John Winston Howard, OM, AC, SSI, (born 26 July 1939) was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies.

Howard was a member of the House of Representatives from 1974 to 2007, representing the Division of Bennelong, New South Wales. He served as Treasurer in the Fraser government of from 1977 to 1983. He was Leader of the Liberal Party and Coalition Opposition from 1985 to 1989, which included the 1987 federal election against Bob Hawke. He was re-elected as Leader of the Opposition in 1995.

Howard led the Liberal-National coalition to victory at the 1996 federal election, defeating Paul Keating's Labor government and ending a record 13 years of Coalition opposition. The Howard Government was re-elected at the 1998, 2001 and 2004 elections, presiding over a period of strong economic growth and prosperity. Major issues for the Howard Government included taxation, industrial relations, immigration, the Iraq war, and Aboriginal relations. Howard's coalition government was defeated at the 2007 election by the Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd. Howard also lost his own parliamentary seat at the election; he was the second Australian Prime Minister, after Stanley Bruce in 1929, to do so.

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl kamij sɛ̃sɑ̃s]; 9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a French late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony).

Saint-Saëns was born in Paris, France, on 9 October 1835. His father, a government clerk, died three months after his birth. He was raised by his mother, Clémence, with the assistance of her aunt, Charlotte Masson, who moved in. Masson introduced Saint-Saëns to the piano, and began giving him lessons on the instrument. At about this time, age two, Saint-Saëns was found to possess perfect pitch. His first composition, a little piece for the piano dated 22 March 1839, is now kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Saint-Saëns's precocity was not limited to music. He learned to read and write by age three, and had some mastery of Latin by the age of seven. His first public concert appearance occurred when he was five years old, when he accompanied a Beethoven violin sonata. He went on to begin in-depth study of the full score of Don Giovanni. In 1842, Saint-Saëns began piano lessons with Camille-Marie Stamaty, a pupil of Friedrich Kalkbrenner, who had his students play the piano while resting their forearms on a bar situated in front of the keyboard, so that all the pianist's power came from the hands and fingers but not the arms. At ten years of age, Saint-Saëns gave his debut public recital at the Salle Pleyel, with a performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-flat major (K. 450), and various pieces by Handel, Kalkbrenner, Hummel, and Bach. As an encore, Saint-Saëns offered to play any of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas from memory. Word of this incredible concert spread across Europe, and as far as the United States with an article in a Boston newspaper.

Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC (born 11 July 1916), known as Gough Whitlam ( /ˈɡɒf ˈwɪtləm/ GOFF WIT-ləm), served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam remains the only Prime Minister to have his commission terminated in that manner.

Whitlam entered Parliament in 1952, as an ALP member of the House of Representatives. In 1960 he was elected deputy leader of the ALP and in 1967, after party leader Arthur Calwell retired, he assumed the leadership and became Leader of the Opposition. After narrowly losing the 1969 election, Whitlam led Labor to victory at the 1972 election after 23 years of Liberal-Country Coalition government.

In his time in office, Whitlam and his government implemented a large number of new programs and policy changes, including the elimination of military conscription and criminal execution, institution of universal health care and fee-free tertiary schooling (university), and the implementation of legal aid programs. He won the 1974 election with a reduced majority. Subsequently, the Opposition, which controlled the Senate, was emboldened by government scandals and a flagging economy to challenge Whitlam. In late 1975, there was a weeks-long deadlock over the passage of appropriation bills, which was resolved by Kerr's dismissal of Whitlam and commissioning of Opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister. Labor lost the subsequent 1975 election in a landslide.

Daryl Hall (born October 11, 1946) is an American rock, R&B and soul singer, keyboardist, guitarist, songwriter and producer, best known as the co-founder and lead vocalist of Hall & Oates (with co-founder/guitarist/songwriter John Oates). Hall scored several Billboard chart hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, and is regarded as one of the best soul singers of his generation. Guitarist Robert Fripp, who collaborated with him in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has written, "Daryl's pipes were a wonder. I have never worked with a more able singer." Since late 2007, he has hosted the web television series, Live From Daryl's House. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004.

Daryl Franklin Hohl was born in Pottstown, a Pennsylvania borough 40 miles from Philadelphia. He started a recording career during and after attending Owen J. Roberts High School, from which he graduated in 1965 and entered Philadelphia's Temple University, majoring in music, while working with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff as both an artist and session musician. Pursuing his goals in the big city, Hall quickly formed creative affiliations with such artists as Smokey Robinson, the Temptations and many other top soul singers of the 1960s.

John William Oates (born April 7, 1949) is an American rock, R&B and soul guitarist, musician, songwriter and producer best known as half of the rock and soul duo Hall & Oates (with co-founder/lead vocalist/songwriter/occasional instrumentalist Daryl Hall).

Though he was a primarily a guitarist he also co-wrote several songs including: "Sara Smile" (with Daryl Hall - a song that refers to Hall's then-girlfriend, Sara Allen), "You Make My Dreams" (with Sara Allen & Daryl Hall), "She's Gone" (with Daryl Hall), "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" (with Sara Allen & Daryl Hall), "Maneater" (with Sara Allen & Daryl Hall), "Out of Touch" (with Daryl Hall), and "Adult Education" (with Daryl Hall & Sara Allen). He also sang lead vocals and has written or co-written a few less popular singles that did not make it to the Billboard's Top 10 such as: "How Does It Feel to Be Back", "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" (which was a remake of the 1965 song performed by The Righteous Brothers and written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, on which he shared lead vocals with Hall) and "Possession Obsession" (with Sara Allen & Daryl Hall). In addition to his work with Hall, Oates co-wrote and sang back-up on the song "Electric Blue" by the band Icehouse which was a Billboard Top Ten hit.