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Maon Kurosaki (Japanese: 黒崎 真音, Hepburn: Kurosaki Maon, January 13, 1988 – February 16, 2023) was a Japanese singer and songwriter signed to NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan. After being discovered while working as a performer in Akihabara, Tokyo, she made her major debut in 2010, performing ending themes to the anime television series Highschool of the Dead. She released her debut album H.O.T.D. in September 2010, which features the ending themes from Highschool of the Dead. Her first two singles were used as ending themes to the anime television series A Certain Magical Index II.
Kurosaki's music was influenced by her love of anime and lolita fashion. Her songs have been featured in various anime series such as Jormungand, Tokyo Ravens, and The Fruit of Grisaia. She collaborated with artists such as Mami Kawada, Kotoko, and Trustrick for her music releases. She performed twice at Anime Expo 2011 in Los Angeles, California, and was a regular performer at Japanese anime events such as LisAni, Animelo Summer Live, and Animax Musix. She also appeared at Anime Festival Asia, Bangkok Comic Con, and CharaExpo. From 2011 to 2016, she was singer of the synthpop band Altima, together with Motsu of the band Move. (Full article...)
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Known as the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. During his four-decade career, his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture. Jackson influenced artists across many music genres. Through stage and video performances, he popularized complicated street dance moves such as the moonwalk, which he named, as well as the robot.
The eighth child of the Jackson family, Jackson made his public debut in 1964 with his older brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5 (later known as the Jacksons). Jackson began his solo career in 1971 while at Motown Records. He became a solo star with his 1979 album Off the Wall. His music videos, including those for "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller" from his 1982 album Thriller, are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. He helped propel the success of MTV and continued to innovate with the videos for his subsequent albums: Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995), and Invincible (2001). Thriller became the best-selling album of all time, while Bad was the first album to produce five US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles. (Full article...)
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960, comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionized many aspects of the music industry and were often publicized as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.
Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles evolved from Lennon's previous group, the Quarrymen, and built their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over three years from 1960, initially with Stuart Sutcliffe playing bass. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin guided and developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with EMI Records and achieved their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four". Epstein, Martin or another member of the band's entourage was sometimes informally referred to as a "fifth Beatle". (Full article...)
David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie (/ˈboʊi/ BOH-ee), was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft had a significant impact on popular music.
Bowie developed an interest in music from an early age. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. He released a string of unsuccessful singles with local bands and a solo album before achieving his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart with "Space Oddity" (1969). After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of "Starman" and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering his first major US crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the album Young Americans. In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. In 1977, he again changed direction with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the Berlin Trilogy. "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. (Full article...)
Céline Marie Claudette Dion CC OQ (/seɪˌliːn diˈɒn/ say-LEEN dee-ON; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Referred to as the "Queen of Power Ballads", she is noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals. Her music has incorporated genres such as pop, rock, R&B, gospel, and classical music. Her recordings have been mainly in English and French, although she has also sung in Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, Japanese, and Chinese.
Born into a large family in Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion was discovered by her future manager and husband René Angélil, and emerged as a teen star in her home country with a series of French-language albums during the 1980s. She gained international recognition by winning the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, where she represented Switzerland with "Ne partez pas sans moi". Her debut English-language album, Unison (1990), established her as a viable pop artist primarily in North America and several English-speaking markets, while The Colour of My Love (1993) gave her global superstardom. Dion continued her success throughout the 1990s with several of the bestselling English-language albums in history, such as Falling into You (1996) and Let's Talk About Love (1997), which were certified diamond in the US with more than 30 million sales worldwide each. She also released a series of international number-one hits, including "The Power of Love", "Think Twice", "Because You Loved Me", "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", "I'm Your Angel", "That's the Way It Is", "I'm Alive" and her signature song "My Heart Will Go On", the theme for the 1997 film Titanic, which solidified her popularity. (Full article...)
Mariah Carey (/məˈraɪə/; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. An influential figure in popular music, she is known for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style, and signature use of the whistle register. Carey is also credited with influencing vocal styles, merging hip-hop with pop through her collaborations, popularizing remixes, and helping break down racial barriers for multiracial Americans in popular culture. Referred to as the "Songbird Supreme" by Guinness World Records, she was ranked as the fifth greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023, and has been dubbed the "Queen of Christmas" for the enduring popularity of her Christmas music, particularly the 1994 song "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which is the best-selling holiday song by a female artist.
Carey rose to fame in 1990 with her self-titled debut album under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993. She is the only artist to date to have their first five singles reach number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, from "Vision of Love" to "Emotions". Carey gained worldwide success with her albums Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995)―both of which rank among the best-selling albums and spawned singles such as "Dreamlover", "Hero", "Without You", "Fantasy", "Always Be My Baby" and "One Sweet Day". The lattermost of these topped the US Billboard Hot 100 decade-end chart (1990s). After separating from Mottola, Carey adopted a new urban image and began incorporating more hip-hop and R&B elements with the releases of Butterfly (1997) and Rainbow (1999). By the end of the 1990s, Billboard ranked Carey as the most successful artist of the decade in the United States. She left Columbia Records in 2001 after eleven consecutive years of US number-one singles and signed a record deal with Virgin Records. (Full article...)
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Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (/ˈstɛfəni ˌdʒɜːrməˈnɒtə/ ⓘ STEF-ən-ee JUR-mə-NOT-ə; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She is known for reinventing her image and showcasing versatility in entertainment. Gaga started performing as a teenager by singing at open mic nights and acting in school plays. She studied Collaborative Arts Project 21 before leaving to pursue a music career. After a contract cancellation by Def Jam Recordings, Gaga worked as a songwriter for Sony/ATV Music Publishing. In 2007, she signed with Interscope Records and KonLive Distribution. Her breakthrough came the following year with her debut studio album, The Fame, and its singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album was later reissued along with The Fame Monster (2009), which yielded the successful singles "Bad Romance", "Alejandro" and "Telephone".
Gaga's five succeeding albums all debuted atop the US Billboard 200. Her second full-length album, Born This Way (2011), explored electronic rock and techno-pop and sold more than one million copies in its first week. The title track became the fastest-selling song on the iTunes Store, with over one million downloads in less than a week. Following her EDM-influenced third album, Artpop (2013), and its lead single "Applause", she released the jazz album Cheek to Cheek (2014) with Tony Bennett, and the soft rock album Joanne (2016). She ventured into acting, winning awards for her leading roles in the miniseries American Horror Story: Hotel (2015–2016) and the musical film A Star Is Born (2018). Her contributions to the latter's soundtrack, which spawned the chart-topping single "Shallow", made her the first woman to win an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award and Grammy Award in one year. Gaga returned to dance-pop with her sixth studio album, Chromatica (2020), which yielded the number-one single "Rain on Me". In 2021, she released her second and final collaborative album with Bennett, Love for Sale, and also starred in the biopic House of Gucci. (Full article...)
