- published: 14 Mar 2009
- views: 8371
- author: venuslove20
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Algeria
Coordinates: 28°N 2°E / 28°N 2°E / 28; 2
Algeria
i/ælˈdʒɪəriə/ (Arabic: الجزائر, al-Jazā'ir; Berber: ⴷⵣⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (الجمهورية الجزائرية الديمقراطية الشعبية, al-Jumhūriyyah al-Jazāʾiriyyah ad-Dīmuqrāṭiyyah ash-Shaʿbiyyah), also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a large country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.
When referring to its land area, Algeria is the largest country in Africa, Maghreb and the Arab World. It is also the largest of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea; it is also the tenth-largest country in the world. The country is bordered in the northeast by Tunisia, in the east by Libya, in the west by Morocco, in the southwest by Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Mali, in the southeast by Niger, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Its size is almost 2,400,000 square kilometres (926,645 sq mi) with an estimated population of 37.1 million as of 2012. Algeria is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, OPEC and the United Nations. The country is also a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union.
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Australia
Australia (
/əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.
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Ayia Napa
Ayia Napa (Greek: Αγία Νάπα, pronounced [aˈʝa ˈnapa]; Turkish: Aya Napa) is a resort at the far eastern end of the southern coast of Cyprus, famous for its sandy beaches. In recent years, apart from being a family holiday destination, it has become a 'party capital' together with Ibiza, Rimini and Mykonos. As of late, it has become particularly popular with the familiar UK originated music such as Dubstep, Drum and bass, UK Grime, House and Garage artists/MCs.
The name Ayia Napa is derived from a Venetian-era monastery of the same name, located in the centre of the town, next to the square that today is the clubbing centre. The word "Ayia" (Agia) means "holy" in Greek. "Napa" is archaic and means "wooded valley" or dell. In ancient times the area surrounding the town was covered with thick forest.
According to local legend, the now renowned original icon was accidentally discovered by a hunter in hot pursuit of his prey. Upon discovery, the icon of the Virgin Mary was called Virgin Mary of Napa, eventually shortened and now known as Ayia Napa. The present monastery, built in 1500, was built around the cave, in honour of the Virgin Mary of Ayia Napa. According to local tradition, until 1790 no-one lived within close vicinity of Ayia Napa. The first inhabitants who actually appeared and settled were twenty men from Salonica, Greece.
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Brazil
Brazili/brəˈzɪl/ (Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz. It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal.Independence was achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The country became a presidential republic in 1889, when a military coup d'état proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824. Its current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil as a Federal Republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.
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Canada
Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, (i/ˈkjuːbə/; Spanish: República de Cuba, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa] (
listen)) is an island country in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. To the north of Cuba lies the United States (140 km or 90 mi away) and the Bahamas, Mexico is to the west, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica are to the south, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic are to the southeast.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on and claimed the island now occupied by Cuba, for the Kingdom of Spain. Cuba remained a territory of Spain until the Spanish–American War ended in 1898, and gained formal independence from the U.S. in 1902. A fragile democracy, increasingly dominated by radical politics eventually evolved, solidified by the Cuban Constitution of 1940, but was definitely quashed in 1952 by former president Fulgencio Batista, and an authoritarian regime was set up, intensifying and catalyzing already rampant corruption, political repression and crippling economic regulations.Batista was ousted in January 1959 by the July 26 movement, and a new administration under Fidel Castro established, which had by 1965 evolved into a single-party state under the revived Communist Party of Cuba, which holds power to date.
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Cyprus
Cyprusi/ˈsaɪprəs/ (Greek: Κύπρος, Kýpros, IPA: [ˈcipɾos]; Turkish: Kıbrıs, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs]), officially the Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία, Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía, IPA: [cipɾiaˈci ðimokɾaˈtia]; Turkish: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs dʒumhuɾijeˈti]), is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria, Lebanon, northwest of Israel and north of Egypt. Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the Republic of Cyprus is a member state of the European Union.
The earliest known human activity on the island dates back to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, which has been declared a World Heritage Site with an "enhanced protection" status in the event of armed conflict by UNESCO, along with the archaeological sites of Paphos and the Painted Churches of the Troodos Region. Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world.
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Czech Republic
The Czech Republic (i/ˈtʃɛk/ CHEK;Czech: Česká republika, pronounced [ˈtʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka] ( listen), short form Česko Czech pronunciation: [ˈtʃɛskɔ]) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the north, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. Its capital and largest city, with 1.3 million inhabitants, is Prague.
It is a pluralist multi-party parliamentary representative democracy, a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group.
The Czech state, formerly known as Bohemia, was formed in the late 9th century as a small duchy around Prague, at that time under dominance of the powerful Great Moravian Empire (which reached its greatest territorial extent during the reign of Svatopluk I from the House of Mojmír). After the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power was transferred from Moravia to Bohemia, under the Přemyslids. During the rule of Přemyslid dukes/kings and their successors, the Luxembourgs, the country reached its greatest territorial extent (13th–14th century). Life in the country was significantly affected by the Hussite wars, during which it faced economic embargo and crusades from all over Europe. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg monarchy as one of its three principal parts alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Bohemian Revolt (1618–20) led to the further centralization of the monarchy including forced recatholization and Germanization. During radical reforms in the 18th century the Bohemian Crown was even de facto abolished (1749). In the 19th century the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia which was formed in 1918, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire after World War I.
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Egypt
Egypti/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر, Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: [mɑsˤɾ] ; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kīmi ; Sahidic Coptic: ⲕⲏⲙⲉ, Kēme), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة (help·info), is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
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Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem (often stylized as EMINƎM) and by his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of D12, Eminem is also one half of the hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop. Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200. He has sold more than 42 million tracks and 41 million albums in the United States, and nearly 90 million albums worldwide.
Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album, The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others as his influences.
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England
Englandi/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, while the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separate it from continental Europe. Most of England comprises the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic. The country also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law—the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world—developed in England, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's Royal Society laid the foundations of modern experimental science.
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France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
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Germany
Germany (i/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.
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Grimsby
Coordinates: 53°33′34″N 0°04′05″W / 53.5595°N 0.0680°W / 53.5595; -0.0680
Grimsby (or archaically Great Grimsby) is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996. According to legend, Grimsby was first founded by Grim, a Danish fisherman, 'By' means 'village' in Old Norse and modern Swedish and 'city' or 'town' in modern Danish and Norwegian.
The town was previously titled "Great Grimsby" to distinguish it from Little Grimsby, a village about 14 miles (22 km) to the south, near Louth. People from Grimsby are called Grimbarians.
The town itself has a population of 87,574. It is physically linked to the adjoining town of Cleethorpes, and 11,000 of its inhabitants live in the village of Scartho which was absorbed into Grimsby before laws on the green belt were put in place. All three areas come under the jurisdiction of the same council, North East Lincolnshire. It is close to the main terminus of the A180, which ends in Cleethorpes. 22 January is Great Grimsby Day.
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Hong Kong
Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
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Hungary
Hungaryi/ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] ( listen)) is a country, which is located in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The country's capital, and largest city, is Budapest. Hungary is a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the Visegrád Group, and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian, also known as Magyar, which is part of the Finno-Ugric group and is the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe.
Following a Celt (after c. 450 BC) and a Roman (AD 9 - c. 430) period, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late 9th century by the Hungarian prince Árpád, whose great-grandson Saint Stephen I was crowned with a crown sent by the pope from Rome in 1000 AD. The Kingdom of Hungary lasted for 946 years, and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centres of the Western world. After about 150 years of partial Ottoman occupation (1541–1699), Hungary was integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy, and later constituted half of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (1867–1918).
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India
India (i/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
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Indonesia
Indonesia (i/ˌɪndəˈniːʒə/ IN-də-NEE-zhə or /ˌɪndoʊˈniːziə/ IN-doh-NEE-zee-ə), officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia Indonesian pronunciation: [rɛpʊblɪk ɪndɔnɛsɪa]), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 17,508 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies. The Indonesian economy is the world's 17th largest economy by nominal GDP.
The Indonesian archipelago has been an important trade region since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Muslim traders brought Islam, and European powers brought Christianity and fought one another to monopolize trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia's history has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a democratization process, and periods of rapid economic change.
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Iran
Coordinates: 32°N 53°E / 32°N 53°E / 32; 53
Iran (i/ɪˈrɑːn/ or /aɪˈræn/;Persian: ایران [ʔiˈɾɒn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān), is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran", which in Persian means "Land of the Aryans", has been in use natively since the Sassanian era. It came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia ( /ˈpɜrʒə/ or /ˈpɜrʃə/). Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, "Iran" is the name used officially in political contexts.
The 18th-largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), Iran has a population of around 79 million. It is a country of particular geopolitical significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Iran is a regional power, and holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran has the second largest proven natural gas reserves in the world and the fourth largest proven petroleum reserves.
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Italy
Italyi/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
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Jamaica
Coordinates: 18°10′57″N 77°19′18″W / 18.1823878°N 77.3217773°W / 18.1823878; -77.3217773
Jamaica (
i/dʒəˈmeɪkə/), officially the Commonwealth of Jamaica, is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, 234 kilometres (145 mi) in length, up to 80 kilometres (50 mi) in width, and 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno name for the island was Xaymaca, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water" or the "Land of Springs".
Once a Spanish possession known as Santiago, it became an English colony in 1655 under the name "Jamaica". It achieved full independence from Britain on August 6, 1962. With 2.8 million people, it is the third most populous anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and Canada. It remains a Commonwealth realm in concert with the Monarchy of Jamaica holding ultimate executive power, where Queen Elizabeth II is the current head of state and Queen of Jamaica.Kingston is the country's largest city and the capital.
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Japan
Japani/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国 
Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.
Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
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London
Londoni/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe). London has been described as a world cultural capital. It was the world's most visited city during 2011 and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.
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Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar (older name Malagasy Republic, Malagasy: Repoblikan'i Madagasikara [republiˈkʲan madaɡasˈkʲarə̥], French: République de Madagascar) is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar (the fourth-largest island in the world), as well as numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from India around 88 million years ago, allowing plants and animals on the island to evolve in complete isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot in which over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The island's diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by human settlement.
Initial human settlement of Madagascar occurred from 350 BCE and 550 CE by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo who were later joined around 1000 CE by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel. Other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is often divided into eighteen or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands.
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Malaysia
Malaysia (i/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or i/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 27.5 million, with over 20 million living on the Peninsula.
Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. However, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.
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Mexico
Mexico (i/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
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Pakistan
Pakistan (i/ˈpækɨstæn/ or i/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] (
listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
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Philippines
The Philippinesi/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.
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Prague
Prague ( /ˈprɑːɡ/; Czech: Praha pronounced [ˈpraɦa] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and fourteenth largest city in European Union. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of nearly 2.0 million. The city has a temperate oceanic climate with warm summers and chilly winters.
Prague has been a political, cultural, and economic centre of central Europe with waxing and waning fortunes during its 1,100 year existence. Founded during the Romanesque and flourishing by the Gothic and Renaissance eras, Prague was the seat of two Holy Roman Emperors and thus then also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. It was an important city to the Habsburg Monarchy and its Austro-Hungarian Empire and after World War I became the capital of Czechoslovakia. The city played major roles in the Protestant Reformation, the Thirty Years' War, and in modern history generally as the principal conurbation in Bohemia and Moravia whose second city is Brno.
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Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (/ˌpɔrtə ˈriːkoʊ/ or /ˌpwɛərtə ˈriːkoʊ/), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, [esˈtaðo ˈlibɾe asoˈsjaðo ðe ˈpweɾto ˈriko]—literally, "Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"), is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
Puerto Rico (Spanish for "rich port") comprises an archipelago that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands, the largest of which are Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. The main island of Puerto Rico is the smallest by land area of the Greater Antilles. However, it ranks third in population amongst that group of four islands, which also include Cuba, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), and Jamaica. Due to its location, Puerto Rico enjoys a tropical climate and also experiences the Atlantic hurricane season.
Originally populated for centuries by indigenous aboriginal peoples known as Taínos, the island was claimed by Christopher Columbus for Spain during his second voyage to the Americas on November 19, 1493. Under Spanish rule, the island was colonized and the indigenous population was forced into slavery and nearly wiped out due to, among other things, European infectious diseases. The remaining population was emancipated by King Charles I in 1520. Spain possessed Puerto Rico for over 400 years, despite attempts at capture of the island by the French, Dutch, and British. The Spanish Crown, in an attempt to keep Puerto Rico from gaining its independence, revived the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815. The decree was printed in three languages — Spanish, English and French — and it fostered the immigration of hundreds of non-Spanish European families.
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Republic of Ireland
Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ or /ˈɑrlənd/; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen)) is a sovereign state in Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. Its capital is Dublin. The population of the state was 4.59 million in 2011. It is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy, with an elected president serving as head of state. In the 1937 constitution, the name of the state is given as simply "Ireland". The Constitution of Ireland (Article 4) and the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 provides that the "Republic of Ireland" (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann) is "the description of the state".
Ireland is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations. A developed country with the seventh highest Human Development Index, Ireland is also highly ranked for press freedom, economic freedom and democracy and political freedom.
The modern Irish state was established in 1922 as the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Empire, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty which brought an end to the Irish War of Independence. The partition of Ireland had already been provided for in previous British legislation in 1921 in response to opposition to Irish Home Rule or independence by Unionists, who formed a majority in the north-eastern part of the country. Six of the nine counties in the northern province of Ulster were established under that legislation as Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, with which the Irish state shares its only land border. The state is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south east, and the Irish Sea to the east.
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Slovakia
The Slovak Republic (short form: Slovakiai/sloʊˈvɑːkiə/ or /sləˈvækiə/; Slovak: Slovensko (help·info), long form Slovenská republika (help·info)) is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi). Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is the capital, Bratislava, and the second largest is Košice. Slovakia is a member state of the European Union, NATO, United Nations, OECD and WTO among others. The official language is Slovak, a member of the Slavic language family.
The Slavs arrived in the territory of present day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries during the migration period. In the course of history, various parts of today's Slovakia belonged to Samo's Empire (the first known political unit of Slavs), Principality of Nitra (as independent polity, as part of Great Moravia and as part of Hungarian Kingdom), Great Moravia, Kingdom of Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Habsburg Empire, and Czechoslovakia. A separate Slovak state briefly existed during World War II, during which Slovakia was a dependency of Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1944. From 1945 Slovakia once again became a part of Czechoslovakia. The present-day Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
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South Africa
Coordinates: 30°S 25°E / 30°S 25°E / -30; 25
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline. To the north of the country lie the neighbouring territories of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory.
South Africa is multi-ethnic and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution. Two of these languages are of European origin: South African English and Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. Though English is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language. All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President.
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South Korea
South Korea ( listen), officially the Republic of Korea (Hangul: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國; Daehan Minguk listen), is a sovereign state in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The name "Korea" is derived from Goryeo, a dynasty which ruled in the Middle Ages (an initial "G" in Korean is pronounced like an English "K").
Its neighbors are China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the Korea Strait to the south. South Korea lies in the north temperate zone with a predominantly mountainous terrain. It covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers and has a population of almost 50 million. The capital and largest city is Seoul, with a population of 9,794,304.
Archaeological findings show that the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the Lower Paleolithic period.Korean history begins with the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC by the legendary Dan-gun. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea under Silla 668 AD, Korea went through the Goryeo Dynasty and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910, when it was annexed by Japan. After liberation and occupation by Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of World War II, the nation was divided into North and South Korea. The latter was established in 1948 as a democracy, though political turmoil and times of military rule and martial law characterized much of the period until the foundation of the Sixth Republic in 1987.
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South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the State of Vietnam (1949–55) and later as the Republic of Vietnam (1955–75). Its capital was Saigon. The terms South Vietnam and North Vietnam became common usage in 1954 at the time of the Geneva Conference, which partitioned Vietnam into communist and non-communist zones at the 17th parallel. The United States was an ally of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
South Vietnam's origins can be traced to the French colony of Cochinchina, which consisted of the southern third of Vietnam and was a subdivision of French Indochina. After World War II, the Vietminh, led by Ho Chi Minh, proclaimed the establishment of a Communist nation in Hanoi. In 1949, non-communist Vietnamese politicians formed a rival government in Saigon led by former emperor Bao Dai. Bao Dai was deposed by Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem in 1955, who proclaimed himself president after a referendum. After Diem was deposed in a military coup in 1963, there was a series of short-lived military governments. General Nguyen Van Thieu led the country from 1967 until 1975. The Vietnam War began in 1959 with an uprising by Viet Cong forces supplied by North Vietnam. Fighting climaxed during the Tet Offensive of 1968, when there were over 1.5 million South Vietnamese soldiers and 500,000 U.S. soldiers in South Vietnam. Despite a peace treaty concluded in January 1973, fighting continued until the North Vietnamese army overran Saigon on 30 April 1975.
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Spain
Spain (i/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
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Sveriges Radio
Coordinates: 59°20′5″N 18°6′5″E / 59.33472°N 18.10139°E / 59.33472; 18.10139
Sveriges Radio AB (SR) – Swedish Radio Ltd – is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. The Swedish public-broadcasting system is in many respects modelled after the one used in the United Kingdom, and Sveriges Radio - like Sveriges Television - shares many characteristics with its British counterpart, the BBC.
Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, and funded through a licensing fee determined by the Swedish Parliament. No advertising is permitted. SR's status could be described as that of a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization.
The company was founded on 1 January 1925 as AB Radiotjänst (Radio Service), and was renamed Sveriges Radio in 1957. Sveriges Radio was originally responsible for all broadcasting in Sweden, both radio and television, and hosted the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest. A reorganization in 1979 saw SR become the parent company of four subsidiaries:
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Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland (Umbuso weSwatini), and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique. The nation, as well as its people, are named after the 19th century king Mswati II.
Swaziland is a small country, no more than 200 kilometres (120 mi) north to south and 130 kilometres (81 mi) east to west. The western half is mountainous, descending to a lowveld region to the east. The eastern border with Mozambique and South Africa is dominated by the escarpment of the Lebombo Mountains. The climate is temperate in the west, but may reach 40 °C (104 °F) in summer in the lowveld. Rainfall occurs mainly in the summer and may reach 2 metres (6.6 ft) in the west.
The area that Swaziland now covers has been continuously inhabited since prehistory. Today, the population is primarily ethnic Swazis whose language is siSwati, though English is spoken as a second language. The Swazi people descend from the southern Bantu who migrated from Central Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Anglo-Boer War saw the United Kingdom make Swaziland a protectorate under its direct control. Swaziland gained independence in 1968. Swaziland is a member of the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the Commonwealth of Nations. The head of state is the king, who appoints the prime minister and a small number of representatives for both chambers of parliament. Elections are held every five years to determine the majority of the representatives. A new constitution was adopted in 2005.
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Sweden
Sweden (i/ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən; Swedish: Sverige [ˈsværjɛ] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland, and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Øresund.
At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the third largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of about 9.4 million. Sweden has a low population density of 21 inhabitants per square kilometre (54 /sq mi) with the population mostly concentrated to the southern half of the country. About 85% of the population live in urban areas. Sweden's capital city is Stockholm, which is also the largest city.
Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, the country expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire. The empire grew to be one of the great powers of Europe in the 17th and early 18th century. Most of the conquered territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries. The eastern half of Sweden, present-day Finland, was lost to Russia in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Sweden by military means forced Norway into a personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, practicing "non-participation in military alliances during peacetime and neutrality during wartime". However, Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 1995 and is a member of the OECD.
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Taiwan
Taiwan (i/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ TY-WAHN; Chinese: 臺灣 or 台灣; pinyin: Táiwān; see below), officially the Republic of China (ROC; Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó), is a state in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China now governs the island of Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa), which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other minor islands. Neighboring states include the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east and northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taipei is the capital city and economic and cultural centre of the country, and New Taipei is the most populous city.
The earliest evidence of inhabitation of Taiwan dates back to the late Paleolithic era. The island of Taiwan was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before being colonized in the 17th century by the Dutch and the Spanish Empire. The first Han Chinese polity on Taiwan began when Koxinga's troops defeated Dutch forces and established the Kingdom of Tungning. The island was subsequently ruled by the Qing Dynasty after the kingdom's defeat in the Battle of Penghu in 1683, a period that lasted for over 200 years. Following Japan's victory over the Qing Dynasty in the first Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.
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Turkey
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. The vast majority of the population are Muslims. The country's official language is Turkish, whereas Kurdish and Zazaki languages are spoken by Kurds and Zazas, who constitute 18% of the population.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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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.
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Vietnam
Vietnam ( listen), formally the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam; listen), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 91.5 million inhabitants as of 2012, it is the world's 13th-most-populous country, and the eighth-most-populous Asian country. The name Vietnam translates as "South Viet", and was officially adopted in 1945. The country is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east.
The Vietnamese became independent from Imperial China in 938 AD, following the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive Vietnamese royal dynasties flourished as the nation expanded geographically and politically into Southeast Asia, until the Indochina Peninsula was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century. The First Indochina War eventually led to the expulsion of the French in 1954, leaving Vietnam divided politically into two states, North and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified, with heavy foreign intervention, during the Vietnam War, which ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.
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Zambia
Zambia ( /ˈzæmbiə/), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of the country. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the northwest.
Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region which comprises modern Zambia was colonised during the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. After visits by European explorers in the eighteenth century, Zambia became the British colony of Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most of the colonial period, the country was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company.
On 24 October 1964, the country declared independence from the United Kingdom and then-prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Kaunda's socialist United National Independence Party (UNIP) maintained power from the 1964 until 1991. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a single-party state with the UNIP as the sole-legal political party, with the goal of uniting the nation under the banner of 'One Zambia, One Nation'. Kaunda was succeeded by Frederick Chiluba of the social-democratic Movement for Multi-Party Democracy in 1991, during which the country saw a rise in social-economic growth and increased decentralisation of government.
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Česká televize
Česká televize (Czech pronunciation: [tʃɛskaː tɛlɛvɪzɛ], Czech abbreviation ČT, "Czech Television") is the public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting four channels.
Television in Czechoslovakia started to take its first steps before World War II. However, before visible results could be achieved, all activities were interrupted by the war. Research continued after the war. The first trial television broadcast was shown in 1948 at the MEVRO International Radio Exhibition in Prague. A trial television broadcast from Studio Prague started on May 1, 1953, and on February 25, 1954 it was declared regular. Soon, additional studios were established: in Ostrava on December 31, 1955, in Bratislava on November 3, 1956, in Brno on July 6, 1961, and in Košice on February 25, 1962. 1970 - launching of a second channel 1973 - colour broadcasting on the second channel 1975 - colour broadcasting on the first channel
Czech Television was established as of January 1, 1992, based on the Czech Television Act (Act No. 483/1991 Coll.) as a television service for the citizens of the Czech Republic. On January 1, 1993, a new concept of channels broadcast by Czech Television was introduced, which were renamed to CT1 (formerly CTV), CT2 (formerly F1), and CT3 (formerly OK3). On February 3, 1994, Czech Television freed one of the nationwide broadcast channels in accordance with the law; starting February 4, 1994 Czech Television was left with two channels - CT1 and CT2. 2005 - launching of news channel CT24 2006 - launching of sports channel CT4 SPORT
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Aaliyah
Aaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001), who performed under the mononym Aaliyah ( /ɑːˈliːə/), was an American recording artist, actress and model. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of 10, she appeared on the television show Star Search and performed in concert alongside Gladys Knight. At age 12, Aaliyah signed with Jive Records and her uncle Barry Hankerson's Blackground Records. Hankerson introduced her to R. Kelly, who became her mentor, as well as lead songwriter and producer of her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number. The album sold three million copies in the United States and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). After facing allegations of an illegal marriage with R. Kelly, Aaliyah ended her contract with Jive and signed with Atlantic Records.
Aaliyah worked with record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott for her second album, One in a Million; it sold 3.7 million copies in the United States and over eight million copies worldwide. In 2000, Aaliyah appeared in her first major film, Romeo Must Die. She contributed to the film's soundtrack, which spawned the single "Try Again". The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 solely on airplay, making Aaliyah the first artist in Billboard history to achieve this feat. "Try Again" earned Aaliyah a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocalist.
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Aaron Kwok
Aaron Kwok Fu-shing (born 26 October 1965) is a Hong Kong singer, dancer and actor. He has been active since the 1980s to the present. The media refer to him, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王). Kwok's onstage dancing and displays is influenced by Michael Jackson. While most of his songs are in the dance-pop genre, he has experimented numerous times with rock and roll, ballad, rock, R&B, soul, electronica and traditional Chinese music.
Kwok graduated from Joseph's College in Hong Kong. After graduating from secondary school, Kwok worked as a junior staff in King Fook Gold & Jewellery Co. Ltd. His father, who owns a small gold retail store, desired that he gain experience in the business with the view of eventually handing the family business over to him. If not for one of Kwok's brothers taking over the gold business, his father would not have allowed him to join the entertainment industry.
Kwok has been in a serious relationship with Chinese-born actress Lynn Hung since 2006.
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African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States that have ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa.
African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States. However, some immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations, or their descendants, may be identified or self-identify with the term.
African-American history starts in the 16th century with African slaves who quickly rose up against the Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón and progresses to the present day, with Barack Obama as the 44th and current President of the United States. Between those landmarks there have been events and issues, both resolved and ongoing, including slavery, racism, Reconstruction, development of the African-American community, participation in the great military conflicts of the United States, racial segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement.
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Alan Freed
Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965), also known as Moondog, was an American disc jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll. His career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry in the early 1960s.
Freed was born to a Jewish father, Charles S. Freed, and Welsh-American mother, Maude Palmer, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In 1933, Freed's family moved to Salem, Ohio where Freed attended Salem High School, graduating in 1940. While Freed was in high school, he formed a band called the Sultans of Swing in which he played the trombone. Freed's initial ambition was to be a bandleader; however, an ear infection put an end to this dream. While attending Ohio State University, Freed became interested in radio. Freed served in the Army during World War II and worked as a DJ on WKBN Armed Forces Radio. Soon after World War II, Freed landed broadcasting jobs at smaller radio stations, including WKST (New Castle, PA); WKBN (Youngstown, OH); and WAKR (Akron, OH), where, in 1945, he became a local favorite for playing hot jazz and pop recordings. Freed enjoyed listening to these new styles because he liked the rhythms and tunes.
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Alexander Robotnick
Alexander Robotnick (aka Maurizio Dami) is an Italian electronic musician. He made his debut on the Italian music scene as the founding member of Avida, a dance-cabaret band featuring Daniele Trambusti and Stefano Fuochi.
In 1983 he attained international popularity with his track "Problèmes d'amour", published first by the Italian label Materiali Sonori and then by Sire-Wea. "Problèmes d'amour" went on to become a "cult track" of dance music. In 1984 he joined "Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici" a multimedia-oriented group and composed soundtracks for theatre works, videos and video-installations. He also composed soundtracks for films and theatre works by Italian directors such as Alessandro Benvenuti, Antonio Climati, Marco Mattolini, and Marco Risi.
In 1987 he turned his interest to World Music, and for the next decade collaborated with African, Kurdish and Indian musicians. In 1994 Robotnick began working with the Indian-Italian band "Govinda" leading to the production of two tracks "Devotion" and "Transcendental Ecstasy" for Govinda's first album "Selling India By the Pound".
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Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Keys was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano. She attended Professional Performing Arts School and graduated at 16 as valedictorian. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records.
Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.
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Amanda Lear
Amanda Lear (born 18 November 1939 or 1946, in British Hong Kong, or 1950 in Saigon) is a French singer, lyricist, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist.
Lear began her career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s and was also a muse of the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. She first came into the public eye as the cover model for Roxy Music's album For Your Pleasure in 1973. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, she was a million-album-selling Disco queen, mainly in Continental Europe and Scandinavia. Her hits included "Queen of Chinatown", "Follow Me", "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)" and "Fashion Pack".
In the mid-1980s Lear positioned herself as one of the leading media personalities in mainland Europe, especially in Italy and in France where she hosted many long-running TV shows. Since the 1990s her time has been divided between music, television, writing and movies, as well as pursuing her career as a painter. Currently she lives in Saint-Étienne-du-Grès near Avignon in the south of France.
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Amr Diab
Amr Abdol-Basset Abdol-Azeez Diab (Arabic: عمرو عبد الباسط عبد العزيز دياب; born 11 October 1961) is an Egyptian singer and composer of geel music; the contemporary face of Egyptian el-geel pop music, according to World Music. Diab is the best-selling Arab recording artist of all time, according to Let's Go Egypt. He was awarded the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle Eastern Artist four times: 1998, 2002, 2007 and 2009.He is currently one of the top singers in the Arab world, and considered a living legend by many of his fans in the Arab world.
Amr Diab is known as the Father of Mediterranean Music. He has created his own style which is often termed "Mediterranean Music" or "Mediterranean Sound", a blend of Western and Egyptian rhythms.
In The Mediterranean in Music, David Cooper and Kevin Dawe referred to his music as "the new breed of Mediterranean music".
According to author Michael Frishkopf, Amr Diab has produced a new concept of Mediterranean music, especially in his international hit, "Nour El Ain".
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Amy Grant
Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, media personality and actress, best known for her Christian music. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christian Pop". As of 2009, Grant remains the best-selling contemporary Christian music singer ever, having sold over 30 million units worldwide.
Grant made her debut as a teenager, and gained fame in Christian music during the 1980s with such hits as "Father's Eyes," "El Shaddai", and "Angels". In 1986, she scored her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 song in a duet with Peter Cetera The Next Time I Fall. During the 1980s and 1990s, she became one of the first gospel artists to cross over into mainstream pop on the heels of her successful albums Unguarded and Heart in Motion, the latter of which included the No. 1 single "Baby Baby."
Grant has won six Grammy Awards, 25 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and had the first Christian album ever to go Platinum.Heart in Motion is her highest-selling album, with over five million copies sold in the United States alone. She was honored with a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005 for her contributions to the entertainment industry.
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Andy Lau
Andy Lau Tak-Wah MH, JP (born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer, actor, and film producer. Lau has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maintaining a successful singing career at the same time. In the 1990s, Lau was branded by the media as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Cantopop (四大天王) along with Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung and Leon Lai.
Andy Lau was born in Tai Po, Hong Kong, with origins in Xinhui, Guangdong. As a young boy Lau had to fetch water for his family up to eight times a day because their house was not equipped with plumbing. He later graduated from a Band One Secondary School, Ho Lap College in San Po Kong, Kowloon. He also practices Chinese calligraphy. Lau converted to Buddhism in the 1980s. He was raised in a nominally Buddhist household and is now a follower of the Lingyan Mountain Temple in Taiwan.
In 2008, Lau married Malaysian Chinese Carol Chu after 24 years of speculation over their relationship. The couple registered their marriage in Clark County, Nevada, in the United States. On 9 May 2012, Chu gave birth to his first child, a daughter.
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Anita Mui
Anita Mui Yim-fong (10 October 1963 – 30 December 2003) was a Hong Kong singer and actress. During her prime years she made major contributions to the cantopop music scene, while receiving numerous awards and honours. She remained an idol throughout most of her career, and was generally regarded as a cantopop diva. Mui once held a sell-out concert at Hammersmith, London, England, where she was dubbed the "Madonna of Asia" and brought her to further international fame. That title has stayed with her throughout her career, and has been used as a comparison for both Eastern and Western media.
In the 1980s the gangtai style of music was revolutionised by Mui's wild dancing and on stage femininity. She was famed for her outrageous costumes and high-power performances in combination with contralto vocals, which are rare in female artists. Her fanbase reached far beyond Hong Kong into much of Asia, such as Taiwan, Mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as the overseas market. In the Hong Kong entertainment industry, where stars often rise to fall quickly, Mui remained in the spotlight for nearly 20 years. Her career was only halted in 2003 by the surprising diagnosis that Mui had cervical cancer. She died at the early age of 40. Mui left considerable music and film legacies and her involvement in charitable work and humanitarian causes whilst alive give continuing reason for her commemoration by the Hong Kong entertainment industry.
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Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and pianist. In a recording career that has spanned over half a century, Franklin's repertoire has included gospel, jazz, blues, R&B, pop, rock and funk. Franklin is known as one of the most important popularizers of the soul music genre and is referred to as the Queen of Soul, a title she was given early in her career. Franklin, the daughter of prominent Baptist minister and activist C. L. Franklin, began her singing career singing in her father's church at the age of ten and started recording four years later. After several years in the gospel circuit and with her father's blessing, she formed a secular pop music career at the age of eighteen, signing with Columbia Records, where she was branded by its CEO John Hammond as his most important act since Billie Holiday. Franklin's Columbia period wasn't as successful as hoped and in late 1966, Franklin switched over to Atlantic Records, where she began recording a string of popular hits including "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Think", "Chain of Fools" and what later became her signature song, "Respect".
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Avril Lavigne
Avril Ramona Lavigne (pronunciation: /ˈævrɨl ləˈviːn/; AV-ril lə-VEEN; born 27 September 1984) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was born in Belleville, Ontario, but spent most of her youth in the small town of Napanee. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain; by 16, she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records worth more than $2 million. In 2002, when she was 17 years old, Lavigne broke onto the music scene with her debut album Let Go.
Let Go made Lavigne the youngest female soloist to reach No. 1 in the UK, and the album was certified four-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. By 2009, over 16 million copies had been sold worldwide. Her breakthrough single, "Complicated", peaked at No. 1 in many countries around the world, as did the album Let Go. Her second album, Under My Skin, was released in 2004 and was her first album to peak at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200, eventually selling more than 10 million copies worldwide. The Best Damn Thing, Lavigne’s third album, was released in 2007, becoming her third No. 1 album in the UK Albums Chart and featuring her first U.S. Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single, "Girlfriend". Lavigne has scored six number-one singles worldwide, including "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending", "Nobody's Home", and "Girlfriend". With more than 30 million copies of her albums sold worldwide, Lavigne is one of the top-selling artists releasing albums in the U.S., with over 10.25 million copies certified by the RIAA. Her fourth studio album, Goodbye Lullaby, was released in March 2011. Goodbye Lullaby gave Lavigne her fourth top 10 album on the U.S. Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart and her third No. 1 album in both Japan and Australia. Three months after the release of Goodbye Lullaby, Lavigne began work on her fifth album, which will be released on Epic Records following her departure from RCA Records.
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Ayumi Hamasaki
Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎 あゆみ, Hamasaki Ayumi?, also 濱崎 歩; born October 2, 1978) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, record producer, model, lyricist, and actress. Also called "Ayu" by her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the "Empress of Pop" because of her popularity and widespread influence in Japan and throughout Asia. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo at fourteen to pursue a career in entertainment. In 1998, under the tutelage of Avex CEO Max Matsuura, she released a string of modestly selling singles that concluded with her 1999 debut album A Song for ××. The album debuted atop the Oricon charts and stayed there for four weeks, establishing her popularity in Japan.
Hamasaki's constantly changing image and tight control over her artistry has helped her popularity extend across Asia; music and fashion trends she has started have spread to countries such as China, Singapore, and Southeast Asia. She has appeared in or lent her songs to many advertisements and television commercials. Though she originally supported the exploitation of her popularity for commercial purposes, she later reconsidered and eventually opposed her status as an Avex "product".
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Bai Guang
Bai Guang (birth name Chinese: 史永芬; pinyin: Shǐ Yǒngfēn; 1921, Beiping, now Beijing, China – August 27, 1999 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) was a famous movie star and singer. By the 1940s, she became one of the Seven great singing stars.
In her early years, Bai was a student of the Beiping Salon Theatrical Troupe (北平沙龙剧团), and once performed Cao Yu's play "Sunrise". In 1937, she studied at the University of Tokyo's music department until World War II in 1942. After drama school, she wanted to be a movie star. As she proclaimed, she wanted to be like the beams of light coming off the movie projectors onto the big screen. Hence, her stage name was (白光), which translated to "White Light".
Her mandopop songs were often used in many of the movies as soundtracks. In an age and culture where light, higher voices were usually favored, she had a slightly deep and hoarse voice, which helped her become a big star in Shanghai. People called her the "Queen of the Low Voice" (低音歌后).
Bai's big screen career started in 1943. She was known for playing seductive roles due to her flirtatious image on screen and has also played villains at times. She lent a more dramatic tone or sexy attitude to her songs. Some of her hits include "Autumn Evening" (秋夜), "Without You" (如果沒有你), "The Pretender" (假正經), "Revisiting Old Dreams" (魂縈舊夢), and "Waiting For You" (等著你回來).
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Bai Hong
Bai Hong was born in 1919 under the birth name (白丽珠) in Beijing. She was a famous movie star and singer. By the 1940s, she became one of the Seven great singing stars.
At the age of 12, Bai was admitted to the Bright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe, where she entered the Shanghai entertainment industry. She used the stage name (白虹), which translated to "White Rainbow". She is also categorized as one of the "Beiping Three Whites" (北平三白) with Bai Guang (白光) and Bai Yang (白杨).
Her music career began at the young age of 13. She acted in her first film (人間仙子) at 15. In the 1930s, she was a popstar icon singing songs like (郎是春日风). By 1934 a singing competition was sponsored in Shanghai, where she won by more than 200 votes taking the crown. She was known for having a mastery of the language and a clarity in expressing lyrics, which helped her gain many fans. In 1936 she toured Southeast Asia with the Bright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe. A year later, she then joined the Green Bird Theatre Troupe (青鳥劇團).
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Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (i/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. In January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in the state of Illinois. He would hold this office until November 2008, when he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid against the Democratic incumbent for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate election and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in Illinois in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.
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Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Bart was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on Life in Hell but instead decided to create a new set of characters. While the rest of the characters were named after Groening's family members, Bart's name was an anagram of the word brat. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for three years, the Simpson family received its own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989.
At ten years old, Bart is the eldest child and only son of Homer and Marge, and the brother of Lisa and Maggie. Bart's most prominent character traits are his mischievousness, rebelliousness and disrespect for authority. He has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons, including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials, and comic books; he has also inspired an entire line of merchandise. In casting, Nancy Cartwright originally planned to audition for the role of Lisa, while Yeardley Smith tried out for Bart. Smith's voice was too high for a boy, so she was given the role of Lisa. Cartwright found that Lisa was not interesting at the time, so instead auditioned for Bart, which she thought was a better role. Hallmarks of the character include his chalkboard gags in the opening sequence; his prank calls to Moe the bartender; and his catchphrases "Eat my shorts", "¡Ay, caramba!", and "Don't have a cow, man!"
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Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".
In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America. His January 16, 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music."
Goodman's bands launched the careers of many major names in jazz, and during an era of segregation, he also led one of the first well-known racially-integrated jazz groups. Goodman continued to perform to nearly the end of his life, including exploring his interest in classical music.
Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelve children of poor Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, who lived in the Maxwell Street neighborhood. His father was David Goodman, a tailor from Warsaw; his mother was Dora Grisinsky (from Kaunas, Lithuania). His parents met in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Chicago before Benny was born.
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Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer.
Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists.
The 1900 census indicates that Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in July 1892. However, the 1910 census recorded her birthday as April 15, 1894, a date that appears on all subsequent documents and was observed by the entire Smith family. Census data also contributes to controversy about the size of her family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report three older half-siblings, while later interviews with Smith's family and contemporaries did not include these individuals among her siblings.
Bessie Smith was the daughter of Laura (née Owens) and William Smith. William Smith was a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher (he was listed in the 1870 census as a "minister of the gospel", in Moulton, Lawrence, Alabama.) He died before his daughter could remember him. By the time she was nine, she had lost her mother and a brother as well. Her older sister Viola took charge of caring for her siblings.
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Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (née Beyoncé Giselle Knowles; September 4, 1981), known mononymously as Beyoncé ( /biˈjɒnseɪ/ bee-YON-say), is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child. Knowles rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time.
During the hiatus of Destiny's Child, Knowles released her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love, in 2003, which spawned two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100—"Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy"—and became one of the most successful albums of that year, earning her a then record-tying five Grammy Awards. Following the disbandment of Destiny's Child in 2005, Knowles released her second solo album, B'Day, in 2006, which spawned the top 10 singles "Déjà Vu", "Irreplaceable" and "Beautiful Liar". Her third solo album I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), spawned the hit singles "If I Were a Boy", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", "Halo" and "Sweet Dreams". The album helped Knowles earn six Grammys in 2010, breaking the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artist in one night. Knowles' fourth solo album, 4 (2011), became her fourth consecutive number one album on the Billboard 200 as a solo artist. This made her the third artist in history to have her first four studio albums debut atop the chart.
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Bill Haley
William John Clifton "Bill" Haley ( /ˈheɪliː/; July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets (inspired by Halley's Comet) and million selling hits such as, "Rock Around the Clock", "See You Later Aligator", and "Shake Rattle and Roll". He has sold over 100 million records worldwide.
Bill Haley was born in Highland Park, Michigan as William John Clifton Haley. Because of the effects of the Great Depression on the Detroit area, his father moved the family to Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, near the town of Chester, when Bill was seven years old. Haley's father William Albert Haley was from Kentucky and played the banjo and mandolin, his mother Maude Green originally from Ulverston in England was a technically accomplished keyboardist with classical training. Haley told the story that when he made a simulated guitar out of cardboard, his parents bought him a real one.
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Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe (September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. He is often referred to as The Father of Bluegrass.
Monroe was born on his family's farm near Rosine, Kentucky, the youngest of eight children of James Buchanan "Buck" and Malissa (Vandiver) Monroe. His mother and her brother, Pendleton "Pen" Vandiver, were both musically talented, and Monroe and his family grew up playing and singing at home. Bill was of Scottish heritage. Because his older brothers Birch and Charlie already played the fiddle and guitar, Bill Monroe was resigned to playing the less desirable mandolin. He recalled that his brothers insisted he remove four of the mandolin's eight strings so he would not play too loudly.
Monroe's mother died when he was ten, followed by his father six years later. As his brothers and sisters had moved away, after bouncing among uncles and aunts, Monroe settled in with his disabled uncle Pendleton Vandiver, often accompanying him when Vandiver played the fiddle at dances. This experience inspired one of Monroe's most famous compositions, "Uncle Pen," recorded in 1950, and the 1972 album, "Bill Monroe's Uncle Pen." On that album, Monroe recorded a number of traditional fiddle tunes he had often heard performed by Vandiver. Uncle Pen has been credited with giving Monroe "a repertoire of tunes that sank into Bill's aurally trained memory and a sense of rhythm that seeped into his bones." Also significant in Monroe's musical life was Arnold Shultz, an influential fiddler and guitarist who introduced Monroe to the blues.
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BoA
Kwon Boa (Korean: 권보아, born November 5, 1986), commonly stylized and known by her stage name BoA, which is a backronym for Beat of Angel, is a Korean singer, active in South Korea, Japan, and the United States and sometimes referred to as the "Queen of Korean Pop Music".
BoA is a Roman Catholic, she was born and raised in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, BoA was discovered by SM Entertainment talent agents when she accompanied her older brother to a talent search. In 2000, after two years of training, she released ID; Peace B, her debut Korean album. Two years later, she released her debut Japanese album, Listen to My Heart, becoming the first Korean pop star to break through in Japan following the fall of barriers that had restricted the import and export of entertainment between the countries since the end of World War II.
On October 14, 2008, BoA debuted in the United States with the single "Eat You Up" and released her debut English-language album, BoA on March 17, 2009.
BoA's multilingual skills (she speaks Japanese and English along with native Korean and has recorded songs in Mandarin Chinese) have contributed to her commercial success throughout East Asia. She is the only foreign artist to have two albums selling more than one million copies in Japan and is one of only three artists to have six consecutive number-one studio albums on the Oricon charts since her debut, the others being Ayumi Hamasaki and Koda Kumi.
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Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999, which became the best-selling album by a teenage solo artist. During her first decade in the music industry, she became a prominent figure in mainstream popular music and popular culture, followed by a much-publicized personal life. Her first two albums established her as a pop icon and broke sales records, while title tracks "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" became international number-one hits. Spears was credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s, and became the 'best-selling teen aged artist of all time' before she turned 20, garnering her the honorific title of "Princess of Pop".
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Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter-performer who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.
Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and more than 120 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 21 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 23rd Greatest Artist of all time.
Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough. He lived on South Street in Freehold Borough and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry and worked, among other vocations, as a bus driver, although he was frequently unemployed; his surname is Dutch for jump stone. His mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli), was a legal secretary and was of Italian ancestry. His maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense, a city near Naples. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full time; she took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.
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Candi Staton
Candi Staton ( /ˈsteɪtən/; born Canzetta Maria Staton; March 13, 1940, Hanceville, Alabama) is an American soul and gospel singer, best known for her 1970 remake of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and her 1976 disco hit "Young Hearts Run Free". In 2007, Staton was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame.
At the age of eleven or twelve, Staton and her sister Maggie were sent to the Jewell Christian Academy in Nashville, Tennessee. Her vocal abilities quickly set her apart from the crowd; the school's pastor teamed the two sisters with a third girl to form the Jewell Gospel Trio. As teenagers, they toured the traditional gospel circuit in the 1950s with The Soul Stirrers, C. L. Franklin, and Mahalia Jackson. They recorded several sides for Nashbro, Apollo, and Savoy Records between 1953 and 1963.[citation needed]
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Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998) was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954. His best known song is "Blue Suede Shoes".
According to Charlie Daniels, "Carl Perkins' songs personified the rockabilly era, and Carl Perkins' sound personifies the rockabilly sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed." Perkins' songs were recorded by artists (and friends) as influential as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Johnny Cash, which further cemented his place in the history of popular music.
Called "the King of Rockabilly", he was inducted into the Rock and Roll, the Rockabilly, and the Nashville Songwriters Halls of Fame; and was a Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient.
Perkins was the son of poor sharecroppers, Buck and Louise Perkins (misspelled on his birth certificate as "Perkings") near Tiptonville, Tennessee. He grew up hearing Southern gospel music sung by whites in church, and by black field workers when he started working in the cotton fields at age six. During spring and autumn, the school day would be followed by several hours of work in fields. During the summer, workdays were 12–14 hours, "from can to can't." Carl and his brother Jay together would earn 50 cents a day. With all family members working and not having any credit, there was enough money for beans and potatoes, some tobacco for Carl's father Buck, and occasionally the luxury of a five-cent bag of hard candy.
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Carrie Underwood
Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American country singer, songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005. Underwood has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist, a winner of several Grammy Awards, Billboard Music Awards and American Music Awards, a Golden Globe Award nominee, a three-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner, and a two-time ACM Entertainer of the Year. She is the first-ever female artist to win back-to-back Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards for Entertainer of the Year (2009/10). Underwood was inducted into and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008. She was also inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2009.Billboard named Underwood Country Music's reigning Queen in 2012.
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Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz (October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003) was a Cuban-American and was one of the most successful salsa performers of the 20th century, having earned twenty-three gold albums. She was renowned internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" as well as "La Guarachera de Cuba."
She spent much of her career living in New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American countries. Leila Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said "Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban music."
Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born on October 21, 1925 in the diverse, working-class neighborhood of Santos Suárez in Havana, Cuba. She was the second eldest of fourteen children born to Catalina Alfonso and Simón Cruz. Simón Cruz worked in the railroads as a stoker, and his wife took care of the extended family.[citation needed]
While growing up in Cuba's diverse 1930s musical climate, Cruz listened to many musicians who influenced her adult career, including Fernando Collazo, Abelardo Barroso, Pablo Quevedo and Arsenio Rodríguez. Cruz also studied the words to Yoruba songs with colleague Mercedita Valdes (an Akpwon santeria singer) from Cuba and Celia made various recordings of this religious genre singing even back up for other female akpwons like Candita Batista.
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Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, CC OQ, (French pronunciation: [selin djɔ̃] ( listen); born March 30, 1968), is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record. In 1990, she released the English-language album Unison, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world.
Dion had first gained international recognition in the 1980s by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. Following a series of French albums in the early 1980s, she signed on to CBS Records Canada in 1986. During the 1990s, with the help of Angélil, she achieved worldwide fame after signing with Epic Records and releasing several English albums along with additional French albums, becoming one of the most successful artists in pop music history. However, in 1999 at the height of her success, Dion announced a hiatus from entertainment in order to start a family and spend time with her husband, who had been diagnosed with cancer. She returned to the top of pop music in 2002 and signed a three-year (later extended to almost five years) contract to perform nightly in a five-star theatrical show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Paradise, Nevada.
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Cher
Cher ( /ˈʃɛər/) (born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer, and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes, and a Cannes Film Festival Award for her work in film, music, and television. She is the only person in history to receive all five awards. She began her career as a backup singer and came to prominence in 1965 as one-half of the pop rock duo Sonny & Cher with the success of their song "I Got You Babe". She subsequently established herself as a solo recording artist and became a television star in 1971 with The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, a variety show for which she won a Golden Globe. A well-received performance in the film Silkwood earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress of 1983. In the following years, she starred in a string of hit films including Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress of 1987.
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Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 to 1994. Aguilera signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection", the theme song for the animated film Mulan (1998).
In 1999, Aguilera came to prominence following her debut album Christina Aguilera, which was a commercial success spawning three number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100—"Genie in a Bottle", "What a Girl Wants", and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)." Her sophomore and her debut Latin-pop album, Mi Reflejo (2000), a Christmas third studio album, My Kind of Christmas (2000), and several collaborations followed which garnered Aguilera worldwide success, though she was displeased with her lack of input in her music and image. After parting from her management, Aguilera took creative control over her fourth studio album, Stripped (2002). The album's second single, "Beautiful", was a commercial success and helped the album's commercial performance amidst controversy over Aguilera's image. Aguilera followed up Stripped with the soul, jazz and blues inspired, Back to Basics (2006), released to positive critical acclaim. The album produced three singles "Ain't No Other Man", "Hurt" and "Candyman". Four years later Aguilera released her sixth studio album, Bionic (2010), which incorporated aspects of R&B, electropop, and synthpop and was met with mixed reviews and low sales. Aguilera's seventh studio album is set to be released in 2012.
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Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Chuck Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and utilizing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.
Born into a middle class family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he served a prison sentence for armed robbery between 1944 and 1947. On his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of blues player T-Bone Walker, he was performing in the evenings with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955, and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. With Chess he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues chart. By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star with several hit records and film appearances to his name as well as a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis-based nightclub, called Berry's Club Bandstand. But in January 1962, Berry was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines.
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Chuck Brown
Chuck Brown (August 22, 1936 – May 16, 2012) was a guitarist and singer who is affectionately called "the Godfather of Go-go". Go-go is a subgenre of funk music developed in and around Washington, D.C. in the mid and late 1970s. While its musical classification, influences, and origins are debated, Brown is regarded as the fundamental force behind the creation of go-go music.
