2000

2000 (MM) was a century leap year starting on Saturday (dominical letter BA) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2000th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 1000th and last year of the 2nd millennium, the 100th and last year of the 20th century, and the 1st year of the 2000s decade.

2000 was designated as:

Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium due to a tendency of grouping the years according to decimal values, as if year zero were counted. According to the Gregorian Calendar, these distinctions fall to the year 2001 because the 1st century was retroactively said to start with year AD 1. Since the calendar does not have year zero, its first millennium spanned from years 1 to 1000 inclusively and its second millennium from years 1001 to 2000 (See more at Millennium).

The year 2000 is sometimes abbreviated as "Y2K" (the "Y" stands for "year", and the "K" stands for "kilo" which means "thousand"). The year 2000 was the subject of Y2K concerns, which are fears that computers would not shift from 1999 to 2000 correctly. However, by the end of 1999, many companies had already converted to new, or upgraded, existing software. Some even obtained Y2K certification. As a result of massive effort, relatively few problems occurred.

Melly Goeslaw

Mellyana Goeslaw Hoed ([məliˈana ˈɡʊslau̯ ˈhʊt̚]; born 7 January 1974), better known by her stage name "Melly Goeslaw", is an Indonesian singer and songwriter. She began singing while in the fifth grade, then began writing songs and took work as a backing vocalist for Elfa Secioria in high school. This led to her family and her moving to Jakarta to further her career. While providing backing vocals for a promotional tour by Katon Bagaskara, she met Anto Hoed and Andi Ayunir. After marrying Hoed, the three formed the band Potret in 1993. Their 1995 debut album was well received, bringing Goeslaw and her bandmates to fame. After releasing several albums with Potret, Goeslaw attempted to begin a solo career, releasing her self-titled debut album Melly in 1999. Although Melly sold well, she became more popular as a solo artist after providing the soundtrack for the 2002 hit film Ada Apa dengan Cinta? together with her husband. Her later releases include solo albums and soundtracks. In 2005, she released a collection of short stories to celebrate her tenth year anniversary as a popular musician; four years later, she directed a concert to celebrate the bicentenary of Bandung city. As of 2011, she has written over 500 songs.

Taarak Mehta

Taarak Mehta is an Indian columnist, humorist, writer and playwright who is best known for the column Duniya Na Undha Chasma in the Gujarati language. He has translated and adapted several comedies into Gujarati, and has been well-known figure in the Gujarati theatre.

The humorous weekly column first appeared in Chitralekha in March 1971 and ever since has been looking at contemporary issues from a different perspective. He has published 80 books, over the years, three books are based on the columns he wrote in Gujarati newspaper, Divya Bhaskar while rest were compiled from the stories in Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah.

In 2008 SAB TV, a popular entertainment channel in India, started a show Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah that is based on his column, and soon it became the flagship show of the channel.

Personal life

Taarak Mehta comes from a Jain family. He lives in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where he moved in 2000, with his second wife, Indu, of over 30 years. His first wife, Ila who later married Manohar Doshi, (died 2006), also stayed in the same apartment building. He has daughter from his first marriage, Ishani, who stays in US, and has two children, Kushaan and Shailee.

Gabry Ponte

Gabriele "Gabry" Ponte (born Turin, 20 April 1973) is an Italian DJ best known for his membership in the Italian dance group Eiffel 65. With Eiffel 65's rise to fame in the late 1990s, his celebrity (or semi-celebrity) status was established, and he later went on to produce the Italian hits "Geordie" (a cover of Fabrizio de André's song by the same name) sung by Italian vocalist Stefania Piovesan as well as hits "Time to Rock" and "Got to Get" and then "La Danza delle Streghe" (literally "The Dance of the Witches"). Also to his credit are a number of remixes of popular songs such as Gianni Togni's Giulia. In 2005, Ponte announced he would be separating from Eiffel 65 to pursue solo work. In 2006 he founded and still manages Danceandlove, nowadays one of the most important Italian dance independent labels. More recently he produced the band Tacabro, their first single Tacatà being released in 2012. In 2012 Gabry Ponte released his single "Beat on My Drum", featuring Pitbull and Sophia del Carmen which peaked at #11 on the US Hot Dance Club Songs. In 2014 his single "Buonanotte Giorno" became a summer hit in Italy as it hit #1 on iTunes. In the same year he entered the Top 100 DJs list from DJ Mag at #61.

Ari Lasso

Ari Bernardus Lasso (born 17 January 1973 in Madiun, East Java), better known as Ari Lasso is an Indonesian musician and former lead vocalist of Dewa 19.

Biography

Lasso was born in Madiun, East Java on 17 January 1973 to Bartholomeus B. Lasso and Sri Noerhida. His mother told him that he could become a famous singer, saying that "[his] life should be beautiful" because of his voice. While attending high school at SMA Negeri 2 Surabaya, he established Outsider Band along with the drummer Wawan Juniarso, from Dewa 19, and guitarist Piyu of Padi. After graduating from high school, he attended Airlangga University and earned a degree in economics.

Lasso eventually became a member of Dewa 19 together with Wawan Juniarson, Andra Junaidi, Ahmad Dhani, and Erwin Prasetya. With Dewa 19, he released the album Kangen, which was chosen as the best album of the year by BASF in 1993.

Beginning after Dewa 19's third album, Lasso used drugs heavily; his drug addiction led to him being fired by the band in 2001 and going bankrupt. In order to overcome his addiction, he tried going to rehab and alternative medicine; he was also hospitalized and put under isolation at home. All of these efforts were to no avail. After promising his dying mother that he would beat his addiction, he became more adamant in attempting to recover, eventually succeeding. He also quit his 20-year habit of smoking in 2010, after his son began taking and destroying his cigarettes.