Google Videos

URL	video.google.com
Type of site	video search
Registration	no (previously required to upload)
Available language(s)	multilingual
Owner	Google Inc.
Created by	Google

Google Videos (originally Google Video) is a video search engine, and formerly a free video sharing website, from Google Inc. Before removing user-uploaded content, the service allowed selected videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provided the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube. This allowed for websites to host large amounts of video remotely without running into bandwidth or storage capacity issues.

The service was launched on January 25, 2005.^[1] On October 9, 2006, Google bought former competitor YouTube. Google announced on June 13, 2007 that the Google Videos search results would begin to include videos discovered by their search crawlers on other hosting services, in YouTube and user uploads.^[2] Search result links now open a frameset with a Google Videos header at the top, and the original player page below it, similar to the way the Google Images search results are presented. In 2009, Google discontinued the ability to upload videos to Google's web servers.^[3]

On April 15, 2011, Google announced via email that after April 29 they would no longer allow playback of content hosted on their service, but reversed the decision one week later in lieu of greater support for migration to YouTube.^[4][5]

Video content[link]

Google Videos is geared towards providing a large archive of freely searchable videos. Besides amateur media, Internet videos, viral ads, and movie trailers, the service also aims to distribute commercial professional media, such as televised content and movies.

A number of educational discourses by Google employees have been recorded and made available for viewing via Google Videos. The lectures have been done mainly at the employees' former universities. The topics cover Google technologies and software engineering but also include other pioneering efforts by major players in the software engineering field.

On January 6, 2009 the Google Video Store was launched, which allowed paid downloads through Google Videos. The service launched with independent films Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks, and Waterborne, as well as content from media partners CBS, the NBA, The Charlie Rose Show, and Sony BMG.^[6]Initially, the content of a number of broadcasting companies (such as ABC, NBC, CNN) was available as free streaming content or stills with closed captioning. In addition, the U.S. National Archive used Google Videos to make historic films available online, but this project was later discontinued.^[7]

Google Videos also searches other non-affiliated video sites from web crawls. Sites searched by Google Videos in addition to their own videos and YouTube include GoFish, ExposureRoom, Vimeo, Myspace, Biku, and Yahoo! Video. It appears that Google Videos is moving away from an online video archive and toward a search engine for videos, similar to their web and image searches.

As of August 2007, the DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program ended. Users who previously purchased a video from Google Videos were no longer able to view them. Credits for users were made available as values for Google Checkout and were valid for 60 days.^[8][9]

Termination of video upload service[link]

In 2009, Google ended the ability for users to upload videos to Google Videos. Videos that were already uploaded continued to be hosted.^[3] Later, other navigation features were retired, such as ability to cross-reference videos back to now-inactive user accounts, as well as selection of top videos.^{[citation needed]}

Uploading videos[link]

Until 2009, users were able to upload videos either through the Google Videos website (limited to 100MB per file); or alternatively through the Google Video Uploader, available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Major producers with a thousand or more hours of video can apply for Google's Premium Program, which continues to allow for the uploading of videos.^[3][10]

While the Video Uploader application was available as three separate downloads, the Linux version was written in Java, a cross-platform programming language, and would therefore also work on other operating systems without modifications, providing that the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is installed. This Java executable (.jar) file was a standalone application that did not require installation. Consequently, it could be run from removable media such as USB flash drives, CD-ROMs, or network storage. This allowed users to upload video even if the computer terminal on which they were working would not allow them to install programs, such as a public library computer.

Uploaded videos were saved as a .gvi files under the "Google Videos" folder in "My Videos" and reports of the video(s) details were logged and stored in the user account. The report sorted and listed the number of times that each of the user's videos had been viewed and downloaded within a specific time frame. These ranged from the previous day, week, month or the entire time the videos have been there. Totals were calculated and displayed and the information could be downloaded into a spreadsheet format or printed out.

Termination of video hosting[link]

On April 15, 2011, Google announced that they would stop hosting user-uploaded videos. The plan would make videos unavailable for public viewing in 14 days and removed from users' accounts in 28 days.^[4] On April 22, a week after the announcement, Google announced that due to feedback they would not be removing videos at this time. Instead they will start automatically migrating videos to YouTube, as well as providing easier tools for account holders to do so themselves.^[5]

Video distribution methods[link]

Google Videos offers both free services and commercial videos, the latter controlled with digital rights management.

Website [link]

The basic way to watch the videos is through the Google Videos website, video.google.com. Each video has a unique web address in the format of http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=<video id>, and that page contains an embedded Flash Video file which can be viewed in any Flash-enabled browser.

Permalinks to a certain point in a video are also possible, in the format of http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=<video id>#XXhYYmZZs^[11] (that is, with a fragment identifier containing a timestamp).

Flash Video[link]

The browser automatically caches the Flash file while it plays, and it can be retrieved from the browser cache once it has fully played. There are also several tools and browser extensions to download the file. It can be then viewed in video players that can handle flash, for example VLC media player, Media Player Classic (with ffdshow installed), MPlayer or Wimpy.

Google Video Player[link]

Google Video Player was another way to view Google videos; it ran on Windows and Mac OS X. The Google Video Player plays back files in Google's own Google Video File (.gvi) media format and supported playlists in "Google Video Pointer" (.gvp) format. When users downloaded to their computers, the resulting file used to be a small .gvp (pointer) file rather than a .gvi file. When run, the .gvp file would download a .gvi (movie) file to the user's default directory.

As of August 17, 2007, Google Video Player has been discontinued and is no longer available for download from the Google Videos website. The option to download videos in GVI format has also been removed, the only format available being iPod/PSP (MP4 format).

While early versions of Google's in-browser video player code were based on the open source VLC Media Player, the last version of Google Video Player was not based on VLC, according to its readme file. However, it did include the OpenSSL cryptographic toolkit and some libraries from the Qt widget toolkit.^[12]

GVI format and conversion[link]

Google Video Files (.gvi), and latterly its .avi files, are modified Audio Video Interleave (.avi) files that have an extra list containing the FourCC "goog" immediately following the header. The list can be removed with a hex editor to avoid playback issues with various video players.^[13][14] The video is encoded in MPEG-4 ASP alongside an MP3 audio stream. MPEG-4 video players can render .gvi Google Video Files without format conversion (after changing the extension from .gvi to .avi, although this method of just renaming the file extension does not work with videos purchased with DRM to inhibit unauthorized copying. Among other software VirtualDub is able to read .gvi files and allows the user to convert them into different formats of choice. There are also privately developed software solutions, such as GVideo Fix, that can convert them to .avi format without recompression. MEncoder with "-oac copy -ovc copy" as parameters also suffices.

AVI and MP4[link]

Besides GVI and Flash Video, Google provided its content through downloadable Audio Video Interleave (.avi) and MPEG-4 (.mp4) video files. Not all formats are available through the website's interface, however, depending on the user's operating system.

Where available, Google's "save as" function for Windows/Mac produced an .avi file, while the "save as" function for iPod and PSP produced an .mp4 file.

This .avi file was not in standard AVI format. To play the file in a popular media player such as Winamp or Windows Media Player, the file had to first be modified, using a hex editor to delete the first LIST block in the file header, which started at byte 12 (000C hex, first byte in file is byte 0) and ended at byte 63 (003F hex).^[13][14] Optionally, the file length (in bytes 4 to 7, little endian) should also be amended, by subtracting 52 (3F hex – 0C hex = 33 hex).

Winamp and Windows Media Player cannot play the unmodified .avi file because the non-standard file header corrupts the file. However, Media Player Classic, MPlayer, the VLC Media Player and GOM Player will play the unmodified .avi file, and the Google .mp4 file. Media Player Classic can do so only if an MPEG-4 DirectShow Filter, such as ffdshow, is installed. Most Linux media players (including xine, Totem, the Linux version of VLC Media Player, and Kaffeine) have no problem playing Google's .avi format.

An .mp4 video file will play in Winamp 5 if an MPEG-4/H.264 DirectShow Filter such as ffdshow and an MP4 Splitter such as Haali are installed, and the extension ;MP4 is added to the Extension List in the Winamp DirectShow decoder configuration.

In the Spring of 2008, the option to download files in .AVI format was removed. Files were henceforth only available as Flash video or .MP4 video. The same videos, when accessed through the companion YouTube.com site, were available only in Flash video format.

Third-party download services[link]

Google offers users the means to save only some of the videos on the site, mostly for copyright reasons. Their documentation goes so far as to claim that only these videos can be downloaded. However, since viewing a video requires downloading it to the computer, their software merely makes saving videos difficult, not impossible: a number of solutions, including external software and bookmarklets, have been developed.

RSS feed[link]

Google Videos search results can be viewed in an RSS feed by clicking the RSS link to the right of the results count^[15] or by adding &output=rss to the end of the URL in your web browser's address area.