Brown's musical career began in the 1960s playing guitar with Jerry Butler and The Earls of Rhythm, joining Los Latinos in 1965. At the time of his death he was still performing music and was well known in the Washington, DC area. Brown's early hits include "I Need Some Money" and "Bustin' Loose". "Bustin' Loose" has been adopted by the Washington Nationals baseball team as its home run celebration song, and was interpolated by Nelly for his 2002 number one hit "Hot in Herre." Brown also recorded go-go covers of early jazz and blues songs, such as "Go-Go Swing" Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing If Ain't Got That Swing", "Moody's Mood for Love", Johnny Mercer's "Midnight Sun", Louis Jordan's "Run Joe", and T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday".
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Chuck Schuldiner
Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner (May 13, 1967 – December 13, 2001) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
Schuldiner was the singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the band Death, which he founded in 1983, under the name Mantas. He also recorded as guitarist and songwriter with his other band, Control Denied. Schuldiner is often referred to as "The Father of Death Metal", and his obituary in the January 5, 2002 issue of UK's Kerrang! magazine stated that "Chuck Schuldiner was one of the most significant figures in the history of metal." Schuldiner himself was modest about his part in the history of death metal, noting "I don’t think I should take the credits for this death metal stuff. I'm just a guy from a band, and I think Death is a metal band." Schuldiner was ranked No. 10 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists in 2009 and No. 20 in March 2004 Guitar World's "The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists". Schuldiner founded the publishing company Mutilation Music in 1987, affiliated with performance rights organization BMI.
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Ciara
Ciara Princess Harris (born October 25, 1985), known mononymously as Ciara, is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress and fashion model. Born in Austin, Texas, she traveled around the world during her childhood, only to land in Atlanta, Georgia where she met music producer Jazze Pha. With his help, she signed a record deal with LaFace Records.
In 2004, Ciara released her debut studio album Goodies, which debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 and included the hit singles "Goodies", "1, 2 Step" and "Oh". The album was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and earned her four nominations at the 48th Grammy Awards. She released her second studio album Ciara: The Evolution in 2006, which spawned the hit singles "Get Up", "Promise" and "Like a Boy". The album reached number one in the US and was certified platinum. Her third studio album Fantasy Ride, released in May 2009, was considerably less successful than Ciara's first two albums. However, it produced the worldwide top-ten hit "Love Sex Magic" featuring Justin Timberlake, which earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. The following year, Ciara released her fourth studio album Basic Instinct, which was met with low sales and continued a downward trend in her commercial success. In 2011, she signed a new record deal with Epic Records.
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Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier (June 25, 1925 - December 12, 1987), a Creole French-speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana, was an eminent performer and recording artist of Zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz, and blues influences. He played the accordion and won a Grammy Award in 1983. He also was recognized with a National Heritage Fellowship,[citation needed] and in 1989 was inducted posthumously into the Blues Hall of Fame.[citation needed]
He was known as the 'King of Zydeco'.
Chenier began his recording career in 1954, when he signed with Elko Records and released Clifton's Blues, a regional success. His first hit record was soon followed by "Ay 'Tite Fille (Hey, Little Girl)" (a cover of Professor Longhair's song). This received some mainstream success. With the Zydeco Ramblers, Chenier toured extensively. He also toured in the early days with Clarence Garlow, billed as the 'Two Crazy Frenchmen'. Chenier was signed with Chess Records in Chicago, followed by the Arhoolie label.
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Count Basie
William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother first taught him piano and he started performing in his teens. Dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for vaudeville and improvised to accompany silent films at a local theater in his town of Red Bank, New Jersey. By 16, he increasingly played jazz piano at parties, resorts and other venues. In 1924, he went to Harlem, where his performing career expanded; he toured with groups to the major jazz cities of Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. In 1929 he joined Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City, and played with them for years, until Moten's death in 1935.
That year Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie's theme songs were "One O'Clock Jump," developed in 1935 in the early days of his band, and "April In Paris".
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Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love (born Courtney Michelle Harrison; July 9, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actress and artist. Love initially gained notoriety in the Los Angeles indie rock scene with her band Hole, which she formed in 1989 with Eric Erlandson. Their debut album, Pretty on the Inside (1991) garnered them critical praise, and they went on to achieve international critical and commercial acclaim for their following albums, Live Through This (1994) and Celebrity Skin (1998).
Love also had a career in acting, originally landing small roles in Alex Cox films in the 1980s. In 1996, Love starred in The People vs. Larry Flynt alongside Woody Harrelson, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. She later had a brief solo career in the early 2000s after the dissolution of Hole, releasing America's Sweetheart (2004), and went through several rehab sentences and run-ins with the the law until achieving sobriety. In 2009, Love reformed Hole with new members and released Nobody's Daughter (2010). In 2012, she debuted an art exhibit featuring a collection of her own paintings and drawings titled "And She's Not Even Pretty".
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Cui Jian
Cui Jian [tsʰwéɪ tɕjɛ̂n] (born 2 August 1961) is a Beijing-based Chinese singer-songwriter, trumpeter and guitarist. Affectionately called "Old Cui" (Chinese: 老崔; pinyin: lǎo Cuī), he is considered to be a pioneer in Chinese rock music and one of the first Chinese artists to write rock songs. For this distinction Cui Jian is often labeled "The Father of Chinese Rock".
Cui Jian grew up in a musical family in Beijing—his father was ethnic Korean and a professional trumpet player and his mother was a member of a Korean dance troupe. Cui Jian himself started playing the trumpet at the age of fourteen and joined the Beijing Philharmonic Orchestra in 1981, at the age of twenty. He was first introduced to rock during this period when friends smuggled in illicit recordings from Hong Kong and Bangkok. Inspired by the likes of Simon and Garfunkel and John Denver, Cui began learning to play the guitar.
In 1984 he formed his first band, Qi He Ban (lit: Seven Plywood, but notably called "Seven-Player band") with six other classically-trained musicians, including the saxophonist/suona player Liu Yuan. The seminal band was heavily influenced by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Talking Heads. They performed their own works—mostly soft rock and love songs—in local hotels and bars. With his band, Cui released his first cassette "Vagabond's Return" that same year. The album contained mellow, pop-oriented love songs, but also showcased songs with progressive and folk rock influences, which were fresh and innovative in China at the time. In 1985, the band released another album, titled "Cui Jian with Seven-Player band". The album featured a combination of Western pop rock, as well as new originals. It also featured more prominent use of the electric guitar, which was seldom used in Chinese popular music. Cui's departure from the band and subsequent solo career led him to become the most successful and influential musician in Chinese rock history.
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Daddy Yankee
Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez (born February 3, 1977), known artistically as Daddy Yankee, is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican reggaeton recording artist. Ayala was born in Río Piedras, the largest district of San Juan, where he became interested in music at a young age. In his youth he was interested in baseball, and aspired to become a Major League Baseball player. He was unable to continue this sport when he received an injury to one of his legs, leaving him unable to walk correctly. He then became involved in the underground rap movement that was in its early stages in Puerto Rico, later to be called reggaeton. After receiving lessons from several artists within the genre, he developed an independent career, first recording in a production titled Playero 37. After this he began to produce independent albums. His first solo album was No Mercy. He subsequently formed a duo with Nicky Jam, and then continued his solo career with the releases of El Cartel and El Cartel II. This led him be one of many pioneers of the reggaeton genre earning him the nickname "El Cangri".
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Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn (/ˈdeɪmən ˈælbɑrn/; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer who has been involved in many high profile projects, coming to prominence as the frontman and primary songwriter of the Britpop band Blur. Albarn's current role is lead vocalist and songwriter of Gorillaz, whose first two studio albums had sold more than 20 million copies combined by 2007. Albarn has also led projects such as The Good, the Bad & the Queen, Monkey: Journey to the West, Mali Music and Rocket Juice & the Moon. Albarn has released multiple singles and albums which have charted at number one, both in the UK and internationally.
Albarn was voted the fourth greatest frontman of all time in a 2010 UK Poll for Q Music magazine.
Albarn was born in Whitechapel, London in 1968, and grew up with his middle-class, Quaker family in Leytonstone, later moving to Colchester. He attended the George Tomlinson Primary School, and studied piano and violin. When he was 9 years old he moved for three months to Turkey, with his parents. When he was aged 12, he became friends with Graham Coxon, a fellow pupil at Stanway School.
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Daniela Mercury
Daniela Mercury (born Daniela Mercuri de Almeida on July 28, 1965), is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Brazilian axé, samba-reggae and MPB singer, songwriter and record producer. Since her breakthrough, Mercury has become one of the best known Brazilian female singers, selling over 20 million albums worldwide. She is also the Brazilian female performer with most #1 hits in the country, with 14.[citation needed]
Daniela Mercuri de Almeida was born on July 28, 1965, in the Portuguese Hospital in Salvador, Bahia. Her mother is Liliana Mercuri, a social worker of Italian ancestry, and her father is António Fernando de Abreu Ferreira de Almeida, a Portuguese-born industrial mechanic. Mercury grew up in a middle class household in the Brotas neighborhood of Salvador with her four siblings: Tom, Cristiana, Vânia (who would also become a singer, billed as Vânia Abreu), and Marcos. A trouble-maker as a child, Mercury was nicknamed "drip-fire". She attended both the Ana Néri School and the Colégio Baiano.
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Dennis Brown
Dennis Emmanuel Brown (February 1, 1957 – July 1, 1999) was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of lovers rock, a sub-genre of reggae. Bob Marley cited Brown as his favourite singer, dubbing him "The Crown Prince of Reggae", and Brown would prove hugely influential on future generations of reggae singers.
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Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer, record producer, and actress.
Diana Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that has included successful ventures into film and Broadway. She received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her role as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972), for which she won a Golden Globe award. She has won seven American Music Awards, was honored with a 2012 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and won a Tony Award for her one-woman show, An Evening with Diana Ross, in 1977.
In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the "Female Entertainer of the Century." In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Diana Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts with a career total of 18 number one records in the United States. Diana Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
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Dick Dale
Dick Dale (born Richard Anthony Monsour on May 4, 1937) is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.
Dale was born in South Boston, Massachusetts and lived in nearby Quincy until the eleventh grade. He is of Lebanese, Polish and Belarusian descent (however, his father was not born in Lebanon). He and his family moved to Orange County, California in 1954. He learned to surf and became interested in music. He soon learned to play the drums, the ukulele, the trumpet, and finally the guitar.
Among his early musical influences was his uncle. Dale is often credited as one of the first electric guitarists to employ fast playing scales in his playing. Dale himself was a surfer and wanted his music to reflect the sounds he heard in his mind while surfing. While he is primarily known for introducing the use of guitar reverb that would give the guitar a "wet" sound, which has since become a staple of surf music, it was Dale's staccato picking that was his trademark. Since Dale is left-handed, he was initially forced to play a right-handed model but then went to a left handed model. However, he did so without restringing the guitar, leading him to effectively play the guitar upside-down (while Hendrix would restring his guitar), and he often played by reaching over the fretboard rather than wrapping his fingers up from underneath. Dale is also noted for playing his percussive, heavy bending style while using what are, for most guitarists, extremely heavy gauge string sets (16p, 18p, 20p. 38w, 48w, 58w; guitar string manufacturers do not make string sets for standard tuned electric guitars heavier than 13 to 56).
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Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones (August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963), was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues". She is a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Ruth Jones was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, and moved to Chicago as a child. Dinah became deeply involved in gospel and played piano for the choir in St. Luke's Baptist Church while she was still in elementary school. She sang gospel music in church and played piano, directing her church choir in her teens and being a member of the Sallie Martin Gospel Singers. She sang lead with the first female gospel singers formed by Ms Martin, who was co-founder of the Gospel Singers Convention. Jones' involvement with the gospel choir occurred after she won an amateur contest at Chicago's Regal Theater where she sang "I Can't Face the Music".[citation needed]
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Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick (born Marie Dionne Warrick; December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health.
Having been in a partnership with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock era (1955–1999), based on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts. Warwick ranks second only to Aretha Franklin as the most-charted female vocalist with 56 singles making the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998. She is also a cousin of Whitney Houston.
Warwick was born in East Orange, New Jersey, to Mancel Warwick (1911–1977), who began his career as a Pullman porter and subsequently became a chef, a gospel record promoter for Chess Records and later a Certified Public Accountant; and Lee Drinkard Warwick (1920–2005), manager of The Drinkard Singers (see below). Warwick had a sister Delia "Dee Dee" and a brother, Mancel Jr., who was killed in an accident in 1968 at the age of 21.[citation needed]. She has African American, Native American, Brazilian and Dutch ancestry.
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DJ Green Lantern
James D'Agostino (born 1975), better known by his stage name DJ Green Lantern, is an Italian-American DJ and hip hop music producer from Rochester, New York. In 2002, D'Agostino was signed by Eminem to become the official DJ for Shady Records after DJ Head stepped down for undisclosed reasons. D'Agostino left the label in 2005 due to a dispute with Shady Records rapper 50 Cent.
DJ Green Lantern came to prominence with his "Invasion" mixtape series, the first set of officially sponsored mixtapes from Eminem's Shady Records. On the series, spanning three mixtapes (later to be spun off into the Armageddon series), the DJ broke several diss records, furthering the issues between Eminem and Benzino/The Source as well as the entire Shady camp and Ja Rule/Murder Inc.
He is also recognized as a producer, featuring on his own mixtapes several "Green Remixes," including, most notably, a remix of the Nas and Tupac Shakur collaboration, "Thugz Mansion." He also produced D-Block's "2 Guns Up", an acclaimed street single, which originated as a freestyle rap on his Hot 97 radio show, "In the Lab" (the most memorable of which has also appeared as a mixtape, "The Best of In the Lab"). "In the Lab" is formatted as a one-hour (with commercials) mix show, in which DJ Green Lantern blends a cappella and instrumental tracks from various artists, as well as breaking new and underground music (such as the Ghostface Killah and El-Producto collaboration "HideYaFace").
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Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. As a songwriter, she has composed over 3,000 songs, the best known of which include "I Will Always Love You" (a two-time U.S. country chart-topper for Parton, as well an international pop hit for Whitney Houston), "Jolene", "Coat of Many Colors", "9 to 5" and "My Tennessee Mountain Home". As an actress, she starred in the movies 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias, Straight Talk, Unlikely Angel and Joyful Noise. She is one of the most successful female country artists of all time; with an estimated 100 million in album sales, Dolly Parton is also one of the best selling artists of all time. She is known as "The Queen of Country Music".
She was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children of Avie Lee Parton (née Owens; October 5, 1923 – December 5, 2003) and Robert Lee Parton (March 22, 1921 – November 12, 2000), a tobacco farmer. Her siblings are: Willadeene Parton (born March 24, 1940), David Wilburn Parton (born March 30, 1942), Coy Denver "Denver" Parton (born August 16, 1943), Bobby Lee Parton (born February 18, 1948), Stella Mae Parton (born May 4, 1949), Cassie Nan Parton (February 12, 1951), Randel Huston "Randy" Parton (born December 15, 1953), Larry Gerald Parton (born and died July 6, 1955), Floyd and Frieda Estelle Parton (born June 1, 1957), and Rachel Ann Parton (born August 31, 1959). Her family was, as she has described them, "dirt poor". She outlined her family's lack of money in a number of her early songs, notably "Coat of Many Colors" and "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)". They lived in a rustic, dilapidated one-room cabin in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, a hamlet just north of the Greenbrier Valley, in the Locust Ridge area of the Great Smoky Mountains in Sevier County, a predominantly Pentecostal area.
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Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012), known by the stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the late 1970s. She had a mezzo-soprano vocal range, and was a five-time Grammy Award winner. Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the United States Billboard chart, and she also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a 13-month period.
Born into a devoutly Christian lower middle class African American family in Boston, Massachusetts, Summer first became involved with singing through church choir groups before joining a number of bands influenced by the Motown Sound. Influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, she became the front singer of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and moved to New York City. Joining a touring version of the musical Hair, she spent several years living in West Germany, where she married Helmut Sommer, whose surname she adopted as her stage name.
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Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and big-band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions. In the opinion of Bob Blumenthal of The Boston Globe "In the century since his birth, there has been no greater composer, American or otherwise, than Edward Kennedy Ellington." A major figure in the history of jazz, Ellington's music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical. His career spanned more than 50 years and included leading his orchestra, composing an inexhaustible songbook, scoring for movies, composing stage musicals, and world tours. Several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and extraordinary charisma, he is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other traditional genres of music. His reputation increased after his death and the Pulitzer Prize Board bestowed on him a special posthumous honor in 1999.
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Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienOBE (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive sensual sound, she was an important white soul singer, and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with 18 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970. She is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the U.K. Music Hall of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time.
Born in West London to an Irish Catholic family that enjoyed music, Springfield learned to sing at home. She joined her first professional group, The Lana Sisters, in 1958, then formed the pop-folk vocal trio The Springfields in 1960 with her brother Dion.
Her solo career began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit, "I Only Want to Be with You" (1963). Among the hits that followed were "Wishin' and Hopin'" (1964), "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (1964), "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (1966), and "Son of a Preacher Man" (1968). A fan of American pop music, she was the first public figure to bring little-known soul singers to a wider British audience, when she created and hosted the first British performances of the top-selling Motown artists in 1965. By 1966, she was the best-selling female singer in the world, and topped a number of popularity polls, including Melody Maker's Best International Vocalist. She was the first British singer to top the New Musical Express readers' poll for Female Singer. Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde beehive hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up, made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.
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Elijah Wald
Elijah Wald (born 1959) is an American folk blues guitarist and music historian. He is a 2002 Grammy Award winner for his liner notes to The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Box: "The Journey of Chris Strachwitz".
Wald was born in 1959 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His parents were George Wald (co-recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine) and biologist Ruth Hubbard, with whom Elijah co-authored Exploding the Gene Myth.
At age 18, Wald set of for Europe to try to make a living as a folk-blues guitarist. For roughly the next 12 years, he traveled the world. He fronted a blues band in Seville, Spain, a swing trio in Antwerp, Belgium, and a rock band in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and studied with Congolese guitarist Jean-Bosco Mwenda. Returning to the United States, he played in "low dives and honky-tonks", and recorded two albums: the LP Songster, Fingerpicker, Shirtmaker on his and Bill Morrissey's short-lived label Reckless Records and the CD Street Corner Cowboys (Black Rose Records, 2000). He also arranged and played guitar on one track of Dave Van Ronk's album of Bertolt Brecht songs, and performed as a sideman with Eric Von Schmidt and for several years with the legendary black string band leader Howard Armstrong.
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Elis Regina
Elis Regina Carvalho Costa, known simply as Elis Regina (Portuguese pronunciation: [eˈlis ʁeˈʒinɐ]; Porto Alegre, March 17, 1945 – São Paulo, January 19, 1982) was an important singer of Brazilian popular music. She became nationally renowned in 1965, after singing "Arrastão" (composed by Edu Lobo and Vinícius de Moraes) in the first edition of TV Excelsior festival song contest, and soon joined O Fino da Bossa, a television program on TV Record. Elis was noted for her perfect vocalization, as well as for her personal interpretation and outstanding performances in shows. She recorded several successful compositions, such as "Como nossos pais" (Belchior), "Upa Neguinho" (E. Lobo and Gianfrancesco Guarnieri), "Madalena" (Ivan Lins), "Casa no Campo" (Zé Rodrix and Tavito), "Águas de Março" (Tom Jobim), "Atrás da porta" (Chico Buarque and Francis Hime), "O bêbado e a equilibrista" (Aldir Blanc and João Bosco), "Conversando no bar" (Milton Nascimento), etc. Her premature death, at the age of 36, shocked Brazil. Elis Regina is widely regarded as the best Brazilian singer of all times by many critics, musicians, and commentators.
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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.
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Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.
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Emilio
Emilio Navaira III (born August 23, 1962) is an American musician of Mexican descent, who performs both Country and Tejano music. Known to most by the mononym Emilio, he has charted more than ten singles on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks charts, in addition to six singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Emilio is also one of the few Tejano artists to have significant success in both the United States and Mexico, and has been called the "Garth Brooks of Tejano." His biggest country hit was the #27 "It's Not the End of the World" in late 1995, and his highest-charting single on any chart is "Por Siempre Unidos," which peaked at #7 on Latin Pop Airplay in 1996. Along with Selena, Emilio is one of the most prominent artists to help popularize Tejano music.
Emilio Navaira III was born on August 23, 1962 in San Antonio, Texas to Emilio Navaira Jr., and Mary Navaira. Growing up on the south side of San Antonio, Navaira found early influence in not only tejano legends such as Little Joe y la Familia, Ramón Ayala, and Pedro Infante, but also Lone Star country music heroes such as Willie Nelson, Bob Wills, and George Strait. As a student, Navaria graduated from McCollum High School in 1980, received a music scholarship to Texas State University-San Marcos, and majored in music with plans to become a teacher before ultimately deciding to pursue a career as an artist.
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Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem (often stylized as EMINƎM) and by his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of D12, Eminem is also one half of the hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop. Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200. He has sold more than 42 million tracks and 41 million albums in the United States, and nearly 90 million albums worldwide.
Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album, The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others as his influences.
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Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, (born 30 March 1945) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.
In the mid 1960s, Clapton departed from the Yardbirds to play blues with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In his one-year stay with Mayall, Clapton gained the nickname "Slowhand". Immediately after leaving Mayall, Clapton formed Cream, a power trio with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop." For most of the 1970s, Clapton's output bore the influence of the mellow style of J.J. Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley. His version of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" helped reggae reach a mass market. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded by Derek and the Dominos, another band he formed and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", recorded by Cream. A recipient of seventeen Grammy Awards, in 2004 Clapton was awarded a CBE for services to music. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.
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Eusèbe Jaojoby
Eusèbe Jaojoby (born July 29, 1955), commonly known by his surname Jaojoby, is a composer and singer of salegy, a musical style of northwestern Madagascar. He is considered one of the originators of the salegy style that emerged in the 1970s and has been credited with popularizing and modernizing the genre as well as two offshoots, malesa and baoenjy. Jaojoby has been called the most popular singer in Madagascar and the Indian Ocean islands and is widely referred to as the "King of Salegy".
After a short hiatus from singing in the 1980s while pursuing a career in journalism, Jaojoby rose to national prominence with his 1988 hit "Samy Mandeha Samy Mitady." He then reoriented his career toward music, recording his first full-length album in 1992 and becoming a full-time professional musician the following year. He has since released numerous successful albums and continues to tour in Madagascar and abroad. His success has earned him such honors as Artist of the Year in Madagascar for two consecutive years (1998-1999) and the role of Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund in 1999.
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Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino Jr. (born February 26, 1928) is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Domino was French Creole and Creole was his first language. Domino was delivered at home by his midwife grandmother who was born into enslavement in 1857. Like most families in the Lower Ninth Ward, Domino's family were new arrivals from the sugar and cotton plantations. His father was a well known violinist, and Domino was inspired to play himself. He eventually learned from his Uncle, jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett. Fats released five Gold (million selling) records before 1955. Domino also had 35 Top 40 American Hits and has a music style based on traditional R&B ensembles or Bass, Piano, Electric Guitar, Drums, and Saxophone.
Domino first attracted national attention with "The Fat Man" in 1949 on Imperial Records. This song is an early rock and roll record, featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing "wah-wah" vocalizing over a strong back beat. "The Fat Man" sold one million copies by 1953. Fats Domino released a series of hit songs with producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler and drummer Earl Palmer. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader. Domino finally crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That A Shame" (1955), which hit the Top Ten, though Pat Boone characteristically hit #1 with a milder cover of the song that received wider radio airplay in a racially-segregated era. Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles.
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Faye Wong
I’m lazy, never jogged for more than 2 days. I smoke, an act of damaging health. I’m straightforward, constantly offending others. I'm hot-tempered, not able to control my emotions. I’m impatient, especially with things not interesting to me. I feel confident and inferior, very contradictory. Facing my fans, I feel embarrassed. I’m not motivated, always thinking of vacations. I’m not obedient, even my parents don't know what to do with me. I’m not an idol, please don’t worship me.
Faye Wong (Chinese: 王菲, pinyin: Wáng Fēi) (born August 8, 1969) is a highly successful and influential Chinese singer-songwriter and actress who is usually referred to as a diva (Chinese: 天后; literally "Heavenly Queen"). Early in her career she briefly used the stage name Shirley Wong (王靖雯). Born in Beijing, she moved to Hong Kong in 1987 and rose to stardom in the early 1990s by singing ballads in Cantonese. Since 1995 she has recorded mostly in her native Mandarin, often combining alternative music with mainstream Chinese pop. In 2000 she was recognized by Guinness World Records as the Best Selling Canto-Pop Female. Following her second marriage in 2005 she withdrew from the limelight, but returned to the stage in 2010 amidst immense interest in the Sinosphere.
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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".
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Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American country music artist. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Brooks' integration of rock elements into his recordings and live performances has earned him immense popularity. This progressive approach allowed him to dominate the country single and album charts while quickly crossing over into the mainstream pop arena, exposing country music to a larger audience.
Brooks has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, breaking records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990s. Garth Brooks still continues to sell well and according to Nielsen Soundscan, his albums sales through October 2011 are at 68,561,000, which makes him the best-selling albums artist in the United States in the SoundScan era (since 1991), a title held since 1991, well over 5 million ahead of his nearest rival, The Beatles. Furthermore, according to RIAA he is the second best-selling solo albums artist in the United States of all time behind Elvis Presley (overall is third to the Beatles and Elvis Presley) with 128 million units sold. Brooks has released six albums that achieved diamond status in the United States, those being: Garth Brooks (10× platinum), No Fences (17× platinum), Ropin' the Wind (14× platinum), The Hits (10× platinum), Sevens (10× platinum) and Double Live (21× platinum). Since 1989, Brooks has released 19 records in all, which include; 9 studio albums, 1 live album, 4 compilation albums, 3 Christmas albums and 2 box sets, along with 77 singles. He won several important awards in his career as 2 Grammy Awards, 16 American Music Awards (not including the poll of "Artist of the '90s") and the RIAA Award as Best selling solo albums artist of the Century in the United States. As of 2010, Brooks' world-wide sales now exceed 190 million albums, singles and videos.
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George Jones
George Glenn Jones (born September 12, 1931) is an American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette.
Over the past 20 years, Jones has frequently been referred to as the greatest living country singer. Country music scholar Bill C. Malone writes, "For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved."
Throughout his long career, Jones made headlines often as much for tales of his drinking, stormy relationships with women, and violent rages as for his prolific career of making records and touring. His wild lifestyle led to Jones missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones." With the help of his fourth wife, Nancy, he has been sober for over 10 years. Jones has had more than 150 hits during his career, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists. The shape of his nose and facial features have given Jones the nickname "The Possum." Jones said in an interview that he has chosen to tour only about 60 dates a year.
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George Strait
George Harvey Strait (born May 18, 1952) is an American country music singer, actor, and music producer. Strait is referred to as the "King of Country," and critics call Strait a living legend. He is known for his unique style of western swing music, bar-room ballads, honky-tonk style, and fresh yet traditional Country music. George Strait holds the world record for more number-one hit singles than any other artist in the history of music on any chart or in any genre, having recorded 59 number-one hit singles as of 2012.
Strait rocketed to success after his first single "Unwound" was a hit in 1981. While contributing to the neo-traditional movement of the 1980s, he amassed seven number one albums in the decade with his most popular hits including "Fool Hearted Memory" and "Ocean Front Property". By the 1990s, Strait had influenced a new breed of performers while continuing his own successes, having charted upwards of 20 number-one hits including "Heartland" and "Blue Clear Sky". In the 2000s, Strait was named Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music, was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and won his first Grammy award for his hit album Troubadour. Strait continued his previous successes throughout the decade, producing a more contemporary sound with moderate cross-over hits including "She'll Leave You with a Smile" and "You'll Be There".
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Gesang Martohartono
Gesang Martohartono (1 October 1917 – 20 May 2010) was a renowned Indonesian singer-songwriter from central Java, and he is the composer of the song Bengawan Solo, a tune which has become famous throughout Indonesia, Japan, much of Asia, and some other countries in the world. The song is almost synonymous with the kroncong style of Javanese music. Martohartono was most commonly known simply as Gesang.
Gesang was born in the central Javanese city of Surakarta (Solo). His father owned a batik-fabric business, which however went bankrupt when Gesang was still in his teens, plunging the family into poverty. Gesang, a self-taught musician who was however illiterate in musical notation, supported himself and his family by writing songs and singing at local functions such as weddings and other formal occasions.
In 1940, during the Zaman Pendudukan Jepang in World War II, the impoverished 23-year-old musician composed a tune (using a flute) in the popular urban local style known as kroncong, a musical tradition of the region which combined Javanese chord progressions with Westernised vocal stylings, instrumental arrangements, and melodies. The style had its origins in the 17th century Portuguese influence upon the region, and was at the time associated with the urban poor and as such had somewhat of an unsavoury reputation, particularly among traditionalists.
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Giorgio Moroder
Hansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder, named on record sleeves often only Giorgio (born 26 April 1940, Urtijëi, South Tyrol, Italy) is an Italian (of Ladin ethnicity) record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records. He collaborated with Donna Summer during the era of disco (including "Love to Love You Baby" and "I Feel Love") and is the founder of the former Musicland Studios in Munich, which was used as a recording studio by artists including the Electric Light Orchestra, Led Zeppelin, Queen and Elton John.
In addition to producing several hits with Donna Summer, Moroder also produced a number of electronic disco hits for The Three Degrees, two albums for Sparks, a handful of songs on Bonnie Tyler's album Bitterblue as well as her 1985 single "Here She Comes" and a score of songs for performers including David Bowie, Irene Cara, Madleen Kane, Melissa Manchester, Blondie, Japan, and France Joli.
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Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author. She is best known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s and 1970s, for both the Motown and Buddah Records labels, with her group Gladys Knight & the Pips, the most famous incarnation of which also included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and her cousins Edward Patten and William Guest.
Knight was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Sarah Elizabeth (née Woods) and Merald Woodlow Knight, Sr., a postal worker. She first achieved minor fame by winning Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour TV show contest at the age of 7 in 1952. The following year, she, her brother Merald, sister Brenda, and cousins William and Elenor Guest formed a musical group called The Pips (named after another cousin, James "Pip" Woods). By the end of the decade, the act had begun to tour, and had replaced Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest with Gladys Knight's cousin Edward Patten and friend Langston George.
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Gloria Estefan
Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan, known professionally as Gloria Estefan (born September 1, 1957) is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Known as the "Queen Of Latin Pop", she is in the top 100 best selling music artists with over 100 million albums sold worldwide, 31.5 million of those in the United States alone. She has won three Grammy Awards, and 4 Latin Grammys, and is the most successful crossover performer in Latin music to date.
Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo was born September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba, to Jose and Gloria Fajardo. Her maternal grandfather, Leonardo Garcia, immigrated to Cuba from Pola de Siero, Asturias, Spain, where he married Gloria's maternal grandmother, originally from Logroño, Spain. Prior to the Cuban Revolution, her father was a Cuban soldier and a bodyguard to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The Fajardo family fled to Miami, Florida as a result of the Cuban Revolution and settled down there. Shortly after they moved to the United States, Gloria's father joined the US military and fought in the Vietnam War and moved to Houston, Texas, also having participated in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Gloria attended St. Michael-Archangel School and Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami. Her father became ill after returning from Vietnam and Gloria helped her mother, Gloria Fajardo, care for him. Her mother worked as a school teacher for the Dade County Public School system. Gloria Estefan graduated from college in 1979 with a B.A. in psychology, with a minor in French, from the University of Miami. When she was studying at the university, she worked as an English/Spanish/French translator at Miami International Airport Customs Department and, because of her language abilities, was once approached by the CIA as a possible employee. Estefan was raised Catholic.
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Gloria Gaynor
Gloria Gaynor (born Gloria Fowles; September 7, 1949) is an American singer, best known for the disco era hits; "I Will Survive" (Hot 100 number 1, 1979), "Never Can Say Goodbye" (Hot 100 number 9, 1974), "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)" (Hot 100 number 42, 1980) and "I Am What I Am" (R&B number 82, 1983).
Gaynor was a singer with the Soul Satisfiers, a jazz/pop band, in the 1960s. Her first solo single was "She'll Be Sorry/Let Me Go Baby" (1965).
Her first real success came in 1975 with the release of her album Never Can Say Goodbye, which established her as a disco artist. The first side of this album consisted of three disco songs ("Honey Bee", "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Reach Out, I'll Be There"), with no breaks in between the songs. This 19-minute dance marathon proved to be enormously popular, especially at dance clubs. All three songs were released as singles via radio edits, and all of them became hits. The album was instrumental in introducing disco music to the public, "Never Can Say Goodbye" becoming the first song to top Billboard magazine's dance chart. Capitalizing on the success of her first album, Gloria Gaynor quickly released her second album, Experience Gloria Gaynor, later that same year. While this album was also successful, it was not quite as popular as her previous album in the mainstream.
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Gong Qiuxia
Gong Qiuxia was born in 1916 under the birth name (龚莎莎 Gong Sha Sha and 龚秋香 Gong Qiu Xiang) in Jiangsu, China. She was a famous movie star and singer. By the 1940s, she became one of the Seven great singing stars.
In 1933 she traveled the country across Southeast Asia as part of the Shanghai Plum Flower Troupe (梅花歌舞团). One of the theatrical plays she took part in was the Five Tiger Generals (五虎将).
In 1936 she made her first film (父母子女, Father Mother Son Daughter). In 1937 she starred in the movie 压岁钱 and began a relatively serious attitude toward filmmaking. She is most recognized for playing the mature, housewife image.
From 1938 to 1980 she took part in a number of movies. The movie 四千金 (Four Daughters) would earn her the nickname "big sister".
In the 1930s, she was recognized as one of the three great mandopop singers with Zhou Xuan and Bai Hong.
She died on 7th September 2004 in Hong Kong.
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Hana Hegerová
Hana Hegerová (née Carmen Farkašová, born 20 October 1931 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia), is a leading Czechoslovakian singer, actress and uncrowned Queen of Czechoslovak chanson. Foreign critics call her "The Great Lady of Chanson", "The Piaf from Prague", and "The Chanteuse with a Slavic Soul". Having no comparable competition in Czechoslovakia, she gained popularity primarily as a singer of chanson. She has charmed her audience and critics with an extraordinary ability to interpret the lyrics dramatically. Outside of the Czechoslovakia, Hegerová has attained wide recognition, especially in German-speaking countries. She lives in Prague, Czech Republic.
From 1937 to 1942 Hegerová attended ballet school at the National Theater in Bratislava. After completing her primary education in Komárno in 1950, she worked as a clerk for Škoda Works and as a teacher at a vocational school. From 1951 to 1953, Hegerová attended professional theatrical courses at the State Theater Conservatory, then in 1957 joined the company of the Petr Jilemnický Theatre in Žilina.
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Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. (born March 1, 1927) is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". Throughout his career he has been an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes and was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush Administration.
Born Harold George Bellanfanti, Jr., at Lying-in Hospital, Harlem, New York, Belafonte was the son of Melvine (née Love) – a housekeeper of Jamaican descent – and Harold George Bellanfanti, Sr., a Martiniquan who worked as a chef in the National Guard. From 1932 to 1940, he lived with his grandmother in her native country of Jamaica. When he returned to New York City, he attended George Washington High School after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II. In the 1940s, he was working as a janitor's assistant in NYC when a tenant gave him, as a gratuity, two tickets to see the American Negro Theater. He fell in love with the art form and also met Sidney Poitier. The financially struggling pair regularly purchased a single seat to local plays, trading places in between acts, after informing the other about the progression of the play. At the end of the 1940s, he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the American Negro Theatre. He subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac.
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Hibari Misora
Hibari Misora (美空 ひばり, Misora Hibari?, May 29, 1937 – June 24, 1989) was an award-winning Japanese enka singer and actress. and was the first woman in Japan to receive the People's Honour Award, which was awarded posthumously for her notable contributions to the music industry. Misora recorded 1,200 songs, and sold 68 million records. After she died, consumer demand for her recordings grew significantly, and by 2001 she had sold more than 80 million records. Her swan-song "Kawa no Nagare no Yō ni" (川の流れのように?) is often performed by numerous artists and orchestras as a tribute to her, including notable renditions by The Three Tenors (Spanish/Italian), Teresa Teng (Taiwan), and Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan (Mexico).
Misora was born Kazue Katō (加藤 和枝, Katō Kazue?) in Isogo-ku, Yokohama, Japan. Her father was Masukichi Katō (加藤 増吉, Katō Masukichi?), a fishmonger, and her mother Kimie Katō (加藤 喜美枝, Katō Kimie?), a housewife. Misora displayed musical talent from an early age after singing for her father at a World War II send-off party in 1943. He invested a small fortune taken from the family's savings to begin a musical career for his daughter. In 1945 she debuted at a concert hall in Yokohama, at the age of eight. At the same time, she changed her last name, Katō, to Misora (美空?, lit. "beautiful sky"), at the suggestion of her mother. A year later, she appeared on a NHK broadcast, and impressed the Japanese composer Masao Koga with her singing ability. He considered her to be a prodigy with the courage, understanding, and emotional maturity of an adult. In the following two years, she became an accomplished singer and was touring notable concert halls to sold-out crowds.
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Hikaru Utada
Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル, Utada Hikaru?, born January 19, 1983), known by her stage name Utada (English /uːˈtɑːdə/) in America and Europe, is a Japanese-American singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer. Since the release of her Japanese debut album First Love, which went on to become the best-selling album in Oricon history, Utada has had three of her Japanese studio albums in the list of Top 10 best-selling albums ever in Japan (number 1, 4, 8) and six of her albums (including one English-language and one compilation) charting within the 275 Best-Selling Japanese albums list. Utada has had twelve number-one singles on the Oricon Singles chart, with two notable record achievements for a female solo or group artist: five million-sellers and four in the Top 100 All-Time Best-selling Singles. Utada has an estimated more than 52 million records sold worldwide.
She was described by Time Magazine as a "Diva On Campus," a reference to her having attended Columbia University for a brief, career-break semester in 2000. In 2009, she was considered "the most influential artist of the decade" in the Japanese landscape by The Japan Times.
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Hilary Duff
Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress, author, entrepreneur and recording artist. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Duff appeared in local theatre plays and television commercials before coming to prominence in the title role of the Disney Channel's teen comedy Lizzie McGuire and The CW's teen drama Gossip Girl as movie star Olivia. Established as a teen idol, Duff reprised that role in the The Lizzie McGuire Movie and subsequently ventured into motion pictures, appearing in a string of successful films that include Agent Cody Banks, Cheaper by the Dozen, A Cinderella Story and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. Most recently, she has performed in a legion of television dramas and independent films.
Duff expanded her repertoire to include pop music and has released three RIAA-certified platinum albums including Metamorphosis (2002), her debut studio album which was certified triple platinum, Hilary Duff (2004) and Most Wanted (2005), which were both certified platinum. Her most recent studio album Dignity (2007) was certified gold and spawned her highest charting US single to date "With Love". Followed by Best of Hilary Duff (2008), a compilation of her greatest hits, Duff has since sold thirteen million albums worldwide.
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Hong Nhung
Lê Hồng Nhung (born March 15, 1970), is a Vietnamese singer. She is one of the four divas in Vietnamese music, along with Thanh Lam, My Linh, and Tran Thu Ha. She is also known for her performance of composer Trinh Cong Son songs.
Hong Nhung was born in Hanoi, deserted by her mother before she was a year old and brought up by her grandmother. Her father was a bohemian figure who drifted in and out of her life, never contributing much money for the food and clothes she was so short of. Nhung had a good voice, though, and when she was 11 she sang her first song on Vietnam Radio. At 17 she made her first album, and by 21 she was starting to make a name for herself
Nhung was born on March 15, 1970 in Hanoi. At the age of 10, she was admitted to the vocal class of the Hanoi Youth Culture House. In 1981, she started recording with Radio the Voice of Vietnam. She became known as a promising young singer with songs Nhớ Về Hà Nội and Papa, a Vietnamese cover of the Myo song.
In 1991, Nhung moved to Ho Chi Minh City. She met composer Trịnh Công Sơn in 1992 and began to perform his songs with a new style, creating a wave in Vietnamese music. Hồng Nhung is living in Ho Chi Minh City.
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Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop (born James Newell "Jim" Osterberg, Jr.; April 21, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues. Pop became known as 'Iggy' in high school, during which time he served as drummer for local blues band The Iguanas. He is vocalist of influential protopunk band The Stooges (Pop and the other surviving members of the group reunited in 2003), having become known, since the late 1960s, for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics.
Though the singer's popularity has waned and waxed throughout his career, Pop has recorded a number of well-known songs, including "Lust for Life", "Real Wild Child", "I Wanna Be Your Dog," "Candy" (a duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52's), "China Girl", "Nightclubbing", "Search and Destroy", and "The Passenger". The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010
Iggy Pop (AKA Iggy Stooge) was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the son of Louella (née Christensen) and James Newell Osterberg, Sr., a former high school English teacher and baseball coach at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. Osterberg was raised in a trailer park in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is of Irish and English descent on his father's side, and of Norwegian and Danish ancestry on his mother's. His father was adopted by a Swedish American family and took on their surname (Österberg).
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Irma Thomas
Irma Thomas (born February 18, 1941,Ponchatoula, Louisiana, United States) is an American singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans".
Thomas is a contemporary of Aretha Franklin and Etta James, but never experienced their level of commercial success; still, she has a large cult following among soul aficionados. In 2007, she won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album for After the Rain, her first Grammy in a career spanning over 50 years.
Born Irma Lee, as a teen she sang with a Baptist church choir, auditioning for Specialty Records as a 13-year old. By the age of 19 she had been married twice and had four children. Keeping her second ex-husband's surname, she worked as a waitress in New Orleans, occasionally singing with bandleader Tommy Ridgley, who helped her land a record deal with the local Ron label. Her first single, "(You Can Have My Husband but) Don't Mess with My Man," was released in spring 1960, and reached number 22 on the Billboard R&B chart.
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Ivete Sangalo
Ivete María Dias de Sangalo Cady (born May 27, 1972 in Juazeiro, Bahia) is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Brazilian Axé and MPB singer, songwriter, and occasional actress and television show host. She is one of the most popular and best-selling Brazilian female singers of the present, with six albums released with "Banda Eva", and seven more albums in a solo career, with a total of over 12 million albums sold worldwide. Sangalo is most often recognized by her powerful voice, charisma and live performances. Her music is also very popular in Portugal. She has received 14 nominations for Latin Grammy Awards alongside her career.
As a child, started to sing and play violin at events, festivals and presentations of the school where she studied. Ivete Sangalo's debut show happened in Ondina Neighborhood, Salvador, in August 1992. With that show she won the Dorival Caymmi trophy, the Grammy of Bahia music. The solo singer was once part of a group called Banda Eva, and with them she recorded six CDs and sold over four million copies.
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Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. (June 9, 1934 – January 21, 1984) was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was considered a master showman, one of the most dynamic and influential singers and performers in R&B and rock history. Gaining fame in his early years as a member of the R&B vocal group Billy Ward and His Dominoes, he went solo in 1957 and recorded over 50 hit singles that spanned R&B, pop, soul, doo-wop and easy listening. During a 1975 benefit concert, he collapsed on-stage from a heart attack and subsequently fell into a coma that persisted for nearly nine years until his death in 1984. By this time, he had become one of the most influential artists of his generation.
A two-time Grammy Hall of Fame Inductee, Jackie Wilson was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Jackie Wilson #69 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
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Jacky Cheung
Jacky Cheung (born 10 July 1961) is a Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor. The Chinese language media refers to him, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王), with more than 60 million records sold as of 2000.
Cheung is known for his baritone voice. On 15 February 1996 in London, he married Hong Kong actress May Lo Mei-mei, with whom he has two daughters. Cheung is also nicknamed "god of Songs" (歌神), but he is the second person to hold this title, after former Cantopop singer Sam Hui. In an interview with Ray Cordeiro (Uncle Ray), Cheung stated that the title was more appropriate for Hui than for him, since he actually wrote and popularized songs.
Cheung originally started working as a reservation officer for the Cathay Pacific airline. His music career started when he won the Amateur 18-Hong Kong district singing contest in 1984 with the song Fatherland (大地恩情). He ousted more than 10,000 other contestants. After winning the contest, he was signed by the then Polygram Records, now Universal Music Group. Although encouraged by a bright start, he was not able to achieve immediate supremacy in Cantopop, then dominated by Leslie Cheung, Alan Tam, Anita Mui and Danny Chan. In 1985 he won his first two major awards together with the 1985 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards and the 1985 Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards.
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James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of funk music and is a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance.
In a career that spanned decades, Brown profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres. Brown moved on a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music making. Brown performed in concerts, first making his rounds across the Chitlin' Circuit, and then across the country and later around the world, along with appearing in shows on television and in movies. Although he contributed much to the music world through his hitmaking, Brown holds the record as the artist who charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.
For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist. The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads. Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters. In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1990 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years. The youngest child of the Jackson family, she began her career with the variety television series The Jacksons in 1976 and went on to appear in other television shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including Good Times and Fame.
After signing a recording contract with A&M in 1982, she came to prominence following the release of her third studio album Control (1986). Her collaborations with record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis incorporated elements of rhythm and blues, funk, disco, rap, and industrial beats, which led to crossover appeal in popular music. In addition to receiving recognition for the innovation in her records, choreography, music videos, and prominence on radio airplay and MTV, she was acknowledged as a role model for her socially conscious lyrics.
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Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter from Port Arthur, Texas. As a youth Joplin was ridiculed by her fellow students due to her unconventional appearance and personal beliefs. She later sang about her experience at school through her song "Ego Rock". Early in her life, Joplin cultivated a rebellious and unconventional lifestyle, becoming a beatnik poet. She began her singing career as a folk and blues singer in San Francisco, playing clubs and bars with her guitar and auto-harp.
Joplin first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist with her more soulful and bluesy backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band. She was one of the more popular acts at the Monterey Pop Festival and later became one of the major attractions to the Woodstock festival and the Festival Express train tour.
Janis Joplin only charted five singles in her life but her hits and other popular songs from throughout her short four year career include "Down On Me", "Bye, Bye Baby", "Coo Coo", "Summertime", "Piece of My Heart", "Turtle Blues", "Ball 'n' Chain", "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)", "Maybe", "To Love Somebody", "Kozmic Blues", "Work Me, Lord", "Move Over", "Cry Baby", "A Woman Left Lonely" "Get It While You Can", "My Baby", "Trust Me", "Mercedes Benz", "One Night Stand", "Raise Your Hand" and her only number one hit, "Me and Bobby McGee".
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Jared Leto
Jared Joseph Leto (born December 26, 1971) is an American actor, director, producer, musician, and occasional model. Leto has appeared in both big budget Hollywood films and smaller projects from independent producers and art houses. He rose to prominence for playing Jordan Catalano in the teenage drama My So-Called Life (1994). He later made his film debut in How to Make an American Quilt (1995) and received first notable critical praise for his performance in Prefontaine (1997). Leto played supporting roles in The Thin Red Line (1998) and Girl, Interrupted (1999), as well as the lead role in the horror film Urban Legend (1998), and earned critical acclaim after portraying heroin addict Harry Goldfarb in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000). He has worked with director David Fincher in Fight Club (1999) and Panic Room (2002). Since the 2000s, Leto has been nominated for awards for his work in such films as American Psycho (2000), Highway (2002), Lord of War (2005), Lonely Hearts (2006), Chapter 27 (2007), and Mr. Nobody (2009).
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Jay Chou
Jay Chou; (born 18 January 1979) is a Taiwanese musician, singer-songwriter, music and film producer, actor and director. In 1998 he was discovered in a talent contest where he displayed his piano and song-writing skills. Over the next two years, he was hired to compose for popular Mandarin singers. Although he was trained in classical music, Chou combines Chinese and Western music styles to produce songs that fuse R&B, rock and pop genres. He composes all his own songs, as well as songs for other singers.
In 2000, Chou released his first album, titled Jay, under the record company Alfa Music. Since then he has released one album per year except in 2009, selling several million copies each. His music has gained recognition throughout Asia, most notably in regions such as Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and in overseas Asian communities. He has sold more than 28 million albums worldwide up to 2010. He debuted his acting career in Initial D (2005), for which he won Best Newcomer Actor in both the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor by Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in Curse of the Golden Flower (2006). He produced the theme song for the film Ocean Heaven starring Jet Li. His career now extends into directing and running his own record company JVR Music.
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Jermaine Paul
Jermaine Paul is an American R&B/soul singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is the winner of the second season of The Voice.
Jeremiah Jermaine Paul was born July 26, 1978 in Harriman, New York, and was raised in Spring Valley, New York. At twelve years old, he began to acquire a reputation for singing while playing the drums at local churches and talent shows with his family. Jermaine joined numerous adult choirs.
At the age of 12, Jermaine and his brother (Charles Paul) moved to Alabama with his grandfather. There, he was introduced to the guitar. He played his step-grandmother's old Gibson guitar at the local church. He began listening to R&B music and imitating the voices of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Jackie Wilson and Otis Redding. With some knowledge of the guitar, and the yearning to go back to New York, he wrote his first song.
At age 14, he moved upstate to Harriman, New York (Hudson Valley). There he attended Monroe Woodbury high school and was introduced to pop, rock and jazz. While taking piano lessons he was selected to join the all-state, all-county chorus, and the classically-trained high school voice ensemble.
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Jimmy Somerville
James William Somerville (born 22 June 1961) is a Scottish pop singer and songwriter. He had considerable success in the 1980s with the pop groups Bronski Beat and The Communards, and has also had a successful solo career. He is known in particular for his falsetto singing voice. He is also openly gay and vocal about gay rights.
Somerville's latest album, Suddenly Last Summer was released in May 2009.
In 1983, Somerville co-founded the synth pop group Bronski Beat, which proceeded to have a number of hits in the British charts. Their biggest hit was "Smalltown Boy" which reached #3 in the charts. Somerville played the song's titular character in the music video who leaves his hostile 'straight' hometown for the friendlier city.
Somerville left Bronski Beat in 1985, and formed The Communards with classically trained pianist Richard Coles (now a Church of England vicar). They had a number of hits, including a cover version of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes's "Don't Leave Me This Way", which spent four weeks at #1 in the UK charts, and became the biggest-selling single of 1986 in the UK. He also sang backing vocals on Fine Young Cannibals' version of "Suspicious Minds", which was a UK Top 10 hit.
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Jimmy Zámbó
Jimmy Zámbó (born Imre Zámbó, January 20, 1958 - January 2, 2001) was a Hungarian pop singer. His popularity and impressive four-octave range earned him the nickname "The King".
Zámbó started his singing career in the Hungarian State Radio Children's Choir. Between 1982 and 1986 he worked in the US on the club circuit before returning to Hungary. His breakthrough came in the early 1990s, when he was voted Hungary's singer of the year in 1993. His 2000 album Christmas With Jimmy had been Hungary's top-selling record for many weeks before his death. All his albums have gone platinum. Between March 2000 and his death he hosted his own popular show on commercial TV station RTL Klub.
