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Burnaby
Burnaby is a city in British Columbia, Canada, located immediately to the east of Vancouver. It is the third-largest city in British Columbia by population, surpassed only by nearby Surrey and Vancouver.
It was incorporated in 1892 and achieved City status in 1992, one hundred years after incorporation. It is the seat of the Greater Vancouver Regional District's government, the board of which calls itself Metro Vancouver.
At incorporation, the municipality's citizens unanimously chose to name it after legislator, speaker, Freemason and explorer, Robert Burnaby, who had been private secretary to Colonel Richard Moody, the Colony of British Columbia's first land commissioner in the mid-19th century. In 1859, Mr. Burnaby had surveyed the freshwater lake near what is now the city's geographical centre; Moody chose to name it Burnaby Lake.
In the first 30 to 40 years after its incorporation, the growth of Burnaby was influenced by its location between expanding urban centres of Vancouver and New Westminster. It first served as a rural agricultural area supplying nearby markets. Later, it served as an important transportation corridor between Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Interior and continues to do so. As Vancouver expanded and became a metropolis, it was one of the first-tier bedroom community suburbs of Vancouver itself, along with North Vancouver and Richmond. Burnaby is now a mature, integrated community, which is centrally located within a rapidly growing metropolitan area. Burnaby's characteristic has shifted over time from rural to suburban, to urban.
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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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Manhattan
Manhattan (/mænˈhætən/) is the most densely populated and the oldest of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the U.S. state of New York. The borough and county consist of Manhattan Island and several small adjacent islands: Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island, Wards Island, Governors Island, Liberty Island, part of Ellis Island,Mill Rock, and U Thant Island; as well as Marble Hill, a very small area on the mainland bordering the Bronx. The original city of New York began at the southern end of Manhattan, expanded northward, and then between 1874 and 1898, annexed land from surrounding counties.
The New York County is the most densely populated county in the United States, and one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a 2010 population of 1,585,873 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.5 km2), or 69,464 residents per square mile (26,924/km²), more dense than any individual American city. It is also one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a 2005 per capita income above $100,000. Manhattan is the third-largest of New York's five boroughs in population, and its smallest borough in land area.
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New York
New York (/njuː ˈjɔrk/; locally IPA: [nɪu ˈjɔək] or [nuː ˈjɔɹk] (
listen)) is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. New York is the 27th most extensive, the 3rd most populous, and the 7th most densely populated of the 50 United States. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the west and north, and Quebec to the north. The state of New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City.
New York City, with a population of over 8.1 million, is the most populous city in the United States. Alone, it makes up over 40 percent of the population of New York state. It is known for its status as a center for finance and culture and for its status as the largest gateway for immigration to the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, New York City is also a destination of choice for many foreign visitors. Both the state and city were named for the 17th century Duke of York, James Stuart, future James II and VII of England and Scotland.
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New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. The city is referred to as New York City or The City of New York to distinguish it from the State of New York, of which it is a part. As a global power city, New York exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. The home of the United Nations Headquarters, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural capital of the world.
Located on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which comprises a state county. The five boroughs—The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island—were consolidated into a single city in 1898. With a Census-estimated 2011 population of 8,244,910 distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles (790 km2), New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. The New York City Metropolitan Area's population is the United States' largest, with 18.9 million people distributed over 6,720 square miles (17,400 km2), and is also part of the most populous combined statistical area in the United States, containing 22.1 million people as of the 2010 Census.
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Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City and the largest in area and the second-largest in population. Since 1899, Queens has had the same boundaries as Queens County, which is now the second most populous county in New York State and the fourth-most densely populated county in the United States. Queens, as well as neighboring borough Brooklyn, sits on the west end of geographic Long Island. Queens is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world with a population of over 2.2 million, 46% of whom are foreign-born, representing over 100 different nations and speaking over 138 different languages.
Were each New York City borough an independent city, Queens would be the nation's fourth largest city, after Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn. Queens has the second-largest and most diversified economy of all the five boroughs of New York City.Long Island City, on the Queens waterfront across from Manhattan on the East River, is the site of the Citicorp Building, the tallest skyscraper in New York City outside of Manhattan and the tallest building on geographic Long Island.
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Sicily
Sicily (Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia, [siˈtʃiːlja]; [sɪˈɕilja]) is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea; along with surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana (Sicilian Autonomous Region).
Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean. It extends from the tip of the Apennine peninsula from which it is separated only by the narrow Strait of Messina, towards the North African coast. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, which is at 3,320 m (10,890 ft) the tallest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate.
The earliest archeological evidence of human dwelling on the island dates from 8000 BC. At around 750 BC, Sicily became a Greek colony and for the next 600 years it was the site of the Greek-Punic and Roman-Punic wars, which ended with the Roman destruction of Carthage. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, Sicily often changed hands, and during the early Middle Ages it was ruled in turn by the Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Arabs and Normans. Later on, the Kingdom of Sicily lasted between 1130 and 1816, subordinated to the crowns of Aragon, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and finally the Bourbons, as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. It was united with the rest of Italy in 1860, but a subsequent economic collapse led to a wave of emigration, separatism, and the emergence of the Mafia, whose criminal activities pose problems to this day. After the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region.
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Vermont
Vermont
i/vɜrˈmɒnt/ is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Vermont is the 6th least extensive and the 2nd least populous of the 50 United States. It is the only New England state not bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermont's western border, which it shares with the state of New York. The Green Mountains are within the state. Vermont is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north.
Originally inhabited by two major Native American tribes (the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and the Iroquois), much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by France during its early colonial period. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years' War (also called the French and Indian War). For many years, the nearby colonies, especially New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area (then called the New Hampshire Grants). Settlers who held land titles granted by these colonies were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, which eventually prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1777 during the Revolutionary War, the republic lasted for fourteen years. Vermont is one of seventeen U.S. states (along with Texas, Hawaii, the brief California Republic, and each of the original Thirteen Colonies) to have had a sovereign government in the past. In 1791, Vermont joined the United States as the 14th state, the first outside the original 13 Colonies. It abolished slavery while still independent, and upon joining the Union became the first state to have done so.
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Adam Lazzara
Adam Burbank Lazzara (born September 22, 1981 in Sheffield, Alabama), is the lead singer of the American rock band, Taking Back Sunday. Along with singing lead vocals, Adam Lazzara occasionally plays guitar and harmonica.
Adam Lazzara grew up in High Point, North Carolina, before moving to Long Island, New York. He has a younger brother, Nathan Lazzara, who is also a musician. His first band was called Nine Lives Left, and then, upon their breakup, he formed Dumfounded, an influential local punk band. After the breakup of Dumfounded he was in a band called TRANSIT. In 1999, Adam joined Taking Back Sunday, originally on bass and then later replacing original lead singer Antonio Longo who sang on their first EP.
In the spring of 2006, Adam met Chauntelle Dupree, guitarist of the band Eisley, while on tour. They started dating in fall 2006 and became engaged on February 14, 2007. They were to be married in March 2008, but it was announced by Chauntelle's father in January 2008 that the wedding had been called off and that Chauntelle and Adam had split up. In June 2008 it was announced that Adam had married Misha Vaagen, a resident and bartender of Tyler, Texas, who was also pregnant with their first child together. They married in his backyard, and in 2009 they had their son named Keaton Ari Danger.
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Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew (born Robert Steven Belew, December 23, 1949, in Covington, Kentucky) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is perhaps best known for his work as a member of the progressive rock group King Crimson (which he has fronted since 1981) and for his unusual impressionistic approach to guitar playing (involving arresting, yet frequently melodic sounds more akin to animals and machines than to standard instrumental tones).
Widely recognized as an "incredibly versatile player", Belew has released nearly twenty solo albums for Island Records and Atlantic Records which blend Beatles-inspired pop-rock with more experimental fare. His 2005 single "Beat Box Guitar" was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category. In addition to being a member of King Crimson, he is also in the more straightforward pop band The Bears and fronted his own band, "Gaga", in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He has worked extensively as a session and touring musician, most famously with Talking Heads, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, and Nine Inch Nails.
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Aimee Mann
Aimee Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and bassist.
Aimee Mann grew up in Bon Air, Virginia, graduated from Open High School (Richmond, Virginia) in 1978 and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes.[citation needed] The band released the EP Bark Along with the Young Snakes in 1982, and a compilation album was issued in 2004.
In 1983, she co-founded with Berklee classmate and boyfriend Michael Hausman the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, which achieved success in 1985 with its first album, Voices Carry. The title song is said to be inspired by Hausman and Mann's breakup. The video became an MTV staple, winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. Mann was featured on the Rush song "Time Stand Still" (from Hold Your Fire, 1987) which hit #3 on the American rock charts and became a minor UK hit, singing backup vocals and appearing in the music video. Her laughter is also heard at the start of "Force Ten," from the same album. With Mann playing an increasingly important role in songwriting, 'Til Tuesday released two more albums, Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now. Shortly after the release of Welcome Home, Mann told a writer for Nine-O-One Network Magazine that she was much more pleased with it than "Voices Carry", primarily because she felt it made more of a personal statement about her life. On their final tour, musician Jon Brion joined the band, which broke up in 1990 when Mann left to start her solo career.
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Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming, OBE (born 27 January 1965), is a British stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids films. He has also appeared in independent films like The Anniversary Party, which he co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in; and Ali Selim's Sweet Land, for which he won an Independent Spirit award as producer.
His London stage appearances include Hamlet, the Maniac in Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, for which he received an Olivier Award, the lead in Martin Sherman's Bent, and as Dionysus in The National Theatre of Scotland's The Bacchae. On Broadway he has appeared as Mac the Knife in The Threepenny Opera, the Emcee in Cabaret, for which he won the Tony in 1998, and Design for Living. Cumming also introduces Masterpiece Mystery! for PBS. He currently appears as Eli Gold on The Good Wife, for which he has been nominated for two Emmys, two SAGs[disambiguation needed
], a Satellite Award and Critics' Circle Award.
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Alexis Stewart
Alexis Gilbert "Lexie" Stewart (born September 27, 1965) is the only child of Martha Stewart and her ex-husband Andrew. She was the co-host of Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer on Sirius Satellite Radio, and Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer on the Hallmark Channel alongside co-host Jennifer Hutt.
Stewart was born in Manhattan. She graduated from Putney School in Putney, Vermont in 1983. She earned a bachelor's degree in English at Barnard College in 1987.
In 1997, Stewart married John R. Cuti, a lawyer. Cuti served as a trial lawyer during Martha Stewart's ImClone stock trading case, alongside her lead attorney Robert Morvillo. Stewart and Cuti separated before Martha Stewart was indicted in June 2003 but were not divorced until mid-2004, after the trial was over.
Stewart is a vegan.
On October 9, 2007, Stewart appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss her recent struggle to conceive a child naturally. On November 29, 2010, it was announced that Stewart had hired a surrogate mother and was expecting her first child in early March of the following year. On March 8, 2011, Stewart's daughter, Jude, was born. Stewart explained she named her daughter after SIRIUS Satellite Radio host Rude Jude.
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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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Allison Iraheta
Allison Iraheta (born April 27, 1992) is an American singer from Los Angeles, California, who was the fourth place finalist on the eighth season of American Idol. Prior to Idol, Iraheta won the Telemundo competition Quinceañera: Mamá Quiero Ser Artista. Following the conclusion of Idol, Iraheta was signed to a record deal with 19 Entertainment and Jive Records. Her debut album Just Like You was released on December 1, 2009.
Iraheta was born in Glendale, California, to Salvadorian immigrants who moved to the United States before she was born. She is the youngest in the family, with two older siblings, Jacki and Carlos Iraheta. According to her family, she has been singing since she was a toddler. In 2001, she began taking voice lessons with Raphael Enriquez at the Los Angeles Music and Art School, a non-profit community school of the arts in East Los Angeles. Before rising to prominence, she was a frequent performer at the local Latin Electronics Store La Curaçao and the Los Angeles Music and Art School's annual benefit concert, Stars for the Arts. Iraheta attended Los Angeles' Animo Ralph Bunche Charter High School.
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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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Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 follow-up album, Back to Black, led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British female to win five Grammys, including three of the "Big Four": Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
In 2007 she won a Brit Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album. She won the Ivor Novello Award three times: once in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for "Stronger Than Me", once in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for "Rehab", and once in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Love Is a Losing Game".
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André the Giant
André René Roussimoff (19 May 1946 – 27 January 1993), best known as André the Giant, was a French professional wrestler and actor. His best remembered acting role was that of Fezzik, the giant in the film The Princess Bride. His size was a result of acromegaly, and led to him being called "The Eighth Wonder of the World".
In the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE), Roussimoff was a one-time WWF Champion and a one-time WWF World Tag Team Champion. In 1993, he was the first inductee into the WWF Hall of Fame.
André Roussimoff was born in Grenoble, France to parents of Bulgarian and Polish ancestry. As a child, he very early displayed symptoms of his gigantism, reaching a height of 6'3" (190.5 cm) and weight of 240 pounds (110 kg) by age 12. Unable to fit on the school bus, he was driven to school by playwright Samuel Beckett, a friend of his father. Roussimoff was a good student, but he dropped out after the 8th grade since he did not think having a high school education was necessary for a farm laborer. He then worked on a farm, completed an apprenticeship in woodworking, and next worked in a factory that manufactured engines for hay balers. None of these brought him any satisfaction.
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Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco (
/ˈɑːniː/; born Angela Maria DiFranco on September 23, 1970) is an American singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.
DiFranco was born in Buffalo, New York, to Elizabeth and Dante DiFranco, who had met while attending MIT. She started playing Beatles covers at local bars and busking with her guitar teacher, Michael Meldrum, at the age of nine.
In 1989, DiFranco started her own record company, Righteous Records. Early in her career DiFranco worked with manager Dale Anderson, a writer for the Buffalo News, who started another record label called Hot Wings Records, after the two parted ways, that released similar sounding material. Her self-titled debut album was issued on the label in the winter of 1990. Later, she relocated to New York City, where she took poetry classes at The New School and toured vigorously for the next 15 years, essentially pausing briefly only to record albums.
Righteous Records was renamed Righteous Babe Records in 1994.
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Ann Wilson
Ann Dustin Wilson (born June 19, 1950) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, flute player, songwriter, and occasional guitar player of the rock band Heart.
Wilson was born in San Diego, California. Her father was a colonel in the Marine Corps, and she moved frequently. Her family eventually settled in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle, Washington. Shy because of a stutter, Wilson sought fulfillment in music. In the early 1970s she joined a local band, White Heart, which changed its name to Hocus Pocus, and then in 1974, to Heart.
During the 1970s, Ann Wilson was in a relationship with Michael Fisher, the manager of the band, while her younger sister Nancy was involved with lead guitarist Roger Fisher, Michael's younger brother. Both couples co-controlled the band. In 1979, both relationships ended; Ann stated that Michael had fallen in love with another woman and they parted. The song "Magic Man" was written about Michael and contains autobiographical lyrics about the beginning of their relationship.
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Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin (/ˈpækwɪn/; born 24 July 1982) is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1993 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history. Her acting career took off almost half a decade later when she appeared in a string of successful films including She's All That, Almost Famous and the X-Men franchise.
Paquin has received critical acclaim for her role as Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series True Blood, for which she won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama.
Paquin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the daughter of Mary Paquin (née Brophy), an English teacher and native of Wellington, New Zealand, and Brian Paquin, a high school physical education teacher, native Canadian. Paquin is the youngest of three children; she has two older siblings: a brother, Andrew, a director, born in 1977, and a sister, Katya, born in 1980, who is the partner of Green Party co-leader Russel Norman. Paquin's family moved to New Zealand when she was four. She attended the Raphael House Rudolf Steiner School until she was eight or nine. Her musical childhood hobbies in New Zealand included playing the viola, cello, and piano. She also participated in gymnastics, ballet, swimming and downhill skiing, though she did not have any hobbies related to acting.
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Annie Leibovitz
Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz ( /ˈliːbəvɪts/; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children. She is a third-generation American whose great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants, from Central and Eastern Europe. Her father's parents had emigrated from Romania. Her mother, Marilyn Leibovitz, was a modern dance instructor of Estonian Jewish heritage; her father, Sam Leibovitz, was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. The family moved frequently with her father's duty assignments, and she took her first pictures when she was stationed in the Philippines during the Vietnam War.
In high school, she became interested in various artistic endeavors, and began to write and play music. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting. For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while working various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz in Amir, Israel, for several months in 1969.
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Arsenio Hall
Arsenio Hall (born February 12, 1956) is an American actor, comedian, and former talk show host. He is best known for hosting The Arsenio Hall Show.
Hall is also known for his appearance as Alan Thicke's sidekick on the talk show, Thicke of the Night. He was the winning contestant on NBC's reality show, Celebrity Apprentice 5, after defeating singer and American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken in the Celebrity Apprentice live finale.
Arsenio was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Fred and Anne Hall. His father is a Baptist minister. Hall performed as a magician when he was a child. He graduated from Warrensville Heights High School in Warrensville Heights, Ohio in 1973. After he graduated, he attended Ohio University, where he was on the speech team with Nancy Cartwright and Leon Harris. He then transferred to and graduated from Kent State University.
He later moved to Chicago, and then Los Angeles, to pursue a career in comedy, making a couple of appearances on Soul Train. In 1984, he was the announcer/sidekick for Alan Thicke during the short-lived talk show Thicke of the Night (a role for which he has on occasion noted his confusion with Monty Hall). Arsenio was the original voice of Winston Zeddemore in the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters from 1986–1987. In 1988, he co-starred in the comedy film Coming to America with Eddie Murphy.
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Axwell
Axwell (born as Axel Christofer Hedfors, 18 December 1977 in Lund, Sweden) is a DJ, remixer, record producer and record label owner from Sweden. He is part of a three person group dubbed the Swedish House Mafia along with Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello. In 2011 he was placed 12th on the DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ Poll.
In late 2004 Axwell released a global hit, "Feel the Vibe", which was re-released under Ministry of Sound in 2005 with added vocals from Tara McDonald as "Feel the Vibe ('Til The Morning Comes)". It peaked at #16 in the UK Singles Chart in August 2005.
Also leading the way has been Mambana, his collaboration with Isabel Fructuoso (of Afro Medusa fame). Signed to Soulfuric Recordings, they have released three tracks since 2002. "No Reason" was their debut single, which hit the top spot in all the Hype/Buzz charts that Summer and was featured in the sets of all the top DJs including Little Louie Vega, Danny Rampling and Ben Watt. The follow ups were "Felicidad" and "Libre". "Libre" was released in 2003 and was arguably bigger than its predecessor. "Libre" was licensed to more than 12 different territories and featured on compilations that sold in excess of half a million copies.
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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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Beah Richards
Beah Richards (July 12, 1920 – September 14, 2000) was an American actress of stage, screen and television. She was a poet, playwright and author.
Born Beulah Richardson in Vicksburg, Mississippi, her mother was a seamstress and PTA advocate and her father was a Baptist minister. In 1948, she graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans and two years later moved to New York City. Her career started to take off in 1955 when she portrayed an eighty-four-year-old-grandmother in the off-Broadway show Take a Giant Step. She often played the role of a mother or grandmother, and continued acting her entire life. She appeared in the original Broadway productions of Purlie Victorious, The Miracle Worker, and A Raisin in the Sun.
"There are a lot of movies out there that I would hate to be paid to do, some real demeaning, real woman-denigrating stuff. It is up to women to change their roles. They are going to have to write the stuff and do it. And they will."
Richards was nominated for a Tony award for her 1965 performance in James Baldwin's The Amen Corner. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Sidney Poitier's mother in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Other notable movie performances include Hurry Sundown, The Great White Hope, Beloved and In the Heat of the Night.
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Bette Midler
Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys. During her more than forty-year career, Midler has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and won three Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award. She has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Her voice type is categorized as deep mezzo soprano.
Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents moved from Paterson, New Jersey to Honolulu before she was born, and hers was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood. Her mother, Ruth (née Schindel), was a seamstress and housewife, and her father, Fred Midler, worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter. She was named after actress Bette Davis, though Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one, /ˈbɛt/. She was raised in Aiea and attended Radford High School, in Honolulu. She was voted "Most Talkative" in the 1961 school Hoss Election, and in her Senior Year (Class of 1963), "Most Dramatic". Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii, but left after three semesters. She earned money in the 1966 film Hawaii as an extra, playing an uncredited seasick passenger named Miss David Buff.
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Betty White
Betty Marion White Ludden (born January 17, 1922), better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and television personality. With a career spanning over seven decades, she is best known to contemporary audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. Since the death of co-star Rue McClanahan in 2010, she is now the only living Golden Girl. She currently stars as Elka Ostrovsky in the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland and hosts the practical-joke show Betty White's Off Their Rockers.
White has won seven Emmy Awards (six for acting) and has received 20 Emmy nominations over the course of her career, including being the first woman ever to receive an Emmy for game show hosting (for the short-lived Just Men!) and is the only person to have an Emmy in all female performing comedic categories. In May 2010, White became the oldest person to guest-host Saturday Night Live, for which she also received a Primetime Emmy Award. White also holds the record for longest span between Emmy nominations for performances – her first was in 1951 and her most recent was in 2011, a span of 60 years – and has become the oldest nominee as of 2012[update], aged 90. She has made regular appearances on the game shows Password and Match Game and played recurring roles on Mama's Family, Boston Legal, The Bold and the Beautiful, and Community.
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Bill Goldberg
William Scott "Bill" Goldberg (born December 27, 1966) is a former professional wrestler best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He is famous for his lengthy undefeated streak in singles competition) The official count is listed as 173-0, although some have disputed the legitimacy of that total.
Goldberg is recognized by WWE as a two-time world champion: a one-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and one-time World Heavyweight Champion, with both reigns represented by the Big Gold Belt. He was the first of four men to hold a version of the Big Gold Belt in both WCW and WWE, later followed by Chris Benoit, Booker T and Big Show. He is also recognized by WWE as a two-time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion and one-time WCW World Tag Team Champion (with Bret Hart).
Before he was a professional wrestler, Goldberg was a football player. After retiring from wrestling, he began working as a commentator for the mixed martial arts promotion EliteXC until its closure. He is currently hosting the television show Garage Mahal on the DIY Network.
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Bill Rancic
William "Bill" Rancic ( /ˈræntsɪk/; Croatian: Rančić, pronounced [râːntʃitɕ], born May 16, 1971)[citation needed] is an American entrepreneur who was the first candidate hired by The Trump Organization at the conclusion of the first season of Donald Trump's reality television show, The Apprentice. As of 2011, he stars in the reality show Giuliana and Bill with his wife Giuliana Rancic, as well as hosting America Now with Leeza Gibbons.
Rancic is a motivational speaker and a Chicago, Illinois, real estate developer.
Rancic is of Croatian and Irish heritage. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in the suburb of Orland Park. He attended St. Michael's School in Orland Park, and graduated from Carl Sandburg High School. His mother is Gail Rancic; his father Edward Rancic died of cancer in 1999. Rancic has three sisters, Beth, Katie and Karen.
Rancic was one of the job applicants in The Apprentice 1 during the spring of 2004, as one of 16 contestants. Rancic was hired at the conclusion of the 14-week job interview after Donald Trump fired Kwame Jackson.
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Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Harris April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.
Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing "Easy Living", "Good Morning Heartache", and "Strange Fruit", a protest song which became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording.
Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan (née Harris). Her father, Clarence Halliday (Holiday), a musician, did not marry or live with her mother. Her mother had moved to Philadelphia when thirteen, after being ejected from her parents' home in Sandtown-Winchester, Baltimore for becoming pregnant. With no support from her own parents, Holiday's mother arranged for the young Holiday to stay with her older married half sister, Eva Miller, who lived in Baltimore.
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Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man," in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA.
Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 150 million records worldwide. He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006), and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame (2009). In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, with Billy Joel positioned at No. 23. With the exception of the 2007 songs "All My Life" and "Christmas in Fallujah," Joel stopped recording pop/rock material after 1993's River of Dreams, but he continued to tour extensively until 2010.
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Billy Steinberg
William Endfield "Billy" Steinberg (born February 26, 1950) is an American songwriter. He has achieved most of his success as part of a song writing team, most notably with Tom Kelly. He has also co-written several hit songs with Rick Nowels.
Steinberg grew up in Palm Springs, California and worked with his father's table grape operation. He attended Cate School in California, and Bard College in New York. In his mid-20s he formed the group Billy Thermal which was eventually signed to Richard Perry's Planet Records label.
Their breakthrough occurred in 1980 when Linda Ronstadt heard their album and decided to record their song "How Do I Make You?" for her 1980 Mad Love album. The album hit the top three of the charts and went platinum. Ronstadt's version of their song reached the American top ten.
In 1981, Steinberg wrote "Precious Time", the title track for Pat Benatar's Precious Time album; he also penned "I'm Gonna Follow You", which appeared on her second album Crimes of Passion the previous year. His band Billy Thermal included "I'm Gonna Follow You" as well as "How Do I Make You?" on their EP released by Planet Records in 1979. Also that year, Steinberg began writing with Tom Kelly, who had written another song ("Fire and Ice") on the album for Benatar.
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Bob Newhart
George Robert "Bob" Newhart (born September 5, 1929), is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Noted for his deadpan and slightly stammering delivery, Newhart came to prominence in the 1960s when his album of comedic monologues The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was a worldwide bestseller and reached #1 on the Billboard pop music charts—it remains the 20th best-selling comedy album in history. The follow-up album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! was also a massive success, and both albums held the Billboard #1 and #2 spots simultaneously, a feat unequaled until the 1991 release of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II by hard rock band Guns N' Roses.
Newhart later went into acting, starring in two long-running and prize-winning situation comedies, first as psychologist Dr. Robert "Bob" Hartley on the 1970s sitcom The Bob Newhart Show and then as innkeeper Dick Loudon on the 1980s sitcom Newhart. He also had a third, short-lived sitcom in the nineties titled Bob. Newhart also appeared in film roles such as Major Major in Catch-22, and Papa Elf in Elf. He provided the voice of Bernard in the Walt Disney animated films The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under. One of his most recent roles is the library head Judson in The Librarian. In 2011, Newhart appeared in the film Horrible Bosses.
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Bobbie Gentry
Roberta Lee Streeter (born July 27, 1944), professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is an American former singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material. Her songs typically drew on her Mississippi roots to compose vignettes of the Southern United States.
Gentry shot to international fame with her intriguing Southern Gothic narrative "Ode to Billie Joe" in 1967. The track was fourth in the Billboard year-end chart of 1967 and earned her Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1968. Gentry charted eleven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and four singles on the United Kingdom Top 40. Her album Fancy brought her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. After her first albums, she had a successful run of variety shows on the Las Vegas Strip. She lost interest in performing in the late 1970s and has since lived privately in Los Angeles.
Gentry was born Roberta Streeter and is of English and Portuguese ancestry.[citation needed] She was born in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, to Robert and Ruby (Bullington) Streeter. She has an older brother, Robert Streeter, Jr. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth, and her mother moved to California. She was raised on her grandparents' farm in Chickasaw County. Her grandmother traded one of the family's milk cows for a neighbor's piano, and seven-year-old Bobbie composed her first song, "My Dog Sergeant Is a Good Dog". She attended school in Greenwood, Mississippi, and began teaching herself to play the guitar, bass, banjo, and vibes.
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Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer who performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk, and country.
He started as a songwriter for Connie Francis, and recorded his own first million-seller "Splish Splash" in 1958. This was followed by "Dream Lover", "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea", which brought him world fame. In 1962, he won a Golden Globe for his first film Come September, co-starring his wife Sandra Dee.
Through the 1960s he became more political, and worked on Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign, being present on the night of his assassination. This affected him and sent him into a period of seclusion.
Although he made a successful television comeback, his health was starting to fail, as he had always expected, following bouts of rheumatic fever in childhood. This knowledge had always spurred him on to exploit his musical talent while still young. He died at 37, following a heart operation in Los Angeles.
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Bootsy Collins
William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American funk bassist, singer, and songwriter.
Rising to prominence with James Brown in the late 1960s, and with Parliament-Funkadelic in the '70s, Collins's driving bass guitar and humorous vocals established him as one of the leading names in funk. Collins is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.
With his elder brother Phelps "Catfish" Collins, and Kash Waddy and Philippé Wynne, Collins formed a funk band called The Pacemakers in 1968.
In March 1970, after most of the members of James Brown's band quit over a pay dispute, The Pacemakers were hired as Brown's backing band and they became known as The J.B.'s. (They are often referred to as the "original" J.B.'s to distinguish them from later line-ups that went by the same name.) Although they worked for Brown for only 11 months, the original J.B.'s played on some of Brown's most intense funk recordings, including "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine", "Super Bad", "Soul Power", and "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing".
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Brandy Kuentzel
Brandy Kuentzel (born c. 1980) is an American corporate attorney and businesswoman born in San Francisco, California. She was the candidate hired by The Trump Organization at the conclusion of the tenth season of Donald Trump's reality television show, The Apprentice.
Kuentzel grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. After graduating valedictorian from Service High School, Kuentzel received a bachelor of arts degree in political science from UCLA in 2002 and a juris doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School in 2006. She was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis from 2006 to 2009. After that, she co-founded Sweet Ride, which is a mobile cupcake business in the San Francisco Bay Area in January 2010. She is a vegetarian and a supporter of animal rights.
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Bret Michaels
Bret Michaels (born Bret Michael Sychak, March 15, 1963) is an American musician, actor, director, screenwriter, producer and reality television personality. He first gained fame as the lead vocalist of the glam metal band Poison who have sold over 30 million records worldwide and 15 million records in the United States alone. The band has also charted ten singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including six Top 10 singles and the number-one single, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn".
Besides his career as lead singer, he has several solo albums to his credit, including a Soundtrack album to the movie A Letter from Death Row in which Michaels starred in, wrote and directed in 1998 and a classic Poison style rock album Songs of Life in 2003. Michaels has appeared in several movies and TV shows, including as a judge on the talent show Nashville Star which lead to his country influenced rock album Freedom of Sound in 2005. He starred in the hit VH1 reality show Rock of Love with Bret Michaels and its sequels, which inspired his successful solo album Rock My World. He was the winning contestant on NBC's reality show Celebrity Apprentice 3 and also featured in his own reality Docu-series Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It, which inspired his highest charting album as a solo artist Custom Built, reaching #1 on Billboard's Hard Rock list.
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Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Randall Hornsby (born November 23, 1954) is an American singer, pianist, accordion player, and songwriter. Known for the spontaneity and creativity of his live performances, Hornsby draws frequently from classical, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Motown, rock, blues, and jam band musical traditions with his songwriting and the seamless improvisations contained within.
Hornsby's recordings have been recognised on a number of occasions with industry awards, including the Best New Artist Grammy in 1987 with Bruce Hornsby and the Range, the Best Bluegrass Recording Grammy in 1990, and the Best Pop Instrumental Grammy in 1993.
Hornsby has also achieved recognition for his solo albums and performances, his current live act Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, his bluegrass project with Ricky Skaggs, his jazz act The Bruce Hornsby Trio, and his appearances as a session- and guest-musician. He also collaborated with the Grateful Dead and was a member of the band from September 1990 to March 1992, playing at many shows during this period in their history.
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Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, OC OBC (born Bryan Guy Adams, 5 November 1959) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. For his contributions to music, Adams has many awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations, 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television in 1992. He has also won MTV, ASCAP, and American Music awards. In addition, he has won two Ivor Novello Awards for song composition and has been nominated for several Golden Globe Awards and three times for Academy Awards for his songwriting for films.
Adams was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for contributions to popular music and philanthropic work via his own foundation, which helps improve education for people around the world.
Adams was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with the 2,435th star in March 2011 and Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998, and in April 2006 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards. In 2008, Bryan was ranked 38 on the list of All-Time top artists by the Billboard Hot 100 50th Anniversary Charts. On 13 January 2010, he received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for his part in numerous charitable concerts and campaigns during his career, and on 1 May 2010 was given the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for his 30 years of contributions to the arts.
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Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work. Throughout her career, she has amassed 13 Top 40 hits including "You're So Vain", "Nobody Does It Better", and "Coming Around Again".
The former wife of another notable singer-songwriter, James Taylor, she has two children, Sarah "Sally" Maria Taylor and Ben Taylor, who are also musicians.
She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.
Carly Simon was born in New York City, New York. Her father, of Jewish descent, was Richard L. Simon (co-founder of Simon & Schuster), a pianist who often played Chopin and Beethoven at home. Her mother was Andrea Louise Simon (née Heinemann), a civil rights activist and singer, of black and German descent. In a 2004 interview with fashion designer Michael Kors for the July issue of Interview Magazine, she revealed her full ancestry as Jewish, African, Cuban, and French.
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Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut. After successful appearances on The Garry Moore Show, Burnett moved to Los Angeles and began an eleven-year run on The Carol Burnett Show which was aired on CBS television from 1967 to 1978. With roots in vaudeville, The Carol Burnett Show was a variety show which combined comedy sketches, song, and dance. The comedy sketches included film parodies and character pieces. Burnett created many characters during the show's television run.
Burnett was born in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of Ina Louise (née Creighton), a publicity writer for movie studios, and Joseph Thomas Burnett, a movie theater manager. Both of her parents suffered from alcoholism, and at a young age she was left with her grandmother, Mabel Eudora White. Her parents divorced in the late 1930s, and Burnett and her grandmother moved to an apartment near her mother’s in an impoverished area of Hollywood. There, they stayed in a boarding house with her younger half-sister Chrissy.
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Carol Leifer
Carol Leifer (pronounced /ˈliːfər/ LEE-fər; born July 27, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer and actor whose career as a stand-up comedian started in the 1970s when she was in college. David Letterman discovered her performing in a comedy club in the 1980s and she has since been a guest on Late Night With David Letterman over twenty-five times as well as numerous other shows and venues. She has written many television scripts including for The Larry Sanders Show, Saturday Night Live, and most notably, Seinfeld.
Leifer's "inner monologue" observational style is often autobiographical encompassing subjects about her Jewish ancestry and upbringing, coming out, same-sex marriage, relationships (having been married previously to a man and now partnered with a woman) and parenting.
Leifer recently became vegan, saying "I recently became vegan because I felt that as a Jewish lesbian, I wasn’t part of a small enough minority. So now I’m a Jewish lesbian vegan."
Leifer was born in East Williston, New York, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family, the daughter of Anna, a psychologist, and Seymour Leifer, an optometrist.
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Carolyn Kepcher
Carolyn Kepcher (born January 30, 1969) is an American businesswoman, perhaps best known for her regular appearances on the NBC television program The Apprentice. She was formerly the Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and General Manager for the Trump National Golf Club. Before her career with Trump ended in August 2006, she monitored the progress of the contestants on the program and assisted Donald Trump in determining who should be fired.
Kepcher began her foray into business by selling Avon Products door-to-door. Following high school she took a job as a waitress at a Manhattan restaurant, and ultimately attained the role of manager. She learned teamwork attending Mercy College in nearby Dobbs Ferry on a volleyball scholarship. She graduated with a marketing degree. Despite having little experience, in 1992 Kepcher secured a position as sales and marketing director of a golf club outside New York City. Her primary responsibility was to prepare the property for bank auction, where it was eventually sold to Trump. Kepcher's ideas on how best to use the property impressed him, and he hired her as director of sales and marketing in 1994.
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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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Carson Kressley
Carson Lee Kressley (born November 11, 1969) was the fashion expert on the American television program Queer Eye, where he was one of the show's "Fab Five" members. He is also the motivational host of the TV show How to Look Good Naked.
Kressley was born and raised in Claussville, in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania. His family raised ponies and he competed in equine events from an early age, and was a member of the U.S. World Cup Saddle Seat equitation team.
Growing up, he attended Northwestern Lehigh High School in the Northwestern Lehigh School District. He graduated from Gettysburg College with a degree in management and fine art in 1991, with Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude honors. While at Gettysburg College, Kressley became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega.
He currently resides in Manhattan, where he is active in numerous gay-rights, animal and health-related charities. Kressley was a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign for President and headlined a number of events in her honor.
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Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson (born December 4, 1955) is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country, blues and folk music into her work, Wilson has won two Grammy Awards.
Cassandra Wilson is the third and youngest child of Herman Fowlkes, Jr., a guitarist, bassist and music teacher; and Mary McDaniel, an elementary school teacher who eventually earned her PhD in education. Between her mother’s love for Motown and her father’s dedication to jazz, Wilson’s parents sparked her early interest in music.
Wilson’s earliest formal musical education consisted of classical lessons; she studied piano from the age of six to thirteen and played clarinet in the middle school concert and marching bands. When she tired of this training, she asked her father to teach her the guitar. Instead, he gave her a lesson in self-reliance, suggesting she study Mel Bay method books. Wilson explored guitar on her own, developing what she has described as an “intuitive” approach. During this time she began writing her own songs, adopting a folk style. She also appeared in the musical theater productions, including The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy, crossing racial lines in a recently desegregated school system.
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Charles Koppelman
Charles Koppelman (born March 30, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York City, is a musician, music producer, and business man. He has held key executive positions at EMI and Steve Madden, and he is former Chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Currently, he serves as CEO of CAK Entertainment.
Koppelman broke into the music business as a member of the musical group The Ivy Three which had a Top 10 hit in 1960 entitled "Yogi," after the cartoon Yogi Bear. Soon, Koppelman and bandmate and future business partner Don Rubin joined the songwriting staff of Aldon Music under CEO Don Kirshner, a group that included Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. When Columbia Pictures purchased Aldon Music, Koppelman was promoted to director of Screen Gems/ Columbia Music, the new company that resulted from the merger. In 1965, Koppelman and Rubin left Columbia to form Koppelman/Rubin Associates, an entertainment company that signed The Lovin Spoonful that same year. In 1968, Commonwealth United purchased Koppelman/Rubin Associates and the both Koppelman and Rubin stayed on to run the music division. During the early 1970s, Koppelman moved on to CBS Records and held numerous positions, including Vice President/National Director of A&R where he signed acts including Billy Joel, Dave Mason, Janis Ian, Journey, and Phoebe Snow.
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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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Christina Amphlett
Christine Joy Amphlett (born 25 October 1959 Geelong, Victoria, Australia) was the lead singer of Australian rock band Divinyls. She is also known as Chrissy Amphlett.
She grew up in Geelong as a singer and dancer. She left home as a teenager and travelled to England, France and Spain where she was imprisoned for three months for singing on the streets.
In May 2001, Divinyls' "Science Fiction", written by Amphlett and lead guitarist Mark McEntee, was selected by Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. Amphlett and McEntee barely spoke after the band had separated in 1996, but resumed contact when they were inducted in the 2006 ARIA Hall of Fame, eventually announcing a new tour and album.
Amphlett met Mark McEntee at a concert at the Sydney Opera House in 1980, and the pair formed the Divinyls shortly after. After several years of live gigs in Sydney, they recorded several songs to be used on the soundtrack of the film Monkey Grip.
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Christopher Cross
Christopher Cross (born Christopher Charles Geppert; May 3, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter from San Antonio, Texas. His debut album earned him five Grammys. He is perhaps best known for his US Top Ten hit songs, "Sailing", "Ride Like the Wind", and "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)", the last of which he recorded for the film Arthur starring Dudley Moore. "Sailing" earned three Grammy Awards in 1981, while "Arthur's Theme" won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1981 (with co-composers Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen).
Cross first played with a San Antonio-based cover band named Flash (not to be confused with the early 1970s English band of the same name) before signing a solo contract with Warner Bros.
Cross released his self-titled debut album, Christopher Cross, in 1979, which garnered him five Grammy Awards. He was the first solo artist to win all four General Field Grammy Awards (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist) in the same year. Hot 100 top 20 hits from this album included "Ride Like the Wind" (featuring backing vocals by Michael McDonald), "Sailing", "Never Be the Same", and "Say You'll Be Mine" (featuring backing vocals by Nicolette Larson).
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Clay Aiken
Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken (born November 30, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released in October 2003. He released four more albums on the RCA label: Merry Christmas with Love (2004), A Thousand Different Ways (2006), and the Christmas EP, All is Well (2006). His fourth studio album (the first album of original material since 2003's Measure of a Man), On My Way Here was released on May 6, 2008.
After the release of On My Way Here, Aiken left RCA and later signed with Decca Records. His first album with Decca, Tried and True, was released June 1, 2010 and his second Steadfast, was released March 26, 2012.
In the years following his American Idol appearance, Aiken has launched ten tours, authored a New York Times best-selling book Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life with Allison Glock, and was the executive producer for a 2004 televised Christmas special, A Clay Aiken Christmas and his televised live concert special in 2010 on PBS Tried & True Live!. He has been a frequent talk show guest, particularly on The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He appeared as a guest star on Scrubs, Drop Dead Diva, 30 Rock and participated in comedy skits on numerous other shows.
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Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman (born April 30, 1926) is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award. She co-starred in the 1971 film The Last Picture Show. Leachman's longest running role was the nosy, self-centered and manipulative landlady Phyllis Lindstrom on the 1970s TV series Mary Tyler Moore, and later on the spinoff series, Phyllis. She also appeared in three Mel Brooks films, including Young Frankenstein. She had a regular role on the last two seasons of The Facts of Life portraying the character Beverly Ann Stickle. In recent years, she had a recurring role as Lois's mother Ida Gorski on Malcolm in the Middle. She also starred in the roast of Bob Saget in 2008. Leachman was a contestant on Season 7 (2008) of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Corky Ballas. At the age of 82, she was the oldest contestant to dance on the series.
