In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument
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Christina Maria Aguilera was born on December 18, 1980, in Staten Island, New York. Her parents divorced when she was young and she lived with her mother, although they moved around quite a bit. Christina's goal almost since birth was to be a singer, and at age 12 she was invited to audition for "The All New Mickey Mouse Club" (1989). She wound up getting the part and stayed there for a few years, until the show ended. In 1999 she had her breakthrough hit, "Genie in a Bottle". Since then she's made millions of fans, sold millions of records and has won many awards, including a Grammy for best new female artist. She has even made a Latin album and will be working on a second one. A Christmas album has also been released.
Dame Julia Elizabeth "Julie" Andrews, DBE is an English actress, singer, and author. Andrews, a child actress and singer, appeared on the West End in 1948 and made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend (1954). She rose to prominence starring in Broadway musicals such as My Fair Lady (1956), playing Eliza Doolittle, and Camelot (1960), playing Queen Guinevere. In 1957, Andrews starred in the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's written-for-television musical Cinderella, a live, network broadcast seen by over 100 million viewers.
Andrews has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, five Golden Globes, three Grammys, two Emmys, the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honors Award, and the Disney Legends Award. Apart from her musical career, she is also an author of children's books and has published an autobiography, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (2008)
1979, she was raised as a Catholic and participated in high school choir as well as local community theater musical productions when she was young. During her time in UCLA, she joined a capella group named Awaken a Cappella and won twice in the annual student concert, UCLA Spring Sing.
Post graduating from the college, she performed at local bars and clubs in an attempt to build a fanbase for a bigger show. She issued two demos, sang in an indie film and self-released an album. Eager to go back to the studio and create a second full-length album, she started shopping her CD around and finally sealed a deal with Epic Records in 2005.
Three years after her debut, Bareilles dropped a sophomore set "Little Voice". Despite the title, the album was a big one. It led her claiming her fame as it shot to No. 1 on the list of most downloaded album in iTunes music store and reached No. 7 on Billboard Hot 200. Its first single "Love Song", meanwhile, peaked at No. 4 on Hot 100.
Natasha Anne Bedingfield is an English singer and songwriter. Bedingfield released her debut album, Unwritten, in 2004, which contained primarily up-tempo pop songs and was influenced by R&B music. It enjoyed international success with more than 2.3 million copies sold worldwide. Bedingfield received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the title track "Unwritten", and at the 2005 and 2006 Brit Awards she was nominated for Best British Female Artist. Unwritten also produced her only UK number one, "These Words".
In December 2010, Bedingfield released her third album in North America, named Strip Me. To date, she has sold nearly 50 million records worldwide. In 2012, VH1 ranked Bedingfield number 66 on the list of 100 Greatest Women in Music.
Patricia Andrzejewski was born in Brooklyn and raised in suburban Lindenhurst, Long Island. Her mother Millie had sacrificed her own career as an opera singer to bring up Pat and son Andrew. Years later it was Pat who singing classical, honing the powers of her 4.5-octave voice as a member of Lindenhurst High's musical-theater department. Having been accepted at Juilliard, Pat shocked friends and family by marrying her high-school sweetheart Dennis T. Benatar, a soldier, and moving off to Virginia where he had been stationed.
Having thrilled the audience with her first performance on amateur night, Pat soon found herself with a paying gig, a manager and a recording contract, but her image was still in limbo. Primarily singing torch song and Judy Garland classics, she longed to perform hard-rocking tunes in the Led Zeppelin vein. Her wishes were fulfilled when her handlers introduced her to Cleveland guitar-man Neil Giraldo, whose aggressive playing unleashed Pat's inner rocker. She had found her muse, and when her audience roared one Halloween night over a sultry costume she wore on stage, she had found her image.
Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Beyonce performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as lead singer of the R&B girl-group Destiny's Child. Managed by her father, Mathew Knowles, the group became one of the world's best-selling girl groups in history. Their hiatus saw Beyonce's theatrical film debut in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) and the release of her debut album, Dangerously in Love (2003). The album established her as a solo artist worldwide, earned five Grammy Awards, and featured the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy".
Susan Magdalane Boyle is a Scottish singer who came to international public attention when she appeared as a contestant on the TV programme Britain's Got Talent on 11 April 2009, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. Her first album was released in November 2009 and debuted as the number one best-selling album on charts around the globe.
