Grey
— Common connotations —
depression, blandness, boredom, neutrality, fog, undefinedness, old age, contentment and speed
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#C0C0C0
sRGBB	(r, g, b)	(128, 128, 128)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(--°, 0%, 50%)
Source		HTML/CSS[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Grey or gray is an achromatic or neutral color.

Complementary colors are defined to mix to grey, either additively or subtractively, and many color models place complements opposite each other in a color wheel. To produce grey in RGB displays, the R, G, and B primary light sources are combined in proportions equal to that of the white point. In four-color printing, greys are produced either by the black channel, or by an approximately equal combination of CMY primaries. Images which consist wholly of neutral colors are called monochrome, black-and-white or greyscale.

The first recorded use of grey as a color name in the English language was in AD 700.^[2] Grey is the British, Canadian, Australian, Irish, New Zealand and South African spelling, although gray remained in common usage in the UK until the second half of the 20th century.^[3] Gray is the preferred American spelling, although grey is an accepted variant.^[4][5] Gray became the preferred spelling in American English around 1825.^[6]

In color theory[link]

Most grey pigments have a cool or warm cast to them, as the human eye can detect even a minute amount of saturation.^{[citation needed]} Yellow, orange, and red create a "warm grey". Green, blue, and violet create a "cool grey".^[7] When there is no cast at all, it is referred to as "neutral grey", "achromatic grey" or simply "grey".

Warm grey	Cool grey
Mixed with 6% yellow.	Mixed with 6% blue.

Two colors are called complementary colors if grey is produced when they are combined additively. Grey is its own complement.

Web colors[link]

There are several tones of grey available for use with HTML and CSS in word form, while there are 254 true greys available through Hex triplet. All are spelled with an a: using the e spelling can cause unexpected errors (this spelling was inherited from the X11 color list), and to this day, Internet Explorer's Trident browser engine does not recognize "grey" and will render it as green. Another anomaly is that "gray" is in fact much darker than the X11 color marked "darkgray"; this is because of a conflict with the original HTML grey and the X11 grey, which is closer to HTML's "silver". The three "slategray" colors are not themselves on the greyscale, but are slightly saturated towards cyan (green + blue). Note that since there are an even (256, including black and white) number of unsaturated tones of grey, there are actually two grey tones straddling the midpoint in the 8-bit greyscale. The color name "gray" has been assigned the lighter of the two shades (128 also known as #808080), due to rounding up.

Color coordinates[link]

RGB

Grey values result when r = g = b, for the color (r, g, b)

CMYK

Grey values are produced by c = m = y = 0, for the color (c, m, y, k). Lightness is adjusted by varying k. In theory, any mixture where c = m = y is neutral, but in practice such mixtures are often a muddy brown (see discussion on this topic).

HSL and HSV 

Achromatic greys have no hue, so the h code is marked as "undefined" using a dash: -- ; greys also result whenever s is 0 or undefined, as is the case when v is 0 or l is 0 or 1

See also[link]

• Black
• Black-and-white
• Vin gris (grey wine in French)
• List of colors
• Variations of grey
• White

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gray

• Three computational biologists’ theory to explain how humans perceive achromatic colors:
• Chart showing a comparison of the achromatic (greyscale) values of the colors on the RYB and RGB color wheels, respectively (the chart is halfway down the webpage):

Macy Gray
Macy Gray performing in 2008
Background information
Birth name	Natalie Renee McIntyre
Born	(1967-09-06) September 6, 1967 (age 44) Canton, Ohio, United States
Genres	R&B, soul, neo soul, hip hop
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, record producer, actress
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Atlantic (1994-1996) Epic (1998-2004) will.i.am / Geffen (2006-2008) Concord (2009-2011) 429 (2011-)
Associated acts	Bobby Brown, Natalie Cole, Velvet Revolver, Pharoahe Monch, The Black Eyed Peas
Website	www.macygray.com

Macy Gray (born Natalie McIntyre, 6 September 1967 in Canton, Ohio, USA)^[1][2] is a Grammy Award-winning American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress, famed for her distinctive raspy voice, and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday and Betty Davis.

Gray has released six studio albums, and has received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild and For Colored Girls. Gray is best known for her international hit single "I Try," taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.