Leachman was the grand marshal for the 2009 New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade and Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California. She presided over the 120th parade, the theme being "Hats Off to Entertainment", and the 95th Rose Bowl game. Leachman plays a supporting role in Raising Hope, a sitcom that premiered in the fall of 2010 on Fox. She will star with Tara Reid in The Fields, and with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in Gambit, a remake of a 1966 film.
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Colleen Dewhurst
Colleen Rose Dewhurst (June 3, 1924 — August 22, 1991) was a Canadian-American actress known for a while as "the Queen of Off-Broadway." In her autobiography, Dewhurst wrote: "I had moved so quickly from one Off-Broadway production to the next that I was known, at one point, as the 'Queen of Off-Broadway'. This title was not due to my brilliance but rather because most of the plays I was in closed after a run of anywhere from one night to two weeks. I would then move immediately into another." She was a renowned interpreter of the works of Eugene O’Neill on the stage, and her career also encompassed film, early dramas on live television, and Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. She was also renowned for her television work playing Marilla Cuthbert in the Kevin Sullivan TV movie adaptations of the Anne of Green Gables series and her reprisal of the role in the subsequent TV series Road to Avonlea (marketed as just Avonlea in the US).
Dewhurst was born in Montreal, Quebec, the only child of Ferdinand Augustus "Fred" and Frances Marie (née Woods) Dewhurst, a businessman and homemaker, respectively. Her father had been a "well-known athlete in Canada, where he had played football with the Ottawa Rough Riders". Her mother was a practitioner of Christian Science, which her daughter would also adopt. Her family moved to Massachusetts in 1928 or 1929, staying in Boston, Dorchester, Auburndale, and West Newton. Later they moved to New York City. After her parents separated, she and her mother relocated to Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, where she graduated from Riverside High School in 1942. She went on to attend Milwaukee-Downer College.
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Curtis Stone
Curtis Stone (born 4 November 1975) is an Australian celebrity chef, author and television personality, nicknamed "The Quiet Terminator" by fans following his performance on The Celebrity Apprentice 3.
He was born in Melbourne, Australia. Stone began cooking with his grandmother at the age of five. He attended Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School. His father, Bryan Stone, is an accountant.
Stone was studying for his Bachelor of Business before deciding his heart was in food. He worked at some top Australian restaurants before leaving to work at various restaurants in London. In Australia, he debuted his cooking career at age 18 at the Savoy Hotel. On completing his qualifications as a chef, Stone began cooking in London under Marco Pierre White at the Café Royal and Mirabelle. He went on to become head chef at White's Quo Vadis.
Stone returned briefly to Australia to make the traveling cooking show Surfing the Menu (on ABC TV) with another chef, Ben O'Donoghue.
No stranger to television, Stone had appeared in a number of cooking programs in the UK, including Dinner in a Box, Good Food Live and Saturday Kitchen. He also hosted the first season of My Restaurant Rules in Australia. Beginning in May 2006, Stone hosted Take Home Chef on TLC in the United States, which went on to become an international hit for TLC.
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Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (born June 22, 1953 in Queens, New York) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and LGBT rights activist.
She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the debut solo album She's So Unusual in 1983, which spawned four Billboard Hot 100 top-five songs—"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop" and "All Through the Night"—She's So Unusual was the first album in history to have four top five singles by a female. The album earned Lauper Best New Artist at the 27th Grammy Awards in 1985.
Her success continued with the follow-up, True Colors in 1986, which spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"True Colors" and "Change of Heart", and earned two nominations at the 29th Grammy Awards.
Since 1989 released from a nine studio albums acclaimed critical, A Night to Remember (1989), Hat Full of Stars (1993), Sisters of Avalon (1996), Merry Christmas... Have a Nice Life (1998),Shine (2001), At Last (2003), The Body Acoustic (2005), Bring Ya to the Brink (2008).
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Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, best known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City (1998–2004). She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, a Grammy Award, and a GLAAD Media Award.
Nixon was born in New York, New York, the daughter of Anne Knoll, an actress from Chicago, and Walter E. Nixon, a Texas-born radio journalist. She graduated from Hunter College High School, and attended Barnard College. During her college years she also studied abroad with Semester at Sea in the spring of 1986.
From 1988 to 2003, Nixon was in a relationship with photographer Danny Mozes. They have two children together, a daughter born in 1996 and a son born in 2002. Since 2004, Nixon has been in a relationship with education activist Christine Marinoni. Nixon and Marinoni became engaged in April 2009. Marinoni gave birth to a son in 2011. Nixon and Marinoni were married on May 27, 2012. Regarding her sexual orientation, Nixon remarked in 2007: "I don't really feel I've changed. I'd been with men all my life, and I'd never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange. I'm just a woman in love with another woman." She identified herself as bisexual in 2012.
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Darryl Strawberry
Darryl Eugene Strawberry (born March 12, 1962) is a former American Major League Baseball outfielder. Strawberry was well known for his play on the field and for his controversial behavior off it. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Strawberry was one of the most feared sluggers in the game, known for his prodigious home runs and his intimidating presence in the batter's box with his 6-foot-6 frame and his long, looping swing that elicited comparisons to Ted Williams.
During his 17-year career, he helped lead the New York Mets to a World Series championship in 1986 and the New York Yankees to three World Series championships in 1996, 1998 and 1999. A popular player during his career, Strawberry was voted to the All-Star Game eight straight times from 1984–1991. Strawberry was formerly an analyst for SportsNet New York. His memoir, "Straw: Finding My Way," written in collaboration with author John Strausbaugh, was published on April 28, 2009 by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins publishers.
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David Byrne
David Byrne (born May 14, 1952) is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography, opera, and non-fiction. He has received Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe awards and been inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, to Tom and Emma Byrne. He was the elder of two children. Two years later, his parents moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and then to Arbutus, Maryland, when he was 8 or 9 years old. His father worked as an electronics engineer. Before high school, David Byrne already knew how to play the guitar, accordion, and violin. He was rejected from his middle school’s choir because they claimed he was "off-key and too withdrawn." From a young age, Byrne had a strong interest in music. His parents say that he would constantly play his phonograph from age three and he learned how to play the harmonica at age five. In his journals he says, "I was a peculiar young man — borderline Asperger's, I would guess." As revealed by Tina Weymouth in the commentary for the concert film Stop Making Sense, Byrne is left handed but plays guitar right handed.
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David Keith
David Lemuel Keith (born May 8, 1954) is an American actor and director. He received Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and New Star of the Year – Actor for his performance in An Officer and a Gentleman.
Keith had an early supporting role in the prison film Brubaker. He had supporting roles in The Rose, starring Bette Midler, and An Officer and a Gentleman, with Richard Gere. Keith played a local thug in The Great Santini, starred in The Lords of Discipline and White of the Eye, and held a prominent supporting role in U-571 opposite Matthew McConaughey. He played opposite child-star Drew Barrymore in the 1984 hit Firestarter and Brooke Shields in 1992's Running Wild.
Keith played Elvis Presley in the 1988 film Heartbreak Hotel. He directed The Curse and The Further Adventures of Tennessee Buck (in which he also starred). He appeared in the 1995 film The Indian in the Cupboard as the cowboy "Boo-Hoo" Boone. He played the leading role of Nate Springfield in the 2003 film Hangman's Curse. He also co-starred in The Class, an American sitcom, as Yonk Allen, a retired professional football player. Other roles include parts in Daredevil and the 2002 television film Carrie. He appeared in the 2004 film Raise Your Voice starring Hilary Duff, and the 2006 film Expiration Date.
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Dawna Stone
Dawna Stone is the founder and publisher of Her Sports magazine, aimed towards real women athletes. She was hired by Martha Stewart on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, which ran during the fall of 2005. Stone accepted Martha's job offer within Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia during the live series finale in New York on December 21, 2005.
Stone earned her M.B.A. at The Anderson School at UCLA and her B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Stone was one of the few contestants in the show to have a spotless record as Project Manager, winning every time during her three turns as PM.
Working with a background in independent niche magazine publishing, Stone served throughout 2006 as Vice President of Business Development for MSLO's recently acquired magazine, Body + Soul. This position came with a one-year, US$250,000 introductory contract.
At the end of the year she was given the opportunity to extend her time with MSLO with performance-based pay raises on her starting yearly salary, but she decided to go back to Florida and continue running Her Sports.
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Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry (born July 1, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers. Her acting career spans over thirty film roles and numerous television appearances.
Harry was born in Miami, Florida, and adopted by Catherine Harry and Richard Smith, gift shop proprietors in Hawthorne, New Jersey. She attended Hawthorne High School, where she graduated in 1963. She graduated from Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey, with an Associate of Arts degree in 1965.[citation needed] Before starting her singing career she moved to New York City in the late 1960s and worked as a secretary at BBC Radio's office there for one year. Later, she was a waitress at Max's Kansas City, a go-go dancer in Union City, New Jersey, discothèque,[citation needed] and a Playboy Bunny.
Deborah Harry began her musical career in the late '60s with the folk rock group The Wind in the Willows, that recorded one album for Capitol Records. Harry then joined The Stilettos, with Elda Gentile and Amanda Jones, in 1974. The Stilettos included her eventual boyfriend and Blondie guitarist Chris Stein. When Harry and Stein left the Stilettos, they formed Angel and the Snake, with Tish and Snooky Bellomo. Shortly thereafter, Harry and Stein formed Blondie, naming it for the term of address men often yelled at Harry when she bleached her hair. Blondie quickly became regulars at Max's Kansas City and CBGB in New York City. After a debut album in 1976, commercial success followed in the late 1970s to the early 1980s, first in Australia and Europe, then in the United States.
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Debby Boone
Deborah ("Debby") Anne Boone (born September 22, 1956) is an American singer and stage actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life," which spent a then record ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist the following year. Boone later focused her music career on country music resulting in the 1980 No. 1 country hit, "Are You on the Road to Lovin' Me Again". In the 1980s, she recorded Christian music which garnered her four top 10 Contemporary Christian albums as well as two more Grammys. Throughout her career, Boone has appeared in several musical theater productions and has co-authored many children's books with husband, Gabriel Ferrer.
Debby Boone was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, the third of four daughters born to singer-actor Pat Boone and Shirley Foley Boone, daughter of country music star Red Foley. When Boone was 14 years old, she began touring with her parents and three sisters: Cherry, Lindy and Laury. The sisters first recorded with their parents as The Pat Boone Family and later as the Boones or Boone Girls. They primarily recorded gospel music, although the sisters also released singles for the Motown and Curb labels that were remakes of secular pop music featuring Debby as the lead vocalist.
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Deborah Cox
Deborah Cox (born July 13, 1974) is a Canadian R&B singer-songwriter and actress. Her 1998 song "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" held the record for longest-running number one single on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart (14 weeks), a record held for nearly eight years. She has achieved eleven number-one hits on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart. She is often cited as Canada's top R&B artist.
Deborah Cox was born in Toronto to parents of Afro-Guyanese descent, grew up in Scarborough, Toronto and attended John XXIII Catholic Elementary School and Earl Haig Secondary School. She began singing for TV commercials at age 12, and entered various talent shows with the help of her mother. She performed in nightclubs as a teenager, and began to write music around the same time. Cox entered the music industry in the early 1990s, performing as a backup vocalist for Celine Dion for six months. After receiving many rejection letters from Canadian record labels that claimed their "quota" had been reached, Cox moved to Los Angeles in 1994 with producer and songwriting partner, Lascelles Stephens.
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Desmond Child
Desmond Child (born John Charles Barrett, October 28, 1953 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician, songwriter, and producer. He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
For nearly three decades, songwriter/producer Desmond Child has reigned as one of music's most successful creative forces. His list of accolades includes Grammy awards, 70 Top 40 singles, and songs that have sold over 300 million albums worldwide. His collaborations include Bon Jovi, Bonnie Tyler, Selena, Aerosmith, Scorpions, Ricky Martin, KISS, Kelly Clarkson, Dream Theater, Cher, Rosie Johnson and Alice Cooper. "Desmond's a chameleon," Aerosmith's Steven Tyler told Rolling Stone. "The first time we met, we wrote "Angel" in about an hour and 45 minutes - and I'm not bullshitting. The guy's a fucking genius."
Desmond Child was born in Gainesville, Florida, and raised in Miami and Ponce, Puerto Rico where his Cuban songwriter mother, Elena Casals taught him to play the piano at an early age. In high school, Child formed his first band. It was an acoustic collaboration with a high school friend. Child went on to attend Miami-Dade College. It was in Miami that he formed the group 'Desmond Child and Rouge' in 1973. Soon after, he moved the group to New York City to pursue their musical dreams. "My band Desmond Child and Rouge recorded two albums for Capitol in 1979 and we had a dance hit, "Our Love Is Insane", recalls Child. "But ultimately, we were doing something very different and urban. We weren't really understood by our label." "Our Love Is Insane" reached #50 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979.
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Diane Warren
Diane Eve Warren (born September 7, 1956), is an American songwriter. Her songs have received six Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, including one win, and seven Grammy Award nominations, including one win. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001. Her success in the US has been paralleled in the UK, where she has been rated the third most successful female artist. Peter Reichardt, former Chairman of EMI Music Publishing UK, commented; "She's the most important songwriter in the world."
She was the first songwriter in the history of Billboard to have seven hits, all by different artists, on the singles chart at the same time. Warren owns a publishing company, Realsongs, which gives her control over her compositions. Meanwhile, her songs have been featured in more than 70 films or television shows.
Warren was born in Van Nuys, California, where she said she felt misunderstood and "alien" as a Jewish kid growing up. She says she was rebellious as a child and told NPR's Scott Simon that she got into trouble and ran away as a teen but returned because she missed her cat. She began writing music when she was 14. "Music saved me", she said. Warren also has said that her mother asked her to give up her dream of a songwriting career and take a secretarial job. However, her father continued to believe in her and encouraged her. She wrote the song "Because You Loved Me" as a tribute to her father for his encouragement.
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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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Don Sebesky
Don Sebesky (b. December 10, 1937, Perth Amboy, New Jersey) is an American jazz trombonist, keyboardist and arranger.
Sebesky trained in trombone at the Manhattan School of Music; in his early career, he played with Kai Winding, Claude Thornhill, Tommy Dorsey, Warren Covington, Maynard Ferguson and Stan Kenton. In 1960 he began devoting himself primarily to arranging and conducting; one of his best-known arrangements was for Wes Montgomery's 1965 album Bumpin'. Other credits include George Benson's The Shape of Things to Come, Paul Desmond's From the Hot Afternoon and Freddie Hubbard's First Light. His song "Memphis Two-Step" was the title track of the Herbie Mann 1971 album of the same name. His 1973 release, Giant Box, hit #16 on the U.S. Billboard Jazz Albums chart.
He has worked with such orchestras as the London Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Pops, The New York Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic of London, and the Toronto Symphony.
He has been nominated for thirty-one GRAMMY Awards and won three Grammy Awards in the 1990s: Best Instrumental Arrangement for "Waltz for Debby" (1998) and "Chelsea Bridge" (1999), and Best Instrumental Composition for "Joyful Noise Suite" (1999). He also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations for Parade (1999) and Kiss Me, Kate (2000). He won a Tony award for Best Orchestrations in for the revival of Kiss Me, Kate (2000). Sebesky has also written a book, The Contemporary Arranger (1975).
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Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. (born June 14, 1946) is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have made him a well-known celebrity who was No. 17 on the 2011 Forbes Celebrity 100 list. He is well-known as a real-estate developer who amassed vast hotel, casino, and other real-estate properties, in the New York City area and around the world.
Trump is the son of Fred Trump, a wealthy New York City real-estate developer. He worked for his father's firm, Elizabeth Trump & Son, while attending the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1968 officially joined the company. He was given control of the company in 1971 and renamed it The Trump Organization.
In 2010, Trump expressed an interest in becoming a candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 election. In May 2011, he announced he would not be a candidate, but a few weeks later he said he had not completely ruled out the possibility. In December 2011, Trump was suggested as a possible Vice Presidential selection by Michele Bachmann. Bachmann has since suspended her presidential campaign.
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Eileen Heckart
Eileen Heckart (March 29, 1919 – December 31, 2001) was an American actress of film, stage, and television.
Heckart was born Anna Eileen Herbert in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Esther Stark, who wed Leo Herbert at her own mother's insistence so her child would not be born with the stigma of illegitimacy. The child was soon after legally adopted by her grandfather, J.W. Heckart, whose surname she was known by her whole life. She had two stepsisters, Anne and Marilyn. She graduated from Ohio State University with a B.A. in drama.
Heckart began her Broadway career as the assistant stage manager and an understudy for The Voice of the Turtle in 1943. Her many credits include Picnic, The Bad Seed, A View from the Bridge, A Memory of Two Mondays, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, A Family Affair, Barefoot in the Park, Butterflies Are Free, You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running, Ladies at the Alamo and The Cemetery Club. In 2000, at the age of 81, she appeared Off Broadway in Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery and received more awards for a single performance in a single season than any actress in theatre history, including The Drama Desk Award, The Lucille Lortel Award, The Drama League Award and The Outer Critics Circle Award. That same year, she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and received an honorary Tony Award for lifetime achievement. Her other awards include the 1953 Theatre World Award for Picnic. Her nominations include a 1996 Drama Desk Award for Northeast Local and Tony nominations for Butterflies Are Free (play), Invitation to a March, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. She was granted three honorary doctorates by Sacred Heart University, Niagara University and Ohio State University.
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Elizabeth Peña
Elizabeth Peña (born September 23, 1961) is an American actress and the daughter of a theater-company co-founder, who has also compiled experience as a television director in her own right.
Peña was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, daughter of Estella Margarita (née Toirac), an arts administrator and producer, and Mario Peña, the Cuban-born actor, writer, and director who jointly founded the Latin American Theatre Ensemble. It is unknown whether Peña was named after the town of her birth. Peña graduated from New York's High School of Performing Arts in 1977. Her classmates included Ving Rhames, alongside whom she would later co-star in Jacob's Ladder, and Esai Morales, alongside whom she would later co-star in La Bamba. She is also a founding member of the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors.
In 1979, Peña appeared in her first film, El Super, "an exceptionally moving and melancholy comedy about a family of lower-middle-class Cuban refugees attempting to adjust to life in Spanish Harlem.",New York City. Peña worked once again with film director, Leon Ichaso in his next feature Crossover Dreams opposite Ruben Blades.
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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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Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date.
In his four-decade career John has sold more than 250 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single "Candle in the Wind 1997" has sold over 33 million copies worldwide, and is the best selling single in Billboard history. He has more than 50 Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 56 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, four No. 2 hits, and nine No. 1 hits. He has won six Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.
John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Having been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, John received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998.
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Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus, 25 August 1954) is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader than that of most popular songs. His music has drawn on many diverse genres; one critic described him as a "pop encyclopaedia", able to "reinvent the past in his own image".
Costello has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male. In 2003, Elvis Costello & the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Costello was born Declan Patrick MacManus in St Mary's Hospital, London, the son of Lilian Alda (née Ablett, b. 1927, Liverpool) and Ross MacManus (1927–2011), a musician and bandleader. He is of Irish heritage. Costello lived in Twickenham, attending Hounslow Secondary Modern School, which is now St Mark's Catholic Secondary School, in neighbouring Hounslow. With a musically inclined father (who was a jazz trumpeter and sang with The Joe Loss Orchestra), Costello's first broadcast recording was alongside his dad in a television commercial for R. White's Lemonade (I'm a Secret Lemonade Drinker). His father wrote and sang the song; Costello provided backing vocals. The advertisement won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival.
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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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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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Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. She first came to prominence in 1987 in two BBC TV series, Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End. The following year Thompson garnered dual Academy Award nominations, as Best Actress for The Remains of the Day and as Best Supporting Actress for In the Name of the Father.
In 1995, Thompson scripted and starred in Sense and Sensibility, a film adaptation of the Jane Austen novel of the same name, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role among other awards. Other notable film and television credits have included the Harry Potter film series, Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Wit (2001), Love Actually (2003), Angels in America (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), Stranger than Fiction (2006), Last Chance Harvey (2008), An Education (2009) and Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010).
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Eric Bazilian
Eric M. Bazilian (born July 21, 1953), is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer, best known for being a founding member of the rock band The Hooters.
Eric Bazilian was born at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia to a father who was a psychiatrist and a mother who was a concert pianist.
He began playing the piano at age five, and his uncle taught him guitar at nine. He never took formal musical lessons. At the age of 10, while watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, Bazilian realized that playing and creating music was what he wished to pursue with his life.
At 16 years old, while attending Germantown Friends School, Bazilian started writing songs for his first band, Evil Seed. This band played all original music at "B-ins" at Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park.
By the mid 1970s, while attending the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, Bazilian met Rob Hyman and Rick Chertoff, with whom he formed a band called Baby Grand. They would release two albums during their tenure.
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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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Eric Trump
Eric Fredrick Trump (born January 6, 1984) is the third child of Donald J. Trump and Ivana Trump, and is executive vice president, real estate development and mergers and acquisitions, at The Trump Organization, Trump Tower. He is also the founder and chairman of The Eric Trump Foundation.
Trump was born in New York City. He has two full siblings, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, and two half-siblings, Tiffany, from his father's marriage to Marla Maples, as well as a younger half-brother, Barron, from his father's current marriage to Melania Knauss-Trump.
In 2002, Trump graduated from The Hill School, where he remains an active board member. He joined The Trump Organization in 2006, after graduating with honors from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with a degree in finance and management and minor in psychology.
As Executive Vice President of Development and Acquisitions, Trump is actively involved in all aspects of real estate development, both nationally and internationally. From acquisition and development to sales and marketing functions, he plays a pivotal role in more than 70 active real estate Trump projects around the world.
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Erin Burnett
Erin Isabelle Burnett (born July 2, 1976) is a journalist and news anchor, currently the anchor of her own news show on CNN, Erin Burnett OutFront. She was previously the co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk on the Street program and the host of CNBC's Street Signs program. Burnett has also appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, Today, MSNBC's Morning Joe, and NBC Nightly News, as well as occasional appearances on The Celebrity Apprentice serving as an advisor to Donald Trump. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Burnett has hosted a number of documentaries filmed outside of the United States: "India Rising: The New Empire", "The Russian Gamble", and "Dollars & Danger: Africa, The Final Investment Frontier. She has focused extensively on the Middle East as well, reporting live from across the region and hosting documentaries including: "On Assignment: Iraq", "Big Money & the Middle East", "City of Money and Mystery" and "The Forbidden Zone".
Burnett was born and raised in Mardela Springs, Maryland. She is the youngest daughter of corporate attorney Kenneth King Burnett and Esther Margaret (Stewart). She attended St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware, graduating in 1994, and returned in 2009 to deliver the commencement speech. Burnett attended Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she studied political science and economics, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in political economy. As an undergraduate, she played lacrosse and field hockey.
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Erwin Lauper
Erwin Lauper (born 14 June 1946 in Bern) is a Swiss wheelchair curler. He represents Bern CC, and began wheelchair curling in 1981.
He has competed at all World Championships since his first in 2005, and was also part of the Swiss team which finished sixth at the 2006 Paralympics.
Nationally, he won gold at the Swiss Championships in 2005, bronze in 2006, and gold in 2007.
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Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Spalding (born October 18, 1984) is an American multi-instrumentalist best known as a jazz bassist and singer, who draws upon many genres in her own compositions. In 2011, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 53rd Grammy Awards, making her the first jazz artist to win the award.
Spalding grew up in the King neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, a neighborhood she describes as "ghetto" and "pretty scary". Her mother raised her and her brother as a single parent. Spalding has a diverse ethnic background. Her father is African-American and her mother is of Welsh, Native American, and Hispanic descent. She also has an interest in the music of other cultures, including that of Brazil, commenting, "With Portuguese songs, the phrasing of the melody is intrinsically linked with the language, and it's beautiful."
Her mother shares Spalding's interest in music, having nearly become a touring singer herself. But while Spalding cites her mother as a powerful influence who encouraged her musical expansion, she attributes her inspiration for pursuing a life in music to watching classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood when she was four.
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Essra Mohawk
Essra Mohawk (born Sandra Elayne Hurvitz on 23 April 1948) is an American singer-songwriter who has recorded a dozen albums, many receiving critical acclaim. Her best known songs are "Change of Heart" recorded by Cyndi Lauper and "Stronger Than the Wind," recorded by Tina Turner.
Mohawk was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her first record, The Boy With The Way, credited to Jamie Carter, was issued on Liberty Records in 1964. As Sandy Hurvitz, she was then discovered by Shadow Morton, who placed her songs with both the Shangri-Las ("I'll Never Learn") and the Vanilla Fudge ("The Spell That Comes After"). While living in New York City in 1967 she met Frank Zappa, who persuaded her to perform for a short time with The Mothers of Invention and then signed her to his production company Bizarre. Her first album Sandy's Album Is Here At Last was released on Verve/Bizarre in December 1968.
In 1969 she was signed by Reprise Records after executive Mo Ostin discovered her singing at a club in New York. The resulting album, Primordial Lovers, was later stated as being "one of the best 25 albums ever made" in Rolling Stone magazine. The album featured contributions from CSN&Y drummer Dallas Taylor and former Rhinoceros members Doug Hastings and Jerry Penrod. Essra nearly joined Rhinoceros in its original line up. While recording the album, she married her producer Frazier Mohawk and from then on was known as Essra Mohawk. "Essra" (S-ra) is an abbreviated form of Sandra.
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Faye Tozer
Faye Louise Tozer (born 14 November 1975)[citation needed] is an English singer, songwriter and actress, famous for being a member of pop group Steps.
Steps were a pop group that achieved a series of charted singles between 1997 and 2001. Their name was based on a simple marketing gimmick: each of their music videos were choreographed, and the dance steps were included with most of their single releases. Steps formed on 7 May 1997 and disbanded on 26 December 2001. In total Steps sold over 25 million records, including 15 million albums, worldwide.
Since Steps split on 26 December 2001, Tozer has only returned to the pop charts once, duetting with Russell Watson, whom she met at a BBC Proms In The Park concert in 2001. Their UK single Someone Like You charted at #10 in May 2002 and she joined him on his extensive UK tour around the same time. In July 2006, Tozer was featured as a guest vocalist for Plastic Cinema for 2 songs: Take Me Under and Any Minute Now.
Ever since the band's break-up, rumours had been circulating that they would reunite in one form or another. In 2009, Lee Latchford-Evans revealed that the band had been approached to perform a series of concerts. He hinted that a future reunion was possible, but that "it isn't the right time right now".
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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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Gena Rowlands
Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands (born June 19, 1930) is an American actress of film, stage and television. The four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner is best known for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, in two of which, Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, she gave Academy Award-nominated performances.
Rowlands was born as Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Madison, Wisconsin. Her mother, Mary Allen (née Neal), was a painter and housewife originally from Arkansas. Her father, Edwin Myrwyn Rowlands, was a banker and a state legislator who was of Welsh descent. Her family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1939 when Edwin was appointed to a position in the United States Department of Agriculture; moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1942 when he was appointed as branch manager of the Office of Price Administration; and later moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. From 1947-50, she attended the University of Wisconsin, where she was a popular student already renowned for her beauty. She left for New York City to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
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Harvey Fierstein
Harvey Forbes Fierstein (born June 6, 1952) is an American actor and playwright, noted for the distinction of winning Tony Awards for both writing and originating the lead role in his long-running play Torch Song Trilogy, about a gay drag-performer and his quest for true love and family, as well as writing the award-winning book to the musical La Cage aux Folles. He has since become a champion for gay civil rights.
Fierstein was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jacqueline Harriet (née Gilbert), a school librarian, and Irving Fierstein, a handkerchief manufacturer. Raised Jewish, Fierstein is now an atheist.
Fierstein occasionally writes columns about gay issues. He was openly gay at a time when very few celebrities were. His careers as a stand-up comic and female impersonator are mostly behind him. Fierstein resides in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
The gravel-voiced actor is perhaps best known for the play and film Torch Song Trilogy, which he wrote and starred in both Off-Broadway (with the young Matthew Broderick) and on Broadway (with Estelle Getty and Fisher Stevens). The 1982 Broadway production won him two Tony Awards, for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play, two Drama Desk Awards, for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Actor in a Play, and the Theatre World Award, and the film adaptation earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Male Lead.
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Holly Robinson Peete
Holly Elizabeth Robinson Peete (born September 18, 1964) is an American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Judy Hoffs on the Fox TV police drama 21 Jump Street, Vanessa Russell on the ABC sitcom Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and Dr. Malena Ellis on the NBC/WB sitcom For Your Love. After graduating from high school, Peete entered Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She majored in psychology and French, and can speak four languages. During her time as an undergraduate, she spent a year abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. After she graduated in 1986, she considered attending graduate school and perhaps working in languages for the U.S. State Department. However, her love of acting contributed to her decision to give an acting career a chance for a few months first. Within a short time, Peete found roles on a television series and in two films, and thoughts of graduate school were left behind.
Peete served as one of the original five co-hosts of the CBS daytime talk show The Talk. She was not asked back for the show's second season for untold reasons.
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Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela (born April 4, 1939) is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer. He is the father of American television host Sal Masekela.
Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child. At age 14, after seeing the film Young Man With a Horn (in which Kirk Douglas plays a character modeled after American jazz trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke), he took up playing the trumpet. His first trumpet was given to him by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, the anti-apartheid chaplain at St. Peter's Secondary School.
Huddleston asked the leader of the then Johannesburg "Native" Municipal Brass Band, Uncle Sauda, to teach Masekela the rudiments of trumpet playing. Masekela quickly mastered the instrument. Soon, some of Masekela's schoolmates also became interested in playing instruments, leading to the formation of the Huddleston Jazz Band, South Africa's first youth orchestra. By 1956, after leading other ensembles, Masekela joined Alfred Herbert's African Jazz Revue.
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Hulk Hogan
Terry Gene Bollea (born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
Hogan enjoyed mainstream popularity in the mid 1980s through the early 1990s as the all-American character Hulk Hogan in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF—now WWE), and was notable in the mid-to-late 1990s as Hollywood Hogan, the villainous nWo leader, in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Following the closure of WCW, he made a brief return to WWE in the early 2000s before revising his heroic character by combining elements of his two most famous personas.
Hogan was later inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005. He is a 12-time world champion being a six-time WWF/WWE Champion, six-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, as well as a former WWE World Tag Team Champion with Edge. He won the Royal Rumble in 1990 and 1991, making him the first to win two consecutive Royal Rumbles. He was also the first WWE wrestler to win the WWE Championship three times. In his first reign as WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Hogan held the title for 469 days from July 17, 1994 to October 29, 1995—the longest ever reign for this championship.
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Iron Sheik
Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri (Persian:حسین خسرو علی وزیری) (born March 15, 1943) is a semi-retired Iranian professional wrestler and actor better known by his ring name The Iron Sheik. He is known for ending the near six-year World Wrestling Federation Championship reign of Bob Backlund, and for being the man Hulk Hogan defeated for his first WWF Championship.
A heel throughout the 1980s, he later gained popularity on Opie and Anthony, Kidd Chris, The Howard Stern Show, and on the internet due to his shoot interviews and outbursts on the wrestling industry and the hatred he expressed for various wrestlers.
Khosrow was born in Tehran, Iran. He made a name for himself as an amateur wrestler, and also worked as a bodyguard for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family for several years.
Khosrow competed to become part of the Iranian Olympic Greco Roman team for the 1968 Summer Olympics held in Mexico.
After this, he moved to the United States and became the assistant coach of two US Olympic squads in the 1970s. In 1971, he was the Amateur Athletic Union Greco-Roman wrestling champion at 183.5 pounds. He was assistant coach to the USA team for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
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Ivanka Trump
Ivanka Marie Trump (born October 30, 1981) is an American businesswoman, socialite, heiress, and fashion model. The daughter of Czech model Ivana Trump and American business magnate Donald Trump, she is Executive Vice President of Development & Acquisitions at The Trump Organization. She is one of the boardroom judges on her father's reality show The Apprentice.
Ivanka Trump attended The Chapin School in New York City, and graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. She spent two years at Georgetown University, then transferred to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating summa cum laude in 2004 with a B.S. in Economics.
Before joining the family business, Trump worked for Forest City Enterprises, and joined forces with Dynamic Diamond Corp., a diamond trading company sightholder, to design and introduce a line of jewelry at the brand's first flagship retail store called 'Ivanka Trump' on Madison Avenue. Trump is currently Executive Vice President of Development & Acquisitions at The Trump Organization.
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Jane Wiedlin
Jane Marie Genevieve Wiedlin (born May 20, 1958) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and actress. She is best known as the rhythm guitarist of the all-female New Wave band The Go-Go's.
Jane Wiedlin was born in Oconomowoc, Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Her father, an oral surgeon, was born in Chicago, Illinois and her mother was from Oconomowoc; they met at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Wiedlin spent her early childhood growing up in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is one of five children, with a sister and three brothers.
When Jane was six, her father took a job with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs at a VA Hospital in Los Angeles, California and her family followed in tow. Soon after arriving in California, Wiedlin's mother cut Jane's waist-long hair to her signature pixie cut hairstyle, due to Wiedlin's becoming an active swimmer now that she lived in a warmer climate.[citation needed] Wiedlin loved watching Star Trek with her family when it first aired on television and is a life-long fan to this day.
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Janet Perr
Janet Perr is an art director, graphic designer, author and illustrator.
She has designed record covers, advertisements, posters, CD packages and book covers and is now the creator of the books Yiddish For Dogs (Hyperion, Sept. 2007), Hip-Hop For Dogs (Simon & Schuster, 2008) and the Yiddish For Babies (Simon & Schuster 2009).
Perr won a Grammy Award for the art direction and design of Cyndi Lauper's debut album She's So Unusual. She has worked with artists such as The Rolling Stones, Run-DMC and Devo. She has also been acknowledged with numerous art directors awards and her work has been featured in the books "Designing For Music" and "1001 Covers".
She attended the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and subsequently moved to New York where she was a designer at CBS Records and then Associate Art Director at Rolling Stone magazine. Since her stint at Rolling Stone magazine, she has been freelancing and working on her books.
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Jason Mraz
Jason Mraz ( /məˈræz/; born June 23, 1977 in Mechanicsville, Virginia) is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, Mr. A-Z, in 2005, that Mraz achieved major commercial success. The album peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and sold over 100,000 copies in the US. In 2008, Mraz released his third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and was a commercial success worldwide, peaking in the top ten of many international charts.
Mraz's international breakthrough came with the release of the single "I'm Yours" from the album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. The single peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Mraz his first top ten single. The song was on the Hot 100 for 76 weeks, beating the previous record of 69 weeks held by LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live". The song was a huge commercial success in the US, receiving a 5x platinum certification from the RIAA for sales of over five million. The song was successful internationally, topping the charts in New Zealand and Norway and peaking in the top ten of multiple international charts.
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Jean Smart
Jean E. Smart (born September 13, 1951) is an American film, television, and stage actress. She is known for her comedic roles, one of the best known being her role as Charlene Frazier Stillfield on the CBS sitcom Designing Women. She later gained critical acclaim for dramatic work, with her portrayal of Martha Logan on 24. Smart recently appeared as Regina Newly on the ABC sitcom Samantha Who? from 2007-09, which garnered the actress an Emmy Award in 2008. She played Governor Pat Jameson during the first season of the CBS-TV remake of Hawaii Five-0.
Smart was born in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of Kay and Douglas Smart, a teacher. The second of four children, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was thirteen. She is a 1969 graduate of Ballard High School, located in Seattle; it was there that she gained an interest in acting in the drama program. She graduated from the University of Washington Professional Actors Training Program with a BFA. Smart is a member of the University of Washington chapter of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
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Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds (Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page are the other two). Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice.
Much of Beck's recorded output has been instrumental, with a focus on innovative sound and his releases have spanned genres ranging from blues-rock, heavy metal, jazz fusion and an additional blend of guitar-rock and electronica. Although he recorded two hit albums (in 1975 and 1976) as a solo act, Beck has not established or maintained the sustained commercial success of many of his contemporaries and bandmates. Beck appears on albums by Mick Jagger, Kate Bush, Roger Waters, Donovan, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Zucchero, Cyndi Lauper, Brian May and ZZ Top. In 1988, he made a cameo appearance in the movie Twins.
He was ranked 5th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and the magazine has described him as "one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock".MSNBC has called him a "guitarist's guitarist". Beck has earned wide critical praise and received the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance six times and Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance once. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of The Yardbirds (1992) and as a solo artist (2009).
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Jeff Goldblum
Jeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum (born October 22, 1952) is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly, Jurassic Park and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Independence Day. He starred as Detective Zach Nichols for the eighth and ninth seasons of the USA Network's crime drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Goldblum was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Homestead, Pennsylvania, the son of Shirley S. (née Temeles), a radio broadcaster who later ran a kitchen equipment and appliances sales firm, and Harold L. Goldblum, a medical doctor. He has a sister, Pamela, and an older brother, Lee. Another older brother, Rick, died at age 23. His family is Jewish and belonged to an Orthodox synagogue.
Goldblum's parents were interested in show business. Goldblum moved to New York City at 17 to become an actor. Goldblum worked on the stage and studied acting at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse under the guidance of acting coach Sanford Meisner. He made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical Two Gentlemen of Verona. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist and declared that if he did not act, he would have become a professional musician. He made his film debut as a thug in the 1974 Charles Bronson film Death Wish. He briefly appeared as a protester in the TV movie Columbo A Case of Immunity (1975).
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Jessica Simpson
Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10, 1980) is an American recording artist, actress, television personality and fashion designer whose rise to fame began in 1999. Since that time, Simpson has achieved many recording milestones, starred in several television shows, movies and commercials, launched a line of hair and beauty products and designed fragrances, shoes and handbags for women. She has devoted time to philanthropic efforts including Operation Smile and a USO-hosted tour for troops stationed overseas. She started the Jessica Simpson Collection in 2005.
She has achieved seven Billboard Top 40 hits, three gold and two multi-platinum Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified studio albums, four of which have reached the top 10 on the US Billboard 200. She has sold 30 million albums worldwide. Simpson starred with her then-husband Nick Lachey in the MTV reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica. She ventured into the country music market in 2008 and released Do You Know.
During the first part of 2010, Simpson released her second reality show on VH1 "The Price of Beauty." In October 2010 she released her first compilation album and last album under the label of Epic Records , with the name Playlist: The Very Best of Jessica Simpson. A month later she released her second Christmas album Happy Christmas under the label Primary Wave Records, owned by EMI.
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Joan Armatrading
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, MBE (born 9 December 1950) is a British singer, songwriter and guitarist. Armatrading is a three-time Grammy Award-nominee and has been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She also received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection in 1996. In a recording career spanning 40 years she has released a total of 17 studio albums, as well as several live albums and compilations.
Joan Armatrading was born in Basseterre, on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts, in 1950, as the third of six children. Her mother was born in Antigua and her father was from Saint Kitts. When she was three, her parents moved with their two eldest boys to Birmingham, England, and she lived with her grandmother on Antigua. She joined her parents in a district of Birmingham in early 1958, at the age of seven. Her father had played in a band in his youth, later forbidding his children from touching his guitar. Armatrading began writing lyrics and music at the age of 14 on a piano that her mother had purchased as "a piece of furniture". Shortly thereafter her mother bought her a £3 guitar from a pawn shop in exchange for two prams, and the younger Armatrading began teaching herself the instrument.
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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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Joan Rivers
Joan Alexandra Molinsky (born June 8, 1933), better known by her stage name Joan Rivers, is an American television personality, comedian, and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries. Rivers' comic style relies heavily on her ability to poke fun at herself and other Hollywood celebrities.
Joan Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants Beatrice (née Grushman; January 6, 1906 – October 1975) and Meyer C. Molinsky (December 7, 1900 – January 1985). She was raised in Brooklyn, New York, and her family later moved to Larchmont, in Westchester County, New York. She attended Connecticut College between 1950 and 1952 and graduated from Barnard College in 1954 with a bachelor-of-arts degree in English literature and anthropology. Before entering show business, Rivers worked at various jobs such as a tour guide at Rockefeller Center, a writer/proofreader at an advertising agency and as a fashion consultant at Bond Clothing Stores. During this period, the agent Tony Rivers advised her to change her name, so she chose Joan Rivers as her stage name.
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Jody Watley
Jody Vanessa Watley (born January 30, 1959) is an American, singer, songwriter, record producer, and one of the defining iconic artists of the 80's whose music crosses genres from Pop, R&B, Jazz, Dance and Electronic Soul. In 1987, she won the Grammy Award for "Best New Artist." Along with Janet Jackson and Madonna, she ranks as one of MTV Video Music Awards most nominated female artists ever, with six nominations for her ‘Real Love’ video.
To date, she is best known for her role in being a pioneer setting trends and standards for dance, style, music and video. Early in her solo career she was also noted for her commercial dance pop stylings with a funky edge. Jody Watley is also noted as being the first Pop/R&B singer to include a rapper on the specialized verse/bridge with their collaboration on "Friends" featuring Eric B. & Rakim, which would become a popular formula in commercial Pop/R&B/Hip-Hop.
Watley has sold over 50 million albums and singles Worldwide. In 2008, she was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Billboard magazine, and was also prominently featured in the historic black issue of Vogue Italia in 2008.
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John Legend
John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer-songwriter and actor. He has won nine Grammy Awards, and in 2007, he received the special Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Prior to the release of his debut album, Stephens' career gained momentum through a series of successful collaborations with multiple established artists. Stephens added his voice to those of other artists, assisting in them reaching chart-topper hits. He lent his voice to Kanye West's All of the Lights, on Slum Village's "Selfish" and Dilated Peoples' "This Way". Other artists included Jay-Z's "Encore", and he sang backing vocals on Alicia Keys' 2003 song "You Don't Know My Name" and Fort Minor's "High Road." Stephens played piano on Lauryn Hill's "Everything Is Everything."