Susan Boyle's initial appearance on the talent show fired public imagination when her modest stage introduction and thick speaking accent left audience, viewers and judges alike unprepared for the power and expression of her mezzo-soprano voice. Before she had finished the song's opening phrase a standing ovation for Boyle had erupted. An international media and Internet response coincided. Within nine days of the audition, videos of Boyle - from the show, various interviews and her 1999 rendition of "Cry Me a River" - had been watched over 100 million times. Despite becoming an international sensation she eventually finished in second place on the show behind dance troupe Diversity.
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts. An extremely versatile singer, her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini; further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; and, in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner. Her remarkable musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina.
Born in New York City and raised by an overbearing mother, she received her musical education in Greece and established her career in Italy. Her dramatic life and personal tragedy have often overshadowed Callas the artist in the popular press. However, her artistic achievements were such that Leonard Bernstein called her "The Bible of opera"; and her influence was so enduring that, in 2006, Opera News wrote of her: "Nearly thirty years after her death, she's still the definition of the diva as artist-and still one of classical music's best-selling vocalists."
Pop/jazz singer and songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway is the daughter of television journalist John Callaway and vocal coach Shirley Callaway, and the sister of Broadway performer Liz Callaway. She was born and raised in Chicago. Her earliest recordings were on a series of releases by Ben Bagley's Painted Smiles label; she recorded bonus tracks for CD reissues of Noel Coward Revisited (1990), Cole Porter Revisited (1991), and Alan Jay Lerner Revisited (1992), as well as appearing on recordings of the shows Shoestring Revue and Tallulah.
Mariah Carey was born in Long Island, New York, on March 27, 1969. Her parents are Patricia Hickey (Irish-American) and Alfred Roy Carey (African-American/Venezuelan). Mariah attended Greenlawn's Harborfields High School. In June of 1990, Mariah made her debut with "Mariah Carey" which entered at #73, but on August 4, 1990, it reached #1. Her 1990 self-titled debut album went multi-platinum and spawned an extraordinary four consecutive #1 singles: "Vision of Love," "Love Takes Time," "Someday" and "I Don't Wanna Cry," and led to Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Vocalist. Her 1993 album titled Music Box went ten-times platinum. On September 30, 1995, she made music history. Her single "Fantasy" from her 1995 Daydream album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first female artist to accomplish a number one debut in the U.S.
Eva Marie Cassidy was an American vocalist and guitarist known for her interpretations of jazz and blues. In 1992, she released her first album, The Other Side, a set of duets with go-go musician Chuck Brown, followed by the 1996 live solo album titled Live at Blues Alley. Although she had been honored by the Washington Area Music Association, she was virtually unknown outside her native Washington, DC. She died of melanoma in 1996.
Two years after her death, Cassidy's music was brought to the attention of British audiences, when her versions of "Fields of Gold" and "Over the Rainbow" were played by Mike Harding and Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2. Following the overwhelming response, a camcorder recording of "Over the Rainbow", taken at Blues Alley in Washington by her friend Bryan McCulley, was shown on BBC Two's Top of the Pops 2. Shortly afterwards, the compilation album Songbird climbed to the top of the UK Albums Charts, almost three years after its initial release.
Tracy Chapman helped restore singer/songwriters to the spotlight in the '80s. The multi-platinum success of Chapman's eponymous 1988 debut was unexpected, and it had lasting impact. Although Chapman was working from the same confessional singer/songwriter foundation that had been popularized in the '70s, her songs were fresh and powerful, driven by simple melodies and affecting lyrics. At the time of her first album, there were only a handful of artists performing such a style successfully, and her success ushered in a new era of singer/songwriters that lasted well into the '90s. Furthermore, her album helped usher in the era of political correctness -- along with 10,000 Maniacs and R.E.M., Chapman's liberal politics proved enormously influential on American college campuses in the late '80s. Of course, such implications meant that Chapman's subsequent recordings were greeted with mixed reactions, but after several years out of the spotlight, she managed to make a very successful comeback in 1996 with her fourth album, New Beginning, thanks to the Top Ten single "Give Me One Reason."
