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  Illinois
  Illinois (ⁱ/ˌɪlɨˈnɔɪ/ IL-i-NOY) is the 25th most extensive and the 5th most populous of the 50 United States, and is often noted as a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a broad economic base. Illinois is a major transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global ports from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean; as well as the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois River. For decades, O'Hare International Airport has ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics.
  Although the state's largest population centers today are in northern Illinois, originally the state's population grew from south to north, with settlers arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s. In 1818, Illinois achieved statehood. Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan. Railroads and John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars. The Great Migration established a large community of African Americans in Chicago that created the city's famous jazz and blues cultures.
  
  wn.com/Illinois
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  Manila
  Manila (English: /məˈnɪlə/; Tagalog: Maynila, [majˈnilaʔ]) is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities (along with the smaller municipality of Pateros) that comprise Metro Manila.
  Manila is located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north; Quezon City to the northeast; San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east; Makati to the southeast, and Pasay to the south.
  Manila has a total population of more than 1,652,171 according to the 2010 census. Manila is the second most populous city in the Philippines, behind its neighbor, Quezon City. The populace inhabit an area of only 38.55 square kilometers, making Manila the most densely populated city in the world.Metro Manila is the most populous metropolitan area in the Philippines and the 11th in the world with an estimated population of 16,300,000. The greater urban area is the fifth-most populous in the world and has an estimated metropolitan population of 20,654,307 people.
  The city is divided into six legislative districts and consists of sixteen geographical districts: Binondo, Ermita, Intramuros, Malate, Paco, Pandacan, Port Area, Quiapo, Sampaloc, San Andres, San Miguel, San Nicolas, Santa Ana, Santa Cruz, Santa Mesa and Tondo. Bustling commerce and some of the most historically and culturally significant iconic landmarks in the country, as well as the seat of the executive and judicial branches of the government are to be found in the city; and it is also home to many scientific and educational institutions, numerous sport facilities, a variety of other culturally and historically significant venues. As a primary transportation hub and with the larger capital region bearing its name, there is very little of a general nature to be found in cities anywhere that Manila is lacking.
  
  wn.com/Manila
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  Philippines
  The Philippines ⁱ/ˈfɪlɨpiːnz/ FI-lə-peenz (Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas) is a sovereign country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.
  With an estimated population of about 98 million people, the Philippines is the 7th most populated Asian country and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12.5 million Filipinos live overseas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic societies. Trade introduced Chinese cultural influences which remain to this day.
  
  wn.com/Philippines
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  United States
  The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
  At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
  
  wn.com/United_States

• Ashthon Jones
  Ashthon Jones (born February 27, 1986) is an American singer from Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Jones finished as the 13th place finalist on the tenth season of American Idol.
  Jones was born in 1986 to Michelle Anderson. She grew up in Valdosta, Georgia, before moving to Goodlettsville, Tennessee, when she was 12. She attended W.G. Nunn Elementary School in Valdosta as a child. Her father died when she was 14, and she ran away from home at 15, but returned home after two and a half years. She worked as a retail manager in Nashville before appearing on American Idol.
  Jones auditioned for the tenth season of American Idol in Nashville, Tennessee. She was not one the five female vote getters in the semi-final round to advance to the Top 13. She was one of the six selected to sing for a wild card and advanced to the Top 13. She is the third wild card finalist to be the eliminated first in the finals, with the previous ones being Leah LaBelle from season 3 and Jasmine Murray from season 8 two years earlier. The judges unanimously agreed not to save her.
  
  wn.com/Ashthon_Jones
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  Carole King
  Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, her Tapestry album topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971, and remained on the charts for more than six years.
  She was most successful as a performer in the first half of the 1970s, although she was a successful songwriter long before and long after. She had her first number 1 hit as a songwriter in 1961 at age 18, with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", which she wrote with Goffin. In 1997, she co-wrote "The Reason" for Aerosmith, but instead it was sung by Celine Dion.
  In 2000, Joel Whitburn, a Billboard Magazine pop music researcher, named her the most successful female songwriter of 1955–99, because she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
  King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry. Her most recent non-compilation album is Live at the Troubadour, a collaboration with James Taylor, which reached number 4 on the charts in its first week, and has sold over 600,000 copies.
  
