The (Late Old High) German speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 950.

Old High German (OHG, German: Althochdeutsch, German abbr. Ahd.) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 500 to 1050 CE. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as "prehistoric" and date the start of Old High German proper to 750 for this reason. There are, however, a number of Elder Futhark inscriptions dating to the 6th century (notably the Pforzen buckle), as well as single words and many names found in Latin texts predating the 8th century.

Characteristics[link]

The main difference between Old High German and the West Germanic dialects from which it developed is that it underwent the Second Sound Shift or High German consonant shift. This is generally dated very approximately to the late 5th and early 6th centuries—hence dating its start to around 500. The result of this sound change is that the consonantal system of German remains different from all other West Germanic languages, including English and Low German. Grammatically, however, Old High German remained very similar to Old English, Old Dutch, and Old Saxon.

By the mid 11th century the many different vowels found in unstressed syllables had all been reduced to "e". Since these vowels were part of the grammatical endings in the nouns and verbs, their loss led to radical simplification of the inflectional grammar of German. For these reasons, 1050 is seen as the start of the Middle High German period, though in fact there are almost no texts in German for the next hundred years.

Examples of vowel reduction in unstressed syllables:

(The Modern German forms of these words are broadly the same as in Middle High German.)

Dialects[link]

There was no standard or supra-regional variety of Old High German—every text is written in a particular dialect, or in some cases a mixture of dialects. Broadly speaking, the main dialect divisions of Old High German seem to have been similar to those of later periods—they are based on established territorial groupings and the effects of the Second Sound Shift, which have remained influential until the present day. But because the direct evidence for Old High German consists solely of manuscripts produced in a few major ecclesiastical centres, there is no isogloss information of the sort on which modern dialect maps are based. For this reason the dialects may be termed monastery dialects.

The main dialects, with their bishoprics and monasteries:

• Central German
  • Middle Franconian: Trier, Echternach, Cologne
  • Rhine Franconian: Lorsch, Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Frankfurt
  • South Rhine Franconian: Weissenburg im Elsaß
  • East Franconian: Fulda, Bamberg, Würzburg
  • Thuringian: (no texts)
  • West Franconian: conjectural dialect of the Franks in Northern Gaul

• Upper German
  • Alemannic: Murbach, Reichenau, Sankt Gallen. Strasbourg
  • Bavarian: Freising, Passau, Regensburg, Augsburg, Ebersberg, Wessobrunn, Tegernsee, Salzburg, Mondsee
  • Langobardic: (fragmentary, classification as OHG uncertain)

There are some important differences between the geographical spread of the Old High German dialects and that of Modern German:

• no German dialects were spoken east of the Rivers Elbe and Saale—in the Old High German period this area was occupied by Slavic peoples since the Völkerwanderung and was not settled by German speakers until the late 10th and the early 11th century
• the Langobardic dialect of the Lombards who invaded Northern Italy in the 6th century is assumed to have been an Upper German dialect, though little evidence of it remains apart from names and individual words in Latin texts, and a few inscriptions
• the Old Frankish language is a special case among the old West Germanic languages. The Frankish tribes built their empire at the same time as the High German consonant shift took place. This meant that the dialects of Frankish in the north of their empire, the Low Countries, did not shift, while the dialects in the south did. The dialects in the south are part of Old High German; the ones in the north are part of Old Dutch (Low Franconian).

Phonology[link]

The charts show the vowel and consonant systems of the East Franconian dialect in the 9th century. This is the dialect of the monastery of Fulda, and specifically of the Old High German Tatian. Dictionaries and grammars of OHG often use the spellings of the Tatian as a substitute for genuine standardised spellings, and these have the advantage of being recognizably close to the Middle High German forms of words, particularly with respect to the consonants.

Vowels[link]

Short and long vowels[link]

Old High German had five phonemic long vowels and six phonemic short vowels. Both occurred in stressed and unstressed syllables.

