Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in a group of other musicians, such as in a choir of singers with different voice ranges, or in an ensemble with instrumentalists, such as a rock group or baroque ensemble. As in many respects human song is a form of sustained speech, nearly anyone able to speak can also sing. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised. It may be done for pleasure, comfort, ritual, education, or profit. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific musical genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by voice teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers.
Simon Phillip Cowell (born 7 October 1959) is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol. He is also the owner of the television production and music publishing house Syco.
As a judge, Cowell is known for his blunt and often controversial criticisms, insults and wisecracks about contestants and their abilities. He is also known for combining activities in both the television and music industries, having promoted singles and records for various artists, including television personalities. He was most recently featured on the fifth series of Britain's Got Talent and the first season of The X Factor USA.
In 2010, the British magazine New Statesman listed Cowell at number 41 in a list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".
Cowell was born in Lambeth, London and brought up in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His mother, Julie Brett (née Josie Dalglish), is a former ballet dancer and socialite, and his father, Eric Selig Phillip Cowell (1918–1999), was an estate agent developer and music industry executive. Cowell's father was from a mostly Jewish family, though he did not discuss his background with his children (Cowell's paternal grandmother had immigrated from Poland). Cowell's mother was from a Christian background, and is of part Scottish descent. He has one brother and three half-brothers and a half sister; younger brother Nicholas Cowell, half-brother John Cowell, half-brother Tony Cowell, half-brother Michael Cowell and half sister June Cowell.
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in country music. She signed to the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's self-titled debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest sole writer and singer of a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards.
Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in late 2008. Buoyed by the chart success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless attracted a crossover audience and became the top-selling album of 2009. The record won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Fearless also received Album of the Year plaudits at the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, making it the most awarded album in country music history. In 2010, Swift released her third album, Speak Now, which sold over one million copies in its first week. She then embarked on the 111-date Speak Now World Tour, which was attended by over 1.6 million fans and has become one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. The album's third single, "Mean", won two Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. Swift is currently recording her fourth studio album, due for release in the fall of 2012.
Plot
Born in Lucknow, Manisha now lives a middle-classed lifestyle in Bandra, Mumbai, along with her widowed mother, and a younger sister, Utkarsha. She is hired as a Personal Secretary to wealthy Yash Singhania, who seduces her, promises to marry her, gets intimate with her, and abandons her. She turns into a call-girl and re-locates to Bangkok. Years later, the two are fated to meet in Bangkok itself. This time Yash is married to Natasha, and is holidaying there along with his friend and business associate, Vikram Chopra. Manisha, who now calls herself Tanya, decides to first seduce Vikram, and then wreak havoc in Natasha and Yash's life.
Plot
Edogawa Rampo is a writer whose latest work is censored by the government, deemed too disturbing and injurious to the public to be allowed to be published. However, after burning his drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper with an account of events just like his forbidden story. As the film progresses, fantasy and reality intermingle in a tale that draws heavily on influences from Poe and Stoker's Dracula. The film's strongly Expressionistic direction skillfully combines a variety of media (animation, computer-generated imagery, grainy black-and-white fast film stock, color negatives) for artistic effect.
Keywords: book-comes-to-life, case, censorship, character-name-in-title, love, murder, music-box, part-animation, suicide, transvestite
So provocative the censors banned it, so powerful it came true.
[Gesina counsels Seth to remember his Indian heritage]::Gesina 'Grandmother': But you must be careful not to become so fond of their ways that you ever forget who and what you are.
Joseph Brandt: With my people, our mothers have taught us to bring into our home those we capture. Bring them into our lives, have them come as one into our nations, share our home fires.
Joseph Brandt: As we turned our face to Canada, we left behind a new nation, the United States of America. A nation that was created in our image and that was paid for with the blood of the Iroquois people. But the people of the Long House will survive as long as we keep the Tree of Peace growing and the spirit of the council fire bright. For it is a spirit and a fire that must never be allowed to die. And as long as the people believe in it, they shall live on through all the ages. And they shall have the sanction of the Holder of the Heavens forever.
Ben Franklin: What does it take to break a single arrow? Nothing! But bound together... unbreakable!