  wn.com/Carole_King
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  Casey Abrams
  Casey Abrams (born February 12, 1991) is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist from Idyllwild, California who finished in sixth place on the tenth season of American Idol. He was eliminated from the competition on April 28, 2011, five weeks after being the third finalist to be saved from elimination by the judges.
  Abrams was born on February 12, 1991 in Austin, Texas, to Pam Pierce and Ira Abrams. His father is Jewish and his mother is from a Catholic background, and Abrams grew up in an interfaith family. He spent his early years in the Chicago area, first in Evanston, Illinois, then in Wilmette, where he attended McKenzie Elementary School.
  Abrams later moved to California and attended middle school and high school there. He was a student at Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, California, where his father teaches film production. At Idyllwild Arts, he studied classical bass instruction and improvisation, and participted in the jazz ensembles, gaining a foundation in music history, piano, and jazz piano, and learning to write musical scores for films.
  
  wn.com/Casey_Abrams
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  Ella Fitzgerald
  Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella", was an American jazz and song vocalist. With a vocal range spanning three octaves (D♭3 to D♭6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
  Fitzgerald was a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over the course of her 59-year recording career, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.
  Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the child of a common-law marriage between William and Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald. The pair separated soon after her birth and she and her mother went to Yonkers, New York, where they eventually moved in with Tempie's longtime boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923. She and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church and she regularly attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday School.
  
  wn.com/Ella_Fitzgerald
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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.
  
  wn.com/Elton_John
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  Frank Sinatra
  Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra,  /sɨˈnɑːtrə/, (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and film actor.
  Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra in 1946. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1953 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity.
  He signed with Capitol Records in 1953 and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records in 1961 (finding success with albums such as Ring-a-Ding-Ding!, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".
  
  wn.com/Frank_Sinatra
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  Haley Reinhart
  Haley Reinhart (born September 9, 1990) is an American singer, songwriter from Wheeling, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, who placed third in the tenth season of American Idol. Reinhart is currently signed to 19 and Interscope Records.. Her debut album "Listen Up!" was released on May 22, 2012 to critical acclaim.
  Haley Reinhart was born in Wheeling, Illinois on September 9, 1990 to Patti Miller-Reinhart and Harry Reinhart. Both her parents are musicians. She began singing when she was 8 years old, and she performed with her parents’ band, Midnight, which covers rock songs from the ’60s and ’70s. She attended Mark Twain Elementary School, O.W. Holmes Middle School, and Wheeling High School. After graduating from high school in 2009, Reinhart attended Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, in 2009–2010, studying jazz. She performed at the 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland with her high school's jazz band and at Harper College with the college's Jazz Ensemble and the Jazz Lab.
  
  wn.com/Haley_Reinhart
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  Hoagy Carmichael
  Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for composing the music for "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.
  Alec Wilder, in his study of the American popular song, concluded that Hoagy Carmichael was the "most talented, inventive, sophisticated and jazz-oriented" of the hundreds of writers composing pop songs in the first half of the 20th century.
  
  wn.com/Hoagy_Carmichael
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  Jack Black
  Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American comedian, actor and musician. He makes up one half of the comedy and satirical rock duo Tenacious D. The group has three albums as well as a television series and a film. His acting career is extensive, starring primarily as bumbling, cocky, but internally self-conscious outsiders in comedy films. He was a member of the Frat Pack, a group of comedians who have appeared together in several Hollywood films, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe award. He has also won an MTV Movie Award, and a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award as well as hosting the 2006, 2008, and 2011 Kids Choice Awards.
  Black was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of two satellite engineers, Judith (née Cohen), who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, and Thomas William Black. His mother is Jewish and his father converted to Judaism (Black attended Hebrew school). On The Tonight Show, he said his surname may have come from the occupational name Blacksmith. Black's parents divorced when he was 10; Black moved to Culver City with his father and frequently visited his mother’s home. As a child, Black appeared in a commercial for the Activision game Pitfall! in 1982, which was later shown during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live and again on The Tonight Show with Conan O' Brien. When Black entered high school, his parents enrolled him at the Poseidon School, a private secondary school engineered specifically for students struggling in the traditional school system. Black also attended the Crossroads School, where he excelled in drama. He later attended UCLA but dropped out during his sophomore year to pursue a career in entertainment, at which point his father discontinued his financial support.^{[citation needed]} Fellow UCLA alumnus Tim Robbins later cast Black in Bob Roberts. He also had recurring roles on the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show.
  
