recording Continuum, Mayer had booked the Village Recorder in Los Angeles to record five demo acoustic versions of his songs with veteran musician Robbie McIntosh. These recordings became The Village Sessions, an EP released on December 12, 2006. As usual, Mayer oversaw the artwork of the release.[43]
Mayer was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone (#1020) in February 2007, along with John Frusciante and Derek Trucks. He was named as one of the "New Guitar Gods," and the cover nicknamed him "Slowhand, Jr.," a reference to Eric Clapton.[38] Additionally, he was selected by the editors of Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2007 and was listed among artists and entertainers.[44]
On November 20, 2007, the re-issue of Continuum became available online and in stores. The release contains a bonus disc of six live songs from his 2007 tour: five from Continuum and a cover of the Ray Charles song "I Don't Need No Doctor".[45] His new single, "Say", also became available through iTunes. On December 6, 2007, "Belief" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. He accompanied Alicia Keys on guitar on her song "No One" at the ceremony.
In February 2008, Mayer hosted a three-day Caribbean cruise event that included performances with various musicians including David Ryan Harris, Brett Dennen, Colbie Caillat and Dave Barnes, among others. The event was called "The Mayercraft Carrier" and was held aboard the cruise ship known as the Carnival Victory.[46] A follow up cruise titled "Mayercraft Carrier 2" set sail from Long Beach, California from March 27–31, 2009 on the Carnival Splendor.
On July 1, 2008, Mayer released Where the Light Is, a live concert film of Mayer's performance at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on December 8, 2007. The film was directed by Danny Clinch. It features an acoustic set and a set with the John Mayer Trio, followed by a set with John's band from the Continuum album. The DVD and Blu-ray bonus material includes footage of Mayer backstage and playing outside on Mulholland Drive.[47]
Australian artist Guy Sebastian invited Mayer to collaborate on three songs from his 2009 album Like It Like That.[48] Mayer also played guitar on the title track of Crosby Loggins' debut LP, Time to Move, released on July 10, 2009.[49]
File:Mayer, John at the Michael Jackson funeral July 7, 2009.jpg
John Mayer playing guitar on "Human Nature" at Jackson's memorial service on July 7, 2009
On July 7, 2009, Mayer performed an instrumental guitar version of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" at Jackson's televised memorial service.[50]
[edit] Battle Studies
On November 17, 2009, Mayer's fourth studio album, Battle Studies, was released and debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart.[51] The album consists of 11 tracks with a total time of 45 minutes. The first single from the album, "Who Says", was released on September 24, 2009 in advance of album, and was followed on October 19 by the single "Heartbreak Warfare" and the single "Half of My Heart" released on June 21, 2010. Despite the album's commercial success, critics were mixed with their praise; while some reviews were glowing, calling it his "most adventurous",[52][53] others called the album "safe" and noted that "Mayer the singer-songwriter and Mayer the man about town sometimes seem disconnected, like they don’t even belong in the same body."[3][54][55][56]
Mayer admitted to Rolling Stone that he thought Battle Studies was not his best album.[57][58]
[edit] Born and Raised
Early reports indicated that the follow-up to Battle Studies would be called Born and Raised, and would be released in October 2011.[59]
On September 16, 2011 Mayer posted on his blog that his new record, Born and Raised, was being delayed due to granulomas discovered in his throat. The granulomas were found next to the vocal cords and are treatable. Mayer described this as a "temporary setback" and that recording and mixing of "Born and Raised" was entirely finished except for a few remaining vocal tracks. He expects the album to be out in early 2012.[60]
On October 20, 2011 Mayer updated his fans about the treatment of his throat granuloma, announcing that he "had surgery this afternoon to remove it and am now on complete vocal rest for a month or more", during which he plans to "travel the country, look, and listen."[60]
The first single from Born and Raised, called "Shadow Days" was released on February 27, 2012
On February 28, 2012 John Mayer released the track listing for the album and announced that Born and Raised would be released on May 22, 2012.[61]
On March 9, 2012 Mayer announced on his blog that due to the return of a serious throat condition, he has been forced to cancel his tour and refrain from all singing indefinitely.[62]
Other projects[link]
Philanthropy and activism[link]
In 2002, Mayer began the "Back to You" Fund, a nonprofit organization that focuses on fundraising in the areas of health care, education, the arts, and talent development. The foundation raises funds through the auction of exclusive John Mayer items, such as guitar picks, T-shirts, and signed CDs, made available on Mayer's auction site. The auctions have been successful, with some tickets selling for more than seventeen times their face value.[63][64]
Mayer participated at the East Rutherford, New Jersey location of the Live Earth project, a musical rally to support awareness for global warming held July 7, 2007.[65] He converted his tour bus to bio-diesel fuel.[66]
Mayer has performed at a number of benefits and telethons for charity throughout his career. In response to the Virginia Tech massacre, Mayer (along with Dave Matthews Band, Phil Vassar, and Nas) performed a free concert at Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium on September 6, 2007.[67] On December 8, 2007, Mayer hosted the first annual Charity Revue, a tradition he has continued each year. Charities who have benefited from the concerts include Toys for Tots, Inner City Arts, and the Los Angeles Mission.[68] Both CDs and DVDs of the first concert were released under the title Where the Light Is in July 2008. It has not been announced whether the DVD proceeds will go to charity or not.[69] Mayer appeared on Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace, a celebrity initiative to support Tibet and the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.[70]
Design[link]
"I'm actually into sneakers on a design level. I've got a big design thing going on in my life right now ... I love designing stuff. I mean, my biggest dream, forget Grammys, I want to be able to design an Air Max."
—John Mayer (AP, 2006)[71]
In a Rolling Stone interview, Mayer recalled that after former Columbia Records head, Don Ienner, panned Continuum, he briefly considered quitting music and studying design full time.[4] In 2003, Martin Guitars gave Mayer his own signature model acoustic guitar called the OM-28 John Mayer.[72] The guitar was limited to a run of only 404, an Atlanta area code.[73] This model was followed by the release of two Fender signature Stratocaster electric guitars, beginning in 2005. A third Stratocaster, finished in charcoal frost metallic paint with a racing stripe, was also a limited-release, with only 100 guitars made. In January 2006, Martin Guitars released the Martin OMJM John Mayer acoustic guitar. The guitar was intended to have many of the attributes of the Martin OM-28 John Mayer but with a more affordable price tag.[74] In August 2006, Fender started manufacturing SERIES II John Mayer Stratocasters. The new Olympic white with mint green pickguard and cream plastics replaced the shoreline gold model.[75]
In January 2007, Two Rock collaborated with Mayer on custom-designed amps. Only 25 (all signed by Mayer himself) were made available to the public.[76][77] June 2007 saw the release of the "album art" guitar, with the Continuum motif repeated on the face of the instrument,[78] as well as a 500-run John Mayer signature Fender Stratocaster in Cypress-Mica, including the limited Cypress-Mica model was the INCSvsJM gig bag on which Mayer collaborated with Incase designs. In 2006, Mayer was estimated to have more than 200 guitars in his personal collection.[4] In 2010, Fender announced a production model of Mayer's "The Black One" guitar.[79]
Writing[link]
With the June 1, 2004, issue of Esquire, Mayer began a column called "Music Lessons with John Mayer". Each article featured a lesson and his (often humorous) take on various topics, both of personal and popular interest. In the August 2005 issue, he invited readers to create music for orphaned lyrics he had written.[80] The winner was Tim Fagan of L.A., as announced in the following January's issue.[81]
Mayer has been active online, and has maintained four blogs: a Myspace page, a blog at his official site, another at Honeyee.com, one at tumblr.com, and a photoblog at StunningNikon.com. He also is one of the most-followed persons on the micro-blogging site Twitter,[82] reaching 3 million followers in January 2010. Although his posts often deal with career-related matters, they also contain jokes, videos, photos, his convictions, and his personal activities; they sometimes overlap in content. He is noted for writing the blogs himself, and not through a publicist.[16][44] On January 23, 2008, he posted a graphic that read, "Done & Dusted & Self Conscious & Back to Work." on his official blog, followed by the quote "There is danger in theoretical speculation of battle, in prejudice, in false reasoning, in pride, in braggadocio. There is one safe resource, the return to nature..";c[›] all the previous blog entries were deleted.[83]
In the mid-2000s he did stand-up comedy sporadically[82] making random appearances at the famed Comedy Cellar in New York and at other venues. He stated that it helped him write better but that increased media attention made him too careful in his technique.[4]
He co-wrote "Worlds of Chance" with Demi Lovato for her second album Here We Go Again.
Television[link]
In 2004, Mayer hosted a one-shot, half-hour comedy special on VH1 titled John Mayer Has a TV Show, with antics including wearing a bear suit while anonymously teasing concertgoers in the parking lot outside one of his concerts. The American network CBS announced on January 14, 2009 that they were in negotiations with Mayer for a variety show; it may air as a special or as a regular series.[84][85] In an interview with Rolling Stone, posted online on January 22, 2010, Mayer confirmed that the program, also called John Mayer Has a TV Show, was still in development, and that personnel were being hired. He described the concept as "a high quality music performance show, where I could also steer it a little bit. It's about there being a bastion of artists being made to look good and sound good.".[86]
Mayer has made many appearances on talk shows and other television programs, most notably, on a Chappelle's Show comedy skit, Late Night with David Letterman and on the final episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Mayer made an appearance with Rob Dyrdek in the MTV show Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory.
Mayer has written the theme song to the upcoming show Rollin' with Zach on the OWN network.
Touring[link]
Mayer has toured with many musical groups, including Maroon 5,[87] Guster, Howie Day, Mat Kearney, Counting Crows,[88] Ben Folds, The Wallflowers, Teitur,[89] Brett Dennen, Sheryl Crow, Colbie Caillat, Train, Ellie Goulding, OneRepublic and Paramore. Crow and Mayer, who had just previously appeared on the Cars Soundtrack together, co-headlined a tour that ran from August to October 2006.[90] In 2007, Mayer toured Europe, hoping to reach the popularity abroad that he enjoys in North America.[91] The initial North American Continuum tour ended on February 28, 2007, with a show at Madison Square Garden, a performance which the New York Post described as "career-defining."[92] In 2010, Mayer and Keith Urban performed at a CMT Crossroads concert which saw Mayer and Urban performing a medley of their own songs together and a rendition of George Michael's single, "Faith". This performance was led to Urban and Mayer teaming up again for future performances, including at the 2010 CMT Music Awards.
Mayer allows audio taping at most of his live performances, and he also allows for the non-commercial trading of those recordings. He does this to give fans the opportunity to recreate the live experience, and to encourage fan interaction.[93]
Mayer often shows up at small venues unannounced (or with little advance notice) for surprise concerts—occasionally for free or without accepting the performance fee.[94][95][96][97] He has made appearances throughout the Los Angeles, Atlanta and New York areas, including shows at The Laugh Factory,[98] Eddie's Attic,[99] and the Village Underground.[97] His latest surprise appearance was on January 8, 2011 at Hotel Cafe where he played seven new unreleased songs. In 2004, after being asked for numerous past years, he performed for over 1000 students at the Pennsbury High School Senior Prom. Wonderland, a book written by Micheal Bamberger, describes the world- famous prom and John Mayer's performance.