Notes:

1. All back vowels likely had front-vowel allophones as a result of Umlaut. The front-vowel allophones likely became full phonemes in Middle High German. In the Old High German period, there existed [e] (possibly a mid-close vowel) from the Umlaut of /a/ and /e/ but it probably wasn't phonemicized until the end of the period. Manuscripts occasionally distinguish two /e/ sounds. Generally, modern grammars and dictionaries use ⟨ë⟩ for the mid vowel and ⟨e⟩ for the mid-close vowel.
2. The short high and mid vowels may have been articulated lower than their long counterparts as in Modern German. This cannot be established from written sources.
3. Short vowels followed later by long vowels tended to be reduced to ⟨e⟩ in unstressed syllables. The ⟨e⟩ may have represented [ɛ] or schwa [ə].
4. Vowel length was indicated in the manuscripts inconsistently (though not in modern handbooks). A macron was generally used to indicate a long vowel.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Old High German diphthongs are indicated by the digraphs ⟨ei⟩, ⟨ie⟩, ⟨io⟩, ⟨iu⟩, ⟨ou⟩, ⟨uo⟩.

Consonants[link]

1. There is wide variation in the consonant systems of the Old High German dialects arising mainly from the differing extent to which they are affected by the High German Sound Shift. Precise information about the articulation of consonants is impossible to establish.
2. In the plosive and fricative series, where there are two consonants in a cell, the first is fortis the second lenis. The voicing of lenis consonants varied between dialects.
3. Old High German distinguished long and short consonants. Double-consonant spellings don't indicate a preceding short vowel as in Modern German but true consonant gemination. Double consonants found in Old High German include pp, bb, tt, dd, ck (for /kk/), gg, ff, ss, hh, zz, mm, nn, ll, rr.
4. /θ/ changes to /d/ in all dialects during the 9th century. The status in the Old High German Tatian (c. 830), reflected in modern Old High German dictionaries and glossaries, is that th is found in initial position, d in other positions.
5. It is not clear whether Old High German /x/ had already acquired a palatized allophone /ç/ following front vowels as in Modern German.
6. A curly-tailed z (ȥ) is sometimes used in modern grammars and dictionaries to indicate the dental fricative which arose from Common Germanic t in the High German consonant shift, to distinguish it from the dental affricate, represented as z. This distinction has no counterpart in the original manuscripts, except in the OHG Isidor, which uses tz for the affricate.
7. The original Germanic fricative s was in writing usually clearly distinguished from the younger fricative z that evolved from the High German consonant shift - the sounds of these two graphs seem not to have merged before the 13th century. Now seeing that s later came to be pronounced /ʃ/ before other consonants (as in Stein /ʃtaɪn/, Speer /ʃpeːɐ/, Schmerz /ʃmɛrts/ (original smerz) or the southwestern pronunciation of words like Ast /aʃt/) it seems safe to assume that the actual pronunciation of Germanic s was somewhere between [s] and [ʃ], most likely about [ɕ], in all Old High German up to late Middle High German.

A word like swaz, "whatever", would thus never have been [swas] but rather [ɕwas], later (13th century) [ʃwas], [ʃvas].

Morphology[link]

Nouns[link]

Verbs[link]

The following is a sample paradigm of a strong verb, nëman "to take".

History[link]

The Franks conquered Northern Gaul as far south as the Loire; the linguistic boundary later stabilised approximately along the course of the Maas and Moselle, with Frankish speakers further west being romanised.

With Charlemagne's conquest of the Lombards in 776, nearly all continental Germanic speaking peoples had been incorporated into the Frankish Empire, thus also bringing all continental West Germanic speakers under Frankish rule. However, since the language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to any development of a supra-regional variety of Frankish nor a standardized Old High German.

Old High German literacy is a product of the monasteries, notably at St. Gallen, Reichenau and Fulda. Its origins lie in the establishment of the German church by Boniface in the mid 8th century, and it was further encouraged during the Carolingian Renaissance in the 9th. The dedication to the preservation of Old High German epic poetry among the scholars of the Carolingian Renaissance was significantly greater than could be suspected from the meagre survivals we have today (less than 200 lines in total between the Lay of Hildebrand and the Muspilli). Einhard tells how Charlemagne himself ordered that the epic lays should be collected for posterity.^[1] It was the neglect or religious zeal of later generations that led to the loss of these records. Thus, it was Charlemagne's weak successor, Louis the Pious, who destroyed his father's collection of epic poetry on account of its pagan content ^[2].