[Gesina counsels Seth to remember his Indian heritage]::Gesina 'Grandmother': But you must be careful not to become so fond of their ways that you ever forget who and what you are.
Joseph Brandt: With my people, our mothers have taught us to bring into our home those we capture. Bring them into our lives, have them come as one into our nations, share our home fires.
Joseph Brandt: As we turned our face to Canada, we left behind a new nation, the United States of America. A nation that was created in our image and that was paid for with the blood of the Iroquois people. But the people of the Long House will survive as long as we keep the Tree of Peace growing and the spirit of the council fire bright. For it is a spirit and a fire that must never be allowed to die. And as long as the people believe in it, they shall live on through all the ages. And they shall have the sanction of the Holder of the Heavens forever.
Ben Franklin: What does it take to break a single arrow? Nothing! But bound together... unbreakable!
Plot
Stathis is a teenager who owns a pirate radio station that broadcasts at the same frequency used by another pirate radio station, owned by Stamatis and his friends. This leads to many conflicts between the two pirates, and as if this wasn't enough, Stathis is also desperately in love with Koula and has to face her huge boyfriend Kyriakos...
Keywords: actor-shares-first-name-with-character, disco, jail, pirate-radio, police-officer, quarrel, radio-broadcasting, radio-show, radio-station, rivalry
Plot
King Louis XI is a wise and old king and Frollo is the Chief Justice. Frollo gazes on the gypsy girl, Esmeralda, in the church during Fool's Day and sends Quasimoto to catch her. Quasimoto, with the girl, is captured by Phoebus, Captain of the Guards, who frees the girl. The courts sentence Quasimoto to be flogged, and the only one who will give him water while he is tied in the square is Esmeralda. Later, at a party of nobles, Esmeralda again meets both Frollo, who is bewitched by her, and Phoebus. When Phoebus is stabbed to death, Esmeralda is accused of the murder, convicted by the court and sentenced to hang. Clopin, King of the Beggars, Gringoire the Husband of Esmeralda, and Quasimoto, the bellringer, all try different ways to save her from the gallows.
Keywords: 15th-century, acrobat, actor, alone, archbishop, arrest, bag-over-head, balancing-a-chair-on-one's-chin, bald-man, baldness
Impact ! Power ! Pathos ! Drama !
Drama Unparalleled ! Spectacle Beyond Belief ! !
IMPACT! POWER! FIRE! PATHOS! DRAMA! (original print ad - all caps)
Quasimodo, the bell-ringer: Ohh, you asked me why I saved you. I tried to carry you off, and the next day, you gave me a drink of water, and a little pity.
Quasimodo, the bell-ringer: [half-laughing, half-weeping] I'm about as shapeless as the man in the moon!
Quasimodo, the bell-ringer: [to one of the stone gargoyles] Why was I not made of stone - like thee?
[Watching Esmeralda dance]::Louis XI, King of France: Doesn't she make your pulse beat faster?::The King's Physician: I'm a widower four times, sire, but I could begin all over again.
Quasimodo, the bell-ringer: Sanctuary! Sanctuary!
Clopin: Try to take a purse out of that pocket, but if one single bell jingles, you fail.::Gringoire: And then?::Clopin: And then you hang!::Gringoire: [pondering for a moment] Can you do it?::Clopin: I'm above that sort of thing. I cut throats. I don't cut purses.
Clopin: [to Gringoire immediately following flogging of Quasimodo] Never trust a man with pinched nostrils and thin lips.
Louis XI, King of France: Doctor, lend me half a livre.::The King's Physician: Half a livre?::Louis XI, King of France: Afraid I won't repay you?
Witness to flogging: Our whipper could make him cry.::Witness to flogging: Are you saying you have a better whipper in Marseilles than we have in Paris?::Witness to flogging: Yes! [they knock him off the steps]
Gringoire: Your hands are like ice. You're not afraid are you?::Esmeralda: Not now oh Gringoire, Why did I ever come to paris?::Gringoire: Don't cry darling::Esmeralda: I keep thinking and thinking How I came here to soften the king heart towards my people until my silly heart betrayed me for that I deserve to die.::Gringoire: You will not! I will get you free::Esmeralda: You will look out after my people when I am gone