Touring band members[link]
- Current members
- David Ryan Harris – guitar, backing vocals (2003–present)
- Sean Hurley – bass, backing vocals (2008–present)
- Chuck Leavell - keyboards (2011–present)
- Aaron Sterling - drums (2011–present)
- Former members
- Bob Reynolds – saxophones, flute (2006–2008, 2010)
- Robbie McIntosh – guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals (2006–2010)
- Pino Palladino - Bass (2010)
- Keith Carlock - drums, percussion (2010)
- David LaBruyere – bass (1999–2008)
- Nir Z - drums (2001)
- Matt Mangano - guitar (2001)
- Matt Johnson - drums (2002)
- Stephen Chopek – drums, percussion (2001–2002)
- Michael Chaves – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (2001–2005)
- Kevin Lovejoy – keyboards (2003–2004)
- Erik Jekabsen – trumpet, flugelhorn (2003–2004)
- Chris Karlic – saxophone, flute (2003–2005)
- J.J. Johnson – drums (2003–2005, 2006–2008)
- Onree Gill – keyboards (2004–2005)
- Chuck McKinnon – trumpet, flugelhorn (2004–2005)
- Keith Carlock - drums, percussion (2010–2011)
- Ricky Peterson – keyboards, organ, backing vocals (2006–2007)
- Charlie Wilson – keyboards (2009–2011)
- Tim Bradshaw – keyboards, organ, lap steel guitar, backing vocals (2007–2008)
- Kenna Ramsey - backing vocals (2009–2010)
- Melanie Taylor - backing vocals (2009–2010)
- Steve Jordan – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2003, 2005–2006, 2009–2010)
- Brad Mason - trumpet, flugelhorn (2006–2008)
Personal life[link]
Mayer has a number of tattoos. These include: "Home" and "Life" (from the song title) on the back of his left and right arms respectively, "77" (his year of birth) on the left side of his chest, and a koi-like fish on his right shoulder. His entire left arm is covered in a sleeve tattoo that he acquired gradually, ending in April 2008; it includes: "SRV" (for his idol, Stevie Ray Vaughan) on his shoulder, a decorated rectangle on his biceps, a dragon-like figure on his inner arm, and various other floral designs. In 2003, he got a tattoo of three squares on his right forearm, which, he has explained, he will fill in gradually.[100]
Mayer has followed the discipline of Krav Maga.[101][102][103] He is an avid collector of watches and owns timepieces worth tens of thousands of dollars.[104][105] Mayer also has an extensive collection of sneakers, estimated (in 2006[update]) at more than 200 pairs.[4][106]
Mayer's parents concluded an uncontested divorce on May 27, 2009.[107] After the divorce, Mayer moved his (82-year-old) father to an assisted-living facility in Los Angeles.[3]
In September 2011, according to a Rolling Stone magazine article, Mayer has granuloma in his throat which must be treated surgically – this has caused him to cancel various planned shows.[108]
Mayer sold his home in the Los Angeles suburbs in 2011.[3][4][109] He also recently sold his apartment in New York City's SoHo neighborhood and moved to Montana following his throat surgery where he has purchased a home.[110]
[edit] Playboy interview controversy
In April 2010 Mayer gave a controversial interview to Playboy magazine, in which he made sexually explicit comments about former girlfriends Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Aniston. It was alleged that one remark he made in the interview was racist.[111] He later apologized onstage for these statements.[112]
Despite assertions that he would not be doing any more press,[86] an interview with Playboy magazine (posted to their website on February 10, 2010) set off accusations in the media and on Twitter of his being a misogynist, kiss-and-tell ex-boyfriend, and racist.[101][113] He apologized via Twitter for his use of the word "nigger," saying, "It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize...a word that is so emotionally charged."[114] He also tearfully apologized to his band and fans at his concert in Nashville later that night.[115] Mayer was dubbed an "accidental racist" by comedian, Kumail Nanjiani.[116]
Solo discography[link]
Main article: John Mayer discography
- Room for Squares (2001)
- Heavier Things (2003)
- Continuum (2006)
- Battle Studies (2009)
- Born and Raised (2012)
Awards[link]
Grammy Awards[link]
Mayer has won seven awards from eighteen nominations.
| Year | Awardee | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | John Mayer | Best New Artist | Nominated |
| "Your Body Is a Wonderland" | Best Male Pop Vocal Performance | Won | |
| 2005 | "Daughters" | Song of the Year | Won |
| Best Male Pop Vocal Performance | Won | ||
| 2007 | Continuum | Album of the Year | Nominated |
| Best Pop Vocal Album | Won | ||
| Try! | Best Rock Album | Nominated | |
| "Waiting on the World to Change" | Best Male Pop Vocal Performance | Won | |
| "Route 66" | Best Male Rock Vocal Performance | Nominated | |
| 2008 | "Belief" | Best Male Pop Vocal Performance | Nominated |
| 2009 | "Say" | Best Male Pop Vocal Performance | Won |
| Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | Nominated | ||
| "Gravity" | Best Male Rock Vocal Performance | Won | |
| "Lesson Learned" | Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals | Nominated | |
| Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles | Best Long Form Music Video | Nominated | |
| 2011 | Battle Studies | Best Pop Vocal Album | Nominated |
| "Half of My Heart" | Best Male Pop Vocal Performance | Nominated | |
| "Crossroads" | Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance | Nominated |
Others awards and nominations[link]
| Year | Award | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | MTV Video Music Awards |
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| Orville H. Gibson Guitar Awards |
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| VH1 Big in 2002 Awards |
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| Pollstar Concert Industry Awards |
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| 2003 | 20th Annual ASCAP Awards |
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| 31st Annual American Music Awards |
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| 15th Annual Boston Music Awards |
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| MTV Video Music Awards |
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| Radio Music Awards |
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| Teen People Awards |
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| Danish Music Awards |
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| 2004 | BDS Certified Spin Awards March 2004 recipients |
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| 2005 | 33rd annual American Music Awards |
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| World Music Awards |
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| People's Choice Awards |
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| 2007 | 35th Annual American Music Awards |
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| 23rd Annual TEC Awards |
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See also[link]
Notes[link]
^ a: Generally, it was believed that Mayer's father, a Bridgeport High School principal, had given him a tape player (confiscated from a student) that happened to contain Stevie Ray Vaughan album. However, in a 2006 interview on the New Zealand show Close Up (and other interviews), Mayer said that this wasn't true.[13]
^ b: "Bittersweet Poetry" was released in the summer of 2007 (three years after its creation) as an iTunes pre-order bonus track to the album Graduation.
^ c: The quote is taken from the posthumously-published book Battle Studies by Colonel Ardant Du Picq (d. 1870)[119]
^ d: His actual words were: "Jessica はとても素敵な女性で、一緒に居られて最高です。" In Romanized script, he said "Jessica wa totemo suteki na josei de, issho ni irarete saikō desu."
Footnotes[link]
- ^ See inogolo:pronunciation of John Mayer
- ^ Rolling Stone Music (2001). "John Mayer: Biography" rollingstone.com. Retrieved August 21, 2011
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hedegaard, Erik (February 4, 2010), "The Dirty Mind and Lonely Heart of John Mayer". Rolling Stone (1097); pgs. 36-45, 68
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hiatt, Brian (September 21, 2006), "My Big Mouth Strikes Again". Rolling Stone (1009): pgs. 66-70
- ^ (2003). "45th Annual GRAMMY Award - Best Male Pop Vocal Performance" grammy.com. Retrieved October 23, 2011
- ^ No byline (October 7, 2002), "It's Hip to Be Square". People. 58 (15):107
- ^ a b c Ruth Shaut. Elle magazine (2006) "Blues Brother" J-mayer.org. Retrieved August 3, 2006
- ^ Bloom, Nate (March 16, 2010). "Interfaith Celebrities: The Fishers and the Tweeters". InterfaithFamily.com. http://www.interfaithfamily.com/arts_and_entertainment/popular_culture/Interfaith_CelebritiesThe_Fishers_and_the_Tweeters.shtml. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
- ^ Silverman, Stephen (December 27, 2004). "John Mayer Bounced from His Alma Mater". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1012082,00.html. Retrieved November 10, 2010.
- ^ a b Eliscu, Jenny (November 27, 2003), "Songs in the Key of Mayer". Rolling Stone. (936): 52-56
- ^ Sound Stage staff writer (2005). "John Mayer with special guest Buddy Guy" PBS.org. Retrieved May 31, 2007
- ^ a b c (2005). "Men Of The Week: Entertainment-John Mayer" AskMen.com. Retrieved April 12, 2006
- ^ a b (2006) "Mon Nov 6: Telecom; Spam Attack; John Mayer" TVNZ online. Retrieved December 6, 2006
- ^ a b c Mather, John; Hedegaard, Erik (March 2008), "The Wonder of John Mayer Land". Best Life. vol unknown (3):140
- ^ Wallace, William (2005) "Joe Beleznay wants to be the ball" TweedMag.com. Retrieved October 30, 2006
- ^ a b "John Mayer". Melissa and Sid. March 31, 2008
- ^ No byline (2007). "John Mayer: Five Fun Facts", People.com. Retrieved November 28, 2007
- ^ a b Small, Mark (2005). "John Mayer '98: Running with the Big Dogs" Berklee.edu. Retrieved April 23, 2007
- ^ a b Guthrie, Blake (2003). "Mayer of Atlanta: John Mayer plays Philips Arena, and all I got was this lousy cover story" CreativeLoafing.com. Retrieved February 17, 2007
- ^ Alter, Gaby (2007) "Tour Profile: John Mayer" MixOline.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007
- ^ (Adobe Engagement Platform) South by Southwest Music Festival. Blender. March 2000. http://www.blender.com/JohnMayerSXSW2001/video/7344.aspx?src=BB3839:MD. Retrieved October 11, 2007. [dead link]
- ^ Proefrock, Stacia (2005). "Biography" AllMusicGuide.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ^ No byline. "A Brief History" AwareRecords.com. Retrieved June 12, 2007
- ^ Back, Alan (2001). "John Mayer carves out his own niche with national debut album" Nique.net. Retrieved June 22, 2007 Archived September 29, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Bream, Jon (2007) "Win or lose, John Mayer says his work keeps him happy" Star-Ecentral.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007
- ^ Serpick, Evan (February 2007), "Grammy Preview: John Mayer", Rolling Stone Volume unknown: pg. 32
- ^ Crawford, Erik (2003) "Review" AllMusic.com. Retrieved on June 8, 2007.
