Senior Colonel is a field grade officer rank placed between a regular Colonel and a Major General. The rank typically exists in militaries that do not maintain a rank of Brigadier General/Brigadier.

A Senior Captain position existed in the German Navy which maintained the rank of Kommodore. Also, a "Senior Colonel" position was used in both the SA and SS. In the branches of the Allgemeine SS (general SS) and Waffen-SS (armed SS) the rank of Oberführer was widely used but it did not exist in the German Army.

After World War II, nations in the Communist sphere began establishing Senior Colonel ranks of their own. Today, the rank of Senior Colonel may be found in the militaries of China (Da Xiao (大校)), North Korea (Taejwa (대좌)), Thailand (พันเอกพิเศษ) and Vietnam (Đại tá).

Most western militaries tend to equate a Senior Colonel as a "Brigadier General in disguise"; however, this is not necessarily so. Nations which maintain senior Colonel ranks may also have five General ranks (most such nations also having the rank of Colonel General), but not the People's Republic of China. A Senior Colonel is also not befitted honors of a General or Flag Officer and is simply seen as the highest field officer rank before the General grades. In this sense, the rank may be seen as comparable to the rank of Brigadier in the British and some other Commonwealth armies, similarly a senior field rank. (In modern China the rank of Senior Colonel is intended as a way to promote distinguished Colonels, without unnecessarily swelling the numbers of general officers.) Most Senior Colonels serve as the Commander, Political Commissar, or Deputy Commanders of a division.

Xu Hui (627-650) was a Chinese poetess.

Xu Hui was the daughter of Xu Xiaode, from Changcheng in Huzhou (modern Zhejiang province). A child prodigy, Xu Hui became a consort to Emperor Taizong of Tang: she was granted the rank of Changrong (充容) and tradition holds that upon his death, she became ill from grief, dying herself the following year. Taizong's successor Gaozong posthumously honored her with the title Xianfei (賢妃), and promoted her father on her account to be prefect of Guozhou.

She is thought to have written around one thousand poems, of which five survive.

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (/ˈstɛfəniː dʒʌrməˈnɑːtə/ STE-fə-nee jurr-mə-NAH-tə; born March 28, 1986), known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She began performing in the rock music scene of Manhattan's Lower East Side, and was signed with Streamline Records by the end of 2007. During her employment as a songwriter for the record company, her vocal abilities captured the attention of recording artist Akon, who signed her to his label Kon Live Distribution.

Lady Gaga came to prominence as a recording artist following the release of her debut album The Fame (2008), which was a critical and commercial success that topped charts around the world and included the international number-one singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". After embarking on the The Fame Ball Tour, she followed the album with The Fame Monster (2009), which spawned the worldwide hit singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone" and "Alejandro". The album's success allowed her to embark on the eighteen-month long Monster Ball Tour, which later became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. Her most recent album Born This Way (2011) topped the charts of most major markets and generated more international chart-topping singles, including "Born This Way", "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory". Besides her musical career, she involves herself with humanitarian causes and LGBT activism.