  wn.com/Jack_Black
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  Jacob Lusk
  Jacob Lusk (born June 23, 1987) is an American singer from Compton, California, who finished in fifth place on the tenth season of American Idol.
  Lusk was born in 1987 to Anglia and Gregory Lusk, and is from Compton, California. His father worked as a music producer, but he died when Lusk was twelve. Lusk began singing when he was four years old, and performed at his church from the age of five. He attended United Faith Community School in Long Beach, California, and was the lead singer in the school choir, plays and programs.
  He is a minister of music at his church. Prior to American Idol, he worked as a spa concierge. In 2007, he joined a gospel group called InNate Praise formed by the late hip-hop singer Nate Dogg, and he performed with the group at churches around Los Angeles County.
  He was arrested in November 2010 for missing a court hearing after being cited for riding on an L.A. metro train without buying a ticket, and spent three days in jail. He was also initially sentenced to two years probation but was reprieved after pleading to the judge that the sentence would jeopardize his chance of appearing on American Idol.
  
  wn.com/Jacob_Lusk
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  James Taylor
  James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
  Taylor achieved his major breakthrough in 1970 with the #3 single "Fire and Rain" and had his first #1 hit the following year with "You've Got a Friend", a recording of Carole King's classic song. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album, JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. His commercial achievements declined slightly until a big resurgence during the late 1990s and 2000s, when some of his best-selling and most-awarded albums (including Hourglass, October Road and Covers) were released.
  James Taylor was born at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1948, where his father, Isaac M. Taylor, was a resident physician. His father was from a well-off family of Southern Scottish ancestry. His mother, the former Gertrude Woodard, had studied singing with Marie Sundelius at the New England Conservatory of Music and was an aspiring opera singer before the couple's marriage in 1946. James was the second of five children, the others being Alex (1947-1993), Kate (born 1949), Livingston (born 1950), and Hugh (born 1952).
  
  wn.com/James_Taylor
• Kansas Joe McCoy
  Kansas Joe McCoy (May 11, 1905 – January 28, 1950) was an African American Delta blues musician and songwriter.
  McCoy played music under a variety of stage names but is best known as "Kansas Joe McCoy". Born in Raymond, Mississippi, he was the older brother of the blues accompanist Papa Charlie McCoy. As a young man, McCoy was drawn to the music scene in Memphis, Tennessee where he played guitar and sang vocals during the 1920s. He teamed up with future wife Lizzie Douglas, a guitarist better known as Memphis Minnie, and their 1929 recording of the song "Bumble Bee" on the Columbia Records label was a hit. In 1930, the couple moved to Chicago where they were an important part of the burgeoning blues scene. Following their divorce, McCoy teamed up with his brother to form a band known as the Harlem Hamfats that performed and recorded during the second half of the 1930s.
  In 1936, the Harlem Hamfats released a record with the song "The Weed Smoker's Dream" on it. McCoy later refined the tune, changed the lyrics and titled the new song "Why Don't You Do Right?" for Lil Green, who recorded it in 1941. It was covered a year later by both Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee, becoming Lee's first hit single. "Why Don't You Do Right?" remains a jazz standard and is McCoy's most enduring composition.
  
  wn.com/Kansas_Joe_McCoy
• Karen Rodriguez
  Karen Stephanie Rodriguez (born March 22, 1989) is an American singer from New York City, New York. Rodriguez placed twelfth on the tenth season of American Idol.
  Rodriguez was born in 1989 in Miami, Florida. Her father is Dominican and her mother, Elvira Rodriguez is Peruvian. She is fluent in Spanish. She went to New York's LaGuardia Arts School as did her fellow Idol contestant Pia Toscano. She starred as Maria in "West Side Story" as a freshman. In 2008, she appeared in the fifth season of a Puerto Rican talent show Objetivo Fama and finished in seventh place.
  Rodriguez auditioned for the tenth season of American Idol first on Myspace and then in Los Angeles, California. She was one of the five female vote getters in the semi-final round to advance to the Top 13. On March 17, 2011, not being saved, she was eliminated from American Idol, finishing in 12th place.
  She considers Selena to be her biggest idol, and is a fan of Juan Gabriel, Jennifer Lopez, Pitbull and Juan Luis Guerra.
  