Stephens was born on December 28, 1978, in Springfield, Ohio. He is the son of Phyllis, a seamstress, and John Mills, a factory worker and former National Guardsman. Throughout his childhood, Stephens was homeschooled on and off by his mother. At the age of four, he began playing the piano and at the age of seven, he performed with his church choir. When he was ten, his parents divorced, causing his mother to suffer a breakdown. At the age of 12, Stephens attended North High School, from which he graduated four years later. He graduated salutatorian.
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John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founder members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Together with Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved as a teenager in the skiffle craze; his first band, The Quarrymen, evolved into The Beatles in 1960. As the group disintegrated towards the end of the decade, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to raising his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new album Double Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release.
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John Turturro
John Michael Turturro (born February 28, 1957) is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing (1989), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Quiz Show (1994), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and the Transformers film series. He has appeared in over sixty films, and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler and Spike Lee.
Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Katherine, an amateur jazz singer who worked in a Navy yard during World War II, and Nicholas Turturro, a carpenter and construction worker who fought as a Navy sailor in D-Day. Turturro's mother was Sicilian (from Aragona near Agrigento) and his father emigrated from Giovinazzo, Bari, Italy at the age of six. Turturro was raised a Roman Catholic and moved to the Rosedale section of Queens, New York with his family when he was six. He majored in drama at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and completed his MFA at the Yale School of Drama. He first appeared on film working as an extra in Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed Raging Bull (1980).
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Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson; November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto. In 1965 she moved to the United States and, touring constantly, began to be recognized when her original songs ("Urge for Going," "Chelsea Morning," "Both Sides, Now," "The Circle Game") were covered by notable folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her own debut album in 1968. Settling in Southern California, Mitchell and her popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock" helped define an era and a generation. Her more starkly personal 1971 recording Blue has been called one of the best albums ever made. Musically restless, Mitchell switched labels and began moving toward jazz rhythms by way of lush pop textures on 1974's Court and Spark, her best-selling LP, featuring her radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris."
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José Feliciano
José Feliciano (born September 10, 1945) is a Puerto Rican singer, virtuoso guitarist and composer known for many international hits including the 1970 Christmas single "Feliz Navidad".
Feliciano was born in Lares, Puerto Rico, on September 10, 1945. Left permanently blind at birth as a result of congenital glaucoma, Feliciano was first exposed to music at age three and would play on a tin cracker can while accompanying his uncle playing the Cuatro. When he was five, his family moved to Spanish Harlem, New York City, and at age nine, he played the Teatro Puerto Rico in the Bronx. He started his musical life playing the accordion until his father and family friend, Benjamin Borges, gave him his first guitar in a brown paper bag. He played every chance he had by himself in his room for up to 14 hours a day listening to 1950s rock'n'roll records, classical guitarists such as Andrés Segovia, and jazz players such as Wes Montgomery. He later had classical lessons with Harold Morris, who earlier had been a student of Segovia.
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Judith Light
Judith Ellen Light (born February 9, 1949) is an American actress. Her television roles include Karen Wolek on the soap opera One Life to Live, Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, Claire Meade on ABC's TV series Ugly Betty and Judge Elizabeth "Liz" Donnelly on Law & Order Special Victims Unit. She is currently appearing on Broadway as Silda in Other Desert Cities.
Light was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the daughter of Pearl Sue (née Hollander), a model, and Sidney Light, an accountant. Light graduated from high school in 1966 at St. Mary's Hall-Doane Academy, now Doane Academy, in Burlington, New Jersey. She graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a degree in drama. She recalled the university as "rigorous" and "amazing". Afterwards, she started out on stage, making her professional debut in Richard III at the California Shakespeare Festival in 1970, before moving to Broadway to star in A Doll's House in 1975. She also starred in the 1976 Broadway play Herzl. Light also acted for such theatre companies as the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and the Seattle Repertory Theatre. In the late 1970s, Light went through a real crisis after a period of not landing any parts. Broke, she almost quit acting, because she felt that she was not contributing to the theater.
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Judy Garland
Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress, singer and vaudevillian. Renowned for her contralto voice, she attained international stardom through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award, as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the remake of A Star is Born and for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1961 film, Judgment at Nuremberg. At 39 years of age, she remains the youngest recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry.
After appearing in vaudeville with her two older sisters, Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, she was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a return to acting beginning with critically acclaimed performances.
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Jules Shear
Jules Mark Shear (born 1952) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Shear has had only one minor hit as a performer ("Steady", which reached number 57 on the US charts in 1985). His most significant role has been that of a songwriter, and several other notable artists have had chart success with songs Shear wrote.
Shear was born in Pittsburgh in 1952.
Shear attended the University of Pittsburgh. He had distinguished himself with the Pitt Glee Club where he led a special side ensemble called Wooden Music, which used acoustic instruments, in a foreshadowing of his "Unplugged" concept. One of his noted songs of the time, which he performed in concerts with the glee club, was "Always in the Morning." He left Pitt after three years in 1973, and headed to Los Angeles to pursue a music career.
Shear is married to singer/songwriter Pal Shazar.
Shear has recorded almost 20 albums to date. He made his first appearance on vinyl with Funky Kings; he also led the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful pop group, Jules and the Polar Bears, along with later groups Reckless Sleepers and Raisins in the Sun. He also conceived (and hosted the first 13 episodes of) the MTV series Unplugged.
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Julia Stiles
Julia O'Hara Stiles (born March 28, 1981) is an American actress.
After beginning her career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and David Mamet. Her film career has included both commercial and critical successes, ranging from teen romantic comedies such as 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) to dark art house pictures such as The Business of Strangers (2001). She is also known for playing the supporting character Nicky Parsons in the Bourne film series and the leading role in Save the Last Dance, and for her role in Mona Lisa Smile. She guest starred as Lumen Pierce in the fifth season of the Showtime series Dexter, a role that earned her Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations.
Stiles was born in New York City, the eldest of three children. Her mother, Judith Newcomb Stiles, is a potter, and her father, John O'Hara, is a businessman. Stiles has English, Irish, and Italian ancestry. She started acting at age eleven, performing with New York's La MaMa Theatre Company.
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Julian Sands
Julian M. Sands (born 4 January 1958) is an English actor, known for his roles in the Best Picture nominee The Killing Fields, the cult film Warlock, A Room with a View, Arachnophobia, Vatel, the television series 24 and as Jor-El in the television series Smallville.
Sands began his film career appearing in supporting roles, including parts in the 1984 films Oxford Blues and The Killing Fields. He was cast as the romantic lead in the 1985 film A Room with a View, the success of which prompted Sands to move to Hollywood in 1987 and pursue a career in American films. He has since appeared in a variety of both low-tier and higher-budget films, including the title role in the 1989 horror film Warlock and the 1993 sequel Warlock: The Armageddon, and parts in films such as Arachnophobia, Boxing Helena and Leaving Las Vegas. He has done voice-overs as Valmont in the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon for Seasons 1 and 2 before being replaced by British actors Andrew Ableson and Greg Ellis for the other seasons. He played Erik aka The Phantom in the horror version of The Phantom of the Opera in 1998.
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Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez, (born Donald Paul Mattern, August 24, 1949,Lancaster, Pennsylvania), is an American club DJ and remixer/producer.
Mattern moved to New York as a young adult in 1971 with ambitions of becoming a fashion designer, even briefly attending Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and working as a hairdresser for a while.[citation needed] However, Mattern soon became fascinated with NYC nightlife especially with the work of DJ Larry Levan at The Paradise Garage[citation needed]. After adopting the pseudonym "Junior Vasquez", he commenced his career in music production in the 1980s. Vasquez began to work with DJ and pop remixer/producer Shep Pettibone, and together they co-produced and edited numerous singles from such artists as Madonna, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, MC Hammer, Prince, Pet Shop Boys and others. It wasn't long before Vasquez landed a brief residency at Club Bassline, where he began to make a name for himself as a live DJ.
Many of Junior Vasquez's earliest underground hits were released under the name "Ellis D," including the seminal gay house track, "Work This Pussy." Vasquez also released the tracks "Just Like a Queen," "My Lolleata," "It's Scratched," and "Took my Love Away" under the name "Ellis D." The style of the tracks release under the pseudonym "Ellis D" are largely credited today with having influenced the sound of house music generally, and particularly the sound of most all subsequent "gay" house singles.
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Kat Deluna
Kathleen Emperatriz "Kat" DeLuna (born November 17, 1987) is a Dominican American pop singer. DeLuna has a soprano vocal range. Her debut single, "Whine Up", reached the top ten in Belgium and France, peaked inside the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. Her debut album, 9 Lives, was released in 2007. It peaked at number fifty-eight on the Billboard 200 and charted within the top twenty of Belgium and Poland. In 2008, DeLuna began work on her second studio album, Inside Out. It was released in Belgium in 2010, peaking at number sixteen.
In 2007, DeLuna won "Best New Artist" at the Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2007 awards. In 2008, she won "Best New Artist" and "Best Urban Artist" at the TMF Awards. DeLuna's single, "Whine Up", won the award for "Latin Dance Club Play Track Of The Year" at the 2008 Latin Billboard Music Awards. She also won a Casandra Award in 2008 for "Best International Artist".
Kat DeLuna was born on November 17, 1987, in the Bronx borough of New York City, USA. At a young age, DeLuna and her family moved to the Dominican Republic. When she was 12, DeLuna performed onstage and was heard by Milly Quezada who commended her vocals. Friends and family recognized her talent at an early age, but it was not until she moved back to the United States at age 14, to Newark, New Jersey, that DeLuna realized her potential as a singer. She attended Benjamin Franklin Elementary in Newark, and was taught by Nicholas Straus. DeLuna then attended the Newark Arts High School, which was the only school she applied to. While there, DeLuna and her friends formed an R&B group called Coquette. DeLuna had a tough upbringing and was raised in poverty. She spent her time listening to Aretha Franklin and Billie Holiday records, which she imitated daily on her karaoke machine.
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Katie Noonan
Katie Anne Noonan (born 2 May 1977) is an Australian singer-songwriter. In addition to a successful solo career encompassing opera, jazz, pop, rock and dance, she sings in the groups george and Elixir, duets with her mother, Maggie Noonan and is currently playing with support from the group The Captains.
Katie Noonan grew up with a strong background in classical music with her mother, Maggie Noonan, being a well-known opera singer. She studied opera and jazz at the Queensland Conservatorium.[citation needed]
After graduation, Noonan began fronting the pop-rock group george along with her brother Tyrone Noonan. In 2002, the group's debut release Polyserena opened at No. 1 on the ARIA albums chart, instantly establishing Katie as a star.
Noonan founded the band george with her brother Tyrone Noonan, with whom she shares lead vocals, in 1996 to enter a university music competition. After a series of successful independently released EPs, they signed to Festival Mushroom Records and released the debut album Polyserena in 2002, which entered the ARIA charts at #1. george won the Best New Artist ARIA award in 2003, performing Breathe In Now at the ceremony.
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Kelly Osbourne
Kelly Michelle Lee Osbourne (born 27 October 1984) is an English media personality, television personality, host, fashion designer, singer and actress, best known for being the daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. She was thrust into the limelight after appearing on the reality series The Osbournes with her family, for which they won a 2002 Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Programme. She has also appeared on Dancing with the Stars, in which she and professional dance partner Louis van Amstel took third place, and has made forays into music, acting, theatre, writing, columnist and broadcast presenting.
Osbourne was born in Westminster, London. She has an elder sister, Aimee, and a younger brother, Jack. She has two half-siblings: Jessica Hobbs and Louis John Osbourne from Ozzy's first marriage. She had an unofficially "adopted" brother, Robert Marcato, whom Sharon and Ozzy took in after Marcato's mother died. Kelly grew up travelling with her father as he went on tour, and lived in more than 20 homes between the UK and the US.
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Kelly Perdew
Kelly Crawford Perdew (born January 29, 1967 in Lexington) is an American businessman and winner of The Apprentice 2.
Perdew was born in Lexington, Kentucky and was raised in Florida and Wyoming. Prior to winning the show, he was president of CoreObjects, a software development outsourcing company based in Los Angeles.
Perdew attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in national security and public affairs in 1989, graduating as the number one ranked cadet in his field of study and in the top 5% of his overall class.
After West Point, Perdew went on to receive Ranger and Airborne training. In addition to his regular studies at West Point, Perdew interned with the House Armed Services Committee, spent a semester on "exchange" at the Naval Academy, and was a finalist in the Rhodes Scholar competition. He served in the United States Army as a military intelligence officer for three years.
After his honorable discharge as a First Lieutenant, Perdew attended graduate schools at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), earning a joint JD/MBA degree from the UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Anderson School of Management, respectively, in 1995. He chose not to practice law after graduation, although during law school he worked part time at the firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
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Kendra Todd
Kendra Todd (born April 6, 1978) is a real estate agent in Seattle, Washington. In 2005, she was the winner of season 3 of NBC's The Apprentice. She was the first female candidate, and the youngest, to be hired on the U.S. Apprentice.
Todd is a native of Virginia Beach, Virginia, now living in Seattle, Washington. Prior to becoming a candidate for the third season of The Apprentice, she was a successful real estate broker from Boynton Beach, Florida. At the time the show was recorded and produced, she was 26 years old.
She received bachelor's degree in linguistics from the University of Florida. Prior to her career as a real estate broker, Todd launched a magazine called Capture Life Magazine featuring southern Florida lifestyle, which won the Florida Magazine Association Award for design.
Although Todd was one of the last candidates to become a project manager, she gave a very solid performance in this field, ending the show with a record of 3-0. She used focus groups to effectively pinpoint what potential customers would respond to, and also gave everyone credit where credit was due.
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Kim Kardashian
Kimberly Noel "Kim" Kardashian (born October 21, 1980) is an American socialite, celebutante, television personality, model, actress and businesswoman. She is known for starring in Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the E! reality series that she shares with her family, and its spin-offs including Kourtney and Kim Take New York.
Prior to the development of her career as a reality television star, Kardashian gained notoriety as the subject of a sex tape that subsequently resulted in a court awarding her $5 million. She has been involved in the production of several lines of clothing and fragrances. In 2010, she was the highest earning reality star, with estimated earnings of $6 million, and is one of the most highly documented and followed celebrities in the world in popular media.
In August 2011, Kardashian married basketball player Kris Humphries in a widely publicized ceremony. In October 2011, Kardashian filed for divorce, 72 days after the wedding.
Kardashian was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of attorney Robert Kardashian and his wife Kris Kardashian (née Houghton). Her father was a third generation Armenian American, and her mother is of Dutch and Scottish descent. Kardashian has two sisters, Kourtney and Khloé, and one brother, Robert. She has stepbrothers Burton Jenner, Brandon Jenner, and reality TV star Brody Jenner, step-sister Casey Jenner, and half-sisters Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner. She attended Marymount High School.
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Kleerup
Andreas Kleerup, known professionally by his last name, is a Swedish record producer, drummer, and member of the Swedish group The Meat Boys, from Stockholm, Sweden. His first mainstream collaboration was as the producer of fellow Swedish artist Robyn's #1 UK single, "With Every Heartbeat", also included on Kleerup's self titled debut album. He is currently in his own band called Me and my army which in 2011 released their debut album "Thank God for sending me demons"
He wrote and produced the song "Lay Me Down" with Cyndi Lauper for her 2008 album Bring Ya to the Brink. An instrumental version of the song appears on Kleerup's album under the title "Thank You for Nothing". The title was believed to be inspired by Kleerup's anger with Cyndi Lauper for not allowing her version to appear on his album, but this was later confirmed as a false rumor in an interview. Turns out the song was originally made before he gave it to Cyndi Lauper, and he decided to use the original version on his album instead.
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Larry Blackmon
Larry Ernest Blackmon (born May 24, 1956) is the lead singer and frontman for the funk and R&B band, Cameo. He came to Cameo from the band, Black Ivory.
Along with his unique vocal style, Blackmon's other personal touches included sporting an elaborate hi-top fade haircut and a codpiece over his pants. His signature "ow!" was used as the intro for some of the band's songs and was sampled in Black Box's 1990 dance hit, "Everybody Everybody".
Blackmon appeared as a backing vocalist on Cyndi Lauper's 1989 album, A Night to Remember. He also had co-producer credits for Eddie Murphy's 1989 album So Happy.
The snare drum sound that Blackmon created for "Word Up!" and "Candy" was duplicated on releases by a wide range of artists.
One of his sons is heavily involved in the New York political scene, while another son is currently involved in the hip hop music industry.[citation needed]
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Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actress.
Early in her career, she established her reputation as a member of the Fugees. In 1998, she launched her solo career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The recording earned Hill 5 Grammy Awards, including the coveted Album of the Year and Best New Artist.
Following the success of her debut album, Hill largely dropped out of public view, in part due to her displeasure with fame and the music industry. After a four-year hiatus, she released MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, a live recording of "deeply personal songs" performed mostly solo with an acoustic guitar. In more recent years, she has recorded songs for soundtracks and mixtapes, as well as performing live at several music festivals. Hill has 6 children, five of whom are with Rohan Marley, one of reggae musician Bob Marley's sons.
Lauryn Hill was born in South Orange, New Jersey of Haitian and African-American descent,[citation needed] the second of two children born to high school English teacher Valerie Hill and computer programmer Mal Hill. As a child, Hill listened to her parents' Motown 1960s soul records. Music was a central part of the Hill home. Mal Hill sang at weddings, Valerie played the piano, and Lauryn's older brother Malaney played the saxophone, guitar, drums, harmonica, and piano. In 1988, Hill appeared as an Amateur Night contestant on It's Showtime at the Apollo. She sang her own version of Smokey Robinson's song "Who's Lovin' You?", where she was booed tremendously, but persevered and ended up with audience applause.
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LeAnn Rimes
Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982), best known as LeAnn Rimes, is an American country/pop singer. She is known for her rich vocals and her rise to fame as an eight-year-old champion on the original Ed McMahon version of Star Search, followed by the release of the Bill Mack song "Blue" when she was 13 to become the youngest country music star since Tanya Tucker in 1972.
Rimes made her breakthrough into country music in 1996 with her debut album, Blue, which reached #1 on the Top Country Albums chart and was certified multiplatinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's eponymous leadoff single, "Blue," was originally intended to be recorded by Patsy Cline in the early 1960s. It became a Top 10 hit and Rimes gained national acclaim for her similarity to Cline's vocal style. When she released her sophomore studio effort in 1997, You Light up My Life: Inspirational Songs, she moved towards country pop material, which set the trend for a string of albums released into the next decade.
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Leona Lewis
Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer and songwriter. Lewis came to prominence in 2006 when she won the third series of the British television series The X Factor.
Lewis has released two albums to date, Spirit and Echo, in 2007 and 2009 respectively. A multi-platinum selling artist and three-time Grammy Award nominee, her most successful single, "Bleeding Love", reached number one in over thirty countries around the world, and was the best-selling single worldwide in 2008. Other notable singles include "Better in Time", "Happy" and "I Got You". She was proclaimed 'Top New Artist' by Billboard magazine in 2008.
Lewis's debut tour, The Labyrinth, took place in 2010, and her third album, Glassheart, is scheduled for release in 2012. It was preceded by "Collide", a single from the album, which became her seventh top-five hit in the United Kingdom. Lewis's net worth was estimated at £12 million in April 2012.
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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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Lou Albano
Louis Vincent "Captain Lou" Albano (July 29, 1933 – October 14, 2009) was an Italian-American professional wrestler, manager and actor. He was active as a professional wrestler from 1953 until 1969, then he became a manager, until 1995.
Throughout his 42-year career, Albano guided 15 different tag teams and four singles competitors to championship gold. Albano was part of the "Triumvirate of Terror," a threesome of nefarious WWF managers that also included The Grand Wizard of Wrestling and Fred Blassie. The trio would be fixtures in the company for a decade, until the Grand Wizard's death in 1983.
A unique showman, with an elongated beard, rubber band facial piercings, and loud outfits, Albano was the forefather of the 1980s Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection. Collaborating with Cyndi Lauper, Albano helped usher in wrestling's crossover success with a mainstream audience. Capitalizing on his success, he later ventured into Hollywood with various television, film, and music projects.
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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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Luc Plamondon
Luc Plamondon, OC, CQ (born 2 March, 1942 in Saint-Raymond, Quebec) is a French-Canadian lyricist.
Plamondon has written for many artists, notably the Québécois singers Bruno Pelletier, Diane Dufresne, Robert Charlebois, Céline Dion, Ginette Reno, Fabienne Thibeault, Martine St. Clair, and Garou, as well as the French singers Julien Clerc, Nicole Croisille and Johnny Halliday. He is the co-author of a number of musicals. The two most successful are Starmania (music composed by Michel Berger) and Notre-Dame de Paris (music composed by Riccardo Cocciante). Also of note is Cindy: Cendrillon 2000.
He was inspired to write a hymn in Huguette Gaulin Bergeron’s honor, after her self-immolation. The hymn, entitled Hymne à la beaute du monde, has since been sung by numerous famous French-Canadian artists such as Diane Dufresne, Isabelle Boulay, Garou, and Éric Lapointe.
Although his music is full of anglicisms, and he has accepted honours from Canadian institutions, Plamondon is a francophone nationalist and Quebec sovereigntist. He is opposed to Internet music piracy. He used his acceptance speech for a 1983 Félix Award to denounce copyright law.
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Luke Snyder
Luciano Eduardo "Luke" Snyder is a fictional character from the American daytime drama As the World Turns. Actor Van Hansis is most recognized for his portrayal of Luke from his debut in December 2005 until the series finale in September 2010.
Luke was born to Lily Walsh and Damian Grimaldi, and was subsequently raised by Lily and Holden Snyder (see Holden Snyder and Lily Walsh). When Luke became a teenager, he came out to his parents Lily and Holden that he was gay. Eventually they accepted him. He is also part of Daytime's first ever gay supercouple, Luke Snyder and Noah Mayer, also known as "Nuke" (Noah, Luke).
The role of Luke Snyder was acted by several child actors from his debut in 1995 until 2001, when the character was SORASed with actor, Christopher Tavani. In March 2005, actor Jake Weary stepped into the role of a once again SORASed character of Luke.
Weary announced his decision to leave the series; this announcement lead to rumors of the actor and his mother, Guiding Light actress Kim Zimmer leaving due to the character's upcoming coming out storyline. Zimmer denied such rumors, simply stating that Weary, who at the time was 15, wouldn't be able to dedicate the time needed for the storyline. He instead decided to focus on his school work.
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Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell (born 13 June 1943) is an English actor, whose career spans more than four decades.
McDowell is known for his early roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange, and Caligula. Since then, his versatility as an actor has led to varied roles in films and television series of different genres, including Tank Girl, Star Trek Generations, the TV serial Our Friends in the North, Entourage, Heroes, Metalocalypse, the animated movie Bolt, the 2007 remake of Halloween and its sequel, and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. He is also well known for his narration of the seminal 1982 documentary The Compleat Beatles.
McDowell was born Malcolm John Taylor in Horsforth, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, now a part of the City of Leeds, the son of Edna (née McDowell), a hotelier, and Charles Taylor, a publican. His family later moved to Bridlington, since his father was in the Royal Air Force. McDowell trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).
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Marc Cohn
Marc Craig Cohn (born July 5, 1959) is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and musician.
Cohn was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Beachwood High School in Beachwood, a Cleveland suburb. He then attended Oberlin College.
Cohn is married to ABC News journalist Elizabeth Vargas, whom he met at the 1999 U.S. Open after being introduced by Andre Agassi. They have two sons: Zachary Raphael, who was born on January 31, 2003, and Samuel Wyatt, who was born on August 16, 2006. Cohn has two other children from a previous marriage, a son, Max and a daughter, Emily.
On August 7, 2005, Cohn was shot in the head during an attempted carjacking in Denver, Colorado, following a concert with Suzanne Vega. The bullet struck him in the temple but did not penetrate his skull. Cohn was hospitalized and released the next day. His remaining concerts on the tour were canceled.
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Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and singer-songwriter. Cho, of Korean descent, is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race and sexuality. She has also directed and appeared in music videos and has her own clothing line. She has frequently supported LGBT rights and has won awards for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of women, Asians, and the LGBT community.
As an actress she has played more serious parts, such as Charlene Lee in It's My Party and that of John Travolta's FBI colleague in the action movie Face/Off. She is part of the TV series Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime Television, playing the role of Teri Lee, a paralegal assistant.
Cho was born into a Korean family in San Francisco, California. She grew up in a racially diverse neighborhood in the 1970s and 1980s, which she described as a community of "old hippies, ex-druggies, burn-outs from the '60s, drag queens, Chinese people, and Koreans. To say it was a melting pot — that's the least of it. It was a really confusing, enlightening, wonderful time."
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Maria Kanellis
Maria Louise Kanellis (born February 25, 1982) is a singer-songwriter, actress, model, and professional wrestler, also known simply as Maria. She is best known for her time with World Wrestling Entertainment, and is working for Ring of Honor as the valet of real life boyfriend Mike Bennett.
Kanellis's career began as a contestant on the reality show Outback Jack in 2004. In the same year, she placed fifth in the Raw Diva Search, but was later hired by WWE as a backstage interviewer. Kanellis began competing in the ring as a wrestler in 2005. She also posed for the April 2008 cover of Playboy magazine, which was incorporated into a storyline on Raw. She released her debut album Sevin Sins on April 13, 2010 on iTunes.
Kanellis was born in Ottawa, Illinois. She has two younger siblings; a brother named Bill and a sister Janny. Kanellis grew up with an interest in playing sports, particularly volleyball, basketball, and softball and graduated from Ottawa Township High School in 2000, before spending some time as a student at Northern Illinois University. Before her career in wrestling began, Kanellis regularly competed in beauty pageants.
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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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Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei (/məˈrɪsə toʊˈmeɪ/; born December 4, 1964) is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987. After appearing in a few films, her breakthrough came in 1992 with the comedy My Cousin Vinny, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Appearing in many films over the past fifteen years, her most commercially successful films to date are What Women Want (2000), Anger Management (2003), and Wild Hogs (2007). She received critical acclaim for her performances in Unhook the Stars (1996), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) and received subsequent Academy Award nominations for her performances in In the Bedroom (2001) and The Wrestler (2008).
Tomei, an Italian American, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Patricia Adelaide "Addie" (née Bianchi), an English teacher, and Gary A. Tomei, a trial lawyer. She has a younger brother, actor Adam Tomei, and was partly raised by her paternal grandparents, Rita and Romeo Tomei. Tomei grew up in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. While there, she became captivated by the Broadway shows that her theater-loving parents took her to, and became drawn to acting as a career. At Andries Hudde Junior High School, she played the part of Hedy LaRue in a school production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Graduating from Edward R. Murrow High School in 1982, she attended Boston University for a year.
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Mark Burnett
Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a British television producer, based in Los Angeles. He is best known as the producer of Survivor and the creator of the Apprentice. Burnett is currently the executive producer of five network television series with seven hours of network programming. His current series are Survivor, Celebrity Apprentice, The Voice, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, Shark Tank, and The People's Choice Awards. Works with which Burnett is associated have won multiple awards and recognition. Burnett himself has also won four Emmy Awards and four People's Choice Awards.
Three new upcoming series for Burnett are Robogeddon on Discovery with film director, James Cameron, Stars Earn Stripes, a collaboration with Dick Wolf for NBC that features military and law enforcement personnel teamed with celebrities , and an Alaska themed docu-series for Discovery.
During his career, Burnett has worked closely with many influential producers and stars, including Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, Sarah Palin, and Jeff Foxworthy, among others.
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Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Allen Mothersbaugh (/ˈmʌðərzbɔː/; born May 18, 1950) is an American musician, composer, singer and painter. He is the co-founder of the new wave band Devo and has been its lead singer since 1972. His other musical projects include work for television series, films, and video games.
Mothersbaugh attended Kent State as an art student, where he met Devo co-founders Jerry Casale and Bob Lewis. In early 1970, Lewis and Casale formed the idea of the "devolution" of the human race; Mothersbaugh, intrigued by the concept, joined them, building upon it with elements of early poststructuralist ideas and oddball arcana, most notably unearthing the infamous Jocko-Homo Heavenbound pamphlet (the basis for the song Jocko Homo). This culminated in 1973, when the trio started to play music as Devo.
Since Devo, Mothersbaugh developed a successful career writing musical scores for film and television. In film, Mothersbaugh has worked frequently with filmmaker Wes Anderson, and scored most of his feature films (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou).
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Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart (née Kostyra; August 3, 1941) is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, merchandising, and electronic commerce. She has written numerous bestselling books, is the publisher of the Martha Stewart Living magazine, and her syndicated talk show, Martha, is broadcast throughout the world.
In 2004, Stewart was entangled in the ImClone insider trading affair and there was speculation that the incident would effectively be the end of her media empire. She began a comeback campaign in 2005 and her company returned to profitability in 2006. Stewart rejoined the board of directors of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in 2011 and became chairman of her namesake company again in 2012.
Martha Stewart was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to middle-class Polish American parents, Edward "Eddie" Kostyra (c. 1912 – 1979) and Jadwiga Martha Ruszkowski Kostyra (b. September 16, 1914, Buffalo, New York – d. November 16, 2007, Norwalk, Connecticut). She lived in Jersey City until the age of 3, when her family moved to Nutley. She was raised in Nutley along with her five siblings. She took the name "Grace" for her confirmation name before graduating from Nutley High School.
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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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Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (born June 2, 1944) is an American composer. He is one of only eleven people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony. He is also one of only two people to have won those four prizes and also a Pulitzer Prize (the other is Richard Rodgers). Hamlisch has also won two Golden Globes.
Hamlisch was born in New York City to Viennese Jewish parents: Lilly Schachter and Max Hamlisch. His father was an accordionist and bandleader. Hamlisch was a child prodigy, and by age five he began mimicking music he heard on the radio on the piano. A few months before he turned seven, in 1951, he was accepted into what is now the Juilliard School Pre-College Division. His first job was as a rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand. Shortly after that, he was hired by producer Sam Spiegel to play piano at Spiegel's parties. This connection led to his first film score, The Swimmer. His favorite musicals growing up were My Fair Lady, Gypsy, West Side Story, and Bye Bye Birdie.
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Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Lou Etheridge (born May 29, 1961) is an American rock singer-songwriter and activist.
Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals. She has also been an iconic gay and lesbian activist since her public coming out in January 1993.
Born in Leavenworth, Kansas, the younger of two girls, to John Etheridge, a psychology teacher at Leavenworth High School, and Elizabeth Williamson, a computer consultant. She attended David Brewer School, which is still located at 17th and Osage Streets. She graduated in 1979 from Leavenworth High School (LHS), 10th Avenue and Halderman. Etheridge was a member of the first "Power and Life" musical/dance group at LHS which is still active today. Her childhood home was at 1902 Miami Street.
Etheridge's interest in music began early; she picked up her first guitar at 8. She began to play in all-men country music groups throughout her teenage years, until she moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music.
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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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Michel Berger
Michel Berger (28 November 1947 – 2 August 1992), born Michel Jean Hamburger, was a very successful French singer and songwriter. He was a central figure of France's pop music scene for two decades both as a singer and as a songwriter for well-known French artists like his wife France Gall, Françoise Hardy and Johnny Hallyday. He was also romantically involved with singer songwriter Véronique Sanson in the early 1970s before he married France Gall.
He died of a heart attack at the age of 45.
Berger was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the son of the famous doctor Jean Hamburger and concert pianist Annette Haas.
Berger first became known to the French public in the 1960s as singer of hit song Salut les copains, after which he became record producer and songwriter for EMI and where he wrote amongst others Les Girafes for Bourvil in 1967. In the early 1970s, he moved to Warner Music where he produced the early albums of Véronique Sanson, and Allah once again in 1989. In 1973, he was responsible for producing the album Message personnel, the title track of which relaunched Françoise Hardy's career. He also produced the single Je suis moi for Hardy.
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Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole (born February 6, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)", "Inseparable" and "Our Love". After a period of failing sales and performances due to a heavy drug addiction, Cole reemerged as a pop artist with the 1987 album, Everlasting, and her cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac". In the 1990s, she re-recorded standards by her father, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable... with Love, which sold over seven million copies and also won Cole numerous Grammy Awards.
Natalie Cole was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of crooner Nat King Cole and former Duke Ellington Orchestra singer Maria Cole. Raised in the affluent Hancock Park district of Los Angeles; regarding her childhood, Cole has referred to her family as "the black Kennedys" and was exposed to many great singers of jazz, soul, and blues. At the age of six Natalie sang on her father's Christmas album and later began performing at age 11.
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Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane (born February 3, 1956) is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and his voice work in The Lion King and Stuart Little. In 2006, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2008, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
Lane was born Joseph Lane in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Irish American Catholic parents. He was named after his uncle, a Jesuit priest. His father, Daniel, was a truck driver and an aspiring tenor who died from alcoholism when Lane was eleven; his mother, Nora, was a housewife and secretary who suffered from manic-depression, and died in 2000. He has two brothers, Robert and Daniel. Lane attended Roman Catholic schools in Jersey City, including Jesuit-run St. Peter's Preparatory High School, where he was selected Best Actor in 1974.[citation needed]
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Nikolai Volkoff
Josip Nikolai Peruzović (born October 14, 1947), better known by his ring name of Nikolai Volkoff, is a professional wrestler who is best known for his performances for the World Wrestling Federation. Although the Volkoff character is portrayed as Russian, Peruzović actually originated from Croatia and had a mixed background that was not entirely Russian.
Peruzović grew up in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, which was then part of the Yugoslavia, a Communist country. His mother is Italian and his father was Croatian. He was on the Yugoslavian weightlifting team until 1967, when he defected to Canada while at a weightlifting tournament in Vienna, Austria. He received training in Calgary from the legendary Stu Hart, followed by his arrival in the United States in 1970.
As soon as he arrived, he began wrestling in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) (currently known as WWE). Wrestling as Bepo Mongol, managed by "Captain" Lou Albano and partnered with Geto Mongol, he captured the WWF International Tag Team Titles from Tony Marino and Victor Rivera on June 15, 1970. After losing the titles to Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler in a match that unified the WWF International and WWF World Tag Team Titles, Peruzovic went on to singles competition under the name Nikolai Volkoff.
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Nile Rodgers
Nile Gregory Rodgers (born September 19, 1952, New York City) is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist.
Rodgers began his career as a session guitarist in New York, touring with the Sesame Street band in his teens, and then working in the house band at Harlem's world famous Apollo Theater, playing behind Screaming Jay Hawkins, Maxine Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, Betty Wright, Earl Lewis and the Channels, Parliament Funkadelic, and many other legendary R&B artists.
Nile met bassist Bernard Edwards in 1970. Together they formed The Big Apple Band that backed R&B act New York City ("I’m Doing Fine Now"). The band’s one hit allowed them to tour extensively, even opening for The Jackson 5 on the American leg of their first world tour in 1973. The band dissolved after their second album failed to yield a hit, but Nile and Bernard joined forces with drummer Tony Thompson, and worked and recorded as a Funk Rock band called The Boys, which played numerous gigs up and down the East Coast. Despite major label interest in their demos, they could not get a record deal when the record companies discovered they were black, as they thought that black rock artists would be too hard to promote. The band continued playing mostly local bars.
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Nona Hendryx
Nona Hendryx (born October 9, 1944 in Trenton, New Jersey) is an American vocalist, producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress.
Hendryx is known for her work as a solo artist as well as for being one-third of the trio Labelle, who had a hit with "Lady Marmalade." Her music has ranged from soul, funk, dance, and R&B to hard rock, art rock, and World music.
Hendryx was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1944 where she met fellow New Jersey native Sarah Dash and later met Philadelphia born singers Patricia Holte. After a short-lived tenure as a member of the Del-Capris, Hendryx and Dash formed a singing group with Holte once the lead singer of a girl group in Philadelphis called The Ordettes. In 1961, Cindy Birdsong, from Camden, New Jersey became the fourth member of the group, who became the 'Bluebelles' and signed their first deal with Newtown Records.
After the release of their debut hit, 1962's "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman", their name altered again to Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. Hendryx's husky alto differed from Dash's sharp soprano, LaBelle's mezzo-soprano and Birdsong's second soprano. During this tenure, the group became known for their emotional live performances and their renditions of classic standards such as "You'll Never Walk Alone", "Over The Rainbow"and "Danny Boy". The group often found themselves competing against girl groups such as The Chantels, Shirelles and The Supremes. In 1967, Hendryx, LaBelle and Dash were shocked to discover that Birdsong, had secretly joined the Supremes after Florence Ballard was ousted from the group by Motown. Different members of the group were in touch with Birdsong over the years. Birdsong's relationships with the Bluebelles healed and they came together again for the ceremony when the group won an R&B Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.
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Norah Jones
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress. She is the daughter of Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. She is also the paternal half-sister of Anoushka Shankar.
In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, a fusion of jazz, pop, and country music, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies. The record earned Jones five Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist. Her subsequent studio albums, Feels Like Home, released in 2004, Not Too Late, released in 2007, the same year she made her film debut in My Blueberry Nights, and her 2009 release The Fall all gained Platinum status after selling over a million copies and were generally well received by critics. Jones' fifth studio album, Little Broken Hearts was released on April 27, 2012.
Jones has won nine Grammy Awards and was Billboard magazine's 60th-best-selling music artist of the 2000–2009 decade. Throughout her career, Jones has won numerous awards and has sold over 40 million albums worldwide.Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000–2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time.
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Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards (born May 24, 1944), better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry. LaBelle spent 16 years as lead singer of Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, who changed their name to Labelle in the early 1970s and released the iconic disco song, "Lady Marmalade".
LaBelle started her solo career shortly after the group disbanded in 1977 and crossed over to pop music with "On My Own", "If Only You Knew", "If You Asked Me To", "Stir It Up" and "New Attitude". She has also recorded R&B ballads such as "You Are My Friend" and "Love, Need and Want You".
LaBelle possesses the vocal range of a soprano.
Patricia Louise Holte was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 24, 1944 . Her father, Henry Holte (alternatively, Holt), was a railroad worker and lounge singer. Her mother, Bertha Holte, was a domestic and housewife. Holte was one of four daughters (Vivian, Barbara, Patricia and Jacqueline). Holte recalls having a happy childhood but said being sexually molested at the age of seven led her to be shy and withdrawn. Holte's parents had an unhappy marriage. When Holte was twelve, her parents split up and Bertha Holte raised her daughters as a single mother. Holte's mother later adopted Claudette Grant, who would become one of Holte's closest friends.
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Paul Carrack
Paul Carrack (born 22 April 1951) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. Carrack has been a member of several bands including Ace, Squeeze, Mike + The Mechanics, and Roxy Music, been a session and touring musician for several others including Nick Lowe, and has enjoyed success as a solo artist as well. His distinctive voice appears on some of his affiliated bands' best-known hits. He was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.
Carrack's recording career began with the jazz rock band Warm Dust, who released three albums of original material between 1970 and 1972. Carrack was the keyboard player for the band, occasionally playing other instruments, with Les Walker as the lead vocalist.
After Warm Dust broke up, Carrack and Warm Dust bassist Tex Comer helped to found the pub rock band Ace. Carrack both wrote and was vocalist on "How Long?", Ace's debut single – a hit in both the UK and US in 1975. However, no further Ace recordings enjoyed that same level of popularity.
In 1977 Ace disbanded, and Carrack began working as a backing musician for Frankie Miller. Subsequently, he was a member of Roxy Music, playing keyboards on their 1979 reunion album Manifesto. Carrack would also play on the next two Roxy Music albums, but as a session musician, not a band member.
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Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of the Beatles (1960–1970) and Wings (1971–1981), he has been described by Guinness World Records as "The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time", with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million singles. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and with Lennon formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After leaving the Beatles, he began a solo career and later formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine.
According to the BBC, his Beatles song "Yesterday" has been covered by over 2,200 artists—more than any other song. Wings' 1977 release, "Mull of Kintyre", became one of the best-selling singles ever in the UK, and he is "the most successful songwriter" in UK chart history, according to Guinness. As a songwriter or co-writer, he is included on thirty-one number one titles on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2012 he has sold over 15.5 million RIAA certified units in the United States.
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Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens (born Paul Rubenfeld; August 27, 1952) is an American actor, writer, film producer, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s and started his career as an improvisational comedian and stage actor. In 1982, Reubens put up a show about a character he had been developing during the last few years. The show was called The Pee-wee Herman Show and it ran for five sellout months with HBO producing a successful special with it. Pee-wee became an instant cult figure and for the next decade Reubens would be completely committed to his character, doing all of his public appearances and interviews as Pee-wee. In 1985 Pee-wee's Big Adventure, directed by the then-unknown Tim Burton, was a financial success and, despite receiving mixed reviews, it developed into a cult film. Big Top Pee-wee, 1988's sequel, was less successful than its predecessor. Between 1986 and 1990, Reubens starred as Pee-wee in the CBS Saturday-morning children's program Pee-wee's Playhouse.
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Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is a grammy award winning American singer-songwriter, poet and guitarist.
Simon's international fame and success began as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, launched in 1964 with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached No. 1 on the U.S. singles charts: "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". The duo split up in 1970 at the height of their popularity, and Simon began a successful solo career, recording three highly acclaimed albums over the next five years. In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music. Simon also wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony in 1980 and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman in 1998.
Simon has earned 12 Grammys for his solo and collaborative work, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine. Among many other honors, Simon was the first recipient of the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007. In 1986 Simon was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees.
