Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty
(born February 20, 1988)
known by her stage name Rihanna (/riˈɑːnə/ ree-ah-nə or /riˈænə/ ree-an-ə, from the Welsh name Rhiannon[4]), is a Barbadian recording artist, actress, and fashion designer. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, she met record producer Evan Rogers in late 2003, and the next year moved to the US to pursue a music career. She began recording demo tapes under Rogers' guidance, and signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for its president, rapper Jay-Z.
Rihanna's debut album, Music of the Sun (2005), featuring the Billboard Hot 100 top three hit single "Pon de Replay", peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart. Her second album, A Girl Like Me (2006), peaked at number five in the US and generated the worldwide hits "SOS" and "Unfaithful". Her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), spawned the international hits "Umbrella", "Don't Stop the Music", "Take a Bow", and "Disturbia". The album was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Umbrella". Her fourth album, Rated R (2009), produced the top ten singles "Russian Roulette" and "Hard", plus the number one hit "Rude Boy". Her fifth, Loud (2010), spawned the number one hits "Only Girl (In the World)", "What's My Name?", and "S&M". Her sixth album, Talk That Talk (2011), included the worldwide chart topper "We Found Love" and the top five single "Where Have You Been". Rihanna's seventh album, Unapologetic (2012), became her first number one album on the Billboard 200 and generated her twelfth Hot 100 number one song "Diamonds" and the top five hit "Stay". In addition to her solo work, Rihanna has collaborated with numerous other artists, including being featured on the worldwide hits "Live Your Life" (with T.I.) and "Love the Way You Lie" (with Eminem).
Rihanna's work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including six Grammy Awards,[A] five American Music Awards, 22 Billboard Music Awards, and two BRIT Awards. She has sold more than 100 million records worldwide,[5] which makes her one of the best-selling artists of all time.[6] She has achieved twelve number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the youngest solo artist to achieve the feat. Billboard named her the Digital Songs Artist of the 2000s decade, ranking her seventeenth overall.[7][8] In 2012, Forbes named her as the fourth most powerful celebrity of 2012, with earnings of $53 million between May 2011 and May 2012. The same year, TIME named Rihanna one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Pianist Chopin
1 March or 22 February 1810 – 17 October 1849), born (and known in Poland as) Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin,
was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is widely considered one of the greatest Romantic piano composers.
Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw. A renowned child prodigy, he grew up in Warsaw and completed his music education there; he composed many of his mature works in Warsaw before leaving Poland in 1830 at age 20, shortly before the November 1830 Uprising.
Following the Russian suppression of the Uprising, he settled in Paris as part of Poland's Great Emigration.
During the remaining 19 years of his life, Chopin gave only some 30 public performances, preferring the more intimate atmosphere of the salon; he supported himself by selling his compositions and teaching piano. After some romantic dalliances with Polish women, including an abortive engagement, from 1837 to 1847 he carried on a relationship with the French writer Amandine Dupin, aka George Sand. For most of his life Chopin suffered from poor health; he died in Paris in 1849 at age 39.
Most of Chopin's works are for solo piano, though he also wrote two piano concertos, a few chamber pieces and some songs to Polish lyrics. His piano works are often technically demanding, emphasizing nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu, scherzo and prélude.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE...
(born 10 January 1945) is a British singer-songwriter and one of the best selling artists of all time, having sold over 100 million records worldwide.
In the UK, he has had six consecutive number one albums, and his tally of 62 hit singles include 31 that reached the top 10, six of which gained the number one position. He has had 16 top ten singles in the U.S, with four of these reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with The Jeff Beck Group and then Faces. He launched his solo career in 1969 with his debut album An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (US: The Rod Stewart Album), and his early albums were a fusion of rock, folk music, soul music and R&B. His aggressive blues work with The Jeff Beck Group and Faces influenced heavy metal genres.