Hrabanus Maurus, a student of Alcuin's and abbot at Fulda from 822, was an important advocate of the cultivation of German literacy. Among his students were Walafrid Strabo and Otfrid of Weissenburg. Notker Labeo (d. 1022) towards the end of the Old High German period was among the greatest stylists in the language, and developed a systematic orthography.^[3]

Texts[link]

The early part of the period saw considerable missionary activity, and by 800 the whole of the Frankish Empire had, in principle, been Christianized. All the manuscripts which contain Old High German texts were written in ecclesiastical scriptoria by scribes whose main task was writing in Latin rather than German. Consequently, the majority of Old High German texts are religious in nature and show strong influence of ecclesiastical Latin on the vocabulary. In fact, most surviving prose texts are translations of Latin originals. Even secular works such as the Hildebrandslied are often preserved only because they were written on spare sheets in religious codices.

The earliest Old High German text is generally taken to be the Abrogans, a Latin-Old High German glossary variously dated between 750 and 780, probably from Reichenau. The 8th century Merseburg Incantations are the only remnant of pre-Christian German literature. The earliest texts not dependent on Latin originals would seem to be the Hildebrandslied and the Wessobrunn Prayer, both recorded in manuscripts of the early 9th century, though the texts are assumed to derive from earlier copies.

The Bavarian Muspilli is the sole survivor of what must have been a vast oral tradition. Other important works are the Evangelienbuch (Gospel harmony) of Otfrid von Weissenburg, the short but splendid Ludwigslied and the 9th century Georgslied. The boundary to Early Middle High German (from ca. 1050) is not clear-cut. The most impressive example of EMHG literature is the Annolied.

Samples[link]

The Lord's Prayer is given in four Old High German dialects below. Because these are translations of a liturgical text, they are best not regarded as examples of idiomatic language, but they do show dialect variation very clearly.

See also[link]

• Middle High German
• Medieval German Literature

Notes[link]

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2009)

References[link]

• Althochdeutches Lesebuch, ed. W.Braune, K.Helm, E.A.Ebbinghaus, 17th edn, Tübingen 1994. ISBN 3-484-10707-3
• J. Knight Bostock, A Handbook on Old High German Literature, 2nd edn, revised by K.C.King and D.R.McLintock, Oxford 1976. ISBN 0-19-815392-9
• R.E.Keller, The German Language, London 1978. ISBN 0-571-11159-9
• Lexikon der Germanistischen Linguistik, ed. Hans Peter Althaus, Helmut Henne, Herbert Ernst Weigand, 2nd revised edition, Tübingen 1980. ISBN 3-484-10396-5
• S.Sonderegger, Althochdeutsche Sprache und Literatur, de Gruyter 1974 ISBN 3-11-004559-1
• C.J.Wells, German. A Linguistic History to 1945, Oxford 1987. ISBN 0-19-815809-2
• Wright, Joseph (1906). An Old High German Primer (Second Edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 

External links[link]

Look up old high german in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Old High German test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer (1906)
• Althochdeutsche Texte im Internet (8.–10. Jahrhundert) - links to a range of online texts
• Modern English-Old High German dictionary

"Hochdeutsch" or "High German" is also used in the sense of Standard German.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2006)

The present-day distribution of the Germanic languages in Europe:
North Germanic languages

  Icelandic

  Faroese

  Norwegian

  Swedish

  Danish

West Germanic languages

  Scots

  English

  Frisian

  Dutch

  Low German

  High German

Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.

The High German languages (in German, Hochdeutsche Sprachen) or the High German dialects (Hochdeutsche Mundarten/Dialekte) are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and Yiddish, as well as the local German dialects spoken in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and in neighboring portions of Belgium and the Netherlands (Ripuarian dialects in southeast Limburg), France (Alsace and northern Lorraine), Italy, Denmark, and Poland. The language is also spoken in diaspora in Romania (Transylvania), Russia, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Namibia.