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Paula Cole
Paula Cole (born April 5, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter. Her single "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and the following year she won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Cole was raised in Rockport, Massachusetts; her mother was an elementary school art teacher, and her father was a professor of biology and ecology at Salem State College and a polka musician. She attended Rockport High School, where she was president of her senior class and performed in school theatrical productions such as South Pacific. Cole then attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied jazz singing and improvisation. She was offered a record deal by a jazz label, but decided to turn it down.
Cole got her first big professional break when she was invited to perform on Peter Gabriel's 1993-1994 Secret World Live tour. Shortly after this, she was signed on with her first record company Imago Records. Through this record company, she released her first album Harbinger in 1994. Within that year of Harbinger's release, Imago Records went out of business. In 1995, she was signed on to Warner Bros. Records. The record company reissued Harbinger in the Autumn of 1995.
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People Magazine
People (originally called People Weekly) is a weekly American magazine of celebrity and human-interest stories, published by Time Inc. As of 2006, it has a circulation of 3.75 million and revenue expected to top $1.5 billion. It was named "Magazine of the Year" by Advertising Age in October 2005, for excellence in editorial, circulation and advertising.People ranked #6 on Advertising Age's annual "A-list" and #3 on Adweek's "Brand Blazers" list in October 2006.
The magazine runs a roughly 50/50 mix of celebrity and human-interest articles. People's editors claim to refrain from printing pure celebrity gossip, enough so to lead celebrity publicists to propose exclusives to the magazine, evidence of what one staffer calls a "publicist-friendly strategy".
People's website, People.com, focuses exclusively on celebrity news. In February 2007, the website drew 39.6 million page views "within a day" of the Golden Globes. However "the mother ship of Oscar coverage" broke a site record with 51.7 million page views on the day after the Oscars, beating the previous record set just a month before from the Golden Globes.[not in citation given]
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Peter Falk
Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011) was an American actor, best known for his role as Lt. Frank Columbo in the television series Columbo. He appeared in numerous films such as The Princess Bride, The Great Race and Next, and television guest roles. He was nominated for an Academy Award twice (for 1960's Murder, Inc. and 1961's Pocketful of Miracles), and won the Emmy Award on five occasions (four for Columbo) and the Golden Globe award once. Director William Friedkin, when discussing Falk's role in his 1978 film The Brink's Job, said that "Peter has a great range from comedy to drama. He could break your heart or he could make you laugh."
In 1968, he starred with Gene Barry in a ninety-minute television pilot about a highly-skilled, laid-back detective. Columbo eventually became part of an anthology series titled The NBC Mystery Movie, along with McCloud and McMillan & Wife. The detective series stayed on NBC from 1971 to 1978, took a respite, and returned occasionally on ABC from 1989 to 2003. Falk was "everyone's favorite rumpled television detective", wrote historian David Fantle.
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Peter Nero
Peter Nero (born Bernard Nierow, May 22, 1934) is an American pianist and pops conductor.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, As Bernard Nierow, Nero started his formal music training at the age of seven. He studied piano under Frederick Bried. By the time he was fourteen, he was accepted to New York City's High School of Music and Art and won a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music. Constance Keene, his teacher and mentor, once wrote in an issue of Keyboard Classics, "Vladimir Horowitz was Peter's greatest fan!" He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1956.
Nero recorded his first album in 1961, and won a Grammy Award that year for "Best New Artist." Since then, he has received another Grammy, garnered ten additional nominations and released 67 albums. Nero's early association with RCA Records produced 23 albums in eight years. His subsequent move to Columbia Records resulted in a million-selling single and album - Summer of '42.
His first major national TV success came at the age of seventeen when he was chosen to perform Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on Paul Whiteman's TV Special. He subsequently appeared on many top variety and talk shows including 11 guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, and numerous appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
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Piers Morgan
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (born Piers Stefan O'Meara; 30 March 1965), known professionally as Piers Morgan, is a British journalist and television presenter. He is editorial director of First News, a national newspaper for children.
Morgan branched into television mainly as a presenter, but has become best known as a judge or contestant in reality television programmes. In the UK, he was a judge on Britain's Got Talent. Morgan is best known in the United States as a judge on the show America's Got Talent, and as the winner of The Celebrity Apprentice. On 17 January 2011, he began hosting Piers Morgan Tonight for CNN in the timeslot previously occupied by Larry King Live after the retirement of host Larry King.
Morgan has authored eight books, including three volumes of memoirs.
Piers Morgan was born on 30 March 1965, in Guildford, Surrey, England, to Eamon Vincent O'Meara, a dentist, of Dorking, Surrey, and Gabrielle Georgina Sybille (née Oliver). His father died when he was one year old; his mother subsequently remarried. He has three older siblings. His ancestry includes Irish, Portuguese, Scottish, and English. Morgan was raised Catholic. Named Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan by his stepfather, Morgan attended an independent school called Cumnor House from the ages of seven to thirteen, and then Chailey School, a comprehensive secondary school in Chailey, near Lewes, East Sussex, followed by Lewes Priory School for VI form. Morgan studied Journalism at Harlow College. After a brief career at Lloyds of London, he joined the Surrey and South London Newspaper Group in 1985, where he worked as a reporter on the South London News, and the Streatham and Tooting News. Morgan was recruited (he says headhunted by editor Kelvin MacKenzie) to join The Sun newspaper, specifically to work on the Bizarre column.
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Quincy Jones
Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, conductor, arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. He is particularly recognized as the producer of the album Thriller, by pop icon Michael Jackson, which has sold more than 110 million copies worldwide, and as the producer and conductor of the charity song “We Are the World”.
In 1968, Jones and his songwriting partner Bob Russell became the first African Americans to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song "The Eyes of Love" from the Universal Pictures film Banning. That same year, he became the first African American to be nominated twice within the same year when he was nominated for Best Original Score for his work on the music of the 1967 film In Cold Blood. In 1971, Jones would receive the honor of becoming the first African American to be named musical director/conductor of the Academy Awards ceremony. He was the first African American to win the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1995. He is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the most Oscar-nominated African American, each of them having seven nominations. At the 2008 BET Awards, Quincy Jones was presented with the Humanitarian Award. He was played by Larenz Tate in the 2004 biopic about Ray Charles, Ray.
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Randal Pinkett
Randal D. Pinkett (born 1971 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a business consultant who in 2005 was the winner of season four of the reality television show, The Apprentice. Pinkett was the first African American to win the US version of The Apprentice.
With an educational background in engineering and business, Pinkett is both a Rhodes Scholar and a Walter Byers Scholar, holding five academic degrees. Before entering the reality show, Pinkett had already established a career in business, and had become co-founder of business consulting firm BCT Partners in 2001. As winner of the fourth season in December 2005, Pinkett undertook a year long apprenticeship with Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
After The Apprentice, Pinkett has continued as chairman and CEO of the BCT consultancy, while also acting as a public speaker and appearing on later editions of the show, and on CEO Exchange, and also entering politics.
Pinkett is the author of three books including Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Multimillion-Dollar Business (Kaplan Business 2007), No-Money Down CEO: How to Start Your Dream Business with Little or No Cash (Trump University 2008), and Black Faces in White Places: 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness (AMACOM Books 2010) with his college roommate and business partner, Professor Jeffrey Robinson of the Rutgers Business School.
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Regina Spektor
Regina Ilyinichna Spektor (Russian: Реги́нa Ильи́нична Спе́ктор, IPA: [rʲɪˈɡʲinə ˈspʲɛktər], English: /rɨˈdʒiːnə ˈspɛktər/; born February 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered in New York City's East Village.
Spektor was born in Moscow, Soviet Union in 1980 to a musical Russian Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, is a photographer and amateur violinist. Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Soviet college of music and now teaches at a public elementary school in Mount Vernon, New York. She has a brother Barry (Bear), who was featured in track 7, "* * *", or "Whisper", of her 2004 album, Soviet Kitsch.
She learned how to play piano by practising on a Petrof upright that was given to her mother by her grandfather. She was also exposed to the music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles, Queen, and The Moody Blues by her father, who obtained such recordings in Eastern Europe and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union. The family left the Soviet Union in 1989, when Regina was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. Regina had to leave her piano behind. The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not leaving the USSR, but they finally decided to emigrate, due to the ethnic and political discrimination that Jews faced. Spektor is fluent in Russian and reads Hebrew, and has since paid tribute to her Russian heritage, quoting the poem February by the Russian poet Boris Pasternak in her song Après Moi, and stating “I’m very connected to the language and the culture.”
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Richard Belzer
Richard Jay Belzer (born August 4, 1944) is an American stand-up comedian, author, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as John Munch, which he has portrayed as a regular cast member on the NBC police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as in guest appearances on a number of other series.
Belzer was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He grew up in a Jewish family. After high school, Belzer worked as a reporter for the Bridgeport Post. He attended Dean Junior College in Franklin, Massachusetts.
After his first divorce, Belzer relocated to New York City, moved in with singer Shelley Ackerman, and began working as a stand-up comic at Pips, The Improv, and Catch a Rising Star. He participated in the Channel One comedy group that satirized television and became the basis for the cult movie The Groove Tube, in which Belzer played the costar of the ersatz TV show "The Dealers."
Belzer was the audience warm-up comedian for Saturday Night Live in its premiere season and made three guest appearances on the show in 1976 and 1978. He also opened for musician Warren Zevon during his tour supporting the release of his album Excitable Boy.
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Richard Donner
Richard Donner (born April 24, 1930) is an American film director, film producer, and comic book writer.
The production company The Donners' Company is owned by Donner and his wife, producer Lauren Shuler Donner. After directing the horror film The Omen, Donner became famous for the hailed creation of the first modern superhero film, Superman, starring Christopher Reeve. The influence of this film eventually helped establish the superhero concept as a respected film genre.
Donner later continued reinvigorating the buddy film genre with Lethal Weapon (1987) and its sequels.
In 2000, he received the President's Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. He was also nominated for Best Director in 1978 for Superman. Film historian Michael Barson writes that Donner had "emerged as one of Hollywood's most reliable makers of action blockbusters."
Donner was born Richard Donald Schwartzberg in the Bronx, New York City, the son of Hattie and Fred Schwartzberg; he has a sister, Joan. He was raised in the Jewish faith. Donner started his career with hopes of acting but quickly moved into directing commercials and making business films. He moved into television in the late 1950s, directing some episodes of the Steve McQueen western serial Wanted: Dead or Alive and the Chuck Connors western The Rifleman.
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Rick Chertoff
Rick Chertoff (born March 29, 1950 in New York, NY) is a five-time Grammy-nominated producer responsible for such hits as Joan Osborne’s “One of Us”, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Time After Time” and Sophie B. Hawkins’ “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover.” Both Cyndi Lauper’s album She's So Unusual and Joan Osborne’s album Relish were debut albums that garnered multi-platinum sales and multiple Grammy nominations. Chertoff was nominated twice for ‘album of the year’, twice for ‘record of the year’ and also for ‘producer of the year.’
Chertoff attended the University of Pennsylvania, and whilst in Philadelphia he met long time friends Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian and formed a musical collaboration that has lasted to this day. Chertoff himself played drums in a local band "Wax" with Hyman and later signed Hyman and Bazilian (The Hooters) to Columbia Records, where he produced their multi-platinum, Nervous Night, One Way Home, and Zig Zag.
Chertoff’s A&R career began under the training of music legend Clive Davis at the inception of Arista Records. In his all-purpose A&R/production role, Chertoff signed and produced, edited and remixed tracks for many Arista artists including The Kinks and the Alan Parsons Project. Rick’s Arista career culminated in his co-production of Air Supply’s first million-seller, “Lost in Love” as well as his co-production of the theme from Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind with acclaimed composer John Williams.
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Rick Derringer
Rick Derringer (born Richard Zehringer, August 5, 1947) is an American guitarist, vocalist, and entertainer.
When he was seventeen years old, his band The McCoys recorded "Hang on Sloopy" in the summer of 1965, which became the number one song in America before "Yesterday" by The Beatles knocked it out of the top spot. The song was issued by Bang Records. He adopted the Derringer stage name which was inspired by the Bang Records logo which featured a derringer pistol.
After starting The McCoys, Rick changed the band's name to "The Rick Z Combo", and then "Rick and the Raiders". After recording "Hang On Sloopy", it was decided that the original name was best, and The McCoys were reborn.
One of the first opportunities for everyone to see them play 'live' came when they opened for The Rolling Stones on the entire 1966 American Tour.
Derringer also recorded and played with a version of Johnny Winter's band called "Johnny Winter And ..." and both Edgar Winter's White Trash and The Edgar Winter Group. Derringer also had a successful solo career, and his solo version of "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" was a hit single. He also recorded extensively with Steely Dan, playing slide guitar on songs such as "Show Biz Kids" and "Chain Lightning".
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Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a five-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards. Her songwriting has been characterized as "a blend of bravado and vulnerability [that] wavers on indefinable borders." She is also known for her unique singing style, especially in live performances. One concert reviewer, describing her rendering of "We Belong Together," states she "reached her apex, skating from swells into near screams into breathy whispers, from pontillist stacatto scats into brassy, trumpetlike bursts."
In 1999, Jones was listed at #30 in the VH1 list of 100 greatest women of rock.
Rickie Lee Jones was born on the north side of Chicago to Bettye and Richard Jones. Her paternal grandfather, Frank 'Peg Leg' Jones, and her grandmother, Myrtle Lee, a dancer, were Vaudevillians based in Chicago, Illinois. A singer/dancer/comedian, Peg Leg Jones' routine consisted of playing the ukelele, singing ballads, and telling stories. One of four children, her father was a WW2 veteran. A singer, song writer, painter, and trumpet player, Mr. Jones worked as a waiter. Her mother, Bettye, was raised in orphanages in Ohio with her three brothers until she was old enough to leave. Bettye and Richard met in a drug store coffee shop. Rickie Lee was born the third child of four, in Chicago, 1954.
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Ricky Martin
Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991. Throughout his career, he has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. He is the founder of the Ricky Martin Foundation (in Spanish Fundación Ricky Martin), a non-profit charity organization aimed at human trafficking.
Martin got his start at age twelve with the all-boy pop group Menudo; after five years with the group, he released his Spanish-language solo album, Ricky Martin, in 1991. He also acted on stage and on TV in Mexico, becoming a modest star in the country. In 1994 he starred on the American TV soap opera General Hospital, playing a Puerto Rican singer. In 1999, after several albums in Spanish, he released his first English-language album (also titled Ricky Martin), which included "Livin' la Vida Loca". The album sold 22 million copies and brought Martin international fame. His other studio albums include: Me Amarás (1993), A Medio Vivir (1995), Vuelve (1998), Sound Loaded (2000), Almas del Silencio (2003), Life (2005), and Música + Alma + Sexo (2011).
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Rob Hyman
Robert Andrew "Rob" Hyman (born April 24, 1950 in Meriden, Connecticut, U.S.) is an American singer, songwriter, keyboard player, accordion player, producer, arranger and recording studio owner, best known for being a founding member of the rock band The Hooters.
Hyman started taking piano lessons at the age of four and grew up playing in local bands in Meriden, Connecticut, including The Trolls and the Pro-Teens.
He attended Francis T Maloney High School, where he was the editor of the yearbook, was voted as Most Likely to Succeed, and was the class valedictorian.
While attending the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, Hyman met future bandmate and composing partner Eric Bazilian and producer Rick Chertoff. In the late 1960s, Hyman and Chertoff, along with local singer David Kagan formed a band called Wax, who recorded an album in the early 1970s. Hyman and Kagan later formed a new band with Bazilian called Baby Grand in the late 1970s, with Chertoff acting as producer. Baby Grand released two albums on Arista Records, one eponymous and the other called Ancient Medicine. While the band had some critical success, it never achieved any commercial success and eventually disbanded.
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Robert Goulet
Robert Gerard Goulet (November 26, 1933 – October 30, 2007) was a Canadian American entertainer as a singer and actor. He is probably best known for originating the role of Lancelot in the 1960 Broadway musical Camelot and his numerous appearances in Las Vegas.
Goulet was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the only son of French Canadian parents Jeanette Gauthier and Joseph Georges André Goulet, a laborer. Through his father he was a descendant of Zacharie Cloutier as well as Jacques Goulet. Shortly after his father's death, 13-year-old Robert moved with his mother and sister Claire to Girouxville, Alberta, and he spent his formative years in Canada.
Due to the Canadian citizenship law at the time, Goulet was not awarded Canadian citizenship despite his Canadian parents, making him a Lost Canadian. A 2008 law allowed him to retroactively be rewarded citizenship, but he died before it was received.
Goulet's rise to fame started at the age of five when his aunts and uncles blackened his face with burnt cork and prompted him to do Al Jolson impressions. Though his performance was well-received by his relatives, the experience was deeply traumatic for the young Goulet, and left him with performance anxiety which plagued him for many years. Despite this stage fright, Goulet was encouraged by his parents to continue performing.
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Rod Blagojevich
Milorad Blagojevichi/bləˈɡɔɪ.əvɪtʃ/ (better known by the alias Rod R. Blagojevich (born December 10, 1956)) is a convicted felon and former American politician who served as the 40th Governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A Democrat, Blagojevich was a State Representative before being elected to the United States House of Representatives representing parts of Chicago. He was elected governor in 2002, the first Democrat to win the office since Daniel Walker's victory 30 years earlier.
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Roddy Piper
Roderick "Roddy" George Toombs (born April 17, 1954), better known by his ring name "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler and film actor who is currently signed to WWE. In professional wrestling, he is best known for his work with WWE. Although he is Canadian, due to his Scottish heritage, he was billed as coming from Glasgow in Scotland and was known for his signature kilt and bagpipe entrance music. He earned the nickname "Rowdy" by displaying his trademark "Scottish" rage, spontaneity and quick wit. Despite being a crowd favorite for his rockstar-like persona, he often played the villain. He was also nicknamed "Hot Rod". Never a world champion, he accumulated 34 championships in various promotions during his career. Piper was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
Toombs was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He attended Windsor Park Collegiate. His father was an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police while they lived in The Pas, Manitoba. After being expelled from junior high[citation needed] and having a falling out with his father, Piper hit the road and stayed in youth hostels wherever he could find them.
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Roger Waters
George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founder member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter and conceptual leader. The band subsequently achieved worldwide success in the 1970s with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall. Although Waters' primary instrument in Pink Floyd was the bass guitar, he also experimented with synthesisers and tape loops and played rhythm guitars in recordings and in concerts. Amid creative differences within the group, Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and began a legal battle with the remaining members over their future use of the group's name and material. The dispute was settled out of court in 1987, and nearly eighteen years passed before he performed with Pink Floyd again. It is estimated that as of 2010, the group have sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million units sold in the United States.
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Ron Howard
Ronald William "Ron" Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American film director, producer and former child actor. He came to prominence playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years. He appeared in the films American Graffiti in 1973 and The Shootist in 1976, the latter during his run on Happy Days. Howard made his directorial debut with the 1977 comedy Grand Theft Auto, and left Happy Days in 1980 to focus on directing. His films include the Academy Award-winning Cocoon, Apollo 13, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Beautiful Mind. In 2003, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Asteroid 12561 Howard is named after him.
Howard was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, the son of Jean Speegle Howard, an actress, and Rance Howard, a director, writer and actor. His father was born with the surname "Beckenholdt", and had taken the stage name "Howard" by 1948, for his acting career. Rance Howard was serving three years in the United States Air Force at the time of Ron's birth. The family moved to Hollywood in 1958, the year before the birth of his younger brother, Clint Howard. They rented a house on the block south of the Desilu Studios, where The Andy Griffith Show would later be filmed. They lived in Hollywood for at least three years, before moving to Burbank.
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Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country and western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis. His greatest success came with Monument Records between 1960 and 1964, when 22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top Forty, including "Only the Lonely", "Crying", and "Oh, Pretty Woman". His career stagnated through the 1970s, but several covers of his songs and the use of "In Dreams" in David Lynch's Blue Velvet revived his career in the 1980s. In 1988, he joined the supergroup Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne and also released a new solo album. He died of a heart attack in December that year, at the zenith of his resurgence. His life was marred by tragedy, including the death of his first wife and his two eldest sons in separate accidents.
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Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer. He has recorded seven albums of original music and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written a classical opera and set Shakespeare sonnets to music for a theater piece by Robert Wilson.
Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. His parents divorced when he was three, and he lived with his mother in Montreal for most of his youth. Wainwright has dual US and Canadian citizenship. He attended high school at the Millbrook School in New York (which would later inspire his song "Millbrook"), and later briefly studied piano at McGill in Montreal. He began playing the piano at age six, and started touring at 13 with "The McGarrigle Sisters and Family", a folk group featuring Rufus, his sister Martha, his mother Kate, and aunt Anna. His song "I'm a-Runnin'", which he performed in the film Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller at the age of 14, earned him a nomination for a 1989 Genie Award for Best Original Song. He was nominated for a 1990 Juno Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本 龍一, Sakamoto Ryūichi?, born January 17, 1952) is a Japanese musician, composer, record producer, writer, singer, pianist, and actor, based in Tokyo and New York. He began his career in 1978 as a member of the pioneering electronic music group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), where he played keyboards and was an occasional vocalist. The band was an international success, with worldwide hits such as "Computer Game / Firecracker" (1978) and "Behind the Mask" (1978), the latter written and sung by Sakamoto. He concurrently began pursuing a solo career, debuting with the experimental electronic fusion album The Thousand Knives of Ryūichi Sakamoto (1978), and later released the pioneering album B-2 Unit (1980), which included the electro classic "Riot in Lagos". After YMO disbanded in 1983, he produced more solo records, including collaborations with various international artists, through to the 1990s.
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Sarah McLachlan
Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range, as of 2009, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards (out of four nominations) and four Juno Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians. The Lilith Fair concert tours took place from 1997 to 1999, and resumed in the summer of 2010. Since 2006 she has also been known as a highly visible supporter of the ASPCA, as well as various other charities.
Sarah McLachlan was born on January 28, 1968, and adopted in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. As a child, she took voice lessons, along with studies in classical piano and guitar. When she was 17 years old and still a student at Queen Elizabeth High School, she fronted a short-lived rock band called The October Game. One of the band's songs, "Grind", credited as a group composition, can be found on the independent Flamingo Records release Out of the Fog and the CD Out of the Fog Too. It has yet to be released elsewhere. Her high school yearbook predicted that she was "destined to become a famous rock star."
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Scott Weiland
Scott Weiland (born Scott Richard Kline on October 27, 1967) is an American musician, lyricist and vocalist. During a career spanning two decades, Weiland has served as the frontman for Grammy Award-winning rock bands Stone Temple Pilots (1986-2003;2008-present) and Velvet Revolver (2003-2008;2012).
He also has established himself as a solo artist and has released three studio albums and one compilation of cover songs since 1998. Weiland also has contributions to other projects including collaborations with Limp Bizkit , Korn, Carlos Santana and Doug Grean.
Weiland's onstage persona is known as being flamboyant and chaotic; he is also known for constantly changing his appearance and vocal style, as well as his use of a megaphone in concert for vocal effect. While viewed as one the most versatile vocalists Weiland's career have been plagued by alcohol and drug addiction, as well as several arrests.
Weiland was born as Scott Richard Kline at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose, California. His surname was changed after being adopted by his stepfather David Weiland at age 5. Around that time, Weiland moved to Bainbridge Township, Ohio, where he attended the Kenston School District. He moved to California as a teenager and attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College. Weiland revealed in his 2011 autobiography that he was raped at 12 years old by a senior high school student.
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Sean Astin
Sean Astin (born February 25, 1971) is an American film actor, director, voice artist, and producer best known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In television, he appeared as Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24. Most recently, he provided the voice for the title character in Disney's Special Agent Oso. Astin also served as campaign manager for his friend, Democratic entertainment industry businessman Dan Adler in California's 36th congressional district special election, 2011.
Astin was born Sean Patrick Duke in Santa Monica, California, the son of actress Patty Duke. At the time, it was reported that Desi Arnaz, Jr., was his biological father. In 1994, Astin discovered his father was Michael Tell, a music promoter and writer, and publisher of the newspaper The Las Vegas Israelite.
Tell's marriage to Patty Duke was annulled shortly before her marriage in 1972 to actor John Astin, who adopted Sean. In 1973, Duke gave birth to Astin's half-brother Mackenzie Astin, who also became an actor. Although Patty Duke and John Astin divorced in 1985, Sean Astin has written that he has always considered John his "real" father.
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Sean Lennon
Sean Taro Ono Lennon (Japanese name Tarō Ono (小野 太郎, Ono Tarō?); born October 9, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, guitarist and actor of English, Japanese and Irish descent. He is the only child of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and the younger half-brother of Julian Lennon. His godfather is Sir Elton John.
Sean Lennon was born in New York City on October 9, 1975, his father's 35th birthday. Julian Lennon is his half-brother and Kyoko Chan Cox is his half-sister. After Sean's birth, John became a house husband, doting on his young son until his murder in 1980. Sean attended kindergarten in Tokyo, and was also educated at the exclusive private boarding school Institut Le Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland, and earlier at New York's private Ethical Culture Fieldston School and Dalton School. He later attended Columbia University, though for only three semesters before dropping out to focus on his music career.
His parents did not force him into the life of a musician: they intentionally hid their musical lives from their son. His debut into the music world came at the age of five, reciting a story on his mother's 1981 album Season of Glass. From childhood into his teen years, Sean continued to collaborate with his mother, contributing vocals and receiving production credit on her solo albums It's Alright (I See Rainbows), Starpeace and Onobox. At 16 Sean co-wrote the song "All I Ever Wanted" with Lenny Kravitz for his 1991 album Mama Said. By 1995 Sean had formed the band IMA (with Sam Koppelman and Timo Ellis) to play alongside his mother on her album Rising. Sean also made appearances in film, featured in the cast of Michael Jackson's 1988 Moonwalker and portraying a teenager experiencing visions of various M. C. Escher paintings in Sony's 1990 promotional short-film Infinite Escher.
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Sean Yazbeck
Sean Yazbeck (born 1972) is the winner of the fifth season (2006) of the reality show The Apprentice, where candidates compete in several tasks on a 15-week "job interview" for a position in one of Donald Trump's companies. He was the first non-American to be selected during the run of The Apprentice.
As winner of The Apprentice, Yazbeck was selected by Donald Trump to oversee development of the $500 million five-star hotel condominium, Trump International Hotel and Tower (SoHo), in New York City’s SoHo district. He also worked with the Trump Institute (Trump University) to set up WAVSYS, an international technical staffing company with offices in the United States, Canada, UK and India. In 2011, WAVSYS appeared in the Inc 500 ‘Fastest Growing Companies in America’ list, with its United States entity registering 760% growth over three years, $15.2 million in revenue and 264 employees. In an interview with Inc Magazine, Yazbeck attributed some of the success of WAVSYS to lessons learned while working for Trump as The Apprentice.
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Selita Ebanks
Selita Ebanks (born 15 February 1983) is a Cayman-born fashion model. Ebanks has worked for high fashion brands Neiman Marcus and Ralph Lauren, and appeared in magazines such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Vogue, and Glamour, but she is best known for her work with Victoria's Secret, as one of the brand's "Angels" from 2005 to early 2009.
Born of Native American, Irish and African descent to a Jamaican father and a Caymanian mother in Georgetown, Grand Cayman, Ebanks was raised in a large family that included seven brothers. Her family, her mother in particular, encouraged her development through extracurricular programs. She moved to the United States and settled on Staten Island. She was accepted by Columbia University and New York University, but instead chose to pursue modeling. In 2000, at the age of 17, while walking through the turnstiles at Six Flags Great Adventure, Ebanks was scouted by an agent from Elite Model Management.
Ebanks made her debut in February 2001 at the fall show for Tuleh. After working for the likes of Catherine Malandrino, James Coviello, Abercrombie & Fitch, and DKNY, she signed a contract with Victoria's Secret in 2005.
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Serbs
The Serbs (Serbian: Срби, Srbi, pronounced [sr̩̂bi]) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs live mainly in Serbia and the disputed territory of Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form significant minorities in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in Romania, Hungary, Albania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. There is also a large Serbian diaspora in Western Europe, particularly in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. More than a million people of Serbian origin live in German-speaking countries, including Luxembourg (1%), Austria (1.8%), Switzerland (1%), and Germany (~1%). Outside Europe, there are significant Serbian communities in the United States (198,000 Serbian plus additional 326,000 "Yugoslav" nationals),Canada (72,690 in 2006) and Australia (95,000 in 2006).
The Serbs are a Slavic people, specifically of the South Slavic subgroup, which has its origins in the 6th and 7th century communities developed in Southeastern Europe (see Great Migration). Slav raids on Eastern Roman territory are mentioned in 518, and by the 580s they had conquered large areas referred to as Sclavinia (transl. Slavdom, from Sklavenoi – Σκλαυηνοι, the early South Slavic tribe which is eponymous to the current ethnic and linguistic Indo-European people). In 649, Constantine III relocates conquered Slavs "from the Vardar" to Gordoservon (Serb habitat). Among communities part in the Serb ethnogenesis are the Romanized Paleo-Balkan tribes of Illyrians, Thracians and Dacians, Celts, Greek colonies and Romans.
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Sharon Osbourne
Sharon Rachel Osbourne (née Arden, originally Levy; born 9 October 1952) is an English television host, author, music manager, businesswoman and promoter as well as the wife of heavy metal singer-songwriter Ozzy Osbourne.
She came into public prominence after appearing in The Osbournes, a reality television show that followed her family's daily routine. Osbourne later became a judge on the talent shows The X Factor and America's Got Talent. Her autobiography, Extreme, has sold in excess of two million copies.
After the success of The Osbournes and The X Factor, hosting her own chat shows and securing advertising contracts, Osbourne was ranked as the 25th richest woman in Britain on the 2009 Sunday Times Rich List. Sharon and husband, Ozzy Osbourne, are currently ranked as the 724th richest people in Britain with an estimated joint wealth of £110 million. Sharon Osbourne is credited with reviving her husband's heavy metal career by founding the summer Ozzfest tour. She currently lives in California and is one of five co-hosts of the daytime series, The Talk, where she discusses controversial topics and contemporary issues. The Talk premiered on 18 October 2010. BBC announced she is expected to host a syndicated daytime version Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in 2012.
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Sheena Easton
Sheena Easton (born Sheena Shirley Orr; 27 April 1959) is a Scottish recording artist. Easton became famous for being the focus of an episode in the British television programme The Big Time, which recorded her attempts to gain a record contract and her eventual signing with EMI Records. Easton is a two-time Grammy winner and has 15 US Top 40 singles on the Billboard US Pop Singles chart to date. She is the only artist in the history of the Billboard chart to have a Top Five single on all the key charts: Pop/Rock, R&B, Country, Dance, and Adult Contemporary.
Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop hits "9 to 5" (known as "Morning Train" in the United States), "For Your Eyes Only," "Strut," "Sugar Walls," "U Got the Look" with Prince, and "The Lover in Me." She went on to become successful in the United States and Japan, working with prominent vocalists and producers, such as Prince, Christopher Neil, Kenny Rogers, Luis Miguel, L.A. Reid and Babyface, and Nile Rodgers.
Easton was born Sheena Shirley Orr in the Scottish town of Bellshill, the youngest of six children to steel mill labourer Alex Orr and his wife Annie. She had two brothers (Robert and Alex) and three sisters (Marilyn, Annessa and Morag). Her earliest known public performance as a singer was at the age of five (in 1964), when she sang "Early One Morning" for her uncle and aunt and various relatives at the couple's 25th wedding anniversary celebration.[citation needed]
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Shelby Lynne
Shelby Lynne (born Shelby Lynn Moorer, October 22, 1968, Quantico, Virginia) is an American singer and songwriter. The success of the 1999 album I Am Shelby Lynne led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, even though she had been active in the music industry for some time. She released a Dusty Springfield tribute album called Just a Little Lovin' in 2008. Since then she has started her own independent record label, called Everso Records, and released three albums: Tears, Lies and Alibis, Merry Christmas, and Revelation Road.
Shelby Lynne was born in Virginia but grew up in Mobile, Alabama,where she attended Theodore High School. Music was an important part of the Moorer family. Her father, who worked as an English teacher and a juvenile corrections officer, played the guitar, while her mother was a singer. Her father also drank a lot and eventually became abusive. In August 1986, when Lynne was 17, her father shot and killed her mother and then himself. She and her younger sister Allison Moorer subsequently moved in with relatives.
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Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop. She has won nine Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
She has performed with The Rolling Stones and has sung duets with Mick Jagger,Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Luciano Pavarotti, John Mellencamp, Kid Rock, Michelle Branch, and Sting among others. She has performed backing vocals for Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Don Henley and Belinda Carlisle. She also sang as part of the back up vocals for the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary celebrating Dylan's 30 years as a recording artist. Crow has released seven studio albums, two compilations, and a live album, and has contributed to film soundtracks. She has sold 16 million albums in the United States and 35 million albums worldwide and her newest album, 100 Miles from Memphis, was released on July 20, 2010. Recently she appeared on NBC's 30 Rock, ABC's GCB and Cougar Town, Disney Channel's Hannah Montana Forever, and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
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Stefanie Schaeffer
Stefanie Schaeffer (born Stefani Lynn Schaeffer; May 31, 1974) is an American defense attorney from California. She was named Season 6 Apprentice on the reality show of the same name. She is currently the host of Know Your Rights TV, a news legal webisodic.
Schaeffer was born in Burbank, California to Gloria Peri-Smith and Peter Schaeffer, and was raised in Palm Springs. She has one brother, Michael Schaeffer.
She had a double major in college - English and psychology - and graduated from the University of California, Riverside. Schaeffer graduated in the top 10% of her class from Southwestern University School of Law in their SCALE program.
Selected as a Los Angeles Lawyer "Young Rising Star" in 2006 for excellence in law, Schaeffer was a trial attorney for California defense firm Stockwell, Harris, Widom, Woolverton & Muehl.
She joined the firm on August 16, 2006, prior to The Apprentice. She defended California employers against workers' compensation, subrogation and discrimination claims, and defended large real estate developers in construction defect litigation. She worked for Goldman, Magdalin & Krikes, LLP.
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Steven Massarsky
Steven J. Massarsky (21 Mar 1948 - 5 Oct 2007) was an American lawyer and businessman who founded Voyager Communications, parent company of the early 1990s comic book company Valiant Comics.
Born in Manhattan, Massarsky held an A.B. in political science from Brown University and a J.D. from Rutgers School of Law-Newark. He was a founding board member of the Brown University Entrepreneurship Program. He was also member of the Weehawken, New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Massarsky first owned and operated an artist management company handling artists such as The Allman Brothers Band and The Wailers, and is responsible for launching the career of Cyndi Lauper. He next operated an entertainment law practice with such diverse clients as Nintendo, The Wailers, Cabbage Patch Dolls, the Psychedelic Furs, Collins Management, Aerosmith, Tom Chapin and Willie Mays.
Massarsky next co-founded Voyager Communications in 1989, with Valiant Comics growing into the third largest comic book publisher in the United States behind only Marvel Comics and DC Comics during the comic boom of the 1990s. The company was later sold to Acclaim Entertainment, with Massarsky remaining on as President and Publisher of the resulting Acclaim Comics.
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Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing such issues as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. He is considered one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks movie studio.
Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Three of Spielberg's films—Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993)—achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes puts Spielberg's wealth at $3.0 billion.
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Summer Sanders
Summer Elisabeth Sanders (born October 13, 1972) is a sports commentator and reporter, TV show host, actress and retired Olympic gold medalist in swimming.
Sanders was born in Roseville, California and attended Cavitt Junior High School (just outside Roseville), Bishop Donahue High School (in West Virginia) and Oakmont High School there.
She first came to the attention of the swimming world in 1988 when, as a 15-year-old, she barely missed a spot on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team. She won three gold medals at the 1990 Goodwill Games before embarking on her collegiate career at Stanford University. In two years at Stanford, she compiled six individual NCAA titles and four relay championships. Sanders earned back-to-back NCAA Swimmer of the Year awards and propelled Stanford to a national championship in 1992. She also played basketball.
At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, she won gold medals in the 200-meter butterfly and in the 400-meter medley relay. She also won a silver medal in the 200-meter individual medley and a bronze medal in the 400-meter individual medley. Her individual performances in Barcelona were identical to those a year earlier at the 1991 swimming and diving world championships in Perth, Australia. Retiring after the Barcelona Olympics, Sanders later attempted to make the 1996 Olympic team but failed to qualify.
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Swoosie Kurtz
Swoosie Kurtz ( /ˌswuːsi ˈkɜrts/, SWOO-si) (born September 6, 1944) is an American actress. She began her career in theater during the 1970s and shortly thereafter began a career in television, garnering ten nominations and winning one Emmy Award. Her most famous television project was her role on the 1990s NBC drama Sisters. She has also appeared somewhat sporadically in films from the late 1970s up until today, including prominent roles in such films as Dangerous Liaisons, Citizen Ruth, and Liar Liar among others. Throughout her career she has remained active in theater, earning five Tony Award nominations and winning two over the last three decades. Kurtz currently portrays Joyce Flynn on the hit CBS sitcom Mike & Molly.
Kurtz was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the only child of author Margo (née Rogers) and Air Force Colonel Frank Kurtz, Jr., a much-decorated WWII American bomber pilot. She got her unique first name "Swoosie" (which rhymes with Lucy, rather than woozy) from her father. It is derived from the sole surviving example, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, of the B-17D Flying Fortress airplane, named "The Swoose" or simply "Swoose"—half swan, half goose—which her father piloted during World War II. As a military brat, Kurtz moved frequently. Kurtz attended the University of Southern California where she majored in drama. She then attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
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Takeshi Kaneshiro
Takeshi Kaneshiro (Japanese and Chinese: 金城 武, romaji: Kaneshiro Takeshi, Pinyin: Jīnchéng Wǔ, pronounced [ɕíntʂ͡ʰə̌ŋ ù]), born October 11, 1973, is a half Taiwanese and half Japanese singer and actor of mixed heritage – his father is Japanese and his mother is Taiwanese. He speaks Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese Hokkien and English.
Kaneshiro is a common Okinawan family name. In kanji, 金城 is Kaneshiro and 武 is Takeshi (given name), with Japanese readings. He appears as 金城 武 (Kaneshiro Takeshi) in Japanese media.
Although Kaneshiro is not a Chinese surname, the first kanji of Kaneshiro coincides with the Chinese surname Jin 金 and with the Korean surname "Kim" 김. Since personal names are commonly written in Chinese characters in both Chinese and Japanese naming conventions, with surnames before given names, this gives Kaneshiro the freedom whether to distinguish himself as a Japanese or not when working in Chinese-speaking countries by preserving or removing the space between his surname and given name.
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Tegan and Sara
Tegan and Sara are a Canadian indie band formed in 1995 in Calgary. Composed of identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin (born September 19, 1980). Both Tegan and Sara play guitar and keyboard and write their songs.
Tegan and Sara Quin were born September 19, 1980 in Calgary, Alberta. They began playing guitar and writing songs at age 15. They initially played as Plunk without a drummer or bass player. In 1997, they used their school’s recording studio to record two demo albums: Who's in Your Band? and Play Day. In 1998, they won Calgary's Garage Warz competition, using the studio time they won to record their first professional demo, Yellow tape, which was followed by Orange tape and Red tape.
Two songs from Red tape appeared on their first album, Under Feet Like Ours, which they released independently in 1999 under the name "Sara and Tegan". They later changed their name to "Tegan and Sara" because it was easier to pronounce and reprinted the album using that name. They also wanted their name to stand out amongst the other 'Sara' musicians at the time such as Sarah McLachlan and Sarah Slean. Tegan was easier to remember.[citation needed]Neil Young's manager signed them to Young's Vapor Records label, and they released This Business of Art through Vapor in 2000. They have toured extensively since then.
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The Carpenters
The Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. Though often referred to by the public as The Carpenters, the duo's official name on authorized recordings and press materials is simply "Carpenters". During a period in the 1970s when louder and wilder rock was in great demand, Richard and Karen produced a distinctively soft musical style that made them among the best-selling music artists of all time.
Carpenters' melodic pop produced a record-breaking run of hit recordings on the American Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, and they became leading sellers in the soft rock, easy listening and adult contemporary genres. Carpenters had three #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen #1 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart (see The Carpenters discography). In addition, they had twelve top 10 singles (including their #1 hits). To date, Carpenters' album and single sales total more than 100 million units.[citation needed]
During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded 11 albums, thirty-one singles, five television specials, and a short-lived television series. They toured in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium. Their recording career ended with Karen's death in 1983 from cardiac arrest following complications of anorexia nervosa. Extensive news coverage of the circumstances surrounding her death increased public awareness of the consequences of eating disorders.
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The Fabulous Moolah
Mary Lillian Ellison (July 22, 1923 – November 2, 2007) better known by her ring name The Fabulous Moolah, was an American female professional wrestler. She began her career working with promoter Billy Wolfe and his wife, wrestler and trainer Mildred Burke, as well as working alongside professional wrestler "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. She won the NWA World Women's Championship in 1956 and was the most prominent holder of the title for approximately the next thirty years.
In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as part of the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection storyline, feuding with Cyndi Lauper and Wendi Richter, the latter of whom defeated her for the WWF Women's Championship in 1984. Ellison was marketed by the WWF (later World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE) as holding the record for the longest title reign by any athlete in any professional sport. According to WWE, she was also the first WWF Women's Champion and held the title a total of four times.
In addition, Ellison was a prominent trainer and promoter in woman's professional wrestling. In the 1990s, she returned to the WWF in a comedic role with longtime friend Mae Young. Ellison became the oldest champion in the history of professional wrestling when she won the WWF Women's Championship at age 76, in 1999. In 2010, WWE recognized her as the 27th best wrestler ever.