Changing the &num=20 part of the URL to &num=100 shows 100 results in the RSS feed instead of 20.

Market adoption[link]

Despite availability of downloading in multiple formats, being less restrictive on video uploads, and Google being tremendously well-known, Google Videos had only a minor share from the online video market, amassing around 2,500,000 videos uploaded.

Availability of service[link]

While initially only available in the United States, over time Google Videos has become available to users in more countries and can now be accessed from many other countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, China and Japan.

Regardless of general availability, content providers are given the opportunity to limit access to video files to only users from certain countries of residence. However, methods of circumventing geographical filtering exist.

International[link]

Countries for which Google Videos is localized

Google Videos has been localized for several countries:

Country/Region	URL	Languages
Argentina	http://video.google.com.ar	Spanish
Australia	http://video.google.com.au/	Australian English
Brazil	http://video.google.com.br/	Brazilian Portuguese
Canada	http://video.google.ca/	Canadian English Canadian French
People's Republic of China	http://video.google.cn/	Chinese
France	http://video.google.fr/	French
Germany	http://video.google.de/	German
Israel	http://video.google.co.il	Hebrew
Italy	http://video.google.it/	Italian
Netherlands	http://video.google.nl/	Dutch
Poland	http://video.google.pl/	Polish
Russia	http://video.google.ru	Russian
Spain	http://video.google.es/	Spanish
United Kingdom	http://video.google.co.uk/	British English
United States	http://video.google.com	American English

Criticisms[link]

Google Videos has little organization of content and no noticeable pricing scheme.^[16][17] However, pay content (available currently in the United States only) is arranged in a few categories. A video ranking in the form of a Top 100 has been introduced and the official Google Video Blog features "Google Picks" (videos considered noteworthy by Google) on a regular basis. "Google Picks" are currently also available via the Google Videos homepage.

The strategy for Google Videos has shifted dramatically from an initial focus on digitizing offline content, akin to Google BookSearch, to then later focusing on fee-based downloads akin to iTunes, to then later focusing on social networking features akin to YouTube.^{[citation needed]} Despite constant product development and business development churn, Google Videos had never attained market leadership in the online video space at the time when Google acquired YouTube.^{[citation needed]}

Google Videos currently doesn't display the username under which videos on the service were uploaded.

See also[link]

Internet portal

• Comparison of video services
• List of video hosting websites

References[link]

External links[link]

• Google Video

Freddie Mercury
Mercury performing in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1978 with Queen
Background information
Birth name	Farrokh Bulsara
Born	(1946-09-05)5 September 1946 Stone Town, Zanzibar
Origin	London, England, UK[1]
Died	24 November 1991(1991-11-24) (aged 45) Kensington, London, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Rock, hard rock, glam rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Multi-instrumentalist Vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar
Years active	1969–1991
Labels	Columbia, Polydor, EMI, Parlophone, Hollywood Records
Associated acts	Queen, Wreckage/Ibex, Montserrat Caballé Freddie Mercury's Signature

Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara (Gujarati: ફારોખ બલ્સારા‌), 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991)^[2][3] was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range.^[4][5][6] As a songwriter, Mercury composed many hits for Queen, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "We Are the Champions". In addition to his work with Queen, he led a solo career, and also occasionally served as a producer and guest musician (piano or vocals) for other artists. He died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS on 24 November 1991, only one day after publicly acknowledging he had the disease.

Mercury was a Parsi born in Zanzibar and grew up there and in India until his mid-teens. He has been referred to as "Britain's first Asian rock star".^[7] In 2002, Mercury was placed at number 58 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, in 2006, Time Asia named him one of the most influential Asian heroes of the past 60 years,^[8] and he continues to be voted one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music. In 2005, a poll organised by Blender and MTV2 saw Mercury voted the greatest male singer of all time.^[9] In 2008, Rolling Stone editors ranked him number 18 on their list of the 100 greatest singers of all time.^[6] In 2009, a Classic Rock poll saw him voted the greatest rock singer of all time.^[10] Allmusic has characterised Mercury as "one of rock's greatest all-time entertainers", who possessed "one of the greatest voices in all of music".^[11]

Early life[link]

Mercury was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Africa (now part of Tanzania). His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara,^[a] were Parsis from the Gujarat region of the then province of Bombay Presidency in British India.^[12][b] The family surname is derived from the town of Bulsar (also known as Valsad) in southern Gujarat. As Parsis, Mercury and his family practised the Zoroastrian religion.^[13] The Bulsara family had moved to Zanzibar so that his father could continue his job as a cashier at the British Colonial Office. He had a younger sister, Kashmira.^[14]

The house in Zanzibar where Mercury lived in his early years

Mercury spent the bulk of his childhood in India and began taking piano lessons at the age of seven.^[15] In 1954, at the age of eight, Mercury was sent to study at St. Peter's School, a British-style boarding school for boys in Panchgani near Bombay (now Mumbai), India.^[16] One of his formative musical influences at the time was Bollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar.^[17] Aged 12, he formed a school band, The Hectics, and covered rock and roll artists such as Cliff Richard and Little Richard.^[18] A friend from the time recalls that he had "an uncanny ability to listen to the radio and replay what he heard on piano".^[19] It was also at St. Peter's where he began to call himself "Freddie". Mercury remained in India, living with his grandmother and aunt until he completed his education at St. Mary's School, Bombay.^[20]

At the age of 17, Mercury and his family fled from Zanzibar for safety reasons due to the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution,^[7] in which thousands of Arabs and Indians were killed.^[21] The family moved into a small house in Feltham, Middlesex, England. Mercury enrolled at Isleworth Polytechnic (now West Thames College) in West London where he studied art. He ultimately earned a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design at Ealing Art College, later using these skills to design the Queen crest. Mercury remained a British citizen for the rest of his life.

Following graduation, Mercury joined a series of bands and sold second-hand clothes in the Kensington Market in London. He also held a job at Heathrow Airport. Friends from the time remember him as a quiet and shy young man who showed a great deal of interest in music.^[22] In 1969 he joined the band Ibex, later renamed Wreckage. When this band failed to take off, he joined a second band called Sour Milk Sea. However, by early 1970 this group broke up as well.^[23]

In April 1970, Mercury joined guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor who had previously been in a band called Smile. Despite reservations from the other members, Mercury chose the name "Queen" for the new band. He later said about the band's name, "I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it".^[1] At about the same time, he changed his surname, Bulsara, to Mercury.^[24]

Career[link]

Singer[link]

Freddie Mercury in 1978

Freddie Mercury's vocal range

Although Mercury's speaking voice naturally fell in the baritone range, he delivered most songs in the tenor range.^[25] His vocal range extended from an F (F2) to an F (F6).^[26] He could belt up to a high F (F5).^[26] Biographer David Bret described his voice as "escalating within a few bars from a deep, throaty rock-growl to tender, vibrant tenor, then on to a high-pitched, perfect coloratura, pure and crystalline in the upper reaches".^[27] Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, with whom Mercury recorded an album, expressed her opinion that "the difference between Freddie and almost all the other rock stars was that he was selling the voice".^[28] She adds, "His technique was astonishing. No problem of tempo, he sung with an incisive sense of rhythm, his vocal placement was very good and he was able to glide effortlessly from a register to another. He also had a great musicality. His phrasing was subtle, delicate and sweet or energetic and slamming. He was able to find the right colouring or expressive nuance for each word."^[26] As Queen's career progressed, he would increasingly alter the highest notes of their songs when live, often harmonising with seconds, thirds or fifths instead. Mercury was said to have "the rawest vocal fold nodules" and claimed never to have had any formal vocal training.^[29]

Songwriter[link]

Mercury wrote 10 of the 17 songs on Queen's Greatest Hits album: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Seven Seas of Rhye", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "We Are the Champions", "Bicycle Race", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Play the Game".^[30]

The most notable aspect of his songwriting involved the wide range of genres that he used, which included, among other styles, rockabilly, progressive rock, heavy metal, gospel and disco. As he explained in a 1986 interview, "I hate doing the same thing again and again and again. I like to see what's happening now in music, film and theatre and incorporate all of those things."^[31] Compared to many popular songwriters, Mercury also tended to write musically complex material. For example, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is acyclic in structure and comprises dozens of chords.^[32][33] He also wrote six songs from Queen II which deal with multiple key changes and complex material. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", on the other hand, contains only a few chords. Despite the fact that Mercury often wrote very intricate harmonies, he also claimed that he could barely read music.^[34] He wrote most of his songs on the piano and used a wide variety of different key signatures.^[32]

Live performer[link]