As a technical term, the "high" in High German is a geographical reference to the group of dialects that forms "High German" (in the broader sense), out of which developed standard High German (in the narrower sense), Yiddish and Luxembourgish. It refers to the upland and mountainous areas of central and southern Germany, it also includes Luxembourg, Austria, Liechtenstein and most of Switzerland. This is opposed to Low German, which is spoken on the lowlands and along the flat sea coasts of the north.^[1] High German in this broader sense can be subdivided into Upper German (Oberdeutsch, this includes the Austrian and Swiss German dialects), Central German (Mitteldeutsch, this includes Luxembourgish, which is now a standardized language), and High Franconian which is a transitional dialect between the two.^[2]

History[link]

The High German dialects as used in central and southern Germany (Saxony, Bavaria) and Austria were an important basis for the development of standard German.^[3]

The historical forms of the language are Old High German and Middle High German.

Classification[link]

High German (in the broader sense) is distinguished from other West Germanic varieties in that it took part in the High German consonant shift (c. AD 500). To see this, compare English/Low Saxon pan/Pann with German Pfanne ([p] to [pf]), English/Low Saxon two/twee with German zwei ([t] to [ts]), English/Low Saxon make/maken with German machen ([k] to [x]).^[4] In the High Alemannic dialects, there is a further shift; Sack (like English/Low Saxon "sack/Sack") is pronounced [z̥akx] ([k] to [kx]).

Family tree[link]

Note that divisions between subfamilies within Germanic are rarely precisely defined, as most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not. In particular, there has never been an original "Proto-High German". For this and other reasons, the idea of representing the relationships between West Germanic language forms in a tree diagram at all is controversial among linguists. What follows should be used with care in the light of this caveat.

• Central German (German: Mitteldeutsch)
  • East Central German
    • Standard German^[5]
    • Lausitzisch-Neumärkisch
    • Upper Saxon
    • North Upper Saxon
    • Thuringian Dialect
    • Silesian German (mostly in Lower Silesia, in Poland)
    • High Prussian
  • Transylvanian Saxon (in Transylvania)
  • West Central German
    • Central Franconian
      • Ripuarian
      • Moselle Franconian, including the Luxembourgish language
    • Rhine Franconian
      • Lorraine Franconian (France)
      • Pfälzisch language
      • Hunsrückisch
        • Riograndenser Hunsrückisch (in Southern Brazil)
    • Central Hessian (Hessian)
    • East Hessian (Hessian)
    • North Hessian (Hessian)
• Transitional areas between Central German and Upper German
  • High Franconian
    • East Franconian German
    • South Franconian German
• Pennsylvania German (in the United States and Canada)
• Upper German (German: Oberdeutsch)
  • Alemannic
    • Swabian
    • Low Alemannic (including one Swiss German dialect: Basel German)
    • Alsatian language (but often also classified as within Low Alemannic)
    • Central Alemannic
    • High Alemannic (including many Swiss German dialects)
    • Highest Alemannic (including Swiss German dialects)
  • Austro-Bavarian (On the use of dialects and Standard German in Austria, see Austrian language)
    • Northern Austro-Bavarian (spoken in Upper Palatinate)
    • Central Austro-Bavarian (includes the dialects of Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Vienna — see Viennese language)
    • Southern Austro-Bavarian (includes the dialects of Tirol, Carinthia and Styria)
    • Cimbrian (northeastern Italy)
    • Mócheno (Trentino, in Italy)
    • Hutterite German (in Canada and the United States)
• Yiddish
  • Western Yiddish (Germany, France)
  • Eastern Yiddish
    • Northeastern Yiddish (Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Russia, northeastern Poland)
    • Central Yiddish (Poland, Galicia)
    • Southeastern Yiddish (Ukraine, Bessarabia, Romania)
• Texas German, a dialect spoken by descendants of immigrants who settled in the Texas Hill Country region in the mid-19th century.