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The Scumfrog
Jesse Houk (born 1971) is a DJ/remixer/producer/artist from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is better known by his pseudonym, The Scumfrog, under which he has remixed songs by artists as varied as Britney Spears, David Bowie, Dido, Enrique Iglesias, and J-Pop Superstar Utada Hikaru. His first release was a 3-track EP called The Watersong, in 1997. He released his first CD, Simmer, in 2004, which included the single "Music Revolution". In 2005 Music Revolution was chosen for Chevrolet’s long running HHR commercial. In 2006 he released "Mega Scum 01", a DJ mix with original tracks and remixes. In 2008, he co-wrote and co-produced Cyndi Lauper's album, Bring Ya To The Brink, (the song "High and Mighty"), which is also the first song on the CD track list. The album was nominated for a Grammy in the category "Best Dance Album"
He has also worked as Dutch, getting his first number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 2003, "My Time" which he co-wrote with vocalist Crystal Waters.
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Thelma Houston
Thelma Houston (née Jackson; born May 7, 1946, Leland, Mississippi) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She scored a number-one hit in 1977 with her cover version of the song "Don't Leave Me This Way", which won the 1978 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
Houston is the daughter of a cotton picking mother. She and her three sisters grew up primarily in Long Beach, California. After marrying and having two children, she joined the Art Reynolds Singers gospel group and was subsequently signed as a recording artist with Dunhill Records. She is not related to Whitney Houston.[citation needed][relevant? – discuss]
In 1969, Houston released her debut album, entitled Sunshower, produced by Jimmy Webb. In 1971 she signed with Motown Records but her early recordings with them were largely unsuccessful. Her most notable single during that period was "You've Been Doing Wrong for So Long" which peaked at #64 on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart in 1974. However Houston's vocal prowess on that track secured her a nomination for a Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. In 1973 Motown Productions announced a projected biopic of Dinah Washington which would star Houston; however the project was dropped due to difficulties in getting clearance from Washington's relatives. In April 1974 Houston joined the cast of The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, playing various characters during the show's skits. The show was canceled in August and for the next several years her work was limited to demo recordings and performing at small venues.
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Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice (born 10 November 1944) is a British lyricist and author. An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and additional songs for the 2011 West End revival of The Wizard of Oz, and for his work for Walt Disney Studios with Alan Menken (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, King David), Elton John (The Lion King, Aida) and Ennio Morricone.
Rice was born at Shardeloes, an historic English country house near Amersham, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom that was requisitioned as a maternity hospital during World War II. His father, Hugh Gordon Rice, served with the Eighth Army and reached the rank of major during World War II, whilst his mother, Joan Odette (née Bawden), served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as a photographic interpreter. After the war, they worked for the de Havilland aircraft company.
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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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Tom Gray
Tom Gray (born February 1, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois) is a bluegrass musician widely considered one of the best bass players in the genre. He is probably best known for his bass playing with The Country Gentlemen and The Seldom Scene. In 1996, as a member of The Country Gentlemen, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor.
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Tommy Mottola
Thomas Daniel "Tommy" Mottola (born July 14, 1949) is an American music executive, co-owner of Casablanca Records in a joint venture with the Universal Music Group. He is the ex-husband of Mariah Carey and is married to Mexican singer Thalía. He headed Sony Music Entertainment, parent of the Columbia label, for nearly 15 years.
Apart from his experience in managing music outfits, Mottola is known as a mentor and former talent manager. His most famous proteges were Hall & Oates, Carly Simon, John Mellencamp,Diana Ross, and Taylor Dayne in the 1980s, Mariah Carey (his second wife) in the 1990s, Gloria Estefan, Shakira, Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez in the early 2000s.
During his tenure, he transformed Sony into one of the most successful global music companies, expanding its businesses into over 60 countries, while creating one of the strongest management teams in the industry.[citation needed] He revitalized Sony Music's publishing division by making such acquisitions as the Beatles catalogue 2 weeks after and that was once owned by Michael Jacksons death, and enabled Sony to become the first major music company to make available commercial digital downloads.[citation needed] Additionally, Mottola was the architect for some of Sony's biggest global brands such as Celine Dion and Mariah Carey.[citation needed] During his 15 year tenure, Mottola built Sony up from a company with revenues of $800 million a year to one with over $6 billion of annual revenue by the year 2000.[citation needed]
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Toni Braxton
Toni Michelle Braxton (born October 7, 1967) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Braxton has won six Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, and five Billboard Music Awards and has sold over 60 million records worldwide. She has a contralto vocal type.[citation needed]
Braxton topped the Billboard 200 with her 1993 self-titled debut album and continued that streak with her second studio album Secrets, which spawned the number-one hits "You're Makin' Me High" and "Un-Break My Heart". Although she had successful albums and singles, Braxton shortly filed for bankruptcy, but then returned with her chart-topping third album, The Heat. In 2009, she returned to the spotlight with "Yesterday", a #12 R&B hit which serves as the first single off her new album Pulse, released on May 4, 2010, which debuted at #1 on Billboard R&B Album Chart. Braxton was involved in the 7th season of the reality show Dancing with the Stars. Her professional partner was Alec Mazo. She was voted off in week five of the competition. It was announced on October 6, 2010 that Braxton once again had filed for bankruptcy. A reality series entitled Braxton Family Values, starring Toni and her sisters, debuted April 12, 2011 on WE tv. WE tv ordered a 13-episode second season of the show after the third episode of the first season. On September 18, 2011, Braxton was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
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Tori Amos
Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. Amos originally served as the lead singer of 1980s synthpop group Y Kant Tori Read, and as a solo artist was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s. She was also noteworthy early in her solo career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument. Some of her charting singles include "Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "God", "Cornflake Girl", "Caught a Lite Sneeze", "Professional Widow", "Spark", "1000 Oceans", and "A Sorta Fairytale", her most commercially successful single in the U.S. to date.
As of 2005, Amos had sold 12 million albums worldwide. She has been nominated for 8 Grammy Awards. Amos was also named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1996.
Amos was born in Newton, North Carolina. When she was two, her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she began to play the piano. By age five, she had begun composing instrumental pieces on piano and, while living in Rockville, Maryland, she won a full scholarship to the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Her scholarship was discontinued at age 11 and she was asked to leave. Amos has asserted that she lost the scholarship because of her interest in rock and popular music, coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music. In 1972, The Amos family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where her father, Reverend Edison Amos, became pastor of the Good Shepherd United Methodist church. At the age of 13 she began playing at gay bars and piano bars, chaperoned by her father.
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Tracey Ullman
Tracey Ullman (born 30 December 1959) is a British stage and television actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, director, screenwriter and author.
Her early appearances were on British TV sketch comedy shows A Kick Up the Eighties (with Rik Mayall and Miriam Margolyes) and Three of a Kind (with Lenny Henry and David Copperfield). After a brief but high-profile singing career, she appeared as Candice Valentine in Girls On Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
She emigrated from the UK to the US and created her own network television series, The Tracey Ullman Show, from 1987 until 1990, from which The Simpsons was spun off in 1989. She later produced programmes for HBO, including Tracey Takes On... (1996–1999), for which she has won numerous awards. She has also appeared in several feature films. Ullman's most recent sketch comedy series, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, ran from 2008 to 2010 on Showtime.
wn.com/Tracey_Ullman -
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Crossroads", "Give Me One Reason" and "Telling Stories". She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.
Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She was raised by her mother, who recognized Tracy's love of music and, despite not having much money, bought her a ukulele when she was just three. Chapman began playing guitar and writing songs at the age of eight. She says that she may have been first inspired to play the guitar by the television show Hee Haw.
Chapman was raised Baptist and went to an Episcopal high school. She was accepted into the program "A Better Chance", which helps minority students attend private schools. She graduated from Wooster School in Connecticut, then attended Tufts University. She graduated with a B.A. degree in anthropology and African studies.
In the mid-1990s, Chapman dated author Alice Walker. Chapman maintains a strong separation between her personal and professional lives. “I have a public life that’s my work life and I have my personal life,” she said. “In some ways, the decision to keep the two things separate relates to the work I do."
wn.com/Tracy_Chapman -
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE (born George Ivan Morrison; 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely viewed as among the greatest ever made.
Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison started his professional career when, as a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish showbands covering the popular hits of the day. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band Them, with whom he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria". His solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. After Berns' death, Warner Bros. Records bought out his contract and allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks in 1968. Even though this album would gradually garner high praise, it was initially poorly received; however, the next one, Moondance, established Morrison as a major artist, and throughout the 1970s he built on his reputation with a series of critically acclaimed albums and live performances. Morrison continues to record and tour, producing albums and live performances that sell well and are generally warmly received, sometimes collaborating with other artists, such as Georgie Fame and The Chieftains. In 2008 he performed Astral Weeks live for the first time since 1968.
wn.com/Van_Morrison -
Vivian Green
Vivian Green is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter and pianist.
Green was born May 22, 1979 in the East Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and took an interest in singing, playing the piano, and songwriting at a very young age. At the age of thirteen, she became a member of a female quintet called Younique. Also, she is a graduate of Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice. Green has credit for writing "Dear God" by Boyz II Men, from their 1997 album Evolution. Green received her big break at the age of nineteen when she became a backup singer for Jill Scott, who took her on an international tour. She signed to Columbia Records in November 2002.
Between her first and second albums, she took a three-year hiatus. During this time she had son Jordan (2003) ), with ex fiance, drummer Erik Tribbett. She continues to live in Philadelphia where she is raising her son as a single parent.
Green released her debut album, A Love Story, in November 2002 in the U.S. and February 2003 in the United Kingdom, featuring the hit "Emotional Rollercoaster". In the meantime, Green made a cameo appearance in the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely singing a cover version of Porter's 1930 song "Love for Sale", which made the film's soundtrack album. She also played Brenda Holloway in an episode of the first season of NBC's drama series American Dreams, entitled "The Carpetbaggers" (originally aired on April 6, 2003), performing a rendition of Holloway's 1964 hit "Every Little Bit Hurts".
wn.com/Vivian_Green -
Wanda Sykes
Wanda Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is an American writer, stand-up comedian, actress, and voice artist. She earned the 1999 Emmy Award for her writing on The Chris Rock Show. In 2004 Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America. She is well known for her role as Barbara Baran on The New Adventures of Old Christine and for her appearances on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In November 2009, The Wanda Sykes Show, her own late-night talkshow, premiered on Fox, airing Saturday nights, until it was cancelled in April 2010. Sykes has also had a successful career in film, appearing in Monster-in-Law, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Evan Almighty, and License to Wed, and voiced characters in Over the Hedge, Barnyard, Brother Bear 2, Rio, and Ice Age: Continental Drift.
Sykes was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and raised in the Washington, D.C., area. Her mother, Marion Louise (née Peoples), worked as a banker, and her father, Harry Ellsworth Sykes, was a US Army colonel employed at the Pentagon. Sykes attended Arundel High School in Gambrills, Maryland, and went on to graduate from Hampton University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing. After college, her first job was as a procurement officer with the National Security Agency (NSA), where she worked for five years.
wn.com/Wanda_Sykes -
Wendi Richter
Wendi Richter (born September 6, 1961) is a retired American professional wrestler. She began her professional wrestling career in companies such as the National Wrestling Alliance, where she teamed with Joyce Grable, with whom she held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice. In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). She held the WWF Women's Championship twice and feuded with The Fabulous Moolah over the title. She was also involved in a storyline with singer Cyndi Lauper called the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection." Richter, however, left the WWF after losing the championship in controversial fashion. She then worked in the World Wrestling Council and American Wrestling Association, where she held both companies' women's titles.
Wendi Richter was trained at The Fabulous Moolah's Lillian Ellison School of Professional Wrestling and made her professional debut in 1979. In early 1982, Richter tag teamed with Moolah against Velvet McIntyre and Princess Victoria for three matches for the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Richter was later paired with Joyce Grable, with whom she also trained for six weeks, to form a tag team called The Texas Cowgirls. In late 1982, they wrestled in a series of matches in Canada's Stampede Wrestling against Velvet McIntyre and Judy Martin. She continued her feud with McIntyre in Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling Association, where she was defeated twice. Richter and Grable continued their rivalry with McIntyre and Martin into April 1983 in Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association. In May, the team reformed in Stampede Wrestling in matches against McIntyre and Penny Mitchell. The team also won the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice.
wn.com/Wendi_Richter -
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg ( /ˈhwʊpi/, born Caryn Elaine Johnson; November 13, 1955) is an American comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.
Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple (1985) playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her first Golden Globe Award for her role in the film. In 1990, she starred as Oda Mae Brown, a psychic helping a slain man (Patrick Swayze) find his killer in the blockbuster film Ghost. This performance won her a second Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Notable later films include Sister Act and Sister Act 2, The Lion King, Made in America, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Girl, Interrupted and Rat Race. She is also acclaimed for her roles as the bartender Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation and as Terry Doolittle in Jumpin' Jack Flash. More recently, she had performed the voice of Stretch in Toy Story 3 and made an appearance in Glee as Carmen Tibideaux.
wn.com/Whoopi_Goldberg -
Wikipedia Persondata
wn.com/Wikipedia_Persondata -
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace (Medieval Gaelic: Uilliam Uallas; modern Scottish Gaelic: Uilleam Uallas; Latin: Guillelmum le Walois de Scotia militem; born c. 1272, died 23 August 1305) was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence.
Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, and was Guardian of Scotland, serving until his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk. In 1305, Wallace was captured in Robroyston near Glasgow and handed over to King Edward I of England, who had him hanged, drawn, and quartered for high treason and crimes against English civilians.
Since his death, Wallace has obtained an iconic status far beyond his homeland. He is the protagonist of the 15th century epic poem The Acts and Deeds of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Elderslie, by Blind Harry. Wallace is also the subject of literary works by Sir Walter Scott and Jane Porter and of the Academy Award winning epic film Braveheart.
wn.com/William_Wallace -
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jeanelle Jean (/ˈwaɪklɪf ˈʒɑːn/; Haitian Creole pronunciation: [wajklɛf ʒã]; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian American musician, record producer, and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country. He first received fame as a member of the acclaimed New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees.
On August 5, 2010, Jean filed for candidacy in the 2010 Haitian presidential election, although the Electoral Commission subsequently ruled him ineligible to stand as he had not met the requirement to have been resident in Haiti for five years.
Although his birth date was widely given as October 17, 1972, papers filed for his run as a candidate for the presidency of Haiti, disclosed that he was, in fact, born in 1969. Born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, the son of a Nazarene pastor, Wyclef moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York, when he was nine before moving again to northern New Jersey. Jean has cited reggae artist Bigga Haitian as one of his early influences, as well as neighborhood heroes MC Tiger Paw Raw and producer Lobster v. Crab. Jean graduated from Vailsburg High School in Newark, briefly attended Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts, and finished one semester at Five Towns College in New York. Jean has been a resident of Saddle River, South Orange, and North Caldwell, New Jersey. In 2009, Jean enrolled in the Berklee College of Music.
wn.com/Wyclef_Jean -
Wynonna Judd
Wynonna Ellen Judd ( /waɪˈnoʊnə/; born Christina Claire Ciminella on May 30, 1964) is an American country music singer. Her solo albums and singles are all credited to the singular name Wynonna. Wynonna first rose to fame in the 1980s alongside her mother, Naomi, in the country music duo The Judds. The duo released seven albums on Curb Records in addition to charting 26 singles, of which 14 were number one hits.
After The Judds disbanded in 1991, Wynonna began a solo career, also on Curb. In her solo career, she has released eight studio albums, a live album, and a compilation album in addition to charting more than 20 singles of her own. Her first three singles—"She Is His Only Need", "I Saw the Light" and "No One Else on Earth"—all reached number one on the U.S. country singles charts, as did 1996's "To Be Loved by You." Three of her albums are certified platinum or higher by the RIAA. Her most recent recording, Sing: Chapter 1, was released on February 3, 2009. Wynonna is most recognized for her musical work, although starting in the 2000s she has also pursued other interests, including acting and philanthropy.
wn.com/Wynonna_Judd -
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono (オノ・ヨーコ（小野 洋子）, Ono Yōko?, born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese artist, author, and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon. Ono brought feminism to the forefront in her music which prefigured New Wave music and is known for her philanthropic contributions to the arts, peace and AIDS outreach programs.
Yoko Ono was born in Tokyo in 1933 to mother Isoko Ono, the great-granddaughter of Zenjiro Yasuda of the Yasuda banking family, and to father Yeisuke Ono, a banker and one-time classical pianist who was a descendant of an Emperor of Japan. The name "Yoko" means "ocean child". Two weeks before she was born, her father was transferred to San Francisco by his employer, the Yokohama Specie Bank. The rest of the family followed soon after and Yoko met her father when she was two. Her younger brother Keisuke was born in December 1936. In 1937, her father was transferred back to Japan and Ono was enrolled at Tokyo's Gakushuin (also known as the Peers School), one of the most exclusive schools in Japan.
wn.com/Yoko_Ono
Cindy Filmography
- Dick Sucking Anal Bitches of Fresh Meat (2007)
- No Limit (2004)
- Cum Dumpsters 2 (2003)
- Filthy Little Cocksuckers (2002)
- Young Sluts, Inc. 6 (2002)
- A-Train 3: Deep in the Anal Heartland (2002)
- Deep Throat This 5 (2002)
- University Coed Oral Exams 9 (2002)
- World Class Ass 2 (2002)
- 2 on 1 #12 (2002)
- Fresh Meat 15 (2002)
- Little Lace Panties 2 (2002)
- North Pole #29 (2002)
- Straight to the A 2 (2002)
- The Voyeur 22 (2002)
- Two in the Seat 1 (2002)
- Un-Natural Sex 8 (2002)
- Fresh Meat #12: Spare the Conversation (2001)
- 2 on 1 #9 (2001)
- Papa Load's Blowjob Babes 4 (2001)
Cindy Filmography
- Private: X-Girls: The Lost X-Teens (2007)
- The Private Life of Maria Bellucci (2007)
- Cum Filled Throats 15 (2006)
- Lip Lickers 5 (2006)
- Black & White (2002)
- Private Gold 54: Gladiator 1 (2002)
- Pick-Up Lines 51 (2000)
- Gang Bang Angels 17 (2000)
- Private XXX 2 (1999)
Cindy Filmography
- Private Superfuckers 3 (2001)
- Private XXX 13: Sexual Heat (2001)
- Foreign Bodies (2000)
- Madness 2 (2000)
- Private Black Label 14: Erica (2000)
- Private Gold 41: Madness 1 (2000)
karaoke
I pick you up with flowersWhen you get off from workIt’s like you don’t even careIt’s like I’m some kind of jerkI take you out on a dateAnd then you won’t even kiss meBoy when I ain’t aroundI’ll bet you don’t even miss meI don’t know whyI love you like I doI try and tryYou treat me like a foolIt makes me want to cryIt makes me feel so blueBut I just do, baby, I just doI call you upJust to pass the timeSoon as you hear my voiceYou disconnect the lineAnd when I call you backYour mother says you ain’t homeCindy I know that’s you on the other end of this phoneOh in this worldThere ain’t another like youMy little candy girlSo hard-hearted and cruelI think that’s whatKeeps me coming backI’m a fool for you cindy and I like it like thatI came to get you last nightCindy, at quarter to sixYour daddy came to the doorHe said cindy got sickShe got sent home from workWith a note from the nurseAnd my very presencewould make your condition worseBut it ain’t your health’cause well you sure look fineLittle girl it’s something elseThat’s on my mindWell you can give it to me’cause if it’s good enough for youIt’s good enough for meI don’t know whyI love you like I doYou make me cryAnd feel like such a foolI guess I like itWhen you hurt me this wayYou dish it out and I just put it away
I wish I was a apple hangin' in a tree
And everytime my sweetheart passed
She'd take a bite off me
She told me that she loved me
She called me sugar plum
She threw her arms around me
I thought my time had come
Get along home, Cindy-Cindy
Get along home, Cindy-Cindy
Get along home, Cindy-Cindy
I'll marry you sometime
I wish I had a needle
As fine as I could sew
I'd sew her in my pocket
And down the road I go
Cindy hugged and kissed me
She wrung her hands and cried
Swore I was the prettiest thing
That ever lived or died
Get along home, Cindy-Cindy
Get along home, Cindy-Cindy
Get along home, Cindy-Cindy
I'll marry you sometime
ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS ARE FORGOTTEN NOW
ALL THE APPLES IN BARREL ARE ROTTEN NOW
STANDING ON A MOUNTAIN OF MISERY
LONLINESS IS MY ONLY COMPANY
OH, WHEN ARE GONNA COME CINDY
WHEN WILL YOU BE HOME ON BOUND
I'M IN NEED OF YOU AND THE LOVE WE KNEW
CINDY
I THOUGHT WE WERE BIRDS OF A FEATHER NOW
AND WILL ALWAYS BE TOGATHER NOW
AND WERE EVER I GO YOU WILL FOLLOW ME
A LIF O F LOVE WITH YOU AS MY DESTINY
OH, WHEN YOU GONNA COME COME HOME CINDY
WHEN WILL YOU BE HOME ON BOUND
THERE AN EMPTY SPACE SINCE YOU LEFT THIS PLACE
CINDY, MY CINDY
COME BACK CINDY COMEBACK
CINDY YOU HAVE MADE A GREAT MISTAKE
BUT MISTAKES WERE SOMETIMES MADE TO BREAK
CINDY LOVE IS MADE OF GIVE AND TAKE
LET ARE MOVE BE MADE FOR LOVE'S SAKE
COME ON HOME
CANT YOU SEE I WAS MADE FOR YOU, YOU WERE MADE FOR ME!
PEOPLE TELL ME I'M NOT THE SAME NOW
I ONLY RESPOND TO MY NAME NOW
BUT NO ONE KNOWS IT BETTER THAN ME MYSELF
WITHOUT YOUR LOVE I CAN NEVER BE MYSELF
OHHHHHH, WHEN YOU GONNA COME HOME CINDY
CINDY, MY CINDY
Remember the tune that your daddy would play
When a pretty balloon make you happy and gay
Oh Cindy
Right on his knees your daddy was singing the song
Feeling really at ease knowing where you belonged
Oh Cindy
He couldn't stop you getting older
Watched you growing to his shoulder
Dreaming of his sunny days with Cindy
But he felt with understanding
Sunny days might be soon be ending
When rock 'n roll break into your life
Rock 'n roll would change his baby
To a lovely little lady
Someone else would come and call her 'Cindy'
Rock 'n roll would see her dancing
Waking up and start romancing
'Till the day when see would go away
Now you're grown up with a girl of your own
Don't forget what you've got try to give a good home
To Cindy
Play her a song as your daddy would do
To make her happy and strong whenever she's blue
Your Cindy
You can't stop her getting older
Watch her growing to your shoulder
Dreaming of your sunny days with Cindy
But you feel with understanding
Sunny days might soon be ending
When rock 'n roll would break into her life
Rock 'n roll will change your baby
To a lovely little lady
Someone else will come and call her 'Cindy'
Rock 'n roll will see her dancing
Waking up and start romancing
'Till the day when she will go away
Rock 'n roll will change your baby
To a lovely little lady
Someone else will come and call her 'Cindy'
Rock 'n roll will see you dancing
Waking up and start romancing
Cindy lyrics
Her name is cindy crawford
She is so pretty oh my lord
She´s on the commercials all over town
I went and teard her picture down
Cindy x4
I was kinda embaressed when i went there
She was just standing in her underwear
So now they took her pictures away
I don´t know if i can take another fucking day
Cindy x4
Hörst Du das Lied
ein verlorener Traum
damals warst Du ein Kind
Du erinnerst Dich kaum
Cindy.
Denk an die Zeit
an das alte Klavier
es ist lange verstaubt
doch es träumt noch von Dir
Cindy.
Denn es steht in Deinem Zimmer
und Deine Puppe sitzt noch immer
wo Du spieltest all die Jahre
Cindy.
Und sie schaut mit traurigen Augen
so als würd' sie niemals glauben
daá ihre Zeit mit Dir vorüber ist.
Rock'n'Roll hat Deinem Leben
einen neuen Sinn gegeben
Du gehst Deine eig'nen Wege
Cindy.
Und die alten Kinderlieder
sie erklingen nie mehr wieder
denn die Kinderträume sind vorbei.
Die Jahre vergeh'n
Du hast seiber ein Kind
das so aussieht wie Du
doch die Zeit
sie verrinnt
Cindy.
Sieh es Dir an
und dann weiát Du genau
aus dem Mädchen von Dir wird bald eine Frau
Cindy.
Dann stehst Du in ihrem Zimmer
und ihre Puppe sitzt noch immer
wo sie spielte all die Jahre
Cindy
und Du schaust mit traurigen Augen
so als wirst Du niemals glauben
daá deine Zeit mit ihr vorüber ist.
Rock'n'Roll hat Deinem Leben
Cindy decided to leave
her childhood diary
under the bed
She burned almost everything
except for her wedding ring
Because she threw that in the sea
She hid in her neighbor's yard
and watched as the fire scarred
The house she never could leave
It was the prettiest thing
she thought she had ever seen
A thing in which to believe
Cindy walked down the street,
the smell of the fire so sweet
And she laughed through the smoke
At the end of the block
she made one last stop
To make sure she had everything
Awash in the beautiful sound
of the old house burning down
She opened her bag
She could have sworn that she took
her overdue library books
But they were not to be seen
A knowing smile crossed her face
as she remembered the place
Where she left them upstairs
She slowly walked back down the street
And into the burning debris
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Stay - Cindy - Cinderella 80
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:19
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
Una Pelicula muy bonita de los 80'S
http://wn.com/Stay_Cindy_Cinderella_80
Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:26
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
Music video by Cyndi Lauper performing Girls Just Want To Have Fun. (C) 1983 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
http://wn.com/Cyndi_Lauper_Girls_Just_Want_To_Have_Fun
Music video by Cyndi Lauper performing Girls Just Want To Have Fun. (C) 1983 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
- published: 25 Oct 2009
- views: 27804415
- author: CyndiLauperVEVO
Cindy by Malabon THUGS Tuglaks Krays Sparo J-twist
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:39
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
like us on facebook www.facebook.com Tuglaks www.facebook.com Krays www.facebook.com Sparo www.facebook.com J-twist www.facebook.com
http://wn.com/Cindy_by_Malabon_THUGS_Tuglaks_Krays_Sparo_J-twist
like us on facebook www.facebook.com Tuglaks www.facebook.com Krays www.facebook.com Sparo www.facebook.com J-twist www.facebook.com
- published: 16 Feb 2012
- views: 1214936
- author: Hoodlumrecords baby
Cindy Chang, 42 ~ America's Got Talent 2011, Auditions
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:25
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
（︶︿︶）ﻉ√٥ﺎ Subscribe Chickens! official @ nbc.com Your Best Talent Quest! HumanSlinky.com The audition process continues as the judges look for those jaw-dropping and unique acts that they believe belong on the stage in Las Vegas for a chance at the competition as well as the grand prize and title of America's Favorite act. © NBC Universal, Inc. SYCO TV, © 2011 FremantleMedia North America, Inc. and Simco Limited.
http://wn.com/Cindy_Chang,_42_~_America's_Got_Talent_2011,_Auditions
（︶︿︶）ﻉ√٥ﺎ Subscribe Chickens! official @ nbc.com Your Best Talent Quest! HumanSlinky.com The audition process continues as the judges look for those jaw-dropping and unique acts that they believe belong on the stage in Las Vegas for a chance at the competition as well as the grand prize and title of America's Favorite act. © NBC Universal, Inc. SYCO TV, © 2011 FremantleMedia North America, Inc. and Simco Limited.
- published: 30 Jun 2011
- views: 980658
- author: AmericanBestTalent
10 Minute Buns Thighs Workout Videos by ExerciseTV
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:42
- Updated: 27 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/10_Minute_Buns_Thighs_Workout_Videos_by_ExerciseTV
Cindy Blackman Band Live
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:18
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
Cindy Blackman Band Live www.cindyblackman.com http www.myspace.com
http://wn.com/Cindy_Blackman_Band_Live
Cindy Blackman Band Live www.cindyblackman.com http www.myspace.com
- published: 09 Nov 2009
- views: 81300
- author: underyourskindvd
Brian Eno - Cindy Tells Me
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:32
- Updated: 28 Dec 2012
Very udner rated artist and great song off of the LP Here Comes the Warm Jets
http://wn.com/Brian_Eno_Cindy_Tells_Me
Very udner rated artist and great song off of the LP Here Comes the Warm Jets
- published: 23 Aug 2008
- views: 59517
- author: hfield07
Cindy Lauper - True Colors
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:06
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
You with the sad eyes don't be discouraged oh I realize it's hard to take courage in a world full of people you can lose sight of it all and the darkness inside you can make you fell so small But I see your true colors shining through I see your true colors and that's why I love you so don't be afraid to let them show your true colors true colors are beautiful like a rainbow Show me a smile then don't be unhappy, can't remember when I last saw you laughing if this world makes you crazy and you've taken all you can bear you call me up because you know I'll be there And I'll see your true colors shining through I see your true colors and that's why I love you so don't be afraid to let them show your true colors true colors are beautiful like a rainbow
http://wn.com/Cindy_Lauper_True_Colors
You with the sad eyes don't be discouraged oh I realize it's hard to take courage in a world full of people you can lose sight of it all and the darkness inside you can make you fell so small But I see your true colors shining through I see your true colors and that's why I love you so don't be afraid to let them show your true colors true colors are beautiful like a rainbow Show me a smile then don't be unhappy, can't remember when I last saw you laughing if this world makes you crazy and you've taken all you can bear you call me up because you know I'll be there And I'll see your true colors shining through I see your true colors and that's why I love you so don't be afraid to let them show your true colors true colors are beautiful like a rainbow
- published: 08 Nov 2009
- views: 382500
- author: milleniumshowtime
Dexter Early Cuts: Cindy Landon
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:45
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
Dexter finds himself in a tricky situation when he encounters black widow Cindy Landon. Season 5 returns in 2010.
http://wn.com/Dexter_Early_Cuts_Cindy_Landon
Dexter finds himself in a tricky situation when he encounters black widow Cindy Landon. Season 5 returns in 2010.
- published: 08 Jan 2010
- views: 216188
- author: SHOWTIME
I Found Love (Cindy's Song) by BeBe Winans " BeBe & CeCe Winans Album Still"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:11
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
Music video by BeBe Winans performing I Found Love from the album Still by BeBe & CeCe Winans. (C) 2009 B&C; Records, LLC. It is with great pleasure and excitement to introduce the video, "I FOUND LOVE", by BeBe Winans from the BeBe & CeCe, album "STILL" BeBe Winans has chosen this beautiful couple to be featured in his video "I Found Love" (Cindy's Song) We met bride, DeKeisha and her maid of honor at a New York City Bridal show. After meeting with Dekeisha, Ebiakpo and the maid of honor for the consultation they selected John Bayley Photography Studio. Dekeisha later mentioned they were winners of the Essence, Will You Marry Me ?" contest. We felt compelled to share their remarkable love story. This is the winning proposal letter to Essence that won many hearts. "Dear DeKeisha, I was instantly attracted to you during a chance meeting on a ski trip to Boston. But I could've kicked myself for not getting your number immediately. As fate would have it, we ran into each other a month later in New York. I remember telling my cousin, "I'm going to marry this woman." You were so warm and giving. In 2007, when you were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I was heartbroken. The disease only made me realize that I never want to leave your side. You once asked me if I could meet anyone, who would it be. The answer is, and always will be, our children. I can't wait until we start our family. Will you marry me?" Directed: by John Bayley www.johnbayleyphoto.com Photography: John Bayley ...
http://wn.com/I_Found_Love_Cindy's_Song_by_BeBe_Winans_BeBe_CeCe_Winans_Album_Still
Music video by BeBe Winans performing I Found Love from the album Still by BeBe & CeCe Winans. (C) 2009 B&C; Records, LLC. It is with great pleasure and excitement to introduce the video, "I FOUND LOVE", by BeBe Winans from the BeBe & CeCe, album "STILL" BeBe Winans has chosen this beautiful couple to be featured in his video "I Found Love" (Cindy's Song) We met bride, DeKeisha and her maid of honor at a New York City Bridal show. After meeting with Dekeisha, Ebiakpo and the maid of honor for the consultation they selected John Bayley Photography Studio. Dekeisha later mentioned they were winners of the Essence, Will You Marry Me ?" contest. We felt compelled to share their remarkable love story. This is the winning proposal letter to Essence that won many hearts. "Dear DeKeisha, I was instantly attracted to you during a chance meeting on a ski trip to Boston. But I could've kicked myself for not getting your number immediately. As fate would have it, we ran into each other a month later in New York. I remember telling my cousin, "I'm going to marry this woman." You were so warm and giving. In 2007, when you were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I was heartbroken. The disease only made me realize that I never want to leave your side. You once asked me if I could meet anyone, who would it be. The answer is, and always will be, our children. I can't wait until we start our family. Will you marry me?" Directed: by John Bayley www.johnbayleyphoto.com Photography: John Bayley ...
- published: 23 Dec 2010
- views: 748944
- author: John Bayley
Sous Une Pluie D'Etoiles by Cindy Daniel
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:40
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
This is the french song by Cindy Daniel with lyrics attached. EDIT: 7/2010 Wow, guys. Over a million views! Thanks! :D
http://wn.com/Sous_Une_Pluie_D'Etoiles_by_Cindy_Daniel
This is the french song by Cindy Daniel with lyrics attached. EDIT: 7/2010 Wow, guys. Over a million views! Thanks! :D
- published: 14 Jul 2007
- views: 2773877
- author: AnglSummer4
Dr. Cindy Trimm prays and releases the power of God
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:19
- Updated: 14 Sep 2012
Dr. Cindy Trimm prays and release the power of God. Mighty intercessor and woman of prayer. Visit her website at www.cindytrimm.com
http://wn.com/Dr_Cindy_Trimm_prays_and_releases_the_power_of_God
Dr. Cindy Trimm prays and release the power of God. Mighty intercessor and woman of prayer. Visit her website at www.cindytrimm.com
- published: 28 Apr 2008
- views: 723235
- author: ebahamas
Cindy McCain Just Like Any Other Female Human'
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:04
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Despite the media's portrayal of her, Cindy McCain says she is a down-to-earth person who enjoys breathing oxygen and consuming earth food for energy.
http://wn.com/Cindy_McCain_Just_Like_Any_Other_Female_Human'
Despite the media's portrayal of her, Cindy McCain says she is a down-to-earth person who enjoys breathing oxygen and consuming earth food for energy.
- published: 27 Oct 2008
- views: 287378
- author: TheOnion
Tammany Hall NYC - Cindy
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:42
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
My favoritt song from the NYC based band Tammany Hall NYC. The song is known form the Scrubs episode My Lucky Night (S03E05) Its my first video.
http://wn.com/Tammany_Hall_NYC_Cindy
My favoritt song from the NYC based band Tammany Hall NYC. The song is known form the Scrubs episode My Lucky Night (S03E05) Its my first video.
- published: 07 Jul 2008
- views: 111265
- author: Alotters
Cindy Lauper - All Through the Night (Live)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:26
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
Artist: Cindy Lauper Title: All Through the Night Album: She's So Unusual Concert: Live in Paris 1987
http://wn.com/Cindy_Lauper_All_Through_the_Night_Live
Artist: Cindy Lauper Title: All Through the Night Album: She's So Unusual Concert: Live in Paris 1987
- published: 06 May 2009
- views: 152085
- author: xdeviltrunksx
"Cindy's Birthday" by Johnny Crawford
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:05
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
Here is the great song by Johnny Crawford!
http://wn.com/Cindy's_Birthday_by_Johnny_Crawford
Here is the great song by Johnny Crawford!
- published: 29 May 2010
- views: 108015
- author: TheBirthdayGreetings
Scary Movie 2 - Brenda And Cindy
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:01
- Updated: 28 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/Scary_Movie_2_Brenda_And_Cindy
Cindy Cruse Ratcliff - "Majesty"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:41
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
Here is Cindy Cruse Ratcliff singing "Majesty" during a live Sunday, November 21, 2010 worship service at Lakewood Church. Be blessed as you watch and if you enjoyed this video, be sure to comment, favorite, rate, or even subscribe! God Bless!
http://wn.com/Cindy_Cruse_Ratcliff_Majesty
Here is Cindy Cruse Ratcliff singing "Majesty" during a live Sunday, November 21, 2010 worship service at Lakewood Church. Be blessed as you watch and if you enjoyed this video, be sure to comment, favorite, rate, or even subscribe! God Bless!
- published: 22 Nov 2010
- views: 94921
- author: willm166
Cindy Crawford Takes Her Panties Off
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:58
- Updated: 28 Dec 2012
Cindy Crawford takes her panties off at Leno. www.makeushot.com
http://wn.com/Cindy_Crawford_Takes_Her_Panties_Off
Cindy Crawford takes her panties off at Leno. www.makeushot.com
- published: 01 May 2007
- views: 3531673
- author: makeushot
Cindy Chang - "O Mio Babbino Caro" (BEST AUDITION? - Review) - America's Got Talent 6/29/11 Recap
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:26
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
America's Got Talent Review - Season 6, Episode 8, June 29th, 2011. (6/29/11) - Best audition of the night - Cindy Chang. (FINAL AUDITIONS EPISODE - compilation of unseen auditions, I assume.) This is my show REVIEW, with no copyrighted footage included. However, most of the performances are linked further down in this description. SHOW BREAKDOWN: Eric and Christlo - A duo of best friends that tried to sing and dance to "Waterfalls" by TLC. Not entertaining or enjoyable by any means. Sharon repeatedly called them adorable, but that wasn't enough to get a "yes" from any of the judges. (AXED) Chris, The Boy With The Wire Hair - A man that hung from a wire attached to his hair. He attempted to juggle while hanging, but I'm sure it was too painful to concentrate anyways. (AXED) Fatally Unique - A dance group consisting of 13-22 year old males and females. Great choreography, but terrible costumes! (VEGAS) Ian - A 16 year old yo-yo whiz who impressed the crowd and judges with fantastic tricks. (VEGAS) Tricky - A 46 year old body builder and fitness instructor who flexed his muscles for the crowd, and that's about it. Somehow he got through this round. (VEGAS) Taylor Davis - An 18 year old singer who acoustically covered "Just The Way You Are" by Bruno Mars. Pure talent right there, very easy listening. (VEGAS) Tomahawk Tassles -A woman with a dance routine that looked like a strip show. Howie probably only gave her a "yes" because she was topless, despite covering herself with ...
http://wn.com/Cindy_Chang_O_Mio_Babbino_Caro_BEST_AUDITION?_Review_America's_Got_Talent_6_29_11_Recap
America's Got Talent Review - Season 6, Episode 8, June 29th, 2011. (6/29/11) - Best audition of the night - Cindy Chang. (FINAL AUDITIONS EPISODE - compilation of unseen auditions, I assume.) This is my show REVIEW, with no copyrighted footage included. However, most of the performances are linked further down in this description. SHOW BREAKDOWN: Eric and Christlo - A duo of best friends that tried to sing and dance to "Waterfalls" by TLC. Not entertaining or enjoyable by any means. Sharon repeatedly called them adorable, but that wasn't enough to get a "yes" from any of the judges. (AXED) Chris, The Boy With The Wire Hair - A man that hung from a wire attached to his hair. He attempted to juggle while hanging, but I'm sure it was too painful to concentrate anyways. (AXED) Fatally Unique - A dance group consisting of 13-22 year old males and females. Great choreography, but terrible costumes! (VEGAS) Ian - A 16 year old yo-yo whiz who impressed the crowd and judges with fantastic tricks. (VEGAS) Tricky - A 46 year old body builder and fitness instructor who flexed his muscles for the crowd, and that's about it. Somehow he got through this round. (VEGAS) Taylor Davis - An 18 year old singer who acoustically covered "Just The Way You Are" by Bruno Mars. Pure talent right there, very easy listening. (VEGAS) Tomahawk Tassles -A woman with a dance routine that looked like a strip show. Howie probably only gave her a "yes" because she was topless, despite covering herself with ...
- published: 30 Jun 2011
- views: 11719
- author: zebracrunk
1- Cindy Anthony Police Interview Video Footage Caylee Marie
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:13
- Updated: 11 Dec 2012
First of three in this series showing actual video footage of Cindy Anthony's police interview. This collection offers highlights from the full interview which can be viewed elsewhere online. (The full interview is about 90 minutes long.) Alternatively you can watch 'Cindy Anthony's Police Interview' parts 1 - 6 (found in our YouTube videos) which contain a large portion of the full interview in audio tape and picture format. These videos are related to the case of missing 3 year old Caylee Marie Anthony of Orlando Florida. Her mother, Casey Anthony did not report the child missing for a month and has since been named a suspect in the child's disappearance.
http://wn.com/1_Cindy_Anthony_Police_Interview_Video_Footage_Caylee_Marie
First of three in this series showing actual video footage of Cindy Anthony's police interview. This collection offers highlights from the full interview which can be viewed elsewhere online. (The full interview is about 90 minutes long.) Alternatively you can watch 'Cindy Anthony's Police Interview' parts 1 - 6 (found in our YouTube videos) which contain a large portion of the full interview in audio tape and picture format. These videos are related to the case of missing 3 year old Caylee Marie Anthony of Orlando Florida. Her mother, Casey Anthony did not report the child missing for a month and has since been named a suspect in the child's disappearance.