Mercury, performing live in 1979, with his bottomless microphone stand

Mercury performing live in 1984

Mercury was noted for his live performances, which were often delivered to stadium audiences around the world. He displayed a highly theatrical style that often evoked a great deal of participation from the crowd. A writer for The Spectator described him as "a performer out to tease, shock and ultimately charm his audience with various extravagant versions of himself".^[35] David Bowie, who performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and recorded the song "Under Pressure" with Queen, praised Mercury's performance style, saying: "Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest... he took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights. I only saw him in concert once and as they say, he was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand."^[36] Queen guitarist Brian May wrote that Mercury could make "the last person at the back of the furthest stand in a stadium feel that he was connected."^[37]

One of Mercury's most notable performances with Queen took place at Live Aid in 1985, during which the entire stadium audience of 72,000 people clapped, sang and swayed in unison. Queen's performance at the event has since been voted by a group of music executives as the greatest live performance in the history of rock music. The results were aired on a television program called "The World's Greatest Gigs".^[38][39] In reviewing Live Aid in 2005, one critic wrote, "Those who compile lists of Great Rock Frontmen and award the top spots to Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, etc all are guilty of a terrible oversight. Freddie, as evidenced by his Dionysian Live Aid performance, was easily the most godlike of them all."^[40]

Over the course of his career, Mercury performed an estimated 700 concerts in countries around the world with Queen. A notable aspect of Queen concerts was the large scale involved.^[31] He once explained, "We're the Cecil B. DeMille of rock and roll, always wanting to do things bigger and better."^[31] The band was the first ever to play in South American stadiums, breaking worldwide records for concert attendance in the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo in 1981.^[41] In 1986, Queen also played behind the Iron Curtain when they performed to a crowd of 80,000 in Budapest, in what was one of the biggest rock concerts ever held in Eastern Europe.^[42] Mercury's final live performance with Queen took place on 9 August 1986 at Knebworth Park in England and drew an attendance estimated as high as 300,000.^[43]

Instrumentalist[link]

Freddie Mercury playing guitar during a live concert with Queen in Frankfurt, Germany, 1984.

As a young boy in India, Mercury received formal piano training up to the age of nine. Later on, while living in London, he learned guitar. Much of the music he liked was guitar-oriented: his favourite artists at the time were The Who, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin. He was often self-deprecating about his own skills on both instruments and from the early 1980s onward began extensively using guest keyboardists for both Queen and his solo career. Most notably, he enlisted Fred Mandel (a Canadian musician who also worked for Pink Floyd, Elton John and Supertramp) for his first solo project, and from 1985 onward collaborated with Mike Moran (in the studio) and Spike Edney (in concert), leaving most of the keyboard work exclusively to them.

Mercury played the piano in many of Queen's most popular songs, including "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy", "We Are the Champions", "Somebody To Love" and "Don't Stop Me Now". He used concert grand pianos and, occasionally, other keyboard instruments such as the harpsichord. From 1980 onward, he also made frequent use of synthesisers in the studio. Queen guitarist Brian May claims that Mercury was unimpressed with his own abilities at the piano and used the instrument less over time because he wanted to walk around onstage and entertain the audience.^[44] Although he wrote many lines for the guitar, Mercury possessed only rudimentary skills on the instrument. Songs like "Ogre Battle" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" were composed on the guitar; the latter featured Mercury playing acoustic guitar both on stage and in the studio.^[45]

Solo career[link]

In addition to his work with Queen, Mercury put out two solo albums and several singles. Although his solo work was not as commercially successful as most Queen albums, the two off-Queen albums and several of the singles debuted in the top 10 of the UK Album Charts. His first solo effort involved his contribution to the Richard "Wolfie" Wolf mix of Love Kills on the 1984 album (the song also used as the end title theme for National Lampoon's "Loaded Weapon") and new soundtrack to the 1926 Fritz Lang film Metropolis. The song, produced by Giorgio Moroder, debuted at the number 10 position in the UK charts.^[46]

Mercury's two full albums outside the band were Mr. Bad Guy (1985) and Barcelona (1988). The former is a pop-oriented album that emphasises disco and dance music. "Barcelona" was recorded and performed with the opera singer Montserrat Caballé, whom he had long admired. Mr. Bad Guy debuted in the top ten of the UK Album Charts.^[46] In 1993, a remix of "Living on My Own", a single from the album, reached the No.1 position on the UK Singles Charts.^[47] The song also garnered Mercury a posthumous Ivor Novello Award. Allmusic critic Eduardo Rivadavia describes Mr. Bad Guy as "outstanding from start to finish" and expressed his view that Mercury "did a commendable job of stretching into uncharted territory".^[48] In particular, the album is heavily synthesiser-driven in a way that is not characteristic of previous Queen albums.

Barcelona, recorded with Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, combines elements of popular music and opera. Many critics were uncertain what to make of the album; one referred to it as "the most bizarre CD of the year".^[49] The album was a commercial success,^[50] and the album's title track debuted at the No.8 position in the UK charts and was a hit in Spain.^[51] The title track received massive air play as the official hymn of the 1992 Summer Olympics (held in Barcelona one year after Mercury's death). Caballé sang it live at the opening of the Olympics with Mercury's part played on a screen, and again prior to the start of the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final in Barcelona.^[52]

In addition to the two solo albums, Mercury released several singles, including his own version of the hit The Great Pretender by The Platters, which debuted at number five in the UK in 1987.^[46] In September 2006, a compilation album featuring Mercury's solo work was released in the UK in honour of what would have been his 60th birthday. The album debuted in the top 10 of the UK Album Charts.^[53]

In 1981–1983, Mercury recorded several tracks with Michael Jackson, including a demo of "State of Shock", "Victory" and "There Must Be More to Life Than This".^[54] None of these collaborations were officially released, although bootleg recordings exist. Jackson went on to record the single "State of Shock" with Mick Jagger for The Jacksons's album Victory.^[55] Mercury included the solo version of "There Must Be More To Life Than This" on his Mr. Bad Guy album.^[56] In November 2011, Brian May announced that a series of duets that Mercury recorded with Jackson are to be released in 2012.^[57][58]

Personal life[link]

Queen in New Haven, Connecticut, US in November 1978.

Relationships[link]

In the early 1970s Mercury had a long-term relationship with Mary Austin, whom he had met through guitarist Brian May. He lived with Austin for several years in West Kensington. By the mid-1970s, however, the singer had begun an affair with a male American record executive at Elektra Records, which ultimately resulted in the end of his relationship with Austin.^[59] Mercury and Austin nevertheless remained close friends through the years, with Mercury often referring to her as his only true friend. In a 1985 interview, Mercury said of Austin, "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary [Austin], but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, that's enough for me."^[60] He also wrote several songs about Austin, the most notable of which is "Love of My Life". In his will, Mercury left his London home to Austin, rather than his then partner Jim Hutton, saying, "You would have been my wife and it would have been yours anyway".^[61] Mercury was also the godfather of Mary's oldest son, Richard.^[44]

During the early to mid 80s, he was romantically involved with Barbara Valentin, an Austrian actress,^[62] who is featured in the video for "It's a Hard Life".^[63] By 1985, he began another long-term relationship with a hairdresser named Jim Hutton. Hutton, who himself was tested HIV-positive in 1990,^[64] lived with Mercury for the last six years of his life, nursed him during his illness, and was present at his bedside when he died. Hutton claimed that Mercury died wearing a wedding band that Hutton had given him.^[64] Hutton died from cancer on 1 January 2010.^[65]

Sexual orientation[link]

Mercury was an acknowledged bisexual.^[18][66][67] While some critics claimed he hid his sexual orientation from the public,^[7][28][68] others claimed he was "openly gay".^[8][69] In December 1974, when asked directly, "So how about being bent?" by the New Musical Express, Mercury replied, "You're a crafty cow. Let's put it this way; there were times when I was young and green. It's a thing schoolboys go through. I've had my share of schoolboy pranks. I'm not going to elaborate further." Homosexuality was legalised in the United Kingdom in 1967, only seven years earlier. In the 1980s, he would often distance himself from his partner, Jim Hutton, during public events.^[64]

In 1992, John Marshall of Gay Times expressed the following opinion: "[Mercury] was a 'scene-queen', not afraid to publicly express his gayness but unwilling to analyse or justify his 'lifestyle' ... It was as if Freddie Mercury was saying to the world, 'I am what I am. So what?' And that in itself for some was a statement."^[70] A writer for a gay online newspaper felt that audiences may have been overly naïve about the matter: "While in many respects he was overtly queer his whole career ("I am as gay as a daffodil, my dear" being one of his most famous quotes), his sexual orientation seemed to pass over the heads of scrutinising audiences and pundits (both gay and straight) for decades".^[71]

Personality[link]