Early life and career[link]

Gray in 1995

Macy Gray, was born to Laura McIntyre, a math teacher, and Otis Jones; Laura later remarried Richard McIntyre, who adopted Macy and fathered her brother Nathon and sister Nehlia.^{[citation needed]} Gray was born in Canton, Ohio, where she briefly worked at age 12, before being fired for lateness.^[3] She decided to pursue a career in music after being expelled from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson,^[4] which she had attended from the age of 14.^[3] However, Gray's initial success came as a surprise.^[5] While attending the University of Southern California (graduated 1990)^[6] she agreed to write songs for a friend, and a demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer.^[7] When the vocalist failed to turn up, Gray recorded them herself. She then met writer/producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills.^[8] Together, they wrote a large collection of songs and recorded them in Solo's studio. The demo tape landed Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles, California.^[9] Despite Gray's dislike of her own voice,^[10] Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of her A&R man Tom Carolan, who signed her to the label.^[11] In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records.^[12] She was on one of the songs from The Black Eyed Peas' debut album, "Love Won't Wait".^[13]

Music career[link]

[edit] On How Life Is (1999–2001)

Gray worked on her debut album in 1999.^[14] Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash.^[15] Despite the first single "Do Something" stalling on the charts, the release of the second single "I Try" made the album a success for Gray.^[16] "I Try" (which was originally featured in Love Jones and the Jennifer Aniston-starring vehicle, romantic-comedy Picture Perfect in 1997)^[17] was one of the biggest singles of 1999,^[18][19] and subsequent singles "Still" and "Why Didn't You Call Me" ensured the album becoming triple platinum in the U.S.,^[20] quadruple platinum in the UK,^[21] and triple platinum in Canada.^[22]

In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" for "I Try", which was also nominated for "Song of the Year" and "Record of the Year".^[23] She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, The Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song "The World Is Yours", from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time in the thriller Training Day.^[24] In August 2001, Gray was booed off the field at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the American national anthem.^[25]

[edit] The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself (2001–2005)

Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby", (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo).^[26] The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200.^[27] Despite its failure in the U.S., it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI.^[28] The underperformance in the United States, compared to her debut album, may have been due to The Id being released just a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks.^[29]

In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man as herself and worked with Santana on the track "Amoré (Sexo)", for his album Shaman.^[30][31]

Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian afropop pioneer, Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake track of Kuti's classic, "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, The Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti.^{[citation needed]}

She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like The Sun (From Out Of Nowhere)" which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection.^[32][33] Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundrack to 8 Mile.^[34] A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition.^[14][31]

In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews.^{[citation needed]} The lead single "When I See You" became a radio hit in the U.S. and a top forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans.^[35] Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK.^[36][37] A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys". She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'."^[38]

[edit] Return to music and Big (2007–2010)

Macy Gray performs live on stage.

Gray began 2007 badly after being kicked off-stage at a concert in Barbados for profanity (which was part of the show), but she was not aware that it was against the law in that country.^[39] She gave a public apology that night to avoid arrest.^[40]

In March, Gray released her fourth studio album (sixth overall), entitled Big.^[41] Two singles, "Finally Made Me Happy" and "Shoo Be Doo", have been released from the album.^[40] "What I Gotta Do", another track from the album, is featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. It is considered Gray's comeback album, after a four-year hiatus since her last studio album.^[42] The album was critically acclaimed and seen by some as her best work to date.^[43] It featured collaborations with Natalie Cole, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, and will.i.am, who co-executive produced the album with Gray.

The album was moderately successful in the U.S., where it debuted and peaked at #39 on the Billboard 200, becoming Gray's highest-charting album since The Id.^[44] Big reached #62 on the albums chart in the UK,^[45] her lowest-charting UK album,^[46] but it did achieve some success in several other countries including Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Finland, reaching the top forty of their album charts.^[47]

PBS's Soundstage live concert series premiered a Gray concert on July 5.^[48]

On July 7, 2007, Gray performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.^[49] Gray and her band members wore clothes bearing political messages. Gray's dress carried the message "Darfur Red Alert".