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Madonna Louise Ciccone (/tʃɪˈkoʊni/; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Commonly known as the "Queen of Pop", she has been widely recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting and visual presentation. Madonna's works, which incorporate social, political, sexual, and religious themes, have generated both controversy and critical acclaim. A prominent cultural figure spanning both the 20th and 21st centuries, she remains one of the most "well-documented figures of the modern age", with a broad array of scholarly reviews, literature, and art works about her, as well as an academic mini subdiscipline devoted to her called Madonna studies.
Madonna moved to New York City in 1978 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing as a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist in the rock bands Breakfast Club and Emmy, she rose to solo stardom with her 1983 eponymous debut studio album. Madonna followed it with a series of successful albums, including all-time bestsellers Like a Virgin (1984), True Blue (1986), and The Immaculate Collection (1990), as well as Grammy Award winners Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). Throughout her career, she has amassed many chart-topping singles, including "Like a Virgin", "La Isla Bonita", "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Take a Bow", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up" and "4 Minutes". (Full article...)
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Known as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.
Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi; his family relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 13. His music career began there in 1954, at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on guitar and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. Within a year, RCA Victor would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular rock and roll; though his performative style and promotion of the then-marginalized sound of African Americans led to him being widely considered a threat to the moral well-being of white American youth. (Full article...)
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Gwen Renée Stefani (/stəˈfɑːni/ stə-FAH-nee; born October 3, 1969) is an American singer and songwriter. She is a co-founder, lead vocalist, and the primary songwriter of the band No Doubt, whose singles include "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs", and "Don't Speak", from their 1995 breakthrough studio album Tragic Kingdom, as well as "Hey Baby" and "It's My Life" from later albums.
During the band's hiatus, Stefani embarked on a solo pop career in 2004 by releasing her debut studio album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Inspired by pop music from the 1980s, the album was a critical and commercial success. It spawned six singles, including "What You Waiting For?", "Rich Girl", "Hollaback Girl", and "Cool". "Hollaback Girl" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart while also becoming the first US download to sell one million copies. In 2006, Stefani released her second studio album, The Sweet Escape. Among the singles were "Wind It Up" and "The Sweet Escape", the latter of which was number three on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart of 2007. Her third solo album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like (2016), was her first solo album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart. Her fourth solo album and first full-length Christmas album, You Make It Feel Like Christmas, was released in 2017 and charted 19 tracks on Billboard's Holiday Digital Song Sales component chart in the United States. Stefani has released several singles with husband Blake Shelton, including "Nobody but You" (2020), which reached number 18 in the US. (Full article...)
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Kylie Ann Minogue AO OBE (/mɪˈnoʊɡ/; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. Minogue is the highest-selling female recording artist from Australia, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinventing herself in music as well as fashion, and is referred to by the European press as the "Princess of Pop" and a style icon. Her accolades include two Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards and eighteen ARIA Music Awards. Time named her one of the most influential people in the world.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Minogue first achieved recognition starring as Charlene Robinson in the Australian soap opera Neighbours (1986–1988). She began her music career in the late 1980s, releasing four bubblegum and dance-pop-influenced studio albums under PWL. By the early 1990s, Minogue had amassed several top ten singles in Australia and the UK, including "The Loco-Motion", "I Should Be So Lucky", "Especially for You", "Hand on Your Heart" and "Better the Devil You Know". Taking more creative control over her music, she signed with Deconstruction Records in 1993 and released the albums Kylie Minogue (1994) and Impossible Princess (1997). (Full article...)
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John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter and musician. He gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. His work included music, writing, drawings and film. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.
Born in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager. In 1956, he formed the Quarrymen, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Sometimes called "the smart Beatle", Lennon initially was the group's de facto leader, a role he gradually seemed to cede to McCartney. Through his songwriting in the Beatles, he embraced myriad musical influences, initially writing and co-writing rock and pop-oriented hit songs in the band's early years, then later incorporating experimental elements into his compositions in the latter half of the Beatles' career as his songs became known for their increasing innovation. Lennon soon expanded his work into other media by participating in numerous films, including How I Won the War, and authoring In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, both collections of nonsense writings and line drawings. Starting with "All You Need Is Love", his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture of the 1960s. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, multimedia artist Yoko Ono, held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration Bed-ins for Peace and left the Beatles to embark on a solo career. (Full article...)
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Sir James Paul McCartney CH MBE (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One of the most successful composers and performers of all time, McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, versatile and wide tenor vocal range, and musical eclecticism, exploring genres ranging from pre–rock and roll pop to classical, ballads, and electronica. His songwriting partnership with Lennon is the most successful in modern music history.
Born in Liverpool, McCartney taught himself piano, guitar, and songwriting as a teenager, having been influenced by his father, a jazz player, and rock and roll performers such as Little Richard and Buddy Holly. He began his career when he joined Lennon's skiffle group, the Quarrymen, in 1957, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Sometimes called "the cute Beatle", McCartney later immersed himself in the London avant-garde scene and played a key role in incorporating experimental aesthetics into the Beatles' studio productions. Starting with the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, he gradually became the band's de facto leader, providing creative impetus for most of their music and film projects. Many of his Beatles songs, including "And I Love Her", "Yesterday", "Eleanor Rigby", and "Blackbird", rank among the most covered songs in history. Although primarily a bassist with the Beatles, he played a number of other instruments, including keyboards, guitars, and drums, on various songs. (Full article...)
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Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. She is noted for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreography became a catalyst in the growth of MTV, enabling her to rise to prominence while breaking gender and racial barriers in the process. Lyrical content which focused on social issues and lived experiences set her reputation as a role model for youth.