Although he cultivated a flamboyant stage personality, Mercury was a very shy and retiring man in person, particularly around people he did not know well.^[19][28][72] He also granted very few interviews. Mercury once said of himself: "When I'm performing I'm an extrovert, yet inside I'm a completely different man."^[73] While on stage, Mercury basked in the love from the audience, which was famously noted by Kurt Cobain, in his suicide note, when he wrote of how he both admired and envied Mercury for being able to do so.^[74]

Criticism and controversy[link]

HIV[link]

Mercury did not disclose his HIV status to the public for several years, and it has been suggested that he could have made a contribution to AIDS awareness by speaking earlier about his situation and his fight against the disease.^[75][76]

Other controversies[link]

Queen were widely criticised when they broke a United Nations cultural boycott in 1984 by performing a series of shows at Sun City, an entertainment complex in Bophuthatswana, a homeland of (then) apartheid South Africa. As a result of these shows, Queen was placed on a United Nations list of artists who broke the boycott and was widely criticised in magazines such as the NME.^[40]

A further controversy ensued in August 2006, when an organisation calling itself the Islamic Mobilization and Propagation petitioned the Zanzibar government's culture ministry, demanding that a large-scale celebration of what would have been Mercury's sixtieth birthday be cancelled. The organisation issued several complaints about the planned celebrations, including that Mercury was not a true Zanzibari and that he was gay, which is not in accordance with their interpretation of sharia. The organisation claimed that "associating Mercury with Zanzibar degrades our island as a place of Islam".^[69] The planned celebration was cancelled.

Illness and death[link]

According to his partner Jim Hutton, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS shortly after Easter of 1987.^[77] Around that time, Mercury claimed in an interview to have tested negative for HIV.^[28] Despite the denials, the British press pursued the rampant rumours over the next few years, fuelled by Mercury's increasingly gaunt appearance, Queen's absence from touring, and reports from former lovers to various tabloid journals – by 1990 the rumours about Mercury's health were rife.^[78] At the 1990 Brit Awards held at the Dominion Theatre, London on 18 February, Mercury made his final public appearance on stage when he joined the rest of Queen to collect the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.^[79][80] Towards the end of his life, he was routinely stalked by photographers, while the daily tabloid newspaper The Sun featured a series of articles claiming that he was seriously ill; notably in an article from November 1990 which featured an image of a haggard looking Mercury on the front page accompanied by the headline "It's official – Freddie is seriously ill".^[81]

However, Mercury and his inner circle of colleagues and friends, whom he felt he could trust, continually denied the stories, even after one front page article published on 29 April 1991, which showed Mercury appearing very haggard in what was by then a rare public appearance.^[82] Brian May confirmed in a 1993 interview that Mercury had informed the band of his illness much earlier.^[83] Filmed in May 1991, the music video for "These Are the Days of Our Lives" features a painfully thin Mercury, which are his final scenes in front of the camera.^[84]

After the conclusion of his work with Queen in June 1991, Mercury retired to his home in Kensington. His former partner, Mary Austin, had been a particular comfort in his final years, and in the last few weeks of his life made regular visits to his home to look after him.^[85] Near the end of his life, Mercury was starting to lose his sight, and his deterioration was so overpowering he couldn't get out of bed.^[85] Due to his worsening condition, Mercury decided to hasten his death by refusing to take his medication, and just continued taking pain killers.^[85]

On 22 November 1991, Mercury called Queen's manager Jim Beach over to his Kensington home, to discuss a public statement. The next day, 23 November, the following announcement was made to the international press on behalf of Mercury:^[86]

A little over 24 hours after issuing that statement, Mercury died on the evening of 24 November 1991 at the age of 45, at his home in Kensington.^[66] The official cause of death was bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS.^[87] The news of his death had reached newspaper and television crews by the early hours of 25 November.^[88]

On 27 November, Mercury's funeral service was conducted by a Zoroastrian priest. An intensely private man, Mercury's service was for 35 of his close friends and family, with Elton John and the remaining members of Queen among those in attendance.^[89][90] Mercury was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery, West London, with the whereabouts of his ashes believed to be known only to Mary Austin.^[91]

In his will, Mercury left the vast majority of his wealth, including his home and recording royalties, to Mary Austin, and the remainder to his parents and sister. He further left £500,000 to his chef Joe Fanelli, £500,000 to his personal assistant Peter Freestone, £100,000 to his driver Terry Giddings, and £500,000 to Jim Hutton.^[92] Mary Austin continues to live at Mercury's home, Garden Lodge, Kensington, with her family.^[92] Hutton was involved in a 2000 biography of Mercury, Freddie Mercury, the Untold Story, and also gave an interview for The Times for what would have been Mercury's 60th birthday.^[77]

Legacy[link]

Continued popularity[link]

The extent to which Mercury's death may have enhanced Queen's popularity is not clear. In the United States, where Queen's popularity had lagged in the 1980s, sales of Queen albums went up dramatically in 1992, the year following his death.^[93] In 1992 one American critic noted, "What cynics call the 'dead star' factor had come into play—Queen is in the middle of a major resurgence".^[94] The movie Wayne's World, which featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", also came out in 1992. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Queen have sold 32.5 million albums in the United States, about half of which have been sold since Mercury's death in 1991.^[95]

Estimates of Queen's total worldwide record sales to date have been set as high as 300 million.^[96] In the UK, Queen have now spent more collective weeks on the UK Album Charts than any other musical act (including The Beatles),^[97] and Queen's Greatest Hits is the highest selling album of all time in the UK.^[98] Two of Mercury's songs, "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", have also each been voted as the greatest song of all time in major polls by Sony Ericsson^[99] and Guinness World Records,^[100] respectively. The former poll was an attempt to determine the world's favourite song, while the Guinness poll took place in the UK. In October 2007, the video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" was voted the greatest of all time by readers of Q magazine.^[101] Consistently rated as one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music, Mercury was voted second to Mariah Carey in MTV's 22 Greatest Voices in Music.^[8] Additionally, in January 2009, Mercury was voted second to Robert Plant in a poll of the greatest voices in rock, on the digital radio station Planet Rock.^[102] In May 2009, Classic Rock magazine voted Freddie Mercury as the greatest singer in rock.^[10] In 2011, NME magazine readers voted Mercury second to Michael Jackson in the Greatest Singers Ever poll.^[103] In 2011, a Rolling Stone readers' pick placed Mercury in second place of the magazine's "Best Lead Singers of All Time".^[74]

[edit] Posthumous Queen album

In November 1995, Queen released Made in Heaven, an album featuring Freddie Mercury's previously unreleased final recordings from 1991—as well as outtakes from previous years and reworked versions of solo works by the surviving members.^[104] The album cover features the Freddie Mercury statue that overlooks Lake Geneva in Montreux, Switzerland, where he had written and recorded his last songs at Mountain Studios.^[104] The sleeve of the album contains the words; "Dedicated to the immortal spirit of Freddie Mercury".^[104]

Tributes[link]

Statue of Freddie Mercury overlooking Lake Geneva in Montreux, Switzerland.

A statue in Montreux, Switzerland (by sculptor Irena Sedlecka) was erected as a tribute to Mercury.^[105] It stands almost 10 feet (3 metres) high overlooking Lake Geneva and was unveiled on 25 November 1996 by Freddie's father and Montserrat Caballé, with bandmates Brian May and Roger Taylor also in attendance.^[106] Beginning in 2003, fans from around the world gather in Switzerland annually to pay tribute to the singer as part of the "Freddie Mercury Montreux Memorial Day" on the first weekend of September and the Bearpark And Esh Colliery Band played at the Freddie Mercury statue on 1 June 2010.^[107] In 1999, a Royal Mail stamp with the image of Mercury on stage was issued in his honour as part of the Millennium Stamp series.^[108][109]

In 2009, a plaque was unveiled in Feltham where Mercury and his family moved upon arriving in England in 1964. The star in memory of Mercury's achievements was unveiled in Feltham High Street by his mother Jer Bulsara and Queen bandmate Brian May.^[110] A tribute to Queen has been on display at the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas throughout 2009 on its video canopy.^[111] In December 2009 a large model of Mercury wearing tartan was put on display in the centre of Edinburgh as publicity for the run of We Will Rock You at the Playhouse Theatre.^[112]

A statue of Mercury stands over the entrance to the Dominion Theatre in London's West End since May 2002, where the main show has been Queen and Ben Elton's musical We Will Rock You.^[113][114]

For Mercury's 65th birthday, Google dedicated their Google Doodle to him.^[115] It included an animation set to the Mercury penned song, "Don't Stop Me Now".^[116]

Importance in AIDS history[link]