- published: 09 Oct 2008
- views: 73818
- author: NifterMedia
Fun Christmas Hair Style! Cindy Lou Who!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:03
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
:) Thanks for watching - send me a tweet or pic on fb if you recreate this look! twitter meganheartsm Facebook meganheartsmakeup Lockerz: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Fun_Christmas_Hair_Style!_Cindy_Lou_Who!
:) Thanks for watching - send me a tweet or pic on fb if you recreate this look! twitter meganheartsm Facebook meganheartsmakeup Lockerz: bit.ly
- published: 12 Dec 2012
- views: 75883
- author: meganheartsmakeup
Cindy Trimm BREAKTHROUGH
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:00
- Updated: 26 Dec 2012
Through this profound and life changing message, Dr. Trimm teaches us how to obtain lasting victory in every area of our lives by shattering old mindsets and releasing the past.
http://wn.com/Cindy_Trimm_BREAKTHROUGH
Through this profound and life changing message, Dr. Trimm teaches us how to obtain lasting victory in every area of our lives by shattering old mindsets and releasing the past.
- published: 12 Jan 2009
- views: 197442
- author: ncindytrimm
photo: AP / Altaf Qadri
29 Dec 2012
Police in India have sealed off much of the capital, Delhi, and issued an appeal for calm after the death of a woman who was gang-raped in the city. The 23-year old woman, who has not been identified, died early on Saturday at a hospital in Singapore, where she had been taken for specialist treatment. Her body is to be flown back to India for burial ... Gatherings of more than five people have been banned in the city centre ... ....(size: 4.9Kb)
photo: US Navy / HMC Josh Ives
27 Dec 2012
Imperial adventures are nothing new in the Middle East. Neither is their glorification, as Peter O’Toole’s pained Lawrence of Arabia eternally reminds us. But for a decade or so now, things have been heating up, as if to coincide with climate change and fears of declining petroleum reserves ... The Belly for Belligerence? ... The question loomed over beltway intelligentsia like an ephemeral Gordian knot ... We’re All Hawks Now ... While George W ... ....(size: 9.3Kb)
photo: AP / Ben Curtis
28 Dec 2012
The president of Central African Republic (CAR) has urgently called on France and other foreign powers to help his government fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and approaching the capital. Speaking to crowds in Bangui, a city of some 600,000, Francois Bozize on Thursday pleaded with foreign powers to do what they could. He pointed in particular to France, Central African Republic's former colonial ruler ... 516 Share ... News ... ....(size: 19.5Kb)
photo: AP / Itsuo Inouye
29 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. A millennium before the English statesmen Edmund Burke, regarded as the father of Western Conservatism and who wrote, "good order is the foundation of all things," Japan's Seventeen-Article Constitution began with this conservative principle. "Harmony is to be cherished, and opposition for opposition's sake must be avoided as a matter of principle." ... militarism, those protesting U.S....(size: 9.7Kb)
photo: WN / Yolanda Leyba
28 Dec 2012
Galaxy Note 2 vs. iPhone 5. Do The Companies Have Their Game Plans Right?. Posted by Jay099 on December 28, 2012 02.15 pm 0. via. Mountain View at California seems to be a busy center now. Google is stepping up the gas on the march towards a holistic environment and experience for the consumers ... My Blog . My FB Page ... ....(size: 2.2Kb)
Signon San Diego
30 Dec 2012
It was the fifth annual “Spotlight on the Holidays” party, benefiting MiraCosta’s theater program, organized by the MiraCosta Theatre Spotlight Circle ... The December 2011 party brought in $1,300.Eliane Weidauer, Blake Kern, Cindy McClure CREDIT. Leslie Carter ... Leslie Carter ... Some of the supporters at the party were Elaine Weidauer, Cindy McClure, Carolyn Mickelson, Daniel Foster, Jay Sarno, Kathy Brault, Sunny Frowein and Tina Inscoe ... ....(size: 4.5Kb)
New York Post Online
30 Dec 2012
“The House of Redgrave,” an unauthorized biography of the legendary Hollywood family, will rip open old wounds once it’s published in the United States in March ... Silly as pie on the one hand, highly defamatory on the other ... WireImage. Joely Richardson ... and Lorraine Chow Cindy Adams ... . ....(size: 1.7Kb)
North Jersey
30 Dec 2012
It is one of the most divisive parenting discussions, keeping kids active versus keeping them safe from injury. Is it safety versus suffocation, or cautious versus irresponsible? How the debate is framed depends on which side a parent is on.. Some parents think safety first, while others value experience above all else ... "I definitely hear people say that," says Cindy Santos of , who has 4-year-old triplets ... Bucking the rules ... ....(size: 10.9Kb)
North Jersey
30 Dec 2012
As 2013 emerges with signs of a bottoming out of the real estate slump, homeowners who have been sitting on the sidelines may finally be ready to take the plunge and put their homes on the market. ... And a spring purchase gives buyers time for the kids to settle down over the summer before heading to a new school in September, said Cindy Marsh-Tichy, president-elect of the New Jersey Association of Realtors. ... ....(size: 11.0Kb)
Tulsa World
30 Dec 2012
Eric Brady, Sami’s twin brother, hasn’t been on the Salem scene for more than a decade – until now, that is. Daytime veteran Greg Vaughan stepped into the role, and into a clerical collar, a few months ago, with a story line that was unexpected to Greg and his fans. I spoke with “Father” Greg a few weeks back about taking on this new role and how he’s adjusting to the “Days of our Lives” set. Daytime Dial ... Greg Vaughan ... By CINDY ELAVSKY ... ....(size: 4.0Kb)
Hernando Today
30 Dec 2012
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
30 Dec 2012
As the country recovers from a recession, our workplaces are moving forward in new ways with new rules. Changes are afoot from how our offices look to who runs them and what equipment will be used. Here are the trends we saw in 2012 and what to expect in 2013.. • Employee engagement. Workers have had it. In 2012, we lost our happy-to-have-a-job mind-set, and now we want appreciation ... • Overtime ... Cindy Krischer Goodman ... ....(size: 3.1Kb)
The Examiner
30 Dec 2012
Tweet. 0 Email. Report. Photo 1 of 19. Actress Michelle Pfeiffer was the first person to appear on the cover of the first issue back in 1990 ... Credit. Getty Images ... Actress Jodie Foster appeared on the cover of the 1992 issue.Model Cindy Crawford appeared on the 1993 issue.Actress Meg Ryan appeared in the 1994 issue Actress Courteney Cox was the cover girl for the 1995 edition.Actor Mel Gibson was the first man to grace the cover in 1996 ... ....(size: 5.2Kb)
Lexington Herald-Leader
30 Dec 2012
The best pop music of 2012 boiled down to one thing. rebirth. In some cases, that meant pairing veterans with new-generation producers ... Multi-stylistic works by Antibalas and John Cale also demanded attention ... A cross-generational tribute to the electric music of the late Tony Williams, Spectrum Road is an alliance of John Medeski, Vernon Reid, Cindy Blackman Santana and a veteran of the primal fusion wars who played alongside Williams ... ....(size: 4.1Kb)
Daily Press
30 Dec 2012
•It would have been nice if the story about the disturbance at the mall had actually indicated which mall. Granted, the drop head said Patrick Henry and there was an identifying photo and cutline, but that doesn't excuse poor editing in the body of the story. •Cindy. I want to comment about the article in Friday's paper, the mall mob turned on officers. I just have one question ... A flash mob is for entertainment. Editor ... Editor ... ....(size: 9.0Kb)
The Wichita Eagle
30 Dec 2012
THEATER. “Shakespeare’s MacBethlehem Christmas or Wherefore Art Thou, Saint Nick?” and “Colors of Christmas,” comedy and musical revue, Mosley Street Melodrama, 234 N. Mosley, dinner 5.15-6.30 p.m. Sun., show 6.50 p.m. Tickets $27. Call 316-263-0222 ... Broadway ... “A Joyful Noise,” by Maureen Fitzharris Walter, paintings, fused glass jewelry by Rose Litsey and Cindy Mullen, exhibit through Jan ... G....(size: 4.9Kb)
my SA
30 Dec 2012
Sportsman. Johnny Manziel. Texas A&M QB. South Texas connection. Attended Kerrville Tivy High School. Year to remember. The celebrated “Johnny Football” became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy as the nation's best college football player. After sitting out a year at A&M, he led the Aggies as a redshirt freshman to a 10-2 record in their first season in the Southeastern Conference ... 1 in the BCS ... Cindy Berlanga (bowling)....(size: 5.9Kb)
Times Union
30 Dec 2012
AMSTERDAM — Things ended badly in Ravena for Samuel "Poppy" Baez in the fall of 2011 when he capped an argument by biting the leg of a motorcycle shop worker. He was evicted from his apartment and slept in a makeshift camp in a weedy lot behind a supermarket ... The multimedia series "Poppy's Story ... He tried unsuccessfully to coax photographer Cindy Schultz and me into buying him cigarettes, which is against the rules ... ....(size: 7.1Kb)
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Look up Cindy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Cindy may refer to:
People[link]
Cindy (So Random Character)
Music[link]
- "Cindy", 1976 song written by Peter, Sue and Marc; also performed by The Cats
- "Cindy", 2000 song by American rock band Tammany Hall NYC
- "Cindy" (folk song), American folk song (also known as "Cindy, Cindy")
- Cindy (musical), by Johnny Brandon
Other[link]
- Cindy (film), 1978 TV movie adaptation of the Cinderella story
- Cindy, a male dolphin that informally married a human, see Human–animal marriage
- Sindy, a British doll
- Hurricane Cindy (disambiguation)
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This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
http://wn.com/Cindy
Related pages:
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http://it.wn.com/Cindy
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy
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.
"Lauper" redirects here. For the curler, see Erwin Lauper.
 |
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. (February 2011) |
| Cyndi Lauper | |
|---|---|
 Cyndi Lauper in 2011 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper |
| Also known as | Cyn |
| Born | (1953-06-22) June 22, 1953 (age 59) |
| Origin | Woodhaven, Queens, New York City, USA |
| Genres | Pop, Pop rock, Dance rock, Pop dance, New Wave, Blues, adult contemporary |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter, producer, actress (film & stage) |
| Instruments | Vocals, Appalachian dulcimer, zither, guitar, recorder, omnichord, trombone, percussion, electric bass, piano, banjo, ukulele |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Labels | Portrait, Epic, Daylight, Downtown |
| Associated acts | Blue Angel |
| Website |
 Cyndi Lauper's signature |
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (born June 22, 1953 in Queens, New York) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and LGBT rights activist.
She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the debut solo album She's So Unusual in 1983, which spawned four Billboard Hot 100 top-five songs—"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop" and "All Through the Night"—She's So Unusual was the first album in history to have four top five singles by a female. The album earned Lauper Best New Artist at the 27th Grammy Awards in 1985.
Her success continued with the follow-up, True Colors in 1986, which spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"True Colors" and "Change of Heart", and earned two nominations at the 29th Grammy Awards.
Since 1989 released from a nine studio albums acclaimed critical, A Night to Remember (1989), Hat Full of Stars (1993), Sisters of Avalon (1996), Merry Christmas... Have a Nice Life (1998),Shine (2001), At Last (2003), The Body Acoustic (2005), Bring Ya to the Brink (2008).
In 2010, her eleventh studio album, Memphis Blues in 2010, which topped the Billboard Blues Albums chart for thirteen consecutive weeks at number one, and spawned five Billboard Digital Blues Songs top-five songs—"Just Your Fool", "Crossroads", "How Blue Can You Get?", "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and "Early in the Mornin'", became most album successful on the charts since She's So Unusual and True Colors.
Lauper has also released over 40 singles, and as of 2011 had sold more than 50 million albums worldwide,[1][2] and 1 million DVDs and 20 million singles,[3] which makes her one of the best selling artists of all time.
Throughout her career, Lauper has won numerous awards, including Grammy, Emmy, MTV VMA, Billboard, and AMA. In 1999, Lauper ranked #58 of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll by VH1.[4]
Life and career[link]
1953–1979: Early life[link]
The daughter of Fred and Catrine Lauper, Cyndi Lauper was born and raised in Ozone Park in a Roman Catholic family, in the borough of Queens in New York City.[5] Her mother uses the stage name "Catrine Dominique" for the music videos in which she has appeared.[6] Her father was of German and Swiss descent and her mother is Italian American (from Sicily). She has an older sister, Ellen, and a younger brother, Fred (nicknamed Butch).[7]
After Lauper's parents divorced, her mother remarried, divorced again, and went to work as a waitress. It was during this time that Lauper began listening to artists such as Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and the Beatles. Her mother encouraged her independence and creativity. At the age of twelve, Lauper learned how to play an acoustic guitar, which her sister had given to her,[8] and she started to write her own lyrics. She had a great love of art and music and tried to find ways to express herself. Even at this early age, Lauper started dyeing her hair different colors and wearing radical fashions. Lauper was accepted in a special public high school for students with talent in the visual arts, but she was held back and eventually dropped out, earning her GED sometime later. At the age of seventeen, she left home, planning to study art. Her journey would take her to Canada, where she spent two weeks in the woods with her dog, Sparkle, trying to find herself. She eventually wound up in Vermont, where she took art classes at Johnson State College. She supported herself by working at various odd jobs.
In the mid 1970s, Lauper performed as a vocalist with various cover bands (such as Doc West and Flyer, who still perform under the names Gap Wilson Band and Red, White and Blues Band), in the New York metropolitan area, singing hits by bands such as Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin, and Bad Company. Even though Lauper was now performing on stage, she was not happy singing cover songs. In 1977, Lauper damaged her vocal cords and took a year off. She was told by three doctors that she would never sing again. Vocal coach Katie Agresta helped Lauper regain her voice by teaching her proper vocal exercises.[9]
1980–1982: Blue Angel[link]
Main article: Blue Angel
In 1978, after regaining her voice, Lauper met saxophone player John Turi through her manager Ted Rosenblatt. Turi and Lauper became writing partners and formed a band called Blue Angel. They decided to put everything they had into making an album of original material. A few demos were recorded and the tape found its way over to Steve Massarsky, who was managing The Allman Brothers Band. Massarsky said the tape was horrible, but he was attracted to Lauper's voice. He saw them play live and eventually started managing the band after buying their contract out for $5,000. Many people wanted to sign Lauper only if she would sign on as a solo artist. Lauper held out, wanting the band to be included in any deal she made. Polydor Records eventually signed them as a band. In 1980, they released a self-titled album on Polydor Records. Rolling Stone magazine later included it as one of the 100 best new wave album covers (2003). Lauper hated the cover, often saying they made her look like Big Bird. Despite critical acclaim, the album sold poorly (or "went lead", as Lauper says) and the band broke up. Polydor Records had a regime change, and the label would not let the band back into the studio unless they had a hit. The members of Blue Angel had a falling out with Massarsky and fired him as their manager. He later filed an $80,000 suit against them. This suit forced Lauper into bankruptcy.[10]
Lauper started working in retail stores such as the New York high-end thrift store Screaming Mimi's to make ends meet, and she still sang in local clubs. Her most frequent gigs were at El Sombrero. Music critics that saw Lauper perform with Blue Angel thought that she had star potential since she had a wide singing range (four octaves),[11] perfect pitch, and a vocal style all her own. In 1981, while singing in a local New York bar, Lauper met David Wolff, who took over as her manager (and at some point became romantically involved with her) and got her signed with Portrait Records, a subsidiary of Epic Records. Wolff had been working with a band called Arc Angel.
[edit] 1983–1985: She's So Unusual era
Main article: She's So Unusual
On October 14, 1983, She's So Unusual was released and peaked at #4 in the US becoming a worldwide hit. With help from Rick Chertoff, Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman (of The Hooters) as her primary studio musicians, She's So Unusual's popularity spread like wildfire. At the time, Lauper became popular with teenagers and critics, in part due to her hybrid punk image, crafted by stylist Patrick Lucas.[12]
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Lauper knew she could write songs, but the record company had a lot of material they wanted her to record. She altered a lot of the songs that were thrown her way, often changing the lyrics to suit her. An example is her Platinum-certified "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"; Lauper says the original lyrics of the song dealt more with a girl pleasing a man, and therefore she changed the lyrics, wanting the song to be more of an anthem as she felt the original song seemed misogynistic.[13]
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The album's second single was the ballad "Time After Time". Lauper co-wrote "Time After Time" with Rob Hyman when her producer, Rick Chertoff, suggested to the band that the album could use one more song. The record label did not have much faith in Lauper as a songwriter, but they gave her the chance to prove herself. "Time After Time" hit #1 on both Billboard's Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts. It earned Lauper Gold certification with sales of 500,000 from the RIAA and was one of the biggest hits of 1984. It has been covered by more than 100 artists. Lauper came up with the title for "Time After Time" while reading TV Guide—Time After Time was a 1979 science fiction movie starring Malcolm McDowell as H. G. Wells, portraying him inventing and then traveling in a time machine. "She Bop" was the album's third single release. It reached #3 on the Hot 100 and earned Cyndi another Gold certification of 500,000 from the RIAA. This was followed by "All Through the Night" which was written by Jules Shear and reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.[citation needed] Jules Shear and Cyndi Lauper went on to co-write the song "Steady", which reached #57 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985.
The album also includes a cover of The Brains' New Wave track "Money Changes Everything" which reached number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. In some countries, "When You Were Mine", a cover of a Prince song found on his 1980 album "Dirty Mind", was released as a promotional single in 1985. Lauper spent 1984 touring and promoting She's So Unusual. By the end of the year, she was the first female to have four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 Top Five hits from one album. The LP itself stayed in the Top 200 charts for more than 65 weeks and has since sold 16 million copies worldwide. In 1985, The Women in Crystal Film Awards awarded her with the New Directions Award, given to those who are known for their creativity and originality.
She's So Unusual led Lauper to win an award at the 1985 Grammy Awards: Best New Artist, the album also won the Grammy for Best Album Package, this award went to the art director, Janet Perr; Additionally, it received four nominations; Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", and Song of the Year for "Time After Time". Cyndi became the first female solo artist winner since Sheena Easton to win the Grammy for Best New Artist.
The video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" made Lauper an MTV staple. The video ran constantly on MTV and featured the late professional wrestling manager "Captain" Lou Albano as Lauper's father, and her real-life mother, Catrine, as her mother. Also in the video are her attorney, her manager and her brother, Butch. It won the first-ever award for Best Female Video at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards. All three of Lauper's first videos were directed by Edd Griles, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time" and "She Bop". The videos featured many of Lauper's family members and her dog, Sparkle. Lauper was on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in May 1984. The photo on the cover had been reversed to make room for the title. She also appeared on the cover of Time and Newsweek with the headline "Women In Rock". Lauper was voted by Ms. magazine one of its women of the year. During this time period, Lauper appeared on the cover of People magazine twice. The video for "Money Changes Everything" was shot during a concert at the Summit in Houston, Texas. The concert was broadcast over the radio and HBO, and fans were told to show up wearing white T-shirts. The video featured a 14 year old fan named Jennifer Payson hugging Lauper onstage.
She started 1985 by participating on USA for Africa's famine-relief fund-raising single "We Are the World", singing the climactic soprano part of the bridge. During the taping of the song, the audio engineers were having problems discovering what was causing a clicking noise in the recording. It was discovered to be coming from Lauper's jewelry. At the event, she appeared with WWF Superstar Hulk Hogan, who played her "bodyguard." Lauper, in return, made many appearances as herself in a number of the World Wrestling Federation's "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection" events, including the inaugural WrestleMania event, where she was the manager of Wendi Richter. Their entrance music was "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."[14]
Steven Spielberg had asked Lauper to be the musical director of his latest film The Goonies, an adventurous family film about lost treasure. Lauper had the power to choose whom she wanted on the soundtrack, so she tried to make the album very diverse. The Bangles were just one of the bands that contributed to the soundtrack. Lauper stated in a 1986 interview that she had been working 12 hour days and had gynecological problems. Lauper had a minor operation and spent some time in the hospital.[citation needed] Her doctors told her that she needed some rest, preventing her from participating in the Live Aid concert. The music video for "The Goonies R Good Enough" featured many guest stars, including WWF personalities such as the Iron Sheik, Captain Lou Albano, Roddy Piper, André the Giant, "Classy" Freddie Blassie, The Fabulous Moolah, and Nikolai Volkoff, members of the Goonies cast, and the Bangles. The video was split up into two acts, making Lauper the very first artist to have a two-part video. Spielberg even allowed her access to the set pieces from the film. The soundtrack album reached #73 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The song reached #10 on Billboards Hot 100 chart in 1985. Lauper has been quoted as saying that she had long despised the song because of Richard Donner's insistence on everything being perfect for the video shoot. In behind-the-scenes footage of the video, you can see Lauper physically exhausted from the work on the video. The video was released in two parts. The first part premiered on MTV before The Goonies was released in theaters, and the second part came after the movie had opened.[citation needed] While the song and the movie have become 1980s cult classics, working on the soundtrack postponed Lauper's second album.
Lauper stopped performing "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough", in concert around 1987. During the Australian leg of her 2004 "At Last" tour, at the request of the crowd she performed an a cappella version of the first verse and chorus at several shows. It was at a show in Baltimore on Lauper's 2006 tour that she finally played it in full again. The crowd was chanting "Goonies" and she sang the song a cappella to an ecstatic crowd. She finally agreed to play the song again on her "True Colors" tour in 2007, and it was featured in her 2008 tour of Australia as the second number performed at each show. During the video commentary for "The Goonies", actor Sean Astin can be heard thanking Lauper for the song. He says that they all appeared tired on the set of the video because of the rigorous shooting schedule, but they really did love the song. Astin apologizes to Lauper again in footage that can be seen in the upcoming "Goonies Documentary".[citation needed]
[edit] 1986–1988: True Colors
In 1986, We are the World won four awards at the 1986 Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Music Video, Short Form. However, none of these awards went to Lauper. Quincy Jones, the producer, won three, while Song of the Year went to the composers of the song, Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie. Cyndi Lauper did receive two nominations; Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "What A Thrill" and Best Long Form Music Video for "Cyndi: Live in Paris". In the same year, Lauper released her second album, True Colors, on September 15, 1986. It reached #4 on the Billboard 200. For this album, she increased her involvement both in production and songwriting. Guests on the album included Angela Clemons-Patrick, Nile Rodgers, Aimee Mann, Billy Joel, Adrian Belew, The Bangles, Ellie Greenwich, and Rick Derringer. Lauper co-wrote most of the album with Essra Mohawk, John Turi, Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Although the album was not as commercially successful as its predecessor was, it contained three high-charting singles, including the title track, "True Colors" which became Cyndi's second song to hit #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, "Change of Heart" (#3) and a cover of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" (#12) followed. The album also featured an older song called "Maybe He'll Know", which was on the Blue Angel album. The album covers for both She's So Unusual and True Colors were composed by photographer Annie Leibovitz. "True Colors" was licensed to Kodak for use in its commercials. Lauper had no control over the song, which was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. The fourth single from the album, "Boy Blue", became Lauper's first solo non-top-40 single. The proceeds of the song were donated to AIDS research. The album sold 2 million copies in the United States.
In 1986, Lauper appeared on the Billy Joel album The Bridge on a song called "Code of Silence". Lauper also sang the theme song for the series "Pee-wee's Playhouse" the same year, though she was credited as "Ellen Shaw". Playhouse star Paul Reubens appeared on the True Colors album track "911" as an emergency operator. In 1987, David Wolff produced a concert film for Lauper called Cyndi: Live in Paris. The concert was broadcast on HBO.
True Colors led Lauper it received two nominations awards at the 1987 Grammy Awards: Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "True Colors" and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "911". The next awards ceremony, led Lauper it received one nomination awards at the 1988 Grammt Awards; Best Performance Music Video for Cyndi Lauper in Paris.
Lauper made her film debut in August 1988 in the quirky comedy Vibes, alongside Jeff Goldblum, Julian Sands, Elizabeth Peña and Peter Falk. Lauper played a psychic in search of a city of gold in South America. The film was produced by Ron Howard and David Wolff acted as the film's associate producer.
To prepare for the role, Lauper took a few classes in finger waving and hair setting at the Robert Fiance School of Beauty in New York and studied with a few Manhattan psychics. The film was poorly received by critics and commercially flopped. Lauper contributed a track called "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)" but the song was not included on the soundtrack. A video was released, which was a high energy, comic action/adventure romp through a Chinese laundry. The song stalled at a disappointing #54 on the US charts, but fared better in Australia, peaking at #8 and becoming her fifth and final Top 10 single in Australia. It was performed as the opening song on her 2008 Australian tour.[citation needed]
[edit] 1989–1992: A Night to Remember
A Night to Remember – Lauper's third album – was released in the spring of 1989. The album spawned only one big hit, the #6 single "I Drove All Night", as well as another Gold certification of 500,000 from the RIAA in January 1990. The song was originally penned for and sung by Roy Orbison, although his version was not released until 1992, three years after Lauper's version and four years after his death. She also wrote and produced most of the album. Contributing writers were Desmond Child, Christina Amphlett of Divinyls, Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, Diane Warren, and Frank Previte. Guest musicians include Bootsy Collins, Larry Blackmon, Batkini Khumalo, Eric Clapton, and Nile Rodgers. The video for "My First Night Without You", released in 1989, was one of the first to be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.[citation needed]
The disappointing sales of the album "A Night To Remember", a canceled United States tour due to low ticket sales and the pressures of celebrity led Lauper to "retire" from her "singing." She toured South America and Japan successfully into the early stages of 1990 and then retreated into acting.
On July 21, 1990, Lauper joined many other guests for Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin, performing "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II". She also performed on the song, "The Tide Is Turning" with Waters, Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams, Paul Carrack and Van Morrison. Lauper wore a school girl outfit, performing to over 300,000 people. The concert was watched live by over five million people worldwide. A Night to Remember led Lauper it received one nomination awards at the 1990 Grammy Awards: Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "I Drove All Night".
Lauper had become close friends with Yoko Ono. In 1990 she took part in a John Lennon tribute concert in Liverpool, performing the Beatles song "Hey Bulldog" and the John Lennon song "Working Class Hero". The concert was aired on the Disney Channel. She also took part in a project Ono and Lennon developed called "The Peace Choir". They performed a new version of Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance". The reworked "Give Peace a Chance" was written by Sean Lennon. In 1990, Lauper co-wrote the song "Paper Heart" (a song about drug addiction) with Go-Go's alumna Jane Wiedlin. The song appeared on Wiedlin's CD Tangled.[citation needed]
Lauper worked on the movie originally titled Moon Over Miami, which later became Off and Running with David Keith, Richard Belzer and David Thornton, whom she started seeing romantically. Lauper claims that Miami was a great place to fall in love. The film was released in Europe but never made it off the ground in the US market. (David Wolff was the music supervisor for the film.)[citation needed] On November 24, 1991 Cyndi and David Thornton were married at the Friends Meeting House in New York. Rock and Roll pioneer Little Richard, who at one time gave up Rock and Roll to become a minister performed the ceremony. Patti LaBelle sang Procol Harum's classic "A Whiter Shade of Pale", and Lauper's grandmother served as the matron of honor. Other guests included Paul Reubens, best known for his Pee-wee Herman character, and John Turturro. Lauper had threatened to dress like a lighted Christmas tree, but settled on a traditional white wedding dress.[citation needed]
In 1992, Lauper contributed two tracks to the European musical Tycoon, an English version of the hit French-Canadian stage show Starmania. She scored another Top 20 hit in Europe (it went to #2 in France, earning a 2x platinum certification there) with "The World Is Stone", penned by Tim Rice, Michel Berger, and Luc Plamondon. She also recorded "You Have To Learn To Live Alone". The two tracks were included on a compilation released in the U.S. in 2000. Lauper recorded "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", a duet with Frank Sinatra, which was released on the album A Very Special Christmas 2. Sinatra's vocals were taken from his original recording and mixed with Lauper's in the studio.
[edit] 1993–1995: Hat Full of Stars/Twelve Deadly Cyns
In June 1993 Lauper released her fourth album, Hat Full of Stars, which tackled such topics as homophobia, spousal abuse, racism and abortion. Despite significant accolades – and decent sales in France and Japan – it was a sales failure (moving less than 120,000 copies) in the United States. The album peaked at #112 on the Billboard charts,[15] largely because the album suffered from a lack of promotion. Lauper appeared on the Howard Stern Show to promote the album. Lauper said the song "Hat Full of Stars" was written as a message to David Wolff. The video for "Who Let in the Rain" features a picture of David Wolff in a frame. "A Part Hate" was written collaboratively by Lauper and husband David Thornton. The video for "Sally's Pigeons" features the then unknown Julia Stiles as the young Cyndi.
Tommy Mottola, president of Sony Music, told Lauper to go out and make her own Graceland (referring to Paul Simon's album). Lauper wanted to write her own material and stop doing cover songs. She wrote some songs on the album with other people, including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Ailee Willis, Nicky Holland, Tom Gray, Hugh Masekela and The Hooters. The same year, Lauper recorded "Boys Will Be Boys" with The Hooters. The song "Private Emotion" was dedicated to her by The Hooters. Both songs appeared on the Hooter's CD Out of Body. Lauper also returned to acting, playing Michael J. Fox's ditzy secretary in 1993's Life with Mikey, which also starred Nathan Lane.
Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some, was released worldwide in 1994 (except in the U.S., where it was held back until the summer of 1995). The album was a greatest hits compilation that included two re-recorded tracks, "I'm Gonna be Strong", first recorded with her band Blue Angel, and a reworking of her first big hit, newly christened "Hey Now (Girls Just Want To Have Fun)". The Japanese edition of the CD includes the single "Hole In My Heart (All The Way To China)" as the final track. The album was released under a number of different titles, and had different packaging and track listings for certain countries. Twelve Deadly Cyns sold over 5 million copies worldwide and Lauper began a world tour to promote the album. It was especially popular in the UK, "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" hit number four (the single also returned Lauper to the US Hot 100, albeit briefly). The song includes special appearances by Snow and Patra. The album also included a hot reggae influenced song, "Come On Home", which was remixed by Junior Vasquez with a special appearance by Demetrius "Sir Jam" Ross.
Lauper won an Emmy Award[16] for her role as Marianne on the sitcom Mad About You. A 12 Deadly Cyns VHS tape featuring most of Lauper's videos was released.
[edit] 1997–2000: Sisters of Avalon
In 1997, Lauper announced that she was expecting a child. Declyn Wallace Thornton Lauper was born on November 17 of that year; he was named after Elvis Costello (whose first name is Declan) and William Wallace.[17] He was born while Lauper was putting the finishing touches on her new album.
Her fifth album, Sisters of Avalon (released in Japan in 1996 and everywhere else in 1997) failed in America – spending a single week on the Billboard album chart at #188. The album was quickly embraced by the gay community for its dance and club styling. The album was written and produced with the help of Jan Pulsford (Lauper's keyboard player) and Producer Mark Saunders. Guest musicians include, Bush lead guitarist Nigel Pulsford on "You Don't Know" and "Love to Hate". The album was written and recorded in Tennessee and Connecticut and finished in an old mansion in Tuxedo Park, N.Y., where she lived and worked at that time.
The song "Ballad of Cleo and Joe" addressed the complications of a drag queen's double life. Lauper started writing the song around 1994. "Brimstone and Fire" painted a portrait of a lesbian relationship, and "You Don't Know" showed Lauper flexing more political muscle than on her previous albums. The song "Say a Prayer" was written for a friend of hers who had died from AIDS. The song "Searching'" was used in one of Baywatch's episodes. "Unhook the Stars" was used in the movie of the same name starring Marisa Tomei, Gerard Depardieu, Gena Rowlands and David Thornton.
Lauper's sister Ellen had come out as a lesbian and Lauper considered her to be a role model.[18] Ellen was doing a lot of charity work for the gay community, and was working out of a clinic, helping people who were suffering from AIDS. Lauper began performing as a featured artist at gay pride events around the world (as early as 1994, she had performed at the closing ceremonies for Gay Games IV in New York City). She also served as the opening act for Tina Turner's summer tour, which was one of the highest grossing tours that year. Lauper took up the Appalachian dulcimer, taking lessons from David Schnauffer.
Lauper released her last album for Epic in late 1998. Merry Christmas...Have A Nice Life, as the title implies, was a Christmas collection of original material and standards. It is a combination of folk-rock, Cajun and Celtic music. Her version of "Silent Night" was used in a Pampers commercial. Rob Hyman co-wrote the album opener "Home on Christmas Day", and provides accordion and organ accompaniment on a number of tracks. Producer William Wittman, who has been behind a mixing board for Lauper since her debut album She's So Unusual, was once again in a co-producing and mixing role. Lauper is ably assisted by Jan Pulsford, the keyboardist who tours with Lauper and co-produced her last disc, Sisters of Avalon. The Christmas album was recorded at Lauper's home in Connecticut. Declyn was the major inspiration on Merry Christmas, "December Child" was written for him. Declyn makes his vocal debut on "First Lullaby", Jan tickled him, grabbed the mike, and the results are on tape. Lauper reprises two holiday-themed tracks for previous albums that blend seamlessly with the newer material: "Feels Like Christmas", a Cajun-spiced tune from Hat Full of Stars and "Early Christmas Morning" from Sisters of Avalon. She closes the album with a stark rendition of "Silent Night" in memory of Peter Wood, the close friend and musician to whom Lauper dedicated her hits compilation, Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some. Wood was a keyboardist who toured with the singer and performed in the studio on many of her tracks.
On January 17, 1999, Lauper appeared on The Simpsons. Lauper appeared on the show as herself singing the National Anthem to the melody of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. The episode was called "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken". The same year, Lauper opened for Cher's Do You Believe? Tour alongside Wild Orchid. Lauper and Cher performed "Turn Back Time" on VH1 Divas. She also garnered critical plaudits for her roles in several independent films including Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle, and The Opportunists.
Lauper contributed a cover version of The Trammps's classic "Disco Inferno" to the soundtrack for the film A Night at the Roxbury. The remixed version became a club hit. Lauper it received one nomination awards at the 1999 Grammy Awards: Best Dance Recording for "Disco Inferno", being the first time that it indicates the award in nine years. The single was released as an EP, featuring several remixes. In 2000, Lauper contributed a song called "I Want a Mom That Will Last Forever" for the children's movie Rugrats in Paris. The song was written with Mark Mothersbaugh (of the new wave group Devo). Also in 2000, Lauper co-wrote a song, "If You Believe", with Faye Tozer of the British pop group Steps. It appeared on the band's third studio album, "Buzz", and was subsequently released in the US in July 2001.
[edit] 2001–2003: Shine / At Last
Lauper prepared her sixth studio album in 2001, Shine, which saw her returning to her early pop/rock sound. It featured Japanese pop superstar Ryuichi Sakamoto, and George Fullan of Train. Just weeks before the album's scheduled release on September 11, 2001, her label, Edel America Records, folded, and the tracks were leaked to the public. Although a five song EP of the same name was made available through her website and at Tower Records, the full-length album concept was scrapped. The five song EP was released in June 2002. An album of Shine remixes was eventually released through Tower Records. The complete Shine album was released on April 21, 2004, exclusively in Japan. The album has become a collector's item.
On October 12, 2000, Lauper took part in a television show called Women in Rock, Girls With Guitars. The show featured Sheryl Crow, Ann and Nancy Wilson, Melissa Etheridge, Amy Grant, Wynonna Judd, and Destiny's Child. Lauper performed the Paul McCartney hit "Maybe I'm Amazed" with Ann Wilson of Heart. She also sang the R&B classic "Ooh Child" with the girl group Destiny's Child. She also performed a new song called "Water's Edge" with Ann Wilson. The song was well received and critics saw that performance as one of the highlights of the night. A CD was issued that contained the studio versions of some songs performed during the concert. The CD was exclusively released to Sears stores from September 30 to October 31, 2001 and $1.00 of each sold went to breast cancer research. In 2003 while on tour with Cher she broke her ankle.
Lauper's former label Sony issued a new best-of CD entitled The Essential Cyndi Lauper. She re-signed with Sony/Epic Records and a cover album entitled At Last (formerly Naked City), was released in 2003. Lauper took part in VH1 Divas Live with Patti LaBelle, Jessica Simpson, Debbie Harry, Ashanti, Sheila E., and the Pussycat Dolls. In 2003, the album She's So Unusal was ranked number 494 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[19]
At Last led Lauper it received one nomination awards at the 2005 Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for "Unchained Melody", being the first time that it indicates the award in six years.
[edit] 2005–2007: The Body Acoustic
Under a new contract with Sony Music, Lauper released The Body Acoustic, an album that featured acoustic reinterpretations of tracks from her back catalog. Two new tracks were also written and recorded, one of which is "Above the Clouds". Guests on the album included Shaggy, Ani DiFranco, Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday, Jeff Beck, Puffy AmiYumi, Sarah McLachlan,and Vivian Green. "Time After Time" with Sarah McLachlan charted on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.
Though she had not released an album of new material since 1997's Sisters of Avalon, Lauper remained busy through the years. She made appearances on Showtime's hit show Queer As Folk in 2005, making her Broadway debut in The Threepenny Opera in 2006 as Jenny, and directing a commercial for Totally 80s edition of the board game Trivial Pursuit. They later performed at the 60th Tony Awards, and recevid nomination; Best Revival of a Musical. Lauper appeared on a VH1 Classics special called Decades Rock Live. The show featured Lauper performing with many artists such as Shaggy, Scott Weiland of Velvet Revolver/Stone Temple Pilots, Pat Monahan of Train, Ani DiFranco, and The Hooters.
On October 16, 2006, she was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.[20] In 2007, she sang "Beecharmer" with Nellie McKay on McKay's Pretty Little Head album, and "Letters To Michael" with Dionne Warwick.
Lauper headlined the True Colors Tour for Human Rights through the United States and Canada, in June 2007. The tour also included Deborah Harry, Erasure, The Dresden Dolls, and Gossip, with Margaret Cho as MC and special guests in different cities. The tour, sponsored by Logo, the MTV Networks channel targeting gay audiences, provided information to fans who attended, as well as purple wristbands with the slogan "Erase Hate" from The Matthew Shepard Foundation.[21] A dollar from every ticket sold was earmarked for the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.[22]
Lauper was also a judge for the 6th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.[23]
[edit] 2008–2009: Bring Ya to the Brink
Lauper took a role and wrote a song for the Serbian movie Here and There, which stars her husband, David Thornton, in one of the main roles.
Lauper recorded an album of all new material during 2007. The working title given to the project was Savoir-faire, but she announced at her Perth, Australia concert in February 2008 that the name of the album was Bring Ya to the Brink and that it would be released in the spring. In preparation for the album, Lauper visited England and France during summer 2007 to write for the album and wrote songs with dance artists like Axwell, The Scumfrog, Basement Jaxx, Digital Dog, Dragonette, Kleerup and others. She described it as a mainly dance album with good rhythm. Most of the album was recorded in Sweden. The first single released in Japan was "Set Your Heart" which gained significant airplay there and was used in the advertising campaign for the 2008 Toyota Car Model (Mark X ZIO) starring actor and singer Takeshi Kaneshiro. Lauper embarked on an Australian tour playing at the Kings Park Botanic Gardens in Perth, supported by Katie Noonan and Kate Miller-Heidke on February 22, 2008, and she was the headline and final act at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Party, on March 2, 2008. She sang "Same Ol' Story" followed by a newly remixed version of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". "Same Ol' Story" was released as the album's first worldwide single and was released as a download only on May 6, 2008. Several remixes of the track were released to DJs. The album was released on May 27, 2008 in the United States.
The True Colors Tour 2008 debuted on May 31, 2008. Joining Lauper at various venues were Rosie O'Donnell, The B-52's, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Cliks, Indigo Girls, Kat Deluna, Joan Armatrading, Regina Spektor, Tegan and Sara, Nona Hendryx, Deborah Cox, Wanda Sykes, among others. The MC was Carson Kressley from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Sarah McLachlan was also featured at the Burnaby, British Columbia show.
In August 2008, Lauper contributed an article titled "Hope" to The Huffington Post which encouraged Americans to vote for Barack Obama in the upcoming United States presidential election.[24] Lauper also performed alongside Thelma Houston, Melissa Etheridge and Rufus Wainwright at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
David Byrne stated in his blog that he has collaborated with Lauper on a track for his upcoming Here Lies Love. He described her performance as "amazingly fine-tuned" and "very impressive."[25] Lauper recorded a special Christmas duet with Swedish band The Hives, entitled "A Christmas Duel", on CDsingle and 7" vinyl, in Sweden only, on November 19, 2008. It reached number 4 in the Swedish charts.[26]
Lauper also signed a book deal for an autobiography that is scheduled to come out at the end of 2009 or early 2010.[27] Lauper also performed on the "Girls Night Out", headlining it with Rosie O'Donnell in the US.[28]
She appeared on many TV shows in 2009 including the American soap opera As the World Turns supporting gay rights, and promoting her True Colors tour and album, Bring Ya to the Brink. She performed "Into the Nightlife" and dedicated a rendition of "True Colors" to one of the show's characters, Luke Snyder. She appeared on the live finale of the eighth season of American Idol on May 20, 2009, performing a duet of "Time After Time" with top-13 finalist Allison Iraheta, accompanying the song on Appalachian dulcimer. She appeared on the 2009 TV Land Awards on April 19 dressed as the "Emperess of Evil" to perform the theme song for Electra Woman and Dyna Girl as part of a musical tribute to Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft. Lauper performed a duet with Leona Lewis on VH1 Divas on September 19, 2009 singing "True Colors" and also appeared along side hip hop artist Eminem for a comedy skit at the MTV VMA's in September 2009. In addition, Lauper played herself alongside Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Michael McDonald, and Mary J. Blige on 30 Rock's third season finale. She also played Avalon Harmonia, a psychic on the Season 5 premiere of Bones. Bring Ya To The Brink led Lauper it received one nomination awards at the 2009 Grammy Awards: Best Electronic/Dance Album for Bring Ya To The Brink, being the first time that it indicates the award in four years.