In 2008, Macy launched a new campaign under the name Nemesis Jaxson, with upcoming single, "Slap a Bitch".^[50]

Macy was available again in another movie soundtrack (she is featured in more than 10 other soundtracks): Confessions of a Shopaholic, with the newest track "Don'Forget Me".^[51]

[edit] The Sellout (2010–2011)

The first single from Gray's fifth studio album The Sellout, "Beauty in the World," is featured in the final sequence of the series finale, Hello Goodbye, of the ABC television series, Ugly Betty. "Beauty in the World" is also used as the theme in multiple videos created by Microsoft to promote Internet Explorer 9.^{[citation needed]} Both singles released from the album ("Beauty in the World" and "Lately") are Top 10 hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.^{[citation needed]}On 16 February 2012 to participate in the Sanremo Festival as a guest, performing alongside Gigi D'Alessio and Loredana Berte with the song At least you in the universe, in the English version entitled Flame.

Upon its release, The Sellout received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. Metacritic, gave it an average score of 57, based on 15 reviews;^[52] Andy Gill of The Independent gave it 3 out of 5 stars; while Allmusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting.^[53]

However, The Boston Globe's James Reed commended its production.^[54] and Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating.^[55]

[edit] Covered (2011–present)

In 2011, Gray signed a deal with 429 Records and started recording a series of covers for her next studio album Covered. The album was officially released on March 26th, 2012. The album's first single is "Here Comes The Rain Again" (originally performed by Eurythmics).^[56] On 16 February 2012 to participate in the Sanremo Festival as a guest, performing alongside Gigi D'Alessio and Loredana Berte with the song At least you in the universe, in the English version entitled Flame.

Other work[link]

Gray appeared in the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, playing for Habitat for Humanity. She finished in third place, behind Robin Tunney and Christopher Meloni, and ahead of Joy Behar and Andy Dick.^[57]

In 2002, she was the voice for Seeiah Owens in the video game SSX Tricky.^[58] That same year, she made a brief appearance in the film Spider-Man as herself.^[59]

Gray sang the theme song for a cartoon show on Nickelodeon, As Told By Ginger, composed by Jared Faber and Emily Kapnek.^[60]

She appeared at the 2008 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. She stated she liked the Ferrari team and also found the Honda driver Jenson Button 'cute'.^[61]

In August 2008, Gray headlined at the 2008 Summer Sundae music festival in Leicester, England, performing cover versions of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?", Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" and Radiohead's "Creep".^[62] For the gig, her band wore pink Andy Warhol wigs.^[63]

On September 28, 2008, Gray sang the American national anthem as part of the Israeli flag-raising ceremony at the Israeli Consulate of Los Angeles.^[64][65]

In 2008, Gray collaborated with Australian DJ and singer Kaz James on the song "Can't Hold Back". The single was released in early 2009 in Australia and is credited to Kaz James featuring Macy Gray. It is included on James' debut solo album, If They Knew.^[66]

Personal life[link]

Gray was married from 1996 to 1998 to Tracy Hinds, with whom she had three children: Aanisah (born January 1995), Tahmel – known as Mel (born December 1995) – also involved in the music industry, and Happy (born 1997).^[67] Gray opened up a music academy called The Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

Gray has two tattoos, one on her right wrist with all her children's names and the other on her leg.^{[citation needed]} She was an early supporter of a Barack Obama presidential campaign.^{[citation needed]}

Gray has bipolar disorder.^[68][69]

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• 1999: On How Life Is
• 2001: The Id
• 2003: The Trouble with Being Myself
• 2007: Big
• 2010: The Sellout
• 2012: Covered

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

She won five of seventeen nominations, including Grammy Award, MTV Video Music Awards and BRIT Awards.

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (February 2010)

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Macy Gray

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Macy Gray

• Macy Gray's official website
• Macy Gray on Twitter
• Macy Gray at the Internet Movie Database
• Nemesis Jaxson's official website
• Macy Gray on the Interscope Records website
• Macy Gray at Allmusic

Emeli Sandé
Background information
Birth name	Adele Emeli Sandé
Born	(1988-03-10) 10 March 1988 (age 24)[1][2]
Genres	Soul, R&B, pop
Occupations	Singer, musician, songwriter
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Virgin (2010–present)
Website	www.emelisande.com

Adele Emeli Sandé  /sænˈdeɪ/ san-DAY, (born 10 March 1988)^[1] known by her stage name Emeli Sandé, is a Scottish soul and R&B recording artist and songwriter. Sandé first became known to the public eye after she featured on rapper Chipmunk's third single, "Diamond Rings", which gained herself and Chipmunk a first top 10 single on the UK Singles Chart. In 2010, she appeared on Roll Deep star, Wiley's "Never Be Your Woman", which became another top ten hit. Simon Cowell called her "his favourite songwriter at the minute". She has written for a number of artists, including Cher Lloyd, Parade, Susan Boyle, Preeya Kalidas, Leona Lewis, Alesha Dixon, Cheryl Cole, and Tinie Tempah.