As the first major rock star to die of AIDS, Mercury's death represented a very important event in the disease's history.^[117] In April 1992, the remaining members of Queen founded The Mercury Phoenix Trust and organised The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness to celebrate the life and legacy of Mercury and raise money for AIDS research, which took place on Easter Monday, 20 April 1992.^[118] The Mercury Phoenix Trust has since raised millions of pounds for various AIDS charities. The tribute concert, which took place at Wembley Stadium for an audience of 72,000, featured a wide variety of guests including; Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin), Roger Daltrey (of The Who), Extreme, Elton John, Metallica, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Tony Iommi (of Black Sabbath), Guns N' Roses, Elizabeth Taylor, George Michael, Def Leppard, Seal, Liza Minnelli (and also U2 via Satellite). Elizabeth Taylor spoke of Mercury as "an extraordinary rock star who rushed across our cultural landscape like a comet shooting across the sky".^[119] The concert was broadcast live to 76 countries and had an estimated viewing audience of 1 billion people.^[120]

Appearances in lists of influential individuals[link]

Several popularity polls conducted over the past decade indicate that Freddie Mercury's reputation may in fact have been enhanced since his death. For instance, in a 2002 vote to determine whom the UK public considers the greatest British people in history, Mercury was ranked number 58 in the list of the "100 Greatest Britons", broadcast by the BBC.^[121] He was further listed at the 52nd spot in a 2007 Japanese national survey of the 100 most "influential heroes".^[122] Despite the fact that he had been criticised by gay activists for hiding his HIV status, author Paul Russell included Mercury in his book "The Gay 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Gay Men and Lesbians, Past and Present."^[123] Other entertainers on Russell's list included Liberace and Rock Hudson. In 2006, Time Asia magazine named him as one of the most influential Asian heroes of the past 60 years: The article credited Mercury with having "duplicated in popular music what other Indians—such as Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth – have done in literature: taking the coloniser's art form and representing it in a manner richer and more dazzling than many Anglophones thought possible."^[8] In 2008, Rolling Stone' magazine ranked Mercury No.18 in its list of the "Top 100 Singers Of All Time".^[6]

Portrayal on stage[link]

On 24 November 1997, a monodrama about Freddie Mercury's life titled Mercury: The Afterlife and Times of a Rock God opened in New York City.^[124] It presented Freddie Mercury in the hereafter; examining his life, seeking redemption and searching for his true self^[125] The play was written and directed by Charles Messina and the part of Mercury was played by Khalid Gonçalves (né Paul Gonçalves) and then later, Amir Darvish.^[126] Billy Squier opened one of the shows with an acoustic performance of a song he had written about Mercury titled "I Have Watched You Fly".^[127]

Portrayal in film[link]

Brian May announced in a September 2010 BBC interview^[128] that Sacha Baron Cohen, previously best known for his comedic characters Borat, Ali G and Brüno, had been chosen to play Mercury in a film about his life. TIME commented with approval on his singing ability and resemblance to Mercury.^[129] The motion picture is being written by Peter Morgan, who had been nominated for Oscars for his screenplays The Queen and Frost/Nixon. The film, which is being co-produced by Robert De Niro's TriBeCa Productions, will focus on Queen's formative years and the period leading up to the celebrated performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert. Filming was planned to begin sometime in 2011.^[130]

In April 2011, Brian May confirmed that a lot of work was still being done in preparation for the film. He said that after holding back for a long time due to mixed feelings, the band had approved a team to start filming later in 2011, and Baron Cohen's eagerness had been the key to progress.^[131] The film is currently in development and is tentatively scheduled for a release sometime in 2014.^[132]

Discography[link]

See also[link]

• Adi Bulsara, a cousin
• Zubin Mehta, a relative

Notes[link]

References[link]

^ Notation done in Scientific Pitch, and thus is written one octave lower than what is displayed here.

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Queen (band) portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Freddie Mercury (category)

Quotations related to Freddie Mercury at Wikiquote

• Freddie Mercury on Myspace (official EMI Music)
• Freddie Mercury discography at Discogs
• Freddie Mercury at Allmusic
• Freddie Mercury at the Internet Movie Database

John Cena
John Cena, 2008
Ring name(s)	John Cena[1]
Billed height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[2]
Billed weight	251 lb (114 kg)[2]
Born	(1977-04-23) April 23, 1977 (age 35)[3] West Newbury, Massachusetts[2]
Resides	Tampa, Florida[4]
Billed from	Classified (UPW)[5] West Newbury, Massachusetts (WWE)[2]
Trained by	Ultimate Pro Wrestling[5] Ohio Valley Wrestling[6]
Debut	2001[6]

John Felix Anthony Cena^[7] (/ˈsiːnə/; born April 23, 1977)^[3] is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is currently signed to WWE as a member of its Raw brand.^[8]

In WWE, Cena has won 19 championships in total, including 12 world titles (having won the WWE Championship a record 10 times^[9] and the World Heavyweight Championship twice). In addition, Cena has also won the WWE United States Championship three times,^[10] and is a four-time Tag Team Champion, having held the World Tag Team Championship twice (once each with Shawn Michaels and Batista),^[11] and the WWE Tag Team Championship twice (once each with David Otunga and The Miz). Cena also won the 2008 Royal Rumble match, and is a two-time Superstar of the Year Slammy Award winner (2009 and 2010).^[12] He also has the fourth highest number of combined days as WWE Champion behind Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan and Bruno Sammartino.

Cena started his professional wrestling career in 2000, wrestling for Ultimate Pro Wrestling, where he held the UPW Heavyweight Championship. In 2001, Cena signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) where he held the OVW Heavyweight Championship and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (with Rico Constantino).

Outside of wrestling, Cena has released the rap album You Can't See Me, which debuted at No.15 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and starred in the feature films The Marine (2006), 12 Rounds (2009), and Legendary (2010).^[13] Cena has also made appearances on television shows including Manhunt, Deal or No Deal, MADtv, Saturday Night Live, Punk'd, and Psych. Cena was also a contestant on Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, where he made it to the final round before being eliminated, placing third in the overall competition.

Early life[link]

John Cena was born April 23, 1977, in West Newbury, Massachusetts,^[3] the son of Carol and John Cena, Sr.^[14] He is the second eldest of five brothers – Dan, Matt, Steve, and Sean.^[15] After graduating from Cushing Academy, Cena attended Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts.^[16] In college he was a Division III All-American center on the college football team,^[17] wearing the number 54,^[16] which is still used on some of his WWE merchandise.^[18][19] He graduated from Springfield in 1998 with a degree in exercise physiology,^[20] after which he pursued a career in bodybuilding,^[21][22] and also worked as a chauffeur for a limousine company.^[23]

Professional wrestling career[link]

Training (2000–2001)[link]

UPW[link]

Cena started training to become a professional wrestler in 2000 at the California-based "Ultimate University" operated by Ultimate Pro Wrestling. Once he was placed into an in-ring role, Cena began using a semi-robotic character known as The Prototype.^[24][25] Some of this period of his career was documented in the Discovery Channel program Inside Pro Wrestling School.^[26] While in UPW, Cena held the UPW Heavyweight Championship for just shy of a month in April 2000.^[27]

OVW[link]

In 2001, he signed a developmental contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and was assigned to its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).^[28] During his time there, Cena wrestled as both The Prototype and Mr. P, and held the OVW Heavyweight Championship for three months and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (with Rico Constantino) for two months.^[29][30][31]

World Wrestling Entertainment[link]

Debut (2002–2004)[link]

Cena performing an FU (now "Attitude Adjustment") to Kurt Angle.

Cena made his television debut answering an open challenge by Kurt Angle on June 27, 2002.^[32] Inspired by a speech given by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to the rising stars of the company, exhorting them to show "ruthless aggression" to earn a place among the legends, Cena took advantage of the opportunity to face Angle. Cena managed to counter the Angle Slam and the ankle lock submission hold,^[33] but ultimately lost to a hard amateur wrestling-style pin.^[33] Following the near-win, Cena became a fan favorite and started feuding with Chris Jericho, defeating Jericho at Vengeance.^[32] In October, Cena and Billy Kidman took part in a tag team tournament to crown the first WWE Tag Team Champions of the SmackDown! brand, losing in the first round.^[34] The next week, Cena turned on and attacked Kidman, blaming him for their loss, becoming a villain.^[32]

Shortly after the Kidman attack, on a Halloween themed episode of SmackDown, Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice performing a freestyle rap.^[32] The next week, Cena received a new character: a rapper who cut promos while rhyming.^[32] As the gimmick grew, Cena began adopting a variant of the 1980s WWF logo – dropping the "F" – as his "signature symbol", along with the slogan "Word Life".^[35] Moreover, he was joined by an enforcer, Bull Buchanan, who was rechristened B-2 (also written B² and pronounced "B-Squared").^[32] Buchanan was later replaced by Red Dogg,^[32] until he was sent to the Raw brand in February.

