Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Tripoli-of-the-West (Arabic: طرابلس الغرب‎ Ṭarābulus al-Gharb), to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean (Arabic: عروسة البحر‎ ʼarūsat el-baḥr; lit: "bride of the sea"), describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli (English pronunciation: /ˈtrɪpɵli/) is a Greek name that means "Three Cities", introduced in Western European languages through the Italian Tripoli. In Arabic: طرابلس‎ it is called Ṭarābulus ( pronunciation (help·info), Libyan Arabic: Ṭrābləs  pronunciation (help·info), Berber: Ṭrables, from Ancient Greek: Τρίπολις Trípolis). As of 2011, the Tripoli metropolitan area (district area) had a population of 2.2 million. The city is located in the northwest part of the country on the edge of the desert, on a point of rocky land projecting into the Mediterranean and forming a bay.

The city includes the Port of Tripoli and the country's largest commercial and manufacturing centre. It is also the site of the University of Tripoli. The vast Bab al-Azizia barracks, which includes the former family compound of Muammar Gaddafi, is also located in the city; Gaddafi largely ruled the country from his residence in this barracks.

Maureen O'Hara (born 17 August 1920) is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne. Her autobiography, 'Tis Herself, was published in 2004 and was a New York Times Bestseller.

O'Hara was born as Maureen FitzSimons on Beechwood Avenue in the Dublin suburb of Ranelagh. She was the second oldest of the six children of Charles Stewart Parnell FitzSimons and Marguerita Lilburn FitzSimons. Her father was in the clothing business and also bought into Shamrock Rovers Football Club, a team O'Hara has supported since childhood. Her mother, a former operatic contralto, was a successful women's clothier. O'Hara was raised as, and still is, a Roman Catholic. Her siblings were Peggy, the oldest, and younger Charles, Florrie, Margot and Jimmy. Peggy dedicated her life to a religious order, the Sisters of Charity, and the younger children all went on to receive training at the Abbey Theatre and the Ena Mary Burke School of Drama and Elocution in Dublin. O'Hara's dream at this time was to be a stage actress. She was first educated at the John Street West Girls' School near Thomas Street in Dublin's Liberties Area. From the age of 6–17 she trained in drama, music and dance, and at the age of 10 joined the Rathmines Theatre Company and worked in amateur theatre in the evenings, after her lessons.

Patty Pravo (born Nicoletta Strambelli, 9 April 1948 Venice, Italy) is an Italian pop singer whose career has spanned more than four decades. Her first single "Ragazzo triste", released in 1966, was the first pop song aired on Vatican Radio. In 2011 she participated - for the eighth time - in the Italian song contest, the Sanremo Music Festival.

Strambelli studied at the conservatory institute of Benedetto Marcello and was acquainted with American poet Ezra Pound and with Angelo Roncalli (Pope John XXIII). At the age of fifteen, she left home to live in London and then Rome where she began her career singing in the Piper Club. In 1966 she made her first single, "Ragazzo triste" ("Sad Boy"), the Italian version of the song "But You're Mine" by Sonny & Cher. It was the first pop song broadcast on Vatican Radio.

Pravo followed that by recording numerous songs, the most popular being "Qui e là" ("Here and There"), "Se perdo te" ("If I Lose You", 1967, written by English songwriter Paul Korda), "La bambola" ("The Doll", 1968, "Sentimento" ("Feeling", 1968), "Il paradiso" ("Heaven", 1969, written by Lucio Battisti), "La solitudine" ("The Loneliness", with Robert Charlebois) "Pazza idea" ("Crazy Idea", 1973) and "Pensiero stupendo" ("Stupendous Thought", 1978). "La bambola" sold over one million copies by the end of 1968 and was awarded a gold disc.