The tenth and youngest child of the Jackson family, she made her debut at the MGM Grand. She starred in the variety television series The Jacksons in 1976 and went on to appear in other television shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including Good Times, Diff'rent Strokes, and Fame. After signing a recording contract with A&M Records in 1982, she became a pop icon following the release of her third and fourth studio albums Control (1986) and Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989). Her collaborations with record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis incorporated elements of rhythm and blues, funk, disco, rap, and industrial beats, which led to crossover success in popular music. In 1991, Jackson signed the first of two record-breaking multimillion-dollar contracts with Virgin Records, establishing her as one of the highest-paid artists in the industry. Prior to her first studio project with Virgin, she appeared in her first of several lead film roles in Poetic Justice (1993). Her two studio albums which followed, Janet (1993) and The Velvet Rope (1997), saw her develop a public image as a sex symbol. These records, along with their promotional music videos and live performances in concert tours, branded Jackson as one of the world's most erotic performers, garnering both criticism and praise. By the end of the 1990s, she was named by Billboard magazine as the second most successful recording artist of the decade in the United States after Mariah Carey. The release of her seventh studio album All for You in 2001 coincided with a celebration of her impact on the recording industry as the subject of the inaugural MTV Icon special. (Full article...)
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Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Spears has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. She has earned numerous awards and accolades, including a Grammy Award, 15 Guinness world records, six MTV Video Music Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards (including the Millennium Award), the inaugural Radio Disney Icon Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her heavily choreographed videos earned her the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
After appearing in stage productions and television series, Spears signed with Jive Records in 1997 at age fifteen. Her first two studio albums, ...Baby One More Time (1999) and Oops!... I Did It Again (2000), are among the best-selling albums of all time and made Spears the best-selling teenage artist of all time. With first-week sales of over 1.3 million copies, Oops!... I Did It Again held the record for the fastest-selling album by a female artist in the United States for fifteen years. Spears adopted a more mature and provocative style for her albums Britney (2001) and In the Zone (2003), and starred in the 2002 film Crossroads. She was executive producer of her fifth studio album, Blackout (2007), often referred to as her best work. Following a series of highly publicized personal problems, promotion for the album was limited, and Spears was involuntarily placed in a conservatorship. (Full article...)
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George Harrison MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work. Although the majority of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group include "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something". Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt; subsequent influences were Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry.
By 1965, he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in Bob Dylan and the Byrds, and towards Indian classical music through his use of Indian instruments, such as the sitar, which he had become acquainted with on the set of the film Help! He played sitar on numerous Beatles songs, starting with "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Having initiated the band's embrace of Transcendental Meditation in 1967, he subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna movement. After the band's break-up in 1970, Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass, a critically acclaimed work that produced his most successful hit single, "My Sweet Lord", and introduced his signature sound as a solo artist, the slide guitar. He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, a precursor to later benefit concerts such as Live Aid. In his role as a music and film producer, Harrison produced acts signed to the Beatles' Apple record label before founding Dark Horse Records in 1974. He co-founded HandMade Films in 1978, initially to produce the Monty Python troupe's comedy film The Life of Brian (1979). (Full article...)
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Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎あゆみ, Hamasaki Ayumi, born October 2, 1978) is a Japanese singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, model, spokesperson, and entrepreneur. By 2002, Hamasaki had earned the nickname "Empress of J-pop" due to her popularity in Japan and throughout Asia, as well as being referred to as "the voice of the lost generation". Due to her success and relevance throughout her career, she is considered one of the top solo female artists of the Heisei era for her influence on the music industry and various fashion trends.
Born and raised in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Hamasaki moved to Tokyo at 14 in 1993 to pursue a career in singing and acting. In 1998, Hamasaki released her debut single "Poker Face" and debut major-label album A Song for ××. The album debuted at the top of the Oricon charts and remained there for five weeks, selling over a million copies. This rapid rise to fame is typically attributed to her insightful style of lyric-writing in contrast to her young age; this would continue to be a defining aspect of her work, listeners praising her poetic way of conveying relatable subjects. Her next ten albums shipped over a million copies in Japan, with her third, Duty, selling nearly three million. A Best, her first compilation album, further established her position as a crowning artist with more than four million copies sold in Japan. It was at this time that she represented more than 40% of her record label's income. (Full article...)
Sir Richard Starkey MBE (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, usually for one song on each album, including "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends". He also wrote and sang the Beatles songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of four others.
Starr was afflicted by life-threatening illnesses during childhood, with periods of prolonged hospitalisation. He briefly held a position with British Rail before securing an apprenticeship as a machinist at a Liverpool school equipment manufacturer. Soon afterwards, Starr became interested in the UK skiffle craze and developed a fervent admiration for the genre. In 1957, he co-founded his first band, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, which earned several prestigious local bookings before the fad succumbed to American rock and roll around early 1958. When the Beatles formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. After achieving moderate success in the UK and Hamburg, he quit the Hurricanes when he was asked to join the Beatles in August 1962, replacing Pete Best. (Full article...)
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Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (/dʒoʊˈhænsən/; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has been featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021. Johansson's films have grossed over $15.4 billion worldwide, making her the highest-grossing box office female star of all time. She has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, a Tony Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
Johansson first appeared on stage in an off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994) and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Her shift to adult roles came in 2003 with Lost in Translation, for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress. She continued to gain praise for playing a 17th-century servant in Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), a troubled teenager in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) and a seductress in Match Point (2005). The latter marked her first collaboration with Woody Allen, who later directed her in Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson's other works of this period include The Prestige (2006) and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009), both of which charted on the Billboard 200. (Full article...)
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Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is known for her influence on modern pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the "Queen of Camp" by Vogue and Rolling Stone. At 16, Perry released a gospel record titled Katy Hudson (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was commercially unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry" from her mother's maiden name. She recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records.
Perry rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock record containing her debut single "I Kissed a Girl" and follow-up single "Hot n Cold", which reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 respectively. The disco-influenced pop album Teenage Dream (2010) spawned five U.S. number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"— the only album by a female singer to do so. A reissue of the album titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (2012) subsequently produced the U.S. number one single "Part of Me". Her empowerment-themed album Prism (2013) had two U.S. number one singles, "Roar" and "Dark Horse". Both their respective music videos made Perry the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube. The electropop album Witness (2017) featured themes of feminism and a political subtext, while Smile (2020) was influenced by motherhood and her mental health journey. Afterwards, she embarked on her Las Vegas concert residency titled Play (2021–2023), receiving critical acclaim and commercial success. (Full article...)
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Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. A subject of widespread public interest with a vast fanbase, she has influenced the music industry, popular culture and politics through her songwriting, artistry, entrepreneurship, and advocacy.
Swift began professional songwriting at age 14. She signed with Big Machine Records in 2005 and achieved prominence as a country pop singer with the albums Taylor Swift (2006) and Fearless (2008). Their singles "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Love Story", and "You Belong with Me" were crossover successes on country and pop radio formats and brought Swift mainstream fame. She experimented with rock and electronic styles on her next albums, Speak Now (2010) and Red (2012), respectively; Red featured her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". Swift recalibrated her image from country to pop with 1989 (2014), a synth-pop album containing the chart-topping songs "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood". Media scrutiny inspired the hip-hop-influenced Reputation (2017) and its number-one single "Look What You Made Me Do". (Full article...)
