Look up kan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Kan may refer to:

Places[link]

• Kan River in Russia
• Kan District of Iran

People[link]

• Kan (surname)
• One of the Bacabs of Mayan mythology
• Shimozawa Kan

Names[link]

• Gan, the Wade-Giles spelling of the Pinyin word
• Kan variation of the Sicilian Defence, a chess opening

In music[link]

• Kan - swars, linking notes (grace notes) in Indian classical music
• Kan (song), the Israeli entry at the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest
• Kanye West

In weights and measures[link]

• Catty, or kan (斤), a Chinese unit of weight equal to 16 tael
• A Japanese unit of mass, equal to 1,000 momme (kan (貫) or kanme (貫目))

See also[link]

• KAN (disambiguation)
• Kaan (disambiguation)
• Kane (disambiguation)
• Khan (disambiguation)
• Kahn (German surname)
• Can (disambiguation)

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.

La Mafia is a four-time Grammy Award-winning musical group. It has its roots in the Northside neighborhood of Houston, Texas and has charted a course as a Latin music band.

History[link]

La Mafia was founded in 1980 in Houston, TX. Vocalist Oscar De La Rosa & producer/keyboardist/accordionist Armando Lichtenberger Jr. created an original style that survived various changes in the music industry. The band consists of Tim Ruiz on bass, David de la Garza on keyboards and background vocals, Joe Gonzales on drums and Viktor Pacheco on Guitar in 2007. The band has won 2 Grammys & 2 Latin Grammys was nominated in 2009 for a Latin Grammy for the album Eternamente Romanticos.

La Mafia, seeking to expand their musical horizons, began touring extensively in Mexico and Latin America beginning in the late 1980s. The practice of Mexican-American artists performing in Mexico on a large scale was unheard of before La Mafia. Back home, La Mafia has performed in front of three record-setting crowds at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo at the Houston Astrodome.

Discography[link]

Since 1993, La Mafia has recorded each of its hits at its own Urbana Recording Studios, including the million-selling Estas Tocando Fuego and Ahora y Siempre. The band has recorded 35 albums and CDs, not including dozens of compilation and greatest hits releases.

Awards and recognitions[link]

La Mafia received Grammy Awards for its CDs Un Millón de Rosas and En Tus Manos and Latin Grammy Awards for its CDs Para El Pueblo and Nuevamente. It also has received eight Premio Lo Nuestro Awards and 12 Tejano Music Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the latter, numerous Billboard awards and was listed in the top 10 Billboard Latin Artists for the entire decade of the 1990s, ranking La Mafia as the most successful Latin artist Houston has ever produced.

La Mafia vs Kumbia All Starz[link]

In the summer of 2008 Oscar De La Rosa, leader of La Mafia challenged A.B. Quintanilla and his group Los Kumbia All Starz to a battle of the bands. A.B. Quintanilla responded by making a video saying that he accepted and that the battle would be held at Robstown, Texas on August 2, 2008. A press conference was held in San Antonio, Texas on July 30, 2008 where both groups answered questions to the fans. The two stages were set side to side and the rules were each group had to sing 3 songs in a row. The battle began as they tossed a coin to see who would sing first. Oscar called heads and heads it was, so he elected A.B. Quintanilla to go first. For his first 3 songs he chose 3 Tejano songs he wrote and he got his two special guest singers Elida Reyna to sing the first two and Jesse Turner of Siggno to sing the third one. Then La Mafia sang "Estás Tocando Fuego" and two more 1990s Billboard hits. For Kumbia All Starz's second turn, their lead singer DJ Kane and Ricky Rick performed the hit single "Shhh!" and two other songs with the dancers from DJ Kane's group when he was a solo singer, John and JD. La Mafia then performed with 3 more songs. Kumbia All Starz sang 3 more songs, then A.B. Quintanilla asked Oscar De La Rosa if they could sing one more song, and Oscar agreed, and so Ricky Rick and Melissa Jiménez got on stage and performed the hit song "Rica Y Apretadita". La Mafia then sang 3 of their biggest hits, including the classic "Me Estoy Enamorando", and after that the crowd was screaming for more, so they sang one more song. At the end of the night La Mafia was declared the winner.^[1]

Members[link]

• Oscar De La Rosa - vocalist
• Armando Lichtenberger Jr. - accordion & keyboards
• Tim Ruiz - bass
• Joe Gonzales - drums
• Viktor Pacheco - guitar
• David De La Garza - keyboards & background vocals

Former members[link]

Leonard Gonzales (brother of Oscar De La Rosa [Gonzales]) -guitar Robert Gonzales - guitar & bass guitar Marion Aquilina - guitar Israel (Speedy) Villanueva - bass guitar Adolf Alonso - bass guitar Rudy Martinez - bass guitar Tony Rodriguez - drums Mario Gonzalez - drums Adam Mosqueda - drums Michael Aguilar - drums Jesse Moreno - Sax Jesse Peralez - Sax Rick Patino - Sax-Trumpet

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• La Mafia at Allmusic

This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (December 2007)

Najib Amhali (born April 4, 1971) is a Moroccan-born Dutch stand-up comedian and actor.