Zámbó died on January 2, 2001, by a gunshot wound to the head. Budapest police said that he leaned out of a window and fired two shots from his 9mm Beretta at a neighbor's rooster whose crowing was disturbing his sleep, in an effort to scare it away. Then, to show his wife that there were no more bullets in the gun, he removed the magazine, put it to his head and pulled the trigger. However, there was a bullet still in the chamber, which fired and struck him in the temple. He was taken to the hospital, where he died hours later. He had consumed alcohol, though not an excessive amount. No drugs were found in his body. It was ruled as an accidental death.
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Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez ( /ˈbaɪ.ɛz/) (born January 9, 1941 as Joan Chandos Báez) is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice.
Baez has a distinctive vocal style, with a strong vibrato. Her recordings include many topical songs and material dealing with social issues.
Baez began her career performing in coffeehouses in Boston and Cambridge, and rose to fame as an unbilled performer at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. She began her recording career in 1960, and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2, and Joan Baez in Concert all achieved gold record status, and stayed on the charts for two years.
Baez has had a popular hit song with "Diamonds & Rust" and hit covers of Phil Ochs's "There but for Fortune" and The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". Other songs associated with Baez include "Farewell, Angelina", "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word", "Joe Hill", "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "We Shall Overcome". She performed three of the songs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, helped to bring the songs of Bob Dylan to national prominence, and has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights and the environment.
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Joan Jett
Joan Jett (born September 22, 1958) is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and occasional actress., best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular recordings including "Crimson and Clover", "I Hate Myself for Loving You", "Do You Want to Touch Me", "Light of Day", "Love Is All Around", "Bad Reputation".
Her musical and songwriting approach is heavily influenced by the hard-edged, hard beat-driven rhythms common to many rock bands of her native Philadelphia,[citation needed] often featuring lyrics surrounding themes of lost love, criticisms of insincerity, the quest for authenticity, as well as the struggles and resolutions of the American middle class. She has three albums that have been certified Platinum or Gold, and she has been referred to as the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" many times during her career.
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Joey Ramone
Joey Ramone (May 19, 1951 – April 15, 2001) was an American musician, vocalist and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the punk rock band the Ramones. Joey Ramone's image, voice and tenure as front man of the Ramones made him a countercultural icon.
Born Jeffry Ross Hyman to parents Noel and Charlotte Hyman, he was raised in the Jewish tradition. They lived in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, where Jeffry and his future Ramones bandmates attended Forest Hills High School. Jeffry was happy but something of an outcast[citation needed]. When he was 18 years old he was diagnosed with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). He grew up with brother Mickey Leigh and stepbrother John. His mother divorced and remarried three times.
Jeffry was a fan of The Beatles,The Who, David Bowie and The Stooges among other bands (particularly oldies and the Phil Spector-produced "girl groups"). His idol was Pete Townshend of The Who (with whom he shared a birthday). Jeffry took up drums at 13, and played throughout his teen years. Before he joined the Ramones, he was the singer in a band called Snipers.
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John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He organized at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk.
As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane, and their son Ravi Coltrane is also a saxophonist. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history. He received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane. In 2007, Coltrane was awarded the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz."
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John Farnham
John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham (born 1 July 1949), is an English-born Australian pop singer. As Johnny Farnham he was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as lead singer of Little River Band during 1982–1985. In September 1986 his solo single, "You're the Voice" peaked at No. 1 on the Australian singles charts. The associated album, Whispering Jack, held the No. 1 position for a total of 25 weeks, and is the highest-selling album in Australian history. Both the single and the album had Top Ten success internationally including No. 1 in Sweden.
Domestically he has remained one of Australia's best-known performers with a career spanning over 40 years, and he is the only Australian artist to have a number one record in five consecutive decades (echoing Sir Cliff Richard in the UK) with singles: "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)" in 1967, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" in 1969/1970, and "Age of Reason" in 1988; and albums: Age of Reason, Chain Reaction in 1990, Then Again... in 1993, Anthology 1: Greatest Hits 1986-1997 in 1997, 33⅓ in 2000 and The Last Time in 2002.
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John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was a highly influential American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally a unique brand of country blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his blues guitar playing and singing. His best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'" (1948), "I'm in the Mood" (1951) and "Boom Boom" (1962), the first two reaching R&B #1 in the Billboard charts.
There is some debate as to the year of Hooker's birth in Coahoma County, Mississippi, the youngest of the eleven children of William Hooker (1871–1923), a sharecropper and Baptist preacher, and Minnie Ramsey (born 1875, date of death unknown); according to his official website, he was born on August 22, 1917.
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Johnnie Ray
Johnnie Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor of what would become rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage personality.
John Alvin Ray was born in Dallas, Oregon, spending part of his childhood on a farm, lived in Dallas, Polk County, Oregon with parents Elmer and Hazel Ray and older sister Elma Ray, and attended grade school there, eventually moving to Portland, Oregon where he attended high school. Ray was not of Native American origin: it was rumored that his great-grandmother was a full-blooded Blackfoot Indian, but in a response to a reporter questioning his heritage in 1952, Ray, puzzled, looked down at his shoes and said "Blackfoot". His great-grandfather was Oregon pioneer George Kirby Gay of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England.[citation needed]
He became deaf in his right ear at age 13 after an accident during a Boy Scout "blanket toss," a variation of the trampoline. (Ray later performed wearing a hearing aid. Surgery performed in New York in 1958 left him almost completely deaf in both ears, although hearing aids helped his condition.)
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Johnny Otis
Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes (December 28, 1921 – January 17, 2012), better known as Johnny Otis, was an American singer, musician, composer, and record producer. Born in Vallejo, California, he is commonly referred to as the "Godfather of Rhythm and Blues".
Otis was the child of Greek immigrants Alexander J. Veliotes, a Mare Island longshoreman and grocery store owner, and his wife, the former Irene Kiskakes, a painter.
He was the older brother of Nicholas A. Veliotes, former U.S. Ambassador to Jordan (1978–1981) and to Egypt (1984–1986).
Otis grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood in Berkeley, California, where his father owned and operated a neighborhood grocery store. Otis became well known for his choice to live his professional and personal life as a member of the African-American community. He has written, "As a kid I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black."
He was the father of musician Shuggie Otis.
After playing drums in a variety of swing orchestras, including Lloyd Hunter's Serenaders, and Harlan Leonard's Rockets, he founded his own band in 1945 and had one of the most enduring hits of the big band era, "Harlem Nocturne". His band included Wynonie Harris and Charles Brown. In 1947, he and Bardu Ali opened the Barrelhouse Club in the Watts district of Los Angeles, California. He reduced the size of his band and hired singers Mel Walker, Little Esther Phillips and the Robins (who later became the Coasters). He discovered the teenaged Phillips when she won one of the Barrelhouse Club's talent shows. With this band, which toured extensively throughout the United States as the California Rhythm and Blues Caravan, he had a long string of rhythm and blues hits through 1950.
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Joseph Koo
Joseph Koo Kar-Fai, MBE, SBS (born January 1, 1933 in Guangzhou, China) is one of the most respected composers in Hong Kong. He used the pen name Moran (莫然) for Mandarin songs. He has two siblings: an older sister, the famous Chinese singer Koo Mei (顧媚), and a younger brother, Koo Kar-Tseung (顧嘉鏘).
Koo was sponsored by Sir Run Run Shaw to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston in the early 60s. Upon graduation he returned to Hong Kong and worked for both the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest movie studios. Later he joined TVB as their director of music, where from the late 1970s until immigrating to Canada in the 1990s, he collaborated with the lyricist Wong Jim on many memorable TV theme songs. Koo has composed over 1,200 songs in his career, many of his songs are now considered as classic Cantopop.
In 1962, he composed his first hit (Mandarin Chinese) song 夢 and later another hit song 郊道. In 1974, he wrote the first Cantonese TV theme song (啼笑姻緣) which was the actual first popular Cantopop song.
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José José
José José (born José Rómulo Sosa Ortiz on February 17, 1948) is a Mexican singer.
Also known in the entertainment world as El Príncipe de la Canción (The Prince of Song), he is recognized for his romantic ballads and praised for his vocals. His voice garnered acclaim from musical peers and media.
Born and raised in Mexico City into a family of musicians, José José started his musical career in his early teens playing guitar and singing in serenades. He later joined a jazz and bossa nova trio where he sang and played the bass and double bass. José became a successful solo artist in the early 1970s. Demonstrating his vocal ability with a masterful performance of the song "El Triste" in a Latin music festival in 1970, he climbed the Latin charts during the decade.
In the 1980s, after signing with Ariola Records, he gained international fame as one of the most talented and successful performers in Latin America. His 1983 album Secretos has sold over 7.5 million copies around the world. With a series of huge hits, he received several nominations to the Grammy and numerous recognitions worldwide. He sold out in venues such as the Madison Square Garden and the Radio City Music Hall. His music has reached non Spanish-speaking countries like Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Israel and Russia. During the 1990s, after several hits, his career began to decline as his voice started to falter due to alcoholism and unknown health issues. José has also forged a career as an actor, starring in movies like Gavilán o Paloma and Perdóname Todo.
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Juan Gabriel
Alberto Aguilera Valadez (Spanish pronunciation: [alˈβeɾto aɣiˈleɾa βalaˈðes]) (born January 7, 1950), better known by his stage name Juan Gabriel (pronounced: [ˈxwaŋ ɡaˈβɾjel]), is a Mexican singer, songwriter, recording artist, and performer.
Born on 7 January 1950, on Cinco de Mayo street (now known as Juan Gabriel Street) in the small town of Parácuaro, Michoacán, to father Gabriel Aguilera Rodríguez and mother Victoria Valadez Rojas, he is the youngest of 10 siblings: Rosa who died shortly after birth, Virginia, José Guadalupe, Gabriel, Pablo, Miguel (died) and three brothers named Rafael who all three have also died.
Around the age of three months, Alberto's father, Gabriel, being an agricultural field worker, intended to clear a piece of land by setting fire to the field. Due to windy conditions, sadly he lost control of the fire which began to spread to neighboring properties and homes. Deeply disturbed and worried over the consequences he brought onto his family, Gabriel knew not what to do and threw himself into a river. Badly injured from the fall, Gabriel was hospitalized and committed to La Castañeda psychiatric ward in México City. What happened to Gabriel after the psychiatric ward is unknown. One tale is that he died while in La Castañeda for their alleged patient mistreatment, while others say that Gabriel escaped from the mental ward to unknown whereabouts. Either way, Alberto and his family never heard from their father again. These accounts would later be Alberto's inspiration for the song titled "De Sol a Sol (A Mis Padres)" - English translation, "From Sun Up to Sun Down (To My Parents)".
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Jully Black
Jully Black ( /ˈdʒuːliː/; "Julie"; born Jullyann Inderia Gordon; November 8, 1977) is a Canadian R&B singer–songwriter. She has collaborated and written for many artists, including Nas, Saukrates, Choclair, Kardinal Offishall, Destiny's Child, and Sean Paul.
Black was born Jullyann Inderia Gordon, in Toronto, Ontario of Jamaican heritage. She grew up in the Jane and Finch area of Toronto.
Black had a Top 40 hit on the Canadian charts in 1998 with "Rally'n". She has had subsequent hits with singles such as "You Changed" and "Between Me and U". She had also been invited to contribute to Rascalz' groundbreaking hip hop single "Northern Touch" in 1998, but was unable to participate due to other commitments.
Her solo debut album was originally scheduled for release in 2003 on MCA Records, under the title I Traveled. However, it was heavily delayed, MCA eventually folded in 2003, and the album was shelved.
In summer 2005, a newly recorded album, This Is Me, was released by Universal Music Canada. The album included the hit singles "Sweat of Your Brow" and "5x Love". According to a piracy report by IFPI, the international music industry body, there were "2.8 million illegal file swapping requests for her music in the first two weeks of her album's release in 2005".
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Juno Mak
Juno Mak (born 18 March 1984), is a singer from Hong Kong. Born Mak Yun Ran (麥允然), he uses the Chinese stage name Mak Jun Long (麥浚龍) and was known as Bobby Mak before his entry into the music industry. He is the son of Hong Kong telecoms tycoon Clement Mak and the younger brother of Phillip Mak, founder of Milk magazine and record label Silly Thing.
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Justin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, actor, and businessman. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez. Timberlake became famous in the late 1990s as the lead singer and youngest member of the boy band 'N Sync, whose launch was financed by Lou Pearlman.
In 2002, he released his debut solo album, Justified, which sold more than seven million copies worldwide. The album was a commercial success, spawning the hits "Cry Me a River" and "Rock Your Body". Timberlake continued his success with his second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006), debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and produced the US number-one hit singles "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around".
Timberlake has won six Grammy Awards and four Emmy Awards. His first two albums made him one of the most commercially successful singers in the world, each selling in excess of 7 million copies. He also has an acting career, having starred in films such as The Social Network, Bad Teacher and Friends with Benefits. His other ventures include record label Tennman Records, fashion label William Rast, and the restaurants Destino and Southern Hospitality.
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Kanye West
Kanye Omari West ( /ˈkɑːnjeɪ/; born June 8, 1977) is an American musician, film director and fashion designer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and Janet Jackson. His style of production originally used pitched-up vocal samples from soul songs incorporated with his own drums and instruments. However, subsequent productions saw him broadening his musical palette and expressing influences encompassing '70s R&B, baroque pop, trip hop, arena rock, folk, alternative, electronica, synthpop, and classical music.
West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008, and his fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. West released a collaborative album, Watch the Throne with Jay-Z in 2011, which is the duo's first collaborative album. His five solo albums, all of which have gone platinum, have received numerous awards and critical acclaim. As of 2012, West has won a total of eighteen Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all-time. All albums have been very commercially successful, with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy becoming his fourth consecutive No. 1 album in the U.S. upon release. West has had 5 songs exceed 3 million in digital sales as of July 2011, with "Gold Digger" selling 3,086,000, "Stronger" selling 4,402,000, "Heartless" selling 3,742,000, "E.T." selling over 4,000,000 and "Love Lockdown" selling over 3,000,000 placing him third in overall digital sales of the past decade. He has sold over 30 million digital songs in the United States making him one of the best-selling digital artists of all-time.
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Keyshia Cole
Keyshia Cole (born October 15, 1981) is an American singer–songwriter and actress. She gained nationwide acclaim when her 2005 debut album, The Way It Is went platinum. Her second album Just Like You went into production shortly after that and was released in September 2007. Her third studio album, A Different Me was released on December 16, 2008 and is certified Gold for selling 900,000+ units in the United States. She also achieved moderate success for her reality/documentary series Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is which aired on BET from 2006-2008 which gave a close look at Cole's career and personal life with her biological mother and sister. In December 2010, she released her fourth studio album, Calling All Hearts.
Keyshia Cole was born on October 15, 1981 in Oakland, California, where she was raised. Cole was born to Francine "Frankie" Lons and Sal, her now deceased father. She was later adopted by family friend Yvonne Cole and raised by Yvonne's husband's family and friends from the age of two. Yvonne learned that Cole could sing when she was five. At a school function, she snuck away from her mother and the next thing she knew, Cole had won a talent show. Along with her brother Sean, Cole was first introduced to the music industry at the age of 12, when she met and recorded with MC Hammer. She later formed a friendship with Tupac Shakur, who promised to help start her singing career before he died unexpectedly. Cole remembers Shakur as "really outspoken and really bright. He was definitely a guy who gave off a superstar vibe." Cole moved to Los Angeles when she was 18 to pursue a music career. During this time, Cole collaborated with artists from her native Bay Area, among them D'Wayne Wiggins of Tony Toni Tone and Messy Marv. In 2002, she was introduced to A&M Records executive Ron Fair, who signed her and began mentoring her after hearing her singing a verse of her hit song "Love".
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Kikki Danielsson
Ann-Kristin "Kikki" Danielsson (born 10 May 1952 in Osby, Sweden) is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She is also famous for yodeling in some songs. Kikki Danielsson gained her largest popularity in the Nordic region from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. She also gained popularity at the US country stage during the 1980s. In 1986, she had the "Kikki i Nashville" TV show.
Totally, she has participated nine times at the Swedish Melodifestivalen and one time at the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix. She has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twice, in 1982 (as a part of the Swedish pop and country group Chips with the song "Dag efter dag", finishing 8th) and in the 1985 (solo) with the song "Bra vibrationer", finishing 3rd.
Kikki Danielsson was born in Osby, but was adopted and lived on a farm in Älmhult, Småland from the age of five. There, she became the only child in the family while her younger sister was adopted to another place. As a five-year-old girl, Kikki Danielsson made her first singing performance, which occurred at the local Sunday school's Lucia party in her Småland home church, singing the Christmas song När Jesusbarnet låg en gång. As a child, she sang in the local church choir.
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Kitty Wells
Ellen Muriel Deason (born August 30, 1919), known professionally as Kitty Wells, is an American country music singer. Her 1952 hit recording, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. country charts, and turned her into the first female country star. Her Top 10 hits continued until the mid-1960s, inspiring a long list of female country singers who came to prominence in the 1960s.
Wells ranks as the sixth most successful female vocalist in the history of Billboard's country charts, according to historian Joel Whitburn's book The Top 40 Country Hits, behind Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, and Tanya Tucker. In 1976, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and is currently its oldest living member. In 1991, she became the third country music artist, after Roy Acuff and Hank Williams, and the eighth woman to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Wells' accomplishments earned her the nickname The Queen of Country Music.
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Kohmi Hirose
Asami Yonemitsu (米光 麻美, Yonemitsu Asami?, born April 12, 1966), known by her stage name Kohmi Hirose (広瀬 香美, Hirose Kōmi?), is a J-pop singer-songwriter. Since the release of her million-selling single "Romance no Kamisama" in 1993, Hirose has recorded music for winter-sporting goods company Alpen's advertising campaigns. This has prompted the Japanese public to bestowed upon her the nickname of "Winter Queen" (冬の女王, Fuyu no Joō?). Her popularity spiked in the early 21st century when her second most successful single "Promise" was used in an Internet meme.
Asami Yonemitsu graduated from Fukuoka Jo Gakuin University and then Kunitachi College of Music in 1989. During her student days, she visited Los Angeles and decided to pursue a career in pop music after seeing Michael Jackson and Madonna in concert. Soon after, she began taking voice lessons from Seth Riggs, Michael Jackson's voice trainer of 3 years. Her favorite singer is David Foster.
She chose the stage name "Kohmi Hirose" as Kōmi (香美?) sounded like the English phrase "call me" and Hirose (広瀬?) was a suggestion from the Victor Entertainment staff.
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Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor (September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American Chicago blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings.
Born Cora Walton in Shelby County, Tennessee, Taylor was the daughter of a sharecropper. She left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois in 1952 with her husband, truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor. In the late 1950s she began singing in Chicago blues clubs. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led to wider performances and her first recording contract. In 1965, Taylor was signed by Chess Records where she recorded "Wang Dang Doodle," a song written by Dixon and recorded by Howlin' Wolf five years earlier. The song became a hit, reaching number four on the R&B charts in 1966, and selling a million copies. Taylor recorded several versions of "Wang Dang Doodle" over the years, including a live version at the 1967 American Folk Blues Festival with harmonica player Little Walter and guitarist Hound Dog Taylor. Taylor subsequently recorded more material, both original and covers, but never repeated that initial chart success.
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Kurtis Blow
Kurt Walker (born August 9, 1959), professionally known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major record label. "The Breaks", a single from his 1980 debut album, is the first certified gold record rap song.
In 1979, aged twenty, Kurtis Blow became the first rapper to be signed by a major label, Mercury, which released "Christmas Rappin'". It sold over 400,000 copies. Its follow-up, "The Breaks", sold over half a million copies. He was also the first rapper to perform overseas. He released ten albums over the next eleven years. His first album was Kurtis Blow, while his second was the Top 50 pop album Deuce. Party Time featured a fusion of rap and go-go. Ego Trip included the hits: "8 Million Stories," "AJ Scratch," and "Basketball". His 1985 album, America, garnered praise for its title track's music video. From this album, the song "If I Ruled the World" became a Top 5 hit on Billboard's R&B chart. In 1996, fellow rapper Nas debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with a cover version of the song.
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Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE ( /ˈkaɪliː mɨˈnoʊɡ/; born 28 May 1968) — often known simply as Kylie — is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, showgirl, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing her career as a recording artist in 1987. Her first single, "Locomotion", spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart and became the highest selling single of the decade. This led to a contract with songwriters and producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Her debut album, Kylie (1988), and the single "I Should Be So Lucky", each reached number one in the United Kingdom, and over the next two years, her first 13 singles reached the British top ten. Her debut film, The Delinquents (1989) was a box-office hit in Australia and the UK, and received generally positive reviews.
Initially presented as a "girl next door", Minogue attempted to convey a more mature style in her music and public image. Her singles were well received, but after four albums her record sales were declining, and she left Stock, Aitken & Waterman in 1992 to establish herself as an independent performer. Her next single, "Confide in Me", reached number one in Australia and was a hit in several European countries in 1994, and a duet with Nick Cave, "Where the Wild Roses Grow", brought Minogue a greater degree of artistic credibility. Drawing inspiration from a range of musical styles and artists, Minogue took creative control over the songwriting for her next album, Impossible Princess (1997). It failed to attract strong reviews or sales in the UK, but was successful in Australia.
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Lady Gaga
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (/ˈstɛfəniː dʒʌrməˈnɑːtə/ STE-fə-nee jurr-mə-NAH-tə; born March 28, 1986), known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She began performing in the rock music scene of Manhattan's Lower East Side, and was signed with Streamline Records by the end of 2007. During her employment as a songwriter for the record company, her vocal abilities captured the attention of recording artist Akon, who signed her to his label Kon Live Distribution.
Lady Gaga came to prominence as a recording artist following the release of her debut album The Fame (2008), which was a critical and commercial success that topped charts around the world and included the international number-one singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". After embarking on the The Fame Ball Tour, she followed the album with The Fame Monster (2009), which spawned the worldwide hit singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone" and "Alejandro". The album's success allowed her to embark on the eighteen-month long Monster Ball Tour, which later became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. Her most recent album Born This Way (2011) topped the charts of most major markets and generated more international chart-topping singles, including "Born This Way", "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory". Besides her musical career, she involves herself with humanitarian causes and LGBT activism.
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Lani Misalucha
Lani Misalucha (born August 3, 1969 in Manila, Philippines) is a singer from the Philippines currently performing in the United States where she also resides. She holds shows at the Flamingo Las Vegas with the Hawaiian variety troupe Society of Seven - SOS. She performs pop, rock, jazz, soul, rhythm and blues, and operatic arias.
Since arriving in Las Vegas in 2004, Misalucha has been called "New Siren of the Strip." In March 2008, Misalucha was voted "Best Singer" (staff pick) in the "27th Annual Best of Las Vegas" poll by the Las Vegas Review Journal. Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman declared Deccember 4 ‘Lani Misalucha Day’.
Lani Misalucha was born into a musical family. Her father Benjamin Bayot had been an operatic tenor, her mother Esperanza Dimalanta was a coloratura soprano, sister May is a band vocalist, sister Karlyn is an actress (Munting Paraiso) who also plays violin and flute, while brothers Novi and Osi play guitar and piano. She was tutored in classical vocals by her parents.
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Laura Canales
Laura Canales (August 19, 1954 – April 16, 2005) was an American Tejano musician and an original inductee in the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame. Canales was born in Kingsville, Texas.
Laura Canales was raised in Kingsville, Texas, a small ranching town located fifty miles southwest of Corpus Christi, Texas. She attended high school at H.M. King High School in Kingsville where she was well known for her remarkable vocals. After graduation, her father, Perfecto Canales, encouraged her to continue her pursuit of a Tejano music career and made her recording debut in 1973 with Los Unicos while simultaneously singing with renowned Texas conjunto and norteño group, Conjunto Bernal.
In the mid-1970s, Canales was a founding member of Tejano group, Snowball & Company, which also went by the name, Felicidad. The band released several full-length albums and singles under both group names on San Antonio label, Fireball Records, including a cover of the song Midnight Blues which was the first regional hit of Canales' career. Members included Laura Canales (lead vocals), Oscar Soliz (keyboards, accordion, bass, harmonica), Miro Valdez (guitar, vocals), Juan Rodriguez (bass, vocals, accordion), and Balde Muñoz (drums, percussion). The band was managed by Oscar Muñoz.
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Laurel Aitken
Lorenzo Aitken (April 22, 1927 – July 17, 2005), better known as Laurel Aitken, was a singer and one of the originators of Jamaican ska music. He is often referred to as the "Godfather of ska".
Born in Cuba of mixed Cuban and Jamaican descent, Aitken and his family settled in Jamaica in 1938. After an early career working for the Jamaican Tourist Board singing mento songs for visitors arriving at Kingston Harbour, he became a popular nightclub entertainer. His first recordings in the late 1950s were mento tunes such as "Nebuchnezer", "Sweet Chariot" (aka the gospel classic "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot") and "Baba Kill Me Goat". Progressing to a pre-ska shuffle, Aitken's 1958 single "Little Sheila"/"Boogie in My Bones" was one of the first records produced by Chris Blackwell, who founded his Island Records label that year, and the first Jamaican popular music record to be released in the United Kingdom. Other rock and roll singles from this period include "Low Down Dirty Girl", "Drinkin' Whisky" and "More Whisky", produced by Duke Reid.
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Lee Aaron
Lee Aaron (born Karen Lynn Greening, July 21, 1962), is a Canadian rock and jazz singer. She had several hits in the 1980s and early 1990s such as "Metal Queen", "Whatcha Do to My Body", and "Sex with Love".
Lee Aaron was born in Belleville, Ontario, and began singing in school musicals at the age of five. She was discovered singing in a music production when she was fifteen years old, and was asked to join a local rock group called "Lee Aaron" while still in high school in Brampton, Ontario. Aaron sang, played alto saxophone and keyboards in this first incarnation of the band.
At age seventeen, Aaron's face was badly bruised and her nose broken in a car accident. No surgery was required, but years later, in a profile on Aaron, Canadian Musician Magazine mistakenly embellished the incident into Aaron requiring complete facial reconstruction. The magazine printed a retraction in the following month's issue.
That same year, she signed with her first manager, Bob Connolly. Aaron was removed from playing any instruments and pulled centre stage to front the band.
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Lee Solters
Lee Solters (June 23, 1919 – May 18, 2009) was an American press agent who used his flamboyant style to represent celebrities from stage, movies and sports including 26 years with Frank Sinatra.
Born Nathan Cohen in Brooklyn, New York on June 23, 1919 to Jewish-American parents (Jacob and Gussie), Solters attended New York University, where he studied advertising and journalism. After being drafted into the United States Army, he became a writer for Stars and Stripes, the official newspaper of the United States Armed Forces.
After leaving military service, he went into the public relations business with his own company in 1948, achieving early success with stories about clients planted in the columns of Army Archerd, Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell. He had as many as 60 employees working for him, resisting offers to be bought out by other firms over the years with his insistence that he remain his own boss. Solters began to gain success as his firm Solters & O'Rourke (with partner James J. O'Rourke) gathered clients. Broadway publicist Harvey Sabinson joined the firm, adding his theater division, changing the company's name to Solters, O'Rourke and Sabinson. When Sabinson left to head the League of N.Y. Theatres and Producers, the firm was renamed Solters/Roskin (later Solters/Roskin/Friedman) with Solters heading the west coast branch (in Los Angeles) and Sheldon Roskin heading the east coast branch (in New York City). Monroe Friedman was added to the firm's partnership, assisting Solters on the west coast.
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Lee Soo Young
Lee Soo Young (born Lee Ji Yeon, April 12, 1979 in Seoul, South Korea) is a Korean ballad singer. She made her debut in 1999 in Korea with the hit “I Believe.” Currently, she has nine released albums and five mini-albums (labeled as Holiday in Lombok, Classic, As Time Goes By, An Autumn Day, Once) and sang six OSTs. She’s recognized in Korea for her powerful voice and although she rarely appears in her own music videos, she has earned a lot of popularity. She has also recently appeared on a number of variety shows, displaying her sense of humour and her ability to be comical and carefree, adding to her popularity. Today she is considered one of Korea’s most famous and accomplished ballad singers.
In 2001, she sang the official Korean version of the Final Fantasy X song “Suteki Da Ne” in Korean, titled “얼마나 좋을까” (“Eolmana Joheulkka”).
She released her seventh album, Grace, on January 21, 2006. It performed very well, able to shoot straight to the top of the charts. The popularity of the album led to a limited edition (repackage) release of Grace, of which only 30,000 copies were produced.
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Leon Lai
Leon Lai is a Hong Kong-based actor and Cantopop singer. The media refer to Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王). He uses the stage name "Li Ming" or "Lai Ming" which literally means "dawn."
Lai was born in Beijing, China as Lai Chit (黎捷) with Meixian, Guangdong ancestry. His family was originally from Meixian. His parents divorced when he was four. He migrated with his Malaysian Chinese father, Lai Xinsheng to Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution in China. At the age of 15, he attended Kingsway Princeton College in the United Kingdom and returned to Hong Kong at the age of eighteen in 1984.
Lai initially worked as a salesperson for a mobile phone company. After being awarded second-runner-up in the 1986 5th New Talent Singing Awards, Lai received vocal coaching from Dai Si Zong (戴思聰). In the same year he also obtained an artist contract from Capital Artists. Lai did not release any albums for four years. As a result, his teacher, Dai, arranged to have him signed a contract with Polygram, later known as Universal Music.
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Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009)—known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound),delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.
His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.
Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" along with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed.
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Leslie Cheung
Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing (12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003), nicknamed Gor Gor (哥哥), which means elder brother, was a Hong Kong film actor and musician. Cheung was considered as "one of the founding fathers of Cantopop", and "combining a hugely successful film and music career".
In 2000, Cheung was named Asian Biggest Superstar by China Central Television, and voted/ranked the 1st as The Most Favorite Actor in 100 Years of Chinese Cinema in 2005. Recently, he was voted the third of the CNN's "top five most iconic musician of all time" placing behind Michael Jackson and The Beatles.
Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing was born in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Cheung was the youngest of ten children in a middle-class Hakka family. Cheung Wut Hoi, his father, was a fairly well known tailor, whose customers included American actors William Holden, Marlon Brando, and Cary Grant. His parents divorced when he was quite young. While in Hong Kong, Cheung attended Rosaryhill School (Stubbs Road, Hong Kong).
At the age of 13, he was sent to England as a boarder at Eccles Hall School. After six month study, he transferred himself to a school in Chelmsford, and obtained a scholarship. He worked as a bartender at his relatives' restaurant and sang during the weekends. It was around this period that he chose his name, "Leslie". According to Cheung, he chose this name because "I love the film Gone with the Wind. And I like Leslie Howard. The name can be a man's or woman's, it's very unisex, so I like it."
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Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan ( /ˈloʊ.ən/; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, recording artist, and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Walt Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11. Lohan gained further fame with leading roles in the films Freaky Friday (2003), Mean Girls (2004), and Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005). In 2006 she appeared in independent films including Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion and Emilio Estevez's Bobby. In 2004, Lohan launched a second career as a recording artist with her debut album Speak, which was followed by A Little More Personal (Raw) in 2005.
In 2007, her career was interrupted when two driving under the influence (DUI) incidents and three visits to rehabilitation facilities led to the loss of several movie deals. Resuming her career, she guest starred in the TV series Ugly Betty in 2008, and starred in the TV comedy film Labor Pains in 2009. In 2010, she appeared in Robert Rodriguez's film Machete. She has attracted a great deal of publicity, particularly surrounding her personal life.
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Lisa Marie Presley
Lisa Marie Presley (born February 1, 1968) is an American singer and songwriter, also known as the "Princess of Rock and Roll". She is the only child of Elvis Presley, and daughter of Priscilla Presley.
Lisa Marie Presley was born at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, exactly nine months after her parents' wedding. She lived at Graceland, Elvis' Memphis estate, until her parents separated in 1972. Following their separation and subsequent divorce, she divided her time between living at Graceland with her father and in Beverly Hills with her mother. This arrangement continued until her father died on August 16, 1977, after which she lived exclusively in Beverly Hills.
When her father died, Lisa Marie became joint-heir to his estate with her grandfather Vernon Presley, and her great grandmother Minnie Mae Presley. Following the deaths of Vernon in 1979 and Minnie Mae in 1980, Lisa became the sole heir and inherited Graceland. In 1993, on her 25th birthday, she inherited the estate, which had grown to an estimated $100 million.
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Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the mid-1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and contributed significantly to the early development of soul music. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website entry on Penniman states that:
He claims to be "the architect of rock and roll", and history would seem to bear out Little Richard’s boast. More than any other performer – save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll.
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Liz Phair
Elizabeth Clark "Liz" Phair (born April 17, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Phair began her career in the early 1990s by self-releasing audio cassettes under the moniker Girly Sound, before signing with the independent record label Matador Records. Her 1993 debut studio album Exile in Guyville was released to acclaim: by the turn of the 21st century, it had been ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Ten years after the release of her debut, Phair's fourth album, Liz Phair, was released on Capitol Records and her music began to move in a more pop rock-oriented approach. Phair has sold nearly three million records worldwide. Her latest album, Funstyle, was released on July 3, 2010.
Phair was born in New Haven, Connecticut, but was raised in Winnetka, Illinois, by wealthy adoptive parents. She graduated from New Trier High School in 1985. During high school, Phair was involved in student government, yearbook, and the cross country team, and took AP Studio Art her senior year, among many other advanced-level classes. She attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and majored in art history.
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Liza Wang
Elizabeth Wang Ming-chun, SBS, commonly known as Liza Wang, is an accomplished diva, actress and MC in Hong Kong. She is a well-known personality in Chinese-speaking communities. She has been nicknamed "The Big Sister" in the HK entertainment circle. Wang was formerly a delegate in the National People's Congress from 1988 to 1997, she is currently a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Liza moved to Hong Kong in the autumn of 1956 and her passion for performing arts drove her to sign up for Rediffusion Hong Kong's first Artist Academy class in 1967. Out of the thousands of applicants, the 20-year-old Liza was one of the lucky 9 that were handpicked to attend acting classes. Liza was also the first to graduate from the academy and Liza holds the graduation certificate with the serial number: 001.
As one of the most prolific television actors in Hong Kong, her career has spanned four decades, since 1967. She began working for a different television station until she joined TVB in 1971. She was one of the members of the all-girl music group Four Golden Flowers. Wang initially made her mark in the entertainment industry in drama series. Her success in front of the camera allowed her to work behind the scenes with television productions.
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Lonnie Donegan
Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002) was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s. The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums states Donegan was "Britain's most successful and influential recording artist before The Beatles. He chalked up 24 successive Top 30 hits, and was the first UK male to score two U.S. Top 10s".
Born as Anthony James Donegan in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra, he moved with his family in 1933 to East Ham, Essex (now in Greater London).
Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire to escape the Blitz in World War II, and he attended St Ambrose College, initially at the school's original site in Dunham Road, Altrincham.
In the early 1940s he mostly listened to swing jazz and vocal acts, and became interested in the guitar.Country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White, attracted his interest and he bought his first guitar at the age of fourteen in 1945. From listening to BBC radio broadcasts in the following years he began learning songs such as "Frankie and Johnny", "Puttin' On the Style", and "The House of the Rising Sun". By the end of the 1940s he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs.
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Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn (born Loretta Webb April 14, 1932), is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, near Paintsville, Kentucky in Johnson County to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 15 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Vanetta Lynn, Jr. (1926–1996), nicknamed "Doo". Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he had affairs and she was headstrong. Their experiences together became inspiration for her music.
On her 21st birthday, Lynn's husband bought her a $17.00 Harmony guitar. She taught herself to play and when she was 24, on her wedding anniversary, Doo encouraged her to become a singer. She learned the guitar better, started singing at the Delta Grange Hall in Washington State with the Pen Brothers' band, The Westerners, then eventually cut her first record in February, 1960. She became a part of the country music scene in Nashville in the 1960s, and in 1967 charted her first of 16 number-one hits (out of 70 charted songs as a solo artist and a duet partner) that include "Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)", "You Ain't Woman Enough", "Fist City", and "Coal Miner's Daughter". She focused on blue collar women's issues with themes of philandering husbands and persistent mistresses, and pushed boundaries in the conservative genre of country music by singing about birth control ("The Pill"), repeated childbirth ("One's on the Way"), double standards for men and women ("Rated "X""), and being widowed by the draft during the Vietnam War ("Dear Uncle Sam"). Country music radio stations often refused to play her songs. Nonetheless, she became known as "The First Lady of Country Music" and continues to be one of the most successful vocalists of all time.
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Lotta Engberg
Anna Charlotte "Lotta" Engberg, née Pedersen, is a Swedish dansband and pop singer, born 5 March 1963 in Överkalix,Norrbotten County and raised in Laxå, Örebro County. She now lives in Alingsås with her husband. She hosts the Swedish sing-along show Lotta på Liseberg.
Engberg won Melodifestivalen 1987 with Fyra bugg & en Coca Cola and represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987. She has before and since then performed in Melodifestivalen several times.
On October 2, 1999 Sweden issued a postage stamp with her portrait.
She is also a successful TV host. Since August 2008, she has hosted the Swedish game show Bingolotto, which she will leave in the summer of 2011.
Under her maiden name, Pedersen, she made her debut in the Sveriges Television program "Nygammalt" in 1980 when she was 17. She was also a member of the "Trioala", an a cappella choir. Later, she received a permanent place in the TV program's choir.
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Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed, born March 2, 1942, is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his solo career, which has spanned several decades. Though the Velvet Underground were a commercial failure in the late 1960s, the group has gained a considerable cult following in the years since its demise and has gone on to become one of the most widely cited and influential bands of the era. As the Velvet Underground's principal songwriter, Reed wrote about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined so openly in rock and roll, including sexuality and drug culture.
After his departure from the group, Reed began a solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following year with "Walk on the Wild Side", although he subsequently lacked the mainstream commercial success its chart status seemed to indicate. Reed's work as a solo artist frustrated critics wishing for a return of the Velvet Underground. In 1975, Reed released a double album of feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which he later commented, "No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive."
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Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #59 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Jordan was one of the most successful African-American musicians of the 20th century, ranking fifth in the list of the all-time most successful black recording artists according to Billboard magazine's chart methodology. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he scored at least four million-selling hits during his career. Jordan regularly topped the R&B "race" charts, and was one of the first black recording artists to achieve a significant "crossover" in popularity into the mainstream (predominantly white) American audience, scoring simultaneous Top Ten hits on the white pop charts on several occasions. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most popular and successful African-American bandleader of his day.
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Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (12 October 1935 – 6 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor, who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, and established himself as one of the finest tenors of the 20th century. He was one of The Three Tenors and became well known for his televised concerts and media appearances. Pavarotti was also noted for his charity work on behalf of refugees and the Red Cross, amongst others.
Pavarotti began his professional career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy. That same year, he made his first international appearance in La traviata in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He sang in opera houses in addition to Italy, in the Netherlands, Vienna, London, Ankara, Budapest and Barcelona. The young tenor earned valuable experience and recognition while touring Australia at the invitation of soprano Joan Sutherland in 1965. He made his United States debut in Miami soon afterwards, also on Sutherland's recommendation. His position as a leading lyric tenor was consolidated in the years between 1966 and 1972, during which time he first appeared at Milan's La Scala and other major European houses. In 1968, he debuted at New York City's Metropolitan Opera as Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème. At the Met in 1972, in the role of Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du régiment he earned the title "King of the high Cs" when he sang the aria "Ah mes amis ... pour mon âme". He gained worldwide fame for the brilliance and beauty of his tone, especially into the upper register. He was at his best in bel canto operas, pre-Aida Verdi roles and Puccini works such as La bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. The late 1970s and 1980s saw Pavarotti continue to make significant appearances in the world's foremost opera houses.
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Lydia Mendoza
Lydia Mendoza (May 21, 1916 – December 20, 2007) was an American guitarist and singer of Tejano, conjunto, and traditional Mexican-American music. She is known as "La Alondra de la Frontera" (or "The Lark of the Border" in English).
Mendoza was born on May 21, 1916, in Houston, Texas. She learned to sing and play stringed instruments from her mother and grandmother. In 1928, as part of the family group, Cuarteto Carta Blanca, she made her first recordings for the Okeh Records label in San Antonio, Texas.
In the early 1930s, Mendoza came to the attention of Manuel J. Cortez, a pioneer of Mexican-American radio broadcasting. Her live radio performances set the stage for her 1934 recordings on the Bluebird Records label, a subsidiary of RCA Victor. Her recording, "Mal Hombre", became an overnight success and led to an intensive schedule of touring and recording.
After World War II, Mendoza recorded for many of the major Mexican-American record labels mostly located in Texas. She continued actively performing and recording up until a stroke in 1988 slowed her schedule down. Many of her recordings are still available including those issued by Arhoolie Records, a California-based label specializing in the release of regional forms of American music.
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Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson ( /məˈheɪljə/ mə-HAYL-yə; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel". Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist. She was described by entertainer Harry Belafonte as "the single most powerful black woman in the United States". She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen "golds"—million-sellers.
Born as Mahala Jackson and nicknamed "Halie", Jackson grew up in the Black Pearl section of the Carrollton neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. The three-room dwelling on Pitt Street housed thirteen people and a dog. This included Little Mahala (named after her aunt, Mahala Clark-Paul whom the family called Aunt Duke), her brother Roosevelt Hunter, whom they called Peter, and her mother Charity Clark, who worked as both a maid and a laundress. Several aunts and cousins lived in the house as well. Aunt Mahala was given the nickname "Duke" after proving herself the undisputed "boss" of the family. The extended family (the Clarks) consisted of her mother's siblings – Isabell, Mahala, Boston, Porterfield, Hannah, Alice, Rhoda, Bessie, their children, grandchildren and patriarch Rev. Paul Clark, a former slave. Mahalia's father, John A. Jackson, Sr. was a stevedore (dockworker) and a barber who later became a Baptist minister. He fathered four other children besides Mahalia – Wilmon (older) and then Yvonne, Pearl and Johnny, Jr. (by his marriage shortly after Halie's birth). Her father's sister, Jeanette Jackson-Burnett, and husband, Josie, were vaudeville entertainers.
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Mao Amin
Mao Amin (Chinese: 毛阿敏 born 1962), is a Chinese singer known by the "honorific title" of Dajieda ("Big Sister"), "was one of China's most famous and senior female pop stars" by "the mid-1990s." In 2001, she was one of 36 Chinese athletes and entertainers who were depicted on a series of postage stamps issued "in support of Beijing's bid for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games."
Mao along with fellow singer Liu Huan, "both household names among Chinese around the world," were "disciples" of "renowned vocal educator" Deng Zaijun.
While Nimrod Baranovitch writes that Mao became famous because of her "powerful and uninhibited" voice, All China Women's Federation contends that she "became famous after winning third place in the Yugoslavian International Musical Eisteddfod with Green Leaf and the Root. It was the highest honor a Chinese pop singer had ever been given in an international competition. But Mao became even more well known by singing in the Spring Festival Gala." Moreover, her performance in 1988 for the Chinese New Year TV Celebration "made both song and singer extremely popular in Mainland China." By the late 1980s, Amin "earned two thousand yuan for a single performance as China's biggest pop star..." The New Straits Times described her as "China's most popular singer," who "retains a nationalistic flavour in her songs," and "China's top pop singer for the past four years" before 1990.
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Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, and released her self-titled debut studio album, Mariah Carey. The album went multi-platinum and spawned four consecutive number one singles, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola in 1993, a series of hit records, including Emotions (1991), Music Box (1993) and Merry Christmas (1994), established her position as Columbia's highest-selling act. Daydream (1995), made music history when the second single, "One Sweet Day" a duet with Boyz II Men, spent a record sixteen weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100, and remains the longest running number one song in US chart history. During the recording of the album Carey began to deviate from her pop background, and slowly traversed into R&B and Hip-hop. After her separation from Mottola, this musical change was evident with the release of Butterfly (1997).
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Marika Gombitová
Marika Gombitová (Slovak: [ˈmarɪka ˈɡombɪtovaː], born September 12, 1956) is a Slovak recording artist, often referred to as The Songstress of the Century. Having sold over one million gramophone records, she is considered as the most prominent female vocalist in her country of origin. Apart from her idiosyncratic vocal and distinctive interpreting skills, her artistry has been credited for its diverse musical style, as well her composing capabilities. She also became known for a series of sonically innovative studio albums released in the 1980s. The authors of her self-titled biography book published in 2008, labeled Gombitová as a "genius singer and very private person."
Gombitová started to receive her early critical acclaim as the lead female vocalist of the group Modus since 1976. Nevertheless, she gradually developed her public image as a soloist, making own professional debut on short play in 1977. Subsequently after winning Bratislavská lýra '78 with "Študentská láska", her debut album entitled Dievča do dažďa (1979) saw its eventual release on OPUS Records, selling over 200,000 units. Its lead single, "Vyznanie", earned several music awards; most notably at the 4th Intervision Song Festival contest held in Sopot, Poland (1980). Furthermore, the song was voted by STV audience as "Hit of the Century" (2007), being covered by a number of other musicians.
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Martha Reeves
Martha Rose Reeves (born July 18, 1941 in Eufaula, Alabama) is an American R&B and Pop singer and former politician, and was the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. During her tenure with The Vandellas, they scored over a dozen hit singles, including "Jimmy Mack", "Dancing in the Street" and "Nowhere to Run". From 2005 until 2009, Reeves served as an elected councilwoman for the city of Detroit, Michigan.
She was born in Eufaula, Alabama, the first daughter of Elijah Joshua Reeves and Ruby Lee Gilmore, and the third of the couple's 11 children. Martha was under a year old when the family moved from Eufaula to Detroit, Michigan, where her grandfather, Reverend Elijah Reeves, was a minister at Detroit's Metropolitan Church. The family was very active in the church and its choir. Both Elijah and Ruby played guitar and liked to sing; the children acquired their love of music from their parents. At Detroit's Northeastern High School, her vocal coach was Abraham Silver, who also worked with Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson (of The Supremes) and Bobby Rogers (of The Miracles). As a teenager, Reeves became a fan of R&B and doo-wop music. After failing to join her elder brother Benny's vocal group, Reeves formed her own vocal group, the Sabre-Ettes in 1958. A year later, she joined The Fascinations. Reeves left the group before they became a recording act.
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Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (he added the 'e' as a young man), was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range, who achieved major success in the 1960s and 1970s as an artist for the Motown Records label. He was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984.
Starting his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records subsidiary, Tamla. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the 1960s. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.
His work in the early- and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death.
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Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.
In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.
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Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 10 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist.
In the 1960s she was the first artist from Africa to popularize African music in the U.S. and around the world. She is best known for the song "Pata Pata", first recorded in 1957 and released in the U.S. in 1967. She recorded and toured with many popular artists, such as Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, and her former husband Hugh Masekela.
She actively campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. As a result, the South African government revoked her citizenship and right of return. After the end of apartheid she returned home. She died on 10 November 2008 after performing in a concert organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation local to the Region of Campania.
Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma (traditional healer-herbalist). Her father, who died when she was six years old, was a Xhosa. When she was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested for selling umqombothi, an African homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. Her mother was sentenced to a six-month prison term, so Miriam spent her first six months of life in jail. As a child, she sang in the choir of the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, a primary school that she attended for eight years.
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Miss Kittin
Caroline Hervé (born 1973), better known by her stage name Miss Kittin, is a French electronic music DJ, singer, and songwriter. Since rising to prominence in 1998 for her singles "1982" and "Frank Sinatra" with The Hacker, she has worked with other musicians such as Chicks on Speed, Felix da Housecat and Golden Boy. She released her debut solo album I Com in 2004 and second solo album BatBox in 2008. She achieved international popularity with the singles "Rippin Kittin" and "Silver Screen Shower Scene".
Miss Kittin was born Caroline Hervé in 1973 in Grenoble, a town in the Alps, in southeastern France. Music such as Genesis, Supertramp, Miles Davis, Maria Callas, Pink Floyd and The Beatles became prominent parts of her and her parents' lives. At the age of 6, Hervé often played piano for fun at her grandparents', and reproduced melodies from the radio. Miss Kittin tried taking piano lessons but gave up after 2 years. In addition, she started practicing ballet when she was 5 years old and continued until she was 22.
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Missy Elliott
Melissa Arnette "Missy" Elliott (born July 1, 1971) is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer and actress. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Elliott, with record sales of over seven million in the United States, is the only female rapper to have six albums certified platinum by the RIAA, including one double platinum for her 2002 album Under Construction. Elliott is known for a series of hits and diverse music videos, including "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", "Hot Boyz", "Get Ur Freak On", "One Minute Man", "4 My People", "Work It", "Pass That Dutch", and "Lose Control". In addition, she has worked extensively as a songwriter and producer for other artists, both alone and with her fellow producer and childhood friend Timbaland, with whom she received her first production credit on R&B singer Ginuwine's 1996's album Ginuwine...the Bachelor.
Elliott was born on July 1, 1971, in Portsmouth, Virginia. She is the only child of mother Patricia, a power-company coordinator, and father Ronnie, a Marine. At the age of four in 1975, she wanted to be a performer, though she knew no one took her seriously, as she was always the class clown. While her father was a Marine, the family lived in Jacksonville, North Carolina, in a mobile home. Elliott enjoyed school for the friendships she formed and had little interest in school work, though an IQ test classified her above average and she was able to jump two years ahead of her class. This made her feel increasingly isolated, so she purposely failed all her classes, eventually returning to her age-appropriate class. When her father returned from the Marines, they moved back to Virginia, where they lived in a vermin-infested shack.
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Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey (born 22 May 1959), known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career, making the top ten of the UK Singles Chart on ten occasions. Widely regarded as an important innovator in indie music, Morrissey has been described by music magazine NME as "one of the most influential artists ever," and The Independent has stated "most pop stars have to be dead before they reach the iconic status he has reached in his lifetime."Pitchfork Media has called him "one of the most singular figures in Western popular culture from the last twenty years."
Morrissey's lyrics have been described as "dramatic, bleak, funny vignettes about doomed relationships, lonely nightclubs, the burden of the past and the prison of the home." He is also noted for his unusual baritone vocal style (though he sometimes uses falsetto), his quiff haircut and his dynamic live performances. His forthright and often contrarian opinions have led to a number of media controversies, and he has also attracted media attention for his advocacy of vegetarianism and animal rights. Morrissey moved to Los Angeles, California in the early 1990s.