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Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known professionally as Lorde (/lɔːrd/ LORD), is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. She is known for her unconventional style of pop music, and introspective songwriting.
Lorde expressed interest in performing at local venues in her early teens. She signed with Universal Music Group (UMG) in 2009 and collaborated with producer Joel Little in 2011 to start recording music. Their first effort, an extended play (EP) titled The Love Club, was self-released in 2012 for free download on SoundCloud before UMG's commercial release in 2013. The EP's international chart-topping single "Royals" helped raise Lorde to prominence. Her debut studio album Pure Heroine was released that same year to critical and commercial success. The following year, Lorde curated the soundtrack for the 2014 film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and recorded several tracks, including the single "Yellow Flicker Beat". (Full article...)
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Bernard Joseph Fanning (born 15 August 1969) is an Australian musician and singer-songwriter. He was the lead vocalist of Queensland alternative rock band Powderfinger from its formation in 1989.
Born and raised in Toowong, Brisbane, Fanning received piano lessons from his mother at an early age. At the age of 15, while he attended St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace, he began writing music. Upon graduating from Gregory Terrace, Fanning moved on to the University of Queensland, where he studied journalism briefly. He dropped out to pursue a music career, after meeting Ian Haug in an economics class. Fanning joined Haug, John Collins, and Steven Bishop, who had recently formed Powderfinger, and took the role of lead singer. After Bishop left and drummer Jon Coghill (guitarist Darren Middleton)joined, the band released five studio albums in fifteen years and achieved mainstream success in Australia. During Powderfinger's hiatus in 2005, Fanning began his solo music career with the studio album Tea & Sympathy. Powderfinger reunited in 2007 and released two more albums before they disbanded in late 2010. (Full article...)
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Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers (born October 1, 1989), known professionally as Brie Larson, is an American actress. Known for her supporting roles in comedies as a teenager, she has since expanded to leading roles in independent films and blockbusters. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019.
At age six, Larson was the youngest student admitted to a training program at the American Conservatory Theater, and she began her acting career in 1998 with a comedy sketch on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She appeared as a regular in the 2001 sitcom Raising Dad and briefly dabbled with a music career, releasing the album Finally Out of P.E. in 2005. She subsequently had supporting roles in the comedy films Hoot (2006), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and 21 Jump Street (2012), and appeared as a sardonic teenager in the television series United States of Tara (2009–2011). (Full article...)
Hajji Chrismansyah Rahadi ([xrisˈmanʃah raˈhadi]; born Christian Rahadi [xristiˈan raˈhadi]; 16 September 1949 – 30 March 2007), better known by his stage name Chrisye ([xəˈriʃə]), was an Indonesian progressive pop singer and songwriter. In 2011, Rolling Stone Indonesia declared him the third-greatest Indonesian musician of all time.
Born in Jakarta of mixed Chinese-Indonesian descent, Chrisye became interested in music at an early age. At high school he played bass guitar in a band he formed with his brother, Joris. In the late 1960s he joined Sabda Nada (later Gipsy), a band led by his neighbours, the Nasutions. In 1973, after a short hiatus, he rejoined the band to play in New York for a year. He briefly returned to Indonesia and then went back to New York with another band, the Pro's. After once again returning to Indonesia, he collaborated with Gipsy and Guruh Sukarnoputra to record the 1976 indie album Guruh Gipsy. (Full article...)
Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917 – July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical training to become an opera singer before following a career in popular music, and by 1955 had achieved more worldwide record sales than any other female artist. Her 1952 song "You Belong to Me" topped the charts in the United States and United Kingdom, becoming the second single to top the UK Singles Chart, and the first by a female artist to do so.
Born in remote oil-rich Coalinga, California, near Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley, Stafford made her first musical appearance at age 12. While still at high school, she joined her two older sisters to form a vocal trio named the Stafford Sisters, who found moderate success on radio and in film. In 1938, while the sisters were part of the cast of Twentieth Century Fox's production of Alexander's Ragtime Band, Stafford met the future members of the Pied Pipers and became the group's lead singer. Bandleader Tommy Dorsey hired them in 1939 to perform vocals with his orchestra. From 1940 to 1942, the group often performed with Dorsey's new male singer, Frank Sinatra. (Full article...)
Małgorzata Jamroży (Polish: [mawɡɔˈʐata jamˈrɔʐɨ]; born 30 June 1991), known professionally as Margaret, is a Polish singer and songwriter. Before her mainstream debut, she performed with underground bands, recorded soundtracks for television commercials and films, and produced a fashion blog. Through her blogging, she was discovered by a talent agent who helped her secure a record deal with the label Extensive Music in 2012. She rose to prominence the following year with the single "Thank You Very Much", which was a moderate chart success in some European territories.
Under her contract with Extensive Music, Margaret recorded two studio albums: Add the Blonde (2014) and Monkey Business (2017). Both reached the top 10 in the Polish charts, and spawned the singles "Wasted", "Start a Fire", "Heartbeat", "What You Do" and "Byle jak". She also collaborated with Matt Dusk on the jazz album Just the Two of Us (2015). After signing an international record deal with Warner Music to release her 2016 single "Cool Me Down", Margaret became particularly successful in Sweden. She participated in the country's music competition Melodifestivalen twice with the songs "In My Cabana" and "Tempo" in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Seeking more control over artistic creativity, she left her record label and management in 2019, and eschewed mainstream pop for urban music on the Polish-language albums Gaja Hornby (2019) and Maggie Vision (2021); the latter became her highest-charting album to date and featured the ZPAV-certified singles "Reksiu" and "Roadster". Margaret had a moderate summer hit with the 2021 song "Tak na oko", and was a member of the hip hop collective club2020 in 2023. She returned to pop with her sixth studio album, Siniaki i cekiny (2024), which yielded the chart-topping single "Tańcz głupia". (Full article...)
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Cher (/ʃɛər/; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. She is known for her distinctive contralto singing voice, for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment and for adopting a variety of styles and appearances. Cher rose to fame in 1965 as one half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher before releasing her first solo top-ten singles "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and "You Better Sit Down Kids". Throughout the 1970s, she scored the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady", becoming the female solo artist with the most number-one singles in US history at the time.
