The Miami metropolitan area is a metropolitan area including Miami, Florida and nearby communities. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget designates the area the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) used for statistical purposes by the United States Census Bureau and other entities. The OMB defines the MSA as comprising Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties – Florida's three most populous counties – with principal cities including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, West Palm Beach, and Boca Raton.

With 5,564,635 inhabitants as of the 2010 Census, the Miami metropolitan area is the most populous in Florida and in the Southeastern United States and the eighth-most populous in the United States. It is part of the South Florida region and is partially synonymous with the Gold Coast.

Because the population of South Florida is largely confined to a strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades, the Miami urbanized area (that is, the area of contiguous urban development) is about 110 miles (180 km) long (north to south), but never more than 20 miles (32 km) wide, and in some areas only 5 miles (8.0 km) wide (east to west). The MSA is longer than any other urbanized area in the United States except for the New York metropolitan area. It was the eighth most densely populated urbanized area in the United States in the 2000 census.

Miami ( /maɪˈæmi/ or /maɪˈæmə/) is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625. The 42nd largest city proper in the United States, with a population of 408,568, it is the principal, central, and most populous city of the South Florida metropolitan area, and the most populous metropolis in the Southeastern United States. According to the US Census Bureau, Miami's metro area is the seventh most populous and fifth-largest urban area in the United States, with a population of around 5.5 million.

Miami is a major center and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, media, entertainment, the arts, and international trade. In 2010, Miami was classified as a Alpha- World City in the World Cities Study Group’s inventory. In 2010, Miami ranked seventh in the United States in terms of finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, education, and other sectors. It ranked thirty-third among global cities. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Miami "America's Cleanest City", for its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets and city-wide recycling programs. According to a 2009 UBS study of 73 world cities, Miami was ranked as the richest city in the United States, and the world's fifth-richest city in terms of purchasing power. Miami is nicknamed the "Capital of Latin America", is the 2nd largest U.S. city (after El Paso) with a Spanish-speaking majority, and the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality.

Swing music, or simply swing, is a form of American music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935. Swing uses a strong rhythm section of double bass and drums as the anchor for a lead section of brass instruments such as trumpets and trombones, woodwinds including saxophones and clarinets, and sometimes stringed instruments such as violin and guitar, medium to fast tempos, and a "lilting" swing time rhythm.The name swing came from the phrase ‘swing feel’ where the emphasis is on the off–beat or weaker pulse in the music ( unlike classic music). Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman and Count Basie was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1945, a period known as the Swing Era.

The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong rhythmic "groove" or drive.

The styles of jazz that were popular from the late teens through the late 1920s were usually played with rhythms with a two beat feel, and often attempted to reproduce the style of contrapuntal improvisation developed by the first generation of jazz musicians in New Orleans. In the late 1920s, however, larger ensembles using written arrangements became the norm, and a subtle stylistic shift took place in the rhythm, which developed a four beat feel with a smoothly syncopated style of playing the melody, while the rhythm section supported it with a steady four to the bar.

Shari Arison (born 1957) is an Israeli-American businesswoman and Israel's wealthiest woman. She is the owner of several businesses, the largest among them Bank Hapoalim.

According to Forbes, she is the richest woman in the Middle East, and the only woman to be ranked in the region's top-20 richest people in 2007. As of 2011 Forbes estimated her fortune at US$5.1 billion, making her the 200th-wealthiest person in the world, and the third-wealthiest in Israel.

Arison was born in New York, and is the daughter of the businessman Ted Arison and Mina Arison Sapir. She has an older brother, Micky. In 1966 her parents divorced, and she moved to reside with her mother in Israel. At the age of 12 she returned to the US to live with her father, and five years later she returned to Israel in order to enlist in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Arison is the mother of four children. She has been married three times, most recently to businessman Ofer Glazer. In 1999 Arison's father died, and bequeathed her 35 percent of his possessions. In 2003, she caused a big wave of protest after 900 workers were fired from Bank Hapoalim.

David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge), is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record. As a guitarist, The Edge has crafted a minimalistic and textural style of playing. His use of a rhythmic delay effect yields a distinctive ambient, chiming sound that has become a signature of U2's music.

The Edge was born in England to a Welsh family, but was raised in Ireland after moving there as an infant. In 1976, at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, he formed U2 with his fellow students and his older brother Dik. Inspired by the ethos of punk rock and its basic arrangements, the group began to write its own material. They eventually became one of the most popular acts in popular music, with successful albums such as 1987's The Joshua Tree and 1991's Achtung Baby. Over the years, The Edge has experimented with various guitar effects and introduced influences from several genres of music into his own style, including American roots music, industrial music, and alternative rock. With U2, The Edge has also played keyboards, co-produced their 1993 record Zooropa, and occasionally contributed lyrics. The Edge met his second and current wife, Morleigh Steinberg, through her collaborations with the band.