  wn.com/Karen_Rodriguez
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  Lauren Alaina
  Lauren Alaina (born Lauren Alaina Kristine Suddeth; November 8, 1994) is an American country singer from Rossville, Georgia. Alaina was the runner-up on the tenth season of American Idol. Her debut studio album, Wildflower was released on October 11, 2011.
  Alaina was born on November 8, 1994, to Kristy and J.J. Suddeth of Rossville, Georgia. Her father works as a process technician in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Alaina is a strong Christian and often states that she lives for Jesus Christ.
  Alaina was inspired to sing by her cousin, Holly Witherow, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Prior to Idol, Alaina worked at CiCi's Pizza. She attended Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where she was a cheerleader. Alaina performed at several Chattanooga-area venues and was the first winner of the WinniSTAR youth talent contest at Lake Winnepesaukah amusement park in 2009. In addition to performing, Alaina wrote several songs including "Leaving" and "Set Me Free".
  Alaina auditioned for the tenth season of American Idol in Nashville, Tennessee. From early on, Alaina was a judge favorite. After her audition, Idol judge Steven Tyler stated "We found the one." May 14, 2011 was proclaimed "Lauren Alaina Day" in her hometown of Rossville, Georgia. During the season finale, Alaina sang "Before He Cheats" with her idol, Carrie Underwood. On May 25, 2011, Alaina was declared the runner-up.
  
  wn.com/Lauren_Alaina
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  Naima Adedapo
  Naima Adedapo (born October 5, 1984) is an American singer and dancer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Adedapo placed in the top 11 on the tenth season of American Idol.
  Adedapo was born in Maywood, Illinois, and her family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when she was ten. Adedapo is the daughter of Milwaukee area jazz singer Adekola Adedapo. Adedapo graduated high school from St. Joan Antida and majored in Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Adedapo participated on Making The Band but was immediately eliminated by Diddy during dancing rehearsals because she was dancing in the back row.
  Adedapo auditioned for the tenth season of American Idol in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was not one the five female vote-getters in the semi-final round to advance to the Top 13. She was one of the six selected to sing for a wild card. The judges chose three of the six, including Adedapo, to advance to the Top 13. On March 31, 2011, Adedapo and Thia Megia were eliminated from American Idol.
  Adedapo and the rest of the top 11 performed in the 2011 American Idols LIVE! Tour, which began in West Valley City, Utah, on July 6, 2011, and ended in Manila, Philippines on September 20, 2011. Both the eliminated contestants, Naima and Thia Megia, appeared and performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Live with Regis and Kelly.
  
  wn.com/Naima_Adedapo
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  Nat King Cole
  Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first black Americans to host a television variety show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death.
  Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on Saint Patrick's Day (March 17) in 1919. When he was 4, he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where his father, Edward Coles, became a Baptist minister (Ruuth 31). Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist. His first performance, at age four, was of "Yes! We Have No Bananas". He began formal lessons at the age of 12, eventually learning not only jazz and gospel music but also European classical music, performing, as he said, "from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff".
  
  wn.com/Nat_King_Cole
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  Oscar Peterson
  Oscar Emmanuel Peterson CC CQ OOnt (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career. He is considered to have been one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, having played thousands of live concerts to audiences worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years.
  Peterson was born to immigrants from the West Indies; his father worked as a porter for Canadian Pacific Railway. Peterson grew up in the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal, Quebec. It was in this predominantly black neighbourhood that he found himself surrounded by the jazz culture that flourished in the early 20th century. At the age of five, Peterson began honing his skills with the trumpet and piano. However, a bout of tuberculosis at age seven prevented him from playing the trumpet again, and so he directed all his attention to the piano. His father, Daniel Peterson, an amateur trumpeter and pianist, was one of his first music teachers, and his sister Daisy taught young Oscar classical piano. Young Oscar was persistent at practising scales and classical etudes daily, and thanks to such arduous practice he developed his astonishing virtuosity.
  