Cyndi Lauper was also one of the celebrities who designed a T-shirt for the second Fashion Against Aids campaign in 2009, a collaboration between H&M and Designers Against Aids to raise HIV/AIDS awareness worldwide, particularly amongst youngsters.
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On November 17, 2009, Lauper performed a collaborative work with Wyclef Jean called "Slumdog Millionaire" and performed it live on The Late Show with David Letterman.[29] The collaborative effort stems from Jean's latest album: Toussaint St. Jean: From the Hut, To the Projects, To the Mansion.
[edit] 2010–present: The Celebrity Apprentice and Memphis Blues
In January 2010, American toy company Mattel released a Cyndi Lauper Barbie doll as part of their "Ladies of the 80s" series. In March 2010, NBC began airing the ninth season of The Celebrity Apprentice featuring Lauper and other celebrities such as Sharon Osbourne and Bret Michaels. The show had been filmed from October 19, 2009 to November 12, 2009. Donald Trump fired her on the May 9, 2010 episode, leaving her in sixth place. Lauper donated her winnings to her own True Colors Fund. In the season finale, she performed her upcoming album Memphis Blues in front of the boardroom live.
In April 2010, Lauper launched the Give a Damn campaign to bring a wider awareness of discrimination of the GLBT community as part of her True Colors Fund. The campaign is to bring straight people to stand up with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community and stop the discrimination. Other names included in the campaign are Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Mraz, Elton John, Judith Light, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Kardashian, Clay Aiken, Ricky Martin, Sharon Osbourne, Kelly Osbourne, and Anna Paquin.
Lauper appears on the 22-track, 2-disc collaboration, Here Lies Love, by Talking Heads' David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. On the album, she sings the song Eleven Days, as well as the duet Why Don't You Love Me with Tori Amos.
On June 22, 2010, Memphis Blues was released. It debuted on the Billboard Blues Album Chart at #1, and it debuted on Billboard's Top 200 Albums Chart at #26. The album remained #1 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart for 14 consecutive weeks; Memphis Blues fell to #2 on October 16, 2010 and then to #3 on October 23, 2010. Memphis Blues is Lauper's eleventh album.
In August 2010, she licensed her song and performance of It's Hard to Be Me, from her album Shine, to be used as the theme song for the new TV Pilot, and potentially the series, Hard to Be Me.[30][31]
In July 2010, she signed a deal with Mark Burnett to produce a reality show that will focus on her career and her life with her husband David Thornton and their son Declyn. In December 2010, Memphis Blues was ranked Billboard's #1 Blues Album of The Year. Memphis Blues received a nomination award at the 2011 Grammy Awards: Best Traditional Blues Album
Lauper made international news in March 2011 while waiting for a delayed flight at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires. There, she gave an impromptu performance of Girls Just Want to Have Fun, as other passengers joined in and sang along with her. A video of the performance was later posted on YouTube.[32][33]
On October 24, 2011, she released the DVD, To Memphis, With Love. The DVD came with a bonus live CD of the concert, making it the first ever official live CD of music to be released by Lauper. In November 2011, she released two Christmas singles exclusive to iTunes. The first, a Blues-inspired cover of the Elvis Presley classic, Blue Christmas, and a new version of ""Home for the holidays", a duet with Norah Jones. Cyndi did a lot of radio promotion in November and December for all three releases, including a live performance of "Blue Christmas" on Good Morning America in December. Later that month, Cyndi headlined at the Beacon Theatre for the event "Cyndi Lauper & Friends: Home for the Holidays". The show also featured Lou Reed, Rosie O'Donnell, Carson Kressley, Harvey Fierstein, Norah Jones, Alan Cumming, Cassandra Wilson and many more. The event was sponsored by Lauper's True Colors Fund to help raise awareness for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth homelessness.
Personal life[link]
Lauper has been married to David Thornton since 1991. They have one son, Declyn Wallace Thornton, born November 19, 1997.[34] Lauper was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school. She refers to herself as a "Recovering Catholic".
Discography[link]
Main articles: Cyndi Lauper discography and List of Cyndi Lauper songs
- She's So Unusual (1983)
- True Colors (1986)
- A Night to Remember (1989)
- Hat Full of Stars (1993)
- Sisters of Avalon (1996)
- Merry Christmas... Have a Nice Life (1998)
- Shine (2001)
- At Last (2003)
- The Body Acoustic (2005)
- Bring Ya to the Brink (2008)
- Memphis Blues (2010)
Tours[link]
| Year | Title | Number of performances |
|---|---|---|
| 1983/1985 | The Fun Tour |
|
| 1986/1987[35] | True Colors World Tour |
|
| 1989[36] | A Night to Remember Tour |
|
| 1991 | A.M.A.C.S Tour |
|
| 1993/1994 | Hat Full of Stars Tour |
|
| 1994/1995 | Twelve Deadly Cyns World Tour |
|
| 1996/1997 | Sisters of Avalon Tour |
|
| 1997 | Wildest Dreams Tour |
|
| 1999 | The 1999 Summer Tour |
|
| 2000 | The 2000 Summer Tour |
|
| 2001/2003 | Shine Tour |
|
| 2002 | Living Proof: The Farewell Tour |
|
| 2003/2004 | At Last World Tour |
|
| 2005/2006 | The Body Acoustic Tour |
|
| 2007 | True Colors 2007 Tour |
|
| 2008 | True Colors 2008 Tour |
|
| 2008 | Australian Tour |
|
| 2008 | Bring Ya to the Brink Tour |
|
| 2010/2011 | Memphis Blues Tour |
|
Filmography[link]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Prime Cuts | Herself | Cameo |
| 1985 | The Goonies | Herself | Cameo |
| 1985 | Girls Just Want to Have Fun | Woman in Diner | Appearance uncredited |
| 1988 | Vibes | Sylvia Pickel | |
| 1990 | Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme | Mary (Had a Little Lamb) | TV movie |
| 1990 | The Wall – Live in Berlin | Young Pink | TV movie |
| 1991 | Off and Running | Cyd Morse | |
| 1993 | Life with Mikey | Geena Briganti | |
| 1993—1999 | Mad About You | Marianne Lugasso | Recurring role; 4 episodes "A Pair of Hearts" (Season 2, Episode 9) "Money Changes Everything" (Season 3, Episode 20) "Stealing Burt's Car" (Season 7, Episode 18) "The Final Frontier" (Season 7, Episode 21) |
| 1994 | Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle | Picnic Guest | Uncredited |
| 1996 | Sesame Street Elmocize | Herself | Cameo |
| 1999 | The Happy Prince | Pidge | TV movie |
| 1999 | Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child | Pidge (voice) | "The Happy Prince" (Season 6, Episode 5) |
| 1999 | The Simpsons | Herself (voice) | "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken" (Season 10, Episode 11) |
| 2000 | The Opportunists | Sally Mahon | |
| 2000 | Christmas Dream | Cameo | |
| 2004 | Higglytown Heroes | Operator Hero (voice) | "Smooth Operator/Stinky Situation" (Season 1, Episode 6) |
| 2005 | That's So Raven | Ms. Petuto | "Art Breaker" (Season 3, Episode 13) |
| 2005 | The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie | Herself | Cameo |
| 2005 | Queer as Folk | Herself | "I Love You" (Season 5, Episode 10) |
| 2006 | The Threepenny Opera | Jenny (Ginny Jenny/Low-Dive Jenny) | Broadway musical |
| 2007 | The Backyardigans | "International Super Spy" (Season 2, Episode 15) | |
| 2008 | Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List | Herself | " Fly the Super Gay Skies" (Season 4, Episode 3) |
| 2008 | Gossip Girl | Herself | " Bonfire of the Vanity" (Season 2, Episode 10) |
| 2009 | Here and There | Rose | |
| 2009 | 30 Rock | Herself | "Kidney Now!" (Season 3, Episode 22) |
| 2009 | Bones | Avalon Harmonia | "Harbingers in a Fountain" (Season 5, Episode 1) |
| 2009 | The Apprentice: The Celebrity Apprentice 3 | Herself/Contestant | Season 3; Eliminated 5th |
| 2011 | Dirty Movie | Little Johnny's Mom | |
| 2011 | Section B | Betty | pre-production |
| 2012 | Bob's Burgers | Performer (voice) | "The Belchies" (Season 2, Episode 1) |
| 2012 | Henry & Me | Nurse #1 (voice) | Post-production |
| 2013 | The Last Beat | Bebe Markham | In production |
Awards and nominations[link]
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Cyndi Lauper
Grammy Awards[link]
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Lauper has won one award from 15 nominations.
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Cyndi Lauper | Best New Artist | Won |
| She's So Unusual | Album of the Year | Nominated | |
| "Time After Time" | Song of the Year | Nominated | |
| "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" | Record of the Year | Nominated | |
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance | Nominated | ||
| 1986 | "What A Thrill" | Best Female Rock Vocal Performance | Nominated |
| "Cyndi: Live in Paris" | Best Long Form Music Video | Nominated | |
| 1987 | "True Colors" | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance | Nominated |
| "911" | Best Female Rock Vocal Performance | Nominated | |
| 1988 | "Cyndi Lauper in Paris" | Best Performance Music Video | Nominated |
| 1990 | "I Drove All Night" | Best Female Rock Vocal Performance | Nominated |
| 1999 | "Disco Inferno" | Best Dance Recording | Nominated |
| 2005 | "Unchained Melody" | Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) | Nominated |
| 2009 | Bring Ya To The Brink | Best Electronic/Dance Album | Nominated |
| 2011 | Memphis Blues | Best Traditional Blues Album | Nominated |
- She's So Unusual won the Grammy for Best Album Package, this Grammy was awarded to the art director Janet Perr and not to Cyndi Lauper.
- Cyndi Lauper was one of the various artists on the "We are the World" single which won four Grammys, However none went to Lauper. The song won Record of the Year, awarded to producer Quincy Jones, Song of the Year, awarded to the songwriters, Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, again awarded to the producer Quincy Jones and not to any of the artists. Finally it won the Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form which went to the video director Tom Trbovich and the video producer Quincy Jones.
- The Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) is an arrangers award, Lauper received a nomination as she was one of the three arrangers along with Steve Gaboury and Don Sebesky.
MTV Video Music Award[link]
The MTV Video Music Awards were established in 1984 by MTV to celebrate the top music videos of the year. Lauper won three award from 16 nominations, being the first win in the category Best Female Video.
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" | Video of the Year | Nominated |
| Best New Artist | Nominated | ||
| Best Female Video | Won | ||
| Best Concept Video | Nominated | ||
| Viewer's Choice | Nominated | ||
| Best Overall Performance | Nominated | ||
| "Time After Time" | Best New Artist | Nominated | |
| Best Female Video | Nominated | ||
| Best Direction | Nominated | ||
| 1985 | "We Are the World" | Video of the Year | Nominated |
| Best Group Video | Won | ||
| Viewer's Choice | Won | ||
| Best Overall Performance | Nominated | ||
| "She Bop" | Best Female Video | Nominated | |
| 1987 | "True Colors" | Best Female Video | Nominated |
| "What's Going On" | Best Cinematography | Nominated |
Other recognitions[link]
| Year | By | List | Work | Ranked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Rolling Stone | The 100 Top Music Videos[37] | "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" | #22 |
| 1999 | VH1 | 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll[4] | Cyndi Lauper | #58 |
| MTV | 100 Greatest Videos Ever Made[38] | "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" | #39 | |
| Rolling Stone | 100 Best Albums of the '80s[39] | She's So Unusual | #75 | |
| 2000 | Rolling Stone | 100 Greatest Pop Songs[40] | "Time After Time" | #66 |
| MTV | ||||
| 2001 | VH1 | 100 Greatest Videos[41] | "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" | #45 |
| 2002 | Rolling Stone | 50 Essential "Women In Rock" Albums[42] | She's So Unusual | #41 |
| 2003 | VH1 | 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years[43] | "Time After Time" | #22 |
| Rolling Stone | The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time[44] | She's So Unusual | #494 | |
| 2006 | VH1 | 100 Greatest Songs of the 80's[45] | "Time After Time" | #19 |
| "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" | #23 |
See also[link]
- List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (US)
- List of awards and nominations received by Cyndi Lauper
- List of best-selling music artists
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of number-one hits (United States)
References[link]
- ^ "Cyndi Lauper Tickets – Buy Online". Ticketwarehouse.com. http://www.ticketwarehouse.com/concert-tickets/pop/cyndi-lauper.php. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "BBC Music Showcase". BBC.com. http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/showcase/clips/p00mgyhj. Retrieved 2012-02-12.
- ^ "Cyndi Lauper | Lab 344 – Na Velocidade do Som". Lab 344. http://www.lab344.com.br/site/artista-8.html. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ a b "VH1: 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll". Rock On The Net. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1999/vh1women.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ Hoffman, Jan. "PUBLIC LIVES; She Just Wanted to Have Fun. And She's Having It.", The New York Times, December 31, 2003. Retrieved October 10, 2007.
- ^ Cyndi Lauper Biography (1953–) Film Reference.com.
- ^ ""Cyndi Lauper – and Lou Reed."". Archived from the original on April 15, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090415024021/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_8_31/ai_77336634/.
- ^ McDonnell, Evelyn (December 1, 2003). "Cyndi Lauper: two decades after blazing the way for a generation of female pop singers, the original day-glo diva is reigniting her career with a collection of songs as colorful as she is.(Interview)". Brant Publications, Inc..
- ^ Rodgers, Ted (January 1, 2010). "Cyndi Lauper cancels concerts because of vocal polyps". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/story/5E22D6E295242041862576B20075509D?OpenDocument. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- ^ "Cyndi Lauper". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/lauper_cyndi/artist.jhtml. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- ^ Jerome, Jim. "She Wants to Have Fun", People Magazine, September 17, 1984. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
- ^ "Capturing Head-to-Toe Look of the '80s". Articles.latimes.com. 1985-02-08. http://articles.latimes.com/1985-02-08/news/vw-4846_1_freckles-show. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ Priya Elan (2008-09-27). "Music: Priya Elan pays tribute to the man who wrote Girls Just Want To Have Fun". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/sep/27/popandrock. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ Ellison, Lillian (2003). The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared This was a on-going staged publicity event meant at first to draw attention to her debut album and single, "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" which was not getting played on the radio when it was first released. Dave Wolfe, Lauper's boyfriend and manager at the time, was a wrestling fan as a boy and engineered the rock and wrestling connection. The WWF and Lauper parted ways soon after the first Wrestlemania event in which such notable stars as Liberace and Mr. T also appeared. Circle. ReaganBooks. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-06-001258-8.
- ^ "– quote: "... Hat Full of Stars ... The record stiffed, peaking at 112". Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?pid=5041. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ Cyndi Lauper Emmy Award Winner
- ^ Shafrir, Doree. Cyn City, Radar Online, November 17, 2005. Retrieved August 19, 2008.
- ^ Brady, Jonann (June 12, 2008). "Where Are They Now: '80s New Wave Musicians". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/SummerConcert/story?id=3886672&page=1. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- ^ "500 Greatest Albums: She's So Unusual – Cyndi Lauper". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/shes-so-unusual-cyndi-lauper-19691231. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ Long Island Music Hall of Fame, 10–16–06. Retrieved 11–28–06.
- ^ "Matthew Shepard Foundation: Home Page". Matthewshepard.org. http://www.matthewshepard.org/. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "Lauper, Others Headline Gay Rights Tour". Abcnews.go.com. http://www.abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=2943293. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ Independent Music Awards – 6th Annual Judges
- ^ Lauper, Cyndi (August 24, 2008). Hope. The Huffington Post. Retrieved on August 30, 2008.
- ^ "David Byrne's journal". Journal.davidbyrne.com. 2008-04-26. http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2008/04/04262008-playin.html. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "Sverigetopplistan – Sveriges Officiella Topplista". Sverigetopplistan.se. http://www.sverigetopplistan.se/. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ :: arjanwrites music blog ::: GRAMMYs 2009: Arjan Interviews Cyndi Lauper About Her GRAMMY Nomination. Arjanwrites.com. Retrieved on 2011-01-12.
- ^ "Tour: Summer 2009 : Girls Night Out Tour with Rosie O'Donnell". Cyndi Lauper. http://www.cyndilauper.com/index.php?module=tour. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "Wyclef Jean & Cyndi Lauper To Perform On David Letterman". http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.10140/title.wyclef-jean-cyndi-lauper-to-perform-on-david-letterman. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
- ^ Accolade, Film, Television, TV, Video, Contest, Contests, Awards. Accoladecompetition.org. Retrieved on 2011-01-12.
- ^ Local Actor, Screen Writer, Wins Awards. Connectionnewspapers.com (2010-08-19). Retrieved on 2011-01-12.
- ^ "Cyndi Lauper Cheers Stuck Travelers in Argentina – ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. 2011-03-07. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13076997. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "Watch Cyndi Laupers impromptu airport performance of girls just wanna have fun". Time. March 8, 2011. http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/08/watch-cyndi-laupers-impromptu-airport-performance-of-girls-just-wanna-have-fun/.
- ^ Barron, James; Phoebe Hoban (January 28, 1998). "PUBLIC LIVES; In Their Words". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/28/nyregion/public-lives-in-their-words.html?scp=2&sq=cyndi+lauper&st=nyt. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
- ^ "Books – True Colors Tour Program". Cyndilauperdaily.com. http://www.cyndilauperdaily.com/books/true_colors_tour_program.html. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "Books – A Night To Remember Tour Program". Cyndilauperdaily.com. http://www.cyndilauperdaily.com/books/a_night_to_remember_tour_program.html. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "Rolling Stone: "The 100 Top Music Videos" (1993)". Rock On The Net. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1993/rsvideo.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "MTV: 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made". Rock On The Net. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1999/mtv100.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "Collectorsroom: Rolling Stone e os 100 melhores discos dos anos 80!". Collectorsroom.blogspot.com. 2011-04-19. http://collectorsroom.blogspot.com/2011/04/rolling-stone-e-os-100-melhores-discos.html. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "Rolling Stone & MTV: 100 Greatest Pop Songs: 1–50". Rock On The Net. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2000/rsmtv100.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "VH1: 100 Greatest Videos". Rock On The Net. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2001/vh1videos.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "Rolling Stone: The 50 Essential 'Woman In Rock' Albums". Rock On The Net. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2002/rswomen.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "VH1: 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years: 1–50". Rock On The Net. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2003/vh125songs.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "Rolling Stone: The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (1–100)". Rock On The Net. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2003/rs500albums1.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
- ^ "VH1: 100 Greatest Songs of the 80's: 1–50". Rock On The Net. http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2006/vh180s.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
External links[link]
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Cyndi Lauper |
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cyndi Lauper |
- Official website
- Paul Burston, Cyndi Lauper is Back, and the Girl still wants to Have Fun (interview), The Times, August 2, 2008
- Cyndi Lauper at the Internet Movie Database
- NYTimes feature, 2010
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Culture Club |
Grammy Award for Best New Artist 1985 |
Succeeded by Sade |
| Preceded by Eileen Heckart |
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series 1995 |
Succeeded by Betty White |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lauper, Cyndi |
| Alternative names | Lauper, Cynthia Ann Stephanie (birth name) |
| Short description | Singer, actress |
| Date of birth | June 22, 1953 |
| Place of birth | Queens, New York City, New York, United States |
| 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.
| Cindy Blackman | |
|---|---|
 Blackman performing in Melbourne, May 2008 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Cindy Blackman |
| Born | (1959-11-18) November 18, 1959 (age 52) Yellow Springs, Ohio, US |
| Genres | Jazz, rock |
| Occupations | Musician |
| Instruments | Drummer, percussion |
| Labels | Muse |
| Associated acts | Santana, Lenny Kravitz |
| Website | www.cindyblackman.com |
Cindy Blackman , sometimes known as Cindy Blackman-Santana (born November 18, 1959)[1] is an American jazz and rock drummer. Blackman is best known for recording and touring with Lenny Kravitz. Blackman has recorded several straight-ahead jazz albums under her own name, and has performed with acclaimed jazz and rock artists, including Pharoah Sanders, Ron Carter, Sam Rivers, Cassandra Wilson, Angela Bofill, Buckethead, Bill Laswell and Joe Henderson. Tony Williams is her main drumming influence. In 1997 she recorded Multiplicity as a drum teaching video. "To me, jazz is the highest form of music that you can play because of the creative requirements," says Blackman.[2] Blackman is the wife of rock guitarist Carlos Santana.
Contents |
Musical career[link]
Early training and influences[link]
Born November 18, 1959 in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Blackman comes from a musical family, both her mother and grandmother were classical musicians and her uncle a vibist.[3] "My mom, when she was younger, played violin in classical orchestras, and her mom, incidentally, was a classical musician. My mom used to take me to see classical concerts," says Blackman.[4] "My dad was into jazz -- Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal, people like that."[4] Blackman's first introduction to the drums happened when she was seven years old in her hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio and attending a pool party at a friend's house,[5] she went to use the bathroom and saw a drum set and just hopped onto the set.[5] "It was incredible," says Blackman.[5] "Just looking at them struck something in my core, and it was completely right from the second I saw them," says Blackman.[5] "And then, when I hit them, it was like, wow, that’s me. That’s completely natural for me. It’s like breathing for me. It didn’t feel awkward at all."[5]
After her first introduction to drums at her friend's house, Blackman began playing in the school band and was able to convince her parents to get her a drum set of her own while she was still only seven.[5][6] "Of course those would be broken up in a matter of days," Blackman says.[6] "The only thing I heard at home was, 'we don't know if you can play drums because one, they're noisy, and two, they're very expensive."[6] Some people ask why she didn't study violin or flute like other girls.[2] "I learned very early on -- when I was 13 -- that when I concentrate on those attitudes, I don't make progress for myself," says Blackman.[2] "If they're not paying my mortgage, I don't care what they think."[2]
Influences[link]
When Blackman was 11, she moved to Bristol, Connecticut[4] and studied at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut.[4] Blackman began to have an interest in jazz at age 13 after listening to Max Roach and got her first professional drum kitset at 14.[4][7] "Jazz was the thing that was most intriguing because of the challenge that was involved," says Blackman.[4] "When I was shown that the drummers on these records were playing independently with all four limbs, I was like: 'Really?! Is that what they're doing? Is that what Max Roach is doing on that record? Oh! Okay!'"
Drummer Tony Williams was an early influence.[8] "The first drummer I ever saw, where I got to feel the impact up close, was Tony Williams," Blackman said.[8] "When I was 16, Tony came to my local drum store with a bassist and did a [drum] clinic that left a powerful impression on me. And that's what I thought drumming should be: drummers should have a lot of impact and a great sound, without being limited to a conventional role in the band--the drums should speak just as freely as anybody."[8] Blackman says that the way the Williams used all four limbs to attack the drums strongly influenced her.[5] "I just love and loved everything about Tony," says Blackman.[5] "To me, not only was he a master technician, a master drummer, the innovator of the age, but also, he was a sound innovator. He had so many things that elevated the sound and the level of skill required to play this kind of music."[5] But although Blackman is sometimes referred to as a disciple of Tony Williams, she follows her own path.[9] "On the one hand, it doesn't bother me at all to be associated and in line with a master of the instrument like that – Okay, I might not be where I want to be, but I'm on the right track," says Blackman.[9] "On the other hand, I don't plan on being a clone. What I'm doing is always looking to expound on something that he's done, or push the music in a different way."[9]
Blackman moved to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music with Alan Dawson, one of Tony Williams' teachers.[3][4] "Alan's method was incredible in terms of getting your independence together, getting your hands together," says Blackman.[4]
Arrival in New York[link]
While she was at Berklee a friend recommended her for a gig with The Drifters[6] so Blackman left college after three semesters and moved to New York City in 1982.[3] Blackman worked as a New York street performer[10] but also got a chance to watch and learn.[6] "I looked for Art Blakey, I looked for Elvin [Jones], I looked for Philly Joe Jones, for Roy Haynes, for Tony Williams. I saw so many great drummers, like Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins, Louis Hayes. I saw Al Foster play quite a bit, Billy Hart, Jack DeJohnette. All these people, they’re in New York so I got a chance to watch them do their thing."[6]
While in New York, Art Blakey became a significant influence.[11] "He really was like a father to me. I learned a lot just watching him. I asked him a lot of questions about the drums and music -- and he answered all of them. He was fantastic," said Blackman.[11] Blackman initially encountered resistance to a woman playing drums in the jazz world.[6] "I’m a black woman, so I’ve encountered racial prejudice, and I’ve encountered gender prejudice. I’ve also encountered prejudice against my afro when I wore that out. But I’ve also encountered prejudice against my musical opinions. What I’ve learned to do is completely ignore that."[6]
First compositions and recording contracts[link]
In 1984, Blackman was showcased on Ted Curson's "Jazz Stars of the Future" on WKCR-FM in New York.[3] In 1987, Blackman's first compositions appeared on Wallace Roney's Verses album.[3] When an executive at Muse Records heard Blackman's recordings, he offered her a recording contract to lead her own project.[3] In 1988 Blackman released Arcane, her debut as a bandleader.[3] Her band included Wallace Roney on trumpet, Kenny Garrett on alto saxophone, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, Buster Williams and Clarence Seay on bass, and Larry Willis on piano.[3]
Work with Lenny Kravitz[link]
In 1993, Blackman had an opportunity to work with Lenny Kravitz.[6] Blackman in New York talked to Kravitz in Los Angeles on the phone, played drums for him over the phone, and Kravitz asked Blackman to fly out to LA.[6] "Lenny asked me can you play something for me over the phone," Blackman says.[2] "So I put the phone down and I started playing something like, BOOSH-bat-bat, BOOSH-BOOSH-BOOSH-bat, and I went back to the phone and I said, 'Can you hear that?' He said, 'Yeah. Can you fly out to L.A. right now?'"[2] "I flew out the next morning. While I’m downstairs waiting for the instruments to come from the studio, these people started coming in. First 12, and then like 30 more. I was like, 'whoa, this is an audition'. I ended up playing and instead of staying for one or two days, I stayed for two weeks and did the first video that I did with him, Are You Gonna Go My Way. Apart from 2004, I played with him ever since."[6]
Blackman had previously only played jazz shows and was unprepared to play for an entire arena.[6] "The first time I played in a really large concert with Lenny was at an outdoor festival called Pinkpop. We played for like 70,000 people. It was in the summer so most people had just t-shirts or tanks, a lot of guys had their shirts off, so you just see skin and hands and they’re doing this wave thing. I almost lost it, my equilibrium was teetering. I wasn’t used to seeing that many people; I was disoriented; I just had to stop looking and start focusing."[6]
Blackman says that playing with Kravitz and playing jazz are different.[10] "My job with Lenny is a different thing. My job is to play a beat for hours, and make it feel good, and add some exciting fills and exciting colors, when it fits tastefully," Blackman says.[10] "My job in my band or in a creative situation is a totally different thing. We may start with a groove that feels great, I may play that for hours too, but I’m going to explore and expand and change that, play around with the rhythm and interject with the soloists."[10] "I like dance music and I like making the music feel good," says Blackman.[9] "To drive an audience of 100,000 into complete oblivion by playing a groove so strong ... I love doing that. I love the chance to show versatility."[9]
In an article published May 1, 2004, NPR reported that Blackman had recently left Kravitz's group to focus on her own music.[12] "I love danceable music, and I love big fat beats and I really dig rock 'n' roll," says Blackman.[2] "But jazz is my heart, it's my love, and I've never left jazz in mind or spirit."[2]
Return to jazz[link]
In 1994 Blackman made her first recording with a working group and called the album Telepathy because of the tight communication in the band.[13] "I wanted to do a quartet record because of the amount of space you get with fewer players," she said in Telepathy's liner notes.[13] "It's intimate, but more dimensional than a piano trio. I'm really into this sound, and it was nice to play with a group that was a group. You can't help but have a better feel when the musicians know each other, are headed in the same direction, and have the same goals. You can make most everything work. You get chances to play a lot of colors, and really stretch your ideas."[13]
In 2005 Blackman released Music for the New Millennium on her Sacred Sounds Label.[10] "It’s rooted in tradition, but it’s not traditional music. It’s explorative, very creative, very expressive, and we really try to expand any ideas we have that everything is played over the forms, but we like to stretch it, and really see the colors and make the music grow and move," says Blackman.[10] "We experiment — but it’s never free. Everything is written out. I have charts for all the songs. We expand on what’s there, and stretch harmonics and note choices."[10]
Blackman continues to make her home in Brooklyn in New York City.[10] "It’s always such an amazing place, with every level of musical accomplishment, you can see complete beginners and you can see innovators. That’s why I live in New York. Not only is it tough, but all the greatest people have come through New York," says Blackman.[10] Blackman prefers to play jazz in small, intimiate clubs.[14] "It's an acoustic situation. You are close-knit and you are creating one hundred percent of the time -- so to me it just doesn't really get any better that!"[14] Blackman also travels extensively conducting drum clinics.[15] In September 2007, she made a tour of South America, teaching clinics in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil,[15] and on November 30, 2007, Blackman and her quartet performed at Art After 5 at the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Musical goals and personal life[link]
Blackman says her goal is to become a musical virtuoso.[16] "I want to become a virtuoso," says Blackman.[16] "To me, virtuosity is the ability to say anything on your instrument you want to at any given moment."[16] Blackman describes her music as "completely creative."[16] "I want to push the envelope. I want to really expound on some concepts that, to me, are the highest in the improvisation of music," says Blackman.[16] Blackman loves jazz and wants to delve into its intricacies.[5] "Oh my gosh, it’s the best thing in the world," says Blackman.[5] "I feel so blessed, and I’m so thankful to be able to play music. It’s an honor, and it’s a blessing."[5]
On July 9, 2010, Carlos Santana proposed to Blackman on stage during a concert at Tinley Park, Illinois.[17] Blackman is Santana's touring drummer; he proposed right after her drum solo. They were married on Maui, Hawaii on December 19, 2010. People Magazine
Spirituality of music[link]
Blackman attended a Baptist church during her teenage years, but became a follower of the Bahá'í Faith at the age of 18; she also started studying Kabbalah in the 2000s.[9] Blackman cultivates spirituality in her musicianship.[9] "I believe that music is so sacred that once you're playing music you are doing the work of prayer, whether you're conscious of it or not, because you have a focused intent," says Blackman.[9] "You transcend, because you're crossing barriers that a lot of people and even us as musicians don't normally venture to, because we don't think about it. When you can learn to move those energies, even if they're sad, into something that is of benefit, like focusing on bringing light to people who are listening, or just to the universe in general, then you can do something good with it. I don't keep that in mind 100 per cent of the time – I'm human – but I try to."[9]
Physical demands of playing[link]
Blackman keeps herself in shape for the physical demands of playing the drums by practicing yoga and karate.[9] "I'm really conscious of taking great care of myself," Blackman says.[9] "I make sure my body is in peak condition as much as possible. When I'm at home, I eat completely organic, take a lot of sea minerals, try to eat natural foods. I eat nothing out of a can, I don't drink soda and I usually juice my own juices. When I see my peers we talk about different things and I know it pays off."[9]
Role as female musician[link]
Blackman is a rarity as a female jazz percussionist.[9] "In the past, there were a lot of stigmas attached to women playing certain instruments," Blackman says.[9] "I think a lot of women stick to particular instruments, like piano, that are acceptable, so that lessens the playing field in terms of how many women are out there. And let's face it, boys' clubs still exist. But I care nothing about that at all. I'm going to do what I'm going to do musically anyway."[9] However Blackman draws on the role models of her mother who played violin in an orchestra and her grandmother who was a classical pianist and does not let stereotypes deter her.[9] "God forbid I should be limited to only play my drums in my basement; but if that's all I had, that's what I would do," says Blackman.[9] "Any woman, or anyone facing race prejudice, weight prejudice, hair prejudice ... if you let somebody stop you because of their opinions, then the only thing you're doing is hurting yourself. I don't want to give somebody that power over me."[9]
Blackman is adamant that musicality has nothing to do with gender.[18] "The gender question is not even worth bringing up because the drums have got nothing to do with gender," Blackman says.[18] "I'm there because I love to play music. And I'm in support of anyone who wants to play the instrument. I wouldn't care if Art Blakey was pink with polka dots and wearing a tutu. I wouldn't care if Tony Williams was green."[18] "There are people who have opinions about whatever and whoever, in terms of gender, in terms of race and weight, hairstyle, religion," says Blackman. "But to me, your personality influences what you play and what you do, but everything else is for you to develop and to nourish and to take further, and that's where I'm at. In terms of my goals, me being a female drummer has nothing to with anything except for the fact that I wear bras and panties and guys don't."[16]
Discography[link]
- Code Red with Steve Coleman, Wallace Roney, Kenny Barron, Lonnie Plaxico, 1992
- Arcane with Wallace Roney, Joe Henderson, Kenny Garrett, Larry Willis, Buster Williams, Clarence Seay, 1992
- Telepathy with Antoine Roney, Jacky Terrasson, Clarence Seay, 1994
- The Oracle with Gary Bartz, Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, 1996
- In The Now with Ravi Coltrane, Jacky Terrasson, Ron Carter, 1998
- Works On Canvas with J.D. Allen, Carlton Holmes, George Mitchell 1999
- A Lil' Somethin' Somethin' with Kenny Barron, Gary Bartz, Ron Carter, Kenny Garrett, Lonnie Plaxico, Wallace Roney, Clarence Seay, Jacky Terrasson, Buster Williams, 2000
- Someday with J.D. Allen, Carlton Holmes, George Mitchell
- Music for the new Millennium with J.D. Allen (tenor sax), Carlton Holmes (Fender Rhodes and synth), George Mitchell (bass). Mastered in New York City by Kimo Kaulani & Edward Vinatea, 2005.
- Another Lifetime with Mike Stern and Doug Carn featuring guests Joe Lovano, Vernon Reid, Patrice Rushen, Benny Reitveld and David Santos, 2010
Citations[link]
- ^ "Blackman, Cindy". Current Biography Yearbook 2010. Ipswich, MA: H.W. Wilson. 2010. pp. 42-45. ISBN 9780824211134.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Windsor, The (2008-02-08). "the Windsor Star. "Drummer trades Kravitz for jazz" by Patrick Cole. February 8, 2008". Canada.com. http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/entertainment/story.html?id=49b4d205-2f9e-4d65-9656-933f3bc7fe38&k=28756. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Allmusic. Cindy Blackman: Biography" by Ron Wynn.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "The Boston Phoenix. "Limbering Up: Cindy Blackman's rock and jazz" by Jon Garelick. February 21, 2000". Weeklywire.com. http://weeklywire.com/ww/02-21-00/boston_music_4.html. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l By Stina SiegGlenwood Springs, CO Colorado (2008-07-16). "Glenwood Springs Post Independent. "Glenwood Springs' Summer of Jazz features drummer Cindy Blackman" by Stina Sieg. July 16, 2008". Postindependent.com. http://www.postindependent.com/article/20080716/VALLEYNEWS/846678379/1076. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Drumhead. "Jazz Backhand (An Interview with Cindy Blackman) by Andrew Vargas". Drumheadftp.com. http://www.drumheadftp.com/web/feature.php?id=6. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
- ^ http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2007/08/dedicated_to_her_drums.html
- ^ a b c Code Red. Liner Notes. 1992.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Infantry, Ashante (2008-06-07). "Cindy Blackman's got the beat". Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/Music/article/438047. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "The Village Voice. "Cindy Blackman plays for Bird" by Rick Mark. August 24, 2005". Thevillager.com. http://www.thevillager.com/villager_121/cindyblackman.html. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
- ^ a b "Jazz House. "New York Drummer Cindy Blackman" interviewed by Natasha Nargis. 2001". Jazzhouse.org. http://www.jazzhouse.org/library/index.php3?read=nargis4. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
- ^ "National Public Radio. "Musicians in Their Own Words: Cindy Blackman." May 1, 2004". Npr.org. 2004-05-01. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1866563. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
- ^ a b c Telepathy. Liner Notes. 1994.
- ^ a b Congohead. "Cindy Blackman."[dead link]
- ^ a b Zildjian. "Report for the Road - Cindy Blackman South America Clinic Tour." September 25, 2007[dead link]
- ^ a b c d e f Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. "Drummer Cindy Blackman brings her force to jazz" by Anna Reguero. June 6, 2008.[dead link]
- ^ Barrett, Annie (2010-07-12). "Carlos Santana and Cindy Blackman get engaged onstage". Music-mix.ew.com. http://music-mix.ew.com/2010/07/12/carlos-santana-cindy-blackman/. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
- ^ a b c "Boston Globe. "Festival snares compelling drummers" by Siddhartha Mitter. September 7, 2008". Boston.com. 2008-09-07. http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2008/09/06/festival_snares_compelling_drummers/. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
External links[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cindy Blackman |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Blackman, Cindy |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | November 18, 1959 |
| Place of birth | Yellow Springs, Ohio, US |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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| Brian Eno | ||
|---|---|---|
 Eno at The Long Now Foundation, 26 June 2006 |
||
| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno | |
| Born | (1948-05-15) 15 May 1948 (age 64) Woodbridge, Suffolk, England |
|
| Genres | Experimental rock, ambient, minimalism, electronic, art rock, glam rock | |
| Occupations | Producer, musician, songwriter, artist | |
| Instruments | Synthesiser, piano, keyboards, vocals, organ, saxophone, guitar, bass | |
| Years active | 1970–present | |
| Labels | Island, Polydor, EG, Obscure, Opal, Virgin, Astralwerks, All Saints Records, Rykodisc | |
| Associated acts | Roxy Music, David Bowie, Coldplay, Talking Heads, Robert Fripp, Cluster, Devo, U2, David Byrne, Robert Wyatt, 801 | |
| Website | ||
| Music sample | ||
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno[1] (born 15 May 1948), commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno ( /ˈiːnoʊ/[citation needed]), is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer, and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.[2]
Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex, England, taking inspiration from minimalist painting. During his time on the art course at the Institute, he also gained experience in playing and making music through teaching sessions held in the adjacent music school.
He joined the band Roxy Music as keyboard and synthesiser player in the early 1970s. Roxy Music's success in the glam rock scene came quickly, but Eno soon tired of touring and of conflicts with lead singer Bryan Ferry.
Eno's solo music has explored more experimental musical styles and ambient music. It has also been extremely influential, pioneering ambient and generative music, innovating production techniques, and emphasising "theory over practice".[3] He also introduced the concept of chance music to popular audiences, partially through collaborations with other musicians.[4]
Eno has also worked as an influential music and album producer. By the end of the 1970s, Eno had worked with David Bowie on the seminal "Berlin Trilogy" and helped popularise the American band Devo and the punk-influenced "No Wave" genre. He produced and performed on three albums by Talking Heads, including Remain in Light (1980), and produced seven albums for U2, including The Joshua Tree (1987). Eno has also worked on records by James, Laurie Anderson, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Paul Simon, Grace Jones and Slowdive, among others.
Eno pursues multimedia ventures in parallel to his music career, including art installations, a newspaper column in The Observer, a regular column on society and innovation in Prospect magazine, and "Oblique Strategies" (written with Peter Schmidt), a deck of cards in with cryptic remarks or random insights meant to resolve dilemmas. He continues to collaborate with other musicians, produce records, release his own music, and write.
Contents |
Education and early musical career[link]
Brian Eno was born in 1948 at Phyllis Memorial Hospital, Woodbridge, Suffolk, and was educated at St Joseph's College, Birkfield, Ipswich, which was founded by the St John le Baptiste de la Salle order of Catholic brothers (from whom he took part of his name), at Ipswich Art School in Roy Ascott's Groundcourse and the Winchester School of Art, graduating in 1969. In school, he used a tape recorder as a musical instrument and experimented with his first, sometimes improvisational, bands. St. Joseph's College teacher and painter Tom Phillips encouraged him, recalling "Piano Tennis" with Eno, in which, after collecting pianos, they stripped and aligned them in a hall, striking them with tennis balls. From that collaboration, he became involved in Cornelius Cardew's Scratch Orchestra. The first released recording in which Eno played is the Deutsche Grammophon edition of Cardew's The Great Learning (rec. Feb. 1971), as one of the voices in the recital of The Great Learning Paragraph 7. Another early recording was the Berlin Horse soundtrack, by Malcom Le Grice, a nine-minute, 2 × 16 mm-double-projection, released in 1970 and presented in 1971.[5]
Roxy Music[link]
Main article: Roxy Music
Brian Eno's professional music career began in London, as a member (1971–1973) of the glam/art rock band Roxy Music, initially not appearing on stage with them at live shows, but operating the mixing desk, processing the band's sound with a VCS3 synthesiser and tape recorders, and singing backing vocals. He then progressed to appearing on stage as a performing member of the group, usually flamboyantly costumed. He quit the band on completing the promotion tour for the band's second album, For Your Pleasure because of disagreements with lead singer Bryan Ferry and boredom with the rock star life.[6]
In 1992, he described his Roxy Music tenure as important to his career: "As a result of going into a subway station and meeting Andy [saxophonist Andy Mackay], I joined Roxy Music, and, as a result of that, I have a career in music. If I'd walked ten yards further on the platform, or missed that train, or been in the next carriage, I probably would have been an art teacher now".[7] During his period with Roxy Music, and for his first three solo albums, he was credited on these records only as 'Eno'.