For the first half of 2003, Cena sought the WWE Championship and chased the reigning champion, Brock Lesnar, performing weekly "freestyles" challenging him to matches.^[36][37][38] During the feud, Cena unveiled a new finishing maneuver: the FU, a Fireman's carry powerslam, named to Brock Lesnar's F-5, with his first victim being Rikishi.^[39] Cena won a number one contenders tournament against Lesnar at Backlash. However, Cena was defeated by Lesnar. At Vengeance Cena lost a singles match against The Undertaker.^[32][40] At the end of the year, Cena became a fan favorite again when he joined Kurt Angle as a member of his team at Survivor Series.^[41][42]

United States and WWE Champion (2004–2005)[link]

Cena, wearing his customized U.S. Championship belt

In early 2004, Cena participated in the Royal Rumble match at the 2004 Royal Rumble,^[43] making it to the final six before being eliminated by Big Show and the Match being won by Chris Benoit.^[44] The Royal Rumble elimination led to a feud with Big Show,^[45][46] which Cena won the United States Championship from Big Show at WrestleMania XX.^[47] During his reign, Cena came into contention with SmackDown General Manager Kurt Angle over issues arising with René Duprée and Torrie Wilson.^[48] The reign ended almost four months later, when he was stripped of the belt on July 8 by Angle after he accidentally knocked him over, thus attacking an official.^[49] Cena won the championship back defeating Booker T in a best of five series that culminated at No Mercy,^[50] only to lose it to the debuting Carlito Caribbean Cool the next week.^[51] After the loss to Carlito, the duo began a feud, which Cena was stabbed in the kidney while at a Boston-area nightclub by Carlito's bodyguard, Jesús.^[52][53] This worked injury was used to keep Cena out of action for a month, while Cena was filming The Marine.^[30] Immediately on his return in November, Cena won the United States Championship back from Carlito debuting a "custom made" spinner-style championship belt.^[54][55]

Cena took part in the 2005 Royal Rumble match, making it to the final two. Cena and Raw brand wrestler Batista went over the top rope at the same time, ostensibly ending the match. Vince McMahon, however, appeared on stage and re-started the match in sudden death rules, with Batista eventually eliminating Cena.^[56] The next month, Cena defeated Kurt Angle to earn a spot in the SmackDown brand's WrestleMania 21 main event match,^[57] beginning a feud with WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) and his Cabinet in the process. In the early stages of the feud, Cena lost his US belt to Cabinet member Orlando Jordan,^[58] who proceeded to "blow up" the spinner championship with JBL and returning a more traditional style belt.^[59] Cena defeated JBL at WrestleMania winning the WWE Championship, giving Cena his first world championship.^[60] Cena then had a spinner WWE Championship belt made,^[61] while JBL took the original belt and claimed to still be WWE Champion,^[61] until Cena reclaimed the original belt in an "I Quit" match at Judgment Day.^[62]

Cena was drafted to the Raw brand on the June 6, 2005, becoming the first wrestler selected by General Manager Eric Bischoff in the annual draft lottery.^[63] Cena immediately entered a feud with Bischoff, after refusing to participate in the "war" against the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) roster at One Night Stand.^[64] With Bischoff vowing to make Cena's stint on Raw difficult, he hand picked Jericho to take Cena's championship from him.^[65] During their feud, even though Cena was portrayed as the fan favorite and Jericho as the villain, a vocal section of live crowds, nonetheless, were booing Cena during their matches.^[66] More crowds followed suit during Cena's next feud with Kurt Angle,^[67] who took over as Bischoff's hand-picked number-one contender after Cena defeated Jericho in a You're Fired match on the August 22 Raw.^[68] As the feud continued and the dissenters grew more vocal, sometimes seeming to outnumber fans by wide margins,^[69] the announce team was forced to acknowledge the booing on television and began calling Cena a "controversial champion", claiming some people disliking him on account of his "in-ring style" and his chosen fashion.^[70] Despite the mixed and negative reactions, Cena held on to his championship through his feud with Angle, losing to him by disqualification^[71] – which titles do not change hands in WWE – at Unforgiven and pinning him at Survivor Series.^[72] The feud with Angle also saw Cena add a secondary, submission based, finishing maneuver – the STFU (a Stepover Toehold Sleeper, though named for a Stepover Toehold Facelock) – when he was put into a Triple Threat Submissions Only match on the November 28 Raw.^[73]

WWE Championship feuds and injury (2006–2007)[link]

Cena facing off against Edge at a WWE house show.

Cena lost the WWE Championship at New Year's Revolution, but not in the Elimination Chamber match that he had been advertised to participate in beforehand. Instead, immediately after winning the Elimination Chamber, he was forced into a match against Edge, who cashed in his Money in the Bank contract – a "guaranteed title match for the WWE Champion at a time and place of the owners choosing." After two quick spears pinned Cena, winning the championship.^[74] Three weeks later, Cena won the championship back at the Royal Rumble.^[74] After winning the championship, Cena began feuding with Triple H, which the crowd began booing Cena and cheering the intended villain, Triple H.^[75][76] Cena beat Triple H at Wrestlemania 22 to retain his WWE Title.^[6] The negative reaction towards Cena intensified when facing Rob Van Dam at One Night Stand. Taking place in front of a crowd of mostly "old school" ECW fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Cena was met with raucous jeering and chants of "Fuck you, Cena", "You can't wrestle", and "Same old shit". When he began performing different moves into the match, the fans began chanting "You still suck". Cena lost the WWE Championship at One Night Stand, with Van Dam pinning Cena after interference from Edge.^[77]

Cena, addressing fans at a Raw show

In July, after Edge won the championship from Van Dam in a Triple Threat match that also involved Cena,^[78] re-ignited the feud between him and Cena from earlier in the year. After Edge went about retaining the title by dubious means – getting himself disqualified^[79] (for which Championships do not change hands) and using brass knuckles^[77] – he introduced his own version of Cena's "custom" belt, this one with his logo placed on the spinner.^[80] Cena eventually won the championship back in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at Unforgiven. The match had an added stipulation that had Cena lost he would leave the Raw brand and go to SmackDown.^[81][82] Cena returned his version of the spinner belt on the next night's Raw.^[83]

On the heels of his feud with Edge, Cena was placed in an inter-brand angle to determine the "Champion of Champions" – or which was the most dominant champion in WWE's three brands. Cena, the World Heavyweight Champion King Booker, and the ECW World Champion The Big Show engaged in a mini-feud leading to a Triple Threat match at Cyber Sunday, with the viewers voting on which of the three championships would be placed on the line.^[84] At the same time, Cena became involved in a storyline with non-wrestler Kevin Federline, when he began appearing on Raw with Johnny Nitro and Melina. After getting into a worked physical altercation with Federline on Raw,^[84] Federline appeared at Cyber Sunday to hit Cena with the World Heavyweight Championship during the match, helping King Booker retain his championship.^[77] 2006 ended with Cena beginning a feud with the undefeated Umaga over the WWE Championship,^[85] while 2007 began with the end of his storyline with Kevin Federline. On the first Raw of the new year, Cena was pinned by Federline with an assist from Umaga, although later in the night he was able to get his hands on Federline performing an FU on him.^[86]

One night after the Royal Rumble, an impromptu team of Cena and Shawn Michaels defeated Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) for the World Tag Team Championship, making Cena a double champion.^[87] On the April 2 episode of Raw, after losing a WWE Championship match to Cena at WrestleMania 23,^[88] Michaels turned on Cena, costing them the championship in the second of two 10 team battles royals, by throwing Cena over the top rope and eliminating the team. The Hardys (Matt and Jeff) eventually won the match and the championship.^[89] For the rest of the month, Cena feuded with Michaels, Orton, and Edge until The Great Khali declared his intentions to challenge for Cena's championship attacking and "laying out" all three of the top contenders^[90] before assaulting Cena himself and stealing the physical belt.^[91] For the next two months, Cena feuded with Khali over the championship, eventually becoming the first person in WWE to defeat him by submission at Judgment Day^[92][93] and then by pinfall at One Night Stand.^[94][95] Later that summer, Randy Orton was named the number one contender for the WWE championship,^[96] starting a feud between the two. Leading up to SummerSlam, Orton delivered a number of sneak-attacks, performing three RKOs to Cena, but in the actual match, Cena retained the championship.^[97] A rematch between the two occurred at Unforgiven, with Orton winning by disqualification after Cena ignored the referee's instructions and continued to beat on him in the corner.^[98]