After her divorce from Sonny Bono in 1975, Cher released the successful disco album Take Me Home (1979). Her music career revival in the late 1980s saw the releases of rock-inflected albums Cher (1987), Heart of Stone (1989), and Love Hurts (1991), all of which yielded hit singles such as "I Found Someone", "If I Could Turn Back Time", and "Save Up All Your Tears". Cher reached a new commercial peak in 1998 with the dance-pop album Believe, which featured pioneering use of Auto-Tune to distort her vocals, known as the "Cher effect". The title track became the number-one song of 1999 in the US and the best-selling single of all time by a female artist in the UK. She continued to make music, with the albums Closer to the Truth (2013) and Dancing Queen (2018) both debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 and becoming her highest-charting solo albums in the US. (Full article...)
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Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (/biˈɒnseɪ/ ⓘ bee-ON-say; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter and businesswoman. Dubbed as "Queen Bey" and a prominent cultural figure of the 21st century, she has been recognized for her artistry and performances, with Rolling Stone naming her one of the greatest vocalists of all time.
As a child, Beyoncé started performing in various singing and dancing competitions. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as a member of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Their hiatus saw the release of Beyoncé's debut album, Dangerously in Love (2003). She then followed with the US number-one solo albums B'Day (2006), I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), and 4 (2011). After creating her own management company Parkwood Entertainment, Beyoncé achieved critical acclaim for the experimental visual albums Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016), which explored themes such as feminism and womanism. With her Black queer-inspired dance album Renaissance (2022) and country album Cowboy Carter (2024) from her trilogy project, she became the first female artist to have their first eight studio albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200. (Full article...)
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Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his stage performances, retro showmanship, and for performing in a wide range of musical styles, including pop, R&B, funk, soul, reggae, disco, and rock. Mars is accompanied by his band, the Hooligans, who play a variety of instruments, such as electric guitar, bass, piano, keyboards, drums, and horns, and also serve as backup singers and disco dancers. In 2021, he collaborated with Anderson .Paak, as the American musical superduo Silk Sonic.
Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mars moved to Los Angeles in 2003 to pursue a musical career. Following a brief contract with Motown Records, he first established his name in the music industry as a songwriter as a co-founder of the production team The Smeezingtons, responsible for various successful singles for Mars himself and other artists. He rose to fame as a solo artist in 2010 buoyed by the success of "Nothin' on You" by B.o.B and "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy, both of which featured his vocals. In the same year, Mars released his debut studio album Doo-Wops & Hooligans, which blended pop with reggae and R&B. It spawned the international number-one singles "Just the Way You Are", "Grenade", and "The Lazy Song". Drawing inspiration from disco, funk, rock, reggae and soul genres, his second studio album, Unorthodox Jukebox (2012), was his first number one on the Billboard 200. It amassed two Billboard Hot 100 number-one songs, "Locked Out of Heaven" and "When I Was Your Man". (Full article...)
Lydia Canaan is a Lebanese singer-songwriter, poet, humanitarian activist, and diplomat. She is noted for her four-octave vocal range, unique vocal stylings, songwriting, and for being the first Lebanese artist in music history to achieve global success. Widely regarded as the first "rock star" of the Middle East, she is cataloged in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Library and Archives.
Canaan first rose to fame in the mid-80s as an adolescent rock singer performing amid enemy attacks during the Lebanese Civil War, holding concerts in vicinities of Lebanon as they were being bombed. Society magazine writes, "in a small country that was ripped by war, there was this young girl making a difference". (Full article...)
Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj, is a Trinidadian-born rapper and singer based in the United States. Often referred to as the "Queen of Rap", she is known for her musical versatility, animated rap flow, and alter egos. She first gained recognition after releasing three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009.
Minaj's debut album, Pink Friday (2010), topped the US Billboard 200 chart; its single "Super Bass" reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and was later certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Its follow-up, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012), explored dance-pop and topped the Billboard 200, spawning the hit single "Starships". Her next album, The Pinkprint (2014), marked a return to her hip hop roots. Its single "Anaconda" peaked at number two on the Hot 100 and became the first music video by a solo female rapper to reach one billion views on YouTube. Her 2019 collaboration with Karol G, "Tusa", became the longest-running number-one single on the Argentina Hot 100 chart. She achieved her first two US number-one singles in 2020 with the collaborations "Say So (Remix)" with Doja Cat and "Trollz" with 6ix9ine. In 2022, she earned her first solo number-one on the Hot 100 with "Super Freaky Girl", the lead single from her fifth album, Pink Friday 2 (2023), which also debuted atop the Billboard 200. Minaj's other ventures has included voice roles in the animated films Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), supporting roles in the films The Other Woman (2014) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016). (Full article...)
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Francis Albert Sinatra (/sɪˈnɑːtrə/; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century. Sinatra is among the world's best-selling music artists, with an estimated 150 million record sales globally.
Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra began his musical career in the swing era and was greatly influenced by the easy-listening vocal style of Bing Crosby. He found success as a solo artist after signing with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the "bobby soxers". In 1946, Sinatra released his debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra. He then signed with Capitol Records and released several albums with arrangements by Nelson Riddle, notably In the Wee Small Hours (1955) and Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956). In 1960, Sinatra left Capitol Records to start his own record label, Reprise Records, releasing a string of successful albums. He collaborated with Count Basie on Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First (1962) and It Might as Well Be Swing (1964). In 1965, he recorded the retrospective album September of My Years and starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music. After releasing Sinatra at the Sands in early 1966, Sinatra recorded one of his most famous collaborations with Tom Jobim, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim. It was followed by 1968's Francis A. & Edward K. with Duke Ellington. Sinatra retired in 1971 following the release of "My Way", but came out of retirement two years later. He recorded several albums and released "New York, New York" in 1980. (Full article...)
Sir George Henry Martin CBE (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beatles' original albums. Martin's formal musical expertise and interest in novel recording practices facilitated the group's rudimentary musical education and desire for new musical sounds to record. Most of their orchestral and string arrangements were written by Martin, and he played piano or keyboards on a number of their records. Their collaborations resulted in popular, highly acclaimed records with innovative sounds, such as the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band—the first rock album to win a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
Martin's career spanned more than sixty years in music, film, television and live performance. Before working with the Beatles and other pop musicians, he produced comedy and novelty records in the 1950s and early 1960s as the head of EMI's Parlophone label, working with Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Bernard Cribbins, among others. His work with other Liverpool rock groups in the early mid-1960s helped popularize the Merseybeat sound. In 1965, he left EMI and formed his own production company, Associated Independent Recording. (Full article...)
