Samantha

Samantha is a feminine given name. It has been recorded in England in 1633 in Newton-Regis, Warwickshire, England. It was also recorded in the 18th century in New England, but its etymology is unknown. Speculation (without evidence) has suggested an origin from the masculine given name Samuel and anthos, the Greek word for "flower". A variant of this speculation is that it may have been a feminine form of Samuel with the addition of the already existing feminine name Anthea.

It remained a rare name until the publication, beginning in 1873, of a series of ten books by Marietta Holley featuring the adventures of a lady called Samantha, wife of Josiah Allen. This led to the rise in its popularity and its increasing ranking among the top 1,000 names for girls in the United States from 1880, the earliest year for which records are available, to 1902.

It was out of fashion in the United States for majority of the first half of the 20th century, but reappeared among the top 1,000 names for girls in 1958, when it ranked in 998th position, and in 1959, when it ranked in 993rd place. It fell off the top 1,000 list once again until 1964, when it reappeared in 472nd place, and leapt another 293 places to 179th place in the ratings in 1965. The name's popularity coincided with the debut in 1964 of the television show Bewitched, which featured as the lead character a young witch named Samantha Stephens. The name has remained consistently popular in the United States since the 1960s. It ranked among the top 200 names for girls since 1965 and among the top 100 names for girls since 1976. It was among the 10 most popular names for girls born in the United States between 1988 and 2006. It ranked as the 15th most popular name for American girls born in 2009.

American Girl

American Girl is an American line of 18-inch (46 cm) dolls released in 1986 by Pleasant Company. The dolls portray eight- to eleven-year-old girls of a variety of ethnicities. They are sold with accompanying books told from the viewpoint of the girls. Originally the stories focused on various periods of American history, but were expanded in 1995 to include characters and stories from contemporary life. Aside from the original American girl dolls, the buyer also has the option to purchase dolls that look like them. The options for the line of Truly Me dolls range from eye color, eye shape, skin color, hair texture, and hair length. A variety of related clothing and accessories is also available. .

Pleasant Company was founded in 1986 by Pleasant Rowland, and its products were originally purchasable by mail order only. In 1998, Pleasant Company became a subsidiary of Mattel. The company has been awarded the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award eight times.

Dolls and accessories

The Historical Characters line of 18-inch dolls were initially the main focus of Pleasant Company. This product line aims to teach aspects of American history through a six-book series from the perspective of a girl living in that time period. Although the books are written for an eight plus target audience, they endeavor to cover significant topics such as child labor, child abuse, poverty, racism, slavery, animal abuse and war in manners appropriate for the understanding and sensibilities of their young audience.

Live

Live may refer to:

Military

Film, television, and media

Films

TV

Information and communication technologies

Melody Gardot

Melody Gardot /ɡɑːrˈdoʊ/ (born February 2, 1985) is a Grammy-nominated American singer, writer and musician in Philadelphia. She has been influenced by such blues and jazz artists as Judy Garland, Janis Joplin, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Stan Getz and George Gershwin as well as Latin music artists such as Caetano Veloso. Her music has been compared to that of Nina Simone.

Gardot follows the teachings of Buddhism, is a macrobiotic cook and humanitarian who often speaks about the benefits of music therapy. She has visited various universities and hospitals to speak about its ability to help reconnect neural pathways in the brain, improve speech ability, and lift general spirits. In 2012, it was reported that she had given her name to a music-therapy program in New Jersey. Gardot considers herself a "citizen of the world".

Early life and education

Gardot was born in New Jersey, and was largely brought up by her grandparents. Her grandmother was a Polish immigrant, and her mother, a photographer, worked and traveled frequently. They moved around often and as a consequence had very few possessions, often living out of suitcases. Because of Gardot’s career, she does not stay in one place for long and she finds herself living out of three suitcases, as she did when she was a child.

Caro Emerald

Caroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw (born 26 April 1981), known by her stage name of Caro Emerald, is a Dutch pop and jazz singer. She debuted on 6 July 2009 with her single "Back It Up". Her 2009 single "A Night Like This" reached the number 1 position in the Netherlands.

Her debut album Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor set a new all-time Dutch chart record on 20 August 2010, spending its 30th week at number one on the country's albums chart, beating the previous record set by Michael Jackson's Thriller by one week. The album became the biggest selling album of 2010 in the Netherlands and has sold over 300,000 copies so far. In total more than a million copies have been sold. On 3 October 2010, Van der Leeuw was awarded the Dutch music prize "Edison Award" for Best Female Artist.

In April 2013, her second studio album The Shocking Miss Emerald went to No. 1 in the UK album chart, becoming her first UK No. 1 album.

Early and personal life

Caroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw was born on 26 April 1981 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands to a Dutch father and an Aruban mother. She started singing lessons at age 12 with James Gilloffo in Amsterdam and joined a girl vocal group, Les Elles, under his guidance. Following high school she trained as a jazz vocalist at the Amsterdam Conservatory, graduating in 2005.