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Moya Brennan
Moya Brennan, born Máire Ní Bhraonáin (Irish pronunciation: [mˠaːrʲə nʲiː vɾˠiːn̪ˠaːn]), also known as Máire Brennan (born 4 August 1952), is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She began performing professionally in 1970 when her family formed the band Clannad, and is now widely considered as the "First Lady of Celtic Music". Moya released her first solo album in 1992 called Máire, a successful venture, her solo career has remained successful to this day, many years after Clannad took a hiatus in 1996. She has been nominated for two Grammys and has won an Emmy Award. She has recorded with many world-famous musicians and has provided music for several soundtracks, including Titanic, To End All Wars and King Arthur.
Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin (Irish pronunciation: [mˠaːrʲə nʲiː vɾˠiːn̪ˠaːn]) was born and grew up as the eldest child of a very musical family in the remote parish of Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair), in Ireland's northernmost county, Donegal, a Gaeltacht area in which the Irish language and tradition continue to flourish. Her mother Máire (better known by her nickname, Baba)(née Ní Dhúgáin or Duggan in English) was a music teacher and her father Leo Brennan was a member of a cabaret band with whom she performed as a child. Moya is the eldest of nine children, her sisters are Deirdre, Eithne (better known as Enya), Olive, Brídín and her brothers are Ciarán, Pól, Leon and Bartley. She sang along with her siblings in the family pub, Leo's Tavern, in the village of Meenaleck, a short distance from the family home. She also took part in many pantomimes in Amharclann Ghaoth Dobhair, the local theatre, usually dancing and singing. After leaving secondary school Brennan spent a few years at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin studying the harp, the piano and singing. She later taught music at Holy Cross College in Falcarragh, County Donegal.
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My Linh
Đỗ Mỹ Linh, born August 19, 1975, is a Vietnamese singer. Best known for her vocal power and melismatic skills, she is considered by the public and critics as one of the four divas in Vietnam, besides Thanh Lam, Hồng Nhung and Trần Thu Hà.
My Linh was born in a working-class family in Hanoi on August 19, 1975. Her father was a literature school-teacher, then worker and building constructor. Her mother was a worker in a pharmaceutical factory. She has an older brother and a younger sister.
My Linh exhibited musical and performing talents at a very young age, gathering awards at various local children music contests. She attended Elementary and Middle School in Hai Bà Trưng District, Hanoi. In 1994, she graduated from Bạch Mai High School and came first in the entrance exam to the Hanoi Conservatory of Music. She graduated in 1997, having become a famous pop singer.
In August 1993, My Linh and the Hoa Sữa band came second place at the National Pop Music Festival. Mỹ Linh herself won the Best New Artist award with the song Thì Thầm Mùa Xuân by composer Ngọc Châu. My Linh started her professional music career after the Festival and became one of the best-loved Vietnamese singers.
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My Tam
Phan Thị Mỹ Tâm (born January 16, 1981), who uses the stage name Mỹ Tâm, is a Vietnamese pop singer who achieved fame through well known songs such as "Nightingale", "Sing With the River", "A dream of love", "We Seemed To Be...", "Wish", "Brown Hair Dark Lips", "Bleeding Love", "Old Road", "Foolish Love" and so on.
My Tam was born in the city of Da Nang in 1981. She started learning ballet for three years from the age of 6 before moving to learning instruments such as guitar and organ. She enjoyed singing, but was never aware of her ability, and also never regarded singing as a career. She got the First Prize in her secondary school's singing competition and was chosen for the municipal competition. She got another First Prize for the city's solo singing competition and then the Gold Award for Beautiful Voice Spring 1997. She was chosen for the Military School of Art in Hanoi. However, due to her family's condition, she decided to enter Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory for a 4-year course, learning vocal training. She graduated as a top student from the course.
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Namie Amuro
Namie Amuro (安室 奈美恵, Amuro Namie?, born September 20, 1977) is a Japanese R&B and pop singer, entertainer, and former actress who at the height of her popularity was referred to as the "Teen Queen" and the title "Queen of Japanese Pop Music". Born in Naha, Okinawa, Amuro debuted at the age of 14 as an idol in the girl group Super Monkey's. Though mostly unsuccessful, the group gained popularity during their final year together with the single "Try Me (Watashi o Shinjite)" (1995). Amuro left Toshiba-EMI after releasing two more solo singles; she continued her music career as a solo singer with the then-small independent label Avex Trax. Under the guidance of producer Tetsuya Komuro, Amuro quickly became a commercial success, producing several million-selling records and starting several fashion trends. Her single "Can You Celebrate?" (1997) became Japan's best selling single by a solo female artist. However, in late 1997, Amuro put her career on hold to focus on her pregnancy and marriage.
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Neil Young
Neil Percival Young,OC,OM (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation.
Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960, before moving to California in 1966, where he co-founded the band Buffalo Springfield along with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, and later joined Crosby, Stills & Nash as a fourth member in 1969. He forged a successful and acclaimed solo career, releasing his first album in 1968; his career has since spanned over 40 years and 34 studio albums, with a continual and uncompromising exploration of musical styles. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website describes Young as "one of rock and roll’s greatest songwriters and performers". He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice: first as a solo artist in 1995, and second as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997.
Young's work is characterized by his distinctive guitar work, deeply personal lyrics and signature alto or high tenor singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments, including piano and harmonica, his idiosyncratic electric and clawhammer acoustic guitar playing are the defining characteristics of a varyingly ragged and melodic sound. While Young has experimented with differing music styles, including swing and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into two primary styles: acoustic (folk and country rock) and electric (amplified hard rock, very often in collaboration with the band Crazy Horse). Young has also adopted elements from newer styles such as alternative rock and grunge. His influence on the latter caused some to dub him the "Godfather of Grunge".
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Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Xhosa pronunciation: [xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla]; born 18 July 1918) is a South African politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, the first ever to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before being elected President, Mandela was a militant anti-apartheid activist, and the leader and co-founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela went on to serve 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela led his party in the negotiations that led to the establishment of democracy in 1994. As President, he frequently gave priority to reconciliation, while introducing policies aimed at combating poverty and inequality in South Africa.
In South Africa, Mandela is often known as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name; or as tata (Xhosa: father). Mandela has received more than 250 awards over four decades.
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Nhu Quynh
Lê Lâm Quỳnh Như (born 9 September 1970) is a contemporary Vietnamese folk singer. Her songs include her trademark debut single, "Chuyện Hoa Sim" (The Story of Rhodomyrtus tomentosa), "Làng Tôi" (My Village), "Nủa Vầng Trăng" (The First Quarter Moon), "Vào Hạ" (Summer Arrival), "Nỗi Buồn Châu Pha" (Sorrow for Châu Pha), and "Chờ Người" (Waiting For Somebody), "Thương Về Miền Trung" (Love For Central Region), "Chuyện Tình Của Người Thiếu Nữ Tên Thi" (The Love Story From An Adolescent Girl Named Thi), "Chung Mộng" (Sharing The Same Dream). She is also known for her work within Paris By Night in which she spent most of career residing with as well as being the 'Queen of Folk'.
In the past 10 years, Nhu Quynh's stellar climb to the top of the Vietnamese music industry has set her apart from many of her contemporaries. Today, Nhu Quynh is a mega star in the Vietnamese music circle with her own record label (Nhu Quynh Entertainment). Her first album (Chuyen Hoa Sim) sold out and is still in high demand. Her appearances in music videos have proven the selling point for the producers.
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Nina Hagen
Catharina "Nina" Hagen (born 11 March 1955) is a German singer and occasional actress.
Nina Hagen was born in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen (also known as Hans Oliva-Hagen), a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen (née Buchholz), an actress and singer. Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (one of Nina's great-grandparents was Jewish). Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine.
When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter. Biermann's political views later influenced young Hagen.
Hagen left school at age sixteen, and went to Poland, where she began her career. After that, she returned to Germany and joined the cover band Fritzens Dampferband (Fritzen's Steamboat Band, together with Achim Mentzel and others). She added songs by Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to the "allowable" set lists during shows.
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Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone /ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.
Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist as a child. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. She then began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education to become a classical pianist and was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendition of "I Loves You Porgy" became a smash hit in the United States in 1958. Over the length of her career, Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958 — when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue — and 1974.
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Noel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher (born 29 May 1967) is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, occasional lead singer and principal songwriter of the rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Raised in Burnage, Manchester with Liam, Noel began learning guitar at the age of thirteen. After a series of odd jobs in construction, he worked for local Manchester band Inspiral Carpets as a roadie and technician in 1988. Whilst touring with them, he learned that Liam had formed a band of his own, known as The Rain, which eventually took on the name Oasis. After Gallagher returned to England, he was invited by his brother to join Oasis as songwriter and guitarist.
Oasis' debut album, Definitely Maybe (1994), marked the beginning of the band's rise to fame as head of the Britpop movement. Oasis' second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, reached the top of the album charts in many countries and their third studio album, Be Here Now, became the fastest-selling album in UK chart history. Britpop eventually declined in popularity and Oasis' next two albums failed to revive it. However, the band's final two albums, Don't Believe the Truth (2005) and Dig Out Your Soul (2008), were hailed as its best efforts in over a decade and found renewed success. On 28 August 2009, following an altercation with Liam prior to a gig in Paris, Gallagher announced his departure from Oasis and on 23 October 2009, he confirmed he would embark on a solo career.
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Noor Jehan
Noorjehan or Noorjehan (Punjabi, Urdu: نور جہاں) was the adopted stage name for Allah Wasai (September 21, 1926 – December 23, 2000) who was a legendary singer and actress in British India and Pakistan. Her career spanned seven decades. She was renowned as one of the greatest and most influential singers of her time in South Asia and was given the honorific title of Malika-e-Tarannum (Urdu: ملکہ ترنم, English: the queen of melody).
Born in a Punjabi family of musicians, Wasai was pushed by her parents to follow in their musical footsteps and become a singer but she was more interested in acting in films and graced the earliest Pakistani films with her performances. She holds a remarkable record of 10,000 songs to her singing credits in various languages of India and Pakistan including Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Sindhi languages. Along with Ahmed Rushdi, she holds the highest record of film songs in the history of Pakistani cinema. She is also considered to be the first female Pakistani film director.
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Odetta
Odetta Holmes, (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008) known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to[who?] as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she was influential to many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and Janis Joplin. Time included her song "Take This Hammer" on its list of the All-Time 100 Songs, stating that "Rosa Parks was her No. 1 fan, and Martin Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music."
Odetta was born in Birmingham, Alabama, grew up in Los Angeles, California, attended Belmont High School, and studied music at Los Angeles City College while employed as a domestic worker. She had operatic training from the age of 13. Her mother hoped she would follow Marian Anderson, but Odetta doubted a large black girl would ever perform at the Metropolitan Opera. Her first professional experience was in musical theater in 1944, as an ensemble member for four years with the Hollywood Turnabout Puppet Theatre, working alongside Elsa Lanchester; she later joined the national touring company of the musical Finian's Rainbow in 1949.
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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.
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Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger, and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul music and rhythm and blues (R&B), and one of the greatest singers in popular music. His open-throated singing was an influence on other soul singers of the 1960s, and he helped to craft the lean and powerful style of R&B that formed the basis of the Stax Sound. After appearing at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, he wrote and recorded "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", which became a number-one record on both the pop and R&B charts after his death in a plane crash.
Redding was born and raised in the American state of Georgia. At age 15, he left school to support his family by working with Little Richard's backing band, The Upsetters, and by playing talent shows for prize money. In 1958, he joined Johnny Jenkins's band, The Pinetoppers, and toured the Southern United States while serving as driver and musician. An unscheduled appearance on a session led to a turning point in his career. He signed a contract with Stax Records and released his debut album, Pain in My Heart, in 1964. This album produced his first Stax single, "These Arms of Mine".
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Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English band Black Sabbath, whose dark and hard sound helped spawn the heavy metal genre. Due to Sabbath's dark style, Osbourne became known as the "Prince of Darkness". Osbourne is also known as the "Godfather of Heavy Metal".
In the early 2000s, Osbourne's career expanded when he became a star in his own reality show The Osbournes, alongside wife/manager Sharon and two of their three children, Kelly and Jack. A documentary about his life and career, God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, premiered in April 2011 at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released on DVD in November 2011. Osbourne has achieved multi-platinum status as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath and has sold over 100 million albums worldwide.
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, England, on 3 December 1948. His father Jack worked shifts as a toolmaker at GEC. His mother Lillian worked for the car components firm Lucas. John was the fourth of six children. Ozzy had two brothers (Paul and Tony) and three sisters (Jean, Iris and Gillian); they lived in a small two bedroom home at 14 Lodge Road in Aston. The nickname "Ozzy" was first used when he was in primary school. Although called "John" by his first wife Thelma, Osbourne states that it has been a long time since he's recognised himself when called by his formal name.
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Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.
Called the "Godmother of Punk", her work was a fusion of rock and poetry. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids. She is also a recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.
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Paul Weller
Paul Weller (born 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter. Starting with the band The Jam (1972–1982), Weller then went on to branch out musically to a more soulful style with The Style Council (1983–1989). In 1991 he established himself as a successful solo artist, and continues to remain a respected singer, lyricist and guitarist.
Despite widespread critical recognition, Weller has remained a national rather than an international star, and much of his songwriting is rooted in English culture. He is also the principal figure of the 1970s and 80s mod revival and is often referred to as the Modfather.
Weller was born on 25 May 1958 in Sheerwater, near Woking, Surrey, England, to John and Ann Weller. He was initially known as John William Weller but later acquired the name Paul.
His father worked as a taxi driver and his mother was a part-time cleaner. In 1963 Weller started his education at Maybury County First School. His love of music started with The Beatles, then The Who and the Small Faces. By the time Weller was eleven and moving up to secondary school at Sheerwater County Secondary music was the biggest part of his life and he began playing the guitar.
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Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader and orchestral director.
Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman produced recordings that were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz". Using a large ensemble and exploring many styles of music, Whiteman is perhaps best known for his blending of symphonic music and jazz, as typified by his 1924 commissioning and debut of George Gershwin's jazz-influenced "Rhapsody In Blue". Whiteman recorded many jazz and pop standards during his career, including "Wang Wang Blues", "Mississippi Mud", "Rhapsody in Blue", "Wonderful One", "Hot Lips", "Mississippi Suite", and "Grand Canyon Suite". His popularity faded in the swing music era of the 1930s, and by the 1940s Whiteman was semi-retired from music.
Whiteman's place in the history of early jazz is somewhat controversial. Detractors suggest that Whiteman's ornately-orchestrated music was jazz in name only (lacking the genre's improvisational and emotional depth), and co-opted the innovations of black musicians. Defenders note that Whiteman's fondness for jazz was genuine (he worked with black musicians as much as was feasible during an era of racial segregation), that his bands included many of the era's most esteemed white jazz musicians, and argue that Whiteman's groups handled jazz admirably as part of a larger repertoire. In his autobiography, Duke Ellington declared, "Paul Whiteman was known as the King of Jazz, and no one as yet has come near carrying that title with more certainty and dignity."
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Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend (born 19 May 1945) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career. His career with The Who spans more than 40 years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the 1960s and 1970s, and, according to Eddie Vedder, "possibly the greatest live band ever."
Townshend is the primary songwriter for The Who, having written well over 100 songs for the band's 11 studio albums, including concept albums and the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia, plus popular rock and roll radio staples like Who's Next, and dozens more that appeared as non-album singles, bonus tracks on reissues, and tracks on rarities compilations like Odds & Sods. He has also written over 100 songs that have appeared on his solo albums, as well as radio jingles and television theme songs. Although known primarily as a guitarist, he also plays other instruments such as keyboards, banjo, accordion, synthesiser, bass guitar and drums, on his own solo albums, several Who albums, and as a guest contributor to a wide array of other artists' recordings. Townshend has never had formal lessons in any of the instruments he plays.
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Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (i/piːˈɛər ˈhɛnriː məˈriː ˈʃeɪfər/; 14 August 1910 – 19 August 1995) was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician of the 20th century. His innovative work in both the sciences —particularly communications and acoustics— and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end of World War II, as well as his anti-nuclear activism and cultural criticism garnered him widespread recognition in his lifetime.
Amongst the vast range of works and projects he undertook, Schaeffer is most widely and currently recognized for his accomplishments in electronic and experimental music, at the core of which stands his role as the chief developer of a unique and early form of avant-garde music known as musique concrète. The genre emerged out of Europe from the utilization of new music technology developed in the post-Nazi Germany era, following the advance of electroacoustic and acousmatic music.
Schaeffer's writings (which include written and radio-narrated essays, biographies, short novels, a number of musical treatises and several plays) are often oriented towards his development of the genre, as well as the theoretics and philosophy of music in general.
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Pitty
Priscilla Novaes Leone (born October 7, 1977 in Salvador, Bahia), better known as Pitty, is a Brazilian rock singer.
She had played in two bands, Shes and Inkoma, before starting her solo career in 2003. She has sold over 5 million copies in her career, being one of the best selling rock artists in the 2000s. Pitty was voted the sexiest rock singer of Latin America and Brazil, and the 35th sexiest rock singer in the world in 2010.
Rock in Rio 2011 already has some big names on the Brazilian scene boundary, Pitty is one of them, according to the organizer Roberta Medina, daughter of businessman Roberto Medina, vice president of the event.
She was the most awarded rock artist of the 2000s.[citation needed]
Pitty won several awards at the MTV Video Music Brazil, among them Artist of the Year twice, Video of the Year, Best Live Performance, and three times as the lead singer of the Dream Band. Pitty won approximately 51 awards during her seven year career, a record.
In 2011 Pitty gave an interview to a live social network, Orkut, talking about the launch of its new DVD, thus inaugurating, Orkut Live where you have exclusive interviews with celebrities. She also made 10 songs from the DVD A Trupe Delirante No Circo Voador available YouTube on 10/05. This was the first time that an entry uses two of the main platforms of Google in Brazil, Orkut and YouTube.
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Queen Latifah
Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy Award nomination and an Academy Award nomination.
Latifah was born, and primarily raised, in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Rita (née Bray), a teacher at Irvington High School (her daughter's alma mater), and Lancelot Owens, Sr., a police officer, her parents divorced when Latifah was ten. Latifah was raised in the Baptist church and attended Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey. Her stage name, Latifah (لطيفة laţīfa), meaning "delicate" and "very kind" in Arabic, she found in an Islamic book of names when she was eight. Always a tall girl, the 5'10" Latifah was a power forward on her high school basketball team. She performed the number "Home" from the musical The Wiz in a high school play. She is of African American and Native American ancestry.
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Ray Davies
Raymond Douglas "Ray" Davies, CBE ( /ˈdeɪvɨz/ DAY-viz; born 21 June 1944) is an English rock musician. He is best known as lead singer and songwriter for The Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave. He has also acted, directed and produced shows for theatre and television.
Since the dissolution of the Kinks in 1996, Ray Davies has embarked on a solo career as a singer-songwriter.
Davies was born at 6 Denmark Terrace, Fortis Green in Muswell Hill, North London, England. He is the seventh of eight children born to Fred and Annie Davies, including six older sisters and younger brother Dave Davies. He went to William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School (now called Fortismere School).
Davies was an art student at Hornsey College of Art in London in 1962–1963, when the Kinks developed into a professional performing band. After the Kinks obtained a recording contract in early 1964, Davies emerged as the chief songwriter and de facto leader of the band, especially after the band's breakthrough success with his early composition "You Really Got Me", which was released as the band's third single in August of that year.
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Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955) is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band, on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma City, which caught the attention of country artist Red Steagall. He brought her to Nashville, Tennessee, where she eventually signed a contract with Mercury Records in 1975. She released her first solo album in 1977 and released five additional studio albums under the label until 1983.
Signing with MCA Nashville Records, McEntire took creative control over her second MCA album, My Kind of Country (1984), which had a more traditional country sound and produced two number one singles: "How Blue" and "Somebody Should Leave". The album brought her breakthrough success, bringing her a series of successful albums and number one singles in the 1980s and 1990s. McEntire has since released 26 studio albums, acquired 35 number one singles, and 28 albums have been certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America.
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Red Foley
Clyde Julian Foley (June 17, 1910 – September 19, 1968), better known as Red Foley, was an American singer, musician, and radio and TV personality who made a major contribution to the growth of country music after World War II.
For more than two decades, Foley was one of the biggest stars of the genre, selling more than 25 million records. His 1951 hit, "Peace in the Valley", was among the first million-selling gospel records. A Grand Ole Opry veteran until his death, Foley also hosted the first popular country music series on network television, Ozark Jubilee, from 1955 to 1960.
He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, which called him "one of the most versatile and moving performers of all time" and "a giant influence during the formative years of contemporary Country music."
Foley was born June 17, 1910 on a 24-acre (97,000 m2) farm in Blue Lick, Kentucky, grew up in nearby Berea, and gained the nickname Red for his hair color. He was born into a musical family; and by the time he was nine, was giving impromptu concerts at his father's general store, playing French harp, piano, banjo, trombone, harmonica and guitar. At 17, he won first prize in a statewide talent show. He graduated from Berea High School, and later worked as a $2-a-show usher and singer at a theater in Covington, Kentucky.
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Regine Velasquez
Regina Encarnacion Ansong Velasquez-Alcasid (born April 22, 1970), known as Regine Velasquez, is a Filipino singer, actress, record producer and TV host. She won the 1989 Asia Pacific Singing Contest in Hong Kong, and is widely known for possessing an extensive vocal range.
Velasquez is the first Asian artist to stage a solo concert at the Carnegie Hall in New York, as part of Carnegie Hall's centennial-year concert series.
In 1994, Polygram Records produced her first Asia-released album, Listen Without Prejudice. It is considered as Velasquez' most successful album to date, selling more than 700,000 copies in Asia. The album has sold over 100,000 units in the Philippines, 300,000 units in China and 20,000 in Thailand.
She has collaborated with artists such as Paul Anka,David Hasselhoff, 98 Degrees, Brian McKnight, Mandy Moore, Ronan Keating, Stephen Bishop, Jim Brickman,Peabo Bryson,Jeffrey Osborne, Dave Koz, Grasshopper, Coco Lee, Michel Legrand, David Pomeranz, Eduardo Capetillo, Fernando Carrillo, Billy Crawford, and Singaporean vocal band Skritch. "In Love With You", a duet with Jacky Cheung, landed the top spot in MTV Asia's Top 20 Asian Videos in 2000.
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Rhoma Irama
Raden Irama (born December 11, 1946, in Tasikmalaya, West Java), most commonly known as Rhoma Irama, is an Indonesian dangdut musician and occasional actor. During the height of his stardom in the 1970s, he became the self-proclaimed Raja Dangdut (King of Dangdut) with his group Soneta.
Prior to his a pilgrimage to Mecca, he was known as Oma Irama. He is a member of aristocrat class of Sundanese from both his father, Raden Burdah Anggawirya, and mother, R.H. Tuti Juariah.
Oma Irama's first bands were known as Tornado and Gayhand, and covered Western rock and roll music of Paul Anka, Andy Williams, and The Beatles.
In the late 1960s Oma Irama, sang orkes Melayu and also some pop Indonesia. In 1968 he joined the group Orkes Melayu Purnama in 1968. This group pioneered elements of the dangdut style within orkes Melayu music - the drum was changed to double drum, the electric guitar's role was expanded, and the suling, or bamboo flute, adopted a style reminiscent of Bollywood music. He also recorded pop Indonesia music during this period with the Zaenal Combo and Galaksi, while the album 'Ingkar Janji' was recorded in 1969 with Orkes Melayu Chandraleka.
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Ricky Nelson
Eric Hilliard Nelson (May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985), better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor. He placed 53 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1957 and 1973 including "Poor Little Fool", which holds the distinction of being the first #1 song on Billboard magazine's then newly created Hot 100 chart. He recorded nineteen additional top-ten hits, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 21, 1987.
Nelson began his entertainment career in 1949 playing himself in the radio sitcom series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and, in 1952, appeared in his first feature film, Here Come the Nelsons. In 1957, he recorded his first single, debuted as a singer on the television version of the sitcom, and recorded a number one album, Ricky. In 1958, Nelson recorded his first number one single, "Poor Little Fool", and, in 1959, received a Golden Globe Most Promising Male Newcomer nomination after starring in the western film, Rio Bravo. A few films followed, and, when the television series was cancelled in 1966, Nelson made occasional appearances as a guest star on various television programs.
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Rita Lee
Rita Lee Jones Carvalho (born Rita Lee Jones on December 31, 1947), simply known as Rita Lee, is a Brazilian rock singer and composer. Lee continues to be a popular figure in Brazilian entertainment, where she is also known for being an animal rights activist and a vegetarian. She has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide.
Rita Lee was born in São Paulo, Brazil, to an American Brazilian father, descended from the Confederados, a dentist, and a Brazilian mother of Italian ancestry. She was educated in a French language school and became fluent in Spanish, French and Italian, as well as her native Portuguese and the English that her parents spoke at home. She went to college, where she was a colleague of the popular actress Regina Duarte, but she soon left to pursue her musical career.
In 1966 Lee formed the band Os Mutantes with Arnaldo Baptista and Sérgio Dias. The band released five albums between 1968 and 1972. In that time, Lee had also released her first two solo works, although these records were produced with fellow members of Os Mutantes. When the band reformed in 2006, she refused to join, calling the reunion an attempt to "earn cash to pay for geriatry".
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Rob Halford
Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford (born 25 August 1951) is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is considered one of the most consistently powerful singers in rock, possessing a wide vocal range, and is particularly known for his high-pitched, operatic, soaring screams. His vocal range spans nearly four octaves from C2 (which can be heard in "The Mower") to A5 (which can be heard in the title track to the Ram it Down album). In addition to his work with Judas Priest, he has been involved with several side projects, including Fight, 2wo and Halford. He is credited as the first openly gay heavy metal star, having come out in 1998.
Halford was born in Sutton Coldfield, but raised in Walsall, which was then a part of Staffordshire a town to the northwest of Birmingham, in England's modern day West Midlands. He sang for numerous bands including Athens Wood, Lord Lucifer, Abraxas, Thark and Hiroshima.
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Rocío Dúrcal
Rocío Dúrcal (October 4, 1944 – March 25, 2006), born as María de los Ángeles de las Heras Ortiz, was a Spanish singer and actress, known artistically as Rocío Dúrcal. She is the best-selling Spanish solo artist to date with more than 80 million records sold.
Dúrcal was born in the working class district of Cuatro Caminos, Madrid (Spain). She was the daughter of Tomás de las Heras and María Ortiz. She was involved in much of the domestic chores, and helped in raising her younger siblings, thus missed classes at school.
Ever since she had begun primary school, she always wished for a career as an actress, a fact which remained secret for a while. Meanwhile, at school recess, the future artist had her first audience with her classmates, who asked her to sing. Later her presence in school as a singer became common. Although her parents supported her talent, they did not want it to become her career. After completing primary education, she worked as an apprentice hairdresser in her neighborhood.
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Roman Tam
Roman Tam, known by the stage name Lo Man (羅文), nickname Law Kee (蘿記), (16 February 1950 – 18 October 2002) was a renowned Hong Kong Cantopop singer. He is regarded as the "Godfather of Cantopop".
Tam was seen as a cultural icon to Chinese communities around the world (including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and, later Mainland China). He had a string of hits in a career spanning 30 years. He was well respected for his singing skills, his positive outlooks, and his insistence on correct pronunciations. He was also groundbreaking for being the first major Hong Kong singer to pose in drag and to pose in nude.
Born in Guangzhou, China with family roots in Guiping, Guangxi, he later immigrated to Hong Kong in 1962 at the age of 12. After forming a short-lived band known as Roman and the Four Steps, he became a contract singer under studios term at Television Broadcasts Limited. He briefly switched to Asia Television Ltd in the early 1990s.
During the 1990s he accepted many budding singers as his students. Some of which who became famous included Joey Yung and Ekin Cheng. He had sang many well known songs for various TV series including Below the Lion Rock and the 1982 TVB TV series The Legend of the Condor Heroes.
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Roy Acuff
Roy Claxton Acuff (September 15, 1903 – November 23, 1992) was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the "King of Country Music," Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful.
Acuff began his music career in the 1930s, and gained regional fame as the singer and fiddler for his group, the Smoky Mountain Boys. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938, and although his popularity as a musician waned in the late 1940s, he remained one of the Opry's key figures and promoters for nearly four decades. In 1942, Acuff co-founded the first major Nashville-based country music publishing company—Acuff-Rose Music—which signed acts such as Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and The Everly Brothers. In 1962, Acuff became the first living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Roy Acuff was born in Maynardville, Tennessee to Ida (née Carr) and Simon E. Neill Acuff, the third of five children. The Acuffs were a fairly prominent Union County family. Roy's paternal grandfather, Coram Acuff, had been a Tennessee state senator, and Roy's maternal grandfather was a local physician. Roy's father was an accomplished fiddler and a Baptist preacher, his mother was proficient on the piano, and during Roy's early years the Acuff house was a popular place for local gatherings. At such gatherings, Roy would often amuse people by balancing farm tools on his chin. He also learned to play harmonica and jaw harp at a young age.
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Rozalla
Rozalla (born Rozalla Miller, 18 March 1964) is a Zambian dance music performer. She is best known for her 1991 hit "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)", which was remixed and re-issued several times.
Rozalla began performing at a young age in her native Zambia singing in clubs and at events and, at age 13, singing on a children's TV show. While still in her teens she relocated to Zimbabwe where she fronted various R&B cover bands before beginning her own recording career with a resultant five number-one hits on that nation's chart. In 1988 an English producer brought Rozalla to London placing her with the Band of Gypsies, a production duo consisting of Nigel Swanston and Tim Cox, who produced her most successful singles and her debut album.
Her first UK single Born To Luv Ya became a club hit in 1990, but Rozalla’s career took off when the dance anthem Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good), reached number 6 in the UK Singles Chart in 1991. The single became a Top 10 hit in many European countries soon afterwards and reached the Billboard Top 40 the following year. It was later included on her dance-heavy debut album Everybody’s Free, which peaked at number 20 in the UK Albums Chart and went silver. The album spawned two more sizeable hits in Faith (In The Power Of Love) and Are You Ready To Fly, reaching number 11 and 14 respectively in the UK Singles Chart.
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Rudy Ray Moore
Rudy Ray Moore (March 17, 1927 – October 19, 2008) was an American comedian, musician, singer, film actor, and film producer. He was perhaps best known as Dolemite (the name derived from the mineral dolomite), the uniquely articulate pimp from the 1975 film Dolemite, and its sequel, The Human Tornado. The persona was developed during his earlier stand-up comedy records.
Moore, who was raised in his birthplace of Fort Smith, Arkansas, as well as Cleveland, Ohio, began his entertainment career as an R&B singer and continued singing through his comedy career. He developed an interest in comedy in the Army after expanding on a singing performance for other servicemen. Moore released many comedy records throughout the 1960s and 1970s, developing a rude and explicit style similar to Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor. This kept him off of television and major films, but cultivated an enduring fan base.
Some of Moore's X-Rated comedy records were recorded at his home with personal friends in attendance as the audience.
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Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown (January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress also known as "Queen of R&B" noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean". For these contributions, Atlantic became known as "The house that Ruth built" (alluding to the popular nickname for Old Yankee Stadium).
Following a resurgence that began in the mid-1970s and peaked in the 1980s, Brown used her influence to press for musicians' rights regarding royalties and contracts, which led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Her performances in the Broadway musical, Black and Blue, earned Brown a Tony Award, and the original cast recording won a Grammy Award.
Born Ruth Alston Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, she attended I. C. Norcom High School, a historically black high school. Brown's father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more of an interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs. She was inspired by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. In 1945, Brown ran away from her home in Portsmouth along with trumpeter, Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married, to sing in bars and clubs. She then spent a month with Lucky Millinder's orchestra.
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Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and influence on the modern world of music. His contribution in pioneering soul music led to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and popularized the likes of Otis Redding and James Brown.
Cooke had 29 top-40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1964. Major hits like "You Send Me", "A Change Is Gonna Come", "Cupid", "Chain Gang", "Wonderful World", and "Twistin' the Night Away" are some of his most popular songs. Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.
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Sami Yusuf
Sami Yusuf is a British singer-songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist musician of Azerbaijan origin.
In 2003 Yusuf released his first album "Al-Mu`allim" at the age of 23, selling over two million copies. Following the release of his second album "My Ummah" in 2005, Yusuf was heralded as "Islam's Biggest Rock Star" by Time magazine for his success in attracting a relatively young fan base from diverse regions across the world, many of whom were of Muslim backgrounds. Yusuf has sold over 9 million albums. In October 2010, following a five-year hiatus, Yusuf’s third official album "Wherever You Are" was launched, manifesting his self-coined genre “Spiritique”. Yusuf is involved in humanitarian initiatives, supporting, among others, Islamic Relief and Save the Children.
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Sammi Cheng
Sammi Cheng Sau-Man is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer and actress. Having enjoyed much success in the Hong Kong music industry, Sammi has been known as a diva and has been one of the most successful female singer in Hong Kong since the 1990s. Her albums have sold more than 25 million copies through Asia-pacific. Most notably in the 1990s, she was dubbed by the media as the " Cantopop Queen".
Sammi Cheng breaks the record of having the most best sales albums and The Best Sales Local Female Vocalist awards in the Hong Kong Cantonpop industry since her debut. From 1993 to 2010, Sammi Cheng won a total of 12 Top Female Vocalist awards, 14 The Best Sales Local Female Vocalist Awards and has 7 albums that are The Best Sales Cantonese Release of year.
She had produced over 80 studio albums, 9 live concert albums, 97 singles (songs) with 27 cover songs, had received around 200 total awards from acting to singing, performed in over 20 films which many received box-office hit, starred in 7 TV dramas in early years, had held over 100 concerts up to date with over 12 concert tours. She is also being recognized as the leading Asian female singer brought in unique fashion to singing performance especially in her concerts.
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Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin (ca. 1867/1868? – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first pieces, the Maple Leaf Rag, became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and has been recognized as the archetypal rag.
Joplin was born into a musical African American family of laborers in Northeast Texas, and developed his musical knowledge with the help of local teachers, most notably Julius Weiss. Joplin grew up in Texarkana, where he formed a vocal quartet, and taught mandolin and guitar. During the late 1880s he left his job as a laborer with the railroad, and travelled around the American South as an itinerant musician. He went to Chicago for the World's Fair of 1893, which played a major part in making ragtime a national craze by 1897.
Joplin moved to Sedalia, Missouri in 1894, and earned a living teaching piano and going on tour across the Southern US. In Sedalia, he taught future ragtime composers Arthur Marshall, Scott Hayden and Brun Campbell. Joplin began publishing music in 1895, and publication of his Maple Leaf Rag in 1899 brought him fame and had a profound influence on subsequent writers of ragtime. It also brought the composer a steady income for life. During his lifetime, Joplin did not reach this level of success again and frequently had financial problems.
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Seiko Matsuda
Seiko Matsuda (松田 聖子, Matsuda Seiko?, born Noriko Kamachi (蒲池 法子, Kamachi Noriko?), on March 10, 1962, in Kurume, Fukuoka) is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter. Due to her popularity in the 1980s and her long career, she has been dubbed the "Eternal idol" by the Japanese media.
Seiko Matsuda was born in the Kamachi clan, which was from the Saga Genji line and was also a former sengoku daimyo of Yanagawa Domain. However, she gained the stage name "Seiko Matsuda" and rose to fame in 1980 as a teen idol, making her debut with the song "Hadashi no Kisetsu" (lit. "Season of bare feet"). Later in the same year, "Kaze wa Aki-iro" (lit. "Wind is autumn color") became the first of her 24 consecutive number 1 hits in Japan. She shattered the Japanese former record of nine consecutive number-ones by popular music duo Pink Lady. Her consecutive number 1 record ended when her 27th single "Precious Heart" was ranked at number-two because Tetsuya Komuro's "Gravity of Love" was ranked at number-one. Matsuda made one more number 1 single "Anata ni Aitakute ~Missing You~" (lit. "I want to meet you ~Missing you~") in 1996. The single was certified a million-seller by RIAJ.
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Selena
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known simply as Selena, was an American singer-songwriter. She was named the "top Latin artist of the '90s" and "Best selling Latin artist of the decade" by Billboard for her fourteen top-ten singles in the Top Latin Songs chart, including seven number-one hits. The singer had the most successful singles of 1994 and 1995, "Amor Prohibido" and "No Me Queda Más". She was called "The Queen of Tejano music" and the Mexican equivalent of Madonna. Selena released her first album, Selena y Los Dinos, at the age of twelve. She won Female Vocalist of the Year at the 1987 Tejano Music Awards and landed a recording contract with EMI a few years later. Her fame grew throughout the early 1990s, especially in Spanish-speaking countries.
Selena was murdered at the age of 23 by Yolanda Saldívar, the president of her fan club. On April 12, 1995, two weeks after her death, George W. Bush, governor of Texas at the time, declared her birthday "Selena Day" in Texas.Warner Bros. produced Selena, a film based on her life starring Jennifer Lopez, in 1997. Selena's life was also the basis of the musical Selena Forever starring Veronica Vazquez as Selena. In June 2006 Selena was commemorated with a life-sized bronze statue (Mirador de la Flor in Corpus Christi, Texas) and a Selena museum opened there. She has sold over 60 million albums worldwide.
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Shania Twain
Shania Twain, OC ( /ʃəˌnaɪ.ə ˈtweɪn/; born Eilleen Regina Edwards; August 28, 1965) is a Canadian country pop singer-songwriter. Her album The Woman in Me (1995), brought her fame and her 1997 album Come On Over, became the best-selling album of all time by a female musician in any genre, and the best-selling country album of all time. It has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and is the ninth best-selling album in the U.S. Her fourth album, Up!, was released in November 2002. To date it has sold 20 million copies worldwide.
Twain has won five Grammy Awards and 27 BMI Songwriter awards. She has had three albums certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America and is the second best-selling artist in Canada, behind Céline Dion, with three of her studio albums certified double diamond by the Canadian Recording Industry Association. She is the first (and currently only) female artist in history to have 3 consecutive albums reach diamond status, indicating sales of at least 10 million, certified by the RIAA. Sometimes referred to as "The Queen of Country Pop", Twain has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide and is ranked 10th best-selling artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era. She was also ranked 72nd on Billboard's "Artists of the decade" (2000–10). Most recently, Twain has her own TV series, Why Not? with Shania Twain, that premiered on the OWN on May 8, 2011. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on June 2, 2011.
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Siti Nurhaliza
Dato', or occasionally Datin Seri,Siti Nurhaliza binti Tarudin DIMP, JSM, SAP, PMP, AAP (Jawi: سيتي نورهاليز بنت تارودين [ˈsiti nʊrhaˈliza ˈbinti taˈrudɪn]; born 11 January 1979) is a Malaysian singer, songwriter, record producer, television presenter and businesswoman. To date, she has garnered more than 200 local awards as well as international awards. She rose to fame as a multiple-platinum selling artist, since her winning of Bintang HMI 1995 when she was only 16 where she was given offers in form of singing contract from four different international recording companies. Her first single, Jerat Percintaan from her debut album won the 11th Anugerah Juara Lagu and another two awards for Best Performance and Best Ballad.. In her career she had recorded and sings in languages, including Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin, Arabic, Hindustan and Japanese.
She has won an unprecedented number of music awards in Malaysia and its environs: 34 Anugerah Industri Muzik awards, 23 Anugerah Bintang Popular awards, 21 Anugerah Planet Muzik awards, 18 Anugerah Juara Lagu awards, four MTV Asia Awards and the holder of two records in the Malaysian Book of Records. Backed with 14 studio albums, she is one of the most popular artistes in the Malay Archipelago and Nusantara region and she has been voted ten times in a row for Regional Most Popular Artiste in the Anugerah Planet Muzik since 2001. Currently, she has been listed as one of Malaysia's richest, most-influential, most award-winning, most single-produced artists.
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Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. (born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school. Shortly after graduation, he was arrested for cocaine possession and spent six months in Wayside County Jail. His music career began in 1992 after his release when he was discovered by Dr. Dre. He collaborated on several tracks on Dre's solo debut, The Chronic and on the titular theme song to the film Deep Cover.
Snoop's debut album Doggystyle, was released in 1993 under Death Row Records making a debut at No.1 on both the Billboard 200 and R&B charts. Selling almost a million copies in the first week of its release, Doggystyle quickly became certified 4× platinum in 1994 and spawned several hit singles, including "What's My Name" and "Gin & Juice". In 1994, Snoop released a soundtrack on Death Row Records for the short film Murder Was The Case, starring himself. In early 1996, Snoop Dogg was cleared of charges over his bodyguard's 1993 murder of Philip Woldemariam. His second album, late 1996's Tha Doggfather, also debuted at No.1 on both charts with "Snoop's Upside Ya Head" as the lead single. The album sold only half as well, being certified double platinum in 1997.
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Solomon Burke
Solomon Burke (March 21, 1940 – October 10, 2010) was an American singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, mortician, and an archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People. Burke was known as "King Solomon," the "King of Rock 'n' Soul," and as the "Bishop of Soul," and described as "the Muhammad Ali of soul," and as "the most unfairly overlooked singer of soul's golden age." Burke was "the founding father of what was defined as soul music in America in the 1960s," and "a major architect of 1960s soul, infusing post-World War II R&B with [his] gospel roots." and "a key transitional figure bridging R&B and soul," Burke's "sound was a bold merger of orchestrated sophistication and countryish, down-home grit, and his best singles built a Gothic sense of drama and heartbreak. These tracks bridged the gap between the more mannered mainstream rhythm and blues of the Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller songwriting team of the 1950s, as exemplified by the Coasters and Drifters, and the gruffer Southern styles of the later '60s, as heard on the Stax Records sides of Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. At one time considered by Jerry Wexler to be "the greatest male soul singer of all time," Burke was "a singer whose smooth, powerful articulation and mingling of sacred and profane themes helped define soul music in the early 1960s." Burke drew from his roots: gospel, soul, and blues, as well as developing his own style at a time when R&B, and rock were both still in their infancy. Artistically, Burke was influenced by the music of the church, as well as by Little Richard. Described as both "Rabelaisian" and also as a "spiritual enigma," "Perhaps more than any other artist, the ample figure of Solomon Burke symbolized the ways that spirituality and commerce, ecstasy and entertainment, sex and salvation, individualism and brotherhood, could blend in the world of 1960s soul music."
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Stevie B
Stevie B (Steven Bernard Hill) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer who was influential in the Latin freestyle and High-Energy, mostly from Miami dance music scene of the late 1980s. Also known as the King of Freestyle, Stevie B is perhaps best known for his 1990 number-one hit "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)."
Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Stevie B worked a variety of jobs—from car washing to fast food—before gaining recognition for his 1987 national club smash "Party Your Body". It was also the title track of his 1988 debut LP, which eventually went gold. In 1989, he had his first top 40 hits with "I Wanna Be the One," "In My Eyes," and "Love Me For Life." With his 1990 album, Love & Emotion, he reached the height of his success, with the accompanying single "Because I Love You" enjoying four weeks at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in December 1990. He had two subsequent top 15 hits with "I'll Be by Your Side" and the title track from the album. In 1998, The Best of Stevie B was released, highlighting the light dance-pop sound that marked the start of his career. He has found new fame in Brazil, where he not only appears regularly on radio shows but continues to sell out concerts to tens of thousands of fans, many hailing from the favellas of both Rio and Sao Paolo, due to the popularity of his style of music with urban youth.
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Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums. She has been noted for her ethereal visual style and symbolic lyrics. Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac on December 31, 1974, along with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham. Fleetwood Mac's second album after the incorporation of Nicks and Buckingham, 1977's Rumours, produced four US Top 10 singles (including Nicks's song "Dreams", which was the band's first and only US number one) and remained at No.1 on the American albums chart for 31 weeks, as well as reaching the top spot in various countries around the world. To date the album has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it the eighth best-selling album of all time.
Nicks began her solo career in 1981 with the 8 million selling album Bella Donna, and she has produced six more solo studio albums to date. Her seventh solo studio album entitled In Your Dreams, and her first in ten years, was produced largely by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame and Glen Ballard and was released on May 3, 2011. After the release of her first solo album, Rolling Stone deemed her "The Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll". Having overcome cocaine addiction, and dependency on tranquilizers, Nicks remains a popular solo performer. As a solo artist, she has garnered eight Grammy Award nominations and, with Fleetwood Mac, a further five, of which one was the 1978 award for Album of the Year for Rumours, which they won. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Nicks is known for her distintive voice, mystical visual style and symbolic lyrics as well as the famous (sometimes tense) chemistry between herself and former boyfriend and guitarist/vocalist in Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham.
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Susanna Kwan
Susanna Kwan Kuk-ying is a 1974-1987, 2006-Present Hong Kong female singer. She has recently been an actress for a number of TVB shows. Her nickname is "Big Doll" or "Small Sworn Mother" (as her performance in Wong Sau-kum of Heart of Greed). She had been married to Lai Siu-tin followed by a divorce. In February 5, 1990 to January 1, 2006, she moved to live in Canada. In 2006 she returned to Hong Kong because TVB invited her to be the host of a singing program.
TVB Anniversary Awards (2007)
TVB Anniversary Awards (2008)
Astro Wah Lai Toi Drama Awards 2008
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Sy Smith
Sy Olivia Smith (born February 18, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and music producer. Sy Smith has released four albums and twenty singles during her career. She is also the president of her own recording label, Psyko! Incorporation. In addition, Smith has composed and written songs for many singers including Carlos Santana, Brand New Heavies, Mya, Terry Lewis, and many other recording artists.
Smith's musical genre has varied throughout her career including R&B, Go go, soul, funk, jazz, and neo soul. Her artistic influences include Michael Jackson, Minnie Riperton, Sly Stone, Diana Ross, Chuck Brown, and Sheila E.. Smith has pioneered in the sound "Electrosoul" and "Futuristic soul", an amalgam of funk, neo soul, and R&B that has influenced many other musicians. She was also a key figure in the rise of the "Indie Soul" movement.
Smith has a soprano vocal range with the ability to utilize the whistle register. She is also known for her signature songs "Fly Away With Me", "Aquarius Rising", and "Fa'Sho". She often referred to as The Underground Queen of R&B and Soul.
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Tammy Wynette
Virginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette, (May 5, 1942 – April 6, 1998) was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of the genre's best-known artists and biggest-selling woman singers.
Wynette was sometimes called the "First Lady of Country Music", and her best-known song, Stand by Your Man, was one of the best-selling hit singles by a woman in the history of the country music genre. Many of Wynette's hits dealt with classic themes of loneliness, divorce, and the difficulties of man-woman relationships. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wynette ranked high in the country sales charts with 17 number-one songs. Along with Loretta Lynn, Lynn Anderson, and Dolly Parton, Wynette defined the role of women in country music during the 1970s.
Wynette's marriage to the country singer George Jones in 1969, which end in divorce in 1975, created a country music "couple", following the earlier success of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Jones and Wynette recorded a sequence of duet albums and single records that hit the charts throughout the 1970s.
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Teena Marie
Mary Christine Brockert (March 5, 1956 – December 26, 2010), better known by her stage name Teena Marie, was an American singer, songwriter and producer. She was known as Tina before taking the stage name Teena Marie, then she later acquired the nickname of Lady Tee (sometimes spelled as Lady T), given to her by collaborator and friend, Rick James.
She was known for her distinctive soulful vocals which initially caused many listeners to believe she was African-American. Her success in R&B and soul and loyalty to these genres would earn her the title Ivory Queen of Soul. She played rhythm guitar, keyboards and congas. She also wrote, produced, sang, and arranged virtually all of her songs since her 1980 release, Irons in the Fire, which she later said was her favorite album.
Mary Christine, or Teena as she was called, was the fourth of five children born in Santa Monica, California[citation needed] to construction worker Thomas Leslie Brockert and his wife, home renovator Mary Anne. She spent her early childhood in Mission Hills. Her ethnic heritage was Portuguese, Italian, Irish and Native American.[citation needed] In 2005, while visiting Louisiana, she had discovered that her paternal ancestors once lived in New Orleans. Brockert took to singing naturally, performing Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat Song by age two. She also developed a fondness for singing the songs of Motown, and her self-professed “gift from God” would become fine-tuned as the years progressed.
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Thanh Lam
Thanh Lam (born 19 June 1969) is a Vietnamese singer and song-writer who has been a long-standing Vietnamese contemporary musician.
Đoàn Thanh Lam was born in Hanoi to music composer Thuận Yến and traditional music artist Thanh Hương. She has one younger brother, Trí Minh. At the age of 9, Thanh Lam started studying đàn tỳ bà, a Vietnamese traditional music instrument, at the Hanoi Conservatory of Music. In 1985, she switched to study Vocal Music. This was an important turning-point in her music career. After winning several singing contests, she became famous with her father's song, Chia Tay Hoàng Hôn in the National Professional Solo Singer contest in 1991. Her father has been a strong support in her music career, penning many songs that became Thanh Lam's hits, Khát Vọng, Tình Yêu Không Lời, Màu Hoa Đỏ.
Early in her career, she performed with the Phuong Dong band, where she met composer Quốc Trung. She has produced more than thirty albums to date, collaborating with such prominent Vietnamese composers and singers as Thanh Tùng, Dương Thụ, Lê Minh Sơn and singers Trần Thu Hà, Mỹ Linh, Hồng Nhung, Tùng Dương, and most recently, Trọng Tấn. She has worked with the Vietnamese-Danish jazz musician Niels Lan Doky on several music projects, notably the Vong Nguyet (Wishing Upon the Moon) show at the Roskilde Festival in 2006 and 2007.[citation needed]
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The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s. They have sold over 25 million records worldwide. The group has won numerous music awards throughout their career, including two Brit Awards—winning Best British Dance Act twice, three MTV Video Music Awards, two Kerrang! Awards, five MTV Europe Music Awards, and have twice been nominated for Grammy Awards.
The group's brand of music makes use of various styles ranging from rave, hardcore techno, industrial, and breakbeat in the early 1990s to big beat and electronic rock with punk vocal elements in later times. The current members include Liam Howlett (keyboardist and composer), Keith Flint (dancer and vocalist), and Maxim (MC and vocalist). Leeroy Thornhill (dancer and very rarely a live keyboardist) was a member of the band from 1990 to 2000, as was a female dancer and vocalist called Sharky who left the group during their early period. The Prodigy first emerged on the underground rave scene in the early 1990s, and have since then achieved immense popularity and worldwide renown.
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Tim Westwood
Timothy Westwood (born 3 October 1957) is an English DJ and presenter of radio and television. He also presents the UK version of the MTV show Pimp My Ride. He is often referred to by other DJs and artists appearing on his shows simply as Westwood.
During his career Westwood has DJed for many radio stations, including the newly formed radio stations Kiss FM (which he co-owned) and LWR in the 1980s, followed by mainstream station Capital FM (from 1987). In December 1994, following a shake up of Radio 1 by the then chief executive Matthew Bannister, he was given the new and somewhat innovative national Radio 1 Rap Show. He was the Radio 1 Rap Show's first presenter and has been its only permanent presenter; he is now one of Radio 1's longest-serving broadcasters.