- ^ Medsker, David (2003). "Love me, love me, say that you love me..." Pop Matters. Retrieved June 8, 2007
- ^ MacNeil, Jason (2003). "Heavier Things" MetaCritic.com. Retrieved June 4, 2007
- ^ (2006) John Mayer SongWritersHallofFame.org. Retrieved September 29, 2006. Archived October 1, 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Bio JohnMayer.com. Retrieved June 25, 2007. Archived July 20, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Deitrich, Andy (2004) "Making music for the non-musically inclined" ArsTechnica.com. Retrieved June 12, 2007
- ^ Krazit, Tom (2007). "Live Macworld coverage" News.com. Retrieved June 12, 2007
- ^ VDubsRock official site(2006). VDubsRock.com. Retrieved January 23, 2007
- ^ Rodriguez, Jason (2007). "Shawty's Story: Lloyd Says He Stole From Usher, Loves John Mayer" MTV.com. Retrieved April 16, 2007
- ^ a b Moss, Corey (2005) "John Mayer Plans To 'Close Up Shop On Acoustic Sensitive'" MTV.com. Retrieved April 12, 2006
- ^ MTV staff writer (2005)"Common Food for Thought" MTV.com. Retrieved June 27, 2007
- ^ a b Fricke, David (February 22, 2007). "The New Guitar Gods" Rolling Stone. (1020): 39-47
- ^ Bird, Rick (2007) "Mayer slings his guitar on 'Continuum' tour" The Cincinnati Post. Retrieved June 25, 2007 Archived September 28, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Moss Corey (2005). "John Mayer Trio Geek Out With Live Album, Rolling Stones Jokes" MTV.com. Retrieved June 8, 2007
- ^ Mayer, John (2006). "The Continuum Super Blog" JohnMayer.com Blog. Retrieved December 12, 2006
- ^ Mayer, John (2006). "Continuum First Listen" JohnMayer.com. Retrieved June 8, 2007
- ^ No byline (2006). "'The Village Sessions' Released Today" JohnMayer.com. Retrieved June 8, 2007
- ^ a b Tyrangiel, Josh (May 14, 2007) "John Mayer" TIME 169 (20): pg. 140
- ^ JohnMayer.org staff "Continuum (special edition) to be released on November 20; includes 6 live tracks and new single, Say" Retrieved November 19, 2007
- ^ "Mayercraft Carrier Cruise: February 1–4, 2008: A John Mayer/Sixthman Experience". Mayercraft.com. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071011001821/http://mayercraftcarrier.com/artists.html. Retrieved September 26, 2007.
- ^ "'Where the light is' live album is released today", July 1, 2008
- ^ Cashmere, Paul (August 3, 2009), "Guy Sebastian Album To Be Released In October". Undercover Music News. . Retrieved August 4, 2009
- ^ Newman-Bremang, Kathleen (May 12, 2009), "Crosby Loggins Nabs John Mayer, Kara DioGuardi For Debut Album'Rock the Cradle' winner plans to drop Time to Move in July". MTV.com. (Retrieved June 24, 2009) and "Time to Move". Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002F7ZZSI. Retrieved September 8, 2009.
- ^ Powers, Ann; Martens, Todd (July 7, 2009) "Michael Jackson memorial: John Mayer performs 'Human Nature'". LA Times . Retrieved July 8, 2009
- ^ SISARIO, BEN (November 26, 2009), "John Mayer Is No. 1 In Pre-Holiday Week". New York Times. :2
- ^ Graff, Gary (November 14, 2009), "Battle Studies".. Billboard. 121 (45):32
- ^ Arnold, Chuck (November 30, 2009), "Battle Studies". People.72 (22): pg. 49
- ^ Jerry Shriver; Elysa Gardner; Edna Gundersen (November 17, 2009), "Albums". USA Today.
- ^ Greenblatt, Leah (November 20, 2009), "Battle Studies". Entertainment Weekly. (1076):84
- ^ Keefe, Jonathan (November 22, 2009), "John Mayer - Battle Studies". Slant magazine. Retrieved February 8, 2010
- ^ "John Mayer's Dirty Mind Lonely Heart". Rollingstone.com. January 19, 2010. http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2010/01/19/john-mayers-dirty-mind-lonely-heart-new-issue-of-rolling-stone/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
- ^ "John Mayer Does ‘Rolling Stone’ Magazine". Pink is the New Blog. January 20, 2010. http://www.pinkisthenewblog.com/2010/01/john-mayer-does-rolling-stone-magazine. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
- ^ "John Mayer to Release New Album in October". andPOP.com. May 17, 2011. http://www.andpop.com/2011/05/17/john-mayer-to-release-new-album-in-october. Retrieved June 12, 2011.
- ^ a b "One Forty Plus". Jhnmyr.tumblr.com. http://jhnmyr.tumblr.com/. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
- ^ "News". John Mayer. http://johnmayer.com/news/news-18431927036/. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
- ^ Oldenburg, Ann (March 9, 2012). "John Mayer cancels tour, takes 'indefinite hiatus'". http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2012/03/john-mayer-cancels-tour-takes-indefinite-hiatus/1#.T1qnGnJSQkc. Retrieved March 9, 2012.
- ^ No byline (2006). The Official John Mayer Auction Site JohnMayerAuction.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ^ "John Mayer" BusinessHere.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007 Archived February 4, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Kilgore, Kim (2007). "More cities added to John Mayer's itinerary". Retrieved on May 1, 2007
- ^ Mayer, John (2007) "(Not) Waiting on the World to Change - Entry no. 1" JohnMayer.com. Retrieved on May 1, 2007. (archived link)
- ^ Virginia Tech (August 1, 2006).A Concert For Virginia Tech[dead link].
- ^ Mayer, John. New Show: 1st annual holiday charity revenue on December 8 at Nokia Theatre LA Live. Published November 14, 2007 by JohnMayer.com. Retrieved November 27, 2007
- ^ Mayer, John. DVD Shoot. Published November 26, 2007 by JohnMayer.com. Retrieved November 27, 2007. (archived link)
- ^ Finn, Natalie (July 22, 2008), "Sting, Matthews, Mayer Gamer for Tibet Than Beijing" E-Online. Retrieved July 25, 2008
- ^ AP correspondent (2006). "John Mayer sings the blues to make better pop" MSNBC.com. Retrieved on January 29, 2007.
- ^ (2003). "John Mayer Receives Signature Martin OM Guitar". Retrieved January 29, 2007.
- ^ Sounding Board Newsletter contributor (2003) "John Mayer Signature OM" MartinGuitar.com. Retrieved January 29, 2007
- ^ "Fretbase, John Mayer's Signature Acoustic Guitar - the Martin OMJM (2008)". Fretbase.com. August 4, 2008. http://www.fretbase.com/fretbase/2008/08/john-mayers-sig.html. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
- ^ Mayer, John (2006). "The New JM Signature Strat Colorway" JohnMayer.com. Retrieved January 30, 2007.
- ^ Mayer, John (2007). "Two-Rock Signature Amp Demo" JohnMayer.com. Retrieved May 10, 2007.
- ^ No byline (2007). "John Mayer Signature" Two-Rock.com. Retrieved May 10, 2007. Archived May 2, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Mayer, John (2007). "Win This Guitar"[dead link] Honeyee.com. Retrieved June 11, 2007.
- ^ Lu, Anne (February 27, 2009), "John Mayer Teams Up With Fender To Recreate "The Black One" Guitar". allheadlinenews.com
- ^ Mayer, John (September 2005), "The Giveaway: John Mayer's Songwriting Contest" Esquire. 144 (3):80
- ^ Mayer, John (January 2006), "Tim Fagan Is A Winner". Esquire. 145 (1): pg. 38
- ^ a b Daly, Steven (December 2009), "John Mayer Thinks With His Pick". Details magazine. Retrieved February 8, 2010
- ^ [1] JohnMayer.com. Retrieved January 31, 2008
- ^ "CBS Piloting John Mayer Variety Show". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved January 14, 2009
- ^ (January 14, 2009), "TCA Press Tour: CBS loves John Mayer". The Los Angeles Times. . Retrieved January 20, 2009.
- ^ a b (January 22, 2010), "John Mayer in His Own Words". RollingStone.com
- ^ Dansby, Andrew (2004). "Mayer, Maroon 5 Hit the Road" Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 12, 2006. Archived February 12, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Dansby, Andrew (2003). "Mayer, Crows to Tour " Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 12, 2006. Archived February 12, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Mayer, John (2004). "Music Lessons with John Mayer" FindArticles.com. Retrieved January 28, 2007.
- ^ AP (2006). "Crow, Mayer Teaming For Tour" Billboard.com. Retrieved May 31, 2007.
- ^ Sinclair, David (2007). "John Mayer: My Atlantic crossing" Belfast Telegraph online. Retrieved January 28, 2007. Archived January 27, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Aquilante, Dan (2007). "Mayer: A Player On Big Stage" Nypost.com. Retrieved on March 2, 2007.
- ^ General Information Local 83: Listener's Union. Retrieved June 25, 2007. Archived June 11, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ New York staff (October 15, 2007), "John Mayer plays tiny surprise show in New York". NME.com. Retrieved January 18, 2011.
- ^ Kaplan, Michelle (December 6, 2010), "John Mayer’s Surprise Appearance". YeahNewYork.com. Retrieved January 18, 2011.
- ^ (August 9, 2009), "Secret Show Tonight 8/9/09 at LA'S Troubadour!"'. JohnMayer.com. Retrieved January 18, 2011
- ^ a b (June 18, 2010), "John Mayer packs Village Underground in just one hour after tweeting about it". NYPost.com. Retrieved January 18, 2011
- ^ (2006). "Mayer Apologises To Hewitt" ContactMusic.com. Retrieved on January 5, 2006.
- ^ Swartz, Kristi E., et al. (September 8, 2010), "John Mayer plays surprise Eddie's Attic show Tuesday". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved January 18, 2011
- ^ Collis, Clark (2003). "Dear Superstar: John Mayer" Blender.com. Retrieved on November 2, 2006.
- ^ a b (February 10, 2010), John Mayer: Playboy Interview Playboy. Retrieved February 10, 2010
- ^ "Saturday, December 5", RedCarpet.com. Retrieved on February 2, 2010
- ^ "Saturday, December 5", RedCarpet.com. Retrieved on February 2, 2010
- ^ Lieberman, Bari (2007). "The Mayer of Grammy-ville" The Hurricane Online. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
- ^ Mayer, John (2006). "Chronometer love/the hottest watch of '07" Honeyee.com. Retrieved April 25, 2007.
- ^ Mayer, John (2006). "Perks" JohnMayer.com/blog. Retrieved on January 4, 2007.
- ^ Mayer, Margaret v. Mayer, Richard, FBT-FA09-4027662-S (2009)
- ^ By Matthew Perpetua (September 19, 2011). "John Mayer Diagnosed With Throat Condition | Music News". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/john-mayer-diagnosed-with-throat-condition-20110919. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
- ^ Beale, Lauren (January 27, 2011). "John Mayer sells his Pacific Palisades wonderland". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/27/home/la-hm-hotprop-john-mayer-20110127.
