Eddy Brace Rashid MacDonald, shortened to Brace is a Dutch singer, who often collaborates with famous Dutch rapper Ali B, who helped to bring Brace to stardom after their first musical collaboration on the hit single Moppie released in the summer of 2004.

Brace was born 23 August 1986 in Surabaya (Indonesia), as a child of Surinamese parents. The family moved to the Netherlands, where he was raised in Amsterdam. His father Eddy MacDonald is a songwriter and his brother is a singer in the R&B groups K Shaw and VIP Allstars. Since he was eleven years old, he began to perform regularly on German stages, because his act was considered too young in the Netherlands.

When Brace was at the age of sixteen, his father died. After this traumatic experience, the young singer would not go to school and he put his focus on his singing career. He practiced his freestyle sessions in the barn of Lange Frans' parents. Together with Lange Frans, Brutus, Negativ, Yes-R, he was part of the hip hop group called D-Men.

Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, and released her self-titled debut studio album, Mariah Carey. The album went multi-platinum and spawned four consecutive number one singles, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola in 1993, a series of hit records, including Emotions (1991), Music Box (1993) and Merry Christmas (1994), established her position as Columbia's highest-selling act. Daydream (1995), made music history when the second single, "One Sweet Day" a duet with Boyz II Men, spent a record sixteen weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100, and remains the longest running number one song in US chart history. During the recording of the album Carey began to deviate from her pop background, and slowly traversed into R&B and Hip-hop. After her separation from Mottola, this musical change was evident with the release of Butterfly (1997).

Howard Kern "Howie" Day (born January 15, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter. Beginning his career as a solo artist in the late 1990s, Day became known for his extensive touring and in-concert use of samplers and effects pedals in order to accompany himself. He self-financed and self-released his first album, Australia, in 2000.

Day eventually signed a recording contract with major label Epic Records- in 2002 and has since re-released his debut as well as producing a follow up, Stop All The World Now. Despite initially sluggish sales, Stop All The World Now was certified gold in early 2005 and has produced a number of singles, including the hits "She Says" and "Collide", Day's most successful to date. The track became Epic Records’ first platinum single, eventually selling 1.5 million downloads.

After a five year tour before the release of Stop All The World Now followed by a three year tour, Day took some time off and focused on writing music. Day released his Be There EP in May 2009 followed by Sound The Alarm, released on September 8, 2009.

Thad Cockrell is an American singer-songwriter. He has released three solo albums, along with a collaborative album with Caitlin Cary. Cockrell often writes emotional songs, and is frequently associated with his goal to "put the hurt back in country".

Cockrell is the son of a Baptist pastor, and grew up mostly in Tampa, Florida. His father was the pastor of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Church that funded his high school. It was during his time in school where Cockrell discovered his love of country music and rock n' roll, which was forbidden in his home. Cockrell cites bands such as The Everly Brothers, The Cure and Nelson as early influences.

After high school, Cockrell went on to graduate from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. He then studied at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. It was here that Cockrell would begin writing songs.

Cockrell recorded his first album, Stack of Dreams with the dB's Chris Stamey. It was recorded in one day as a demo. Cockrell liked it so much, he began selling it at his shows as an EP. Eventually, the recording was re-mixed and given another track for the album's release on Yep Roc Records in 2001. Cockrell's friends and former Whiskeytown members Caitlin Cary and Skillet Gilmore played on the album. Allmusic gives a favorable review of Cockrell's debut, describing his voice as "the kind of high, lonesome warble that can raise the hair on your neck and put a tear in your eye", and the album as "striking a nice balance between not-so-rowdy honky tonk and heart-worn balladry".

Peter Cooper (February 12, 1791 – April 4, 1883) was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and candidate for President of the United States. He designed and built the first steam locomotive in the U.S., and founded the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan, New York City.

Peter Cooper was born in New York City of mixed Dutch, English and Hugenot descent, the fifth child of John Cooper, a Methodist hatmaker from Newburgh, New York He worked as coachmaker's apprentice, cabinet maker, hatmaker, brewer and grocer, and was throughout a tinkerer: he developed a cloth-shearing machine which he attempted to sell, as well as an endless chain he intended to be used to pull boats on the Erie Canal, which De Witt Clinton approved of, but which Cooper was unable to sell.

In 1821 Cooper purchased a glue factory on Sunfish Pond for $2,000 in Kips Bay, where he had access to raw materials from the nearby slaughterhouses, and ran it as a successful business for many years, producing a profit of $10,000 within 2 years, developing new ways to produce glues and cements, gelatin, isinglass and other products, and becoming the city's premiere provider to tanners, manufacturers of paints, and dry-goods merchants. The effluent from his successful factory eventually polluted the pond to the extent that in 1839 it had to be drained and filled.