In 2010, she signed a publishing deal with EMI Music Publishing. She later announced that Virgin Records had given her a record deal. Sandé released her first solo single "Heaven" in August 2011, which was an instant hit around the globe. Sandé has two number-one singles across the United Kingdom and Ireland with "Read All About It" with Professor Green and "Next to Me". She released Our Version of Events, in February 2012, upon the release the album peaked number one in the UK.^[3]

Early life[link]

Emeli Sandé was born to a Zambian father and English mother. She was raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire.^[4][5] She studied Medicine at the University of Glasgow, but stopped in her fourth year.^[4] She said that education was one of the most important things to her, stating that if her music career failed, she has education to fall back on. Sandé said that her manager, Adrian Sykes, waited patiently since she was 16, saying "Adrian really respects that I want to get an education behind me. He also knows my parents are keen that I finish university."^[6] Sandé has a tattoo of artist Frida Kahlo.^[7] At the age of 11, when Sandé was still in primary school, she wrote her first song for a school talent show.^[7] She spoke "That was the first time I thought I might be a songwriter. I always knew I wanted to be a musician, and I always knew I wanted to write. Because the people I was listening to all wrote. I never thought it was an option to sing anyone else's songs.^[7] The first song we wrote in was called "Tomorrow Starts Again", the song had proper structure, which even had a Middle eight.^[7] At the age of 15, Choice FM invited her to London, United Kingdom to take part in a competition they were holding, the "Rapology". Richard Blackwood also had her down to MTV's Camden studios to sing gospel.^[7] Sandé went to the same secondary school at which her father was a teacher. She said "I hated to be ill and to miss a day because I was so hungry to learn. I was very shy, nerdy and extremely well-behaved. Inevitably, throughout secondary school, it was part and parcel of my identity that I was Mr Sandé’s daughter. No way could I muck about or get into trouble, because it would've got back to him within minutes. And Dad was strict, let me tell you."^[8]

Career[link]

2008–10: Career beginnings[link]

Sandé's sister made a video of her playing the piano and singing to one of her favourite songs, "Nasty Little Lady".^[7] They sent the clip to Trevor Nelson's BBC Urban music competition. Sandé won the show and was offered a record deal, but the management that she met via the competition decided against the deal.^[7] Her parents sent 1Xtra a CD of her songs. Ras Kwame played on his "Homegrown Sessions", and four artists that year were asked to do a show in Soho. She met with Watford-born music producer/writer Shahid Khan aka Naughty Boy,^[9] who has previously worked with Ms Dynamite and Bashy,^[7] and they began writing tracks for artists such as Alesha Dixon, Chipmunk, Professor Green, Devlin, Preeya Kalidas, Cheryl Cole, and Tinie Tempah. Sandé soon signed a record deal with Virgin Records and EMI Records.^[10] In an interview, she said "I was doing a show in London for 1Xtra and I met this guy called Naughty Boy. We got in the studio and we clicked work wise. We just started writing, not necessarily for me, we just thought ‘let's write a pop tune’ and experiment. And we wrote the Chipmunk track and I thought nothing of it. Naughty Boy sent it off to Chipmunk who really liked it and wrote his stuff around it."^[10] She signed a record deal with Virgin Records in 2010. She later signed another deal with EMI Records in early 2011.^[11] Sandé made her singing career debut in 2009 after appearing on the track she wrote for Chipmunk's first debut single, "Diamond Rings". The single charted at No. 6 on the UK Singles Charts, making it Chipmunk and Sandé's first ever Top 10 Hit.^[12] She later appeared on another single singing guest vocals, after collaborating with Wiley on his comeback single "Never Be Your Woman", the single charted at number-eight on the UK Singles Charts becoming Sandé's second consecutive Top 10 Single.^[9] Sandé announced she changed her name from Adele Sandé to her middle name Emeli Sandé due to Adele's growing success. She spoke; "I changed it as soon as Adele came out. I just thought, 'You've kind of taken the [name] now', so I went with my middle name. She was just getting bigger and bigger, so I thought I just really need it."^[13]