Destiny's Child was an American musical girl group whose final line-up comprised Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. The group began their musical career as Girl's Tyme, formed in 1990 in Houston, Texas. After years of limited success, the original quartet comprising Knowles, Rowland, LaTavia Roberson, and LeToya Luckett were signed in 1997 to Columbia Records as Destiny's Child. The group was launched into mainstream recognition following the release of the song "No, No, No" and their best-selling second album, The Writing's on the Wall (1999), which contained the number-one singles "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Say My Name", alongside successful singles "Bug a Boo" and "Jumpin', Jumpin'". Despite critical and commercial success, the group was plagued by internal conflict and legal turmoil, as Roberson and Luckett attempted to split from the group's manager Mathew Knowles, citing favoritism of Knowles and Rowland.
In early 2000, both Roberson and Luckett were replaced with Williams and Farrah Franklin; however, Franklin quit after a few months, leaving the group as a trio. Their third album, Survivor (2001), whose themes the public interpreted as a channel to the group's experience, produced the worldwide hits "Independent Women", "Survivor" and "Bootylicious". In 2001, they announced a hiatus to pursue solo careers. The trio reunited two years later for the release of their fifth and final studio album, Destiny Fulfilled (2004), which spawned the international hits "Lose My Breath" and "Soldier". Since the group's official disbandment in 2006, Knowles, Rowland, and Williams have reunited several times, including at the 2013 Super Bowl halftime show and 2018 Coachella festival. (Full article...)
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Miley Ray Cyrus (/ˈmaɪli ˈsaɪrəs/ MY-lee SY-rəs; born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as a pop icon, she has been recognized for her evolving artistry, style, and hailed as the "Teen Queen" of the 2000s era. She is also cited as one of the few examples of a child star with a successful music career as an adult. As the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, she emerged as a teen idol at age 13 as the lead character in the Disney Channel television series Hannah Montana (2006–2011). As Hannah Montana, she achieved success on the Billboard charts with two number-one soundtracks and a US top-ten single.
Her solo career started with the US number-one pop rock albums Meet Miley Cyrus (2007) and Breakout (2008); featuring the top-ten singles "See You Again" and "7 Things". The EP The Time of Our Lives (2009) reached number two in the US while its lead single "Party in the U.S.A." became one of the best-selling singles of all time in the country and was later certified thirteen-times platinum by the RIAA. The ballad "The Climb", also reached number four in the US. Trying to recalibrate her image, she explored dance-pop in Can't Be Tamed (2010), which received mixed reviews; however, its title track reached the top-ten in the US. Cyrus later signed with RCA Records and took a new artistic direction with the hip-hop and R&B-influenced Bangerz (2013). Her fifth chart-topping album, it yielded the singles "We Can't Stop" and her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one "Wrecking Ball". She then dabbled in experimental styles on Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz (2015), embraced country pop on Younger Now (2017) and ventured into rock and synth-pop on Plastic Hearts (2020). After signing with Columbia Records in 2021, Cyrus released Endless Summer Vacation (2023). Its lead single "Flowers" set various records and marked her second US number-one. The song won two Grammy Awards including Record of the Year, and the album was nominated for Album of the Year. (Full article...)
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (Latin American Spanish pronunciation: [seˈlena kintaˈniʝa ˈpeɾes]; née Quintanilla; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known professionally as Selena, was an American singer. Referred to as the "Queen of Tejano Music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mexican-American entertainers of the late 20th century. In 2020, Billboard magazine put her in third place on their list of "Greatest Latino Artists of All Time", based on both Latin albums and Latin songs chart. Media outlets called her the "Tejano Madonna" for her clothing choices. She also ranks among the most influential Latin artists of all time and is credited for catapulting the Tejano genre into the mainstream market.
The youngest child of the Quintanilla family, she debuted on the music scene as a member of the band Selena y Los Dinos, which also included her elder siblings A.B. Quintanilla and Suzette Quintanilla. In the 1980s, she was often criticized and was refused bookings at venues across Texas for performing Tejano music—a male-dominated music genre. However, her popularity grew after she won the Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year in 1987, which she won nine consecutive times. She signed with EMI Latin in 1989 and released her self-titled debut album the same year, while her brother became her principal music producer and songwriter. (Full article...)
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (/ˈkoʊmoʊ/; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987.
"Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, reportedly sold over 100 million records worldwide and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show. His weekly television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. He recorded primarily vocal pop and was renowned for recordings in the intimate, easy-listening genre pioneered by multimedia star Bing Crosby. In the official RCA Records Billboard magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all." (Full article...)
Ashley Michelle Tisdale (born July 2, 1985) is an American actress and singer. During her childhood, she was featured in over 100 advertisements and had minor roles in television and theatre. She achieved mainstream success as Maddie Fitzpatrick in the Disney Channel teen sitcom The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005–2008). This success was heightened when she starred as Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical film series (2006–2008). The success of the films led to Tisdale's signing with Warner Bros. Records and subsequently releasing her debut studio album, Headstrong (2007), which was a commercial success, earning a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Tisdale played the voice role of Candace Flynn in the Disney Channel animated series Phineas & Ferb (2007–2015).
Tisdale's second studio album, Guilty Pleasure (2009), was released to less commercial success than its predecessor. Tisdale would part ways with Warner Bros. Records following the release of the album. During this time, she began appearing in more films and returned to television with shows such as Hellcats (2010). Tisdale's production company Blondie Girl Productions, first formed in 2008, signed a multi-year production deal with Relativity Media in 2010; Tisdale would produce shows such as Miss Advised (2012) as part of the deal. Tisdale starred in the High School Musical spin-off film Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure (2011), also releasing a soundtrack to promote the film. (Full article...)
Agnes Monica Muljoto (born 1 July 1986), known professionally as AGNEZ MO (stylized in all caps), is an Indonesian singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. As a bilingual singer who records in both Indonesian and English, she is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility throughout her career.
Prior to recording three children's albums and presenting several children's television programs, Mo began as a worship singer at a church in Jakarta. She released her first teen album entitled And the Story Goes in 2003, which catapulted her name in Indonesian music industry. Her success in Indonesia encouraged her
to target the international music scene. She has since collaborated with numerous American musicians such as Timbaland, Michael Bolton, Keith Martin, T.I., Chris Brown, French Montana, Johnny Sins, and Steve Aoki. (Full article...)
Carmen Jane "Cami" Bradley (born May 26, 1988) is an American singer-songwriter and keyboardist from Spokane, Washington. Bradley gained fame in 2013 as a contestant on season eight of America's Got Talent, during which she advanced to the finals by performing her arrangements of popular songs including "Believe". Bradley finished the season in sixth place.