Kristin Dawn Chenoweth is an American actress and singer, with credits in musical theatre, film and television. In 1999, she won a Tony Award for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on Broadway. In 2003, she received wide notice for originating the role of Glinda in the musical Wicked, including a nomination for another Tony. Her television roles have included Annabeth Schott in NBC's The West Wing and Olive Snook on the ABC comedy-drama Pushing Daisies, for which she won a 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Chenoweth also starred in the ABC TV series GCB in 2012.
Charlotte Maria Church was born on February 21, 1986 in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom to Steven Reed and his wife Maria. The couple separated shortly after the child's birth, and she was left in her mother's care. She started singing publicly when she was only three and a half years old, singing the Ghost Busters (1984) theme with her cousin at a seaside holiday camp in Caernarfon, Wales. She came to public notice after an appearance on the UK daytime magazine program, "This Morning" (1988) (aka "This Morning with Richard and Judy") and then made an impromptu appearance on "The Big Big Talent Show" (1996). She came on to say a few words about her aunt Caroline Cooper, who was also making an appearance on the show, and the show's host, Jonathan Ross, asked her to sing. She stole the show and immediately became an overnight sensation in her native Wales. More television and concert appearances followed, such as the ones at Cardiff Arms Park in Wales, the London Palladium, and the Royal Albert Hall, and opening for Shirley Bassey in Antwerp, Belgium. She was signed to Sony Music (UK) and has released three best selling albums of popular classics.
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress and composer whose career spans seven decades. Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II. During the 1950s she started recording in French and having international success in both French and English, with such songs as "The Little Shoemaker", "Baby Lover", "With All My Heart" and "Prends Mon Cœur". During the 1960s she became known globally for her popular upbeat hits, including "Downtown", "I Know a Place", "My Love", "A Sign of the Times", "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "Colour My World", "This Is My Song" and "Don't Sleep in the Subway", and she was dubbed "the First Lady of the British Invasion". She has sold more than 68 million records
Growing up in Texas, Kelly originally aspired to be a marine biologist, but when she was encouraged by the choir teacher at her junior high to join the school choir, her dreams changed. She started starring in school plays and continued on with her involvement in choir. Finally when she graduated high school, Kelly started working on demo and got serious about pursing her musical career.
For the first few years after high school, Kelly didn't have much luck breaking into the biz. Just when Kelly Clarkson was ready to give up, her best friend, Jessica, convinced her to try out for American Idol. Suddenly Kelly was really on her way to becoming a music superstar. She quickly shot to number one and claimed the first ever American Idol title in 2002.
Kelly Clarkson really hasn't slowed down since taking home the American Idol crown. Soon after she won, her debut album, Thankful, was released. It featured songs like Miss Independent and Beautiful Disaster. Some thought that Kelly's time in the spotlight might be over after her first disc, but she came back in late 2004 with her second disc, Breakaway. Breakaway turned out to be even better than Thankful, featuring hit singles like Breakaway and Since U Been Gone. This latest CD proves that Kelly isn't just a reality TV celebrity, she's a talented singer who still has a lot more to offer.
Patsy Cline, born Virginia Patterson Hensley, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s. Since her death in 1963 at age 30 in a private airplane crash at the height of her career, she has been considered one of the most influential, successful, and acclaimed female vocalists of the 20th century.
Cline was best known for her rich tone and emotionally expressive bold contralto voice, which, along with her role as a mover and shaker in the country music industry, has been cited as an inspiration by many vocalists of various music genres. Her life and career have been the subject of numerous books, movies, documentaries, articles and stage plays.
Her hits included "Walkin' After Midnight", "I Fall to Pieces", "She's Got You", "Crazy", and "Sweet Dreams". Posthumously, millions of her albums have sold over the past 50 years. She has been given numerous awards, which have given her an iconic status with some fans similar to that of legends Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Ten years after her death, she became the first female solo artist inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 - June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian (David Seville), which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" (a cover version of the Italian song Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina by Alberto Rabagliati), "Mambo Italiano", "Tenderly", "Half as Much", "Hey There" and "This Ole House", though she would go on to success as a jazz vocalist.
Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, partly due to problems related to depression and drug addiction, but revived in 1974, when her White Christmas co-star Bing Crosby asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business. She continued recording until her death in 2002. She is the aunt of Academy Award winning actor George Clooney.