His first broadcast on a legal station appears to have been on 23 March 1985, when he was already working as a pirate DJ.[original research?] He was a guest on a BBC World Service programme called Meridian where he discussed early hip-hop culture in London. After appearing in the 1987 BBC Open Space documentary Bad Meaning Good, which was an early work of his own company Justice Entertainment, he achieved TV exposure in the late 1980s on the ITV programme Night Network, produced by London Weekend Television.
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Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards. Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Success followed with a string of hits including "River Deep, Mountain High" and the 1971 hit "Proud Mary". With the publication of her autobiography I, Tina (1986), Turner revealed severe instances of spousal abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. After virtually disappearing from the music scene for several years following her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career, launching a string of hits beginning in 1983 with the single "Let's Stay Together" and the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer.
Her musical career led to film roles, beginning with a prominent role as The Acid Queen in the 1975 film Tommy, and an appearance in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. She starred opposite Mel Gibson as Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome for which she received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, and her version of the film's theme, "We Don't Need Another Hero", was a hit single. She appeared in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.
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Tran Thu Ha
Trần Thu Hà, (born August 26, 1977 in Hanoi, Vietnam) is a Vietnamese pop singer, recording artist and entrepreneur. Raised in a music family, Hà Trần is famous as the most creative and intelligent singer who pioneered in combined Vietnamese folk music with western modern style.
Ha Tran is the daughter of Tran Hieu and Vu Thuy Huyen. Trần Hiếu has known as a People's Artist and an opera teacher. Her mother was former Dean of Singing Department of Hanoi National Conservatory of Music and also an achievements teacher died due to cancer when she was 14. Ha Tran grew up most influenced by her brother Trần Vũ Hoàng, a painter/Dean of Fine Arts Department at Hanoi College of Arts, and her uncle - the famous songster Trần Tiến, who she looks up as an inspirer of her music career.
Ha Tran faced with many difficulties at the beginning. She did not have a strong natural voice. Many of her early critics thought she was not a distinguished talent. Her parents therefore decided to put her in a dance class at the age of 6 and piano lessons when she was 8. Despite the set-back, Ha Tran applied to learn singing with her auntie at elementary level in Hanoi College of Arts at the age of 11, and continued study to get her "Bachelor of Singing" from Hanoi National Conservatory of Music in 2000. Throughout her hard work at school, Ha started to earn many awards: Most potential voice in the contest Best Voice of Hanoi (1993); First Class of National Student Singing Festival (1994); 3rd place at the Oriole Voice (Giọng hát Vàng Anh) held by Japan NHK Television and Horitro Productions (1995). She also won Golden Medal of National Professional Singer Award in 1995 and Best Recording Artist by Viet Nam Musician Association in the following year (1996).
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Umm Kulthum
Umm Kulthum (Arabic: أم كلثوم ʾUmm Kulṯūm; Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [omme kælˈsuːm]; born فاطمة إبراهيم السيد البلتاجي Fātimah ʾIbrāhīm as-Sayyid al-Biltāǧī, [ˈfɑtˤmɑ (ʔe)bɾˤɑˈhiːm esˈsæjjed elbelˈtæːɡi]; see Kunya) (December 30, 1898[citation needed]–February 3, 1975) was an Egyptian singer, songwriter, and actress. Born in Tamay ez-Zahayra village, which belongs to El Senbellawein, she is known as "the star of the East" (kawkab el-sharq). More than three decades after her death, she is widely regarded as the greatest female singer in Arab music history.
Umm Kulthum was born in Tamay ez-Zahayra village in El Senbellawein, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt, in Dakahlia, in the Nile Delta, near the Mediterranean Sea. Her birth date is unconfirmed, as birth registration was not enforced throughout the Arab world. The Egyptian Ministry of Information seems to have given either December 31, 1898, or December 31, 1904. She was likely born some time between these two dates.
At a young age, she showed exceptional singing talent. Her father, an Imam, taught her to recite the Qur'an, and she is said to have memorized the entire book. When she was 12 years old, her father disguised her as a young boy and entered her in a small performing troupe that he directed. At the age of 16, she was noticed by Mohamed Aboul Ela, a modestly famous singer, who taught her the old classical repertoire. A few years later, she met the famous composer and oudist Zakariyya Ahmad, who invited her to come to Cairo. Although she made several visits to Cairo in the early 1920s, she waited until 1923 before permanently moving there. She was invited on several occasions to the house of Amin Beh Al Mahdy, who taught her how to play the oud, a type of lute. She developed a very close relationship to Rawheya Al Mahdi, daughter of Amin, and became her closest friend. Kulthum even attended Rawheya's daughter's wedding, although she always tried to avoid public appearances.
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Vera Lynn
Dame Vera Lynn, DBE (born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917) is an English singer-songwriter and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during World War II.
During the war she toured Egypt, India and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops. She became known, and is still referred to, as "The Forces' Sweetheart"; the songs most associated with her are "We'll Meet Again", "The White Cliffs of Dover", A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and "There'll Always Be an England".
She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television in the UK and the United States and recording such hits as "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" and "My Son, My Son".
In 2009 she became the oldest living artist to make it to No. 1 on the British album chart, at the age of 92. She has devoted much time and energy to charity work connected with ex-servicemen, disabled children and breast cancer. She is still held in great affection by veterans of the Second World War and in 2000 was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the twentieth century.
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Vicente Fernández
Vicente Fernández Gómez (born February 17, 1940) is a Mexican singer, producer and actor. Known as Chente or El rey de la canción ranchera (The king of ranchera music) throughout the Latin world, Vicente Fernández, who started his career singing for tips on the street, has become a cultural icon, recording more than 50 albums and contributing to many movies. He is the father of the popular singer Alejandro Fernández and Vicente Fernandez Jr.
Although less well known to English-speaking audiences, he has consistently filled stadiums and venues throughout his 35-plus years of performing. His repertoire is pure ranchera, a style described by the Miami Herald as representing "the Mexico of old – a way of life romanticized by rural ranches, revolution, and philandering caballeros". He has sold over 65 million copies worldwide.
Born in Huentitán El Alto, Jalisco, Mexico, Fernandez spent the early years of his life on his father Ramon's ranch on the outskirts of Guadalajara. As a little boy Vicente also worked at a young age for his uncle as a waiter, dish washer, cashier, and finally the manager of his uncle's restaurant. He was known to all the people as "Chente". fdd the idyllic ranchera lifestyle was instilled in him. His mother often took him to see the films of Pedro Infante. Fernandez told of the significance of these films: "When I was 6 or 7, I would go see Pedro Infante's movies, and I would tell my mother, 'When I grow up, I'll be like him.'" By age eight he had taken up the guitar and was practicing his singing in the style of the ranchera singers he heard on the radio.
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Vivian Chow
Vivian Chow (Chinese: 周慧敏; traditional Chinese: 周慧敏; pinyin: Zhōu Huìmǐn) is a Hong Kong based Cantopop singer and actress. She is well known for her ladylike stage image as well as her charity works for animal rights and breast cancer awareness.
She retired from the Chinese entertainment scene in the late 1990s when Chow and her longtime partner, Joe Ngai, emigrated to Vancouver, Canada. However, she still makes frequent trips to Hong Kong to visit her family and to support animal-rights charities.
Chow was born in Hong Kong and brought up by her mother. Her father died the same year she was born due to heart problems. As a child, Chow studied at St. Stephen's Church College, passing A-levels (thirteenth grade) in high school.
After high school, Chow entered the Fourth Annual New Talent Singing Awards in 1985 with Yoshie Kashiwabara's song Saiai (最愛). The same contest also saw the rise of William So (蘇永康) and Hacken Lee. Although Chow did not receive any prizes in the contest, this failure did not diminish her hopes of becoming a singer, instead, Chow entered the entertainment business by becoming a DJ in Radio Television Hong Kong in 1987.
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Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all-time. Houston was one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. She released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know", influenced several African American female artists to follow in her footsteps.
Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album") on the Billboard magazine year-end charts. Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
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Wu Yingyin
Wu Yingyin (born Wu Jianqiu 吳劍秋; 1922 – December 17, 2009) was a Chinese singer. By the 1940s, she became one of the seven great singing stars.
Wu was born in Ningbo to an intellectual family with her father as a chemical engineer and mother a doctor. She grew up in Shanghai and enjoyed singing to radio tunes at an early age. She originally wanted to go to the Shanghai Academy of Music, but her parents opposed the idea and claimed that the music industry was for individuals with no real ambition. In 1940, in order to work around her parents' disapproval, she began singing under a stage name (Qian Yin 錢茵) for radio stations at night, particularly for children's programs.
Wu had a soft singing voice that made her a success. She continued to sing without her family knowing so and ultimately used the stage name "Wu Yingyin." The buzz later got around about a new singer. It has been said that Wu's father at first didn't realize it was his own daughter's voice that he heard on the radio.
In 1945 she became a nightclub singer and garnered acclaim for her performances. Most of her vocal techniques were self-taught. At the age of 24, she participated in a nightclub competition. Winning the crown, she was discovered and immediately signed to a contract with Pathé Records (China) record company. Her first record (我想忘了你 "I Want to Forget You") became a hit. In total, Pathé Records produced 30 albums for her. She was affectionately nicknamed 鼻音歌后 ("Queen of the Nasal Voice").
wn.com/Wu_Yingyin -
Yao Lee
Yao Lee (姚莉), also credited as Yiu Lei and Miss Hue Lee, was a Chinese singer from the 1930s to the 1970s and sister of Yao Min. By the 1940s, she became one of the Seven great singing stars.
Born Yáo Xiùyún (姚秀雲) and rasied in Shanghai, Yao began performing on the radio in 1935 at the age of 13. When she was 14, she recorded her first single with Yan Hua (嚴華) called "Xin xiao fang niu" (新小放牛). She was signed to Pathé Records.
She married Huang Baoluo (黃保羅) in 1947 and ceased performing on stage to devote time to her family. Following the Communist seizure of power in China in 1949, popular music was considered ideologically suspect and Yao fled to Hong Kong in 1950 to continue her singing career there. In addition to releasing hit records, beginning in 1955 with the film 桃花江 (Peach Blossom River), she often acted as a playback singer for movie superstars. Many of the featured songs would also become popular. She stopped singing in 1967 upon the death of her brother but took an executive position with EMI Music Hong Kong in 1969. In 1970, she returned to performing and travelled to Taiwan to perform there for the first time and sought unsuccessfully to sign Teresa Teng to EMI for the Hong Kong market. She retired officially in 1975 but remained supportive of singers such as Wakin Chau.
wn.com/Yao_Lee -
Yoshiko Ōtaka
Yoshiko Ōtaka (大鷹 淑子, Ōtaka Yoshiko?), (English Name: Shirley Yamaguchi) (born February 12, 1920) is a China-born Japanese actress and singer who made a career in China, Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States. By the 1940s, she became one of the Seven great singing stars. She was elected as a member of the Japanese Parliament in the 1970s and served for 18 years.
Yoshiko Ōtaka was born Yoshiko Yamaguchi (山口 淑子?) to Japanese parents, (father, Yamaguchi Fumio 山口 文雄) who were then settlers in Fushun in Manchuria.
Yamaguchi Fumio was an employee of the South Manchuria Railway. From an early age, Yoshiko was exposed to Mandarin Chinese. Yamaguchi Fumio had some influential Chinese acquaintances, among whom were Li Jichun (李際春) and Pan Yugui (潘毓桂). By Chinese custom for those who became sworn brothers, they also became Yoshiko's "godfathers" and bestowed upon her two Chinese names, Li Xianglan (李香蘭) and Pan Shuhua 潘淑華. ("Shu" in Shuhua and "Yoshi" in Yoshiko are written with the same Chinese character). Yoshiko later used the former name as a stage name and assumed the latter name while she was staying with the Pan family in Beijing.
wn.com/Yoshiko_Ōtaka -
Zeki Müren
Zeki Müren (Turkish pronunciation: [zeˈci myˈɾen]) (born in Bursa, Turkey on 6 December 1931, died in İzmir on 24 September 1996) was a prominent Turkish singer, composer and actor. He was famous for his compelling voice and precise articulation in his singing of both established Turkish classical music and contemporary songs.
Müren grew up in the provincial capital city of Bursa in western Turkey. From 1950 to 1953 he studied decorative arts in Istanbul at the Fine Arts Academy while launching his musical career. Müren’s first album was issued in 1951, at which time he was a regular singer on Istanbul Radio. In 1955, he produced his first Gold Record.
In his forty-five-year professional career Müren composed more than three hundred songs and made more than six hundred recordings. He was celebrated as the "Sun" of classical Turkish music and was affectionately called "Pasha". For many years he reigned as "Artist of the Year"[clarification needed]. Many of Müren's records were also published in Greece, where he also enjoyed popularity, along with the U.S., Germany, Iran, and several other countries during the 1960s and 1970s.
wn.com/Zeki_Müren -
Zhou Xuan
Zhou Xuan (August 1, 1918 or 1920 – September 22, 1957) was a popular Chinese singer and film actress. By the 1940s, she had become one of China's seven great singing stars. She is probably the most well-known of the seven, as she had a concurrent movie career until 1953.
Zhou was born Su Pu (蘇璞), but was separated from her natural parents at a young age and raised by adoptive parents. She spent her entire life searching for her biological parents but her parentage was never established until after her death.
According to later family research, a relative who was an opium addict took her at the age of 3 to another city and sold her to a family named Wang, who named her Wang Xiaohong. She was later adopted by a family named Zhou, changing her name to Zhou Xiaohong.
At the age of 13 she took Zhou Xuan as her stage name, 'Xuan' (璇) meaning beautiful jade in Chinese.
In 1932, Zhou began acting as a member of the Bright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe. She later achieved stardom in 1937 in Street Angel (馬路天使), when director Yuan Muzhi cast her as one of the leads as a singing girl.
wn.com/Zhou_Xuan
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Britney Spears is the QUEEN OF POP Music & THE LEGEND
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:14
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
This is a Tribute to THE QUEEN OF POP Britney Spears.
http://wn.com/Britney_Spears_is_the_QUEEN_OF_POP_Music_THE_LEGEND
This is a Tribute to THE QUEEN OF POP Britney Spears.
Queen of Pop #1 Album Sales & Chart Hits
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:48
- Updated: 10 Feb 2013
Madonna's about to turn 100 years old, so it's time to find a successor to take over the reigns as the Queen of Pop! In this new reality show, she enlists seven of the biggest names in pop and gives them a short Q&A; on their most recent album sales and chart hits! Music in this episode: Madonna ft. Nicki Minaj - "I Don't Give A" Madonna - "Girl Gone Wild"
http://wn.com/Queen_of_Pop_1_Album_Sales_Chart_Hits
Madonna's about to turn 100 years old, so it's time to find a successor to take over the reigns as the Queen of Pop! In this new reality show, she enlists seven of the biggest names in pop and gives them a short Q&A; on their most recent album sales and chart hits! Music in this episode: Madonna ft. Nicki Minaj - "I Don't Give A" Madonna - "Girl Gone Wild"
- published: 16 Dec 2012
- views: 767
- author: palmstotheuniverse
Britney Spears.Princess of pop
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:50
- Updated: 01 Dec 2012
A video I made with a remix of I'm a slave 4 u.Beautiful pictures for a beautiful Britney
http://wn.com/Britney_SpearsPrincess_of_pop
A video I made with a remix of I'm a slave 4 u.Beautiful pictures for a beautiful Britney
- published: 11 Jan 2007
- views: 30995
- author: dhanielm
Pop Princesses 2011 - The TV Ad
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:40
- Updated: 12 Aug 2012
Available to order now at Amazon - www.amazon.co.uk 2011 took off with the Queen of pop Rihanna dominating the charts with her number one smashing hit What's My Name - setting the standards for what's yet to come this year! This ultimate collection features a staggering 21 hits, including chart-topping princesses such as Cheryl Cole with Promise This, Alexandra Burke's Start Without You and Nicole Scherzinger with her massive hit Poison. The album includes only the best from the pop royalty, with The Saturdays, Pixie Lott and Lady Gaga and many many more! Bringing you the biggest names in pop royalty - Pop Princesses 2011 is the perfect album to follow the storming year of pop! Don't miss out, order your copy now
http://wn.com/Pop_Princesses_2011_The_TV_Ad
Available to order now at Amazon - www.amazon.co.uk 2011 took off with the Queen of pop Rihanna dominating the charts with her number one smashing hit What's My Name - setting the standards for what's yet to come this year! This ultimate collection features a staggering 21 hits, including chart-topping princesses such as Cheryl Cole with Promise This, Alexandra Burke's Start Without You and Nicole Scherzinger with her massive hit Poison. The album includes only the best from the pop royalty, with The Saturdays, Pixie Lott and Lady Gaga and many many more! Bringing you the biggest names in pop royalty - Pop Princesses 2011 is the perfect album to follow the storming year of pop! Don't miss out, order your copy now
- published: 23 Feb 2011
- views: 17408
- author: UMTVUK
Rihanna - Stay ft. Mikky Ekko (Official Blare LeVoir cover)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:55
- Updated: 08 Feb 2013
www.blarelevoir.com Blare covers Pop Princess Rihanna's Stay. Please follow Blare on Twitter.com/blarelevoir Facebook.com/blarelevoir ReverbNation.com/blarelevoir MySpace.com/blarelevoir YouTube.com/user/blarelevoir YouTube.com/user/BlareLeVoirVEVO
http://wn.com/Rihanna_Stay_ft_Mikky_Ekko_Official_Blare_LeVoir_cover
www.blarelevoir.com Blare covers Pop Princess Rihanna's Stay. Please follow Blare on Twitter.com/blarelevoir Facebook.com/blarelevoir ReverbNation.com/blarelevoir MySpace.com/blarelevoir YouTube.com/user/blarelevoir YouTube.com/user/BlareLeVoirVEVO
- published: 01 Feb 2013
- views: 37776
- author: Blare LeVoir
The Queen and The King of Pop Music - trailer
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:13
- Updated: 16 Oct 2012
December 2012 - video mix & dj set by Laudanum cheers from Poland!
http://wn.com/The_Queen_and_The_King_of_Pop_Music_trailer
December 2012 - video mix & dj set by Laudanum cheers from Poland!
- published: 16 Oct 2012
- views: 32
- author: verschlechterung
Britney Spears - QUEEN OF POP is a Supergirl ( Super Hero ) Part 2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:26
- Updated: 15 Jan 2013
The Official Queen of Pop
http://wn.com/Britney_Spears_QUEEN_OF_POP_is_a_Supergirl_Super_Hero_Part_2
TRIBUTE **BRITNEY SPEARS** SUPER POP PRINCESS
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:55
- Updated: 28 Jan 2013
this is the reason why i love britney spears, how about you?-enjoy the real best moments on stage!!! comments please!
http://wn.com/TRIBUTE_**BRITNEY_SPEARS**_SUPER_POP_PRINCESS
this is the reason why i love britney spears, how about you?-enjoy the real best moments on stage!!! comments please!
- published: 26 Apr 2010
- views: 3896
- author: Johan Flores San Miguel
Britney Spears - POP Princess
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:58
- Updated: 15 Sep 2012
My new promo. I hope u'll enjoy ;) pls COMMENT and SUB if u like it. only for fan and supporting Britney
http://wn.com/Britney_Spears_POP_Princess
My new promo. I hope u'll enjoy ;) pls COMMENT and SUB if u like it. only for fan and supporting Britney
- published: 23 Jul 2009
- views: 2439
- author: PaweleczekBS
Prince of Pop: Tony Rich - STFU (Pop Music)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:52
- Updated: 29 Sep 2011
Tony Rich "STFU" from the debut record "Worst Album In America" Download album for FREE at bit.ly Follow me @ twitter.com Friend me @ myspace.com
http://wn.com/Prince_of_Pop_Tony_Rich_STFU_Pop_Music
Tony Rich "STFU" from the debut record "Worst Album In America" Download album for FREE at bit.ly Follow me @ twitter.com Friend me @ myspace.com
- published: 24 Sep 2010
- views: 201
- author: worstalbuminamerica
Poland's pop princess
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:06
- Updated: 25 Jan 2013
CNN's Phil Black talks to Polish pop star Natalia Kukulska about her music and why Poland inspires her.
http://wn.com/Poland's_pop_princess
CNN's Phil Black talks to Polish pop star Natalia Kukulska about her music and why Poland inspires her.
- published: 09 Oct 2008
- views: 58953
- author: CNN
The Gonnabees Queen of Pop
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:27
- Updated: 26 Jan 2013
Our song, Queen of Pop, went number one in New York cause we know how to have a little fun snapping on those famous pop divas. But we're guessing other stations across the country got cold feet. You know how those big stars can be... So, were those stations chicken? Check out Queen of Pop right here and decide! The press likes to compare us to the Spice Girls. But we say there's no way! We're 100% unique. We're determined. Cause we're GonnaBees. And we're not just spicy...WE'RE HOT!
http://wn.com/The_Gonnabees_Queen_of_Pop
Our song, Queen of Pop, went number one in New York cause we know how to have a little fun snapping on those famous pop divas. But we're guessing other stations across the country got cold feet. You know how those big stars can be... So, were those stations chicken? Check out Queen of Pop right here and decide! The press likes to compare us to the Spice Girls. But we say there's no way! We're 100% unique. We're determined. Cause we're GonnaBees. And we're not just spicy...WE'RE HOT!
- published: 06 Jan 2007
- views: 8409
- author: virgochild
pop princess - hannah montana
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:17
- Updated: 09 Feb 2013
song: pop princess by the click five
http://wn.com/pop_princess_hannah_montana
Lady Gaga calls Britney Spears "Queen Of Pop"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:42
- Updated: 09 Feb 2013
Lady Gaga said Britney Spears is Queen Of Pop
http://wn.com/Lady_Gaga_calls_Britney_Spears_Queen_Of_Pop
Lady Gaga said Britney Spears is Queen Of Pop
- published: 05 Nov 2010
- views: 14725
- author: SupporterOfSpears
Ciara The Pop Princess- Bad Romance
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:43
- Updated: 05 Feb 2013
Ciara The Pop Princess, show at Wall Street Night Club. Several performances by Cassandra Terrace, Vee Love, Viva Valezz, Ciara Mist, Krystal Klear, Selena Terrace, CeCe Garrison.
http://wn.com/Ciara_The_Pop_Princess_Bad_Romance
Ciara The Pop Princess, show at Wall Street Night Club. Several performances by Cassandra Terrace, Vee Love, Viva Valezz, Ciara Mist, Krystal Klear, Selena Terrace, CeCe Garrison.
- published: 23 Jun 2010
- views: 14216
- author: AztekFreak0105
China's "Prince of Pop"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:09
- Updated: 02 Feb 2012
China's youngest "Prince of Pop." Visit my Amazon Store: www.amazon.com Visit me at HubPages: dalehyde.hubpages.com
http://wn.com/China's_Prince_of_Pop
China's youngest "Prince of Pop." Visit my Amazon Store: www.amazon.com Visit me at HubPages: dalehyde.hubpages.com
- published: 17 May 2010
- views: 1193
- author: Dale Hyde
Jonas Brothers Pop Princess
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:16
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
ahha hope you like it!
http://wn.com/Jonas_Brothers_Pop_Princess
Zakuro-Queen of Pop
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:20
- Updated: 08 Feb 2013
Plz if you like Zakuro i apologise this vid was made for fun and i don't mean to offend anyone. Okay? Disclaimer: This video is purely fan-made and is in no way associated with the musical artist or anime company in any way.
http://wn.com/Zakuro-Queen_of_Pop
Plz if you like Zakuro i apologise this vid was made for fun and i don't mean to offend anyone. Okay? Disclaimer: This video is purely fan-made and is in no way associated with the musical artist or anime company in any way.
- published: 26 Nov 2006
- views: 85677
- author: YamiHailey
Our very own pop princess, now QUEEN OF POP (Britney - All Hits)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:50
- Updated: 31 Dec 2012
What's your favourite song?? Baby One More Time (You Drive Me) Crazy Sometimes Soda Pop Born To Make You Happy From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart I Will Be There I Will Still Love You Deep In My Heart Thinking About You E-mail My Heart The Beat Goes On Oops!.. I Did It Again Stronger Don't Go Knocking On My Door (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know Lucky Can't Make You Love Me What You See (Is What You Get) Where Are You Now One Kiss From You Girl In The Mirror When Your Eyes Say It Dear Diary I'll Never Stop Loving You Walk On By Heart [download www.sendspace.com ] I'm A Slave 4 U Overprotected Lonely I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman Boys Anticipating I Love Rock N' Roll Cinderella Let Me Be Bombastic Love That's There You Take Me When I Found You What's Is Like To Be Me Me Against The Music (I Got That) Boom Boom Showdown Breathe On Me Early Mornin' Toxic Outrageous Tough Of My Hand The Hook Up Shadow Brave New girl Everytime Someday (I Will Understand) Mona Lisa Intimidated Girls And Boys And Then We Kiss She'll Never Be Me I've Just Begun Guilty Over To You Now Get It Chaotic My Prerogative Do Somethin' Download GIMME MORE: www.sendspace.com
http://wn.com/Our_very_own_pop_princess,_now_QUEEN_OF_POP_Britney_All_Hits
What's your favourite song?? Baby One More Time (You Drive Me) Crazy Sometimes Soda Pop Born To Make You Happy From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart I Will Be There I Will Still Love You Deep In My Heart Thinking About You E-mail My Heart The Beat Goes On Oops!.. I Did It Again Stronger Don't Go Knocking On My Door (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know Lucky Can't Make You Love Me What You See (Is What You Get) Where Are You Now One Kiss From You Girl In The Mirror When Your Eyes Say It Dear Diary I'll Never Stop Loving You Walk On By Heart [download www.sendspace.com ] I'm A Slave 4 U Overprotected Lonely I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman Boys Anticipating I Love Rock N' Roll Cinderella Let Me Be Bombastic Love That's There You Take Me When I Found You What's Is Like To Be Me Me Against The Music (I Got That) Boom Boom Showdown Breathe On Me Early Mornin' Toxic Outrageous Tough Of My Hand The Hook Up Shadow Brave New girl Everytime Someday (I Will Understand) Mona Lisa Intimidated Girls And Boys And Then We Kiss She'll Never Be Me I've Just Begun Guilty Over To You Now Get It Chaotic My Prerogative Do Somethin' Download GIMME MORE: www.sendspace.com
- published: 26 May 2007
- views: 317588
- author: Nataliyamusic
scapy1000 - Pop Princess - The Click Five
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:30
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
Her channel: www.youtube.com Scapy we love you! Jay and Lou ***WE DO NOT OWN THIS SONG OR THE PICTURES USED IN THIS VIDEO!!!!*** **THIS SONG IS OWNED by The Click Five - Pop Princess and the Pictures by Scarlett-Darleen/scapy1000 SONG: Pop Princess - The Click Five Buy this Song: itunes.apple.com ***I DO NOT OWN THIS SONG***
http://wn.com/scapy1000_Pop_Princess_The_Click_Five
Her channel: www.youtube.com Scapy we love you! Jay and Lou ***WE DO NOT OWN THIS SONG OR THE PICTURES USED IN THIS VIDEO!!!!*** **THIS SONG IS OWNED by The Click Five - Pop Princess and the Pictures by Scarlett-Darleen/scapy1000 SONG: Pop Princess - The Click Five Buy this Song: itunes.apple.com ***I DO NOT OWN THIS SONG***
- published: 27 Dec 2012
- views: 331
- author: nyhoney99
Prince of Pop: Tony Rich - Do Without You (Pop Music)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:48
- Updated: 07 Nov 2011
Prince of Pop: Tony Rich - Do Without You (Pop Music) From my EP "White Tiger" soundcloud.com
http://wn.com/Prince_of_Pop_Tony_Rich_Do_Without_You_Pop_Music
Prince of Pop: Tony Rich - Do Without You (Pop Music) From my EP "White Tiger" soundcloud.com
- published: 01 Oct 2011
- views: 45
- author: worstalbuminamerica
PATisDOPE "One on One" with Gia Joliee
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:40
- Updated: 30 Sep 2012
DMV's own Pop Princess meets up with PATisDOPE to talk about boys, her talents, influences, and her support team.
http://wn.com/PATisDOPE_One_on_One_with_Gia_Joliee
DMV's own Pop Princess meets up with PATisDOPE to talk about boys, her talents, influences, and her support team.
- published: 06 Sep 2012
- views: 1028
- author: PATisDOPE
Celebrating The King of Music: Michael Jackson
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:36
- Updated: 25 Jan 2013
This is a video I made to celebrate the legacy of the KING OF MUSIC Michael Joseph Jackson! This is my second self made video. Feel free to leave a comment as long as it is civil. Keep Michaeling!
http://wn.com/Celebrating_The_King_of_Music_Michael_Jackson
This is a video I made to celebrate the legacy of the KING OF MUSIC Michael Joseph Jackson! This is my second self made video. Feel free to leave a comment as long as it is civil. Keep Michaeling!
- published: 20 Jan 2010
- views: 505
- author: NoraWakelyTenley
"King of Rock and Roll" redirects here. For other uses, see King of Rock and Roll (disambiguation).
Honorific nicknames in popular music are often religious, familial or (most frequently) royal and aristocratic in nature and are used as a form of expression in the media, or to identify the significance of an artist by fans. Honorific nicknames were used in classical music in Europe as early as the early nineteenth century, with figures like Mozart being called "The father of modern music" and Bach "The father of modern piano music".[1] They were also particularly prominent in African American culture in the post-Civil War era, perhaps as a means of conferring status that had been negated by slavery,[2] and as a result entered early jazz and blues music, including figures such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie.[3]
In American culture, despite its republican constitution and ideology,[4] honorific nicknames have been used to describe leading figures in various areas of activity, such as industry, commerce, sport and the media; father or mother have been used for innovators, and royal titles like king and queen for dominant figures in a field.[5][6] In the 1930s and 1940s, as jazz and swing music were gaining popularity, it was the more commercially successful white artists Paul Whiteman and Benny Goodman who became known as "The King of Jazz" and "The King of Swing" respectively, despite such genres of music originating from African American culture.[7] These patterns of naming were transferred to rock and roll when it emerged in the 1950s. There was a series of attempts to find (and a number of claimants to be) the "King of Rock 'n' Roll", a title that became most associated with Elvis Presley.[8] This has been seen as part of a process of the appropriation of credit for innovation of the then new music by a white establishment.[9] Different honorifics have been taken or given for other leading figures in the genre, such as "The Architect of Rock and Roll", by Little Richard from the 1990s,[10] but this term, like many, is also used for other important figures, in this case including pioneer electric guitarist Les Paul.[11]
Similar honorific nicknames have been given in other genres, including Aretha Franklin, who was literally crowned "Queen of Soul" by disk jockey Pervis Spann on stage in 1968.[12] Other nicknames have been adopted in direct emulation of these, including Michael Jackson's title "King of Pop" from 1989.[13][14] Honorific nicknames are often part of a process of marketing and may be adopted or dropped by the press and fans over time.[15] They have been strongly promulgated and contested by various artists[16] and occasionally disowned or played down by their subjects.[17] Some notable honorific nicknames are in general usage and commonly identified with particular individuals.
Individual titles[link]
| Contents: |
|---|
.jpg)
File:Roy Acuff.jpg
American singer Roy Acuff has been called the "King of Country"
File:Selena09.jpg
Mexican American musician Selena is known as the "Queen of Tejano"
A[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aaliyah | Princess of R&B |  United States |
[18] |
| Roy Acuff | King of Country | United States |
[19] |
| Christina Aguilera | Princess of Pop | United States |
[20][21][22] |
| Queen of Reinvention | |||
| Damon Albarn | King of Britpop |  United Kingdom |
[23][24] |
| Pop Conjurer | |||
| Alicia Keys | Queen of R&B | United States |
[25][26] |
| Mao Amin | Dajieda ("Big Sister") |  China |
[27] |
| Namie Amuro | Queen of Japanese Pop |  Japan |
[28] |
B[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| B.B. King | King of the Blues | United States |
[29][30] |
| Joan Baez | Queen of Folk | United States |
[31] |
| Harry Belafonte | King of Calypso | United States |
[32][33] |
| Chuck Berry | King of Rock and Roll | United States |
[34] |
| Beyoncé | Princess of pop | United States |
[35][36][37][38] |
| Queen of R&B | |||
| Mary J. Blige | Empress of Soul | United States |
[20][39][40][41][42][43][44] |
| Queen of Hip Hop | |||
| Queen of Hip Hop Soul | |||
| Queen of R&B | |||
| Kurtis Blow | King of Rap | United States |
[45] |
| BoA | Queen of K-Pop |  South Korea |
[46] |
| Moya Brennan | First Lady of Celtic Music |  Ireland |
[47][48] |
| Garth Brooks | King of Country | United States |
[49] |
| Chris Brown | Prince of R&B | United States |
[50][51] |
| Chuck Brown | Godfather of Go-Go | United States |
[52] |
| Dennis Brown | Crown Prince of Reggae |  Jamaica |
[53][54] |
| James Brown | Godfather of Soul | United States |
[55][56][57] |
| Hardest-working Man in Show Business | |||
| King of Soul | |||
| Ruth Brown | Queen of R&B | United States |
[58][59] |
| Solomon Burke | King of Rock 'n' Soul | United States |
[60] |
C[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laura Canales | Queen of Tejano | United States |
[61] |
| Mariah Carey | Queen of Pop | United States |
[62][63] |
| Roberto Carlos | The King |  Brazil |
[64][65][66] |
| Sammi Cheng | Queen of Canto Pop |  Hong Kong |
[67] |
| Clifton Chenier | King of Zydeco | United States |
.[68] |
| Cher | Goddess of Pop | United States |
[69][70][71][72] |
| Queen of Reinvention | |||
| Jacky Cheung | God of Song | Hong Kong |
[73] |
| Leslie Cheung | Gor Gor (Big/Elder Brother) | Hong Kong |
[74] |
| Jay Chou | King of Chinese Pop |  Taiwan |
[75] |
| Vivian Chow | Eternal Maiden Queen | Hong Kong |
[76] |
| Ciara | Princess of Crunk&B | United States |
[77] |
| Eric Clapton | God | United Kingdom |
[78] |
| Keyshia Cole | Princess of Hip Hop Soul | United States |
[79] |
| John Coltrane | King of Jazz | United States |
[80] |
| Sam Cooke | King of Soul | United States |
[81][82][83] |
| Celia Cruz | Queen of Salsa |  Cuba |
[84] |
D[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daddy Yankee | King of Reggaetón |  Puerto Rico/ United States |
[85][86] |
| Kikki Danielsson | Queen of Dansband Music |  Sweden |
[87] |
| Ray Davies | Godfather of Britpop | United Kingdom |
[88] |
| Vinjamuri Anasuya Devi | Queen of Folk |  India |
[89] |
| Amr Diab | Father of Mediterranean Music |  Egypt |
[90][91] |
| Dick Dale | King of the Surf Guitar | United States |
[92] |
| Celine Dion | Queen of Pop |  Canada |
[62][93] |
| Fats Domino | King of Rock and Roll | United States |
[94] |
| Lonnie Donegan | King of Skiffle | United Kingdom |
[95] |
| Hilary Duff | Disney queen | United States |
[96][97][98] |
| Disney princess | |||
| Rocío Dúrcal | Queen of Ranchera |  Spain |
[99] |
E[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eminem | King of Hip Hop | United States |
[100] |
| Emilio | King of Tejano | United States |
[101] |
| Lotta Engberg | Queen of Dansband Music | Sweden |
[87] |
| Gloria Estefan | Queen of Latin Pop | Cuba |
[102] |
F[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Farnham | The Voice |  Australia |
[103] |
| Vicente Fernández | King of Ranchera |  Mexico |
[104] |
| Ella Fitzgerald | First Lady of Song | United States |
[105][106][107][108] |
| Queen of Jazz | |||
| Aretha Franklin | Queen of Soul | United States |
[20][109] |
| Alan Freed | King of Rock and Roll | United States |
[110] |
G[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noel Gallagher | King of Britpop | United Kingdom |
[111] |
| Marvin Gaye | Prince of Motown | United States |
[112][113] |
| Prince of Soul | |||
| Gloria Gaynor | Queen of Disco | United States |
[114] |
| Marika Gombitová | Songstress of the Century |  Slovakia |
[115][116][117] |
| Gesang | Maestro of Kroncong |  Indonesia |
[118] |
| Benny Goodman | King of Swing | United States |
[119] |
| Amy Grant | Queen of Christian Pop | United States |
[120][121] |
H[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nina Hagen | Godmother of Punk |  Germany |
[122][123] |
| Bill Haley | King of Rock and Roll | United States |
[110] |
| Rob Halford | Metal God | United Kingdom |
[124] |
| Ayumi Hamasaki | Empress of Pop | Japan |
[125] |
| Queen of Jpop | |||
| Hana Hegerová | Queen of Czechoslovak Chanson |  Czech Republic |
[126][127][128] |
| Kohmi Hirose | Queen of Winter / Winter Queen (冬の女王, Fuyu no Joō?) | Japan |
[129] |
| John Lee Hooker | King of the Blues | United States |
[130] |
| Whitney Houston | Queen of Pop | United States |
[62][131][132][133][134] |
| Prom Queen of Soul | |||
| The Voice | |||
| Sam Hui | God of Song | Hong Kong |
[135] |
I[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iggy Pop | Godfather of Punk | United States |
[136][137] |
| Rhoma Irama | King of Dangdut | Indonesia |
[138] |
J[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janet Jackson | Princess of Pop | United States |
[139][140][141][142] |
| Queen of Pop | |||
| Queen of R&B | |||
| Mahalia Jackson | Queen of Gospel | United States |
[143][144] |
| Michael Jackson | King of Pop | United States |
[145][146] |
| Eusèbe Jaojoby | King of Salegy |  Madagascar |
[147][148] |
| Jay-Z | King of Rap | United States |
[149] |
| Cui Jian | Father of Chinese Rock | China |
[150] |
| Blind Lemon Jefferson | Father of the Texas Blues | United States |
[151] |
| Joan Jett | Godmother of Punk | United States |
[152] |
| Joey Ramone | Godfather of Punk | United States |
[153] |
| Robert Johnson | Grandfather of Rock and Roll | United States |
[154] |
| George Jones | King of Country | United States |
[155] |
| Janis Joplin | Queen of Rock and Roll | United States |
[156][157] |
| Scott Joplin | King of Ragtime | United States |
[158] |
| Louis Jordan | King of the Jukebox | United States |
[159] |
| José José | The Prince of Song | Mexico |
[160] |
| Juan Gabriel | King of Latin Pop | Mexico |
[161] |
| Jully Black | Queen of Canadian R&B | Canada |
[162] |
K[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| R. Kelly | King of R&B | United States |
[163][164] |
| King of Pop-Soul | |||
| Khaled | King of Raï |  Algeria |
[165][166] |
| Kitty Wells | Queen of Country | United States |
[167][168] |
| Gladys Knight | Empress of Soul | United States |
[169][170][171] |
| Joseph Koo | Godfather of Cantopop | Hong Kong |
[172] |
| Umm Kulthum | Diva of Arabic Song | Egypt |
[173] |
| Susanna Kwan | Big Doll | Hong Kong |
[174] |
L[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lady Gaga | Lady of Pop | United States |
[175][176][177] |
| Queen of Pop | |||
| Laurel Aitken | Godfather of Ska | Jamaica |
[178] |
| Avril Lavigne | Pop-Punk Princess | Canada |
[179][180][181][182][183][184][185][186][187][188] |
| Punk Rock Princess | |||
| Amanda Lear | Queen of Disco | Hong Kong |
[189] |
| Lee Aaron | Queen of Heavy Metal Rock | Canada |
[190] |
| Lee Soo Young | Queen of Ballads | South Korea |
[191] |
| Rita Lee | Queen of Brazilian Rock | Brazil |
[192][193] |
| Les Paul | Architect of Rock and Roll | United States |
[194][195] |
| Jared Leto | Rock God | United States |
[196][197][198] |
| Prince of Darkness | |||
| Lil' Kim | Queen B | United States |
[199][200] |
| Queen of Hip Hop | |||
| Little Richard | Architect of Rock and Roll | United States |
[201][202] |
| King of Rock and Roll | |||
| Courtney Love | Goddess of Grunge | United States |
[203][204][205][206] |
| Queen of Rock and Roll | |||
| Loretta Lynn | First Lady of Country | United States |
[207][208][209] |
| Queen of Country | |||
| Vera Lynn | Forces' Sweetheart | United Kingdom |
[210][211] |
| Lindsay Lohan | Disney princess | United States |
[212] |
M[link]
N[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky Nelson | Crown Prince of Rock and Roll | United States |
[251][252][253] |
| Stevie Nicks | Queen of Rock and Roll | United States |
[254][255] |
| Noor Jehan | Queen of Melody |  British India/ Pakistan |
[256] |
| Siti Nurhaliza | Voice of Asia |  Malaysia |
|
| Nhu Quynh (Như Quỳnh) | Queen of Vietnamese Folk |  Vietnam/ United States |
[257] |
O[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odetta | Queen of American Folk Music | United States |
[258] |
| Ozzy Osbourne | Godfather of Heavy Metal | United Kingdom |
[259][260] |
| Prince of Darkness | |||
| Johnny Otis | Godfather of Rhythm and Blues | United States |
[261] |
P[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dolly Parton | Queen of Country | United States |
[208] |
| Charlie Patton | Father of the Delta Blues | United States |
[262] |
| Luciano Pavarotti | King of the High C's |  Italy |
[263] |
| Carl Perkins | King of Rockabilly | United States |
[264][265] |
| Oscar Peterson | Maharaja of the keyboard | Canada |
[266] |
| Liz Phair | Indie Rock Queen | United States |
[267][268] |
| Pitty | Princess of Brazilian Rock | Brazil |
[269][270] |
| Elvis Presley | King of Rock and Roll | United States |
[271] |
| Lisa Marie Presley | Princess of Rock and Roll | United States |
[272][273] |
| Prince | His Purple Majesty | United States |
[274][275][276][277] |
| His Royal Badness |
Q[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queen Latifah | Queen of Reinvention | United States |
[278] |
R[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johnnie Ray | Prince of Wails | United States |
[279] |
| Red Foley | Mister Country Music | United States |
[280] |
| Otis Redding | King of Soul | United States |
[281] |
| Lou Reed | Godfather of Punk | United States |
[282] |
| Elis Regina | Queen of MPB | Brazil |
[283] |
| Alexander Robotnick | Godfather of Italo Disco | Italy |
[284] |
| Jimmie Rodgers | Father of Country Music | United States |
[285] |
| Rozalla | Queen of Rave |  Zambia |
[286] |
S[link]
T[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roman Tam | Godfather of Cantopop | Hong Kong |
[317] |
| Tammy Wynette | First Lady of Country | United States |
[318][319] |
| Koko Taylor | Queen of the Blues | United States |
[320] |
| Teena Marie | Ivory Queen of Soul | United States |
[321][322] |
| Thanh Nga | The Queen of Cải lương (Vietnamese Renovated Opera) |  South Vietnam |
[323][324] |
| Irma Thomas | Soul Queen of New Orleans | United States |
[325] |
| Justin Timberlake | Prince of Pop | United States |
[326] |
| Tina Turner | Queen of Rock and Roll | United States |
[20] |
| Dick Todd | King of the Jukebox | United States |
[327] |
| Pete Townshend | Godfather of Punk | United Kingdom |
[328] |
| Shania Twain | Queen of Country Pop | Canada |
[329] |
U[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrie Underwood | Queen of Country | United States |
[330][331] |
| Hikaru Utada | Diva of Asia | Japan |
[332][333][334] |
V[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regine Velasquez | Asia's Songbird |  Philippines |
[335] |
W[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liza Wang | Big Sister | Hong Kong |
[336][337] |
| Dionne Warwick | Princess of Pop | United States |
[338] |
| Dinah Washington | Queen of the Blues | United States |
[339][340] |
| "Weird Al" Yankovic | King of Parody | United States |
[341][342] |
| Paul Weller | Modfather | United Kingdom |
[343][344] |
| Kanye West | King of Rap | United States |
[345] |
| Paul Whiteman | King of Jazz | United States |
[346] |
| Jackie Wilson | Mister Excitement | United States |
[347] |
| Faye Wong | Diva of Asia | China |
[348] |
| Heavenly Queen |
Y[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neil Young | Godfather of Grunge | Canada |
[349] |
| Sami Yusuf | King of Islamic Pop |  Iran/ United Kingdom |
[350] |
Z[link]
| Artist | Title | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jimmy Zámbó | King |  Hungary |
[351][352] |
| Contents: |
|---|
Group titles[link]
See also[link]
- Jazz royalty
- List of best-selling music artists
- List of best-selling albums worldwide
- List of number-one hits (United States)
- List of persons considered a founder in a Humanities field
- Pop icon
- Popular culture
- Sobriquet
- Teen idol
Notes[link]
- ^ A. R. Frey, Sobriquets and Nicknames (1888, published online by BiblioBazaar, 2009), p. 115.
- ^ S. S. Walker, "What's in a name: Black awareness keeps the African tradition of 'meaningful names' alive", Ebony, vol. 32 (8), (June 1977), pp. 74-8.
- ^ D. Evans, "From Bumble Bee Slim to Black Boy Shine: Nicknames of Blues Singers" in D. Evans, ed., Ramblin' on my mind: new perspectives on the blues: African American music in global perspective (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008), pp. 179-222.
- ^ S. Deger-Jalkotzy and I. S. Lemos, Ancient Greece: from the Mycenaean palaces to the age of Homer (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), p. 272.
- ^ M. Benoliel and Linda Cashdan, The Upper Hand: Winning Strategies from World-Class Negotiators (Adams Media, 2006), p. 26.
- ^ B. G. Rader, Baseball: a history of America's game (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 3rd edn., 2008), p. 140.
- ^ Y. Bynoe, Stand and deliver: political activism, leadership, and hip hop culture (Soft Skull Press, 2004), p. 155.
- ^ M. T. Bertrand, Race, rock, and Elvis: Music in American life (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), p. 220.
- ^ G. B. Rodman, "A hero to most?; Elvis, myth and the politics of race", Cultural Studies vol. 8 (3), (1994), p. 474.
- ^ J. Warner, On this day in black music history (Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006), p. 56,
- ^ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, retrieved 5/09/09.
- ^ A. Kempton, Boogaloo: the Quintessence of American Popular Music (University of Michigan Press, 2005), p. 58.
- ^ Christopher P. Andersen, MJ Michael Jackson: unauthorized (Simon & Schuster, 1994), p. 215.
- ^ R Jones and S. Brown, Michael Jackson, the man behind the mask: an insider's story of the king of pop (Select Books, 2005), p. 49.
- ^ R. H. Fiske, Vocabula Bound: Essays on the English Language from The Vocabula Review (Marion Street Press, 2004), p. 245.
- ^ "The 'Queen of Soul' is not happy about Grammy incident", NME News, retrieved 05/09/09.
- ^ "What's in a nickname?", BBC Magazine, retrieved 05/09/09.
- ^ "Overnight the unknown 14-year old became an international star. This earned her the nickname 'Princess of R&B'.", in W. Sutherland, Aaliyah Remembered (Trafford Publishing, 2005), p. 21.
- ^ "His nickname, 'The King of Country Music,' may sound a bit mawkish and old- fashioned, but, in many ways, it is remarkably accurate." in Wolfe, Charles K. (2001), Classic Country: Legends of Country Music, Routledge, p. 19, ISBN 978-0-415-92827-4
- ^ a b c d e f g "Some women have even been given titles. Tina Turner who is The Queen of Rock and Aretha Franklin, dubbed the Queen of Soul. Donna Summer is the Queen of Disco and Mary J. Blige is the Queen of Hip-Hop, Gloria Estefan is the Queen of Latin Pop, Madonna is the Queen of Pop, while Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are the Princesses of Pop." in L. Bollinger and C. O'Neill, Women in Media Careers: Success Despite the Odds (University Press of America, 2008), p. 147.
- ^ "Christina Aguilera has been the queen of reinvention(Legendtina) throughout her decade in the music industry" in Kovacevic, Keely, Christina Aguilera biography, MTV, http://www.mtv.com.au/music/artists/christina-aguilera/#bio
- ^ Christina Aguilera has been the queen of reinvention throughout her decade in the music industry Terry, Laura (2009-02-05), Style Wars: Christina Aguilera Vs Lady GaGa, Female First UK, http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/lifestyle-fashion/stylecelebs/Christina+Aguilera-7180.html
- ^ "Blur And Beyond - Damon Albarn's Career In Photos". nme.com. http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=147&title=damon_albarn&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
- ^ "Damon Albarn, pop conjuror". http://johnwilson14.wordpress.com. http://johnwilson14.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/damon-albarn-pop-conjuror/. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
- ^ "The reigning 'queen of R&B,' as decreed by her backing vocalist (and opening act) Jermaine Paul and countless others, Keys owned the stage at a packed WaMu Theater, highlighting her elegant artistry and dynamic personality in a 90-minute set." in Toombs, Mikel (2008-09-22), "Superwoman Keys Earns Title Of R&B Queen", Seattle Post-Intelligencer: C.3, ISSN 0745970X
- ^ On Friday, the queen of R&B, Alicia Keys, took over RodeoHouston. Clark, Michael (2005-03-07), "Duff makes rodeo a pop event", Houston Chronicle: 5, ISSN 10747109
- ^ 146 Nimrod Baranovitch, China's new voices: popular music, ethnicity, gender, and politics, 1978-1997 (University of California press, 2003), p. 146
- ^ Herskovitz, Jon (January 17, 1998). "Japan's Stardom School; Pop Phenoms Get Their Start in an Okinawa Mall". The Washington Post: B.08. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/25425479.html?dids=25425479:25425479&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=JAN+17%2C+1998&author=Jon+Herskovitz&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Japan%27s+Stardom+School%3B+Pop+Phenoms+Get+Their+Start+in+an+Okinawa+Mall&pqatl=google. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
- ^ "Much later, as the reigning King of the Blues, BB would explain that the "blues isn't just some sad music about a broken heart, a busted dream, or a painful love affair. Blues is much more than any of these things. If I could pick three descriptions of it, I'd say it ain't nothing but living, laughing and loving." in Nazel, Joe (1998), B.B. King: King of the Blues, Holloway House Publishing, p. 60, ISBN 978-0-87067-792-2
- ^ "Inevitably called 'King of the Blues', BB King is today probably the most commercially successful blues singer with black audiences." in Oakley, Giles (1997), The Devil's Music: A History of the Blues, Da Capo Press, p. 228, ISBN 978-0-306-80743-5
- ^ More, 2009-10-08, http://www.more.com/2049/9009-joan-baez-the-queen-of Queen of folk music The Queen of Folk Still Reigns
- ^ "Harry Belafonte on MSN Music". Music.msn.com. http://music.msn.com/music/artist-biography/harry-belafonte/. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
- ^ "Morning Edition - Harry Belafonte". NPR. 2001-11-02. http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/nov/belafonte/011102.belafonte.html. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
- ^ "It probably makes sense to call him - as several people do in the movie [Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (1987)] - as the 'King of rock 'n' roll'", in D. Denby, "What's in a game", New York Magazine, Oct 19, 1987, p. 102.