From the late 1970s through the 1990s, Stewart's music often took on a New Wave or soft rock/MOR quality, and in the early 2000s he released a series of successful albums interpreting the Great American Songbook. Stewart's albums and singles sales total has been estimated by various sources to be between 100 million and 200 million copies.
In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked him the 17th most successful artist on the "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists".
A Grammy and Brit Award recipient, he was voted at No. 33 in Q Magazine's list of the top 100 Greatest Singers of all time,
and No. 59 on Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Singers of all time.
As a solo artist, Stewart was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and was inducted a second time into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of The Faces, in 2012.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler
born Steven Victor Tallarico; March 26, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin" due to his high screams and his wide vocal range. He is also known for his on-stage acrobatics. During his high-energy performances, he usually dresses in bright, colorful outfits with his trademark scarves hanging from his microphone stand. In the 1970s, Tyler rose to prominence as the frontman of Aerosmith, which released such milestone hard rock albums as Toys in the Attic and Rocks.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tyler had a heavy drug and alcohol addiction, and the band's popularity waned.
He completed drug rehabilitation in 1986 and subsequently maintained sobriety for over 20 years but had a relapse with prescription painkillers in the late 2000s, for which he successfully received treatment in 2009.
After Aerosmith launched a remarkable comeback in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the albums Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip, Tyler became a household name and has remained a relevant rock icon. As a result, he has since embarked on several solo endeavors including guest appearances on other artists' music, film and TV roles (including as a judge on American Idol), authoring a bestselling book, and solo work (including a Top 40 hit single in 2011).
However, he has continued to record music and perform with Aerosmith, after more than 43 years in the band. The band's latest album, Music from Another Dimension!, was released on November 6, 2012.
Tyler is included among Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers.
He was also ranked 3rd on Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. In 2001 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Aerosmith. In 2013, Tyler and his songwriting partner Joe Perry will be recipients of the ASCAP Founders Award and will also be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date.
In his five-decade career John has sold more than 250 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time.[1] His single "Candle in the Wind 1997" has sold over 33 million copies worldwide, and is the best selling single in the history of the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100.[2][3] He has more than 50 Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 56 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, four No. 2 hits, and nine No. 1 hits. He has received six Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.[4]
John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.[5] Having been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, John received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998.[6] John has performed at a number of royal events, such as the funeral of Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in 1997, the Party at the Palace in 2002 and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace in 2012.[7][8]
He has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s.[9] In 1992, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation and a year later began hosting the annual Academy Award Party, which has since become one of the highest-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry. Since its inception, the foundation has raised over $200 million.[10]
John entered into a civil partnership with David Furnish on 21 December 2005 and continues to be a champion for LGBT social movements. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked him as the most successful male solo artist on "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists" (third overall, behind only The Beatles and Madonna).[11]
Monday, July 1, 2013
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand (born Barbara Joan Streisand, /ˈstraɪsænd/; April 24, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter, author, actress, writer, film producer, and director. She has won two Academy Awards,[1] eight Grammy Awards,[2] five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy,[3] a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Kennedy Center Honors award,[4] a Peabody Award,[4] and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.
She is one of the most commercially and critically successful entertainers in modern entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped in the United States and 145 million records sold worldwide.[5] She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Album Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre.[6]
After beginning a successful recording career in the 1960s, by the end of the decade, Streisand ventured into film starring in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly!, the former for which she won the Academy Awardand Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.[7] Other notable films include The Owl and the Pussycat, The Way We Were and A Star Is Born for which she received her second Academy Award for composing the lyrics to the picture’s main song, Evergreen.[8] By the 1980s, Streisand established herself as one of the film industry’s most notable figures by becoming the first woman to direct, produce, script and star in her own picture.[9]
According to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most top-ten albums of any female recording artist – a total of 32 since 1963.[10] Streisand has the widest span (48 years) between first and latest top-ten albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became one of the rare artists to achieve number-one albums in five consecutive decades.[11] According to the RIAA, she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States.[2]
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