  wn.com/Oscar_Peterson
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  Pia Toscano
  Pia Ann Rose Toscano (born October 14, 1988) is an American singer from Howard Beach, New York. Toscano placed ninth on the tenth season of American Idol. She was considered a frontrunner in the competition, and her elimination shocked judges Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and Steven Tyler, all of whom were visibly and vocally upset. Some viewers and media outlets described Toscano's departure as one of the most shocking eliminations in American Idol history.
  Toscano was born on October 14, 1988, to Jane and Pat Toscano and grew up in Howard Beach, New York. Her father worked as a corporate executive. She is of Italian descent. She began performing in talent shows when she was four, and by the time she was nine, had performed in a local church production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Toscano was the official National Anthem singer at her middle school, P.S./M.S. 207, and performed at every event including graduation. She attended LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts in New York City and graduated in 2006. Fellow Idol contestant Karen Rodriguez also attended this school.
  
  wn.com/Pia_Toscano
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  Ray Charles
  Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records. He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums. While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company.Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only true genius in show business.”
  The influences upon his music were mainly jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and country artists of the day such as Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Louis Armstrong. His playing reflected influences from country blues and barrelhouse, and stride piano styles.
  Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?"
  
  wn.com/Ray_Charles
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  Scotty McCreery
  Scott Cooke "Scotty" McCreery (born October 9, 1993) is an American singer from Garner, North Carolina. He won the tenth season of American Idol on May 25, 2011. His debut studio album, Clear as Day, was released in October 2011 and was certified platinum in the United States. The album includes the top 20 country songs, "I Love You This Big" and "The Trouble with Girls".
  McCreery was born in 1993 to Judy (née Cooke) and Michael McCreery in Garner, North Carolina. His mother works as a real estate agent, and his father works as a manufacturing systems analyst. His father was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico to a Puerto Rican mother from San Juan and an American father. His mother is the daughter of a retired school teacher from Gates County, NC. He attended Timber Drive Elementary School in Garner, and later West Lake Middle School where he sang at his graduation. He also attended Garner Magnet High School where he joined a vocal ensemble, Die Meistersingers, that performs across the United States. He started out singing tenor.
  
  wn.com/Scotty_McCreery
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  Stefano Langone
  Stefano Langone (born February 27, 1989) is an American singer from Kent, Washington. Langone placed seventh on the tenth season of American Idol.
  Langone was born on February 27, 1989 in Bellevue, Washington to Carrie and Ernie Langone. He is half Spanish and half Italian. His father works as a career advisor at The Art Institute of Seattle and is also a singer and musician. Langone has been singing and playing the piano since childhood. He attended Emerald Park Elementary School, Meridian Junior High, and Kentwood High School, as well as Bellevue College, where he was given a full ride scholarship. He performed with Bellevue College's 'Celebration!' vocal jazz ensemble while he was a student there.
  On May 28, 2009, he was involved in a near-fatal accident after being hit by a drunk driver. The accident resulted in two broken arms, a fractured pelvis, and other serious injuries. In addition, Langone had to re-learn to walk and has extensive scarring as a result of the accident.
  It has also been reported that Langone was once arrested on suspicion of DUI a year after the accident. He was later only charged with a lesser crime of first-degree negligent driving for which he pleaded guilty.
  
  wn.com/Stefano_Langone
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  Thia Megia
  Thia Megia (born Thialorei Lising Megia; January 30, 1995) is an American singer from Mountain House, San Joaquin County, California. Megia finished in the top 11 of the tenth season of American Idol.
  Megia was born in Hayward, California, to Cynthia and Loreto Megia. Her parents, originally from Angeles, Pampanga, Philippines, emigrated to the United States in 1968 and changed their name from Mejia to Megia. She attended Eden Gardens Elementary School in Hayward through the sixth grade, but was cyber-schooled online at California Virtual Academy, when the family moved to Mountain House, California.
  She has won singing competitions in San Jose and Saratoga and has sung the national anthem at San Jose Giants, Stanford football and San Francisco 49ers games. She also appeared on the TV show Showtime at the Apollo as the Kid Star of Tomorrow in 2008 when she was 13.
  Prior to Idol, however, Megia was best known for her appearance on the fourth season of America's Got Talent in 2009. She made it to the quarterfinals, but was cut in the Top 40 round. That same year, she was invited to sing at the David Foster and Friends concert in California. She is the first America's Got Talent contestant to advance to voting rounds on American Idol, followed by Jessica Sanchez, who previously appeared in the first season the America's Got Talent.
  
  wn.com/Thia_Megia
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Abram (2008)

Genres

• Drama
• Short

Taglines:

Quotes:

• timeline:
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
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• 2008
• 2007
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• timeline:
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001