- ^ "John Mayer now lives in Montana". Missoula Independent. 15 May 2012. http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/IndyBlog/archives/2012/05/15/john-mayer-now-lives-in-montana. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
- ^ Huffington Post
- ^ US Magazine
- ^ Herrera, Monica (February 10, 2010), "John Mayer's Sexually, Racially Charged Playboy Interview Sparks Outrage". Billboard.com. Retrieved February 10, 2010.
- ^ Mayer, John (February 10, 2010), Twitter entry. Twitter.com. Retrieved February 10, 2010.
- ^ (February 10, 2010), "John Mayer Cries/Apologizes in Nashville, TN 2/10/2010 Sommet Center". YouTube.com. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
- ^ "John Mayer Labeled an ‘Accidental Racist’ After Interrupting Kumail Nanjiani’s Recent Stand-up Set"
- ^ Twentieth Annual Pop Music Awards ASCAP.com Retrieved November 28, 2007
- ^ Macone, Steven (2003). "Local musicians honored at BMAs" Daily Free Press. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
- ^ Du Picq, Ardant; Translated by Greely, John N.; Cotton Robert C. (2006) Battle Studies Location unknown:BiblioBazaar, LLC, 35. ISBN 1-4264-2311-X
References[link]
- Edwards, G. (2006) Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton's Little John?, New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0-307-34603-X
External links[link]
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Mayer |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Mayer, John Clayton |
| Alternative names | Mayer, Johnny |
| Short description | Guitarist and singer/songwriter |
| Date of birth | October 16, 1977 |
| Place of birth | Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mayer
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Jay-Z | |
|---|---|
 Jay-Z at the Shawn Carter Foundation Carnival in September 2011. |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Shawn Corey Carter |
| Born | (1969-12-04) December 4, 1969 (age 42) Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Genres | Hip hop |
| Occupations | Rapper |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Labels | Roc Nation |
| Associated acts | Memphis Bleek, Foxy Brown, Big Jaz, The Notorious B.I.G., Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kanye West, Linkin Park, R. Kelly, Big L |
Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969),[1] better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2011.[2][3]He has sold approximately 50 million albums worldwide, while receiving fourteen Grammy Awards for his musical work, and numerous additional nominations.[4][5] He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest rappers of all-time. He was ranked #1 by MTV in their list of The Greatest MCs of All-Time in 2006. Two of his albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996) and The Blueprint (2001) are considered landmarks in the genre with both of them being ranked in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Blender included the former on their 500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die.[6]
Jay-Z co-owns the 40/40 Club, is part-owner of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and is also the creator of the line Rocawear.[7] He is the former CEO of Def Jam Recordings, one of the three founders of Roc-A-Fella Records, and the founder of Roc Nation.[8] As an artist, he holds the record for most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200 with eleven.[9] Jay-Z also has had four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100, one as lead artist.
He married American R&B superstar Beyoncé Knowles on April 4, 2008.[10] On December 11, 2009, Jay-Z was ranked as the 10th most successful artist of 2000s by Billboard and ranking as the 5th top solo male artist and as the 4th top rapper behind Eminem, Nelly, and 50 Cent.[11]
Contents
|
Early life[link]
File:Jay z @bt's lounge in trenton , nj.jpg
Jay-Z (top) with a friend (left) in Trenton, New Jersey, circa 1988
Originally from Marcy Houses, a housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City,[12] the future "Jay-Z" then known as Shawn Carter, was abandoned by his father and in 1982, he shot his brother in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry.[13][14] Carter attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn, along with future rapper AZ, until it was closed down. After that he attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School in Downtown Brooklyn, with fellow future rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes, and Trenton Central High School in Trenton, New Jersey, but did not graduate.[15] In his music he refers to having been involved in selling crack cocaine.[14]
According to his mother, Gloria Carter, her son Shawn used to wake his siblings up at night banging out drum patterns on the kitchen table. Eventually, she bought him a boom box for his birthday, sparking his interest in music. He began freestyling, writing lyrics, and followed the music of many artists popular at the time.[16] In his neighborhood, Carter was known as "Jazzy", a nickname that eventually developed into his showbiz/stage name, "Jay-Z". The moniker is also an homage to his musical mentor, Jaz-O, as well as to the J/Z subway lines that have a stop at Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn.[12]
Jay-Z can briefly be heard on several of Jaz-O's early recordings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including "The Originators" and "Hawaiian Sophie".[17] Jay-Z was also involved in and won several battles with rapper LL Cool J in the early 90's as part of a plan to get a sought-after record deal.[18] He first became known to a wide audience by being featured on the posse cut "Show and Prove" on the 1994 Big Daddy Kane album Daddy's Home. Jay-Z has been referred to as Big Daddy Kane's hype man during this period,[19] though Kane explains that he didn't fill the traditional hype man role, instead Jay-Z "basically made cameo appearances on stage. When I would leave the stage to go change outfits, I would bring out Jay-Z and Positive K and let them freestyle until I came back to the stage".[20][21] He made an appearance on a popular song by Big L, "Da Graveyard", and on Mic Geronimo's "Time to Build", which also featured early appearances by DMX, and Ja Rule in 1995. His first official rap single was called "I Can't Get With That", for which he released a music video.[22]
Music career[link]
[edit] 1995–97: Reasonable Doubt and In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
From the beginning of his professional recording career, when no major label gave him a record deal, Jay-Z, Damon Dash, and Kareem Biggs created Roc-A-Fella Records as their own independent label in 1995. After striking a deal with Priority to distribute his material, Jay-Z released his 1996 debut album Reasonable Doubt with beats from acclaimed producers such as DJ Premier and Super DJ Clark Kent and a notable appearance by The Notorious B.I.G.. The album reached number 23 on the Billboard 200, and was well-received by critics.[12] This album would later be included in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" as No.248 and eventually reach platinum status.[23]
After reaching a new distribution deal with Def Jam in 1997, Jay-Z released his follow-up In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. Executively produced by Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, it sold better than his previous effort. Jay-Z later explained that the album was made during one of the worst periods of his life, he was reeling from the death of his close friend The Notorious B.I.G. The album was a personal revelation for Jay-Z as he spun the tale of his hard knock upbringing.[24] The album's glossy production stood as a contrast to his first release, and some dedicated fans felt he had "sold out". However, the album did feature some beats from producers who had worked with him on Reasonable Doubt, namely DJ Premier and Ski. Like its predecessor, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 earned Platinum status in the United States.[23]
[edit] 1998–2000: Vol. 2..., criminal charges and mainstream success
In 1998, Jay-Z released Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life which spawned the biggest hit of his career at the time, "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)". He relied more on flow and wordplay, and he continued with his penchant for mining beats from the popular producers of the day such as Swizz Beatz, an upstart in-house producer for Ruff Ryders, and Timbaland. Other producers included DJ Premier, Erick Sermon, The 45 King, and Kid Capri. Charting hits from this album included "Can I Get A...", featuring Ja Rule and Amil, and "Nigga What, Nigga Who", also featuring Amil. Vol. 2 would eventually become Jay-Z's most commercially successful album; it was certified 5× Platinum in the United States and has to date sold over five million copies.[23] The album went on to win a Grammy Award, although Jay-Z boycotted the ceremony protesting DMX's failure to garner a Grammy nomination.[25] In 1999, Jay-Z dueted with Mariah Carey on "Heartbreaker", a song from her seventh album, Rainbow. In that same year, Jay-Z released Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter, the album proved to be successful and sold over 3 million records.[23] Vol. 3's most successful single was "Big Pimpin'", featuring UGK. Around the same time, Jay-Z was accused of stabbing record executive Lance "Un" Rivera for what Jay-Z perceived was Rivera's bootlegging of Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter. The stabbing allegedly occurred at the record release party for Q-Tip's debut solo album Amplified at the Kit Kat Klub, a now defunct night club in Times Square, New York City, on December 9. Jay-Z's associates at the party were accused of causing a commotion within the club, which Jay-Z allegedly used as cover when he supposedly stabbed Rivera in the stomach with a five-inch (127 mm) blade.[26] In his book Decoded, Jay-Z addresses his assault case. While he didn't apologize for his actions, he did express regret that the incident happened and attributed it to a loss of control, saying that there was no reason for him to get into a situation that put him and people who depended on him at risk. He also vowed to never get involved in a similar situation again.[citation needed]
Jay-Z initially denied the incident and pleaded not guilty when a grand jury returned the indictment. Jay-Z and his lawyers contended he was nowhere around Rivera during the incident and they had witnesses and videotape evidence from the club that showed Jay-Z's whereabouts during the disturbance. Nevertheless, he later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge that resulted in a sentence of three years probation.[27] In 2000, Jay-Z released The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, which was originally intended to become a compilation album for Roc-A-Fella artists but somehow turned into a Jay-Z album.[28] The album helped to introduce newcomer producers The Neptunes, Just Blaze, Kanye West and Bink, which have all gone on to achieve notable success. This is also the first album where Jay-Z utilizes a more soulful sound than his previous albums. The Dynasty sold over two million units in the U.S. alone.[23]
[edit] 2001–02: Feud with Nas, The Blueprint and The Blueprint2
In 2001, Jay-Z spoke out against Prodigy after he took an issue with a Jay-Z line from "Money, Cash, Hoes" that he felt were subliminal shots at Mobb Deep and referenced Mobb Deep's beef with Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, and Death Row Records. He later performed the song "Takeover", at Summer Jam 2001, which initially attacked Prodigy and revealed photos of Prodigy dressed like Michael Jackson.[29] A line at the end of "Takeover" referenced Nas, who criticized him on "We Will Survive".[30] Nas responded with a diss track called "Ether" and almost instantly, Jay-Z added a verse to "Takeover" which dissed Nas and would start a feud between the two rappers. Jay-Z later released his sixth studio album The Blueprint which was later considered by many to be one of hip hop's "classic" albums, receiving the coveted 5 mic review from The Source magazine. Released during the wake of September 11 attacks, the album managed to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, selling more than 427,000 units;[31] the album's success was overshadowed by the tragic event. The Blueprint has been certified 2x Platinum in the United States.[23] The Blueprint was applauded for its production and the balance of "mainstream" and "hardcore" rap, receiving recognition from both audiences. The Blueprint was written in only two days.[32] Eminem was the only guest rapper on the album, producing and rapping on the song "Renegade". Four of the thirteen tracks on the album were produced by Kanye West and represents one of West's first major breaks in the industry. The Blueprint includes the popular songs "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)", "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Jigga That Nigga" and "Song Cry".
