Hoy

Hoy (from Norse Háey meaning high island) is an island in Orkney, Scotland. With an area of 143 square kilometres (55 sq mi) it is the second largest in the archipelago after the Mainland. It is connected by a causeway called The Ayre to South Walls. Unusually, the two islands are treated as one entity by the UK census.

Description

The dramatic coastline of Hoy greets visitors travelling to Orkney by ferry from the Scottish mainland. It has extremes of many kinds: some of the highest sea cliffs in the UK at St John's Head, which reach 350 metres (1,150 ft); the impressive and famous sea stack, the Old Man of Hoy; some of the most northerly surviving natural woodland in the British Isles and the remote possibility that the Orkney charr (Salvelinus inframundus), last described in 1908, survive in Heldale Water. The most northerly Martello Towers were built to defend the area during the Napoleonic War, but were never used in combat.

The highest point in Orkney, Ward Hill, is on Hoy.

The main naval base for the British fleet Scapa Flow in both the First and Second World Wars was situated at Lyness in the south-east of the island. Some rather incongruous Art Deco structures nearby date from this period.

Laura Pausini

Laura Pausini, omri (Italian: [ˈlaura pauˈziːni]; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian pop singer-songwriter and record producer. As a child, she was encouraged by her father to join him during his performances in local piano bars. After competing in local singing contests, Pausini signed her first recording contract. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with her debut single "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an international hit, topping the charts in Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. Her eponymous debut album was released in Italy on 23 April 1993 and later became an international success, selling two million copies worldwide.

Its follow-up, Laura, was released in 1994 and confirmed her international success, selling three million copies worldwide. During the same year, she released her first Spanish-language album, Laura Pausini, composed of ten adapted songs originally included in her previous works. The album was certified diamond by the Association of Phonographic and Videographic of Spain, making her the first non-Spanish artist to sell more than one million copies in Spain.