References[link]

Patrick Doyle
Background information
Birth name	Patrick Doyle
Born	(1953-04-06) 6 April 1953 (age 59)
Origin	South Lanarkshire, Scotland
Genres	Film scores
Occupations	Composer and actor
Years active	1989–present

Patrick Doyle (born 6 April 1953, South Lanarkshire, Scotland) is a classically trained composer. A longtime collaborator of actor/director Kenneth Branagh, Doyle is known for his work scoring such critically acclaimed films as Henry V (1989), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Hamlet (1996), and Gosford Park (2001), as well as such noteworthy blockbusters as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Eragon (2006), Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Thor (both 2011). Doyle has been nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

Life and career[link]

Doyle was born on 6 April 1953 in Scotland and graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama in 1975. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama in 2001. He joined the Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987 as composer and musical director creating scores for highly successful productions of such plays as Hamlet, As You Like It, and Look Back in Anger.^[1] Doyle's film score debut occurred in 1989 when actor/director Kenneth Branagh commissioned Doyle to compose a score for the Renaissance Film's production of Henry V. The song "Non Nobis, Domine" from the film was subsequently awarded the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme.^[2] He has since scored nine Kenneth Branagh films including Dead Again (1991), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), Hamlet (1996), Love's Labour's Lost (2000), As You Like It (2006), Sleuth (2007), and Thor (2011).

In October 1997, shortly after scoring Great Expectations, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Doyle was diagnosed with leukemia. He managed to complete his score for the animated fantasy Quest for Camelot (1998) in hospital whilst undergoing treatment. Doyle made a full recovery.^[3][4]

In 1998 Patrick Doyle’s Music from the Movies concert, sponsored by Leukaemia Research UK was staged at the Royal Albert Hall. It was directed by Kenneth Branagh and starred a host of international stars including Emma Thompson, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Judi Dench, Alan Rickman, Imelda Staunton, Richard E. Grant, Adrian Lester, and Robbie Coltrane.^[5]

He has composed a series of classical works outside of films that include "The Thistle and the Rose", commissioned in 1990 by Prince Charles in honor of the 90th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (the mother of the current Queen Elizabeth II); the violin romance "Corarsik", written for Emma Thompson's birthday; the album "Impressions of America: A Suite for Orchestra"; and the symphonic tone poem "Tam O Shanter", commissioned by the Scottish Schools Orchestra Trust.

Doyle has recently completed the scores for Marvel Studios Thor (2011) and the 20th Century Fox film Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011). He is currently working on the upcoming Pixar film Brave (2012), directed by Mark Andrews, after which he will be working on the Sovereign Films film Effie directed by Richard Laxton.

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

See also[link]

• Harry Potter music

References[link]

Connie Talbot
Talbot at Sutton Park, March 2012.
Background information
Born	(2000-11-20) 20 November 2000 (age 11)[1]
Origin	Streetly, Aldridge, England
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2007–present
Website	connietalbot.com

Connie Talbot (born 20 November 2000) is an English child singer from Streetly, Aldridge. She rose to fame in 2007 when she reached the final of the first series of Britain's Got Talent, where she was runner-up to Paul Potts. Talbot was supposed to sign with Sony BMG but the label pulled out of the deal due to her age.

Talbot signed with Rainbow Recording Company and released her debut album Over the Rainbow in the UK on 26 November 2007. The album was re-released 18 June 2008 with a new track listing, and the first single from the album, a cover of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds", was released on 10 June.

Despite its negative critical reception, Over the Rainbow has sold over 250,000 copies worldwide and reached number one in three countries. Since the initial album release, Talbot has performed publicly and on television in Europe, the U.S. and across Asia, where her music had gained recognition through YouTube. Her second album, Connie Talbot's Christmas Album, was released on 24 November 2008; her third, Holiday Magic, was released in late 2009. While pursuing her musical career, Talbot attends school, and lives in Streetly with her family.