Jay-Z's next solo album was 2002's The Blueprint2: The Gift & the Curse, a double-album. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number one, selling over 3 million units in the U.S. alone[23] and surpassing The Blueprint.[33] It was later reissued in a single-disc version, The Blueprint 2.1, which retained half of the tracks from the original. The album spawned two massive hit singles, "Excuse Me Miss" and "'03 Bonnie & Clyde", which featured Jay-Z's future wife Beyoncé Knowles. "Guns & Roses", a track featuring rock musician Lenny Kravitz, and "Hovi Baby" were two successful radio singles as well. The album also contained the tracks "A Dream", featuring Faith Evans and the late The Notorious B.I.G.; and "The Bounce", featuring Kanye West. The Blueprint 2.1 featured tracks that do not appear on The Blueprint2: The Gift & the Curse, such as "Stop", "La La La (Excuse Me Again)", "What They Gonna Do, Part II" and "Beware" produced by and featuring Panjabi MC.[34]
[edit] 2003–05: The Black Album, initial retirement and collaborative albums
After returning from a trip in the south of France,[35] Jay-Z announced work on his 8th studio album The Black Album at the opening of the first the 40/40 Club.[36] He worked with several producers including Just Blaze, The Neptunes, Kanye West, Timbaland, Eminem, DJ Quik, 9th Wonder and Rick Rubin. Notable songs on the album included "What More Can I Say", "Dirt Off Your Shoulder", "Change Clothes", and "99 Problems". The Black Album has sold 3 million copies in the US.[23] Jay-Z collaborated with R. Kelly and released a collaborative studio album, The Best of Both Worlds.
On November 25, 2003, Jay-Z held a concert at Madison Square Garden, which would later be the focus of his film Fade to Black. This concert was his "retirement party". All proceeds went to charity. Other performers included collaborators like The Roots (in the form of his backing band), Missy Elliott, Memphis Bleek, Beanie Siegel, Freeway, Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, Twista, Ghostface Killah, Foxy Brown, Pharrell and R. Kelly with special appearances by Voletta Wallace and Afeni Shakur, the mothers of The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur respectively.[citation needed] While Jay-Z had attested to a retirement from making new studio albums, various side projects and appearances soon followed. Included in these were a greatest hits record, as well as the release and tour of Unfinished Business, the second collaborative album between Jay-Z and R. Kelly.
In 2004, Jay-Z collaborated with rock group Linkin Park, in which they released their collaborative remix EP Collision Course, which featured mashups of both artists' songs, as well as a concert DVD. The album's only single, "Numb/Encore", went on to win a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, and was performed with Linkin Park live at the Grammys, with a special appearance by Paul McCartney, who added verses from the song "Yesterday". The EP sold over 1 million copies in the US.[23] Jay-Z was the executive producer of The Rising Tied, the debut album of Fort Minor, the hip hop side project of Linkin Park rapper Mike Shinoda.
Later in 2004, Jay-Z was named president of Def Jam Records, which led to Jay-Z, Dash and Biggs selling their remaining interests in Roc-A-Fella Records and Jay-Z taking control of both of the companies.[37] Reportedly this major industry move was prompted by disagreements between Jay-Z and Dash as to what direction Roc-A-Fella could undertake.[38] The publicized split between Jay-Z, Dash and Biggs led to the former partners sending jabs at each other in interviews.[39]
[edit] 2005–07: "I Declare War", comeback with Kingdom Come and American Gangster
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On October 27, 2005, Jay-Z headlined New York's Power 105.1 annual concert, Powerhouse. The concert was entitled the "I Declare War" concert leading to intense speculation in the weeks preceding the event on whom exactly Jay-Z would declare war. As he had previously "declared war" on other artists taking lyrical shots at him at other events, many believed that the Powerhouse show would represent an all-out assault by Jay-Z upon his rivals.[40] The theme of the concert was Jay-Z's position as President and CEO of Def Jam, complete with an on-stage mock-up of the Oval Office. Many artists made appearances such as the old roster of Roc-A-Fella records artists, as well as Ne-Yo, Teairra Mari, T.I., Young Jeezy, Akon, Kanye West, Paul Wall, The LOX, and Diddy.[41]
At the conclusion of the concert, Jay-Z put many arguments to rest to the surprise of hip hop fans. The most significant development in this show was closure to the infamous hip hop rivalry between Jay-Z and Nas. The two former rivals shook hands and shared the stage together to perform Jay-Z's "Dead Presidents" blended with Nas's song "The World is Yours".[42]
Jay-Z returned with his comeback album on November 21, 2006 titled Kingdom Come.[43] Jay-Z's comeback single, "Show Me What You Got", was leaked on the Internet in early October 2006, scheduled to be released later on that month, received heavy air-play after its leak, causing the FBI to step in and investigate.[44] Jay-Z worked with video director Hype Williams, and the single's video was directed by F. Gary Gray. The album features producers such as Just Blaze, Pharrell, Kanye West, Dr. Dre and Coldplay's Chris Martin (single entitled "Beach Chair").[45][46] The first week saw 680,000 sales of the CD, which Entertainment Weekly said was "the highest single-week total in Jay's decade long career".[47] This album has sold 2 million copies in the US.[23]
Jay-Z released his tenth album entitled American Gangster on November 6, 2007. After viewing the Ridley Scott film of the same name, he was heavily inspired to create a new "concept" album that depicts his experiences as a street-hustler.[48] The album is not the film's official soundtrack, although it was distributed by Def Jam.[49] Jay-Z's American Gangster depicts his life in correlation to the movie American Gangster. At the start of the album's first single, "Blue Magic", Jay-Z offers a dealer's manifesto while making references to political figures of the late 1980s with the lyric: "Blame Reagan for making me to into a monster, blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra, I ran contraband that they sponsored, before this rhymin' stuff we was in concert."[50] Also notable about the "Blue Magic" music video was Jay-Z flashing 500 euro notes, in what Harvard Business School professor Rawi Abdelal has called a "turning point in American pop culture's response to globalization." The album has sold 1 million copies in the US.[23] On December 24, 2007, Jay-Z stated that he would not remain at Def Jam as the company's President, and vacated the position effective of January 1, 2008.[51]
[edit] 2008–2011: Glastonbury, new record deal, The Blueprint 3, Watch the Throne
It was announced on February 2, 2008 that Jay-Z would headline the 2008 Glastonbury Festival, becoming the first major hip hop artist to headline the British festival.[52][53] Tickets sold out before the opening of the festival. One of the more outspoken critics of his selection was Noel Gallagher of Oasis fame, who criticized the organizers of the festival for scheduling Jay-Z as a headliner for the traditionally guitar-driven festival, stating "I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance. Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music and even when they throw the odd curve ball in on a Sunday night you go 'Kylie Minogue?' I don't know about it. But I'm not having hip hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong."[54]
Controversy ensued in the months leading up to the event with artists, promoters and fans weighing in both for and against. Jay-Z responded to this saying, "We don't play guitars, Noel, but hip hop has put in its work like any other form of music. This headline show is just a natural progression. Rap music is still evolving. We have to respect each other's genre of music and move forward."[55] In response to Gallagher's criticism, Jay-Z opened his Glastonbury set with a tongue-in-cheek cover of Oasis's iconic song "Wonderwall".[56] His Glastonbury performance was heralded as a successful response to pre-festival criticism.[57]
He also headlined many other summer festivals in 2008, including Roskilde Festival in Denmark,[58] Hove Festival in Norway[59] and O2 Wireless Festival in London.[60] During Kanye West's August 6, 2008 concert at Madison Square Garden, Jay-Z came out to perform a new song and he and Kanye proclaimed that it was to be on The Blueprint 3.[61] On May 21, 2009, Jay-Z announced he would be parting ways with Def Jam, and had struck a multi-million dollar deal to sign with Live Nation, with whom he would start his Roc Nation imprint which would serve as a record label, talent/management agency, and music publishing company[62] and also partnered up with production team Stargate to start a record label called StarRoc.[63][64] Jay-Z's 11th studio album The Blueprint 3 was originally to be released on September 11, 2009[65] but was instead released in North America on September 8, 2009 due to increasing anticipation.[66] Its international release followed on September 14.[67] It is his 11th album to reach No.1 on the Billboard 200[68] and has surpassed Elvis Presley's previous record, making him the current record holder.[9]
On October 9, 2009, Jay-Z kicked off his tour for The Blueprint 3, during which he supported his new album in North America. In a Shave Magazine review of his performance at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Jake Tomlinson expressed that "It was the type of smooth performance you would expect from the hip-hop superstar." The review gave this performance 4 stars. His North American tour continued until November 22, 2009.[69] At his concert on November 8, 2009 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, Rihanna joined him on stage and performed "Hard" for the very first time, then performed "Run This Town" with Jay-Z.[70] Among his success, Jay-Z has ventured into producing Broadway shows. Along with Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, Jay-Z helped produced the play Fela!, a musical celebrating the work of the late Nigerian star Fela Kuti.[71] Jay-Z said he was inspired by the power of Kuti's work and his life story, which resulted in his interest to help produce the musical.[71] Fela! is a story about an African pioneer and political activist who made his first moves on the scene during the 1970s.[71]
On January 23, 2010, Jay-Z released a track, "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)", with Rihanna, and U2's Bono and The Edge, as well as performing it at the Hope For Haiti Now telethon.[72] In June 2010, Eminem and Jay-Z announced they would perform together in a pair of concerts in Detroit and New York. The event was dubbed The Home & Home Tour. The first two concerts rapidly sold out, prompting the scheduling of an additional show at each venue.[73] Jay-Z was the supporting act for U2 on the Australian and New Zealand leg of their U2 360° Tour, beginning in Auckland, New Zealand in November 2010, followed by Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth in December.[74] He also appeared on stage during U2 performances of "Sunday Bloody Sunday", and in Auckland also joined the band for a performance of "Scarlet", singing some lines of his song, "History". In August 2010, it was revealed that Jay-Z and Kanye West would be collaborating on a five-track EP entitled Watch the Throne. Although, it was later revealed by West that the project had become a full-length LP. Recording sessions for the album took place at various recording locations and began in November 2010. The first single released for the project was "H•A•M". The track was co-produced by Lex Luger and West himself. The track ended up being on the deluxe edition of the album. The follow-up to that was the second single "Otis", which premiered on Funkmaster Flex's Hot 97 radio show, and was later released to the iTunes Store eleven days later. The song's existence, along with several other tracks from the album, was confirmed during a listening session hosted by Jay-Z. The album was first released on the iTunes Store, five days prior to it being released in physical format, a strategy Jay-Z later said was used to block an internet leak. It debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes Store in 23 countries. It also broke Coldplay's record for most albums sold in one week on the online retailer, selling 290,000 copies on iTunes alone. It held that record, until Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV was released twenty-one days later, selling only 10,000 copies more. It debuted on the US Billboard 200 chart at No. 1, selling 436,000 copies in its first week. The album received generally positive reviews. Jay-Z and West later gave a surprise performance of "Otis" at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. In April 2011, Jay-Z launched a blog-like, lifestyle website by the name of Life + Times. It covers everything from music, to fashion, to technology, to sports. The site is curated based on Jay-Z's interests, and he himself works with a small staff to produce every single piece of content.
