Kyu Sakamoto (坂本 九, Sakamoto Kyū^?, born Hisashi Oshima (大島 九, Ōshima Hisashi^?), 10 November 1941 – 12 August 1985) was a Japanese singer and actor, best known outside of Japan for his international hit song "Sukiyaki", which was sung in Japanese and sold over 13 million copies. It reached number one in the United States Billboard Hot 100 in June 1963.

Kyu Sakamoto was born on 10 November 1941, in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture to the tender cargo officer Hiroshi Sakamoto and Iku Oshima. He was the youngest among nine siblings—his nickname Kyu, meaning 'nine', is an alternate reading of the kanji (九) for his given name (Hisashi). Iku had two sons from an earlier relationship and Hiroshi three sons and three daughters. Kyu was their third and last child together.

In the summer of 1944 during the air raids over the greater Tokyo area, including Kawasaki, Iku fled with the younger children, including Kyu, and his siblings Teruaki, Yachiyo and Azuma to their grandparents, Seri and Aou Oshima who lived on the countryside in Kasama. In the summer of 1949 the family was reunited and moved back to Kawasaki. Like many other Japanese companies, Hiroshi's office was disbanded by the American occupation forces. Shortly after that, he started a restaurant together with Iku.

Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen (December 26, 1921 - October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He graduated to become the first host of The Tonight Show, where he was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. Thereafter, he hosted numerous game and variety shows, including The Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, The New Steve Allen Show, and was a regular panel member on CBS' What's My Line?

Allen was a "creditable" pianist, and a prolific composer, having penned over 14,000 songs,^{[citation needed]} one of which was recorded by Perry Como and Margaret Whiting, others by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Les Brown, and Gloria Lynne. Allen won a Grammy award in 1963 for best jazz composition, with his song The Gravy Waltz. His vast number of songs have never been equaled. Allen wrote more than 50 books, has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Hollywood theater named in his honor The Steve Allen Theater.

Anastasiya Alexandrovna Vertinskaya (Russian: Анастаси́я Алекса́ндровна Верти́нская) (born December 19, 1944, Moscow, USSR), is a Soviet and Russian actress whose mass popularity and high critical acclaim made her one of the most distinguished figures in the history of Soviet cinema. In the 1990s, disillusioned with the state of cinema at home, she went abroad to teach, spending 12 years in France, England, the United States and Switzerland. In 1988 Vertinskaya was designated a People's Artist of Russia; she is also a recipient of the Order of Honour (2005) and the Order of Friendship (2010).

Anastasiya Vertinskaya was born on December 19 in Moscow, soon after her father, the famous singer-songwriter Alexander Vertinsky returned from Harbin in 1943 with his Georgian wife Lydia Vertinskaya (née Tzyrgvava) (Russian: Лидия Циргвава), a painter and actress. Anastasiya and her sister Marianna (one year her senior) spent their first years living in the Moscow Metropol hotel; it was only in 1946 that the family was granted a proper flat on Gorky St., 14.

Kina Kasuya Grannis (born August 4, 1985) is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. She is half Japanese and half English, Irish, French, Scottish, Dutch and German. Grannis was the winner of the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest. As a result of winning, she earned a recording contract with Interscope Records and had her music video played during the commercials of Super Bowl XLII. She recently won Best Web-Born Artist at the 2011 MTV O Music Awards.

Her progress in the competition was covered in The Orange County Register and The Wall Street Journal. Grannis has also been featured on FOX News Los Angeles, Good Day L.A. and Yahoo!.

Kina grew up in Mission Viejo, California, and it was here where her love for music began. In elementary school, she composed and submitted piano compositions to district art competitions. Soon afterwards, she began playing the violin, an instrument she would play throughout high school. By age 15, she started teaching herself the guitar and it was this instrument with which she fell in love.