Solo work[link]
Eno embarked on a solo career almost immediately. Between 1973 and 1977 he created four albums of largely electronically inflected pop songs – Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), Another Green World and Before and after Science, though the latter two also contained a number of minimal instrumental pieces in the so-called ambient style. Tiger Mountain contains the galloping "Third Uncle", one of Eno's best-known songs, owing in part to its later being covered by Bauhaus. Critic Dave Thompson writes that the song is "a near punk attack of riffing guitars and clattering percussion, 'Third Uncle' could, in other hands, be a heavy metal anthem, albeit one whose lyrical content would tongue-tie the most slavish air guitarist."[8]
These four albums were remastered and reissued in 2004 by Virgin's Astralwerks label. Due to Eno's decision not to add any extra tracks of the original material, a handful of tracks originally issued as singles have not been reissued ("Seven Deadly Finns" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" were included on the deleted Eno Vocal Box set and the single mix of "King's Lead Hat" [which is an anagram of "Talking Heads"] has never been reissued).
During this period, Eno also played three dates with Phil Manzanera in the band 801, a "supergroup" that performed more or less mutated selections from albums by Eno, Manzanera, and Quiet Sun, as well as covers of songs by The Beatles and The Kinks.
In 1972, Eno developed a tape-delay system first utilised by Eno and Robert Fripp (from King Crimson), described as 'Frippertronics', and the pair released an album in 1973 called (No Pussyfooting). It is said the technique was borrowed from minimalist composer Terry Riley, whose tape delay feedback system with a pair of Revox tape recorders (a setup Riley used to call the "Time Lag Accumulator") was first used on Riley's album Music for The Gift in 1963.[9] In 1975, Fripp and Eno released a second album, Evening Star, and played several live shows in Europe.
Eno's new methods of making sound into music called for new ways of notating his compositions. Like some 20th-century composers of "classical" music, he used graphic notation to represent what could not possibly be conveyed by conventional notes on a staff.[citation needed]
Eno was a prominent member of the performance art-classical orchestra the Portsmouth Sinfonia – having started playing with them in 1972. In 1973 he produced the orchestra's first album The Portsmouth Sinfonia Plays the Popular Classics (released in March 1974) and in 1974 he produced the live album Hallellujah! The Portsmouth Sinfonia Live At The Royal Albert Hall of their infamous May 1974 concert (released in October 1974.) In addition to producing both albums, Eno performed in the orchestra on both recordings – playing the clarinet. Eno also deployed the orchestra's famously dissonant string section on his second solo album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy). The orchestra at this time included other musicians whose solo work he would subsequently release on his Obscure label including Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman. That year he also composed music for the album Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy, with Kevin Ayers, to accompany the poet June Campbell Cramer.
Eno continued his career by producing a larger number of highly eclectic and increasingly ambient electronic and acoustic albums. He is widely credited with coining the term "ambient music",[10] low-volume music designed to modify one's perception of a surrounding environment.
His first such work, 1975's Discreet Music (again created via an elaborate tape-delay methodology, which Eno diagrammed on the back cover of the LP ), is considered the landmark album of the genre. This was followed by his Ambient series (Music for Airports (Ambient 1), The Plateaux of Mirror (Ambient 2), Day of Radiance (Ambient 3) and On Land (Ambient 4)). Eno was the primary musician on these releases with the exception of Ambient 2 which featured Harold Budd on keyboard, and Ambient 3 where the American composer Laraaji was the sole musician playing the zither and hammered dulcimer with Eno producing.
In 1980 Eno provided a film score for Herbert Vesely's Egon Schiele Exzess und Bestrafung, also known as Egon Schiele Excess and Punishment. The ambient-style score was an unusual choice for a historical piece, but it worked effectively with the film's themes of sexual obsession and death.
In 1981, having returned from Ghana and before On Land, he discovered Miles Davis' 1974 track "He Loved Him Madly", a melancholy tribute to Duke Ellington influenced by both African music and Karlheinz Stockhausen: as Eno stated in the liner notes for On Land, "Teo Macero's revolutionary production on that piece seemed to me to have the "spacious" quality I was after, and like Federico Fellini's 1973 film Amarcord, it too became a touchstone to which I returned frequently."[11]
Eno describes himself as a "non-musician" and coined the term "treatments" to describe his modification of the sound of musical instruments, and to separate his role from that of the traditional instrumentalist. His skill at using "The Studio as a Compositional Tool"[12] (the title of an essay by Eno) led in part to his career as a producer. His methods were recognised at the time (mid-1970s) as unique, so much so that on Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, he is credited with 'Enossification'; on Robert Wyatt's Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard with a Direct inject anti-jazz raygun and on John Cale's Island albums as simply being "Eno".
Obscure Records (label)[link]
Main article: Obscure Records
Eno started the Obscure Records label in Britain in 1975 to release works by lesser-known composers. The first group of three releases included his own composition, Discreet Music, and the now-famous The Sinking of the Titanic (1969) and Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (1971) by Gavin Bryars. The second side of Discreet Music consisted of several versions of Pachelbel's Canon, the composition which Eno had previously chosen to precede Roxy Music's appearances on stage, to which various algorithmic transformations have been applied, rendering it almost unrecognisable. Side 1 consisted of a tape loop system for generating music from relatively sparse input. These tapes had previously been used as backgrounds in some of his collaborations with Fripp, most notably on Evening Star. Only 10 albums were released on Obscure, including works by John Adams, Michael Nyman, and John Cage. At this time he was also affiliating with artists in the Fluxus movement.
Collaborations[link]
In 1975 Eno performed as the Wolf in a rock version of Sergei Prokofiev's classic Peter and The Wolf. Produced by Robin Lumley and Jack Lancaster, the album featured Gary Moore, Manfred Mann, Phil Collins, Stephane Grapelli, Chris Spedding, Cozy Powell, Jon Hiseman, Bill Bruford and Alvin Lee. Also in 1975, Eno provided synthesisers and treatments on Quiet Sun's Mainstream album alongside Phil Manzanera, Charles Hayward, Dave Jarrett, and Bill MacCormick, and he performed on and contributed songs and vocals to Phil Manzanera's Diamond Head album.
In 1980–1981, Eno collaborated with David Byrne of Talking Heads (which he had already anagrammatised as 'King's Lead Hat') on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which was built around radio broadcasts Eno collected while living in the United States, along with sampling recordings from around the world transposed over music predominately inspired by African and Middle Eastern rhythms.
He worked with David Bowie as a writer and musician on Bowie's influential 1977–79 'Berlin Trilogy' of albums, Low, "Heroes" and Lodger, on Bowie's later album Outside, and on the song "I'm Afraid of Americans". In 1980 Eno developed an interest in altered guitar tunings, which led to Guitarchitecture discussions with Chuck Hammer, former Lou Reed guitarist. Following on from his No-Wave involvement which brought him in contact with the "renegade" artist Greg Belcastro, who introduced him to the guitar techniques of a fledgling Sonic Youth, Eno has also collaborated with John Cale, former member of Velvet Underground, on his trilogy Fear, Slow Dazzle and Helen of Troy, Robert Wyatt on his Shleep CD, with Jon Hassell, with the German duo Cluster, with composers Harold Budd, Philip Glass and Roberto Carnevale. A new collaboration between David Byrne and Brian Eno titled Everything That Happens Will Happen Today was released digitally on 18 August 2008, with the enhanced CD released in October.
1990s[link]
In 1992, Eno released an album featuring heavily syncopated rhythms entitled Nerve Net, with contributions from several former collaborators including Robert Fripp, Benmont Tench, Robert Quine and John Paul Jones. This album was a last-minute substitution for My Squelchy Life, which featured more pop oriented material, with Eno on vocals. (Several tracks from My Squelchy Life later appeared on 1993's retrospective box set Eno Box II: Vocals.) Eno also released in 1992 a work entitled The Shutov Assembly, recorded between 1985 and 1990. This album embraces atonality and abandons most conventional concepts of modes, scales and pitch. Much of the music shifts gradually and without discernible focus, and is one of Eno's most varied ambient collections. Conventional instrumentation is eschewed, save for treated keyboards.
During the 1990s, Eno became increasingly interested in self-generating musical systems, the results of which he called generative music. The basic premise of generative music is the blending of several independent musical tracks, of varying sounds, length, and in some cases, silence. When each individual track concludes, it starts again mixing with the other tracks allowing the listener to hear an almost infinite combination. In one instance of generative music, Eno calculated that it would take almost 10,000 years to hear the entire possibilities of one individual piece. Eno has presented this music in his own, and other artists', art and sound installations, most notably "I Dormienti (The Sleepers)", Lightness: Music for the Marble Palace, Music for Civic Recovery Centre, The Quiet Room and "Music for Prague".
2000s[link]
In 2004, Fripp and Eno recorded another ambient collaboration album, The Equatorial Stars.
Eno returned in June 2005 with Another Day on Earth, his first major album since Wrong Way Up (with John Cale) to prominently feature vocals (a trend continued with Everything That Happens Will Happen Today). The album differs from his 1970s solo work as musical production has changed since then, evident in its semi-electronic production.
In early 2006, Eno collaborated with David Byrne, again, for the reissue of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in celebration of the influential album's 25th anniversary. Eight previously unreleased tracks, recorded during the initial sessions in 1980/81, were added to the album, while one track, "Qu'ran", was removed in accordance with requests from Muslims.[13] An unusual interactive marketing strategy coincided with its re-release, the album’s promotional website features the ability for anyone to officially and legally download the multi-tracks of two songs from the album, "A Secret Life" and "Help Me Somebody". Individuals can then remix and upload new mixes of these tracks to the website so others can listen to and rate them.
In late 2006, Eno released 77 Million Paintings, a program of generative video and music specifically for the PC. As its title suggests, there is a possible combination of 77 million paintings where the viewer will see different combinations of video slides prepared by Eno each time the program is launched. Likewise, the accompanying music is generated by the program so that it's almost certain the listener will never quite hear the same arrangement twice. The second edition of "77 Million Paintings" featuring improved morphing and a further two layers of sound was released on 14 January 2008. In June 2007, when commissioned in the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts in San Francisco, California, Annabeth Robinson (AngryBeth Shortbread) recreated 77 Million Paintings in Second Life.[14]
In 2007, Eno's music was featured in a movie adaption of Irvine Welsh's best-selling collection Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance. He also appeared playing keyboards in Voila, Belinda Carlisle's solo album sung entirely in French.
Also in 2007, Eno contributed a composition titled "Grafton Street" to Dido's third album, Safe Trip Home, released in November 2008.[15]
In 2008, he released Everything That Happens Will Happen Today with David Byrne, designed the sound for the video game Spore and wrote a chapter to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture, edited by Paul D. Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky).
Eno revealed on radio in May 2009 that a skin graft he received as treatment for a severe burn on his arm was part human skin, part carbon fibre. He explained that as human skin is based on carbon, the experimental treatment was likely going to work out well for him, in spite of the fact that he feels a lightness in the affected arm.[16]
In June 2009, Eno curated the Luminous Festival at Sydney Opera House, culminating in his first live appearance in many years. "Pure Scenius" consisted of three live improvised performances on the same day, featuring Eno, Australian improv trio The Necks, Karl Hyde from Underworld, electronic artist Jon Hopkins and guitarist Leo Abrahams.
Eno scored the music for Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lovely Bones, released in December 2009.[17]
2010s[link]
In May 2010, the same Pure Scenius line-up as in 2009 performed 'This is Pure Scenius!', in the same format of three live improvised performances on the same day, at the Brighton Festival in England. Also at the 2010 Brighton Festival, after a performance of Woojun Lee's live arrangement of 'Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks' by Icebreaker and BJ Cole, Eno and the band performed four of his songs.
Eno released a new solo album on Warp Records in late 2010. Small Craft on a Milk Sea, made in association with long-time collaborator Leo Abrahams and Jon Hopkins, was released on 2 November in the United States and 15 November in the UK.[18] Eno also sang backing vocals on Anna Calvi's debut album on two songs "Desire" and "Suzanne & I".[19]
He later released Drums Between The Bells,[20] a collaboration with poet Rick Holland, on 4 July 2011, and the EP Panic Of Looking from the same recordings.
Record producer and other projects[link]
Record production[link]
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This biographical section of an 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. (January 2009) |
From the beginning of his solo career in 1973, Eno was in demand as a producer – though his management now describe him as a "sonic landscaper" rather than a producer. The first album with Eno credited as producer was Lucky Leif and the Longships by Robert Calvert. Eno's lengthy string of producer credits includes albums for Talking Heads, U2, Devo, Ultravox and James. He also produced part of the 1993 album When I Was a Boy by Jane Siberry. He won the best producer award at the 1994 and 1996 BRIT Awards.
Despite being a self-professed "non-musician", Eno has contributed to recordings by artists as varied as Nico, Robert Calvert, Genesis, David Bowie, and Zvuki Mu, in various capacities such as use of his studio/synthesiser/electronic treatments, vocals, guitar, bass guitar, and as just being 'Eno'. In 1984, he (along with several other authors) composed and performed the "Prophecy Theme" for the David Lynch film Dune; the rest of the soundtrack was composed and performed by the group Toto. Eno produced performance artist Laurie Anderson's Bright Red album, and also composed for it. The work is avant-garde spoken word with haunting and magnifying sounds. Eno played on David Byrne's musical score for The Catherine Wheel, a project commissioned by Twyla Tharp to accompany her Broadway dance project of the same name.
Eno co-produced The Unforgettable Fire (1984), The Joshua Tree (1987), Achtung Baby (1991), and All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000) for U2 with his frequent collaborator Daniel Lanois, and produced 1993's Zooropa with Mark "Flood" Ellis. In 1995, U2 and Eno joined forces to create the album Original Soundtracks 1 under the group name Passengers; songs from OST1 included "Your Blue Room" and "Miss Sarajevo". He also produced Laid (1993), Wah Wah (1994) and Pleased to Meet You (2001) for James.
Eno played on the 1986 album Measure for Measure by Australian band Icehouse. He remixed two tracks for Depeche Mode, "I Feel You" and "In Your Room", both single releases from the album Songs of Faith and Devotion in 1993. In 1995, Eno provided one of several remixes of "Protection" by Massive Attack (originally from their Protection album) for release as a single. The single also included more remixes by DJs J-Swift, Tom D, and Underdog.
In 2007, he produced the fourth studio album by Coldplay entitled Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, which was released in 2008. Also in 2008, he worked with Grace Jones on her album Hurricane, credited for "production consultation" and as a member of the band, playing keyboards, treatments and background vocals. With frequent collaborator Daniel Lanois, he worked on the twelfth studio album by U2, titled No Line on the Horizon. It was recorded in Morocco, South France and Dublin and released in Europe on 27 February 2009.
In 2011, Eno and Coldplay reunited and produced Coldplay's fifth studio album Mylo Xyloto, released on 24 October of that year.
The Microsoft Sound[link]
In 1994, Microsoft corporation designers Mark Malamud and Erik Gavriluk approached Brian Eno to compose music for the Windows 95 project. The result was the six-second start-up music-sound of the Windows 95 operating system, The Microsoft Sound. In an interview with Joel Selvin in the San Francisco Chronicle he said:
The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, "Here's a specific problem — solve it."The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional," this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 31/4 seconds long."[† 1]
I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel.
In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.[21]
Eno shed further light on the composition of the sound on the BBC Radio 4 show The Museum of Curiosity, explaining that he created it using an Apple Mac computer, and stating "I wrote it on a Mac. I’ve never used a PC in my life; I don’t like them".[22]
Generative music[link]
In 1996, he collaborated in developing the SSEYO Koan generative music system (by Pete Cole and Tim Cole of intermorphic) that he used in composing the hybrid music in the album Generative Music 1:
Some very basic forms of generative music have existed for a long time, but as marginal curiosities. Wind chimes are an example, but the only compositional control you have over the music they produce is in the original choice of notes that the chimes will sound. Recently, however, out of the union of synthesisers and computers, some much finer tools have evolved. Koan Software is probably the best of these systems, allowing a composer to control not one, but one-hundred and fifty musical and sonic parameters, within which the computer then improvises (as wind improvises the wind chimes).The works I have made with this system symbolise, to me, the beginning of a new era of music. Until a hundred years ago, every musical event was unique: music was ephemeral and unrepeatable, and even classical scoring couldn't guarantee precise duplication. Then came the gramophone record, which captured particular performances, and made it possible to hear them identically, over and over again.
But now, there are three alternatives: live music, recorded music, and generative music. Generative music enjoys some of the benefits of both its ancestors. Like live music, it is always different. Like recorded music, it is free of time-and-place limitations — you can hear it when and where you want.
I really think it is possible that our grandchildren will look at us in wonder and say: "You mean you used to listen to exactly the same thing over and over again?"
As C.S.J. Bofop, in 1996, he said:
Each of the twelve pieces on Generative Music 1 has a distinctive character. There are, of course, the ambient works ranging from the dark, almost mournful "Densities III" (complete with distant bells), to [the] translucent "Lysis (Tungsten)". These are contrasted with pieces in dramatically different styles, such as "Komarek", with its hard-edged, angular melodies, reminiscent of Schoenberg's early serial experiments, and "Klee 42" whose simple polyphony is similar to that of the early Renaissance, but, of course, the great beauty of Generative Music is that those pieces will never sound quite that way again.
Other work[link]
Eno has also been active in other artistic fields, producing videos for gallery display and collaborating with visual artists in other endeavours. One is the set of "Oblique Strategies" cards that he and artist Peter Schmidt, produced in the mid-1970s, described as "100 Worthwhile Dilemmas" and intended as guides to shaking up the mind in the process of producing works of art. Another was his collaboration with artist Russell Mills on the book More Dark Than Shark. He was also the provider of music for Robert Sheckley's In the Land of Clear Colours, a narrated story with music originally published by a small art gallery in Spain.
Eno appeared as Father Brian Eno at the "It's Great Being a Priest!" convention, in "Going to America", the final episode of the television sitcom Father Ted, which originally aired on 1 May 1998 on Channel 4.
In March 2008 Eno collaborated with the Italian artist Mimmo Paladino on a show of the latter's works with Eno's soundscapes at Ara Pacis in Rome.
In 2008, Eno designed the procedurally-generated music for the video game Spore.[23]
In October 2008, Eno collaborated with Peter Chilvers to create an application titled Bloom, Trope, and Air for the iOS platform.[24]
Eno was the guest curator of the 2009 Sydney Festival and the 2010 Brighton Festival.[25]
Lizard Point from On Land is featured in the 2010 film Shutter Island. The Song "An Ending" was also featured secretly in the 2011 feature film Drive during an elevator scene involving Ryan Gosling.
Influence[link]
Eno is frequently referred to as one of popular music's most influential artists.[26] Critic Jason Ankeny at Allmusic argues that Eno "forever altered the ways in which music is approached, composed, performed, and perceived, and everything from punk to techno to new age bears his unmistakable influence."[3] He has spread his techniques and theories primarily through his production; his distinctive style affected a number of projects he's been involved in, including Bowie's Berlin Trilogy (helping to popularise minimalism) and the albums he produced for Talking Heads (incorporating African music and polyrhythms on Eno's advice), Devo, and other groups.[27] Eno's first collaboration with David Byrne, 1981's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, pioneered sampling techniques and broke ground by incorporating world music.[28] Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies have been utilised by many bands, and Eno's production style has proven influential in several general respects: "his recording techniques have helped change the way that modern musicians – particularly electronic musicians – view the studio. No longer is it just a passive medium through which they communicate their ideas but itself a new instrument with seemingly endless possibilities."[29]
While not the only inventor of ambient music, Eno is seen as a major contributor to the genre. The Ambient Music Guide argues that he has brought from "relative obscurity into the popular consciousness" fundamental ideas about ambient music, including "the idea of modern music as subtle atmosphere, as chill-out, as impressionistic, as something that creates space for quiet reflection or relaxation."[29] His groundbreaking work in electronic music has been said to have brought widespread attention to and innovations in the role of electronic technology in recording.[30]
In 2001 Half Man Half Biscuit released an EP entitled "Eno Collaboration", which contains a track of the same name.
MGMT wrote a song about Eno, called "Brian Eno", in their 2010 album Congratulations.
In 2011, Belgian academics from the Royal Museum for Central Africa named a species of Afrotropical spider Pseudocorinna brianeno in his honour.[31]
Politics[link]
Brian Eno has been active politically throughout his life, frequently writing letters to government ministers, appearing on political debates, and writing newspaper columns to express his political views. He was sharply critical of the Thatcher government's decision to reduce funding to the BBC World Service, arguing that the £5 million cut to its £25 million budget was damaging, and was the equivalent cost of "just one wing of one F-16 fighter jet"- a reference to a large order of military hardware the government had just made.[citation needed]
In 1996, Eno and others started the Long Now Foundation to educate the public about the very long term future of society.[32] He is also a columnist for the British newspaper The Observer.
In 2003, he appeared on a UK Channel 4 discussion about the Iraq war with a top military spokesman; Eno was highly critical of the war. In 2005, he spoke at an anti-war demonstration in Hyde Park, London. In March 2006, he spoke at an anti-war demonstration at Trafalgar Square; he noted that 2 billion people on this planet do not have clean drinking water, and that water could have been supplied to them for about one-fifth of the cost of the Iraq war.[citation needed]
The Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition mobile phone features exclusive music composed by Eno.[33] Between 8 January 2007 and 12 February 2007, ten units of Nokia 8800 Sirocco Brian Eno Signature Edition mobile phones, individually numbered and engraved with Eno's signature were auctioned off. All proceeds went to two charities chosen by Eno: the Keiskamma Aids Treatment program and The World Land Trust.[34]
In 2006, Eno was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter calling for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions.[35]
In December 2007, the newly-elected Leader of Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, appointed Eno as his youth affairs adviser.[36]
In January 2009, Eno spoke out against Israel's military action on the Gaza Strip by writing an opinion for CounterPunch and participating in a large-scale protest in London.[37][38]
Discography[link]
Main article: Brian Eno discography
- Studio albums
-
- Solo albums
- Here Come the Warm Jets (1973), Island
- Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974), Island
- Another Green World (1975), Island
- Discreet Music (1975), Obscure
- Before and After Science (1977), Polydor
- Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978), Polydor
- Music for Films (1978), Polydor
- Ambient 4: On Land (1982), E.G.
- Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (1983), E.G.
- More Music for Films (1983), E.G.
- Thursday Afternoon (1985), E.G.
- Nerve Net (1992), Opal
- The Shutov Assembly (1992), Warner Bros.
- Neroli (1993), All Saints
- The Drop (1997), Thirsty Ear
- Another Day on Earth (2005), Hannibal
-
- Ambient installation albums
- Extracts From Music for White Cube (1997), Opal
- I Dormienti (1998), Opal
- Lightness: Music for the Marble Palace (1998), Opal
- Kite Stories (1999), Opal
- Music for Civic Recovery Centre (2000), Opal
- Compact Forest Proposal (2001), Opal
- January 07003: Bell Studies for the Clock of the Long Now (2003), Opal
- Making Space (2010), Opal
Bibliography[link]
- Bracewell, Michael Roxy Music: Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Art, Ideas, and Fashion (Da Capo Press, 2005) ISBN 0-306-81400-5
- Eno, Brian, Russell Mills and Rick Poynor More Dark Than Shark (Faber & Faber, 1986, out of print)
- Espartaco Carlos Eduardo Sanguinetti: The Experience of Limits, p. 9 (Ediciones de Arte Gaglianone, first published 1989) ISBN 950-9004-98-7
- Eno, Brian A Year with Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno's Diary (Faber & Faber, 1996) ISBN 0-571-17995-9
- I Dormienti with Mimmo Paladino (2000). Limited edition of 2000.
- Sheppard, David On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno (Orion Books, 2008) ISBN 978-0-7528-7570-5
- Tamm, Eric Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound (Da Capo Press, 1995, first published 1989) ISBN 0-306-80649-5
- Dayal, Geeta 33 1/3: Brian Eno's Another Green World (Continuum 2007) ISBN 978-0-8264-2786-1
Footnotes[link]
- ^ The eventual length of The Microsoft Sound as supplied and used was roughly 6 seconds, not 31/4.
References[link]
- ^ Estrella, Espie Ambient Music, about.com
- ^ AllMusic, Explore Music, "Ambient"
- ^ a b Jason Ankeny, ((( Brian Eno > Biography ))), allmusic
- ^ Prendergast, Mark The Ambient Century, Bloomsbury UK, 2000. ISBN 0-7475-4213-9
- ^ "Malcom Le Grice Installation". Wkv-stuttgart.de. http://www.wkv-stuttgart.de/en/programme/2006/exhibitions/expanded-media/malcolm-le-grice/. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ "Eno Left Roxy Music to do His Laundry". Contactmusic.com. http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/eno%20left%20roxy%20music%20to%20do%20his%20laundry. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Prendergast, Mark (2001). The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance: The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. p118. ISBN 1-58234-134-6.
- ^ Thompson, Dave. "All Music review". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/song/t821132. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ "The Birth of Loop". Loopers-delight.com. 13 October 1996. http://www.loopers-delight.com/history/Loophist.html. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Prendergast, The Ambient Century: p.93
- ^ "''Ambient 4: On Land'' 1986 release notes". Music.hyperreal.org. http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/onland-txt.html. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ "Pro Session – The Studio as Compositional Tool". Music.hyperreal.org. http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/downbeat79.htm. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Dahlen, Chris (17 July 2006). "Interview: David Byrne". Pitchfork Media. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/37176/Interview_Interview_David_Byrne.
- ^ Author, Unknown. "77-million-paintings-brian-eno". 77 Million Paintings. The Long Now Foundation. http://longnow.org/events/02007/jun/29/77-million-paintings-brian-eno/. Retrieved 1.11.2011.
- ^ Aizlewood, John. "In The Studio". Q Magazine. October 2007.
- ^ "Interview with Sydney University Radio Group, 18 May 2009". News.surgfm.org. http://news.surgfm.org/?page_id=178. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ "Brian Eno: The Lovely Bones". http://upcomingfilmscores.blogspot.com/2008/12/brian-eno-lovely-bones.html.
- ^ "Pitchfork: Source: Brian Eno Reveals Warp Album Details". Pitchfork.com. http://pitchfork.com/news/39830-brian-eno-reveals-warp-album-details/. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
- ^ "Desire by Anna Calvi Songfacts". Songfacts.com. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=22528. Retrieved 2012-03-25.
- ^ "Drums Between The Bells & Panic Of Looking". Brian Eno. http://brian-eno.net/drums-between-the-bells/. Retrieved 2012-03-25.
- ^ Joel Selvin, Chronicle Pop Music Critic (2 June 1996). "Q and A With Brian Eno". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1996/06/02/PK70006.DTL. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Adam Bunker, Technology Journalist (23 November 2011). "Brian Eno spills Windows start-up sound secrets". Electricpig. http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2011/11/23/brian-eno-spills-windows-start-up-sound-secrets/. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ "GameSpy: Spore – Page 2". Pc.gamespy.com. http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/spore/907564p2.html. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ "Eno and Chilvers Release Sweet Music App for iPhone | Listening Post". Blog.wired.com. 9 October 2008. http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/10/review-brian-en.html. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Higgins, Charlotte (27 November 2009). "Brian Eno to curate Brighton festival". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/27/brian-eno-curate-brighton-festival. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ Randall Roberts, "Brian Eno to Lecture CSU-Long Beach, Present 77 Million Paintings, Blow Our Minds", LA Weekly, 30 July 2009
- ^ Musician Guide, "Brian Eno Biography"
- ^ Gina Vivinetto, "Reasons to know Brian Eno", SP Times, 1 July 2004
- ^ a b Ambient Music Guide, "Brian Eno"
- ^ Richardson, Mark. "Pitchfork: Interviews: Brian Eno". Pitchfork Media. pitchfork.com. 1 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
- ^ Rudy Jocque & Jan Bosselaers, "Revision of Pseudocorinna Simon and a new related genus (Araneae: Corinnidae): two more examples of spider templates with a large range of complexity in the genitalia"
- ^ Eno, Brian. "The Big Here and Long Now". http://www.longnow.org/views/essays/articles/BrianEnoLongNow.php. Retrieved 11 May 2009. "How could you live so blind to your surroundings? ... I called it "The Small Here" ... I was used to living in a bigger Here ... I noticed that this very local attitude to space in New York paralleled a similarly limited attitude to time ... I came to think of this as "The Short Now", and this suggested the possibility of its opposite – "The Long Now"."
- ^ Nokia Press Release (4 September 2006). "Winds of change"
- ^ Nokia Press Release (20 December 2006). "Nokia and Brian Eno pair up for two great causes" ; "Nokia 8800 Sirocco Brian Eno Signature Edition Charity Auction"
- ^ Israel boycott may be the way to peace, The Guardian letters, 15 December 2006
- ^ Hélène Mulholland (19 December 2007). "Clegg hires Brian Eno as youth adviser". London: Politics.guardian.co.uk. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/libdems/story/0,,2229807,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ "''Stealing Gaza: An Experiment in Provocation'': article by Brian Eno at CounterPunch". Counterpunch.org. http://www.counterpunch.org/eno01022009.html. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ "UK protests in support of Gaza" article by Thisislondon.co.uk
External links[link]
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Brian Eno |
- Brian Eno discography at Discogs
- Paul Morley interviews Eno in The Guardian, 17 Jan 2010
- Interview with Brian Eno from The Guardian, 19 May 2006
- Brian Eno: The Philosophy of Surrender interview November 2008
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Eno, Brian |
| Alternative names | Eno, Brian Peter George; Eno, Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle |
| Short description | Producer, musician |
| Date of birth | 1948-5-15 |
| Place of birth | Woodbridge, Suffolk, England |
| 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.
| BeBe Winans | |
|---|---|
 BeBe Winans |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Benjamin Winans |
| Also known as | BeBe |
| Born | (1962-09-17) September 17, 1962 (age 49) |
| Origin | Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Genres | Gospel, R&B, soul |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter, record producer, actor |
| Instruments | Voice |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Labels | PTL Records (1984–87), Sparrow/Capitol (1987–98), Atlantic Records (1997–98), Motown (1999–2003), Still Waters/Hidden Beach (2004–06), The Movement Group (2004–present) |
| Associated acts | CeCe Winans, Winans family |
| Website | BeBeWinans.net |
Benjamin "BeBe" Winans (born 17 September 1962) is a gospel and R&B singer. He is a member of the noted Winans family, most members of which are also gospel artists.
Contents |
The PTL Club[link]
He released several albums, first with his sister CeCe Winans, and later as a solo artist. Jim Bakker's television show "The PTL Club" took interest in BeBe and his sister CeCe as background vocalists for the show. After going to North Carolina to audition they were accepted. BeBe and CeCe moved to the PTL campus in North Carolina, and were on the show for about five years.
During their time on PTL, BeBe and CeCe recorded "Lord Lift Us Up" on PTL's label after popular demand on the show. Eventually the success warranted another effort: a full length album. The album did well on the charts. BeBe and CeCe left PTL to pursue their singing career and recorded five albums together including self titled BeBe & CeCe Winans, Heaven, Different Lifestyles, First Christmas and Relationships. In 1995, BeBe and CeCe split up to pursue solo careers. But in 2009 they did the album "Still" together. On it was the song "Close to You," which won a Dove award in 2010 in the category of Urban Recorded Song (in a tie).
Solo career[link]
In 1989, BeBe won His First Grammy for Best Soul Gospel Performance, Male for his contribution to "Abundant Life", a track on his brother Ronald's Family & Friends Choir.
BeBe signed with Atlantic records and delivered a self-titled solo debut in 1997. The album featured the singles "In Harms' Way", "Thank You", and the international crossover hit "I Wanna Be the Only One" featuring British soul trio Eternal.
The next album released was the fruit of a new deal with Motown Records. Love & Freedom was released in 2000 and featured production from Warryn Campbell, Brian McKnight, Masters At Work and others. The lead single "Coming Back Home" was a slow swinging ballad featuring R&B luminaries Brian McKnight and Joe. Another single was BeBe's remake of the Stevie Wonder classic "Jesus Children of America" featuring his older brother Marvin (The Winans, Winans family) and Stevie Wonder himself.[1]
Two years later, a live album Live & Up Close followed. The album was recorded live at BET studios and featured guests such as his sister Debra Winans-Lowe and Stephanie Mills. The set was released on both CD & DVD. The CD included the studio version of "Do You Know Him?" which served as the album's first single.[2]
By 2003, BeBe had started his own record label, The Movement Group, and partnered with Still Waters, an inspirational and gospel imprint of Hidden Beach Recordings.[3] The first album under this deal was 2004's largely orchestral holiday album entitled My Christmas Prayer which first appeared exclusively for sale at Starbucks coffee shops nationwide.[4] Between releases, BeBe made his film debut with a small role in the 2004 remake (featuring Denzel Washington) of The Manchurian Candidate.
Early the next year, BeBe released his third proper solo album Dream featuring the single "I Have A Dream".[5] The song featured samples of the historic speech by Martin Luther King, and was released to several radio stations to coincide with King's birthday celebrations.[6] The cover of the album features a hand painted portrait of BeBe standing in front of a Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. street sign. Also "Miracle Of Love," a duet with Angie Stone included on the album, also appeared on a soundtrack of songs inspired by the film The Passion Of The Christ.[7]
Winans performed a duet with Eden Espinosa on the 2008 Alma Awards which was broadcast on ABC on September 12. 2008. WInans and Espinosa sang "I Don't Know Much" as a tribute to honoree Linda Ronstadt. Bebe performed "Born for This" on the Obama/Biden Inauguration tribute Change is Now CD+DVD set. BeBe & CeCe Winans have confirmed a reunion album scheduled for early 2009.
He currently hosts his own nationally syndicated radio program, The BeBe Winans Radio Show. BeBe Winans is currently starring in Broadway's The Color Purple as Harpo as of January 9, 2008. He is starring alongside Chaka Khan who is playing his wife, Sofia.
BeBe is currently one of the judges for a Gospel music competition show on BET called, "Sunday Best" along with gospel duo Mary Mary. He was invited to participate in the remake of We Are The World to benefit Haiti after the earthquake. Bebe Winans together with Cece Winans and Mary Mary featuring the West Angeles Choir performed on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno [8]
Legal issues[link]
In November 2007, BeBe Winans filed suit in Davidson County (Tenn.) Circuit Court against his former business manager, Eric Peterson. His claims included breach of a managerial contract and of fiduciary duties, as well as fraud. Peterson managed Winans from early 2002 until early 2007. In the lawsuit, a copy of which is available through this link,[9] Winans asserted that Peterson stole from him and took advantage of his trust. An example given by Winans was that in February 2002, "Mr. Peterson induced Mr. Winans to execute a power of attorney, representing that it was required to permit Mr. Peterson to perform his services. In fact, on December 31, 2004, Mr. Peterson used the power of attorney to execute a promissory note purporting to obligate Mr. Winans to pay Mr. Peterson himself the sum of $150,000."
BeBe Winans was arrested March 11, 2009 on charges of domestic assault for allegedly pushing his ex-wife to the ground in front of their children during an argument. According to a court filing, Winans and his former spouse got into a "verbal altercation" on February 13 about "custody issues dealing with their children."[10]
On December 4, 2009, the domestic assault criminal charges against Bebe Winans were dismissed.[11][12] An AP news report indicates the court action resulted from a pre-trial diversion deal offered by the prosecution, calling for Winans to attend domestic violence counseling in exchange for dismissal of the charges.[13]
Discography[link]
Solo albums[link]
- 1997: BeBe Winans (Sparrow/Atlantic)
- 2000: Love & Freedom (Motown)
- 2002: Live and Up Close (Motown)
- 2004: My Christmas Prayer (The Movement Group/Still Waters/Hidden Beach)
- 2005: Dream (The Movement Group/Still Waters/Hidden Beach)
- 2007: Cherch (The Movement Group)
As BeBe & CeCe Winans[link]
- 1984: Lord Lift Us Up (PTL)
- 1987: BeBe & CeCe Winans (Sparrow/Capitol)
- 1988: Heaven (Sparrow/Capitol)
- 1991: Different Lifestyles (Sparrow/Capitol)
- 1993: First Christmas (Sparrow/Capitol)
- 1994: Relationships (Sparrow/Capitol)
- 1996: Greatest Hits (Sparrow/EMI)
- 2006: The Best Of BeBe And CeCe (Sparrow)
- 2009: Still (B&C/ Malaco)[14]
Singles[link]
- 1996: "All Of Me" (Myrrh)
- 1997: "In Harm's Way" (Atlantic)
- 1997: "Thank You" (Atlantic)
- 1997: "Stay" (Atlantic)
- 2000: "Coming Back Home" (Motown)
- 2000: "Jesus Children Of America" (Motown)
- 2000: "Tonight Tonight" (Motown)[15]
- 2002: "Do You Know Him" (Motown)
- 2005: "I Have A Dream" (TMG/Still Waters)
- 2005: "Safe From Harm" (TMG/Still Waters)
- 2005: "Love Me Anyway" (TMG/Still Waters)
Other appearances[link]
- 1984: "Give Him Thanks" from Face To Face (Light) with The Winans
- 1984: "Golden Opportunity" from Tomorrow (Light) with The Winans
- 1984: Jesus Commands Us to Go!, Keith Green (background)
- 1986: "Its Only Natural" and "Arms Of Love" Kaleidoscope (Dayspring) with Keith Thomas
- 1987: "Abundant Life" from Ron Winans Family & Friends Choir Vol. I (Selah)
- 1987: "Love Is You" from Daniel Winans & Second Half (A&M) duet with Marvin Winans
- 1988: Live: Radically Saved, Carman (background)
- 1989: "Do You Feel Their Pain?" from Justice (Sparrow) duet with Steve Camp
- 1991: "A Song Of Consecration" from Ron Winans Family & Friends Choir Vol. III (Selah)
- 1992: "I'm Going Up" from White Men Can't Jump (soundtrack) (EMI) with CeeCee
- 1992: "Still Called Today" from The Great Adventure (Sparrow) with Steven Curtis Chapman
- 1993: "For Unto Us a Child Is Born" from The New Young Messiah (Sparrow) with CeeCee
- 1994: "He's On Your Side" duet with Monique Walker on the Hezekiah Walker & The Love Fellowship Choir album, Live in Atlanta (Benson)
- 1995: "You've Got a Friend" from Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King (Atlantic) with CeeCee and Aretha Franklin
- 1996: "All Of Me" from My Utmost For His Highest: The Covenant (Myrrh)
- 1996: "But God" from Ron Winans Family & Friends Choir Vol. IV (Selah)
- 1997: "I Wanna Be The Only One" with Eternal from Before the Rain (Atlantic/EMI)
- 1998: "He's Coming Soon" from The Apocalypse (soundtrack) (Straightway)
- 1998: "River Jordan" from Civil War: The Nashville Sessions (Atlantic)
- 1998: "One Voice" from "Never Say Never":Brandy Norwood (Atlantic)
- 1998: "Stay with Me" from The Prince of Egypt: Inspirational (DreamWorks)
- 1999: "He Watches Over You" duet with Sandi Patty from Songs From The Book (Word)
- 1999: "I Will Follow Christ" trio with Bob Carlisle and Clay Crosse
- 2001: "Jesus Children of America" with Marvin Winans and Stevie Wonder from Boycott (HBO Film soundtrack)
- 2006: "Broken Bridges" (CMT film) with Willie Nelson and Toby Keith
- 2007: "I Don't Want To Be Wrong Today" from We Are Family 2007: Artists & Friends for Hurricane Relief (Point of Light Foundation)
- 2010: "We Are the World 25 for Haiti"
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ "BeBe Winans: Love & Freedom". GospelFlava.com. http://www.gospelflava.com/reviews/bebewinans.html.
- ^ "BeBe Winans: Live And Up Close". GospelFlava.com. http://www.gospelflava.com/reviews/bebewinanslive.html.
- ^ "BeBe Winans' New Record Label: Movement Detected on Still Watrers". GospelCity.com. September 12, 2003. http://www.gospelcity.com/dynamic/industry-articles/industry_news/17.
- ^ "Starbucks Hear Music, Bebe Winans and Hidden Beach Join Together to Offer Holiday CD Exclusively at Starbucks Stores". Business Wire. 2004-11-08. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_Nov_8/ai_n6336967.
- ^ "BeBe Winans to release Dream in February". GospelCity.com. November 17, 2004. http://www.gospelcity.com/dynamic/industry-articles/industry_news/137.
- ^ "Hidden Beach Recordings Celebrates the MLK Holiday and King's Historic Speech with Special Radio Broadcasts of the Grammy-Nominated BeBe Winans Recording ``I Have A Dream". Business Wire. 2006-01-13. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2006_Jan_13/ai_n16001263.
- ^ "The 'Dream' Of BeBe Winans". CBS News. 2005-04-09. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/08/earlyshow/saturday/secondcup/main686841.shtml.
- ^ Cece Winans and Bebe Winans on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
- ^ Whitehouse, Ken (2007-11-21). "Gospel royalty files suit against former business manager". NashvillePost.com. http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2007/11/21/gospel_royalty_files_suit_against_former_business_manager. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
- ^ http://www.wsmv.com/entertainment/18919827/detail.html#-
- ^ http://ccc.nashville.gov/portal/page/portal/ccc/caseSearch/caseSearchPublic/caseSearchPublicResults/?a1=934273%7C2379471%7CCJIS
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCX0UTKIaJE
- ^ The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/07/arts/AP-US-BeBe-Winans.html. [dead link]
- ^ CeCe Winans Website
- ^ Tonight Tonight Single Listing
External links[link]
- www.bebewinans.net - The official BeBe Winans Internet site
- www.beberadio.com The official BeBe Winans Radio Show Internet site
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Winans, Bebe |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American gospel singer |
| Date of birth | September 17, 1962 |
| Place of birth | |
| 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.
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