Najib Amhali was born in Nador. He has gained popularity partly because of his flawless command of Dutch and ability to show the Dutch how the life of immigrants and ethnic minorities in the Netherlands can be.

'Als Marokkaan kom ik graag bij de mensen thuis.' (As a Moroccan I like to visit people in their homes).

This is how Najib Amhali started the cabaret festival in Leiden (Netherlands), where he was the winner of both the audience award and the jury award. His fans are a mix of native Dutch and ethnic minorities; Amhali holds a mirror up to their faces and shows them how trivial and ridiculous their behaviour can be.

Amhali created some cabaret shows himself, such as: Freefight, Veni Vidi Vici, Vol is Vol ('Full is Full'), Most Wanted and Zorg dat je erbij komt ('Make sure you fit in').

Amhali is also an actor and he has starred in several Dutch productions. In 1999 he starred with Hans Teeuwen and Kim van Kooten in the movie Jezus is een Palestijn ('Jesus is a Palestinian'). In 2002 he played in the series Najib en Julia ('Najib and Juliet'), which was directed by filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in 2004 by a Muslim extremist. In 2004 Amhali played in the film Shouf Shouf Habibi and a sequel is being made.

Amhali is also a professional drummer and is now combining his music and his stand-up comedy in his 2 latest original shows Zorg Dat Je Erbij Komt en Alles Komt Goed

In May 2006 Amhali hosted a show about the 2006 FIFA World Cup in which he discussed all aspects of the Dutch team and collected money for charity.

External links[link]

• Najib Amhali
• Najib Amhali at the Internet Movie Database

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for music. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (May 2012)

The opposites
The opposites (queensnight 2007)
Background information
Years active	2004–present
Labels	2004-2005 Mastermind Records 2005-present TopNotch
Website	www.theopposites.nl
Members
Twan van Steenhoven(Big2) Willem de Bruijn(Willy)

The Opposites are a Dutch rap duo. The duo consists of the rappers Willem de Bruijn (Willy) and Twan van Steenhoven (Big2). The two rappers started rapping when Willem de Bruijn had to make a rap for his teacher as a punishment. Willem noticed he had a talent for rapping and decided to go on with rapping, together with his pall Twan van Steenhoven they became addicted to Hiphop so they say. The name The Opposites comes from the fact that Willem is black and small and Twan big and white.^[1]

Early years[link]

Via a demo contest on internet the duo gets in touch with Mastermind Records which wants to make a follow up on the very populair album: Streetremixes from D-men. The duo has a part in both Streetremixes 2 and 3 along with other later famous Dutch rappers like: Yes-r, Brace, Lange frans and Baas B. The debute album is called "Youngsters" and is rapped in English but the duo doesn't like that and after "youngsters" they decide to rap in their native language: Dutch. The duo makes a mixtape "Vuur" which can be downloaded on internet for free, this mixtape even reaches the Dutch radio.^[2] The Opposites want to make a studio album and to do this they switch to the record label TopNotch. The same year the duo makes real name with their coöperation on the hitsingle Wat Wil Je Doen from The Partysquad and their own single Fok Jou from their then still unreleased album De Fik Erin. Their album De Fik Erin is released in late 2005 and the second single from this albumis released in early 2006: Slaap. Slaap is The Opposites first big hit it reaches number one on the Dutch popcharts.^[3]

Later years[link]

In 2007 The Opposites release their second studio album: Begin twintig. This album contains the hit Dom, Lomp en Famous a single that with its simple lyrics becomes very populair in the Netherlands. The album contains 16 songs, Twan (big2) makes the beats for 15 of them which is really unusual for rappers because the beats are usually produced by producers and not by the rappers themself. In 2007 the rappers win their first set of awards in 2006 they where nominated for some but didn't actually win one. Two of the six awards they won in 2007 where for their song Dom, Lomp en Famous. In 2008 they start touring through Spain with The Partysquad and later through the Netherlands with their show Op Volle Toeren with Flinke Namen en Dio. They make a mixtape with the same name as their show: Op Volle Toeren, containing their work they did with Dio and Flinke Namen. The Opposites also release the hitsingle Vandaag. The same year the album Rock & Roll from Dio is released, Twan produced the beats for almost all of the tracks including the hitsingle Tijdmachine. When Twan goes on a vacation Willem still wants to make music so he tries a studio session with the producer team: soundG8. The first session went well so he wants to continue working with them. Twan liked the idea of not having to share the microphone for ones as well so they decide to make their own albums for once. This results in the next studio album, a double CD with one album from Twan alone and one from Willem. This album also contains the hit Broodje Bakpau made for the comedy serie New Kids on the Block and the single Licht uit. The double CD contains the albums: Ik Ben Twan from Big2 and Succes from Willem.^[4]

[edit] Discography^[5]

Sources[link]

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