Natalie Maria Cole was an American singer, voice actress, songwriter, and actress. The daughter of Nat King Cole, she rose to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be", "Inseparable" (1975), and "Our Love" (1977). After a period of failing sales and performances due to a heavy drug addiction, Cole re-emerged as a pop artist with the 1987 album Everlasting and her cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac". In the 1990s, she re-recorded standards by her father, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable... with Love, which sold over seven million copies and also won Cole seven Grammy Awards. She sold over 30 million records worldwide. She is best known for the role of herself in Yakety Yak, Take it Back, and Trash Talk, and the singing voice of Sawyer Cat in the Cats Don't Dance franchise. On December 31, 2015, Cole died at the age of 65 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, due to congestive heart failure.
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records (which has included folk music, show tunes, pop music, rock and roll and standards) and for her social activism.
Collins' debut album A Maid of Constant Sorrow was released in 1961, but it was the lead single from her 1967 album Wildflowers, "Both Sides, Now" - written by Joni Mitchell - that gave Collins international prominence. The single hit the Top 10 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart(1) and won Collins her first Grammy Award for Best Folk Performance.(2) She enjoyed further success with her recordings of "Someday Soon", "Chelsea Morning", "Amazing Grace", and "Cook with Honey".
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop. She has won nine Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
She has performed with The Rolling Stones and has sung duets with Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Luciano Pavarotti, John Mellencamp, Kid Rock, Michelle Branch, and Sting among others. She has performed backing vocals for Tina Turner, Don Henley and Belinda Carlisle, on her 1991 hit Little Black Book. Crow has released seven studio albums, two compilations, and a live album, and has contributed to film soundtracks. She has sold 16 million albums in the United States and 35 million albums worldwide and her newest album, 100 Miles from Memphis, was released on July 20, 2010. Recently she appeared on NBC's 30 Rock, ABC's Cougar Town, Disney Channel's Hannah Montana Forever and Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
The daughter of country-music superstar Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley Cyrus got her start in the entertainment industry on an episode of her father's PAX TV medical series Doc before appearing in Tim_Burton's fantastical 2003 adventure Big_Fish. A fateful appearance as the character Hannah Montana in the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack and Cody followed in 2006, and her character proved so popular that a spin-off series called Hannah_Montana was launched shortly thereafter. In the series, Cyrus portrayed a fun-loving California teen who just happens to be moonlighting as a world-famous pop star. Only Hannah's family (which includes her real-life father on the series) and her two closest friends, Lilly (Emily_Osment) and Oliver (Mitchel_Musso), know the truth about Hannah's remarkable secret life.
Doris Day (is an American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist. After she began her career as a big band singer in 1939, her popularity increased with her first hit recording "Sentimental Journey" (1945). After leaving Les Brown & His Band of Renown to embark on a solo career, she recorded more than 650 songs from 1947 to 1967, which made her one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century.
Day's film career began with the 1948 film Romance on the High Seas, and its success sparked her twenty-year career as a motion picture actress. She starred in a series of successful films, including musicals, comedies, and dramas. She played the title role in Calamity Jane (1953), and starred in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) with James Stewart. Her most successful films were the "pioneering" bedroom comedies she made co-starring Rock Hudson and James Garner, such as Pillow Talk (1959) and Move Over, Darling (1963), respectively. She also co-starred in films with such leading men as Clark Gable, Cary Grant, David Niven, and Rod Taylor. After her final film in 1968, she went on to star in the CBS sitcom The Doris Day Show (1968-73).
Pauline Matthews, better known by her stage name Kiki Dee, is an English singer born in Little Horton, Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown's Tamla Records.
Dee is best known for her 1974 hit "I've Got the Music in Me" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", her 1976 duet with Elton John, which went to Number 1 both in the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 1993 she performed another duet with Elton John for his Duets album, a cover version of Cole Porter's "True Love", which reached No. 2 in the UK. During her career, she has released 40 singles, three EPs and 12 albums.