[edit] 2012–present: Twelfth studio album
Jay-Z collaborated with M.I.A. on the single "XXXO", which achieved a fair level of success and went on to become remixed by several producers worldwide. On September 23, 2010, Q-Tip confirmed working on Jay-Z's follow up album to The Blueprint 3, saying the album was to hit stores by spring 2011.[75] The album has not yet been released; it has been confirmed 3 songs have been recorded and one of which features Frank Ocean. In May 2012 it was reported that Jay-Z is working on new music with Roc Nation producer Jahlil Beats. In a interview with XXL , Beats stated: "Me and Jay-Z been going back and forth. He picked a couple of my joints that he’s working on. I don’t even wanna say too much about Jay, but we definitely working on some stuff. I haven’t even sent him a bunch of beats. I sent him my favorite stuff. He hit me right back like, ‘Yo, I’ma go in on this,’ or, ‘I like this.’” [76] The same month, Jay-Z and Mayor Micheal A. Nutter announced that Jay-Z will be the curator and the headliner for the first annual "Budweiser Made in America" festival at Fairmont Park in Philadelphia on September 1st and September 2nd, 2012. The performance will be produced by Live Nation and will assemble an eclectic lineup of “rock, hip hop, R&B, latin music and dance” musicians. [77] It was also reported that Jay-Z and Rihanna will be the headlining acts for BBC Radio 1's 2012 Hackney Weekend music festival on June 23 to June 24. [78]
Musical style[link]
Influences[link]
Jay-Z that states his earliest exposure to music was through his parents' record collection, which was mostly of soul artists such as Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway. He says "I grew up around music, listening to all types of people... I'm into music that has soul in it, whether it be rap, R&B, pop music, whatever. As long as I can feel their soul through the wax, that's what I really listen to."[79] He often uses excerpts from these artists as samples in his work, particularly in the Kanye West-productions included on The Blueprint.[79]
Rapping technique[link]
Royce da 5'9" and Fredro Starr of Onyx both describe Jay-Z's emphasis on flow in the book How to Rap – Starr says that Jay-Z is "a master of the flow—he can flow fast, he can flow slow".[80] The book describes how Jay-Z uses 'rests' to provide structure to a verse[81] and how he uses 'partial linking' to add more rhymes to a verse.[82] Jay-Z's early style is described by Vibe as "a distinctly Das EFX-type, stiggety style" on his 12" single "Can't Get With That",[83] referring to the fast rhythms and vocal delivery of the group Das EFX. He is also known to write lyrics in his head, as described by Pusha T of Clipse in How to Rap,[84] a style popular with many MCs such as The Notorious B.I.G.,[84] Everlast,[85] Bobby Creekwater[86] and Guerilla Black.[86] Shock G of Digital Underground describes Jay-Z's performance style, saying he "rarely breaks a sweat, and instead uses smoothness and clever wordplay to keep the audience interested and entertained".[87]
Business ventures[link]
Jay-Z has also established himself as an entrepreneur like his fellow hip hop moguls and friends, Russell Simmons, Dr. Dre and Sean "Diddy" Combs, who also have business holdings such as record companies and clothing lines. In an interview, he stated that "my brands are an extension of me. They're close to me. It's not like running GM, where there's no emotional attachment."[88] He is the founder of the urban clothing brand Rocawear along with Damon Dash.[89] Rocawear has clothing lines and accessories for men, women and children. The line was taken over by Jay-Z in early 2006 following a falling out with Dash. In March 2007, Jay-Z sold the rights to the Rocawear brand to Iconix Brand Group, for $204 million. Jay-Z will retain his stake in the company and will continue to oversee the marketing, licensing and product development.[89][90] He also co-owns the 40/40 Club, an upscale sports bar that started in New York City and has since expanded to Atlantic City and Chicago. In 2008, the 40/40 club in Las Vegas was closed down and bought back by the hotel after attendance steadily declined. Future plans will see 40/40 Clubs in Tokyo and Singapore.[91] In 2005, Jay-Z became an investor in Carol's Daughter, a line of beauty products, including products for hair, skin, and hands.[92]
Jay-Z serves as co-brand director for Budweiser Select and collaborates with the company on strategic marketing programs and creative ad development. He provides direction on brand programs and ads that appear on TV, radio, print, and high-profile events.[93] He is also yet to expand his 40/40 Club sports bar in as many as 20 airports, as he makes deals with his business partners, Juan and Desiree Perez.[94] He is a part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets NBA team paying a reported $4.5 million for his share. He encouraged the team's relocation to Brooklyn's Barclays Center (from New Jersey) in the 2012–2013 season, at which point the team took on the Brooklyn Nets moniker.[95][96] In October 2005, he was reported in English media as considering buying a stake of Arsenal F.C., an English soccer team.[97] He has also invested in a real estate development venture called J Hotels which recently acquired a $66 million mid-block parcel in Chelsea, New York. Jay-Z and his partners are contemplating constructing a high-end hotel or an art gallery building on the newly acquired site which has the potential to go up about twelve stories.[98] Through his company Gain Global Investments Network LLC, had an interest estimated between 2 and 7% in the Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG) consortium which in January 2010 was awarded a contract to operate a 4,500 slot machine racino at the Aqueduct Race Track. Jay-Z became interested in the project after New York Governor David Paterson who awarded the contract said there had to be an affirmative action component to the ownership. Jay-Z initially approached Steve Wynn who was also bidding on the contract. On March 9, 2010, Jay-Z and Flake withdrew from the project and Paterson recused himself from further involvement.[99][100]
On November 16, 2010, Jay-Z published a memoir entitled Decoded.[101][102]
Personal life[link]
Relationship with Beyoncé[link]
Jay-Z is married to American R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles. In 2002, Jay-Z and Knowles collaborated for the song "'03 Bonnie & Clyde". Jay-Z also appeared on Knowles' hit single "Crazy In Love" and as well as "That's How You Like It" from her debut Dangerously in Love. On her second album, B'Day, he made appearances on the 2006 hits, "Déjà Vu" and "Upgrade U". In the video for the latter song, she comically imitates his appearance.[103] The couple generally avoid discussing their relationship. Knowles has stated that she believes that not publicly discussing their relationship has helped them. Jay-Z said in a People article, "We don't play with our relationship."[104] They kept a low profile while dating, and married quietly in April 2008.[10] It became a matter of public record on April 22, 2008,[105] but Knowles did not publicly debut her $5 million Lorraine Schwartz-designed wedding ring until the Fashion Rocks concert on September 5, 2008 in New York City.[106] Knowles and Jay-Z were listed as the most powerful couple for TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2006.[107] In January 2009, Forbes ranked them as Hollywood's top-earning couple, with a combined total of $162 million.[108] They also made it to the top of the list the following year, with a combined total of $122 million between June 2008 and June 2009.[108] At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé revealed that she was pregnant with their first child[109][110] and on January 7, 2012, she gave birth to their daughter, named Blue Ivy Carter, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.[111] On January 9, 2012, Jay-Z released "Glory", a song dedicated to their child, on his social website LifeandTimes.com.[112] The song detailed the couple's pregnancy struggles, including a miscarriage Knowles suffered before becoming pregnant with their daughter.[112] Because Blue's cries were included at the end of the song and she was officially credited on the song as "B.I.C", at 2 days old she became the youngest person ever to appear on a Billboard chart when "Glory" debuted on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at Number 74.[113]
Philanthropy[link]
During his retirement, Jay-Z also became involved in philanthropic activity. On August 9, 2006, he met with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan at the organization's headquarters in New York City. The rapper pledged to use his upcoming world tour to raise awareness of and combat global water shortage. Already on the look-out for a way to, in his own words, "become helpful", he had been made aware of this issue during a visit to Africa.[114] The effort took place in partnership with the UN,[115] as well as MTV, which produced a documentary entitled Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life, first airing in November 2006.[116] Along with Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jay-Z pledged $1 million to the American Red Cross' relief effort after Hurricane Katrina.[117] Jay-Z stated his support for Kanye West after the latter's outburst against President Bush during a live Katrina charity telethon.[118] He also addressed the issue of the Katrina disaster, and the government's response, in his song "Minority Report".[119]
Politics[link]
Jay-Z got actively involved in politics during the 2008 presidential campaign, where he supported increased voter participation and helped send voters to polling stations.[120] He was an early supporter for the candidacy of Illinois senator and subsequent U.S. president Barack Obama, performing for free in voter-drive concerts financed by the Democrats' campaign.[121] He also became acquainted with Obama himself, who stated "Every time I talk to Jay-Z, who is a brilliant talent and a good guy, I enjoy how he thinks. That's somebody who is going to start branching out and can help shape attitudes in a real positive way."[122] During the 2010 mid-term elections' campaign, Jay-Z appeared, along with other artists, in an ad prepared by the HeadCount organization, urging voters, and especially younger ones, to register and vote.[123] In May 2012, Jay-Z announced his endorsement of President Obama's support of same-sex marriage for gay couples.[124]
Discography[link]
Main article: Jay-Z discography
- Studio albums
- Reasonable Doubt (1996)
- In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1997)
- Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life (1998)
- Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter (1999)
- The Dynasty: Roc La Familia (2000)
- The Blueprint (2001)
- The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse (2002)
- The Black Album (2003)
- Kingdom Come (2006)
- American Gangster (2007)
- The Blueprint 3 (2009)
- Collaboration albums
- Jay-Z: Unplugged (with The Roots) (2001)
- The Best of Both Worlds (with R. Kelly) (2002)
- Unfinished Business (with R. Kelly) (2004)
- Collision Course (with Linkin Park) (2004)
- Watch the Throne (with Kanye West) (2011)
Awards and nominations[link]
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Jay-Z
Filmography[link]
- Streets Is Watching (1998)
- Backstage (2000)
- State Property (2002)
- Paper Soldiers (2002)
- Fade to Black (2004)
Bibliography[link]
- Decoded by Jay-Z (2010: Spiegel & Grau, 336 pages) ISBN 978-1-4000-6892-0. Part memoir and part a collection of Jay-Z lyrics with the stories behind them.[125]
- Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office by Zack O'Malley Greenburg (2011: Portfolio (Penguin), 240 pages) ISBN 978-1-59184-381-8. An unauthorized biography detailing Jay-Z's life from his beginnings in Brooklyn as told by his friends and former colleagues.[126]
References[link]
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- ^ Reid, Shaheem (September 15, 2005). "'I Declare War!' Jay-Z Says He's Going To Air Some Rappers Out Onstage". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1509668/09152005/jay_z.jhtml?headlines=true. Retrieved August 6, 2009.
- ^ Seandra Sims and Houston Williams (October 27, 2005). "Hip-Hop Harmony: Jay-Z And Nas Officially Dead Beef". AllHipHop.com. http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2005/10/27/18130470.aspx. Retrieved August 6, 2009.
- ^ Reid, Shaheem (October 28, 2005). "Jay-Z And Nas Put Beef To Sleep In Onstage Show Of Unity". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1512432/20051028/jay_z.jhtml. Retrieved August 6, 2009.
- ^ Welte, Jim (September 13, 2006). "Jay-Z preps Kingdom Come". MP3.com. http://www.mp3.com/news/stories/6293.html. Retrieved September 13, 2006.