- ^ "Calling her a mere R&B diva is, at this point, almost an insult: With grace and grit, Beyoncé has become the Princess of pop, a one-woman Hitsville U.S.A." in "Beyoncé in Rolling Stone", Rolling Stone: 41, December 2009-January 2010
- ^ Affirming her role as one of the reigning queens of pop music, Beyonce was the top winner at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night, taking six prizes, including song of the year for her inescapable hit "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)." Sisario, Ben (2010-02-01), "Biggest Haul at Grammys Goes to Beyonce", The New York Times: C.1, ISSN 03624331
- ^ "It is three years since she dissolved Destiny's Child after three albums and a run of award-winning hymns to womanly empowerment such as Survivor and Independent Woman; six since her duet with the Brooklyn rap demigod Jay-Z served notice to the world that America's foremost hip-hop star and its emerging queen of R&B were an item." in Paphides, Pete (2008-11-14), "Shy big sister by day ... wild girl by night", The Times: 2, ISSN 01400460
- ^ With four Mobo nominations, Beyonce is the undisputed queen of R&B. Simpson, Eva; Hedley, Caroline (2006-08-16), "3AM: Mo contest for Beyonce", The Daily Mirror: 16
- ^ The nine-time Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter - who has earned such sobriquets along the way as "the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and "the Empress of Soul" - returns Dec. 21 with her ninth studio album, "Stronger" Gail Mitchell (2009-12-12), "Strength of Character", Billboard 121: 17, ISSN 00062510
- ^ When it comes to the empresses of soul, Mary J. Blige is the strongest. So Mary, who can blow away just about anyone, titled her new album Stronger; it includes the song of the same name from the LeBron James documentary (More than a Game), as well as a duet with hip-hop phenomenon Drake. Lisa Robinson, "Hot Tracks", Vanity Fair 51 (12): 128, ISSN 07338899
- ^ a b Reeves, Marcus (2009), Somebody Scream!: Rap Music's Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power, Macmillan, pp. 143, 185, ISBN 978-0-86547-997-5
- ^ "Universally known as the 'Queen of Hip Hop Soul' because of her frequent collaborations with rap artists and Hip Hop producers..." in" Bynoe, Yvonne (2006), Encyclopedia of rap and hip-hop culture, Greenwood Press, p. 32, ISBN 978-0-313-33058-2
- ^ "Once again The Candy Store and Fresh City Promotions have pulled a major rabbit out of the hat with the launch party for the new album by Mary J Blige, the undisputed Queen of R&B, Growing Pains." in "Fresh party for Mary j's new album", The Plymouth Evening Herald: 2, 2008-02-15
- ^ In the wake of her 'Breakthrough' success, the reigning queen of R&B tries to please her many followers—but, most of all, herself. Vozick-Levinson, Simon (2007-12-21), "Mary J. Blige", Entertainment Weekly: 22, ISSN 10490434
- ^ "Considered by some the 'King of Rap,' Kurtis Blow is at the very least one of the genre's leading pioneers." in Henderson, Ashyia N. (2002), Contemporary Black Biography: Profiles from the International Black Community, Gale Research International, p. 7, ISBN 978-0-7876-5282-1
- ^ "The queen of K-Pop made her highly, highly anticipated comeback to Korea for the first time in five years with her 9th studio album, Hurricane Venus." BoA - "Game", MTV, 2010-09-03, http://mtvk.com/videos/boa-game/, retrieved 2011-04-18
- ^ Irish music plays proudly on St. Patrick's Day, CNN, 2010-03-17, http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-17/entertainment/irish.music.st.patricks_1_irish-music-celtic-music-celtic-woman?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ, retrieved 2010-12-15
- ^ Moya Brennan, BBC, 2008-04-07, http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/51823891-6035-4d6c-a007-b70a86747023, retrieved 2010-12-15
- ^ "Garth Brooks To Retire". CBS News. 1999-12-16. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/12/16/entertainment/main140727.shtml.
- ^ "With his debut single "Run It," 16-year-old Chris Brown back-flipped his way into becoming the first male solo artist to release a song that went straight to No. 1. He was later crowned the Prince of R&B." in Celebrity Central: Chris Brown, People, http://www.people.com/people/chris_brown
- ^ "His noncommittal response was perhaps not the teary confessional that was expected after the Grammy-night altercation which changed everything for the then crown prince of R&B." in Elan, Priya (7 November 2009), Will Chris Brown's assault on Rihanna harm his record sales?, London: The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/07/chris-brown-rihanna-assault, retrieved 2009-11-22
- ^ ...the Godfather of Go-Go has done it again...Kip Lornell; Charles C. Stephenson (2009), The Beat: Go-Go Music from Washington, DC, Univ. Press of Mississippi, p. 45, ISBN 978-1-60473-241-2
- ^ "Dennis produced an enormous catalogue of albums and singles, and earned the undisputed title of 'Crown Prince of Reggae'.""Remembering Dennis Brown, reggae royal", Jamaica Star, http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20070131/cleisure/cleisure1.html, retrieved 2008-10-25
- ^ "Others will point to the likes of the 'crown prince of reggae' Dennis Brown, for his contribution to roots reggae and his influence on a generation of reggae artistes." in The reggae debate: still unresolved, 17 October 2008, http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2008/10/081010_reggae_contribution.shtml, retrieved 2008-10-25
- ^ "And today, James Brown's status as "The Godfather of Soul" remains undiminished." in David Pullman to Securitize "Godfather of Soul" James Brown, Business Wire, 1999-05-03, p. 1
- ^ Post Store (2006-12-25). "Hardworking Godfather of Soul". washingtonpost.com. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/25/AR2006122500049.html. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
- ^ "To Mark the ten years, officials at the Apollo crowned Brown 'King of Soul'." in "James Brown Crowned 'King Of Soul' At The Apollo Theater", Jet 43 (3): 59, 1972-10-12, ISSN 00215996
- ^ "Years before Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, and Etta James, Ruth reigned as the original queen of r&b. She achieved a distinctive sassy and streetwise style, which made her one of the most popular singers of her era. Her career has been so influential that Atlantic Records is sometimes referred too as 'the house that Ruth built' and for good reason." at Cotton, Nzgina (2008-04-07), "Ruth Brown: The Original Queen of r&b", New Nation: 22, ISSN 13657496
- ^ Years before Aretha Franklin was crowned Queen of Soul, Ruth Brown reigned as the original Queen of R&B. Jones, Steve (2006-11-20), "R&B diva for the ages", USA TODAY: D.1, ISSN 07347456
- ^ "Burke, long ago dubbed the King of Rock 'n' Soul, was worth the wait." in M. Newman, "Soul man Solomon Burke: Live on Film; Capricorn's Smoking New Companion" in Billboard Jul 8, 1995, Vol. 107 (27), p. 10.
- ^ "Born August 19, 1954, in Kingsville, Texas, she is recognized as 'la reina de la onda Tejana' (the queen of Tejano music)." in Candelaria, Cordelia; Peter J. García (2004), Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 822, ISBN 978-0-313-33211-1
- ^ a b c "If Ella Fitzgerald is the queen of jazz, Billie Holiday first lady of the blues, and Aretha Franklin the queen of soul, then who is the queen of pop? In the 1990s, it would seem to be a three-way tie between Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Celine Dion. Certainly all three have their devotees and detractors, but their presence has been inescapable." in Lister, Linda (2001), "Divafication: The Deification of Modern Female Pop Stars", Popular Music and Society 25 (3/4): 1, ISSN 03007766
- ^ "Mariah Carey is unstoppable. With 17 No. 1 singles since her career began in 1990, Mariah is the reigning queen of pop." "The new Mariah Carey", Scholastic Scope 50 (1): 16, ISSN 00366412
- ^ Rohter, Larry (April 15, 2010). "Tour-Worthy Milestone for Brazil’s Pop King". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/arts/music/16carlos.html. Retrieved 2011-07-11. "ROBERTO CARLOS has been so large a pop music presence for so long that when he first emerged he was nicknamed 'the Elvis Presley of Brazil' (...). But 50 years, 120 million records and various stylistic shifts later, he is more often described as 'the Frank Sinatra of Latin America.'"
- ^ "Profile: Roberto Carlos". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/roberto-carlos-p29015/biography. Retrieved 2011-07-11. "(...) the mid-'90s witnessed a resurgence of Jovem Guarda talents through tributes of new rockers and Carlos reached the 21st century uncontestedly enjoying his absolute title: the King."
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- ^ "It seems like the 37-year-old has made a return to her prime years and heydays of being the Queen of Cantopop, with nary a figment of her depressive past." http://entertainment.xin.msn.com/en/celebrity/buzz/asia/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4009408
- ^ Craig Harris. "Clifton Chenier". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p720/biography. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
- ^ She doesn't need to turn back time: After a successful 45-year career, the Goddess of Pop is still going strong. She plays a veteran performer alongside Christina Aguilera in her new flick, "Burlesque," hitting theaters on Wednesday. And she continues to sing in Las Vegas. Amanda Sidman (2010-11-21), "Cher", New York Daily News: 5
- ^ "Cher, 64, makes a statement in a see-through top and slashed leggings". London: dailymail.co.uk. 2010-11-12. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1328973/Cher-64-makes-statement-slashed-leggings.html. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
- ^ "Cher - singer, Oscar-winning actress and campaigner -is the original queen of reinvention, an expert at re-creating herself." in Lee, Vinny (2006-09-02), "Turning back time", The Times: 73, ISSN 01400460
- ^ Bowing out, if not exactly gracefully, Cher, that surgically enhanced queen of reinvention, last week brought her farewell tour to Glasgow. Sweet, Lucy (2004-05-16), "Cher's so long farewell", Sunday Times: 11
- ^ a b "What happens when the 'God of Song' descends on Genting Highlands during a cold and wet weekend? He warms and melts the hearts of both young and old with his charm and huge repertoire of hits, that's what! And that was precisely what Hong Kong superstar Jacky Cheung - arguably the most popular and enduring of the four Heavenly Kings - did at his two sold-out concerts last Friday and Saturday at the Arena of Stars. (For the uninitiated, Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai are the four "Heavenly Kings" of Chinese pop, the over-the-top title probably bestowed by the imaginative Hong Kong media because of the singers' immense popularity. Cheung, of course, has been elevated even higher on the celestial plane!)" Ming, Fong (2002-11-09), "Jacky, oh!", New Straits Times: 3
- ^ ""We want Gor Gor (Cantonese for "big brother", Cheung's nickname) to know that he has not been forgotten and never will be," a spokeswoman said." http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-04/01/content_319707.htm
- ^ "Dubbed the 'king of Chinese pop' by local media, Jay Chou has released eight studio albums, spawning several hits." in Song, Berwin (2008-08-09), "5 Chinese Acts Using The Games To Boost Their Profile", Billboard 120 (32): 28, ISSN 00062510
- ^ 導語：許鞍華拍攝的電影《得閑炒飯》裡，“玉女掌門人”周慧敏將會與吳君如飾演一對同性戀人，片中還有激吻親熱場面。為揣摩角色，周慧敏早前還跟許鞍華到蘭桂坊女同志派對見識，更與場內同志傾心事 (Ubiquity translation: Guide language: Ann Hui shot the film "leisurely fried rice", the "beautiful woman Master" Vivian Chow will work with Sandra Ng plays a pair of gay people, intimate scenes of the film there is Ji Wen. To try to figure out the role of Vivian Chow was kind enough earlier to the Lan Kwai Fong Ann Hui lesbian party insight and more attracted to things with comrades inside。)"玉女掌門人周慧敏再登嘉兒演繹知性風尚(組圖) - 時尚 - 全球新聞 - 北美新浪:". Sina.com. pp. Splash. http://dailynews.sina.com/bg/news/fsh/sinacn/zc/p/2009/1123/0754937375.html. Retrieved 2009 11 22.
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- ^ Who is the King of Jazz? - at Yahoo!!!
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- ^ "'Queen of Salsa' dies". BBC News. 17 July 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3073287.stm. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
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- ^ "Affectionately referred to as the 'Godfather of Brit pop,' Davies is co-founder, lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the Kinks, one of the most long-lived and influential rock groups of the 1960s British Invasion." in Ray Davies To Be Honored as BMI Icon at Annual London Awards October 3, Broadcast Music Incorporated, 2006-08-08, http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/334938, retrieved 2009-01-22
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- ^ "Not only has he sold more albums than anyone in the Middle East, but over the past two decades Diab has forged a unique and exciting dance style of music that has lent him an honorary title as 'Father of Mediterranean Music.'" in Sounds of the Middle East, Minnesota provide options for listeners, The DePauw, 2009-10-06, http://media.www.thedepauw.com/media/storage/paper912/news/2009/10/06/Features/Sounds.Of.The.Middle.East.Minnesota.Provide.Options.For.Listeners-3794408.shtml, retrieved 2009-12-20
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- ^ "With the success of "Let's Go Trippin', Dale was immediately billed as the 'King of the Surf Guitar', in M. Warshaw, The Encyclopedia of Surfing (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005), p. 585.
- ^ Celine alert! Celine alert! Quebec's favourite daughter, Celine Dion, will be fited in a special show on July 10. After the phenomenal success of last year's tribute to the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, a special show combining the talents of two of the superstars in the fireworks business will showcase the music of our Queen of Pop. Anne Sutherland (2010-05-28), "Fireworks; Celine Dion Joins Countries Lighting Up the Sky", The Gazette: 14, ISSN 03841294
- ^ "Ebony hailed Domino as the "King of Rock 'n' Roll" in Altschuler, Glenn C. (2003), All shook up: how rock 'n' roll changed America, Oxford University Press, p. 43, ISBN 978-0-19-513943-3
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- ^ "Just as millions of fans considered Selena the 'queen' of Tejano music, her closest male counterpart, Emilio Navaira, has often been called the "king" of Tejano music." in Hartman, Gary (2008), The history of Texas music, Texas A&M University Press, p. 52, ISBN 978-1-60344-002-8
- ^ "Known far and wide as the 'Queen of Latin Pop,' Gloria Estefan is one of the most recognized artists in the world." in "Gloria Estefan to Write Her First Book, a Children's Story Starring Her Bulldog Noelle; Published in English and Spanish Editions by Rayo, an Imprint of HarperCollins, in November 2005", Business Wire: 1, 2004-12-06
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- ^ "Dubbed 'The First Lady of Song,' Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.""The Official Web Site of Ella Fitzgerald - Biography". www.ellafitzgerald.com. http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=28. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
- ^ "The singer who was affectionately known as 'The First Lady of Song' died peacefully at home surrounded by family and friends, said spokeswoman Andrea Hecht" at "Ella Fitzgerald, first lady of song, dies at 78". findarticles.com. July 1, 1996. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n7_v90/ai_18434553/. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
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- ^ "She is also known as 'Sister Ree,' 'Lady Soul' 'La Diva Franklin,' and 'The Queen of Soul.'" in Bego, Mark (2001), Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul, Da Capo Press, p. 6, ISBN 978-0-306-80935-4
- ^ a b "Just as journalists had crowned white bandleaders Paul Whiteman and Benny Goodman as the kings of jazz and swing, in the 1950s they enthroned Presley, Haley, and Freed as the kings of rock 'n' roll" in Coleman, Rick (2007), Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll, Da Capo Press, p. xvii, ISBN 978-0-306-81531-7
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- ^ "He was the 'Prince of Motown,' strong, silent and majestic" in R. Gulla, Icons of R&B and soul: an encyclopedia of the artists who revolutionized rhythm vol. 2 (Greenwood, 2008), p. 338.
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- ^ "Although Gaynor was crowned the 'Queen of Disco' after dance floor favourites like "Honey Bee," "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Casanova Brown" ..." in P. Shapiro, Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2006), p. 213.
- ^ Graclík, Miroslav; Nekvapil, Václav (2008) (in Czech). Marika Gombitová: An Unauthorized Lifestory of the Legend of Czechoslovak Pop Music. Prague, Czech Republic: XYZ. p. 419. ISBN 978-80-7388-115-3. OCLC 294939865. http://www.koloseumforum.com/gombitova.com2/martax/15/Kniha.pdf. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
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- ^ "For many people the name Benny Goodman is synonymous with swing. His record sales and performances helped usher in the swing craze of the 1930s; for more than a decade, the 'king of swing' enjoyed incredible heights of popularity." Martin, Henry; Keith Waters (2006), Jazz: The First 100 Years, Thomson Wadsworth, p. 138, ISBN 978-0-534-62804-8
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- ^ "One other artist, John Lee Hooker is by most standards the undisputed 'king of the blues'." in Wald, Elijah (2004), Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, HarperCollins, p. 208, ISBN 978-0-06-052423-4
- ^ "In what was called 'the biggest media event since the inauguration of Nelson Mandela,' the singer performed for more than 70,000 South Africans at her concert for Johannesburg's Ellis Park Stadium, "billed as "Whitney—The Concert for a New South Africa.... There was also a private visit to Swaziland, where the 'Queen of Pop Music' visited King Mswati III." in "Whitney in South Africa", Ebony 50 (4): 116, February 1995, ISSN 00129011
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- ^ "Recently, the girls proved their credibility as live performers, appearing as guests to Hong Kong's legendary "God of Songs" Sam Hui during his two live dates in Malaysia for the 50,000-strong crowds at Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur." in "Sounds of the East", The Bangkok Post: 1, 2005-03-15
- ^ "But somewhere between his last album, "Naughty Little Doggie," and his latest one, "Avenue B," the godfather of punk turned 50, a change that apparently has provided him with plenty of food for thought, judging by the song subjects on the record, scheduled for release September 14 on Virgin." in Christman, Ed (1999-08-07), "Iggy Pop opens a 'window into the soul' on Virgin's contemplative 'Avenue B'", Billboard 111: 14, ISSN 00062510
- ^ "Looking remarkably healthy for a man who nurtured a world-class drug habit for many years, the "Godfather of Punk" Iggy Pop is set to close the Other Stage on Saturday night." in "Godfather of punk still has lust for life", Western Daily Press: 30, 2007-06-05
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- ^ Janet Jackson, music's princess of pop, is at a crossroads of her life and career: She is pursuing acting roles and she has parted ways with her longtime partner, Rene Elizondo...Having established herself as the world-renowned princess of pop music, in addition to making strides as an actress, one would think there is not much left on her to-do list. But the possibilities are endless. Norment, Lynn (November 2000), "Janet: At the crossroads", Ebony 56 (1): 180, ISSN 00129011
- ^ Janet Jackson is a big deal these days, the Queen of Pop, though we can still call her by her first name. So little is she trading off the fame of her brother, so completely has she become her own thing, she has all but abandoned the family name. Tour posters, tickets and recent album - all say, quite simply "Janet", and leave it at that. Smith, Giles (1996-04-21), "Slow riffs, fast riffs, midriffs", The Independent: 26, ISSN 09519467
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- ^ There are several reasons why Janet Jackson's Cape Town performance on her Velvet Rope Tour was the massive success it was. It's been close on a decade since she emerged from brother Michael's shadow and the Nineties has seen her constantly re(de)fining her musical and stage personae. In its staggering professionalism, the Velvet Rope tour bears witness to the success of such artistic endeavour as well as her status as the undoubted queen of R&B. Miles Keylock (1998-11-20), "Dammit Janet!", Mail & Guardian, http://mg.co.za/article/1998-11-20-dammit-janet, retrieved 2011-04-19
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- ^ » by Danielle Canada January 19, 2011, 11:35am (1998-12-28). R. Kelly , offically [sic]During a recent interview with the reigning King of R&B, Kelly told JET why success saddens him... Jet Magazine. http://books.google.com/books?id=9sMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA56&dq=r.+kelly+king+of+r%26b&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BygiT_jPD6HhsQKM18SWCQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=r.%20kelly%20king%20of%20r%26b&f=false. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
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- ^ "In the past five years, Western music critics have reached into their grab bag to label him the 'Algerian Elvis' and the 'poster boy for the modern form of Algerian desert blues.' In the decade before that, he was known as Cheb Khaled (cheb means "young man" in Algeria's Arabic dialect) or, more simply, the 'King of Rai.'" in Curiel, Jonathan (2005-07-10), The 'King of Rai' Seeks a New Name, San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/10/PKGO4DI60H1.DTL&hw=Khaled+algeria&sn=001&sc=1000
- ^ "In 1952, Kitty Wells was named the Queen Of Country Music by Fred Rose..." in Larkin, Colin (1992), The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, p. 2662, ISBN 1-882267-00-1, 9781882267002
- ^ "A crown, presented to the singer in 1973, is among the costumes, awards, mementos and other artefacts now on display in 'Kitty Wells, Queen of Country Music', a career-spanning biographical exhibit at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum running through next June." in Mazor, Barry (2008-10-01), "Music: The Queen of Country Music Holds Court", Wall Street Journal: D.9, ISSN 00999660
- ^ Her string of hits since the early '60s as the Empress of Soul are known in the streets of Johannesburg and around the world. They include those she recorded with and without the Pips - such as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Neither One of Us." Phil Roura (2010-09-26), "Knight on a Mission: Georgia's Soul Superstar Has New Orleans on Her Mind", New York Daily News: 20
- ^ "Gladys Knight technically supersedes them with her title 'Empress of Soul'. And rightly so: with her Pips she created solid Motown hits, followed by Seventies soul gems such as Midnight Train to Georgia and Help Me Make It Through the Night - sure to raise a tear on this farewell tour." in McNulty, Bernadette (2009-10-10), "Pop", The Daily Telegraph: 16
- ^ At 65, the Empress of Soul is leaving on the Midnight Train to Georgia for the last time. Gladys Knight's "farewell tour" winds down a six-decade-long career that began with a talent contest at the age of seven. You can't blame her for wanting a rest, although, as one of the greats, she isn't bowing out quietly. For almost two hours, she conducts a "musical journey" that is both an emotional rollercoaster and a social history lesson.Dave Simpson (2009-10-09), "Review: Pop: Gladys Knight Manchester Arena 4/5", The Guardian: 44, ISSN 02613077
- ^ "For Koo, who credits his music studies at Berklee with having an influence “mainly on the theory and inspiration” of his musical arrangements, went on to make such a major impact on the local popular music scene that he was bestowed the title ‘The Godfather of Cantopop’." Yvonne Teh. "the godfather of cantopop". bc magazine. http://www.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine.issues/bcmagazine_webissue247/03-godfather.html. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
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- ^ After scoring four number ones with her debut album, Gaga was lauded as the new queen of pop with the industry queuing to lay accolades at her feet. Topping, Alexandra (2010-02-16), "Brit awards: Lily Allen carries the flag but Lady Gaga wins 'battle of the babes'", The Guardian (London), http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/feb/16/brit-awards-2010-winners, retrieved 2010-04-07
- ^ Lady Gaga -- real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta -- has, over the course of a few scant years, scaled to pop heights not witnessed since the glory days of Madonna (and we're not just talking about those 10-inch Alexander McQueen heels). Not a week goes by that she's not in the news for something or other. Her Lollapalooza turn this past weekend confirmed her stature, as if there were any doubt, as America's new Queen of Pop. Randall Roberts (2010-08-11), "Lady Gaga at Staples Center: The numbers behind the music", Los Angeles Times, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/08/lady-gaga-by-the-numbers.html, retrieved 2010-08-18
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- ^ http://www.cnnasiapacific.com/press/en/content/671/ PRINCESS OF PUNK ROCK AVRIL LAVIGNE ON CNN'S TALK ASIA
- ^ http://patpoh.fooyoh.com/entry/Avril-Lavigne-Continues-Her-Punk-Rock Avril Lavigne Continues Her Punk Rock Princess Persona
- ^ http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-01-16/news/30633641_1_deryck-whibley-punk-rock-princess-split The punk rock princess and the reality TV hunk have called it quits on their nearly two-year romance
- ^ http://www.thedirt.com.au/music/galleries/musicalmatches?selectedImage=5 punk rock princess Avril Lavigne tied the knot with Deryck Whibley
- ^ http://popcrush.com/avril-lavigne-fhm-australia-cover/ punk rock princess Avril Lavigne has a snazzy sense of style
- ^ http://www.planetradiocity.com/musicreporter/slideshow-gallery.php?galleryid=210&title=The%20%E2%80%98Punk%E2%80%99%20Princess:%20Avril%20Lavigne Pint-sized ‘punk rock’ princess Avril Lavigne turns a year older on September 27. But, after watching her go from pop-punk-teenager in ‘Sk8er Boi’ to punk-princess with ‘Girlfriend’
- ^ http://punktillidie.com/kbd/the-punk-rock-princess-avril-lavigne/ She is a Canadian singer-songwriter and she holds the title of Punk Rock Princess.
- ^ The most notorious kinky queen of Disco was Amanda Lear, who for years perpetuated the myth that she was actually a man until she put out an alhum in 1978 called Sweet Revenge, featuring a nude picture of her. Joe S. Harrington (2002), Sonic Cool: The Life & Death of Rock 'n' Roll, Hal Leonard Corporation, p. 313, ISBN 978-0-634-02861-8
- ^ "Recall that throughout most of the eighties and even into the nineties, Aaron was known as the queen of heavy-metal rock, the loudest, brashest and sexiest female rock belter this side of Janis Joplin." in Niester, Alan (2000-09-22), "Metal queen slips into something jazzy", The Globe and Mail: R.6, ISSN 03190714
- ^ '발라드 여왕' 이수영 잠행…소속사 문제? ('Ballad Queen' Lee Soo Young ... agency problems Subtlety?)"Sportsseoul.com - '발라드 여왕' 이수영 잠행…소속사 문제?". Sports Seoul. 2008-09-18. pp. Splash. http://www.sportsseoul.com/news2/entertain/broad/2008/0918/20080918101040200000000_6014585252.html. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
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- ^ "Guitar legend, 'architect of rock 'n' roll' Les Paul dies at 94", Philadelphia News, 14/08/09
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- ^ » by Danielle Canada January 19, 2011, 11:35am (2011-01-19). "25 Verses Why Lil Kim Is The Undisputed Queen B [Video] " Hip-Hop Wired: Keeping You Informed With The Latest on Hip-Hop Culture, Rappers, Hip Hop News, Rap and Entertainment News, Black Politics, Video Vixens, Music Reviews and Urban Lifestyle…". Hiphopwired.com. http://hiphopwired.com/2011/01/19/25-verses-why-lil-kim-is-the-undisputed-queen-b-video/. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
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- ^ "Called the 'Architect of Rock and Roll,' the flamboyant piano virtuoso is known for the classic hits Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally, Good Golly Miss Molly and Lucille." in "Little Richard, Gladys Knight & The Pips Inducted Into Apollo Theater Legends Hall Of Fame; Ella Fitzgerald...", Jet 110: 59, 2006-07-10, ISSN 00215996
- ^ Carpenter, Bil (2005), Uncloudy days: the gospel music encyclopedia, Hal Leonard, p. 253, ISBN 978-0-87930-841-4
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- ^ "My dedication right now is to bring back the queen of rock and roll, and that's Courtney Love," Perry said at Thursday's "I Create Music" Expo for songwriters, put on by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers." Linda Perry wants to save "Queen of Rock and Roll" Courtney Love
- ^ Rao, Amy (2008-11-28). Country's First Lady, Loretta Lynn, Looks Back On Her Career. WTVF-TV. Retrieved 2011-04-16.
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- ^ If any long-running singer deserves to wear the crown, or at least the tiara, of Queen of Country, then surely it's the Coal Miner's Daughter herself, Loretta Lynn, right? Right. (Sorry, Dolly). "Queen for a day", Pantagraph: D.5, 2008-03-13
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- ^ "...the so-called Queen of Pop eludes both followers and critics by shifting her image..." in R. Gairola, "Re-worldling the Oriental: Critical Perspectives on Madonna as Geisha" in S. Fouz-Hernández and F. Jarman-Ivens, eds, Madonna's drowned worlds: new approaches to her cultural transformations, 1983-2003(Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004), p. 104.
- ^ "The queen of reinvention, Madonna, even named her 2004 world tour Reinvention." in Gallo, Carmine (2006), 10 Simple Secrets of the World's Greatest Business Communicators, Sourcebooks, p. 204, ISBN 978-1-4022-0696-2
- ^ The queen of reinvention has achieved the seemingly impossible yet again. "Spotlights: Singles", Billboard 117 (44): 69, 2005-10-29, ISSN 00062510
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- ^ "In a music heavily dominated by men, Lydia Mendoza, the First Queen of Tejano Music, stands out." in Dorian, Frederick; Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, James McConnachie, Richard Trillo, Orla Duane (2000), World Music: The Rough Guide, Rough Guides, p. 606, ISBN 978-1-85828-636-5
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- ^ "Once upon a time, long before anybody had even heard of Britney, Christina, Jessica or Mandy, Australian singer Kylie Minogue ruled the charts as princess of pop. Back in 1988 her first single, I Should Be So Lucky, spent five weeks at number one, making her the most successful female artist in the UK charts with 13 successive Top 10 entries. To date, Kylie has spent 217 weeks on the singles charts, notching up 25 Top 20 hits including four number ones. No mean feat in the fickle world of pop where you can be yesterday's news in a matter of months." in "Kylie's back on royal form", Birmingham Post: 5, 2000-07-08
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- ^ Britain's tradition of music hall might have gone out with Maypole dancing and unicycle racing, but the variety bill still gets the royal seal of approval, in the form of this annual celebration of entertainment, now in its 82nd year... The queen of pop, Kylie Minogue, lines up alongside the Chelsea Pensioners and note-smashing Russell Watson to press the royal flesh, while others singing for their supper include a completed Take That and the cast of Les Miserables. And after taking in 'The Glums', comedians John Bishop and Micky Flanagan do their best to tickle the royal funny bone."Pick of the Day", The Mail on Sunday (London): 55, 2010-12-12
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- ^ Often referred to in interviews, cover stories and promotional material as the new 'princess of pop' Susan Hopkins (2002), Girl Heroes: The New Force In Popular Culture, University of Michigan Press, p. 60
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- ^ "For one quick breath, the old R.E.M. extended family came together in a show of support. It is fitting that this update edition ends with the departure of Holt and Barry. It's the end of the world as we know it, and the end of an era for the band who in its lifespan has come to be known as America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band." in Sullivan, Denise (1998), R.E.M.: Talk About the Passion : An Oral History, Da Capo Press, p. xxiii, ISBN 978-0-306-80857-9
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- ^ "The godfathers of rave are enjoying a career renaissance and playing to even bigger crowds" in Prodigy still on fire, The Telegraph, 30 May 2011, retrieved 30 May 2011.
- ^ "The Stones figured out early on that you can rock, and also understand the value of branding. 'The World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band' was a title the Stones bequeathed to themselves, and soon enough, neither media nor fans could think of the name of the band without its slogan."Popkin, Helen A.S., The Stones may be old, but they can still rock, MSNBC, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8985740/, retrieved 2009-04-19
- ^ Berelian, Essi. The Rough Guide to Heavy Metal. Rough Guides. p. 172. ISBN 1-84353-415-0.
- ^ Sullivan, Denise (2002-02-27). "Clash Documentary Matters". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/theclash/articles/story/5934139/clash_documentary_matters. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
- ^ Baidu. Bai Guang. Retrieved on 2007-04-28.
- ^ Baidu. "Baidu." Bai Hong. Retrieved on 2007-04-28.
- ^ Baidu. "Baidu." Qong Qiuxia. Retrieved on 2007-04-28.
- ^ Baidu. "Baidu." Qong Qiuxia. Retrieved on 2007-04-28.
- ^ http://vietbao.vn/Van-hoa/Chan-dung-4-diva-Viet-Nam/10804731/181/
- ^ http://vnexpress.net/gl/van-hoa/2003/02/3b9c477b/
- ^ http://www.girlsidols.com/2011/06/vietnamese-singer-hong-nhung_7774.html
- ^ http://www.vietnamonline.com/news/vietnams-diva-my-linh-to-hold-nationwide-live-tour.html
- ^ http://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/pages/20110923-ha-tran-homecoming.aspx
http://wn.com/Honorific_nicknames_in_popular_music
Related pages:
http://ru.wn.com/Список почётных званий в популярной музыке
http://pt.wn.com/Anexo Apelidos honorários na música popular
http://de.wn.com/Liste von Beinamen in der populären Musik
http://es.wn.com/Anexo Alias honoríficos en la música popular
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific_nicknames_in_popular_music
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
"Popular songs" redirects here. For the album by Yo La Tengo, see Popular Songs.
"Popular song" redirects here. For songs called "Popular", see Popular (song).
This article is about popular music of various genres. For the pop music genre, see Pop music.
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal"[1] and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music[2][3][4] and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local audiences.[2][3][4] Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music is a generic term for music of all ages that appeals to popular tastes,[5] whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical genre.
Contents |
Overview[link]
Musicologist and specialist in popular music Philip Tagg defined the notion in the light of sociocultural and economical aspects:
"Popular music, unlike art music, is (1) conceived for mass distribution to large and often socioculturally heterogeneous groups of listeners, (2) stored and distributed in non-written form, (3) only possible in an industrial monetary economy where it becomes a commodity and (4) in capitalist societies, subject to the laws of 'free' enterprise, according to which it should ideally sell as much as possible of as little as possible to as many as possible."[4]
For Richard Middleton and Peter Manuel, "a common approach to defining popular music is to link popularity with scale of activity", such as "sales of sheet music or recordings".[6] This approach has a problem, in that "repeat hearings are not counted, depth of response does not feature, socially diverse audiences are treated as one aggregated market and there is no differentiation between musical styles".[6] Another way to define popular music is "to link popularity with means of dissemination" (e.g., being aired on the radio); however, this is problematic, because "all sorts of music, from folk to avant garde, are subject to mass mediation".[6] A third approach to defining popular music is to based on "social group – either a mass audience or a particular class (most often, though not always) the working class", an approach which is problematic because social structures cannot simply be overlain onto musical styles. These three approaches are "too partial" and "too static". Moreover, "understandings of popular music have changed with time".[6]
Form[link]
Main article: Song structure (popular music)
Form in popular music is most often sectional, the most common sections being verse, chorus or refrain, and bridge. Other common forms include thirty-two-bar form, verse-chorus form, and the twelve bar blues. Popular music songs are rarely composed using different music for each stanza of the lyrics (songs composed in this fashion are said to be "through-composed").
The verse and chorus are considered the primary elements. Each verse usually has the same melody (possibly with some slight modifications), but the lyrics change for most verses. The chorus (or "refrain") usually has a melodic phrase and a key lyrical line which is repeated. Pop songs may have an introduction and coda ("tag"), but these elements are not essential to the identity of most songs. Pop songs that use verses and choruses often have a bridge, which, as its name suggests, is a section which connects the verse and chorus at one or more points in the song.
The verse and chorus are usually repeated throughout a song, while the bridge, intro, and coda (also called an "outro") tend to be used only once. Some pop songs may have a solo section, particularly in rock or blues-influenced pop. During the solo section one or more instruments play a melodic line which may be the melody used by the singer, or, in blues- or jazz-influenced pop, the solo may be improvised based on the chord progression. A solo usually features a single instrumental performer (e.g., a guitarist or a harmonica player) or less commonly, more than one instrumentalist (e.g., a trumpeter and a sax player).
Thirty-two-bar form uses four sections, most often eight measures long each (4×8=32), two verses or A sections, a contrasting B section (the bridge or "middle-eight") and a return of the verse in one last A section (AABA). Verse-chorus form or ABA form may be combined with AABA form, in compound AABA forms. Variations such as a1 and a2 can also be used. The repetition of one chord progression may mark off the only section in a simple verse form such as the twelve bar blues.
History[link]
"The most significant feature of the emergent popular music industry of the late 18th and early 19th centuries was the extent of its focus on the commodity form of sheet music".[6] The availability of inexpensive, widely available sheet music versions of popular songs and instrumental music pieces made it possible for music to be disseminated to a wide audience of amateur music-makers, who could play and sing popular music at home. In addition to the influence of sheet music, another factor was the increasing availability during the late 18th and early 19th century of public popular music performances in "pleasure gardens and dance halls, popular theatres and concert rooms".[6] The early popular music performers worked hand-in-hand with the sheet music industry to promote popular sheet music. One of the early popular music performers to attain widespread popularity was a Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, who toured the US in the mid-19th century. During the 19th century, more regular people began getting involved in music by participating in amateur choirs or joining brass bands.
The centre of the music publishing industry in the US during the late 19th century was in New York's 'Tin Pan Alley' district. The Tin Pan Alley music publishers developed a new method for promoting sheet music: incessant promotion of new songs. One of the technological innovations that helped to spread popular music around the turn of the century was player pianos; these allowed people to hear the new popular piano tunes.[6] By the early 1900s, the big trends in popular music were the increasing popularity of vaudeville theaters and dance halls and the new invention—the gramophone player. The record industry grew very rapidly; "By 1920 there were almost 80 record companies in Britain, and almost 200 in the USA".[6] Radio broadcasting of music, which began in the early 1920s, helped to spread popular songs to a huge audience. Another factor which helped to disseminate popular music was the introduction of "talking pictures"—sound films—in the late 1920s. In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, there was a move towards consolidation in the recording industry which led several major companies to dominate the record industry.[6]
In the 1950s and 1960s, television began to play an increasingly important role in disseminating new popular music. Variety shows regularly showcased popular singers and bands. In the 1960s, the development of new technologies in recording such as multitrack recorders gave sound engineers an increasingly important role in popular music. By using recording techniques, sound engineers could create new sounds and sound effects that were not possible using traditional "live" recording techniques.[6]
In the 1970s, the trend towards consolidation in the recording industry continued to the point that the "... dominance was in the hands of five huge transnational organizations, three American-owned (WEA, RCA, CBS) and two European-owned [companies] (EMI, Polygram)". In the 1990s, the consolidation trend took a new turn: inter-media consolidation. This trend saw music recording companies being consolidated with film, television, magazines, and other media companies, an approach which facilitated cross-marketing promotion between subsidiaries. For example, a record company's singing star could be cross-promoted by the firm's television and magazine arms.[6]
In the 1990s, popular music was changed by the "introduction of digital equipment (mixing desks, synthesizers, samplers, sequencers)" which allowed the creation of "new sound worlds" and facilitated DIY music production by amateur musicians and " tiny independent record labels".[6] By the 2000s, another trend which affected popular music was the increasing availability and use of computers and Internet connections, which facilitated the dissemination—both legal and illegal—of digital recordings and digital versions of sheet music and lyrics.
See also[link]
- Music radio
- Popular culture
- List of popular music performers
- List of popular music genres
- Popular music pedagogy
- List of honorific titles in popular music
- Music popularity index
Sources[link]
- Tagg Philip (1982) "Analysing Popular Music : Theory, Method and Practice" in Popular Music, 2
- Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
- Bennett (1980).
- Birrer, Frans A. J. (1985). "Definitions and research orientation: do we need a definition of popular music?" in D. Horn, ed., Popular Music Perspectives, 2 (Gothenburge, Exeter, Ottawa and Reggio Emilia), p. 99-106.
- Hall, S. (1978). "Popular culture, politics, and history", in Popular Culture Bulletin, 3, Open University duplicated paper.
- Everett, Walter (1997). "Swallowed by a Song: Paul Simon's Crisis of Chromaticism", Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510004-2.
- Hamm, Charles (1979). Yesterdays: Popular Song in America. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-01257-3.
- Manuel, Peter (1988). Popular Musics of the Non-Western World: An Introductory Survey. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505342-7.
- Marcello Sorce Keller (2000). "Popular Music in Europe", in James Porter, Timothy Rice and Chris Goertzen (eds.), Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Europe, New York, pp. 204- 213.
References[link]
- ^ Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition 2003.
- ^ a b Arnold, Denis (1983). The New Oxford Companion Music, Volume 1: A-J. Oxford University Press. p. 111. ISBN 0-19-311316-3.
- ^ a b Arnold, Denis (1983). The New Oxford Companion to Music, Volume 2: K-Z. Oxford University Press. p. 1467. ISBN 0-19-311316-3.
- ^ a b c Tagg, Philip (1982), "Analysing Popular Music: Theory, Method and Practice", Popular Music (2): 41
- ^ Allen, Robert. "Popular music". Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage. 2004.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Richard Middleton and Peter Manuel. "Popular music" in Grove Music Online.
Further reading[link]
- T.W. Adorno with G. Simpson: ‘On Popular Music’, Studies in Philosophy and Social Science, ix (1941), 17–48
- R. Iwaschkin: Popular Music: a Reference Guide (New York, 1986)
- P. Hardy and D. Laing: The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music (London, 1990/R)
- R. Middleton: Studying Popular Music (Milton Keynes, 1990)
- P. Gammond: The Oxford Companion to Popular Music (Oxford, 1991)
- D. Brackett: Interpreting Popular Music (Cambridge, 1995)
| Popular music |
| Timeline of musical events |
|---|
| 2010s • 2000s • 1990s • 1980s • 1970s • 1960s • 1950s • 1940s • 1930s • 1920s • 1910s • 1900s • 1890s • 1880s • 1870s • 1860s • 1850s • 1840s • 1830s • 1820s • 1810s • 1800s • 1790s • 1780s • 1770s • 1760s • 1750s • 1740s • 1730s • 1720s • 1710s • 1700s • 1690s • 1680s • 1670s • 1660s • 1650s • 1640s • 1630s • 1620s • 1610s • 1600s • 1590s • 1580s • 1570s • 1560s • 1550s • 1540s • 1530s • 1520s • 1510s • 1500s • Early history |
| List of popular music genres |
- fr:Volume ! a French scholarly journal dedicated to popular music studies.
External links[link]
- Famous Music Videos - Music Video Database - YouTube, Google Video, MySpace TV, MetaCafe, DailyMotion, Veoh, Current.com, ClipFish.de, MyVideo.de, Break.com and EyeSpot
- The 1950s-2000's Week-By-Week - Looks at pop music/albums/radio and music news through these decades.
- Pop Culture Madness Features the most requested pop songs 1920s through today
- The Daily Vault music reviews
- Yale Music Library Guide to Pop Music Research
- Volume ! the French academic journal dedicated to the study of popular music
- Éditions Mélanie Seteun ! a French publisher dedicated to popular music studies - publishes Volume, the French journal of PMS.
http://wn.com/Popular_music
Related pages:
http://it.wn.com/Popular music
http://cs.wn.com/Populární hudba
http://id.wn.com/Musik populer
http://es.wn.com/Música popular
http://ru.wn.com/Популярная музыка
http://nl.wn.com/Lichte muziek
http://pt.wn.com/Música popular
http://pl.wn.com/Muzyka rozrywkowa
http://fr.wn.com/Musique populaire
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_music
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
"Britney" redirects here. For other uses, see Britney (disambiguation).
| Britney Spears | |
|---|---|
 Spears performing at her Femme Fatale Tour in Europe, 2011 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Britney Jean Spears |
| Born | (1981-12-02) December 2, 1981 (age 30) McComb, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Genres | Pop, dance |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, record producer, author, fashion designer, video director |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Labels | Jive, RCA[1] |
| Associated acts | The New Mickey Mouse Club |
| Website | britneyspears.com britney.com |
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999, which became the best-selling album by a teenage solo artist.[2] During her first decade in the music industry, she became a prominent figure in mainstream popular music and popular culture, followed by a much-publicized personal life. Her first two albums established her as a pop icon and broke sales records, while title tracks "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" became international number-one hits. Spears was credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s, and became the 'best-selling teen aged artist of all time' before she turned 20,[3] garnering her the honorific title of "Princess of Pop".[4]
In 2001, she released her third studio album Britney and expanded her brand, playing the starring role in the film Crossroads. She assumed creative control of her fourth studio album, In the Zone (2003), which yielded chart-topping singles "Me Against the Music", "Toxic" and "Everytime". After the release of two compilation albums, Spears experienced personal struggles and her career went into hiatus. Her fifth studio album, Blackout, was released in 2007 and despite receiving little promotion, it spawned hits "Gimme More" and "Piece of Me". In 2008, her erratic behavior and hospitalizations caused her to be placed in a conservatorship. The same year, her sixth studio album Circus was released, with the global chart-topping lead single "Womanizer", and hits such as "Circus" and "If U Seek Amy". She embarked on her highest-grossing global concert tour,[5] The Circus Starring Britney Spears, in 2009. In October of the same year, she released a chart-topping single, "3", which became her third single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Her seventh studio album Femme Fatale, released in 2011, has become the first of her albums to yield three top ten singles in the United States, "Hold It Against Me", "Till the World Ends" and "I Wanna Go". The same year, she also gained her fifth number one single when she featured on the remix of "S&M" alongside Rihanna.