Prior to her appearance on America's Got Talent, Bradley won a local singing competition in Spokane in 2006. She self-released two solo projects in 2009 and a third in 2013. Following her national exposure, Bradley and Alabama singer-songwriter Whitney Dean formed a collaboration called the Sweeplings. She formed a second collaboration in 2019, Carmen Jane, to pursue a more experimental sound. (Full article...)
ClariS is a Japanese pop music duo which formed in 2009 with singers Clara and Alice from Hokkaido, who were in junior high school at the time. The pair began singing covers and submitting them to Japanese video sharing website Niconico between 2009 and 2010. ClariS later signed to SME Records and released their debut single "Irony" in October 2010. Three more singles were released between 2011 and 2012, followed by their debut album Birthday (2012). Birthday was awarded a Gold Disc by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for having exceeded 100,000 copies shipped in a single year. Six more singles were released between 2012 and 2014, which were featured on their second album Second Story (2013) and third album Party Time (2014). Alice left the unit following Party Time's release, and Karen joined ClariS in late 2014. ClariS moved to the Sacra Music record label under Sony Music Entertainment Japan in 2017.
ClariS' music has been featured in anime series such as Oreimo, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Nisemonogatari, Nisekoi, and Eromanga Sensei. They have also performed at the Nippon Budokan, and at anime music events in Japan such as Animax Musix and Animelo Summer Live. In November 2017, they made their first overseas appearance at Anime Festival Asia in Singapore. (Full article...)
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Haim (/ˈhaɪɪm/ HY-im; meaning "life" in Hebrew, stylized HAIM) is an American rock band, based in Los Angeles, composed of three sisters, Este (bass guitar and vocals), Danielle (lead vocals, guitar, and drums), and Alana Haim (guitars, keyboards, and vocals). In addition to their primary instruments, each is proficient in several others.
The sisters grew up in a musical family, and began playing instruments from an early age in the cover band Rockinhaim, fronted by their parents, Moti and Donna. The two elder sisters, Este and Danielle, performed briefly with the pop group Valli Girls in 2005, releasing a few songs on soundtrack and compilation albums under that name. In 2007, they formed Haim with younger sister Alana, but did not seriously consider it a professional career for some years. After Danielle became a successful touring guitarist, first with Jenny Lewis and later with Julian Casablancas, Haim reformed as a full-time operation in 2012. (Full article...)
Aluna Sagita Gutawa (born 11 August 1993), better known as Gita Gutawa, is an Indonesian singer. She is also the daughter of composer Erwin Gutawa.
Although she originally studied piano, Gutawa later switched to vocals. She was discovered in 2004 while practising her vocals, then booked to sing a duet with ADA Band. After Heaven of Love (2005), featuring the duet, sold 800,000 copies, Gutawa was approached by Sony Music Indonesia with an offer to record a solo album. The success of that album, the self-titled Gita Gutawa, led to numerous acting and marketing job offers. Since her debut, she has recorded two more albums, the well-received Harmoni Cinta in 2009 and the Islamic-themed Balada Shalawat in 2010. As an actress, she has starred in two Indonesian soap operas, Ajari Aku Cinta and Ajari Lagi Aku Cinta. She voiced a character for the animated Meraih Mimpi, and made her feature film debut in 2010's Love in Perth. (Full article...)
Konomi Suzuki (鈴木 このみ, Suzuki Konomi) is a Japanese singer from Osaka Prefecture who is affiliated with Sony Music and Kadokawa. After winning the Animax All-Japan Anisong Grand Prix in 2011, she made her debut in 2012 with the release of her first single "Choir Jail", which peaked at 34 on the Oricon charts; the title track of which was used as the opening theme to the anime television series Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. She released her first album 17, in 2014, two albums in 2015, and a further album Lead, in 2016. Suzuki cites the character Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier as her inspiration for making music for anime. Her music has been featured in anime series such as The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, No Game No Life, and Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World. She has also performed in events in Japan such as Animelo Summer Live and Animax Musix, and at international events in China, Germany, the United States, and Southeast Asia. In 2018, Suzuki made her voice acting debut, playing the role of Rin in the anime television series Lost Song. (Full article...)
Kelvin Tan Wei Lian (陈伟联, born 5 October 1981) is a Singaporean former Mandopop singer who earned a living as a busker before he won the first edition of Project SuperStar in 2005. He has released three albums, All I Want Is... (2006), i-Weilian (2007) and Moving Notes...Kelvin Tan (2009). He also had a solo concert at the Singapore Expo, lead a choir at the opening ceremony at the 2008 Summer Paralympics, and singing Singapore's 2009 National Day Parade's theme song. (Full article...)
John Maus (born February 23, 1980) is an American musician, composer, singer, and songwriter known for his baritone singing style and his use of vintage synthesizer sounds and Medieval church modes, a combination that often draws comparisons to 1980s goth-pop. His early lo-fi recordings anticipated and inspired the late 2000s hypnagogic pop movement. On stage, he is characterized for his intense displays of emotion while performing. He is also a former teacher of philosophy at the University of Hawaii, where he later earned his PhD in political science.
Maus' early influences included Nirvana, Syd Barrett, Jim Morrison, and composers of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. In 1998, he left his hometown of Austin, Minnesota to study experimental music at the California Institute of the Arts. When he befriended and first worked alongside classmate Ariel Pink, he took a greater interest in pop music. He produced most of the music from his first two albums Songs (2006) and Love Is Real (2007) on cassette tape with an early 1990s sound bank. The albums generally drew negative reviews upon release, and it was not until the success of his third, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves (2011), that he became more widely accepted as an outsider artist. Following a five-year absence from public appearances and releasing new music, he returned in 2017 with the album Screen Memories. (Full article...)
Mei Nakabayashi (中林 芽依, Nakabayashi Mei, born October 21, 1989), better known by her stage name May'n (メイン, Mein), is a Japanese singer from Nagoya. Aspiring to become a singer since childhood, she began her music activities in 2003 upon passing an audition held by talent agency Horipro International. She made her major debut in 2005 under the Universal Music label with the release of her first single "Crazy Crazy Crazy". She would release two more singles under Universal Music, before transferring to Victor Entertainment in 2008. That same year, she had her break as the singing voice of the character Sheryl Nome in the anime series Macross Frontier.
May'n's musical style varies in genre, ranging from pop and rock, to dance music and R&B. Her music has been featured in anime series such as Macross Frontier, Aria the Scarlet Ammo, Accel World, Aquarion Logos, and Restaurant to Another World. She has also performed at several music events in Japan, Asia, Europe, and North America. In 2013, she represented Japan at the ABU TV Song Festival in Vietnam. (Full article...)