History[link]

[edit] Britain's Got Talent and Sony BMG

Talbot initially auditioned for the first series of television reality show Britain's Got Talent for fun, but her confidence increased when Simon Cowell, whom she is said to have idolised,^[2] described her as "pure magic" and said that he would make her earn "£1 million-plus this year".^[2] The judges expected a "joke" performance and she had never taken singing lessons, but Talbot's initial performance received international press coverage.^[3] She reached the final round after winning her semi-final with a live performance of "Ben" by Michael Jackson.^[4] On the night of the final, she sang The Wizard of Oz's "Over the Rainbow", but lost to Paul Potts as a result of the call-in vote.^[5][6] Talbot and Potts had been joint favourites to win the series.^[7][8]

Talbot during the recording of "Smile" for Sony BMG

According to journalist and Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan, Talbot's performances resulted in many children, including Faryl Smith, auditioning for the second series of the show.^[9] After his victory, series 2 winner George Sampson spoke of his participation in the first series, where he was knocked out before the live shows, saying "I don't think I had any shot of winning last year ... When you look at the standard of Paul Potts and Connie Talbot. Paul Potts is out of this league, and Connie is out of this league – I wasn't good enough."^[10] Talbot voted for Sampson, saying "I liked his dancing – he was good on the lamppost".^[11]

Cowell had preliminarily agreed to sign Talbot with his own record label, Sony BMG. After recording two songs in London with Talbot ("Over the Rainbow" and "Smile"^[2]), the label pulled out of the deal.^[12] Talbot's mother, Sharon, said she was told that her daughter "...was too young to be their sort of artist", adding "We have been told to look for a company which looks after children."^[13][14] In a statement, the label said "there was some deliberation over the possibility of recording with Connie ... However, the decision not to proceed was made with the best intentions for Connie, taking into consideration her age and that it would not be right to do so at this time."^[13] Cowell himself said that "when the time is right, [he would] be delighted to see if [they could] make it work".^[13] The Talbot family decided to search for another label, saying "while [Talbot] loves what she's doing it would be cruel to stop her. Fame and money will never matter."^[2]

[edit] Over the Rainbow

In October 2007 Talbot signed with the Rainbow Recording Company for a six-figure deal.^[14] Rainbow Recording Company, an offshoot of record label Rhythm Riders made specifically for Talbot,^[2] was due to release Talbot's first album on 26 November 2007.^[14] It was later reported that the album was named Over the Rainbow, and the first single, "Over the Rainbow"/"White Christmas", would be released on 3 December 2007.^[2] Experts predicted that she had a good chance of getting the Christmas number one,^[2][14] but the single was cancelled in favour of an album-first release.^[15] Before the album was released, there was much speculation about Talbot and the album, with music experts describing her as potentially being "the next Charlotte Church".^[16]

Talbot at the Olympic Studios during the recording of Over the Rainbow

The team behind the album consisted of John Arnison, who also managed Gabrielle and Billy Ocean, and Marc Marot, former managing director of Island Records.^[2] It was produced and mixed by Simon Hill and Rob May.^[17] Arnison revealed that he and his team "are not going to give [Talbot] singing lessons – we don't need to", and said that when he met Talbot, he was "blown away".^[18] A schedule was worked out allowing Talbot to continue with her normal school activities while recording the album in her aunt Vicky's spare bedroom, which her mother described as "a better solution [than Sony BMG offered] which has not robbed her of her childhood".^[2] Although Arnison claimed he did not "want to put her through the promotional grind which most artists go through because she is too young", plans were made for an appearance on daytime television programme This Morning, as well as an appearance on Children in Need on 16 November 2007.^[2] The album was released on 26 November 2007 and Talbot's mother said that "All the family is really excited, but Connie is quite blase about it."^[19] The album was certified gold in early December,^[20] with Talbot being presented a gold disc by Phillip Schofield on This Morning.^[21] Initially, 50,000 copies of the album were pressed, but an additional 120,000 had to be made after the album sold out in days.^[21]

