Gio Washington

Governor Washington, Jr., known by his stage name Gio Washington (formerly Governor), is an American R&B and soul recording artist from Charles City, Virginia. He is perhaps best known as a singer-songwriter, who was once signed to T.I.'s Grand Hustle imprint, under the aegis of Atlantic Records. In 2010, he signed to the newly formed G-Note Records, a subsidiary label of 50 Cent's G-Unit Records.

Life and career

1983–2004: Early life and career beginnings

Governor Washington Jr. was born in Charles City, Virginia. His father was a preacher. After declining an offer to attend the Berklee College of Music, he formed the Jodeci-style R&B group, Case Closed, where he performed under the moniker, Country Boy. After moving to New York City, then back to Virginia, Washington left the group and returned to New York. When the group disbanded, he tried to make it on its own. Warlock Records eventually signed Washington and released his debut album Another State Of Mind, in 2000.

At that time he met the influential music executives and production team, Trackmasters, while he changed his style from R&B to hip-hop. 50 Cent was signed to the Trackmasters at that time as well, and Washington and 50 Cent recorded about six songs for a prospective album called Best of Both Worlds, which was never released. After the split-up with Trackmasters in 2002, Washington met Wyclef Jean, who helped him sign a deal with Atlantic Records. He even made a dozen songs with Dr. Dre, for his debut album on Atlantic, but frictions between Dre's Aftermath and Atlantic, made those songs never see the light of the day.

Mehdi Hassan

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Mehdi Hassan Khan (Urdu: মিঃ মাহাদি ‎‎; 18 July 1927 – 13 June 2012) was a Pakistani ghazal singer and a film playback singer for Lollywood. One of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of ghazal singing, he is famously known as the "King of Ghazal" or the "Shahanshah-e-Ghazal". Known for his "haunting" baritone voice, Mehdi Hassan is credited with bringing ghazal singing to a worldwide audience. Born to a musical family, he influenced generations of singers from diverse genres, from Jagjit Singh to Sonu Nigam. He earned numerous awards and accolades in his career and remained a leading singer of film industry along with the other contemporary playback singer Ahmed Rushdi.

Early life

Mehdi Hassan was born on 18 July 1927 in a village called Luna, Rajasthan in Jhunjhunu district in India into a family of traditional musicians. He claims to be the 16th generation of hereditary musicians hailing from the Kalawant clan of musicians. Mehdi Hassan had his musical grooming from his father Ustad Azeem Khan and uncle Ustad Ismail Khan who were both traditional Dhrupad singers. Hassan started to perform at a young age and the first concert of dhrupad and kheyal with his elder brother is reported to have been held in Fazilka Bungla, near present DC House (1935) of Undivided Punjab. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, 20-year-old Hassan and his family migrated to Pakistan and suffered severe financial hardships.

Lesley Gore

Lesley Sue Goldstein (May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015), better known as Lesley Gore, was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. At the age of 16, in 1963, she recorded the pop hit "It's My Party", and followed it up with other hits including "Judy's Turn to Cry", "You Don't Own Me", and "California Nights".

Gore also worked as an actress and composed songs with her brother Michael Gore for the 1980 film Fame, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. She hosted an LGBT-oriented public television show, In the Life, on American TV in the 2000s, and was active until 2014.

Early life

Gore was born Lesley Sue Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York City into a middle-class Jewish family, the daughter of Leo and Ronny Gore. Her father was the owner of Peter Pan, a children's swimwear and underwear manufacturer, and later became a leading brand licensing agent in the apparel industry. She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey and was a junior at the Dwight School for Girls in nearby Englewood when "It's My Party" became a number one hit. The song was eventually nominated for a Grammy Award for rock and roll recording. It sold over one million copies and was certified as a gold record.

Bruce Springsteen

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Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and humanitarian. He is best known for his work with his E Street Band. Nicknamed "The Boss," Springsteen is widely known for his brand of poetic lyrics, Americana, working class and sometimes political sentiments centered on his native New Jersey, his distinctive voice and his lengthy and energetic stage performances, with concerts from the 1970s to the present decade running over three hours in length.

Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born to Run (1975) and Born in the U.S.A. (1984), showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 64 million albums in the United States and more than 120 million records worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. He has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award as well as being inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.