- ^ "Legal Action to be Taken over Jay-Z Single Leak?". World Entertainment News. October 9, 2006. http://www.pr-inside.com/legal-action-to-be-taken-over-jay-z-single-leak-r21513.htm. Retrieved September 13, 2006.
- ^ "Jay-Z Ends His Retirement With Star-Studded Comeback Album". San Francisco Chronicle. September 15, 2006. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=7&entry_id=8934. Retrieved September 16, 2006.
- ^ Reid, Shaheem (September 14, 2006). "Jay-Z's 'Retirement' Is Finally Over: New Album Due In November". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1540898/20060914/jay_z.jhtml?headlines=true. Retrieved September 17, 2006.
- ^ Jay-Z Reclaims His 'Kingdom' With No. 1 Debut. Billboard.com. Retrieved November 29, 2006.
- ^ DAVID M. HALBFINGER and JEFF LEED (September 20, 2007). "For Jay-Z, Inspiration Arrives in a Movie". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/arts/music/20jayz.html?hp. Retrieved September 19, 2007.
- ^ Shake (September 20, 2007). "Jay-Z to Release 'American Gangster'". HipHopDX. http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.5728/title.jay-z-to-release-american-gangster. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ Biddle, Sam (November 15, 2007). "Johns Hopkins Newsletter: New Vibrations". jhunewsletter.com. http://www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2007/11/15/ArtsEntertainment/New-Vibrations-3105603.shtml. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ "BREAKING NEWS: Jay-Z Leaves Def Jam". AllHipHop.com. December 24, 2007. http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2007/12/24/19046792.aspx.
- ^ "Jay-Z confirmed for Glastonbury". BBC News. February 1, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7223232.stm. Retrieved February 1, 2008.
- ^ "Jay-Z confirmed to headline Glastonbury 2008". NME. UK. http://www.nme.com/news/glastonbury/34049. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ Paterson, Colin (April 12, 2008). "Hip-hop "wrong" for Glastonbury". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7345780.stm. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
- ^ "Noel Gallagher is narrow minded: Jay-Z". NDTVmusic.com. May 13, 2008. http://www.ndtvmusic.com/story.asp?id=ENTEN20080049721. Retrieved May 13, 2008. [dead link]
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- ^ "Jay-Z answers critics in Glastonbury performance". AFP. Google. June 29, 2008. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hxVV-7FKB6uR5m8-tlLVFPsBUoQw. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ "Roskilde Festival: Forside". Roskilde-festival.dk. August 20, 2010. http://www.roskilde-festival.dk. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ Hove Festival Homepage[dead link]
- ^ Official O2 Wireless Festival line-up
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- ^ Tai Saint Louis (September 28, 2008). "Jay-Z Statement On New StarRoc Label". AllHipHop.com. http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2008/09/28/20536457.aspx.
- ^ Jason (September 23, 2008). "Details On Jay-Z's New Label". Rap Basement. http://www.rapbasement.com/jay-z/092308-details-on-jay-z-s-new-record-label-leak.html.
- ^ Daniel Kreps (May 21, 2009). "Jay-Z Buys Out Def Jam Contract, "Blueprint 3″ Heads to Roc Nation". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/05/21/jay-z-buys-out-def-jam-contract-blueprint-3-heads-to-roc-nation/.
- ^ Kreps, Daniel (September 8, 2009). "Jay-Z Pushes Up "Blueprint 3 " Release, Announces Tour". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/09/08/jay-z-pushes-up-blueprint-3-release-announces-tour/. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
- ^ "Jay-Z interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' August 2009". Bluesandsoul.com. http://www.bluesandsoul.com/feature/441/jay_z_is_back/. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ "Thee Blueprint 3 – Jay-Z". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/album/jay-z/the-blueprint-3/1280278. Retrieved September 20, 2009.
- ^ Jake Tomlinson. "Jay Z Fall 2009 Concert Tour Review". ShaveMagazine.com. http://www.shavemagazine.com/concerts/reviews/091001. Retrieved November 6, 2009.
- ^ Jocelyn Vena, Rihanna Joins Jay-Z Onstage At Los Angeles Concert, MTV.com, November 9, 2009
- ^ a b c "Jay-Z Becomes A Broadway Producer For 'Fela!'". http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1626972/20091124/jay_z.jhtml.
- ^ "> News > 'Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)' raising funds for Haiti". U2.com. http://u2.com/news/title/stranded-haiti-mon-amour-to-raise-funds-for-haiti-. Retrieved June 25, 2010.
- ^ "Eminem And Jay-z Announce More "Home & Home" Dates". http://www.artistdirect.com/entertainment-news/article/eminem-and-jay-z-announce-more-home-and-home-dates/7314183.
- ^ "Jay-Z To Join U2's 360 Tour in Australia". James Dinh. August 23, 2010. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1646328/20100823/jay_z.jhtml. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
- ^ "Q-Tip Confirms Jay-Z's Upcoming New Album". Rap Basement. September 22, 2010. http://www.rapbasement.com/q-tip/092210-q-tip-confirms-his-work-on-jay-zs-next-album-along-with-kanye-west-details-here-click-now.html. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
- ^ Horowitz, Steven. "Jay-Z Working With Jahlil Beats On New Music". Hip Hop DX. http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.19716/title.jay-z-working-with-jahlil-beats-on-new-music/. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
- ^ Itzkoff, Dave. "Jay-Z to Curate and Star in Two-Day Music Festival in Philadelphia". ''The New York Times''. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/jay-z-to-curate-and-star-in-two-day-music-festival-in-philadelphia/. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
- ^ Jonsin, Miranda. "Rihanna And Jay-Z Headlining 2012 Olympics Festival". MTV. http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/04/26/rihanna-and-jay-z-headlining-2012-olympics-festival/. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
- ^ a b Anderson, Kyle (August 24, 2009). "A Young Jay-Z Describes His Early Influences". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1619380/20090824/jay_z.jhtml. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, pp. 65, 112.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 129.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 91.
- ^ Vibe magazine, Jan 2004, Vol. 12, No. 1, published by Vibe Media Group, p. 75.
- ^ a b Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 144.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, pp. 144–145.
- ^ a b Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 145.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 292.
- ^ "Jay-Z Talks Business, Success in New Interview". idiomag. March 15, 2009. http://www.idiomag.com/peek/70238/jay-z. Retrieved March 17, 2009.
- ^ a b "Iconix to Buy Rocawear, Jay-Z's Clothing Line". New York Times. March 7, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/business/07clothes.html. Retrieved March 9, 2007.
- ^ "Jay-Z: Down To 98 Problems Yet?". MTV. February 7, 2007. http://www.mtv.co.uk/channel/mtvuk/07032007/jay_z_down_to_98_problems_yet. Retrieved March 9, 2007. [dead link]
- ^ Stutz, Howard (August 28, 2008). "40/40 Club closing to make way for Palazzo sports book". Casino City Times. http://www.casinocitytimes.com/news/article/40-40-club-closing-to-make-way-for-palazzo-sports-book-174907. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
- ^ "Will Smith, Jay-Z back beauty line". CNN. May 18, 2005. http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/18/news/newsmakers/cosmetics/index.htm. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
- ^ [http://www.allhiphop.com/Hiphopnews/index.asp?ID=6279[dead link]
- ^ Jay-Z Bringing His 40/40 Club To Airports[dead link]
- ^ Brooks, Matt (09/26/2011). "Washington Post – Jay-Z: Brooklyn Nets to debut at Barclays Center in 2012". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/post/jay-z-brooklyn-nets-to-debut-at-barclays-center-in-2012/2011/09/26/gIQAeYKVzK_blog.html. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ "NBA.xom – Jay-Z makes it official: 'Brooklyn Nets' for 2012–13". Sep 26, 2011. http://www.nba.com/2011/news/09/26/jayz-nets/index.html. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ Beyoncé's Rapper Lover Is After A Piece Of Arse: Jay-Z's Footie Bid, The Sunday Mirror, October 9, 2005
- ^ "''HHWorlds.com'' – Jay-Z Teams Up With J Hotels To Develop On $66 million New York Site". Hhworlds.com. http://www.hhworlds.com/f11/12-12-07-jay-z-teams-up-j-hotels-develop-66-million-new-york-site-9894.html. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ "Rev. Flake, rapper Jay-Z exit sinking Aqueduct bid – crainsnewyork – March 9, 2010". Crainsnewyork.com. March 9, 2010. http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100309/REAL_ESTATE/100309862. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ Katz, Celeste (March 9, 2010). "Paterson Recuses Himself From Racino Project – New York Daily News – March 9, 2010". Daily News (New York). http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/03/paterson-recuses-himself-from.html. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ Marikar, Sheila (November 16, 2010). "Jay-Z's 'Decoded': From Hip-Hop to Barack and Beyond". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/jay-zs-decoded-hip-hop-barack/story?id=12156033. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
- ^ Crosley, Hillary (November 16, 2010). "Jay-Z's 'Decoded': The Five Most Revealing Excerpts". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1652433/20101116/jay_z.jhtml. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
- ^ "Beyoncé – Upgrade U (official video)". Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bnr_5DuFpU. Retrieved September 4, 2010. [dead link]
- ^ Michelle Tauber (October 25, 2004). "The Good Life". People. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20145815,00.html. Retrieved August 6, 2009.
- ^ Ehrich Dowd, Kathy; Clehane, Diane and Steve Helling (April 22, 2008). "Beyoncé and Jay-Z File Signed Marriage License". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20194030,00.html. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
- ^ "Beyoncé's ring revealed!" People, Vol. 70, No. 12, September 22, 2008, pg. 26.
- ^ "Beyonce, Jay-Z the richest pair". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/people/beyonce-jayz-the-richest-pair/2008/11/22/1226770800770.html. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
- ^ a b Kaufman, Gil (January 13, 2010). "Jay-Z And Beyonce Named Top-Earning Couple In Entertainment". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1629585/jayz-beyonce-named-topearning-couple-entertainment.jhtml. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
- ^ Krupnick, Ellie (August 28, 2011). "Beyonce Pregnant, Flaunts Baby Bump On VMA Red Carpet". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/28/beyonce-pregnant_n_939890.html. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
- ^ "Beyoncé & Jay-Z Expecting a Baby". People. August 28, 2011. http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20302940_20523751,00.html. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
- ^ "Beyonce Gives Birth To a Baby Girl". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. January 8, 2012. http://www.billboard.com/#/news/beyonce-gives-birth-to-a-baby-girl-1005758352.story. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
- ^ a b "Jay-Z reveals Beyonce's miscarriage in ode to daughter". Reuters. January 9, 2012. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/us-beyonce-baby-idUSTRE80821A20120109. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
- ^ "Blue Ivy Carter, Jay-Z and Beyonce's Daughter, Becomes Youngest Person Ever to Appear on a Billboard Chart". Billboard. January 11, 2012. http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/record-labels/blue-ivy-carter-jay-z-and-beyonce-s-daughter-1005846912.story. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
- ^ Jay-Z helps UN focus on world water crisis, USA Today, August 9, 2006. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ "International Decade for Action: Water for Life, 2005–2015". United Nations. http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/. Retrieved June 4, 2008.