In late 2007, public appearances by Talbot included headlining the Great Bridge Christmas and Winter Festival, which local police threatened to cancel unless crowds clamouring to reach the tent in which Talbot was performing could be brought under control.^[20] At the event, on 7 December 2007, Talbot said "I love it here, it’s brilliant, really fun", but had to be ushered off-stage by the police.^[20] Talbot performed publicly in Walsall's HMV store, and in Birmingham's Centenary Square.^[22] TV appearances included GMTV and Channel 5 news, both on 26 November 2007.^[22] According to her mother, Talbot has received offers for film roles. Sharon said "[Talbot]'s been sent a script, I haven't had a good look at it yet but it's really exciting ... Connie's a singer, not an actress, so we'll see what happens. It's completely up to her whether or not she wants to do it. I can't believe it, though."^[20]

Sharon Mawer of Allmusic praised Over the Rainbow by saying "She can sing, for a seven year old, and most of the notes (if not all of them) are in the right order and sung to the right pitch; the timing is fine too".^[23] However, she criticised the album, saying "there's no feeling, no emotion, no realisation of what each song is about; they're just pretty little songs", giving the album 2/5.^[23] Nick Levine, of Digital Spy, said in a review of the album that Talbot had a "sweet, pure voice", but that there is "no nuance or depth to her performance".^[24] However, he said that "There's something inherently wrong about awarding a star rating to a seven-year-old", and that "the decidedly adult concept of musical merit should have nothing to do with [her music]", awarding the album 2/5.^[24]

The album was rereleased on 16 June 2008,^[25] but was available for pre-order in May, with three new tracks to replace its Christmas-themed songs.^[26][27][28] The first single from the album, "Three Little Birds", was released in June 2008, and a video for the song was shot in Jamaica.^[25] In April and May 2008, Talbot toured Asia to promote Over the Rainbow.^[29] Asian press attributed her success to her videos on YouTube, with the Sun.Star mentioning that her most viewed video had been watched over 14 million times,^[28] and The Straits Times saying that videos of Talbot's performances have been watched over 30 million times.^[29] The tour made stops in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, and Talbot and her family returned to England in late May.^[30] Following the tour, it was reported that the album had reached number one on the charts in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong,^[25][30] as well as reaching number three in Singapore.^[30] After the tour, Talbot travelled to Poland, where she performed on television.^[11]

It was also revealed that Over the Rainbow was due for release in America in September,^[31] resulting in attention from American press sources including Fox Business Network and MarketWatch.^[32][33] The U.S. version was eventually released on 14 October,^[34] with Talbot appearing on American television shows including The Ellen DeGeneres Show to publicise the release.^[35]

In August 2008, it was announced that Talbot had signed a contract with Data Design Interactive for production of a video game on the Wii console. The game was to feature 15 songs from Over the Rainbow, allowing players to sing along with a computer-generated image of Talbot or against other players in a karaoke mode.^[31][36] Talbot rerecorded the album for the game.^[37] The game was scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009,^[35] and is called Connie Talbot: Over the Rainbow.^[38] The game hasn't been released yet as of 2011, citing copyright issues on the songs used for it.

[edit] Christmas Album and Holiday Magic

In November 2008, it was announced that Talbot had produced a series of new songs for an album.^[39] Recorded in her bedroom studio, Connie Talbot's Christmas Album was released on 24 November.^[40] It is a Christmas themed album,^[40] featuring, according to Talbot's official website, "a mix of classics and modern Christmas tunes".^[39] News was also released of a one-off Christmas special to be shown on ITV1 in the days leading up to Christmas, featuring footage of Talbot's journey to America and a "secret concert" at her primary school.^[41] The documentary, Christmas with Connie, was shown on ITV Central on 18 December.^[38] Talbot appeared at Walsall's HMV branch shortly after the release of her Christmas Album to sign copies and meet fans.^[42] She then embarked on a promotional tour making stops around the world, which included a performance at Ewha Womans University in Korea,^[43] and a performance on the A Heart for Children television charity gala in Berlin, Germany.^[44] She returned home in mid December, to have "a quiet family Christmas".^[45]