During a match with Mr. Kennedy on the October 1, 2007 episode of Raw, Cena suffered a legitimate torn pectoral muscle while executing a hip toss.^[99] Though finishing the match and taking part in the scripted attack by Randy Orton after the match, surgery the following day found that his pectoralis major muscle was torn completely from the bone, estimating at the time to require seven months to a year of rehabilitation.^[100][101] As a result, Cena was stripped of the title in an announcement by Vince McMahon on the next night's episode of ECW,^[102] ending what was the longest WWE Championship reign in over 19 years.^[103] Cena's surgery was performed by orthopedic surgeon James Andrews at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.^[99] Two weeks later, in a video update on WWE.com, Dr. Andrews and Cena's physical trainer both said that he was several weeks ahead of where he was expected to be in his rehabilitation at that time.^[104] Despite his injury, Cena attended the annual WWE Tribute to the Troops show filmed at Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq on December 7, and aired on December 24.^[105]

Return and various feuds (2008–2010)[link]

Cena made an unannounced return as the final participant of the Royal Rumble match, winning the match, and the traditional WrestleMania title shot, by last eliminating Triple H.^[12] Instead of waiting until WrestleMania, the title shot was cashed in against WWE Champion Randy Orton at February's No Way Out pay-per-view^[106] in a match where Cena won by disqualification, resulting in him not getting the championship.^[107] The night after No Way Out, Cena was placed back into WrestleMania XXIV's WWE Championship match, making it a Triple Threat match also involving Triple H,^[108] during which he was pinned by Orton.^[109] At Backlash, Cena failed to regain the title in a Fatal Four-Way elimination match, in which he was pinned by Orton.^[110] Triple H won the title during that match. During the match, Cena eliminated JBL,^[110] renewing their feud from 2005. Cena defeated JBL at Judgment Day and then at One Night Stand in a First Blood match.^[111][112] JBL, however, defeated him in a New York City Parking Lot Brawl at The Great American Bash in July.^[113]

Cena as one half of the World Tag Team Champions

On the August 4 episode of Raw, Cena became a World Tag Team Champion for a second time, teaming with Batista to defeat Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase,^[114] but failed to retain the titles the following week against the former champions.^[115] Batista defeated Cena at SummerSlam;^[116] shortly after, he was named one of four contenders for CM Punk's World Heavyweight Championship in the Championship scramble match at Unforgiven. He was replaced by Rey Mysterio, however, after announcing Cena had suffered a herniated disc in his neck, which would require surgery.^[117] Cena underwent successful surgery to repair the injury.^[118][119]

Cena made his in-ring return at the November pay-per-view event, Survivor Series, defeating Chris Jericho to win his first World Heavyweight Championship.^[120] The two continued their rivalry up to Armageddon, where Cena retained his championship.^[121] Cena lost the championship at No Way Out, to Edge after Kofi Kingston was attacked by Edge, who took his place in the Elimination Chamber match.^[122] Cena was given an opportunity to regain the title at WrestleMania XXV in a Triple Threat match also involving Big Show, which Cena won.^[123]

Cena lost the championship back to Edge in a Last Man Standing match at Backlash after interference from Big Show, who chokeslammed Cena through a big spotlight.^[124] This angle resulted in Cena beginning a feud with Big Show. Cena defeated Big Show at Judgment Day^[125] and at Extreme Rules in a Submission match by applying the STFU.^[126]

At the July pay-per-view, Night of Champions, he participated in a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship, which also involved Triple H and WWE Champion Randy Orton. Cena, however, did not win the match.^[127] Two months later, at Breaking Point, Cena defeated Randy Orton for the WWE Championship in an "I Quit" match to win his fourth WWE Championship.^[128] At Hell in a Cell, Cena dropped the title to Orton in a Hell in a Cell match.^[129] Three weeks later, at WWE Bragging Rights, Cena defeated Orton in a 60-minute Iron Man match.^[130]

Two months later, Cena would lose the title to Sheamus at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a Tables match.^[131]

John Cena as WWE Champion in 2010

In February 2010, Cena regained the WWE title at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in an Elimination Chamber match after last eliminating Triple H. However, immediately after the match Mr. McMahon declared that he would immediately defend his title against Batista, who had been involved with Cena in Vince McMahon and Bret Hart's rivalry. Cena lost that match to Batista, and the WWE Championship and marking one of the shortest WWE Championship reigns in history.^[132] The following night after the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Cena asked for a rematch for the title at WrestleMania, which McMahon gave him the opportunity to as long as he defeated Batista that night. Later that night, Batista intentionally got himself disqualified by kicking Cena in the groin to set up their match at WrestleMania XXVI.^[133] At the event, Cena defeated Batista to win back the WWE title.^[134] At the April pay-per-view, Extreme Rules, Cena defeated Batista in a rematch for the WWE title in a Last Man Standing match.^[135] He faced Batista one more time in an I Quit match at Over the Limit which he won.^[136]

Feuding and joining The Nexus (2010–2011)[link]

On the June 7, 2010 episode of Raw, Cena was suddenly thrust into a new storyline when during his main event match against CM Punk, he was attacked by all eight former contestants of WWE NXT Season 1, with Wade Barrett as their leader. Punk, his follower Luke Gallows, and other personnel around the ring were attacked as well, but Cena took the worst of the attack and was carried out on a stretcher. This group would later refer to themselves as The Nexus.^[137]

At June's Fatal 4-Way event, Cena lost the WWE title to Sheamus in a fatal four-way match that also involved Edge and Randy Orton due to interference by Nexus.^[138] The following month, in a WWE title rematch against Sheamus in a steel cage match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, the group interfered, thus costing Cena the chance of regaining the championship.^[139] Cena later formed an alliance with Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, The Great Khali and Bret Hart to face the Nexus at SummerSlam, where Cena's team defeated Nexus with the returning Daniel Bryan, a former member of Nexus, who replaced Khali after getting injured.^[140]

Cena being forced to read a public address by Wade Barrett while a member of Nexus.

Nexus's actions, however, did not stop after SummerSlam. Hoping to end Nexus for good, Cena challenged Wade Barrett to a match at Hell in a Cell only to lose due to interference by two fans, later identified as Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty. Due to the stipulations in place, Cena was forced to join Nexus.^[141] Cena had originally planned to destroy Nexus from within as a member of the group, but the Raw general manager ordered him to follow orders from Barrett, or else he would be fired. At Bragging Rights, Cena and Nexus member David Otunga defeated "Dashing" Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre to win the Tag Team Championship.^[142]

Later in the show Cena was forced to help Barrett to win his WWE Championship match against Randy Orton. If Barrett didn't win the match Cena would be fired. Cena twisted his words around and attacked Barrett, giving Barrett the win via disqualification but not Orton's title.^[142] The following day, Cena and Otunga lost the Tag Team Championship to fellow Nexus members Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel, when Barrett ordered Otunga to lay down and lose the title.^[143] At Survivor Series, Cena officiated a match for the WWE Championship between Wade Barrett and Randy Orton. As a part of a pre-match stipulation, if Barrett didn't win the championship, Cena would be fired from the WWE.

Orton defeated Barrett to retain the title, thus ending Cena's career in the WWE.^[144] The following day on Raw, Cena gave a farewell speech, before costing Wade Barrett the WWE Championship by interfering in his rematch with Randy Orton.^[145] A week later, Cena invaded Raw, first as a spectator, but he then attacked members of Nexus, explaining that he would still take down Nexus one by one, despite not having a job in the WWE anymore.^[146] On the December 13 episode of Raw, Cena was rehired by Barrett, in exchange that he would face him at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a Chairs Match.^[147] Prior to TLC, Cena teamed up with Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio to defeat Wade Barrett, The Miz and Alberto Del Rio at The WWE Tribute to the Troops. On December 19 at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, John Cena was victorious against Wade Barrett in a Chairs match in the main event of the evening.

John Cena at WWE Tribute to the Troops in 2010.

On the December 27 episode of Raw, The Nexus, minus Wade Barrett, announced they were under new management and offered to bury the hatchet with John Cena, to which Cena refused. The Nexus attacked Cena, leaving a Nexus armband in the ring during the process. As the group retreated, CM Punk, who had attacked Cena with a steel chair twice the week before, came to the ring to, what looked like attack John Cena, but instead put on the armband left behind to symbolically announce his allegiance with The Nexus.^[148] The next week, Wade Barrett returned to Raw and confronted CM Punk over the issue of who the leader of The Nexus was and who was responsible for Cena's attack the week before. Barrett was placed into a Triple Threat Steel Cage Match that night that would determine the No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship. CM Punk added his own stipulation to the match saying if Barrett lost, he would be banished from the group, but if he won he would remain leader. Wade Barrett would lose the match after CM Punk interfered by ripping of Barrett's armband.^[149]

On the January 17 episode of Raw, Cena returned and faced Punk in a match. During the match, a man, who would later be revealed to be Mason Ryan, attacked Cena. During the 2011 Royal Rumble match, Cena would eliminate most of the Nexus, ending his feud with them.

Record-breaking WWE Champion; various feuds (2011–present)[link]

The Rock and John Cena agree to face each other at WrestleMania XXVIII.