Spears work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including a Grammy Award, 6 MTV Video Music Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award, 9 Billboard Music Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2009, Billboard ranked her as the 8th overall Artist of the Decade,[6] and also recognized her as the best-selling female artist of the first decade of the 21st century, as well as the fifth overall.[7] The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) also recognized Spears as the eighth top-selling female artist in the United States, with 33 million certified albums.[8] Nielsen SoundScan ranked Spears the tenth best-selling digital artist of the country, with more than 28.6 million digital singles as of January 2012.[9] She has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.[10] Rolling Stone recognized her instant success as one of the Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments of all time,[11] while VH1 ranked her eleventh on their "100 Greatest Women in Music" list in 2012.[12] Forbes also revealed that Spears was the sixth most powerful celebrity, and the third best paid musician of 2011-12, having topped the list back in 2002.[13] In Fall 2012, Spears will serve as a judge in the second season of the American version of The X Factor.[14]
Biography[link]
1981–97: Early life, and career beginnings[link]
Britney Jean Spears was born on December 2, 1981, the second child of Lynne Irene (née Bridges) and James Parnell Spears. She is of English heritage through her maternal grandmother, Lillian Portelli who was born in London, and of distant Maltese and Sicilian (Sicani) descent.[15][16][17] Her siblings are Bryan James and Jamie Lynn.[18] At age three, she started to attend dance lessons in her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana, and was selected to perform as a solo artist at the annual recital. During her childhood, she also attended gymnastics and voice lessons, and won many state-level competitions and children's talent shows.[19][20][21] Spears made her local stage debut at age five, singing "What Child Is This?" at her kindergarten graduation. She said about her ambition as a child, "I was in my own world, [...] I found out what I'm supposed to do at an early age".[20] At age eight, Spears and her mother Lynne traveled to Atlanta for an audition in the 1990s revival of The Mickey Mouse Club. Casting director Matt Casella rejected her for being too young to join the series at the time, but introduced her to Nancy Carson, a New York City talent agent. Carson was impressed with Spears's vocals and suggested enrolling her at the Professional Performing Arts School; shortly after, Lynne and her daughters moved to a sublet apartment in New York. Spears was hired for her first professional role as the understudy for the lead role of Tina Denmark in the Off-Broadway musical Ruthless!. She also appeared as a contestant on the popular television show Star Search, as well as being cast in a number of commercials.[22][23] In December 1992, she was finally cast in The Mickey Mouse Club, but returned to Kentwood after the show was canceled. She enrolled at Parklane Academy in nearby McComb, Mississippi. Although she made friends with most of her classmates, she compared the school to "the opening scene in Clueless with all the cliques. [...] I was so bored. I was the point guard on the basketball team. I had my boyfriend, and I went to homecoming and Christmas formal. But I wanted more."[20][24]
In June 1997, Spears was in talks with manager Lou Pearlman to join the female pop group Innosense. Lynne asked family friend and entertainment lawyer Larry Rudolph for his opinion and submitted a tape of Spears singing over a Whitney Houston karaoke song along with some pictures. Rudolph decided he wanted to pitch her to record labels, therefore she needed a professional demo. He sent Spears an unused song of Toni Braxton; she rehearsed for a week and recorded her vocals in a studio with a sound engineer. Spears traveled to New York with the demo and met with executives from four labels, returning to Kentwood the same day. Three of the labels rejected her, arguing that audiences wanted pop bands such as the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls, and "there wasn't going to be another Madonna, another Debbie Gibson, or another Tiffany." Two weeks later, executives from Jive Records returned calls to Rudolph.[25] Senior vice president of A&R Jeff Fenster stated about Spears's audition that "It's very rare to hear someone that age who can deliver emotional content and commercial appeal. [...] For any artist, the motivation—the 'eye of the tiger'—is extremely important. And Britney had that."[20] She then sang Houston's "I Have Nothing" (1992) for the executives, and got signed to the label.[26] They appointed her to work with producer Eric Foster White for a month, who reportedly shaped her voice from "lower and less poppy" delivery to "distinctively, unmistakably Britney."[27] After hearing the recorded material, president Clive Calder ordered a full album. Spears had originally envisioned "Sheryl Crow music, but younger more adult contemporary" but felt all right with her label's appointment of producers, since "It made more sense to go pop, because I can dance to it—it's more me." She flew to Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, where half of the album was recorded from March to April 1998, with producers Max Martin, Denniz Pop and Rami Yacoub, among others.[20]
[edit] 1998–2000: ...Baby One More Time, and Oops!... I Did It Again
After Spears returned to the United States, she embarked on a shopping mall promotional tour to promote her forthcoming album. Her show was a four song set and she was accompanied by two back up dancers. Her first concert tour followed, as an opening act for 'N Sync.[28] Her debut album, ...Baby One More Time, was released on January 1999.[29] It debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was certified two-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America after a month. Worldwide, the album topped the charts in fifteen countries and sold over ten million copies in a year.[30] It became the biggest selling album ever by a teenage artist.[21] The title track was released as the lead single from the album. Originally, Jive Records wanted its music video to be animated; however, Spears rejected it, and suggested the final idea of a Catholic schoolgirl.[27] The single sold 500,000 copies on its first day, and peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, topping the chart for two consecutive weeks.[31][32] "...Baby One More Time" later received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.[33] The title track also topped the singles chart for two weeks in the United Kingdom, and became the fastest-selling single ever by a female artist, shipping over 460,000 copies.[34] It would later become the 25th most successful song of all time in British chart history.[35] Spears is also the youngest female artist to have a million seller in the country.[36] "(You Drive Me) Crazy" was released as the third single from the album. It became a top-ten hit worldwide and propelled ...Baby One More Time to sell 26 million copies.[37]
The April 1999 cover of Rolling Stone featured Spears lying on her bed, clad with a bra, shorts and an open top. The American Family Association (AFA) referred to the shoot as "a disturbing mix of childhood innocence and adult sexuality" and called to "God-loving Americans to boycott stores selling Britney's albums." Spears responded to the outcry commenting, "What's the big deal? I have strong morals. [...] I'd do it again. I thought the pictures were fine. And I was tired of being compared to Debbie Gibson and all of this bubblegum pop all the time."[38] Shortly before, Spears had announced publicly she would remain a virgin until marriage.[21] On June 28, 1999, Spears began her first headlining ...Baby One More Time Tour in North America, which was positively received by critics,[39] but generated some controversy due to her racy outfits.[40] An extension of the tour, titled Crazy 2k, followed in March 2000. Spears premiered songs from her upcoming second album during the show.[24]
Oops!... I Did It Again, her second studio album, was released in May 2000. It debuted at number one in the US, selling 1,3 million copies, breaking the SoundScan record for the highest debut sales by any solo artist.[41] The album sold over 20 million copies worldwide.[42] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone said that "the great thing about Oops! – under the cheese surface, Britney's demand for satisfaction is complex, fierce and downright scary, making her a true child of rock & roll tradition."[43] The album's lead single, "Oops!... I Did It Again", peaked at the top of the charts in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and many other European nations.[36][44] The album as well as the title track received Grammy nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, respectively.[45]
The same year, Spears embarked on the Oops!... I Did It Again World Tour, which grossed $40.5 million; she also released her first book, Britney Spears' Heart-to-Heart, co-written with her mother.[21][46] On September 7, 2000, Spears performed at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Halfway through the performance, she ripped off her black suit to reveal a sequined flesh-colored bodysuit, followed by heavy dance routine. It is noted by critics as the moment that Spears showed signs of becoming a more provocative performer.[47] Amidst media speculation, Spears confirmed she was dating 'N Sync member Justin Timberlake.[21]
[edit] 2001–03: Britney, Crossroads, and In the Zone
In February 2001, Spears signed a $7–8 million promotional deal with Pepsi, and released another book co-written with her mother, entitled A Mother’s Gift.[21] Her third studio album, Britney, was released in November 2001. While on tour, she felt inspired by hip hop artists such as Jay-Z and The Neptunes and wanted to create a record with a funkier sound.[48] The album debuted at number one in the Billboard 200 and reached top five positions in Australia, the United Kingdom and mainland Europe and sold over 12 million copies worldwide.[36][49][50] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called Britney "the record where she strives to deepen her persona, making it more adult while still recognizably Britney. [...] It does sound like the work of a star who has now found and refined her voice, resulting in her best record yet."[51] The album was honored with two Grammy nominations—Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Overprotected"— and was listed in 2008 as one of Entertainment Weekly's "100 Best Albums from the Past 25 Years".[52][53] The album's first single, "I'm a Slave 4 U", became a top-ten hit worldwide.[54]
Spears's performance of the single at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards featured a caged tiger and a large albino python draped over her shoulders. It was harshly received by animal rights organization PETA, who claimed the animals were mistreated and scrapped plans for an anti-fur billboard that was to feature Spears.[47] To support the album, Spears embarked on the Dream Within a Dream Tour. The show was critically praised for its technical innovations, the pièce de résistance being a water screen that pumped two tons of water into the stage.[55][56] The tour grossed $43.7 million, becoming the second highest grossing tour of 2002 by a female artist, behind Cher's Farewell Tour.[57] Her career success was highlighted by Forbes in 2002, as Spears was ranked the world's most powerful celebrity.[58] Spears also landed her first starring role in Crossroads, released in February 2002. Although the film was largely panned, most critics actually praised Spears's acting.[59][60][61] Crossroads, which had a $11 million budget, went on to gross over $57 million worldwide.[61]
In June 2002, Spears opened her first restaurant, Nyla, in New York City, but terminated her relationship in November, citing mismanagement and "management's failure to keep her fully apprised".[62] In July 2002, Spears announced she would take a six month break from her career; however, she went back into the studio in November to record her new album.[63] Spears' relationship with Justin Timberlake ended after three years. In December 2002, Timberlake released the song "Cry Me a River" as the second single from his solo debut album. The music video featured a Spears look-alike and fueled the rumors that she had been unfaithful to him.[64][65] As a response, Spears wrote the ballad "Everytime" with her backing vocalist and friend Annet Artani.[66] The same year, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst said that he was in a relationship with Spears. However, Spears denied Durst's claims.[67] In a 2009 interview, he explained that "I just guess at the time it was taboo for a guy like me to be associated with a gal like her."[67] Spears opened the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards with Christina Aguilera, performing "Like a Virgin". Halfway through they were joined by Madonna, with whom they both kissed. The incident was highly publicized.[61]
Spears released her fourth studio album, In the Zone, in November 2003. She assumed more creative control by writing and co-producing most of the material.[21] Vibe called it "A supremely confident dance record that also illustrates Spears's development as a songwriter."[68] NPR listed the album as one of "The 50 Most Important Recording of the Decade", adding that "the decade's history of impeccably crafted pop is written on her body of work."[69] In the Zone sold over 609,000 copies in the United States and debuted at the top of the charts, making Spears the first female artist in the SoundScan era to have her first four studio albums to debut at number one.[21] It also debuted at the top of the charts in France and the top ten in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.[70] In the Zone sold over 10 million copies worldwide.[71] The album produced the hit singles: "Me Against the Music", a collaboration with Madonna; "Toxic"—which won Spears her first and only Grammy for Best Dance Recording; "Everytime" and "Outrageous".[21]
[edit] 2004–07: Compilation albums, motherhood, personal struggles, and Blackout
On January 3, 2004, Spears married childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander at The Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The marriage was annulled 55 hours later, stating that Spears "lacked understanding of her actions".[72] She began The Onyx Hotel Tour in support of In the Zone in March 2004.[73] On June 8, 2004, Spears fell and injured her left knee during the music video shoot for "Outrageous". She was taken immediately to a local hospital, where doctors performed an MRI scan and found floating cartilage. The following day, Spears underwent arthroscopic surgery. She was forced to remain six weeks with a thigh brace, followed by eight to twelve weeks of rehabilitation, which caused The Onyx Hotel Tour to be canceled.[74] During 2004, Spears became involved in the Kabbalah Centre through her friendship with Madonna.[75]
In July 2004, she announced her engagement to American dancer Kevin Federline, whom she had met three months before. The romance received intense attention from the media, since Federline had recently broken up with actress Shar Jackson, who was still pregnant with their second child at the time.[21] The initial stages of their relationship were chronicled in Spears's first reality show Britney & Kevin: Chaotic. They held a wedding ceremony on September 18, 2004, but were not legally married until three weeks later on October 6 due to a delay finalizing the couple's prenuptial agreement.[76] Shortly after, she released her first fragrance with Elizabeth Arden, Curious, which broke the company's first-week gross for a perfume.[21] In October 2004, Spears announced she would be taking another career break to start a family.[77] Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, her first greatest hits compilation album, was released in November 2004.[78] Spears's cover version of Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative" was released as the lead single from the album, reaching the top of the charts in Finland, Ireland, Italy and Norway.[79] The second single, "Do Somethin'", was a top ten hit in Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries of mainland Europe.[80][81] Worldwide, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative sold over 5 million copies.[82] In late 2004, Spears went on KIIS-FM radio in Los Angeles, CA to play a new demo titled "Mona Lisa." The demo was to be the first single from an upcoming album called the "Original Doll." However, Spears' label later cancelled the album for unknown reasons.[83][84] Spears gave birth to her first child, Sean Preston Federline, on September 14, 2005.[85]
In November 2005, she released her first remix compilation, B in the Mix: The Remixes, which consists of eleven remixes.[86] It has sold over 1 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best selling remix albums of all time.[87] In February 2006, pictures surfaced of Spears driving with her son Sean, on her lap instead of in a car seat. Child advocates were horrified by the photos of her holding the wheel with one hand and Sean with the other. Spears claimed that the situation happened because of a frightening encounter with paparazzi, and that it was a mistake on her part.[21] The following month, she guest-starred on the Will & Grace episode "Buy, Buy Baby" as closeted lesbian Amber Louise.[88] She publicly announced she no longer studied Kabbalah in June 2006, explaining, "my baby is my religion."[75] Two months later, Spears posed nude for the cover of Harper's Bazaar. The picture was heavily compared to Demi Moore's August 1991 Vanity Fair cover.[21] She gave birth to her second child, Jayden James Federline, on September 12, 2006.[89] On November 7, 2006, Spears filed for divorce from Federline, citing irreconcilable differences.[90] Their divorce was finalized in July 2007, when the couple reached a global settlement and agreed to share joint custody of their children.[91] Spears's aunt Sandra Bridges Covington, with whom she had been very close, died of ovarian cancer in January.[92] On February 16, 2007, Spears stayed in a drug rehabilitation facility in Antigua for less than a day. The following night, she shaved her head with electric clippers at a hair salon in Tarzana, Los Angeles. She admitted herself to other treatment facilities during the following weeks.[93] After completing a month-long program at Promises, she wrote on her website, "I truly hit rock bottom. Till this day I don't think that it was alcohol or depression. [...] was like a bad kid running around with ADD."[21] In May 2007, she produced a series of promotional concerts at House of Blues venues, titled The M+M's Tour.[94] Spears lost physical custody of her children to Federline on October 1, 2007. The reasons of the court ruling were not revealed to the public.[95] Also, in 2007 Spears was sued by Louis Vuitton over her 2005 music video "Do Something" for pimping out her Hummer interior in counterfiet Louis Vuitton cherry blossom fabric. Which resulted in her video being banned on European TV stations.[96]
Her fifth studio album, Blackout, was released in October 2007. It debuted at the top of charts in Canada and Ireland, number two in the U.S. Billboard 200,—held off from the top spot by Eagles's Long Road out of Eden— France, Japan, Mexico and the United Kingdom and the top ten in Australia, Korea, New Zealand and many European nations. In the United States, Spears became the only female artist to have her first five studio albums debut at the two top slots of the chart.[97] Blackout sold over 3.1 million copies worldwide.[98] Peter Robinson of The Observer said that "Britney has delivered the best album of her career, raising the bar for modern pop music with an incendiary mix of Timbaland's Shock Value and her own back catalogue."[99] Dennis Lim of Blender commented, "Spears’s fifth studio album is her most consistent, a seamlessly entertaining collection of bright, brash electropop."[100] Blackout won Album of the Year at MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 and was listed as the fifth Best Pop Album of the Decade by The Times.[101][102] Spears performed the lead single "Gimme More" at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. The performance was panned by many critics. David Willis of BBC stated her performance would "go down in the history books as being one of the worst to grace the MTV Awards".[103] Despite the backlash, the single rocketed to worldwide success, peaking at number one in Canada and the top ten in almost every country it charted.[104][105] The second single "Piece of Me" reached the top of the charts in Ireland and reached the top five in Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The third single "Break the Ice" was released the following year and had moderate success due to Spears not being able to promote it properly.[106][107][108] In December 2007, Spears began a relationship with paparazzo Adnan Ghalib.[109]
[edit] 2008–10: Conservatorship, and Circus
On January 3, 2008, Spears refused to relinquish custody of her sons to Federline's representatives. She was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, after police that arrived at her house noted she appeared to be under the influence of an illicit substance. The following day, Spears's visitation rights were suspended at an emergency court hearing, and Federline was given sole physical and legal custody of the children. On January 31, 2008, Spears was committed to the psychiatric ward of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and put on 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold. The court placed her under temporary conservatorship of her father James Spears and attorney Andrew Wallet, giving them complete control of her assets.[21] Spears was released on February 6, 2008. Her parents expressed disappointment and concern at the decision to release her.[110] The following month, she guest-starred on the How I Met Your Mother episode "Ten Sessions" as receptionist Abby. She received positive reviews for her performance, as well as bringing the series its highest ratings ever.[111][112] In July 2008, Spears regained some visitation rights after coming to an agreement with Federline and his counsel.[113] On September 7, 2008, Spears opened the MTV Video Music Awards with a pre-taped comedy sketch with Jonah Hill and an introduction speech. She won Best Female Video, Best Pop Video and Video of the Year for "Piece of Me".[114] A 60-minute introspective documentary, Britney: For the Record, was produced to chronicle Spears' return to the recording industry. Directed by Phil Griffin, For the Record was entirely shot in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and New York City during the third quarter of 2008.[115] Main shooting began on September 5, 2008, two days before Spears' appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards. For the Record was broadcast on MTV on November 30, 2008 to 5.6 million viewers for the two airings on the premiere night. MTV reported that Spears' documentary garnered on average, the highest rating in its Sunday night timeslot, in the network's history.[116]
Her sixth studio album Circus, was released in December 2008. It received positive reviews from critics; according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it garnered an average score of 64/100.[117] Circus debuted at number one in Canada, Czech Republic and the United States, and inside the top in many European nations.[105][118] In the United States, Spears became the youngest female artist to have five albums debut at number one, earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.[119] She also became the only act in the Soundscan era to have four albums debut with 500,000 or more copies sold.[118] Circus became one of the fastest-selling albums of the year,[120] and has sold 4 million copies worldwide.[121][122] Its lead single, "Womanizer", became her first number one in the Billboard Hot 100 since "...Baby One More Time" and topped the charts in countries such as Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway and Sweden.[123][124] It was also nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Dance Recording.[125] In January 2009, Spears and her father James obtained a restraining order against her former manager Sam Lufti, ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib and attorney Jon Eardley—all of whom, court documents claim, had been conspiring to gain control of Spears's affairs. The restraining order forbids Lutfi and Ghalib from contacting Spears or coming within 250 yards of her, her property or family members.[126] Spears embarked on The Circus Starring Britney Spears in March 2009. With a gross of U.S. $131.8 million, it became the fifth highest grossing tour of the year.[127]
She released her second greatest hits album, The Singles Collection in November 2009. "3" became her third number one single in the US, and was the first song to debut at the top of the charts in three years.[128] Later that month, she released an application for iPhone and iPod Touch titled "It's Britney!".[129] In May 2010, Spears's representatives confirmed she was dating her agent Jason Trawick, and that they had decided to end their professional relationship to focus on their personal relationship.[130] Spears designed a limited edition clothing line for Candie's, which was released in stores in July 2010.[131] On September 28, 2010, she made a cameo appearance on a Spears-themed tribute episode of American TV show Glee, titled "Britney/Brittany". Spears approved of the episode, although her appearances received mixed reviews from critics.[132][133] The episode drew Glee's second largest audience, as well as the show's highest ratings ever.[134][135]
[edit] 2011–present: Femme Fatale and The X Factor
In March 2011, Spears released her seventh studio album Femme Fatale.[136] Max Martin and Dr. Luke executive produced the album and the album's first single "Hold It Against Me". The single debuted at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100. This gave Spears her fourth number-one single on the chart, and made her only the second artist in history to have two consecutive singles debut at number-one, after Mariah Carey.[137] The album peaked at number one in the United States (selling 276,000 copies in its first week), Canada, and Australia, and peaked inside the top ten on nearly every other chart. The album's peak in the United States ties Britney with Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson for the third-most number ones among women.[138] As of March 9, 2012, Femme Fatale has sold 883,000 copies in the United States and 2.2 million worldwide and has been certified platinum by the RIAA.[139][140] The album received positive critical reviews after its release, receiving a score of 67 on Metacritic, her highest critical score since Oops!... I Did It Again, with many critics naming the album one of Spears's best.[141] In April 2011, Spears appeared in a remix to the song "S&M" by Rihanna after Rihanna asked her fans via Twitter who they wanted her to collaborate with.[142] The song reached number one in the US in mid-April 2011, giving Spears her fifth number one on the chart.[143] In early May, Spears' second single from Femme Fatale, "Till The World Ends", reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and had ninety-eight million audience impressions on the Billboard chart, granting Spears the highest weekly audience of her 13-year chart career.[144]
Femme Fatale's third single "I Wanna Go" reached the top forty on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2011. Among females in the last thirteen years, Spears now has the third-most top forty hits, with twenty-one.[145] In August, the single managed to reach the top-ten on the Billboard Hot 100, which is the first time for Spears to have three songs from one album in the top-ten.[146] On the week ending September 24, 2011, "I Wanna Go" moved 2–1 on the mainstream top 40, becoming her sixth number-one on that chart (making her tied for third all-time) and her first number-one and third top-ten pop song for Femme Fatale.[147] Spears now has the longest span of number ones on the mainstream top 40, with a length of twelve years, seven months, and four days.[147] In October 2011, the music video for Femme Fatale's fourth single "Criminal" caused controversy when British politicians criticized Spears for using replica guns while filming the video in an area of London that had been badly affected by the 2011 England riots. Members of the Hackney London Borough Council felt Spears "promoted gun violence" and suggested that Spears apologize and make a donation to a Hackney charity.[148] Spears's management briefly responded, stating, "The video is a fantasy story featuring Britney's boyfriend, Jason Trawick, which literally plays out the lyrics of a song written three years before the riots ever happened."[149] Later that month, due to her continued popularity, Spears became the seventh artist to gain one billion cumulative views on her Vevo account.[150] On Billboard's 2011 Year-End list, Spears was fourteen on the Artists of the Year,[151] due to being 32 on Billboard 200 artists and 10 on Billboard Hot 100 artists.[152][153] Additionally, many critics, including those at Rolling Stone, named "Till the World Ends" one of the best songs of 2011.[154][155][156]
On March 2011, Spears announced that she would tour throughout the United States during summer 2011.[157] The Femme Fatale Tour opened June 16 at the Power Balance Pavilion in Sacramento, California[158] to positive reviews.[159] Many critics noted that Spears sang more of the concert live in response to lip-synching accusations during The Circus Starring Britney Spears, and that the dancing is some of her best in years.[159] The first ten US dates of the tour grossed $6.2 million, landing the fifty-fifth spot on Pollstar's Top 100 North American Tours list for the half-way point of the year.[160] The tour ended on December 10, 2011 in Puerto Rico after 79 performances.[161] A concert special of the tour was filmed in 2D and 3D in Canada on August 13 and 14. It premiered on November 12 on Epix, receiving mixed reviews.[162][163][164][165] It was released to DVD on November 21[166][167] and sold 19,000 copies, debuting at no. 2 on the US Billboard DVD Chart behind Lady Gaga's The Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden.[168] Since its release, the DVD has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),[169] and Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).[170]
On June 15, 2011, it was announced by Billboard that the RCA/Jive Label Group would be splitting, with Jive Records being fully moved under RCA Records staying intact. In August it was announced that Spears had officially joined the RCA's roster.[171][172] During the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, 2011, MTV played tribute to Spears with a group of young female dancers that memorialised Britney's music videos, performances, and style. Following which, Spears accepted the MTV Video Vanguard Award from Lady Gaga, who said that "industry wouldn't be the same without [her]".[173][174] On September 9, 2011, Spears announced her second remix album, B in the Mix: The Remixes Vol. 2, which was released on October 7, along with the tracklist.[175] On October 7, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding Jive Records along with Arista Records and J Records. With the shutdown, Spears (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) will release her future material on the RCA Records brand.[176][177]
On December 16, Spears confirmed her engagement to her long-time boyfriend Jason Trawick, her former agent.[178] Spears revealed her three-carat diamond ring at a party in Las Vegas on December 17.[179] According to Joe Riccitelli, the executive vice president of promotion for RCA Records, Spears would be taking time off during 2012.[180] However, on January 30, 2012, will.i.am confirmed that he recorded a track with Spears, set to be included on his upcoming fourth studio album, #willpower (2012).[181] It was also reported that Simon Cowell was in talks with Spears for her to join the new season of the The X-Factor.[182] According to Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, Trawick negotiated Spears' contract with the show,[183] which was later approved by conservatorship judge Reva Goetz.[184] Cowell and the producers of the show agreed to pay the singer $15 million for season two, and also added Trawick as a one of the producers for the season.[185] The rumor was later confirmed to be true.[14][186][187] Spears also teamed up with Hasbro to release an exclusive version of Twister Dance, which will include a remix of "Till the World Ends".[188] The singer also participated on a commercial, which was directed by Ray Kay, to promote the game.[188]
Artistry[link]
Musical style, and performance[link]
Following her debut, Spears was credited with leading the revival of teen pop in the late 1990s. The Daily Yomiuri reported that "[m]usic critics have hailed her as the most gifted teenage pop idol for many years, but Spears has set her sights a little higher-she is aiming for the level of superstardom that has been achieved by Madonna and Janet Jackson."[189] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone wrote: "Britney Spears carries on the classic archetype of the rock & roll teen queen, the dungaree doll, the angel baby who just has to make a scene."[190] Rami Yacoub who co-produced Spears's debut album with lyricist Max Martin, commented, "I know from Denniz Pop and Max's previous productions, when we do songs, there's kind of a nasal thing. With N' Sync and the Backstreet Boys, we had to push for that mid-nasal voice. When Britney did that, she got this kind of raspy, sexy voice."[191] Following the release of her debut album, Chuck Taylor of Billboard observed, "Spears has become a consummate performer, with snappy dance moves, a clearly real-albeit young-and funkdified voice ... "(You Drive Me) Crazy", her third single ... demonstrates Spears's own development, proving that the 17-year-old is finding her own vocal personality after so many months of steadfast practice."[192] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic referred to her music as a "blend of infectious, rap-inflected dance-pop and smooth balladry."[193] Spears later commented, "With ...Baby One More Time, I didn't get to show my voice off. The songs were great, but they weren't very challenging".[194]
Oops!...I Did It Again and subsequent albums saw Spears working with several contemporary R&B producers, leading to "a combination of bubblegum, urban soul, and raga."[195] Her third studio album, Britney derived from the teen pop niche, "[r]hythmically and melodically ... sharper, tougher than what came before. What used to be unabashedly frothy has some disco grit, underpinned by Spears' spunky self-determination that helps sell hooks that are already catchier, by and large, than those that populated her previous two albums."[196] Guy Blackman of The Age wrote that while few would care to listen to an entire Spears album, "[t]he thing about Spears, though, is that her biggest songs, no matter how committee-created or impossibly polished, have always been convincing because of her delivery, her commitment and her presence. For her mostly teenage fans, Spears expresses perfectly the conflicting urges of adolescence, the tension between chastity and sexual experience, between hedonism and responsibility, between confidence and vulnerability."[197]
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Spears possesses a soprano[203] vocal range; her vocal ability however has been criticized, often drawing unfavorable comparison to her pop rival, Christina Aguilera.[204] Critic Allan Raible derides her overdependence in Circus on digital effects and the robotic effect it creates. "She’s never been a strong vocalist..." writes Raible, "Could she handle these songs with stripped down arrangements and no vocal effects? More importantly, would anyone want to hear her attempt such a performance? Does it matter? No. The focus is still image over substance."[205] Her image and persona are also often contrasted to Christina Aguilera. David Browne of Entertainment Weekly observed "Christina Aguilera may flash skin and belly button, but in her music and manner, she's too eager not to offend — she's a good girl pretending to be bad. Spears, however, comes across as a bad girl acting good ... Spears' artificial-sweetener voice is much less interesting than the settings, yet that blandness is actually a relief compared with Aguilera's numbing vocal gymnastics.[206] In contrast, Allmusic comments: "Like her peer Christina Aguilera, Britney equates maturity with transparent sexuality and the pounding sounds of nightclubs ... Where Christina comes across like a natural-born skank, Britney is the girl next door cutting loose at college, drinking and smoking and dancing and sexing just a little too recklessly, since this is the first time she can indulge herself.[207] Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine notes, "The disparity between Aguilera and Spears can't be measured solely by the timbre and octave range of their voices ... [Aguilera's] popularity has never reached the fever pitch of Britney's."[208]
It has been widely reported that Spears lip-syncs in concert. Author Gary Giddins wrote in his book Natural selection: Gary Giddins on comedy, film, music, and books (2006) that "among many other performers accused of moving their lips while a machine does the labor are Britney Spears, Luciano Pavarotti, Shania Twain, Beyoncé, and Madonna."[209] Rashod D. Ollison of The Baltimore Sun observes: "Many pop stars ... feel they have no choice but to seek vocal enhancement. Since the advent of MTV and other video music channels, pop audiences have been fed elaborate videos thick with jaw-dropping effects, awesome choreography, fabulous clothes, marvelous bodies. And the same level of perfection is expected to extend beyond the video set to the concert stage. So if Britney Spears, Janet Jackson or Madonna sounds shrill and flat without a backing track, fans won't pay up to $300 for a concert ticket."[210] Giddins adds, "it was reported Britney Spears fans prefer her to lip-sync—despite her denials of doing so (contradicted by her own director)—because they expect flawless digitalization when they pay serious money for a concert."[209]
In Australia, NSW Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge has advised disclaimers be printed on any ticket for concerts which contain any prerecorded vocals. She commented: "There could have been some instances where people actually go and purchase a ticket thinking that they're going to have a live performance ... for some people that means that everything is live, it's fresh, it happens instantaneously, it's not something that's been pre-recorded. You want to make sure that they're actually paying for what they think they're getting."[211] Noting on the prevalence of lip-syncing, Los Angeles Daily News reported "in the context of a Britney Spears concert, does it really matter? Like a Vegas revue show, you don't go to hear the music, you go for the somewhat-ridiculous spectacle of it all".[212] Similarly, Aline Mendelsohn of the Orlando Sentinel remarked: "Let's get one thing straight: A Britney Spears concert is not about the music ... you have to remember that it's about the sight, not the sound."[213] Critic Glenn Gamboa comments her concert tours are "like her life—a massive money-making venture designed to play up her talents and distract from her shortcomings with a mix of techno-tinged sex appeal and disco-flavored flash. And, like her life, it is, more or less, a success.[214]
Influences[link]
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Madonna (left) and Janet Jackson (right) are Spears's two biggest influences.
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Throughout her career, Spears has drawn frequent comparisons to Madonna and Janet Jackson, in terms of vocals, choreography and stage presence, citing both as influences in her work. She has also named Michael Jackson as a source of inspiration.[215] According to Spears: "I know when I was younger, I looked up to people... like, you know, Janet Jackson and Madonna. And they were major inspirations for me. But I also had my own identity and I knew who I was, you know."[216] In the 2002 book Madonnastyle by Carol Clerk, she is quoted saying: "I have been a huge fan of Madonna since I was a little girl. She's the person that I've really looked up to. I would really, really like to be a legend like Madonna."[217]
Many critics have argued that Spears should not be considered in the same league of talent as Jackson or Madonna. Journalists Erika Montalvo and Jackie Sheppard of the Rocky Mountain Collegian observed "[s]ome may argue that Spears is not only a good recording artist but also an important cultural icon."[218] However, in examining her level of skill as an artist, it is questioned that "[a]lthough she has been classified among female elites such as Janet Jackson and Madonna, what does Ms. Spears really have in common with these divas of rock?"[218] Joan Anderman of The Boston Globe remarked that "[t]hirteen costume changes in 90 minutes won't bless her with Madonna's intelligence or cultural barometer. An army of cutting-edge R&B producers won't supply her with Janet Jackson's sense of humor or sincere smile ... Britney's heroes aren't great singers. But they're real singers. Spears sounds robotic, nearly inhuman, on her records, so processed is her voice by digital pitch-shifters and synthesizers."[219]
Reporter Ed Bumgardner commented her transition from teen pop start to adult sex symbol with her third studio album Britney "takes its cues from two other successful performers—Madonna and Janet Jackson—both of whom she brazenly rips off and both of whom, like Spears, are passable singers, at best."[220] Critic Shane Harrison wrote: "From the minimalist thump and "Nasty" feel of "I'm a Slave 4 U" to the scattered quotes in "Boys", [Britney] feels like [Spears's] attempt at 'Control'."[215]
Citing Jackson's resolve to incorporate personal and social issues into her work and Madonna's ability to constantly redefine the boundaries of socially acceptable material in the industry, Spears's catalog ultimately pales in comparison, because "[w]hile Jackson and Madonna wrote their own music about subjects of importance, [Spears's] music sounds like an upbeat version of either, 'I want to grow up but the media won't let me,' or 'Here kitty, kitty, I'm wearing my underwear outside of my leather pants'-type ballads."[218] In contrast, Guy Blackman argues that although "no one would argue that Spears is some kind of pioneering pop auteur, there’s still a lot to like about her back catalogue. During her world-conquering peak, she was just about as cutting edge as you could get in the world of global pop superstardom. Spears didn’t just work with big names, she gave big names their names, and maintained her high currency in the world’s most fickle industry for years, when most aspiring starlets are lucky to manage months."[197]
After meeting Spears face to face, Janet Jackson stated: "she said to me, 'I'm such a big fan; I really admire you.' That's so flattering. Everyone gets inspiration from some place. And it's awesome to see someone else coming up who's dancing and singing, and seeing how all these kids relate to her. A lot of people put it down, but what she does is a positive thing."[221] Madonna's respect for Spears has also been a subject of observation. Santiago Fouz-Hernández and Freya Jarman-Ivens, authors of Madonna's drowned worlds: new approaches to her cultural transformations, 1983-2003 (2004) note that the most well known cross-generational relationship exists between Spears and Madonna in which "the entertainment newsmedia almost became obsessed with their relationship of mutual admiration."[222] The biographers also report "[s]ome observers of popular culture, however, feel that the comparisons between the two artist are meaningless and fail to recognize Madonna's unique contribution: Madonna was never 'just another pop star' whereas Britney can more easily be seen as a standard manufactured pop act."[222]
Legacy[link]
Spears became an international pop culture icon immediately after launching her recording career. Rolling Stone magazine wrote: "One of the most controversial and successful female vocalists of the 21st century," she "spearheaded the rise of post-millennial teen pop ... Spears early on cultivated a mixture of innocence and experience that broke the bank".[223] She is listed by the Guinness World Records as having the "Best-selling album by a teenage solo artist" for her debut album ...Baby One More Time which sold over thirteen million copies in the United States.[224] Melissa Ruggieri of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, "She's also marked for being the best-selling teenage artist. Before she turned 20 in 2001, Spears sold more than 37 million albums worldwide".[225] As of 2011, she has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.[10] She was also ranked as the fourth VH1's "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era" show list, ahead of most of her contemporaries and only behind veterans like Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Whitney Houston.[226] Spears is also recognized as the best-selling female artist of the first decade of the 21st century, as well as the fifth overall.[7] In December 2009, Billboard magazine ranked Spears the 8th Artist of the 2000s decade in the United States.[6]
Spears is also known for her iconic performances and music videos.[227] The music video for her debut single, "...Baby One More Time", was ranked number one on TRL's Final Countdown of the most iconic music videos.[228] On the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, before performing "Oops!... I Did It Again", the singer appeared behind a backlit screen, and descended a spiral staircase and started performing "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", while wearing a tuxedo.[229] After performing a shortened version of the track, she tore the tuxedo off, revealing a skin-tight flesh-coloured outfit.[230] The following year, Spears performed her single "I'm a Slave 4 U". Jocelyn Vena of MTV summarized the performance, saying, "draping herself in a white python and slithering around a steamy garden setting – surrounded by dancers in zebra and tiger outfits – Spears created one of the most striking visuals in the 27-year history of the show."[231] She also duetted "The Way You Make Me Feel" with pop singer Michael Jackson on his 30th anniversary concert a few days earlier.[232] During the opening of the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards on August 27, 2003, Spears joined Madonna, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliott.[233] Halfway through the performance, Madonna kissed Spears and Aguilera on the lips.[234] The kiss between Spears and Madonna generated strong reaction from the media.[235] This performance was listed by Blender magazine as one of the twenty-five sexiest music moments on television history.[236] MTV listed the performance as the number-one opening moments in the history of MTV Video Music Awards.[237] In 2011, Spears was honored with the MTV Video Vanguard Award, for having made a profound effect on the MTV culture.[238]
Barbara Ellen of The Observer has reported: "Spears is famously one of the 'oldest' teenagers pop has ever produced, almost middle aged in terms of focus and determination. Many 19-year-olds haven't even started working by that age, whereas Britney, a former Mouseketeer, was that most unusual and volatile of American phenomena — a child with a full-time career. While other little girls were putting posters on their walls, Britney was wanting to be the poster on the wall. Whereas other children develop at their own pace, Britney was developing at a pace set by the ferociously competitive American entertainment industry".[239] In 2011, Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly commented on the cultural significance of Spears' voice and music. "We don't ask a whole lot from Britney Spears as an entertainer...we'll still send her straight up the charts simply because she's Britney. She's an American institution, as deeply sacred and messed up as pro wrestling or the filibuster. Musically, though, Spears will always have to measure up to her own gold standards of pop euphony: the operatic slither of 2004's 'Toxic' and the candied funk of 2000's 'Oops!...I Did It Again.' Spears is no technical singer, that's for sure. But backed by Martin and Dr. Luke's wall of pound, her vocals melt into a mix of babytalk coo and coital panting that is, in its own overprocessed way, just as iconic and propulsive as Michael Jackson's yips or Eminem's snarls."[240] 'Britney Spears' was Yahoo!'s most popular search term between 2005 and 2008, and has been in a total of seven different years.[241] Spears was named as Most Searched Person in the Guinness World Records book edition 2007 and 2009.[242] She was later named as the most searched person of the decade 2000 - 2009.[243] Spears is the most followed person on Google's social network, Google+. Reaching 100,000 in under two months of the sites launch, quadrupling the amount within 10 days. By November she had over 760,000 followers,[244] and by the end of December 2011, Spears became the first person to reach over 1 million followers.[245]
Spears has been cited as a musical inspiration by contemporary artists. Gwyneth Paltrow's character on 2010 drama film Country Strong was inspired on the singer's public meltdown. According to film director Shana Fest, "that's where this movie came from. I mean, I was seeing what was happening in the media to Britney Spears. I think it's tragic how we treat people who give us so much, and we love to see them knocked down to build them back up again, to knock them down again."[246] Nicki Minaj has cited Spears as a major influence on her career, and commented, "the fact that she came back out with just so much fire inspires me, and it inspires young women and people all over the world. It just inspires you. A lot of my fans feel like they are the underdog and feel like they are the people who aren’t ever accepted for themselves, or who are laughed at or poked fun at forever. It just goes to show that once you keep at whatever it is you’re doing, people may not like you, people may not love you, but they will have to respect you at the end of the day. And that respect is all that matters."[247] Lana Del Rey revealed that she is compelled by Spears in an interview with MTV, saying, "I'm not really interested in a ton of female musicians but there is something about Britney that compelled me – the way she sings and just the way she looks."[248] Del Rey also said that the "Toxic" music video is a main inspiration of her work.[249] During the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, Lady Gaga said that Spears "taught us all how to be fearless, and the industry wouldn't be the same without her."[238] Miley Cyrus credits Spears as her biggest inspiration, and has referenced the singer in her hit song "Party in the U.S.A." (2009).[250][251] Spears' personal breakdown was also cited as an inspiration for Barry Manilow's album "15 Minutes".[252]
Spears has also become a major influence among many new artists, including Demi Lovato,[253] Katy Perry,[253] Kristinia DeBarge,[254] Little Boots,[255] Marina and the Diamonds,[256] Pixie Lott,[257] and Selena Gomez & the Scene.[258] In 2007, Beyoncé Knowles also expressed her love for Spears in an interview with TRL Italy, saying, "I love Britney, I'm a fan of hers. I like her new album ['Blackout']."[259] Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that she was happy with Spears' return to the music industry, and continued, "It's amazing. For this many years being in the business, and everything she's been through, it's wonderful to see her make this huge of a comeback. Really, it's a beautiful thing."[260] Simon Cowell explained that he is "fascinated by [Britney]. The fact that she’s one of the most talked about – not just pop stars – but people in the world today, means that you’ve got this star power. [...] She’s still hot, she’s still having hit records and she’s still controversial, there’s a reason for that."[182] Bebo Norman wrote a song about Spears, called "Britney", which was released as a single. Boy band Busted also wrote a song about Spears called "Britney", which was on their debut album. South Korean KPop singer, BoA has also spoken of love and Spears' influence on her. First meeting in 2003 while Spears was promoting "In The Zone" - Britney would later provide a writing credit to the song, Look Who's Talking, on BoA's eponymous debut English album. Spears' version of the song leaked in 2012.[261][262] Richard Cheese called Britney Spears "a remarkable recording artist" and also went on to say that she was "versatile" and what the industry calls an "artist". People magazine and MTV reported that October 1, 2008, the Bronx's John Philip Sousa Middle School, named their music studio in honor of Britney Spears.[263] Spears herself was present during the ceremony and donated $10,000 to the school's music program.[264]
Personal life[link]
In 1998, Spears entered a relationship with fellow pop singer Justin Timberlake, with whom she had worked on the New Mickey Mouse Club in 1993 and 1994. The relationship ended abruptly in March 2002 after reports of infidelity, however, both parties stated that the split was due to "conflicting schedules".[265] The breakup influenced the lyrics and themes of their songs, "Everytime" and "Cry Me a River." In June 2011, Timberlake stated that he had not spoken with Spears in 9 years, and that their relationship had no chance of surviving the long term.[266] On January 3, 2004, Spears married childhood friend Jason Alexander at The Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The marriage was annulled 55 hours later, Spears stating she "lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage".[72]
In July 2004, she announced her engagement to American dancer, Kevin Federline, whom she had met three months before. The initial stages of their relationship were chronicled in Spears's first reality show Britney & Kevin: Chaotic, and received intense media attention. They held a wedding ceremony on September 18, 2004, but were not legally married until three weeks later on October 6, 2004 due to a delay finalizing the couple's prenuptial agreement.[76] With Federline, Spears had two children, sons, Sean Preston Federline, on September 14, 2005, and Jayden James Federline, on September 12, 2006.[85][89] She filed for divorce from Federline on November 7, 2006, citing irreconcilable differences.[90] Their divorce was finalized in July 2007, when the couple reached a settlement and agreed to share joint custody of their children.[91] However, due to Spears' erratic behavior (including her shaving her head bald).[267]in the following year, she lost physical custody of her children to Federline on October 1, 2007. The reasons of the court ruling were not revealed to the public.[95] After a visit with her children on the night of January 3, 2008, Spears refused to give up her sons to Federline's representatives and locked herself in a bathroom. She was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, after police that arrived at her house noted she appeared to be under the influence of an illicit substance. The following day, Spears's visitation rights were suspended at an emergency court hearing, and Federline was given sole physical and legal custody of the children. On January 31, 2008, Spears was, again, committed to the psychiatric ward of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and put on 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold. The court placed her under temporary conservatorship of her father, James Spears, giving him complete control of her assets.[21] In July 2008, Spears regained some visitation rights after coming to an agreement with Federline and his counsel.[113] And in September 2009, Spears and Federline agreed on sharing 50/50 of the children[268]
On September 2011 Spears' former bodygaurd Fernando Flores persued a $10 million sexual harassment suit, also, citing alleged child abuse against her two sons.[269]
On December 16, 2011, Spears confirmed her engagement to her boyfriend, Jason Trawick.[270] Spears revealed her three-carat diamond ring at a party in Las Vegas on December 17.[179]
Other ventures[link]
In 2000, the singer released a limited edition of glasses titled Shades of Britney.[271] In 2001, Spears signed a deal with shoe company Skechers,[272] and a $7–8 million promotional deal with Pepsi, their biggest entertainment deal at the time.[273] Aside from numerous commercials with the latter during that year, she also appeared in a 2004 Pepsi television commercial in the theme of "Gladiators" with singers Beyoncé Knowles, Pink, and Enrique Iglesias.[274] On June 19, 2002, she released her first multi-platform video game, Britney's Dance Beat, which received positive reviews.[275] In March 2009, Spears was announced as the new face of clothing brand Candie's.[276] Dari Marder, chief marketing officer for the brand, explained why they choose the singer, saying, "everybody loves a comeback and nobody's doing it better than Britney. She's just poised for even greater success."[276] In 2010, Spears designed a limited edition line for the brand, which was released in stores in July 2010.[131] In 2011, she teamed up with Sony, Make Up For Ever and PlentyofFish to release her music video for "Hold It Against Me", earning her $500,000 for the product placement.[277]
Spears range of commercial deals and products also includes beauty care products and perfumes. She released her first fragrance with Elizabeth Arden, Curious in 2004, which broke the company's first-week gross for a perfume.[21] By 2009, she had released seven more fragrances, which earned her the recognition of the best-selling celebrity fragrance line on the market. The singer's Elizabeth Arden scents make up 34% of celebrity fragrance sales.[278] In 2010, Spears released her eighth fragrance, Radiance. In March 2011, company Brand Sense filed a lawsuit against Spears and Elizabeth Arden seeking $10 million in damages, claiming that the singer and her father, Jamie, allegedly stopped paying their thity-five percent commission that was agreed as part of the contract terms.[279] In July 2011, a Los Angeles judge denied the request by the company lawyers, claiming the fact that Spears is still under conservatorship.[280] Brand Sense, however, stated that they would appeal the decision.[280] In 2011, Radiance was re-issued in a new fragrance titled Cosmic Radiance.[281] Worldwide, Spears has sold over one billion bottles in only five years, which earned her an estimated $1.5 billion.[282] By the time of Mother's Day in 2012, Fantasy, her second fragrance released back in 2006, was among the top three best selling fragrances of the year's first quarter.[283]
Philanthropy[link]
The singer founded The Britney Spears Foundation, a charitable entity set up to help children in need. The philosophy behind the Foundation was that music and entertainment has a healing quality that can truly benefit these kid.[284] The Foundation also supported the annual Britney Spears Camp for the Performing Arts, where campers had the opportunity to explore and develop their talents.[285] In April 2002, through the efforts of Spears and The Britney Spears Foundation, a grant of $1 million was made to the Twin Towers Fund to support the children of uniformed service heroes affected by the disaster of September 11, 2001, including New York City Fire Department and its Emergency Medical Services Command, the New York City Police Department, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York State Office of court Administration and other government offices.[286] However, it was reported in 2008 that the Foundation had a deficit of $200,000.[287] After the singer went through conservatorship, her father and lawyer Andrew Wallet zeroed out the effort, leading to its closure in 2011.[288]
On October 30, 2001, Spears, alongside Bono and other popular recording artists under the name "Artists Against AIDS Worldwide", released a single titled "What's Going On", with the intention to benefit AIDS programs in Africa and other impoverished regions.[289] In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2006, Spears donated $350,000 to Music Rising.[290] Later in 2011, the singer raised $200,000 during An Evening of Southern Style at a private residence in Beverly Hills to benefit the St. Bernard Project, with the help of several celebrities, including Hilary Duff, Selena Gomez, Kelly Osbourne, Kellan Lutz and Kim Kardashian.[291] Spears has also helped several charities during her career, including Madonna's Kabbalah-based Spirituality for Kids,[292] cancer charity Gilda's Club Worldwide,[293] Promises Foundation, and United Way[disambiguation needed 
], with the latter two focused on giving families from various disadvantaged situations new hope and stable foundations for the future.[290]
Discography[link]
Main articles: Britney Spears discography and Britney Spears videography
- ...Baby One More Time (1999)
- Oops!... I Did It Again (2000)
- Britney (2001)
- In the Zone (2003)
- Blackout (2007)
- Circus (2008)
- Femme Fatale (2011)
Filmography[link]
Main article: Britney Spears filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Longshot | Flight attendant | Cameo appearance |
| 2002 | Austin Powers in Goldmember | Herself | Cameo appearance |
| 2002 | Crossroads | Lucy Wagner | Teen Choice Award for Best Actress Drama/Action Adventure Teen Choice Award for Best Chemistry (with Anson Mount) Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress Nominated—Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Dressed |
| 2004 | Fahrenheit 9/11 | Herself | Cameo appearance Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress |
| Year | Title | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1993–1994 | The Mickey Mouse Club | Various Roles (Series regular) |
| 1999 | The Famous Jett Jackson | Herself |
| 1999 | Sabrina the Teenage Witch | Herself |
| 1999 | The Famous Jett Jackson | Herself |
| 1999 | Kenan & Kel | Herself |
| 1999 | Médico de familia | Herself |
| 1999 | Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree | Herself |
| 2000 | The Simpsons | Herself |
| 2000 | Saturday Night Live | Herself |
| 2002 | Stages: Three Days in Mexico | Herself |
| 2002 | Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe | Donner (voice) |
| 2002 | Saturday Night Live | Herself (host) |
| 2003 | Punk'd | Herself |
| 2004 | Britney & Kevin: Chaotic | Herself |
| 2006 | Will & Grace | Amber-Louise (1 episode) |
| 2008 | How I Met Your Mother | Abby (2 episodes) |
| 2008 | Britney: For the Record | Herself |
| 2010 | Glee | Herself |
| 2012 | The X Factor | Judge |
| 2012 | The Pauly D Project | Herself (1 episode) |
Tours[link]
Main article: List of Britney Spears concert tours
- ...Baby One More Time Tour (1999–2000)
- Oops!... I Did It Again World Tour (2000–01)
- Dream Within a Dream Tour (2001–02)
- The Onyx Hotel Tour (2004)
- The M+M's Tour (2007)
- The Circus Starring Britney Spears (2009)
- Femme Fatale Tour (2011)
See also[link]
 |
Book: Britney Spears |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
- Britney Spears products
- Honorific nicknames in popular music
- List of best-selling music artists
- List of best-selling music artists in the United States
Notes[link]
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- ^ Folkard, Claire (2003). Guinness World Records 2003. Bantam Books. p. 288. ISBN 978-0-553-58636-7.
- ^ Ruggieri, Melissa (2000-12-19). "Music Notes". Richmond Times-Dispatch: pp. D.13
- ^ Often referred to in interviews, cover stories and promotional material as the new 'princess of pop' Susan Hopkins (2002), Girl Heroes: The New Force In Popular Culture, University of Michigan Press, p. 60
- ^ Esmailian, Ani (2010-05-21). "15 Most Profitable Female Tours Ever". Hollyscoop. DNA Group. http://www.hollyscoop.com/music/madonna/15-most-profitable-female-tours-ever_2133.aspx. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ a b "Artists of the Decade". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 2010. http://www.billboard.com/#/features/artist-of-the-decade-1004053060.story. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
- ^ a b Grein, Paul (2009-05-29). "Chart Watch Extra: The Top 20 Album Sellers Of The 2000s". Yahoo! Music. Yahoo!. http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/34074/chart-watch-extra-the-top-20-album-sellers-of-the-2000s. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
- ^ "RIAA — Gold & Platinum — May 3, 2010". Recording Industry Association of America. Mitch Bainwol. 2010. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblTopArt. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
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- ^ a b Moodie, Clemmie (2011-11-03). "Britney Spears pictured backstage at Rock Of Ages with Shane Ward". Daily Mirror (UK: Trinity Mirror). http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/britney-spears-pictured-backstage-at-rock-89309. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
- ^ "The Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments - Britney Spears". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-top-25-teen-idol-breakout-moments-20120511/britney-spears-2000-19691231. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
- ^ Graham, Mark (2012-02-13). "VH1's 100 Greatest Women In Music (Complete List)". VH1. Archived from the original on 2012-03-05. http://www.webcitation.org/65vGgxvII.
- ^ "The World's Most Powerful Celebrities". Forbes. 2012-05-16. http://www.forbes.com/celebrities/#p_1_s_d2_Musicians_. Retrieved 2012-05-17.
- ^ a b "The X Factor New Judges". TheXFactorUSA.com. 2012-05-14. http://www.thexfactorusa.com/articles/the-x-factor-new-judges. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
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- ^ Thomas, Liz (2008-09-17). "Exclusive: First photos of Britney Spears' newly-discovered British family". Daily Mail (UK). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1056674/EXCLUSIVE-First-photos-Britney-Spears-newly-discovered-British-family.html. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
- ^ Spears & Craker 2008, p. 4
- ^ Spears & Craker 2008, p. 211
- ^ Spears & Craker 2008, p. 56
- ^ a b c d e Daly, Steven (1999-04-15). "Cover Story: Britney Spears: Britney Spears : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone (Jann Wenner). ISSN 0035-791X.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Reporter, Staff (2008-07-31). "Britney Spears' Biography ". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195283,00.html. Retrieved 2010-06-06.
- ^ Spears & Craker 2008, p. 75
- ^ Laufenberg 2005, p. 616
- ^ a b Mundy, Chris (2000-05-25). "Cover Story: The Girl Can't Help It". Rolling Stone. ISSN 0035-791X.
- ^ Hughes 2005, p. 145
- ^ Taylor, Chuck (1998-10-24). "Air Waves: Jive's Britney Spears Sets Top 40 Abuzz With Rhythm-Leaning 'Baby One More Time'". Billboard (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.) 110 (43). ISSN 0006-2510. http://books.google.co.kr/books?id=JQoEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA1&lr&hl=en&rview=1&pg=PA80#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
- ^ a b Hughes 2005, p. 147
- ^ Blandford 2002, p. 28
- ^ "Britney Spears, Teen Queen: Rolling Stone's 1999 Cover Story". Rolling Stone. 2011. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/britney-spears-teen-queen-rolling-stones-1999-cover-story-20110329. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
- ^ Blandford 2002, p. 30
- ^ Blandford 2002, p. 29
- ^ Bronson 2003, p. 377
- ^ "Rock On The Net: 42nd Annual Grammy Awards – 2000". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. RockOntheNet.com. 2010. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2000/grammys.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
- ^ "Record-Breakers and Trivia". Everyhit.com. 2010. http://everyhit.com/record4.html. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
- ^ "Best Selling Singles Of All Time". Everyhit.com. 2010. http://everyhit.com/bestsellingsingles.html. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
- ^ a b c "Britney Spears ". The Official Charts Company. 2010. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/artist/_/BRITNEY%20SPEARS/. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
- ^ Petridis, Alexis (2008-11-27). "Britney Spears: Circus". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/28/britney-spears-circus.
- ^ Blandford 2002, p. 36
- ^ Stevenson, Jane (1999-07-10). "Spears takes aim at fame". Jam!. Quebecor Inc.. http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/S/Spears_Britney/1999/07/10/749831.html. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
- ^ Blandford 2002, p. 38
- ^ Skanse, Richard (2000-05-25). "Oops!...She Sold 1.3 Million Albums: Britney Spears". Rolling Stone (Jann Wenner). ISSN 0035-791X.
- ^ Staff, Michael (2010-05-20). "Oops! Week: 10 Fun Facts". BritneySpears.com Brandcasting Unlimited. Archived from the original on 2010-06-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20100606172346/http://www.britneyspears.com/2010/05/oops-week-10-fun-facts.php. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
- ^ Sheffield, Rob (2000-06-08). "Britney Spears: Oops!...I Did It Again : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone (Jann Wenner). ISSN 0035-791X.
- ^ "ultratop.be — Britney Spears — Oops!... I Did It Again:". Ultratop. Hung Medien. http://www.ultratop.be/en/showitem.asp?interpret=Britney+Spears&titel=Oops!...+I+Did+It+Again&cat=s. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
- ^ "Rock On The Net: 43nd Annual Grammy Awards – 2001". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. RockOntheNet.com. 2010. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2001/grammys.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-06.