Connie Talbot's Christmas Album was difficult to obtain in Britain after the distributor, Pinnacle Entertainment, went into administration. Talbot's mother, Sharon, was quoted as saying "We don't really know what's going to happen at the moment ... We think they'll probably wait and promote the album later this year. It's a shame, but they can still get the album in Asia and the US."^[46] Reviewing the album for FemaleFirst magazine, Ruth Harrison gave it 4/5, saying that Talbot has "a great voice when it comes to swing, but lets us down in parts".^[47]

In April 2009, Talbot again travelled to the U.S. in order to publicise her new single, a cover of "I Will Always Love You". The single was released in the U.S. on 7 April, along with a newly recorded "You Raise Me Up".^[48] Talbot then travelled to the U.S. on 30 April, and returned on 2 May.^[49] Appearances included a performance on Good Day New York on Fox Broadcasting Company's WNYW.^[50]

Talbot's third album, Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic, was released on 20 October 2009 in the United States and on 30 November 2009 in the United Kingdom. The United States album is dedicated to the Toys for Tots campaign, of which Talbot has been named the child ambassador. In a statement, Bill Grein, Vice President of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, said-

The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is extremely proud and excited to have Connie as our youngest ambassador ever ... She is the perfect person to inform the public of the millions of less fortunate children who may be overlooked this Christmas holiday season, unless people step up to donate a toy or make a cash contribution. Her angelic looks and voice will remind everyone of the innocence of children. And they all deserve to experience the magic of the holiday season! I hope she sells lots of CDs and raises a lot of money and awareness for our children.^[51]

2010–present[link]

This section requires expansion with: Details about her appearance at the 2010 G-20 Seoul_summit.

Talbot performed for her largest ever audience when she performed on Chinese state television during the Chinese new-year in 2011.^[52] Reporting the event, the Daily Mail's Kathryn Knight observed that Talbot has "had more than 300  million hits on YouTube and in the Far East, in particular, she's something of an icon. Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China, Brazil, Mexico and the U.S. — you name it, Connie’s a star there. In fact Connie is in huge demand across the globe — everywhere, that is, apart from her native Britain."^[53] Viewing figures for the event were estimated to be around 400 million.^[53][54][55]

Talbot backstage at "Young Voices"

During this time, Talbot continued to upload videos of her performances onto YouTube. Maggie Coughlan, of PopEater.com, praised her covers of Katy Perry's "Firework" and Bruno Mars's "Grenade", but was most impressed by her cover of Adele's "Someone Like You", which she said was performed "with such grace that she makes the entire performance look effortless".^[56] The video was also picked up by PerezHilton.com.^[57] After the death of Whitney Houston, Talbot posted a cover version of "Run to You" as a tribute to Houston. The video received attention from around the world, and became the most "liked" video in the UK.^[58]

On 28 November 2011, Talbot released "Beautiful World" as a single on iTunes. The song was written by Talbot when she was seven. A demo of the track was placed on YouTube, and became the 39th most watched video in the world on the day it was uploaded.^[59]

In March 2012, Talbot performed with and led Young Voices, a choir made up of around 7000 primary school children, at the O2 Arena for four nights. The choir broke the world-record for being the largest backing choir for a lead vocalist.^[60] This Guinness world record followes her accolades as the youngest artist to make the UK album charts ^[61] and the youngest to release a gold-selling record.^[62] Others involved in the event included Randolph Matthews and The High Kings,^[63] and performances took place elsewhere in the United Kingdom, including Manchester and Birmingham.^[64] The performances were in aid of CLIC Sargent, a children's cancer charity.^[65]

Personal life[link]

Talbot lives in Streetly, in the West Midlands, and currently attends a state primary school.^[66] She lives with her mother, Sharon, her father Gavin, a self-employed property maintenance engineer, her older brother Josh, and her sister, Mollie.^[2][67] Talbot sang "Over the Rainbow", her signature song, at her grandmother's funeral, because she and her grandmother had enjoyed watching The Wizard of Oz together.^[67] Talbot drew confidence in Britain's Got Talent from the belief that her grandmother was watching, and vowed to win the show in her memory.^[2] Despite Talbot speaking positively of the effects of her fame, her parents spoke of a darker side, including having to change their phone number and hire a bodyguard for their daughter.^[2]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]