Cena competed in the 2011 Royal Rumble match at the pay-per-view, making it to the final five before being eliminated by The Miz, the current WWE Champion at the time, who wasn't an official participant in the match. At the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Cena won the Elimination Chamber match to face The Miz at WrestleMania XXVII for the WWE Championship.^[150] On the February 21 episode of Raw, Cena replied to The Rock's comments about him from the previous week, as The Rock returned as the announced guest host of WrestleMania, where he made a rap about Rock. That same night, Cena was placed into a WWE Tag Team Championship match, with him teaming with The Miz, where they defeated Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater to become WWE Tag Team Champions. After the match, Wade Barrett invoked Gabriel and Slater's rematch clause straight away, where they won their titles back, after Miz attacked Cena.^[151] After weeks of insults to each other, Cena met Rock face-to-face on the March 28 episode of Raw, where Cena would hit his Attitude Adjustment finishing move on Rock.^[152] At WrestleMania, Cena and Miz would fight to a double count-out, but guest host Rock would restart the match, only for him to hit his Rock Bottom finishing move on Cena, allowing Miz to retain his title.^[153] The next night on Raw, Cena and Rock agreed to face each other at WrestleMania XXVIII, making it the first match to be set up at WrestleMania one year in advance. At Extreme Rules, Cena would defeat Miz and Morrison to become WWE Champion.^[153] Cena went on to defend the title against The Miz at Over the Limit in an "I Quit" match^[154] and R-Truth at Capitol Punishment^[155]

At Money in the Bank, CM Punk defeated Cena to win the WWE Championship, and left the company with the title.^{[156][157][158]} A tournament was then conducted to determine the new WWE Champion for the "vacant" WWE title, which was won by Rey Mysterio on the July 25 episode of Raw. That same night, Cena challenged and defeated Mysterio to become WWE Champion for a record breaking ninth time.^[159] Following the match, CM Punk returned to the company, with the WWE Championship he won at Money in the Bank, leading to a title unification match at SummerSlam, where Punk defeated Cena to become "undisputed" WWE Champion. Punk would lose the championship following the match to Mr. Money in the Bank Alberto Del Rio.^[160] On the August 22 episode of Raw, Cena defeated Punk to become number one contender for the WWE Championship, and would defeat Del Rio at Night of Champions to become WWE Champion.^[161] Cena would then lose the title back to Del Rio two weeks later at Hell in a Cell, in a Triple Threat Hell in a Cell match also involving Punk, after Ricardo Rodriguez and Del Rio locked Cena outside of the Cell.^[162] Cena lost his rematch at Vengeance in a Last Man Standing match, due to interference by The Miz and R-Truth.^[163] After a few weeks of Miz and Truth attacking Cena and other employees, Cena was allowed to choose his partner to challenge Miz and Truth at Survivor Series. Cena would announce that he had chosen The Rock to be his partner. At the pay-per-view, after Cena and Rock defeated Miz and Truth, Rock gave Cena another Rock Bottom.^[164]

On the December 12 episode of Raw, during his match with Mark Henry, Cena was attacked by the returning Kane.^[165] The following week on Raw, Cena would call out Kane for his actions last week, but Henry would come out instead. Kane would then come out soon after, and once again attacked Cena.^[166] The following week, Kane would explain to Cena that the reason he had attacked him was in disgust of Cena's "Rise Above Hate" t-shirt slogan, stating that hate is a "natural impulse" and shouldn't be contained. He then led the fans in attendance who were not fond of Cena into chanting "Cena Sucks!" as Raw went off the air.^[167] Kane would then attack Cena's friend Zack Ryder, which led him to lose his United States Championship.^[168][169] At the Royal Rumble, Kane and Cena would fight each other to a double countout only for Kane to get the upper hand on Cena and Ryder, who was watching in a private room in a wheelchair, after the match.^[170] At Elimination Chamber, Cena defeated Kane in an Ambulance match to end the feud.^[171]

Cena and the Rock face off at WrestleMania XXVIII.

After Elimination Chamber, Cena and The Rock would start verbally attacking each other. At WrestleMania XXVIII, Cena faced the Rock in the main event match which had been building for a year and that was billed as "once in a lifetime" and as the biggest and most important match in John Cena's career. The climax of the match came when Cena let his arrogance get in the way of victory causing him to make the mistake of attempting the People's Elbow on the Rock, as the Rock countered with a Rock Bottom to seal the victory.^[172]

Brock Lesnar faces off with John Cena after his return in April 2012.

The following night on Raw, Cena would address the Rock, with the crowd chanting "Your a Loser". Stating that though he lost his career's most important match, he would own up and accept his loss. Cena would call out the Rock to congratulate him only to be interrupted by Brock Lesnar, who proceeded to hit Cena with an F5.^[173] On the April 9 episode of Raw Cena attacked Lesnar at the opening,^[174] after John Laurinaitis announced that Cena would face Lesnar at the main event of Extreme Rules.^[175] John defeated David Otunga later in the main event only to get hit with another F5 by Lesnar.^[176] On April 16, it was announced on WWE.com that Lesnar versus Cena would be an Extreme Rules match.^[177] On the next episode of Raw, Cena was confronted by Edge who would acknowledge Cena's loss to the Rock causing him to have a lack of focus, Edge would go on to tell Cena to wake up from his loss to the Rock and beat Brock Lesnar for all the superstars that supported the WWE is Lesnar's absence.^[178] Later that night, Cena showed his lack of confidence by bringing a chain to the contract signing and refusing to fight Lesnar.^[179] Cena received a Kimura lock and lacerations to the head during the match, but managed a victory against Lesnar,^[180] though he strained the muscles in his arm.^[181] This dovetailed into a rivalry with John Laurinaitis, who was angered at Cena because of his victory against Lesnar and his mockery and declared himself as Cena's opponent at Over the Limit.^[182] Cena would go on to lose the match against Lauranitis due to interference from Big Show. ^[183] The following night on Raw, Lauranitis would announce that Cena would be facing Show at No Way Out.^[184]

Other media[link]

Film[link]

Cena, with actual Marines, at the premiere of his film The Marine.

WWE Studios, a division of WWE which produces and finances motion pictures, produced Cena's first movie — The Marine, which was distributed theatrically by 20th Century Fox America beginning on October 13, 2006. In its first week, the film made approximately US$7 million at the United States box office.^[185] After ten weeks in theaters, the film grossed $18.7 million.^[185] Once the film was released on DVD, it fared better, making $30 million in rentals in the first twelve weeks.^[185]

John Cena filming on the set of 12 Rounds.

His second film, also produced by WWE Studios, was 12 Rounds.^[186] Filming began on February 25, 2008 in New Orleans;^[186][187] the film was released on March 27, 2009.

Cena co-starred in his third film produced by WWE Studios, titled Legendary, which was played in selected theaters starting on September 10, 2010, for a limited time,^[188] then it was released on DVD on September 28, 2010.^[189]

That same year, Cena starred in the children's film Fred: The Movie, a film based on Lucas Cruikshank's YouTube videos of the same name, where he plays Fred's father.^[190] The movie was released on the Nickelodeon channel in September 2010.^[191]

Guest appearances[link]

Before his WWE debut, Cena made an appearance on the Internet stream show Go Sick as Bruebaker, an angry, cursing wrestler in 2001.^[192]

During his WWE career, Cena has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! three times. Cena has also appeared on morning radio shows; including the CBS and XM versions of Opie and Anthony as part of their "walkover" on October 10, 2006. Other appearances have included Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Fuse's Celebrity Playlist, Fox Sports Net's The Best Damn Sports Show Period, MADtv, G4's Training Camp (with Shelton Benjamin), and two appearances on MTV's Punk'd (August 2006 and May 2007), as the victim of a practical joke. He also served as a co-presenter, with Hulk Hogan, at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards, as a guest judge during the third week of the 2006 season of Nashville Star, and appeared at the 2007 Nickelodeon UK Kids Choice Awards.^[193]

In January 2007, Cena, Batista, and Ashley Massaro appeared representing WWE on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,^[194] giving the children of the family whose house was being renovated WWE merchandise and eight tickets to WrestleMania 23.^[195] Two months later, he and Bobby Lashley appeared on the NBC game show Deal or No Deal as "moral support" to long time WWE fan and front row staple, Rick "Sign Guy" Achberger. Edge and Randy Orton also appeared, but as antagonists.^[196] On April 9, 2008, Cena, along with fellow wrestlers Triple H and Chris Jericho, appeared on the Idol Gives Back fund-raising special.^[197] In March 2009, Cena made an appearance on Saturday Night Live during the show's cold opening sequence.^[198] On March 7, 2009, he was a guest on NPR's quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! in a Not My Job sequence titled "Sure, pro wrestling is a good gig, but when you win, do they throw teddy bears into the ring?"^[199]