[edit] 2011–present: Our Version of Events, international success and songwriting

While making her debut album, Sandé began to work with Tinie Tempah. She co-wrote "Let Go", on which she provided guest vocals. She also started working with Devlin after recording a song titled "Dreamer". Sandé later revealed she would be working on Alesha Dixon's upcoming album, The Entertainer. She co-wrote the hit single "Radio" along with Shahid Khan.^[14] and co-wrote tracks on Cheryl Cole's albums as well as Professor Green's album, which Sandé gave guest vocals on.^[15] Sandé revealed her first solo single would be released in early 2011.^[16] There was some speculation surrounding what track she would release, after many newspapers stated that it would be "Daddy". The first official single from her upcoming debut album was "Heaven" and was released on 14 August 2011.^[17] The song has received positive reviews from blogs such as This Must Be Pop^[18] and Robot Pigeon.^[19]

Sandé at XOYO

She revealed that she is Simon Cowell's favourite song-writer at the moment; due to her writing songs for Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle.^[13] Sandé stated in an interview; she said that she would love to meet Boyle after writing songs for her saying, "I haven’t met her yet. I just sent her the song. I’d love to meet her because I think she is a bit of a rock star." One song that Sandé had cowritten for Boyle will appear on her new album, titled "This Will Be The Year". Leona had heard a couple of songs so we had a week in the studio with her. Leona and I got along really well. Then we had another week together. It was very natural. She recorded a song called Trouble and another called Mountains, so I look forward to hearing them on her album."^[13] It was revealed after Professor Green announced his album tracking list for his album, At Your Inconvenience, that Sandé would feature on the first single from the album, "Read All About It". The single was released in October 2011,^{[dated info]} a week before the album was released.^[20] The pair also performed the song live on The X Factor results show.^[21] She confirmed that "Daddy" would be the second official single released from Our Version of Events. Sandé achieved her first number-one single on the UK Singles Chart after "Read All About" entered at number-one. On 26 November, Sandé performed at the LG ARENA in Birmingham for BRMB 2011. On 15 December 2011, she was named as the Brit Awards Critics' Choice for 2012.^[4][22][23] Sandé`s debut album includes songs written by her and has been reviewed as having "richly melodic, classically powerful, retro-futurist soul-pop songs."^[7] She draws on influences for her music from Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell and Lauryn Hill.^[7] Sandé said that all her songs are about World peace and political issues.^[7]

Sandé said that the key to a good song when songwriting is using "honesty" and "raw emotion" as the best way to write. She said that if she attempts to write something which is "too smart" the creative process will not work for her. "Kill the Boy" was one of the first ideas that came to Sandé's head. She said if she has to work on a song longer than a day, she will not go back to it, as she said it won't work. She went onto say if it was to work, it the idea for the song would be almost instant.^[7] It was announced that she was up for another BRIT Award in 2012, for British Breakthrough Act.^[24] Sandé is currently writing material for the original lineup of Sugababes. On 24 January 2012, Sandé performed a one off gig for Q Magzine at XOYO, London. She was supported by British soul singer Michael Kiwanuka. She recorded a version of David Guetta's "Titanium" and the pair performed the song at NRJ Music Awards in France.^[25][26] Sandé has penned a track for Naughty Boy's upcoming LP entitled "Hollywood" which features soul singer Gabrielle. It is about fame coming and going and will be released in November.^[27]

Personal life[link]

In January 2012, Sandé confirmed that she is engaged to her unidentified, long-term boyfriend.^[28] Her boyfriend has requested not to be identified and Sandé has said he is not in the music industry but that he is a scientist.^[29]

Discography[link]

Albums

• Our Version of Events (2012)

Touring[link]

Headlining

• Our Version of Events tour (2011-2012)

Supporting

• Mylo Xyloto Tour (2011-2012)

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]