- ^ "Water for Life". MTV. http://www.waterforlife.mtv.com. Retrieved June 4, 2008.
- ^ "Diddy, Jay-Z give $1 million to Red Cross". MSNBC. September 2, 2005. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9163246/. Retrieved June 4, 2008.
- ^ "Jay-Z backs Kanye West’s telethon outburst". MSNBC. September 7, 2005. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9248483/. Retrieved June 4, 2008.
- ^ "For The Record: Quick News On Jay-Z, Metallica, Bow Wow, John Legend, J Dilla, Sufjan Stevens & More". MTV. February 12, 2007. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1552173/20070212/jay_z.jhtml. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
- ^ "Daily News – : Jay-Z Gets Political In New PSA To Encourage Voters". Allhiphop.com. http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2010/10/12/22435436.aspx. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
- ^ "Jay-Z To Perform At Obama Voter Drive". Huffington Post. October 1, 2008. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/01/jay-z-to-perform-at-obama_n_130982.html.
- ^ "Inside Barack Obama's | Rolling Stone Music". Rolling Stone. June 25, 2008. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/13511/73040. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
- ^ Wilkie, Christina (October 20, 2010). "Rapper Jay-Z hits the political airwaves". TheHill.com. http://thehill.com/capital-living/in-the-know/123953-rapper-jay-z-hits-the-political-airwaves. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
- ^ Jay-z, gay marriage stance right thing to do retrieved 16 May 2012
- ^ "Jay-Z 'Decoded'", Fresh Air interview transcript, November 16, 2010. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- ^ "About the Book|JAY-Z Book: Empire State of Mind"
External links[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jay-Z |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jay-Z |
- Official website
- Jay-Z at MTV
- Jay-Z at the Internet Movie Database
- Works by or about Jay-Z in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Jay-Z on Charlie Rose
- Jay-Z collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Jay-Z at the Notable Names Database
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Jay-Z |
| Alternative names | Carter, Shawn Corey |
| Short description | Rapper, entrepreneur |
| Date of birth | December 4, 1970 |
| Place of birth | Brooklyn, New York |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Jay-Z
Related pages:
http://it.wn.com/Jay-Z
http://cs.wn.com/Jay-Z
http://id.wn.com/Jay-Z
http://es.wn.com/Jay-Z
http://ru.wn.com/Jay-Z
http://nl.wn.com/Jay-Z
http://pt.wn.com/Jay-Z
http://pl.wn.com/Jay-Z
http://fr.wn.com/Jay-Z
http://de.wn.com/Jay-Z
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay-Z
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Johan Gielen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Johan Gielen |
| Also known as | DJ Don, Don Joan, Airscape |
| Born | (1968-02-23) 23 February 1968 (age 44) |
| Origin | Belgium |
| Genres | Trance |
| Labels | Black Hole Recordings |
| Website | www.johangielen.com |
Johan Gielen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjoː.ɦɐn ˈʝi.lə(n)]) is a trance artist, DJ, and remixer.[1] He was born on 23 February 1968 in the town of Mol, Belgium.[2] Gielen is an easily recognizable name in the Netherlands.[3]
Contents |
Early years[link]
Johan started DJ'ing at the age of 17 in his home country of Belgium, and during the latest 15 years has built up an international fame spinning as a DJ in Japan, Australia, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, England, Northern Ireland, Israel,[4] North Cyprus and now also as resident DJ at Club Gorgeous in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Besides DJ'ing, Johan is a trance producer working with partner Sven Maes. Johan and Sven are behind European smash hits from Airscape, Balearic Bill, Des Mitchell, Abnea, Svenson & Gielen. Furthermore, they are well known for their remixing skills which can be heard on productions by Chicane, Delerium, Vengaboys, Tiësto, Scooter, Boy George a.o. They have proven that they are also capable of creating commercial dance hits, after finishing a single for Alice DeeJay.
After nearly two years of warming up the Saturday night party people by broadcasting his weekly radio show "Lift Off" on ID&T, he decided to leave the station in favor of Fresh FM where he hosts a weekly show called "In Session" every Saturday from 21:00 to 23:00 CET.
In 2005 Gielen was rated along with dozens of other internationally known DJs. At that time Paul Van Dyk claimed the number one position and Gielen was placed at number 57 (in the world).[5]
Discography[link]
Albums (Solo)[link]
- 2006 Revelations
- 2009 Tech Liberty (as DJ Don with DJ Stay Puft) [Faada]
- 2010 Now And Then (as Airscape) [Black Hole Recordings]
Singles (Solo)[link]
- 1998 'Keep Pumpin' It Up' (as DJ Don, with The Party Zone) [Dance Opera]
- 2000 'Velvet Moods' (with Abnea) [Big Star Records]
- 2000 'We Move Like Shadows' [Telica/Big Star Records]
- 2005 'Flash/Dreamchild' [Tunes for You/Maximal Recordings]
- 2005 'For You' [Moist]
- 2005 'Show Me What You Got' [Tunes for You]
- 2006 'Physical Overdrive' [Tunes for You]
- 2007 'Revelations' [Tunes for You]
- 2007 'Magnitude' [Tunes for You]
- 2007 'Okinawa Sunset' [Tunes for You/Maelstrom]
- 2008 'Live It Up 2008' (Johan Gielen vs. Time Bandits) [VISCO Productions]
- 2009 'My Love' feat. JES (as Airscape) [Tunes for You]
- 2009 'Repeat The Music' [Magik Muzik]
- 2010 'These Are My People' [Magik Muzik]
- 2010 'I'm Lonely' (Johan Gielen pres. Hollis P. Monroe) [Magik Muzik]
- 2010 'Skyscraper/Mirage' (Johan Gielen vs. Tetsuya) [Black Hole Recordings]
- 2010 'Jonko' [Magik Muzik]
Compilations[link]
- 2000 Academy Of Trance, Vol. 1[Big Star Records]
- 2000 In Trance We Trust 004 [In Trance We Trust/Black Hole]
- 2001 The Trance Years [Antler-Subway]
- 2002 Recorded 2 [ID&T]
- 2003 Recorded 3 [Universal Music TV]
- 2003 Trance Energy 2003 - The 10th Anniversary Edition [ID&T]
- 2007 In Trance We Trust 12 [In Trance We Trust/Black Hole]
- 2008 Techno Club, Vol. 25 [Klubbstyle Media]
- 2009 Private Party [Black Hole Recordings]
Remixes[link]
- 1992 Transformer 2 - 'Pacific Symphony 2' (as Supercali) [Profile]
- 1993 Airscape - 'Cruising' (with Chris Inger) [Save the Vinyl]
- 1994 Dirty Harry - 'D'Bop Don't Stop' (as Don Joan) [Scorpio Music]
- 1995 Proyecto Uno - 'El Tiburon' (with Peter Ramson) [Freaky Records]
- 1995 Michèle[disambiguation needed
] - 'I Can Feel' (as Don Joan) [BMG] - 1995 A.D.A.M ft. Amy - 'Memories and Dreams'(with Olliver Adams) [Eternal]
- 1995 A.D.A.M - 'Zombie' (with Olliver Adams) [Eternal]
- 1995 Full Option - 'Rave All Night' (as Don Joan) [PolyGram]
- 1995 U-Matic - 'Cyberspace' (as DJ Don) [Koch International]
- 1996 Pleasure Deluxe - '99 Red Balloons' (with Olliver Adams) [Eternal]
- 1996 Chris Rea - 'Girl In A Sports Car' [EastWest]
- 1996 Body Heat - 'Waves Of Life' (Don Joan's Energy Edit) [Avex Trax]
- 1998 Southside Spinners - 'Luvstruck' [District]
- 2000 Svenson & Gielen - 'The Beauty of Silence' [Insolent]
- 2002 Svenson & Gielen - 'Answer the Question' [ID&T]
- 2002 Svenson & Gielen - 'We Know What You Did...' [ID&T]
- 2002 DJ Shog - 'The 2nd Dimension' [Logport Records]
- 2002 Sensation - 'The Anthem 2002' [ID&T]
- 2004 Airscape - 'Sosei' [ID&T]
- 2004 Reeloop - 'Kamistad' [Headline]
- 2004 Dublex Inc. - 'Nifty Night' [Pulver Records]
- 2006 Dave202 - 'Inside Outside' [Muve Recordings]
- 2008 Phunk Investigation - 'Your Love' [Net's Work International]
- 2008 Per Hammar - 'Volta' (as DJ Don) [Playectra]
- 2009 Nils Van Zandt vs. Sergio Silvano ft. Chaquilo MC - 'The Beat Don't Stop' (as DJ Don) [BIP]
- 2009 Airscape ft. JES - 'My Love' [ID&T]
- 2009 Trio Infernal - 'In These Dreams' [Absolutely Records]
- 2009 Phunk Investigation - 'Shuri Shuri' [Avanti]
- 2010 Airscape - 'Cruising 2010' (Johan Gielen & Cor Fijneman Mix) [Black Hole Recordings]
- 2010 Johan Gielen pres. Hollis P. Monroe - 'I'm Lonely' (Johan Gielen & Cor Fijneman Main Mix) [Magik Muzik]
- 2010 Lost Stories presents Prayag & Rishab - 'Ashna' [Songbird]
- 2010 Ad Brown And Matt Lange Feat. Kerry Leva - 'As The Rain Falls' [Songbird]
- 2010 Loverush UK! feat. Shelley Harland - 'Different World 2010' (Johan Gielen & Cor Fijneman Remix) [Sea to Sun/Loverush Digital]
- 2011 Lost Stories - 'The Purple Cow' [Black Hole Recordings]
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ "Johan Gielen". Discogs. http://www.discogs.com/artist/Johan+Gielen. Retrieved 2009-01-19.
- ^ Gielen "Black Hole Recordings - Johan Gielen". Black Hole Recordings. http://www.blackholerecordings.com/artist/2749/Johan Gielen. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
- ^ Dennis Chua (2007), Recharge at A' Famosa, New Straits Times
- ^ Viva Sarah Press (2001), It's party time, Jerusalem Post
- ^ Stuart Barrie (2005), The Razz clubbing nation : Only Van Winner; German trance star Paul is crowned No.1 DJ in the world, Daily Record
External links[link]
- Official Johan Gielen website
- Official Radio Show http://www.ah.fm
- Johan Gielen discography at MusicBrainz
- Trance Hub interview January 2008
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Gielen, Johan |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1968-02-23 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Johan_Gielen
Related pages:
http://fr.wn.com/Johan Gielen
http://nl.wn.com/Johan Gielen
http://de.wn.com/Johan Gielen
http://it.wn.com/Johan Gielen
http://pl.wn.com/Johan Gielen
http://cs.wn.com/Johan Gielen
http://es.wn.com/Johan Gielen
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Gielen
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