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Gun-Marie Fredriksson (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɡɵnː maˈriː ˈfrêːdrɪkˌsɔn] ⓘ; 30 May 1958 – 9 December 2019) was a Swedish singer, songwriter, pianist, and lead vocalist of pop-rock duo Roxette, which she formed in 1986 with Per Gessle. The duo achieved international success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with their albums Look Sharp! (1988) and Joyride (1991), and had multiple hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four number ones.
Fredriksson had a successful career in her native country prior to forming Roxette. She was a member of punk group Strul, a band which created their own music festival in 1979. Strul's dissolution led to the creation of her next project, the short-lived MaMas Barn, after which she began releasing solo work. Her first album, Het vind, was issued in 1984, followed by Den sjunde vågen in 1986 and ... Efter stormen in 1987. Roxette's international breakthrough coincided with a period of inactivity for Fredriksson as a solo artist, punctuated only by the release of the non-album single "Sparvöga" in 1989. Subsequent solo albums included Den ständiga resan (1992) and I en tid som vår (1996). (Full article...)
Páll Óskar Hjálmtýsson (born 16 March 1970), known internationally as Páll Óskar and Paul Oscar, is an Icelandic pop singer, songwriter and disc jockey. He had a musical childhood, singing at private functions, with choirs and for media advertisements, but was affected by bullying in school and tension between his parents at home.
Paul Oscar's musical range spans traditional Icelandic songs, ballads, love songs, disco, house and techno. He released his first album, Stuð (Groove), in 1993 while in New York City, and also sang with Icelandic groups Milljónamæringarnir (The Millionaires) and Casino while establishing a career as a solo artiste. His album of ballads, Palli, was the best-selling Icelandic album of 1995. Paul Oscar came to international attention when he performed "Minn hinsti dans" ("My Final Dance"), Iceland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997. His most recent album is Silfursafnið (The Silver Collection, 2008). In Reykjavík, Paul Oscar performs regularly as a disc jockey in clubs and appears on radio and TV shows. (Full article...)
The Smeezingtons were an American songwriting and record production team consisting of Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence, and Ari Levine formed in 2009. The Smeezingtons were established in Los Angeles, California; the trio primarily served as the producers for the singles and albums of Mars, with additional work for diverse range of artists. Eventually, the trio split, and Mars and Lawrence formed a successor production trio with Christopher Brody Brown called "Shampoo Press & Curl". Before Mars' mainstream breakthrough as a performer, the Smeezingtons first gained recognition after producing the song "Wavin' Flag" for Canadian singer K'naan in 2009, which was used by Coca-Cola as the theme for television coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In December of that year, the trio produced and co-wrote Mars' debut single appearance, "Nothin' on You" by American rapper B.o.B. It was their first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, and the first of numerous successful productions for Mars's career—which resulted in two consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles in 2010 and 2013. In August 2010, they produced and co-wrote the single "Fuck You" for American singer CeeLo Green, which topped the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. (Full article...)
Thirsty Merc are an Australian pop rock band formed in 2002 by Rai Thistlethwayte, Phil Stack (bass guitar), Karl Robertson (drums), and Matthew Baker (guitar). In 2004, Baker was replaced by Sean Carey, who was, in turn, replaced by Matt Smith in 2010. Thirsty Merc have released one extended play, First Work (September 2003), and five studio albums: Thirsty Merc (August 2004), Slideshows (April 2007), Mousetrap Heart (June 2010), Shifting Gears (September 2015), and Celebration (June 2022). The band have sold over 200,000 albums, toured extensively around Australia, and received national radio airplay for their tracks.
In June 2005, Billboard's Christie Eliezer felt their debut album showed "electric rock-, classical- and jazz-influenced pop [that] appealed to Australian radio programmers". The work reached the top-20 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified platinum by ARIA for shipment of 70,000 units by the end of 2005. Slideshows peaked at No. 4 in Australia—their highest position. It reached No. 38 on the New Zealand Albums Chart; however, Thirsty Merc had attained No. 29 in that market. The group were nominated for four ARIA Awards in 2005, and the Thistlethwayte-written track "20 Good Reasons" was nominated for Song of the Year at the APRA Music Awards of 2008. From 2006, their song "In the Summertime" was the opening theme for the Australian TV reality show Bondi Rescue. (Full article...)
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Lee Kyung-eun (born February 17, 1975), better known by her stage name Harisu (Korean: 하리수; Hanja: 河莉秀), is a South Korean pop singer, model, and actress. In 2002 she became the second person in Korea to legally change their gender. Her stage name is an adaptation of the English phrase "hot issue".
She first gained public attention in 2001, after appearing in a television commercial for DoDo cosmetics. The commercial was a success and marked the launch of her career, which allowed her to branch out into other fields such as music and acting. She has recorded five Korean musical albums, switching genres between techno and R&B, and her overseas releases have featured songs recorded in Mandarin. Her first major acting role was in the 2001 film Yellow Hair 2, and since then her credits have included Hi! Honey, a Taiwanese drama series, and Colour Blossoms, an erotic drama by Hong Kong filmmaker Yonfan. On May 19, 2007, Harisu married Micky Jung, but the couple divorced in 2017. (Full article...)
Tiwatope Omolara Savage (born 5 February 1980), known professionally as Tiwa Savage (listen), is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and actress. Savage sings in English and Yoruba; her music is a blend of afrobeats, R&B, afropop, pop and hip-hop. Savage's contributions to the Nigerian music industry have earned her several achievements.
Born in Isale Eko, she relocated to London at the age of 11 for her secondary education. Five years later, she began her music career doing backup vocals for artists such as George Michael and Mary J. Blige. After participating in the UK edition of The X Factor and graduating from Berklee College of Music, Savage signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2009. Inspired by the growth of the Nigerian music industry, Savage moved back to Nigeria and signed with Mavin Records in 2012. She made an appearance on the label's 2012 compilation album Solar Plexus. (Full article...)
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Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Bennett was named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree and founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York. He sold more than 50 million records worldwide and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as a U.S. Army infantryman in the European Theater. Afterward, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records and had his first number-one popular song with "Because of You" in 1951. Several popular tracks such as "Rags to Riches" followed in early 1953. He then refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". His career and personal life experienced an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era. Bennett staged a comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s, putting out gold record albums again and expanding his reach to the MTV Generation while keeping his musical style intact. (Full article...)