Lara

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Mario

Mario (Japanese: マリオ, Hepburn: Mario, [ma.ɽi.o]) (English /ˈmɑːrioʊ/; Italian: [ˈmaːrjo]) is a fictional character in the Mario video game franchise, created by Nintendo's Japanese video game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as the company's mascot and the eponymous protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation. Depicted as a short, pudgy, Italian plumber who resides in the Mushroom Kingdom, his adventures generally center upon rescuing Princess Peach from the Koopa villain Bowser. His younger brother is Luigi.

The Mario franchise is the best-selling video game franchise of all time. Over 210 million units of the overall Mario series of games have been sold. Outside of the Super Mario platform series, other Mario genres include the Mario Kart racing series, sports games such as the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, role-playing games such as Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario, and educational games such as Mario Is Missing! and Mario's Time Machine. The franchise has branched into several mediums, including television shows, film, comics and licensed merchandise. Since 1995, Mario has been voiced by Charles Martinet.

Mario Frangoulis

Mario Frangoulis (Greek: Μάριος Φραγκούλης; born 1967) is a Greek tenor and is best known for his song, "Vincerò, Perderò". He sings in Italian, Spanish, English, French, and Greek; he is fluent in all five languages.

Biography

Early life

Frangoulis was born on 18 December 1967 in Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) of Greek parents. When he was four years old he was sent to Athens, Greece to live with his maternal aunt Loula and her husband George. The couple adored him so much and Mario considered them as his parents. At the age of eight Frangoulis began singing in various choirs and at the age of eleven he played the part of Issachar in a school production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to follow by many different roles in several other school theatrical performances, including the Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret and at sixteen played Tony in West Side Story.

Musical and theatrical studies

When Frangoulis was six years old, he started violin lessons, which he continued for twelve years, receiving a first prize when he was as young as fourteen. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1984, and although he did not further his violin studies, this particular musical training assisted Frangoulis with his operatic studies later in life.

Super Mario

Super Mario (Japanese: スーパーマリオ, Hepburn: Sūpā Mario) is a series of platform video games created by Nintendo featuring their mascot, Mario. Alternatively called the Super Mario Bros. (スーパーマリオブラザーズ, Sūpā Mario Burazāzu) series or simply the Mario (マリオ) series, it is the central series of the greater Mario franchise. At least one Super Mario game has been released for every major Nintendo video game console and handheld.

The Super Mario games follow Mario's adventures in the fictional Mushroom Kingdom, usually with Mario as the player character. He is usually joined by his brother, Luigi, and occasionally by other members of the Mario cast. As in platform video games, the player runs and jumps across platforms and atop enemies in themed levels. The games have simple plots, typically with Mario rescuing the kidnapped Princess Peach from the primary antagonist, Bowser. The first title in the series, Super Mario Bros., released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, established gameplay concepts and elements prevalent in nearly every Super Mario game since. These include a multitude of power-ups and items that give Mario special magic powers such as fireball-throwing and size-changing into giant and miniature sizes.

Lara Fabian

Lara Crokaert (born January 9, 1970), better known as Lara Fabian, is a Belgian–Canadian singer. She has sold over 32 million records worldwide and is the best-selling Belgian female artist of all time.

She was born in Brussels (Etterbeek) to a Belgian father and a Sicilian mother. Since 1996 she has also held a Canadian passport alongside her original Belgian passport.

Early life

Fabian is the only child of Pierre Crokaert (who is Flemish) and Maria Luisa Serio (born in Sicily). She spent her first five years in her mother's hometown of Catania in Sicily. After that she moved to Ruisbroek near Brussels, Belgium. Italian was her first language.

She began singing, dancing and taking piano lessons at a young age, and began formal music lessons at age eight. She began writing and performing her own songs during her ten years of formal music study. Fabian's songs were influenced by her classical vocal training and by contemporary artists such as Barbra Streisand and Queen.

She was named Lara after the main character of the novel Doctor Zhivago. Her last name is taken from an uncle named Fabiano.