- ^ "Britney Spears on 100 Top Celebrities". Forbes. 2000. http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/53/2001/LIR.jhtml?passListId=53&passYear=2001&passListType=Person&uniqueId=PREW&datatype=Person. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
- ^ a b Montgomery, James (2007-09-06). "Britney Spears' Greatest VMA Hits: Barely There Costumes, Giant Snakes And A Scandalous Lip-Lock". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1568995/20070906/spears_britney.jhtml. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
- ^ Moss, Corey (2001-10-25). "Britney Says Britney Reflects Who Britney Is". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1450334/20011024/spears_britney.jhtml. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
- ^ "Britney sold over 12 million copies worldwide". Live Nation. 2010. http://www.store.livenation.com/Product.aspx?cp=13281_16771_16305_16306&pc=MUDD413. Retrieved 2010-06-12.
- ^ "ultratop.be — Britney Spears — Britney". Ultratop. Hung Medien. http://www.ultratop.be/en/showitem.asp?interpret=Britney+Spears&titel=Britney&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2001). "Britney > Overview". Rovi Corporation. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r556064. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
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- ^ McHugh, Catherine (2002-07-01). "Britney's Big Splash". Live Design. Penton Media. http://livedesignonline.com/mag/britneys_big_splash/index.html?smte=wr. Retrieved 2010-06-06.
- ^ Singlerland, Amy L. (2002-08-01). "Singin' in the Rain". Live Design. Penton Media. http://livedesignonline.com/mag/lighting_singin_rain/index.html. Retrieved 2010-06-06.
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- ^ "THE BRITNEY SPEARS FOUNDATION: MISSION STATEMENT". BritneySpears.com. Archived from the original on 2004-11-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20041018091735/http://britneyspears.com/foundation-mission.php. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
- ^ Friedman, Roger (2008-07-22). "Britney Spears' $200G Deficit". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,388104,00.html. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
- ^ Friedman, Roger (2011-07-21). "Britney Spears Zeroes Out Her Charitable Foundation: It’s Over". Showbiz 411. http://www.showbiz411.com/2011/07/21/britney-spears-zeroes-out-her-charitable-foundation-its-over. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
- ^ "Artists Against AIDS Worldwide's New Superstar Version of Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' in Stores Tuesday, October 30". Hope for African Children. 2001-10-29. http://www.hopeforafricanchildren.org/New/Press/pr_103001.html. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
- ^ a b "Britney Spears Charity Work, Events and Causes". Look to the Stars. http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/29-britney-spears. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
- ^ "Britney Spears Raises $200,000 For Hurricane Katrina Charity". Starpulse. 2011-05-13. http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2011/05/13/britney_spears_raises_200000_for_hurri. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
- ^ Friedman, Roger (2008-06-19). "Britney Spears' Charity in the Red". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368961,00.html. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
- ^ "Britney Spears Donates $50,000 To Cancer Charity". Softpedia. 2005-07-14. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Britney-Spears-Donates-50-000-To-Cancer-Charity-4759.shtml. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
References[link]
- Blandford, James R. (2002). Britney. Music Sales Group. ISBN 978-0-7119-9419-5.
- Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard book of number 1 hits. Billboard Books. ISBN 978-0-8230-7677-2.
- Hughes, Mark (2005). Buzzmarketing: get people to talk about your stuff. Penguin Group. ISBN 978-1-59184-092-3.
- Laufenberg, Norbert B. (2005). Entertainment Celebrities. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4120-5335-8.
- Spears, Lynne; Craker, Lorilee (2008). Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World. Thomas Nelson Inc. ISBN 978-1-59555-156-6.
Further reading[link]
- Dennis, Steve (2009). Britney: Inside the Dream. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-731751-6.
- Peters, Beth (1999). True Brit: The Story of Singing Sensation Britney Spears. Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-43687-0.
- Scott, Kieran (2001). I was a Mouseketeer!. Disney Press. ISBN 978-0-7868-4470-8.
- Smith, Sean (2006). Britney The Unauthorized Biography of Britney Spears. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-330-44077-6.
- Spears, Britney (2000). Britney Spears's Heart to Heart. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-609-80701-9.
- Stevens, Amanda (2001). Britney Spears: the illustrated story. Billboard Books. ISBN 978-0-8230-7867-7.
External links[link]
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- Official website
- Britney Spears at the Internet Movie Database
- Britney Spears at AllRovi
- Britney Spears at Allmusic
- Works by or about Britney Spears in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Britney Spears on Facebook
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Spears, Britney |
| Alternative names | Spears, Britney Jean |
| Short description | American musician, singer, songwriter, actress, author |
| Date of birth | December 2, 1981 |
| Place of birth | McComb, Mississippi, United States |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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http://hi.wn.com/ब्रिट्नी स्पीयर्स
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
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This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2010) |
| Tony Rich | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Antonio Jeffries |
| Also known as | The Tony Rich Project |
| Born | (1971-11-19) November 19, 1971 (age 40) |
| Origin | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Genres | Contemporary R&B |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, record producer |
| Instruments | Guitar, mandolin, keyboard |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Labels | LaFace, Hidden Beach |
| Website | WhereIsTonyRich.com |
Tony Rich (born Antonio Jeffries; November 19, 1971, in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.) is a contemporary R&B singer-songwriter.
Contents |
Biography[link]
Early career[link]
Rich first attracted attention through the production team of Tim & Bob. The duo convinced Perri "Pebbles" Reid (then the wife of L.A. Reid, co-founder of LaFace Records) to listen to Rich over the phone.[citation needed] Rich eventually became a staff writer at LaFace Records, where he wrote songs for recording artists including Boyz II Men, Johnny Gill, TLC, and Toni Braxton. As incoming Vice President of A&R, Eddie F then convinced Reid to sign him as an artist. Later, Rich mixed elements of jazz, rock and soul music into his own tracks.
The Tony Rich Project[link]
In January 1996 Rich released the hit single, "Nobody Knows", which made it to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1] Under the moniker "The Tony Rich Project", he released his debut album Words in early 1996. Both the album and single went platinum and in 1997, Rich won a Grammy Award for the Best R&B Album. The song was covered by country music artist Kevin Sharp in 1997, also as his debut single. The song "Like a Woman" was also nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album was followed up in 1998 by Birdseye, which, while critically praised, failed to generate much commercial success. Rich seemingly disappeared from the music world for several years after this album's release. That same year, he also commissioned a few remixes for the Spice Girls hit single "Viva Forever".
In 2003, Rich returned with the album The Resurrected. Carrying a very different style, the album featured Rich rocking out on the guitar, as well as singing smooth ballads.
By 2006, Rich released a fourth album, Pictures. The album contains snapshots of a relationship, and is a return in style to his earlier works.
In 2008, he released his fifth album, Exist, through Hidden Beach Recordings. Originally it was set for release on September 16, however it was pushed back to September 23, 2008. The album features the download-only single, "Part the Waves".
Film[link]
Rich portrayed the legendary Edward Duke Ellington in the 1997 crime drama Hoodlum.[2]
Discography[link]
Singles[link]
- 1996: "Nobody Knows" #2 U.S.
- 1996: "Like a Woman"
- 1996: "Leavin'"
- 1998: "Silly Man"
- 2008: "Part the Waves"
Albums[link]
- 1996: Words #31 U.S., #18 U.S. R&B
- 1998: Birdseye #66 R&B
- 2003: The Resurrected
- 2005: Nobody Knows: The Best of the Tony Rich Project
- 2006: Pictures
- 2008: Exist
Collaboration albums[link]
- 2006: A New Understanding of Peace (with Sheila Evans)
References[link]
External links[link]
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Rich, Tony |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | November 19, 1971 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Tony_Rich
Related pages:
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Lady Gaga | |
|---|---|
 Lady Gaga performing on The Monster Ball Tour in 2010 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta |
| Born | (1986-03-28) March 28, 1986 (age 26) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Pop, dance, electronic |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, performance artist, record producer, dancer, businesswoman, activist |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano, keyboards |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Labels | Def Jam, Cherrytree, Streamline, Kon Live, Interscope |
| Website |
 Lady Gaga's signature |
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (/ˈstɛfəniː dʒʌrməˈnɑːtə/ STE-fə-nee jurr-mə-NAH-tə; born March 28, 1986), known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She began performing in the rock music scene of Manhattan's Lower East Side, and was signed with Streamline Records by the end of 2007. During her employment as a songwriter for the record company, her vocal abilities captured the attention of recording artist Akon, who signed her to his label Kon Live Distribution.
Lady Gaga came to prominence as a recording artist following the release of her debut album The Fame (2008), which was a critical and commercial success that topped charts around the world and included the international number-one singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". After embarking on the The Fame Ball Tour, she followed the album with The Fame Monster (2009), which spawned the worldwide hit singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone" and "Alejandro". The album's success allowed her to embark on the eighteen-month long Monster Ball Tour, which later became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. Her most recent album Born This Way (2011) topped the charts of most major markets and generated more international chart-topping singles, including "Born This Way", "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory". Besides her musical career, she involves herself with humanitarian causes and LGBT activism.
Influenced by David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Queen, Lady Gaga is recognized for her flamboyant, diverse and outré contributions to the music industry through her fashion, performances and music videos. She has sold an estimated 23 million albums and 64 million singles worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time and her singles are some of the best selling worldwide.[1] Her achievements include five Grammy Awards and 13 MTV Video Music Awards. Lady Gaga has consecutively appeared on Billboard magazine's Artists of the Year (scoring the definitive title in 2010), ranked fourth in VH1's list of 100 Greatest Women in Music, is regularly placed on lists composed by Forbes magazine and was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine.[2][3] In 2012, Gaga was ranked at number four on Billboard's list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing more than $25 million.[4]
Contents |
Biography[link]
1986–2004: Early life[link]
Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986 in New York City to parents Cynthia (née Bissett) and Joseph Germanotta, an Internet entrepreneur.[5][6] Descending from Italian and more distant French-Canadian roots, Gaga is the elder of two children.[7][8] Her sister, Natali, a fashion student, was born in 1992.[9][10] Despite her seemingly affluent upbringing in the family home in Manhattan's Upper West Side, Gaga has stressed that she did not come from a wealthy background, stating that her parents "both came from lower-class families, so we've worked for everything—my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father."[11][12]
From the age of 11, Gaga – who was raised Roman Catholic – attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side.[13][14][15] She described her academic life in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure": "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn't fit in, and I felt like a freak."[16][17] Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in at school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1," recalled a former high school classmate.[18] Gaga began playing the piano at the age of 4, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13, and started to perform at open mike nights by the age of 14.[19][20] Her passion for musical theatre brought her lead roles in high school productions, including Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.[21] She also appeared in a very small role as a mischievous classmate in the television drama series The Sopranos in a 2001 episode titled "The Telltale Moozadell" in addition to unsuccessfully auditioning for parts in New York shows.[11][22]
When her time at the Convent of the Sacred Heart came to an end, her mother encouraged her to apply for the Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21), a musical theatre training conservatory at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.[11] After becoming one of twenty students to gain early admission, she eventually lived in an NYU dorm on 11th Street by the age of 17.[21] CAP21 prepared her for her future career focus in "music, art, sex and celebrity" where, in addition to sharpening her songwriting skills, she composed essays and analytical papers on art, religion, social issues and politics, including a thesis on pop artists Spencer Tunick and Damien Hirst.[20][23][24] With CAP21, she also tried out for and won auditions, including the part of an unsuspecting diner customer for MTV's Boiling Points, a prank reality television show.[11][25] But Gaga felt more creative than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she said.
2005–07: Career beginnings[link]
Gaga withdrew from CAP21 at 19, in the second semester of her sophomore year, deciding to focus on her musical career.[26] Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll at Tisch if unsuccessful. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she remembers.[21] Settled in a small apartment on Rivington Street towards the summer of 2005, Gaga recorded a couple of songs with hip-hop singer Grandmaster Melle Mel, for an audio book accompanying the children's book The Portal in the Park, by Cricket Casey.[11][27] She also began a band called the Stefani Germanotta Band (SGBand) with some friends from NYU – guitarist Calvin Pia, bassist Eli Silverman, drummer Alex Beckham and booking manager Frank Fredericks – in September of that year.[11][21] The band played a mixture of songs: some self-penned alongside classic rock numbers like Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er".[11] Playing in bars like the Greenwich Village's The Bitter End and the Lower East Side's the Mercury Lounge, the band developed a small fan base and caught the eye of music producer Joe Vulpis.[11] Soon after arranging time in Vulpis' studio in the months that followed, SGBand were selling their extended plays Words and Red and Blue (both 2005) at gigs around New York while becoming a local fixture of the downtown Lower East Side club scene.[21]
SGBand reached their career peak at the 2006 Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters Showcase at The Cutting Room in June where Wendy Starland, a musician, appeared as a talent scout for music producer Rob Fusari. Starland informed Fusari – who was searching for a female singer to front a new band – of Gaga's ability and contacted her. With SGBand disbanded, Gaga traveled daily to New Jersey to work on songs she had written and compose new material with the music producer.[11] While in collaboration, Fusari compared some of her vocal harmonies to those of Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen.[28] It was Fusari who helped create the moniker Gaga after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Gaga was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga."[29] He explained, "Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing 'Radio Ga Ga'. That was her entrance song" and that the text message was the result of a predictive text glitch that changed "radio" to "lady". She texted back, "That's it," and declared, "Don't ever call me Stefani again."[29][30] The New York Post, however, has reported that this story is incorrect, and that the name resulted from a marketing meeting.[18]
Although the musical relationship between Fusari and Gaga was unsuccessful at first, the pair soon set up a company titled Team Lovechild in which they recorded and produced electropop tracks and sent them to music industry bosses.[11] Joshua Sarubin, the head of A&R at Def Jam Recordings, responded positively and vied for the record company to take a chance on her "unusual and provocative" performance. After having his boss Antonio "L.A." Reid in agreement, Gaga was signed to Def Jam in September 2006 with the intention of having an album ready in nine months.[11] However, she was dropped by the label after only three months – an unfortunate period of her life that would later inspire her treatment for the music video for her 2011 single "Marry the Night".[31][32] Devastated, Gaga returned to the solace of the family home for Christmas and the nightlife culture of the Lower East Side.[11]
She became increasingly experimental: fascinating herself with emerging neo-burlesque shows, go-go dancing at bars dressed in little more than a bikini in addition to experimenting with drugs.[11][14] Her father, however, did not understand the reason behind her drug intake and could not look at her for several months.[14][30] "I was onstage in a thong, with a fringe hanging over my ass thinking that had covered it, lighting hairsprays on fire, go-go dancing to Black Sabbath and singing songs about oral sex. The kids would scream and cheer and then we'd all go grab a beer. It represented freedom to me. I went to a Catholic school but it was on the New York underground that I found myself."[23] It was then when she became romantically involved with a heavy metal drummer in a relationship and break-up she likened to the musical film Grease: "I was his Sandy, and he was my Danny, and I just broke." He later became an inspiration behind some of her later songs.[33]
During this time, she met performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped mold her on-stage persona.[34] Starlight explained that, upon their first meeting, Gaga wanted to perform with her to songs she had recorded with Fusari. Like SGBand, the pair soon began performing at many of the downtown club venues like the Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and the Rockwood Music Hall. Their live performance art piece was known as "Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue" and, billed as "The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow", was a low-fi tribute to 1970s variety acts.[35][36] Soon after, the two were invited to play at the 2007 Lollapalooza music festival in August that year.[37] The show was critically acclaimed, and their performance received positive reviews.[20][35] Having initially focused on avant-garde electronic dance music, Gaga had found her musical niche when she began to incorporate pop melodies and the glam rock of David Bowie and Queen into her music.[38]
While Gaga and Starlight were busy performing, producer Rob Fusari continued to work on the songs he had created with Gaga. Fusari sent these songs to his friend, producer and record executive Vincent Herbert.[39] Herbert was quick to sign her to his label Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records, upon its establishment in 2007.[40] Gaga later credited Herbert as the man who discovered her, adding "I really feel like we made pop history, and we're gonna keep going."[39] Having served as an apprentice songwriter under an internship at Famous Music Publishing, which was later acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Gaga subsequently struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV.[41] As a result, she was hired to write songs for Britney Spears and labelmates New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls.[41] At Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon recognized her vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio.[42] Akon then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal by having her also sign with his own label Kon Live, making her his "franchise player."[31][43]
As 2007 came to a close, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed.[44] The first song she produced with RedOne was "Boys Boys Boys", a mash-up inspired by Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls" and AC/DC's "T.N.T.".[30][44] Gaga continued her collaboration with RedOne in the recording studio for a week on her debut album and also joined the roster of Cherrytree Records, an Interscope imprint established by producer and songwriter Martin Kierszenbaum, after co-writing four songs with Kierszenbaum including the singles "Christmas Tree" and "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)".[41] Despite her secure record deal, she admitted that there was fear about her being too "racy", "dance-orientated" and "underground" for the mainstream market. Her response: "My name is Lady Gaga, I've been on the music scene for years, and I'm telling you, this is what's next."[15]
[edit] 2008–10: The Fame and The Fame Monster
By 2008, Gaga had relocated to Los Angeles in order to work extensively with her record label to complete her debut album and set up her own creative team Haus of Gaga, modeled on Andy Warhol's Factory.[30][45] The Fame was first released on August 19, 2008 to slow radio play. Gaga supported it by performing around Europe and in small gay clubs around the US in addition to being billed as a supporting artist on the North American leg of New Kids on the Block's reunion concert tour.[46][47] A sleeper hit, lead single "Just Dance" had preceded the album's release by four months but only hit the summit of the international charts in January 2009, provoking the instant success of the album, earning her first Grammy Award nomination (for Best Dance Recording) and becoming one of the best-selling singles worldwide.[46][48] Gaga achieved a greater unexpected success when "Poker Face", another sleeper hit, reached number one in most major music markets worldwide in early 2009, selling 9.8 million singles worldwide.[49][50] The follow-up single won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Grammy Awards over nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
The Fame itself was nominated for Album of the Year while winning Best Dance/Electronica Album at the same ceremony.[51] Contemporary critics lauded the album, describing it as an exploration of her obsession with fame and the intricacies of a rich and famous lifestyle, noting its combination of genres "from Def Leppard drums and hand claps to metal drums on urban tracks", the inspiration drawn from 1980s synthpop and incorporation of dance music with clear hooks.[31] The Fame went to number one in Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the UK and appeared in the top five in Australia, the US and 15 other countries.[52][53] It also stayed atop the Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 106 non-consecutive weeks and, since its release, has sold over 12 million copies worldwide.[54] The album's success spawned many 2009 honors including Billboard magazine's Rising Star award and the accumulation of 3 of 9 MTV Video Music Awards nominations, winning Best New Artist with the video for her single "Paparazzi" gaining Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects.[55][56] In addition to being an opening act on the Pussycat Dolls' Doll Domination Tour during the first half of 2009 in Europe and Oceania, she also embarked on her own six-month critically appreciated worldwide concert tour The Fame Ball Tour which ran from March to September 2009.[57][58]
While she traveled the globe, she wrote The Fame Monster, an EP of eight songs released in November 2009. Each song, dealing with the darker side of fame from personal experience, is expressed through a monster metaphor. Making Gaga the first artist in digital history to have three singles (alongside "Just Dance" and "Poker Face") to pass the four million mark in digital sales, its lead single "Bad Romance" topped the charts in eighteen countries and reached the top two in the US, Australia and New Zealand while accruing the Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Short Form Music Video.[59] The second single "Telephone", which features singer Beyoncé, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and became Gaga's fourth UK number one single; its accompanying music video, although controversial, received positive reception from contemporary critics who praised her for "the musicality and showmanship of Michael Jackson and the powerful sexuality and provocative instincts of Madonna."[60][61] Her following single "Alejandro" paired Gaga with fashion photographer Steven Klein for a music video similarly as controversial – critics complimented its ideas and dark nature but the Catholic League attacked Gaga for her alleged use of blasphemy.[62] Despite the controversy surrounding her music videos, they made Gaga the first artist to gain over one billion viral views on video-sharing website YouTube.[63] At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga won 8 of her 13 nominations, including Video of the Year for "Bad Romance" (with "Telephone" also nominated), which made her the first female artist to be nominated twice for the award.[64][65] In addition, The Fame Monster garnered a total of six nominations at the 53rd Grammy Awards – equating to the amount of Grammy nominations her debut received – winning Best Pop Vocal Album and earning her a second-consecutive nomination for Album of the Year.[66][67]
The success of the album allowed Gaga to start her second worldwide concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just weeks after the release of The Fame Monster and months after having finished The Fame Ball Tour.[68] Upon finishing in May 2011, the critically acclaimed and commercially accomplished tour ran for over one and a half years and grossed $227.4 million, making it one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time and the highest-grossing for a debut headlining artist.[69] Concerts performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City were filmed for a HBO television special titled Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden. The special accrued one of its five Emmy Award nominations and has since been released on DVD and Blu-ray.[70] Gaga also performed songs from the album at international events such as the 2009 Royal Variety Performance where she sang "Speechless", a power ballad, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II; the 52nd Grammy Awards where her opening performance consisted of the song "Poker Face" and a piano duet of "Speechless" in a medley of "Your Song" with Elton John; and the 2010 BRIT Awards where a performance of an acoustic rendition of "Telephone" followed by "Dance in the Dark" dedicated to the late fashion designer and close friend, Alexander McQueen, supplemented her hat-trick win at the awards ceremony.[71] Other performances may have included her participation in Michael Jackson's This Is It concert series at London's O2 Arena. "I was actually asked to open for Michael on his tour," she stated. "We were going to open for him at the O2 and we were working on making it happen. I believe there was some talk about us, lots of the openers, doing duets with Michael on stage."[72]
In 2009 she collaborated with consumer electronic company Monster Cable Products to create a pair of in-ear jewel-encrusted headphones titled Heartbeats. "They are designed to be the first ever fashion accessories that double as the absolute best sonically sounding headphones in the world," she commented.[73] Gaga also partnered with Polaroid in January 2010 as their Creative Director.[74] Excited about "blending the iconic history of Polaroid and instant film with the digital era," Gaga unveiled the first trio of new products called Grey Label: a pair of picture-taking sunglasses, a paperback-sized mobile printing unit and an updated version of the traditional Polaroid camera at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show.[75] But her collaboration with past producer Rob Fusari led to her production team, Mermaid Music LLC, being sued in March 2010 when he claimed that he was entitled to a 20% share of the company's earnings. Gaga's lawyer, Charles Ortner, described the agreement with Fusari as "unlawful" and declined to comment, but five months later, the New York Supreme Court dismissed both the lawsuit and a countersuit by Gaga.[76][77] In addition to such strife, Gaga was tested borderline positive for lupus, but claimed not to be affected by the symptoms. The revelations caused considerable dismay among fans, leading to Gaga addressing the matter in an interview with Larry King, saying she hopes to avoid symptoms by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.[78][79]
[edit] 2011–present: Born This Way
Gaga released her second studio album and third major release, Born This Way, on May 23, 2011. Described as a marriage of electronic music with metal, rock 'n' roll, pop and anthemic style melodies with sledge-hammering dance beats and referred to as an album "about what what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid," Gaga characterized it as "something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and, upon hearing it, Akon remarked that she is taking music to the "next level."[80][81] Upon release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised its range of different styles and her vocals.[82][83] Born This Way sold 1.108 million copies in its first week in the US, debuted atop the Billboard 200, and topped the charts in more than 20 other countries.[84] In addition to exceeding 8 million copies in worldwide sales, Born This Way received 3 Grammy Award nominations, including her third consecutive for Album of the Year.[85]
In the months prior to its unveiling, Gaga released the singles "Born This Way", "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory" alongside promotional single "Hair". The eponymous lead single, first sung live at the 53rd Grammy Awards in a performance that saw Gaga emerge from an egg-like vessel, deals with self-acceptance regardless of race or sexual orientation. The single debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the 19th number-one debut and the 1,000th number-one single in the history of the charts.[86] It sold more than 3 million digital copies in the US by October 2011, becoming her eighth consecutive single to exceed sales of 2 million and, with worldwide sales of 8.2 million copies by November 2011, one of her five best-selling singles worldwide.[87] Critics noted artistic and cultural references and praised the concept of the song's accompanying music video, in which Gaga gives birth to a new race amidst surrealistic images.[88][89] The video for "Judas", in which Gaga portrays Mary Magdalene, and Biblical figures such as Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot are also featured, was criticized for its religious references but received acclaim for its overall delivery and praise from others who claimed that there was nothing offensive about it.[90] "Judas" also peaked within the top ten in several major musical markets, while "The Edge of Glory", first a commercial success in digital outlets, was later released as a single to critical appreciation, accompanied by a video which was notably stripped down from her usually "extravagant" efforts.[91][92] She released "You and I" and "Marry the Night" as the following singles from Born This Way. Although their "crazy and ambitious" videos were praised for their audacity, both songs failed to match the similar international success that their predecessors achieved.[93]
Gaga continued her musical endeavors by pairing with veteran artists like Tony Bennett to record a jazz version of "The Lady Is a Tramp".[94] She also recorded a duet with Cher on a "massive" and "beautiful" track, which Gaga "wrote a long time ago, and I've never put it on one of my own albums for, really, no particular reason."[95] Gaga also lent her vocals to an original duet with Elton John for the animated feature film Gnomeo & Juliet. The song, "Hello, Hello", was released without Gaga's vocals but the duet version features in the film.[96][97] She also continued her live appearances throughout 2011, performing a one-of-a-kind concert at the Sydney Town Hall on July 13 in promotion of Born This Way and at the celebration of former US president Bill Clinton's 65th birthday, wearing a blond wig as a nod to the famous performance of Marilyn Monroe for John F. Kennedy and changing the lyrics to "You and I" specifically for the performance.[98] Televised appearances comprised her own Thanksgiving Day television special entitled A Very Gaga Thanksgiving which was critically lauded, attained 5.749 million American viewers, and spawned the release of her fourth extended play A Very Gaga Holiday.[99] Her second performance on Saturday Night Live saw her singing a selection of Born This Way songs alongside appearing in number of sketches with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg.[100] In March 2012, Gaga was ranked at number four on Billboard's list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing $25,353,039 dollars, which includes sales from Born This Way and her Monster Ball Tour.[4]
In early 2012, Gaga stated that songs for a new album were "beginning to flourish" as she worked with producer Fernando Garibay, while the accompanying tour for Born This Way was materializing.[101][102] Gaga's manager, Vincent Herbert, revealed that Gaga will is working on her upcoming album during the tour, stating that the material is "insane, great records."[103] The Born This Way Ball Tour began on April 27, 2012, at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.[104] The tour was met with protests from several religious groups who denounced the tour as satanic and against religious values, resulting in protests mainly from the Islamic Defenders Front, causing a cancellation in the Indonesian city of Jakarta, where Gaga was denied a license to perform. The concert however was still in question as concert promoters were optimistic that the performance will in fact go on. However, due to threats of violence from Muslim hardliners, Gaga decided to cancel the concert although 52,000 tickets have sold out in just a few days.[105][106][107] On May 20, 2012, Gaga guest-starred on the 23rd season finale of The Simpsons entitled "Lisa Goes Gaga".[108]
Artistry[link]
Influences[link]
Gaga's parents, who exposed her to artists like The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin and Elton John had significant influence on her childhood and, presently, still do.[109] "I am a real family girl. When it comes to love and loyalty, I am very old-fashioned. And I am quite down-to-earth for such an eccentric person," she insists.[110] "I'm quite traditional in the family sense. I've always been that way."[109] According to Gaga, Joanne Germanotta – her aunt who died of lupus aged 19 – lives on through her and inspires all of her music and art.[111] Joanne's date of death is tattooed on Gaga's body and, despite dying 12 years before her birth, Gaga commented, "I really believe I have two hearts. I think I actually carry two souls in my body, and that I'm living out the rest of her life and her goodness – she died a virgin, she died never having experienced all these things that we all get to love and experience in our lives."[112] Another spiritual influence on Gaga has been the Indian physician, public speaker and writer Deepak Chopra. Labeling him a "true inspiration", she stated that "he's always reminded me to work in a life of service to my fans and to fulfill my vision and my destiny" in addition to thinking about Chopra when it comes to her work as a musician: "I want so much for it to go beyond the music for my fans."[113]
Musically, Gaga takes influence from numerous musicians from dance-pop singers like Madonna and Michael Jackson to glam rock artists like David Bowie and Queen whilst employing the theatrics of artists like Andy Warhol and of her musical theatre roots in performance.[31][114][115] The Queen song "Radio Ga Ga" inspired her stage name: "I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called 'Radio Gaga'. That's why I love the name [...] Freddie was unique—one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music," she commented.[18][114][116] Gaga receives regular comparisons to recording artist Madonna who admits that she sees herself reflected in Gaga.[117] In response to the comparisons, Gaga stated, "I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I've made it my goal to revolutionize pop music. The last revolution was launched by Madonna 25 years ago" in addition to commenting that "there is really no one that is a more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me. I am the hugest fan personally and professionally."[114][118] Like Madonna, Gaga has continued to reinvent herself and, over the years of her career, has drawn musical inspiration from a diverse mix of artists including Whitney Houston, Grace Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Blondie singer Debbie Harry, Scissor Sisters, Prince, Marilyn Manson, Yoko Ono, and Britney Spears.[119]
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Gaga has been influenced by a wide-range of artists as to which she has played homages to, including Madonna (left) and Bruce Springsteen. (Right)
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Gaga has mentioned Spears in several interviews, and revealed, "Britney certainly doesn’t need any freakin’ tips from me! Britney Spears is the queen of pop. I was learning from her."[120] Gaga also paid tribute to Spears during the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards with the MTV Video Vanguard Award, adding that the pop singer "taught us all how to be fearless, and the industry wouldn't be the same without her."[121]
Gaga has identified fashion as a major influence and has been stylistically compared to English eccentrics Leigh Bowery and Isabella Blow and to American recording artist Cher.[14][26][110][122] She commented that "as a child, she somehow absorbed Cher's out-there fashion sense and made it her own."[122] She has considered Donatella Versace her muse and the late British fashion designer and close friend Alexander McQueen as an inspiration, admitting that "I miss Lee every time I get dressed" while channeling him in some of her work.[14][78] Modeled on Andy Warhol's Factory, Gaga has her own creative production team, which she handles personally, called the Haus of Gaga, who create many of her clothes, stage props, and hairdos.[123] Her adoration of fashion came from her mother, who she stated was "always very well kept and beautiful."[6] "When I'm writing music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about everything altogether—performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us."[26] The Global Language Monitor named "Lady Gaga" as the Top Fashion Buzzword with her trademark "no pants" a close third.[124] Entertainment Weekly put her outfits on its end of the decade "best-of" list, saying, "Whether it's a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles, Gaga's outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream."[125] Gaga made her runway debut at Thierry Mugler's Paris fashion show in March 2011 where she wore items from Nicola Formichetti's debut women's wear collection.[126] In June of the same year, she won the Council of Fashion Designers of America Award for Fashion Icon.[127] Time Magazine placed Gaga on their "All-Time 100 Fashion Icons List" amongst some of Gaga's inspirations such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, and the The Beatles, stating: "Lady Gaga is just as notorious for her outrageous style as she is for her pop hits. After all, Gaga, born Stefani Germanotta, has sported outfits made from plastic bubbles, Kermit the Frog dolls, and raw meat."[128] She has since devoted her time as a fashion columnist for V magazine, where she has written about her creative process, her studying of the world of pop culture, and her ability to tune into the evolution of pop-culture meme.[129]
In August 2011 she sent to her 15 millions followers that she had at that time on Twitter, a quote about creativity from the book "Creativity"[130] by Osho,[131] which led journalists, on October 28, of the same year, on her arrival to India for the inauguration of a big Formula One motorsport event,[132] to ask her about her connection to him, to which Gaga said she was influenced by his work and that for her, "the creativity is the greatest way of rebellion": "Equality", she concluded, "is one of the most important things in my life".[133]
Musical style[link]
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A 30-second sample of Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" featuring the chorus sung by Lady Gaga and Colby O'Donis in the range of B3 to C♯, backed by a synth marching beat. The song became her first international hit single and sold 7.7 million copies worldwide.
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Continually experimenting with new musical ideas and images, Gaga's musical and performance style is the subject of much analysis and scrutiny from critics. She professes that she is "liberating" herself by constantly reinventing her sound and image, insisting that she has been drawn to such a practice since her childhood.[134] Vocally, Gaga possesses the range of a contralto and exhibits "overwhelming expression, instinctive vocal phrasing, '80s rock reminiscent chest belts and animalistic vocal ticks" while being able to move through 2.4 octaves.[135][136] Refusing to lip sync, Gaga – whose range is frequently compared to those of Madonna and Gwen Stefani – has manipulated her vocal style over the course of her career yet considers Born This Way (2011) "much more vocally up to par with what I've always been capable of."[137][138] In summation of her voice, Entertainment Weekly wrote, "There's an immense emotional intelligence behind the way she uses her voice. Almost never does she overwhelm a song with her vocal ability, recognizing instead that artistry is to be found in nuance rather than lung power."[139]
Although her early lyrics have been criticized for lacking intellectual stimulation, "[Gaga] does manage to get you moving and grooving at an almost effortless pace."[140] She admits that her songwriting has been misinterpreted; her friend and blogger Perez Hilton articulated her message in a clearer way: "you write really deep intelligent lyrics with shallow concepts." Gaga opined, "Perez is very intelligent and clearly listened to my record from beginning to end, and he is correct."[141] "I love songwriting. It's so funny – I will just jam around in my underwear or I could be washing my dishes. I wrote several songs just at the piano," she confesses.[141] Gaga believes that "all good music can be played at a piano and still sound like a hit."[142] She has covered a wide variety of topics in her songs: while The Fame (2008) meditates on the lust for stardom, The Fame Monster (2009) expresses fame's dark side through monster metaphors. Born This Way (2011) is sung in English, French, German and Spanish and includes common themes in Gaga's controversial songwriting like love, sex, religion, money, drugs, identity, liberation, sexuality, freedom and individualism.[143][144]
The structure of her music is said to echo classic 1980s pop and 1990s Europop.[145] Her debut album The Fame (2008) provoked The Sunday Times to assert "in combining music, fashion, art and technology, [Gaga] evokes Madonna, Gwen Stefani circa 'Hollaback Girl', Kylie Minogue 2001 or Grace Jones right now" and a critic from The Boston Globe to comment that she draws "obvious inspirations from Madonna to Gwen Stefani... in [her] girlish but sturdy pipes and bubbly beats."[146][147] Music critic Simon Reynolds wrote that "Everything about Gaga came from electroclash, except the music, which wasn't particularly 1980s, just ruthlessly catchy naughties pop glazed with Auto-Tune and undergirded with R&B-ish beats."[148] The follow-up The Fame Monster (2009), saw Gaga's taste for pastiche, drawing on "Seventies arena glam, perky ABBA disco and sugary throwbacks like Stacey Q" while Born This Way (2011) also draws on the records of her childhood and still has the "electro-sleaze beats and Eurodisco chorus chants" of its predecessor but includes genres as diverse as opera, heavy metal, disco, and rock and roll.[143] "There isn't a subtle moment on the album, but even at its nuttiest, the music is full of wide-awake emotional details," wrote Rolling Stone, who concluded: "The more excessive Gaga gets, the more honest she sounds."[144]
Music videos and performances[link]
With constant costume changes, backup dancers, and provocative visuals, Gaga's music videos are often described as short films.[149] "Being provocative is not just about getting people's attention. It's about saying something that really affects people in a real way, in a positive way," she professes.[149] Exploring bondage and sadomasochism in addition to highlighting prevalent feminist themes, "the three central themes that shape Lady Gaga's music videos are sex, violence, and power."[150] "Vaudevillian and carnal, Lady Gaga has got the knack of sending rape-like fantasies—in songs and videos that double as catch club hits—to the top of the charts," wrote one critic.[151] "Whether it is physical violence or sexual exploitation, these videos offer vivid depictions of male power over women's bodies," wrote another.[150] While she labels herself "a little bit of a feminist" (she rejects man-hating feminism) and asserts that she is "sexually empowering women,"[151] Gaga strives to empower young women to stand up for what they believe in.[150] She also attempts to liberate her fans so they can feel "less alone."[152] "She not only reiterates her assertion of total originality," professed pop critic Ann Powers, "but also finesses it until it's both a philosophical stance about how constructing a persona from pop-cultural sources can be an expression of a person's truth—a la those drag queens Gaga sincerely admires—and a bit of a feminist act."[153] In summation of her videos, Rolling Stone used the rhetoric: "does anyone look to a Lady Gaga video for restraint?"[93]
Her performances are described as "highly entertaining and innovative"; the blood-spurting performance of "Paparazzi" at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards was described as "eye-popping" by MTV.[154] She continued the "blood soaked" theme during The Monster Ball Tour, in which she wore a revealing leather corset and was "attacked" by a performer dressed in black who gnaws on her throat, causing "blood" to spurt down her chest, after which she lies "dying" in a pool of blood. Her performances of that scene in England triggered protests from family groups and fans in the aftermath of a local tragedy, in which a taxi driver had murdered 12 people.[155] "What happened in Bradford is very fresh in people's minds and given all the violence which happened in Cumbria just hours earlier, it was insensitive," said Lynn Costello of Mothers Against Violence.[156] Her unconventionality continued at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards: performing in drag as her male alter ego, Jo Calderone, and delivering a lovesick monologue before a performance of her song "You and I".[157] Some have defended her flamboyant and provocative behavior. "Well, she's Lady Gaga," Chris Rock said. "She's not 'Lady Behave Yourself.' Do you want great behavior from a person named Gaga? Is this what you were expecting?"[158] As Gaga's choreographer and creative director, Laurieann Gibson provided material for her shows and videos for four years. However, the pair parted in November 2011; Gaga replacing her with Gibson's assistant Richard Jackson.[159] Gaga admits to being a perfectionist when it comes to her elaborate shows. "I'm very bossy. I can scream my head off if I see one light fixture out. I'm very detailed – every minute of the show has got to be perfect."[149]
Public image[link]
See also: Lady Gaga on Twitter
While Rolling Stone named Gaga the "Queen of Pop" in 2011, public reception of Gaga's music, fashion sense and persona are mixed.[160] Her status as a role model, self-esteem booster for her fans, trailblazer and fashion icon who breathes new life into the industry is by turns affirmed and denied.[161] Gaga's albums have received mostly positive reviews and critics have pointed out her unique place in pop music, the need for new movements in popular culture, the attention Gaga brings to modern social issues, and the inherently subjective nature of her art.[162] In view of her influence on modern culture and her rise to global fame, sociologist Mathieu Deflem of the University of South Carolina has organized a course titled "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame" since spring 2011 with the objective of unravelling "some of the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga."[163] When Gaga briefly met with US president Barack Obama at a Human Rights Campaign fundraiser, he described the interaction as "intimidating" as she was dressed in 16-inch heels making her undoubtedly the tallest woman in the room.[164]
Contrary to her outré style, the New York Post described her early look as like "a refugee from Jersey Shore" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes."[18] Gaga is a natural brunette; she bleached her hair blonde because she was often mistaken for Amy Winehouse.[6] She has nine tattoos on the left side of her body (her father has banned etchings on her right): a unicorn head with a ribbon wrapped around its horn that says "Born This Way"; a small heart with "dad" written inside it; several white roses; a treble clef; three daises; "Tokyo Love" with a little heart; "Little Monsters" written in cursive; a peace symbol, which was inspired by John Lennon, whom she stated was her hero; and a curling German script on her left arm quoting the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, her favorite writer, commenting that his "philosophy of solitude" spoke to her.[116][165] In a question posed about the necessary procedure to attach the prosthetics to give the unconventional appearance of recent horn-like ridges on her cheekbones, temples, and shoulders, Gaga responded, "They're not prosthetics, they're my bones." She also clarified that they were not the result of plastic surgery, believing such surgery to only be the modern byproduct of fame-induced insecurity to which she does not subscribe. The interviewer's further probing brought Gaga to the conclusion that they are an artistic representation of her inner inspirational light and part of the "performance piece" that is her musical persona: an inevitability of her becoming who she now is.[166]
Towards the end of 2008, comparisons were made between the fashions of Gaga and recording artist Christina Aguilera that noted similarities in their styling, hair, and make-up.[14] Aguilera stated that she was "completely unaware of [Gaga]" and "didn't know if it [was] a man or a woman."[14] Gaga released a statement in which she welcomed the comparisons due to the attention providing useful publicity, saying, "She's such a huge star and if anything I should send her flowers, because a lot of people in America didn't know who I was until that whole thing happened. It really put me on the map in a way."[167][168] When interviewed by Barbara Walters for her annual ABC News special 10 Most Fascinating People in 2009, Gaga dismissed the claim that she is intersex as an urban legend. Responding to a question on this issue, she stated, "At first it was very strange and everyone sorta said, 'That's really quite a story!' But in a sense, I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny."[169] In addition to Aguilera's statement, comparisons continued into 2010, when Aguilera released the music video of her single "Not Myself Tonight". Critics noted similarities between the song and its accompanying music video with Gaga's video for "Bad Romance".[170] There have also been similar comparisons made between Gaga's style and that of fashion icon Dale Bozzio from the band Missing Persons. Some have considered their respective images to be strikingly parallel although fans of Missing Persons note that Bozzio had pioneered the look more than thirty years earlier.[171]
While devout followers call Gaga "Mother Monster", Gaga often refers to her fans as "Little Monsters" which has been tattooed on "the arm that holds my mic" in dedication.[172][173] Her treatment of her "Little Monsters" has inspired criticism, due to the highly commercial nature of her music and image.[174] To some, this dichotomy contravenes the concept of outsider culture. Camille Paglia in her 2010 cover story "Lady Gaga and the death of sex" in The Sunday Times asserts that Gaga "is more an identity thief than an erotic taboo breaker, a mainstream manufactured product who claims to be singing for the freaks, the rebellious and the dispossessed when she is none of those."[175][176] Writing for The Guardian, Kitty Empire opined that the dichotomy "...allows the viewer to have a 'transgressive' experience without being required to think. At [her performance's] core, though, is the idea that Gaga is at one with the freaks and outcasts. The Monster Ball is where we can all be free. This is arrant nonsense, as the scads of people buying Gaga's cunningly commercial music are not limited to the niche worlds of drag queens and hip night creatures from which she draws her inspiration. But Gaga seems sincere."[177]
Philanthropy[link]
Besides her career in music, Gaga has also contributed to various charities. For natural disasters, Gaga has helped various relief efforts. Although declining an invitation to appear on the single "We Are the World 25" to benefit victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she donated the proceeds of her January 24, 2010 concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall to the country's reconstruction relief fund.[178] All profits from her official online store on that day were also donated. Gaga announced that an estimated total of US$500,000 was collected for the fund.[179] Hours after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, 2011, Gaga tweeted a message and a link to Japan Prayer Bracelets. All revenue from a bracelet she designed in conjunction with the company was donated to relief efforts.[180] As of March 29, 2011, the bracelets raised $1.5 million.[181] However, attorney Alyson Oliver filed a lawsuit against Gaga in Detroit in June 2011, noting that the bracelet was subject to a sales tax and an extra $3.99 shipping charge was added to the price. She also believed that not all proceeds from the bracelets would go to the relief efforts, demanding a public accounting of the campaign and refunds for people who had bought the bracelet. Gaga's spokesperson called the lawsuit "meritless" and "misleading".[182] On June 25, 2011, Gaga performed at MTV Japan's charity show in Makuhari Messe, which benefited the Japanese Red Cross.[183]
HIV and AIDS[link]
Gaga also contributes in the fight against HIV and AIDS, focusing on educating young women about the risks of the disease. In collaboration with Cyndi Lauper, Gaga joined forces with MAC Cosmetics to launch a line of lipstick under their supplementary cosmetic line, Viva Glam. Titled Viva Glam Gaga and Viva Glam Cyndi for each contributor respectively, all net proceeds of the lipstick line were donated to the cosmetic company's campaign to prevent HIV and AIDS worldwide.[184] In a press release, Gaga declared, "I don't want Viva Glam to be just a lipstick you buy to help a cause. I want it to be a reminder when you go out at night to put a condom in your purse right next to your lipstick."[185] The sales of Gaga-endorsed Viva Glam lipstick and lipgloss have raised more than $202 million to fight HIV and AIDS.[3]
Born This Way Foundation[link]
Main article: Born This Way Foundation
As a humanitarian, she has launched her own non-profit organization, the Born This Way Foundation, which focuses on youth empowerment and issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring, and career development. "My mother and I have initiated a passion project. We call it the Born This Way Foundation," Gaga said in a statement about the foundation, which takes its name from the 2011 single and album. "Together we hope to establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment." The foundation will work with a number of partners, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The California Endowment and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.[186] She also jumped into the debate surrounding SB 1070, Arizona's recently-enacted anti-immigration law, after premiering her Born This Way song "Americano" on the Guadalajara stop of The Monster Ball Tour in Mexico, telling the local press that she could not "stand by many of the unjust immigration laws" in the US.[187] A devoted advocate for the LGBT community, Gaga is also an outspoken activist for LGBT rights worldwide.[188] On February 29, 2012, Gaga and Oprah Winfrey visited Harvard University to launch her Born This Way Foundation.
LGBT advocacy[link]
Gaga attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered to be a gay icon.[189] Early in her career she had difficulty getting radio airplay, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase."[190] She thanked FlyLife, a Manhattan-based LGBT marketing company with whom her label Interscope works, in the liner notes of The Fame, saying, "I love you so much. You were the first heartbeat in this project, and your support and brilliance means the world to me. I will always fight for the gay community hand in hand with this incredible team."[191] One of her first televised performances was in May 2008 at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBT television network Logo, where she sang her song "Just Dance".[192] In June of the same year, she performed the song again at the San Francisco Pride event.[193]
After The Fame was released, she revealed that the song "Poker Face" was about her bisexuality. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she spoke about how her boyfriends tended to react to her bisexuality, saying "The fact that I'm into women, they're all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They're like, 'I don't need to have a threesome. I'm happy with just you'."[33] When she appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May 2009, she praised DeGeneres for being "an inspiration for women and for the gay community".[194] She proclaimed that the October 11, 2009 National Equality March rally on the National Mall was "the single most important event of her career." As she exited, she left with an exultant "Bless God and bless the gays,"[195] similar to her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech for Best New Artist a month earlier.[196] At the Human Rights Campaign Dinner, held the same weekend as the rally, she performed a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" declaring that "I'm not going to [play] one of my songs tonight because tonight is not about me, it's about you." She changed the original lyrics of the song to reflect the death of Matthew Shepard, a college student murdered because of his sexuality.[197]
Gaga attended the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards accompanied by four service members of the United States Armed Forces (Mike Almy, David Hall, Katie Miller and Stacy Vasquez), all of whom, under the United States military's "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) policy, had been prohibited from serving openly because of their sexuality.[198] In addition, Gaga wore a meat dress to the ceremony which was supplemented by boots, a purse and a hat that were all fabricated from the flesh of a dead animal.[199] Partly awarded in recognition of the dress, Vogue.com UK named her one of the Best Dressed people of 2010 while Time magazine's named the dress the Fashion Statement of 2010, it received divided opinions – evoking the attention of worldwide media but invoking the fury of animal rights organization PETA.[200][201][202] She denied any intention of causing disrespect to any person or organization and wished for the dress to be interpreted as a statement of human rights with focus upon those in the LGBT community, adding that "If we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones."[203]
She later released three videos on YouTube urging her fans to contact their Senators in an effort to overturn the policy. In late September 2010 she spoke at the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's "4the14K" Rally in Deering Oaks Park in Portland, Maine. The name of the rally signified the number – an estimated 14,000 – of service members discharged under the DADT policy at the time. During her remarks, she urged members of the U.S. Senate (and in particular, moderate Republican Senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins) to vote in favor of legislation that would repeal the DADT policy. Following this event, editors of The Advocate commented that she had become "the real fierce advocate" for gays and lesbians, one that Barack Obama had promised to be.[204][205]
Gaga appeared at Europride, a pan-European international event dedicated to LGBT pride, held in Rome in June 2011. In a nearly twenty-minute speech, she criticized the intolerant state of gay rights in many European countries and described homosexuals as "revolutionaries of love" before performing acoustic renderings of "Born This Way" and "The Edge of Glory" in front of thousands at the Circus Maximus.[206][207] She stated that "Today and every day we fight for freedom. We fight for justice. We beckon for compassion, understanding and above all we want full equality now".[208] Gaga revealed that she is often questioned why she dedicates herself to "gayspeak" and "how gay" she is, to which, she told the audience: "Why is this question, why is this issue so important? My answer is: I am a child of diversity, I am one with my generation, I feel a moral obligation as a woman, or a man, to exercise my revolutionary potential and make the world a better place." She then joked: "On a gay scale from 1 to 10, I'm a Judy Garland fucking 42."[209]
Discography[link]
For the full list, see Lady Gaga discography.
- The Fame (2008)
- The Fame Monster (2009)
- Born This Way (2011)
Filmography[link]
- Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden (2011)
- A Very Gaga Thanksgiving (2011)
- "Lisa Goes Gaga" (The Simpsons episode) (2012)
- Men in Black 3 (Plays the role of an alien.) (2012)[210]
Concert tours[link]
- The Fame Ball Tour (2009)
- Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga (2009–10) (cancelled)
- The Monster Ball Tour (2009–11)
- The Born This Way Ball Tour (2012–13)
See also[link]
|
Book: Lady Gaga |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
- List of awards and nominations received by Lady Gaga
- Honorific nicknames in popular music
- List of best-selling music artists
References[link]
- ^ "Lady Gaga to perform at Belfast MTV awards". BBC. 2011-10-17. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15340049. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
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Further reading[link]
- Herbert, Emily (2010). Lady Gaga: Queen of Pop. John Blake Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84454-963-4.
- Goodman, Elizabeth (2010). Lady Gaga: Critical Mass Fashion. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-66840-6.
- Morgan, Johnny (2010). Gaga. Sterling Publishing. ISBN 1-4027-8059-1.
- Parvis, Sarah (2010). Lady Gaga. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-9795-6.
- Phoenix, Helia (2010). Lady Gaga: Just Dance—The Biography. Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4091-1567-0.
- Monster Anthems (2011) by Robert Christgau
External links[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lady Gaga |
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lady Gaga |
- Official website
- Lady Gaga at Allmusic
- Lady Gaga at AllRovi
- Lady Gaga discography at Discogs
- Lady Gaga on Facebook
- Lady Gaga at the Internet Movie Database
- Lady Gaga collected news and commentary at The Guardian
- Lady Gaga collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Lady Gaga collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
- Works by or about Lady Gaga in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Slide show Vanity Fair
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Germanotta, Stefani Joanne Angelina |
| Alternative names | Lady Gaga |
| Short description | American pop singer |
| Date of birth | March 28, 1986 |
| Place of birth | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