Hailing from the small town of Charlemagne, Quebec, Celine Dion has become one of the all-time greatest singers. Celine was born in 1968, the youngest of 14 children. Early in childhood, she sang with her siblings in a small club owned by her parents. From these early experiences, Celine gained the know-how to performing live. At the age of 12, Dion composed a song in her native French and sent it to a record company, where it garnered the attention of Rene Angelil, a respected manager. Angelil believed in Celine so much that he actually mortgaged his house in order to finance her debut album. Already very popular and successful internationally, Celine burst onto the U.S. stage when she recorded the theme song to Disney's hit Beauty and the Beast (1991). The song garnered a Grammy and an Oscar, and from this point Celine has brought forth hit after hit. Her 'Falling Into You' album, released in 1996, became the best-selling album of that year, selling more than 25 million copies worldwide. In 1999, Dion took a hiatus in order to begin a family. She returned to the spotlight in 2002, releasing yet another hit album. Starting in 2003, Celine began a three-year commitment to perform in an arena built for her in Las Vegas.
An appealing actress and singer known for her spunk, Duff was only 14 when she came to prominence on the hit Disney sitcom Lizzie McGuire, which spawned a feature film in 2003. She solidified her teen-icon status with roles in a succession of popular family-oriented movies (Cheaper by the Dozen, A Cinderella Story) and a series of successful pop albums and tours, including 2005's Most Wanted, a compilation of remixed hits and a handful of new songs cowritten by her then-boyfriend, Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden. A fashion plate and tabloid magnet, Duff's personal life was often the subject of gossip, including rumors of a long-running feud with Lindsay Lohan over their mutual ex, Aaron Carter. The gossip about her romantic life has died down with the announcement of her engagement to hockey player Mike Comrie n February 2010. When not working, she's been a supporter and ambassador for Blessings in a Backpack, which provides healthy food for needy kids to take home to their families for the weekend.
Linda Eder is an American singer and actress. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which she received 1997 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominations, as well as the Theatre World Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Eder is also featured on the concept albums of several other Broadway shows, such as The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Civil War.
When Linda Eder was growing up in Brainerd, MN, all she knew about Broadway was what she heard on her treasured recordings. Without the visuals, there was no context, no roles meant for men or women, young or older characters. She interpreted the songs in her imagination. She created Broadway, her way.
Now, after starring in the Broadway smash Jekyll & Hyde, selling out concert halls around the country to stunning reviews and recording six solo records of her own, Linda has decided to record BROADWAY MY WAY. A collection of her favorite songs from musicals ranging from classic to one from her upcoming show, Camille Claudel, Eder offers her take on a range of familiar songs, performed with some unfamiliar twists.
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell is an American singer and songwriter. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single "Ocean Eyes", which was subsequently released by Darkroom, an imprint of Interscope Records. The song was written and produced by her brother, Finneas O'Connell, with whom she frequently collaborates on music and in live shows. Her debut extended play, Don't Smile at Me (2017), was commercially successful and charted within the top 15 in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
Eilish has received several accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, one Guinness World Record, a Golden Globe Award, three MTV Video Music Awards, and two Brit Awards. She is the youngest artist in Grammy history and second overall to win all four general field categories-Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year-in the same year. She was named in Time magazine's inaugural Time 100 Next list in 2019, and made it into the main Time 100 list in 2021. According to the RIAA and Billboard, Eilish is the 26th-highest-certified digital singles artist and one of the most successful artists of the 2010s.(
Eithne Padraigín Ní Bhraonain, better known professionally as Enya, is an Irish singer, songwriter, musician, and producer. Born into a musical family and raised in the Irish speaking area of Gweedore in County Donegal, Enya began her music career when she joined her family's Celtic band Clannad in 1980 on keyboards and backing vocals. She left in 1982 with their manager and producer Nicky Ryan to pursue a solo career, with Ryan's wife Roma Ryan as her lyricist. Enya developed her distinct sound over the following four years with multi-tracked vocals and keyboards with elements of new age, Celtic, classical, church, and folk music. She has sung in ten languages.
Gloria Estefan's family fled Cuba for Miami in 1959. She began her singing career in 1975 with the group Miami Sound Machine, and in 1978 married the group's keyboardist, Emilio Estefan. After several Spanish-language albums the group began releasing material in English, their breakthrough album coming in 1985 with Primitive Love, which included the catchy single "Bad Boys." The "Miami Sound Machine" label faded away as Estefan became the band's attraction. The 1987 album Let It Loose included pop hits like "Betcha Say That" and the uptempo "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You," and with Emilio Estefan as her producer and promoter, she became for a time America's leading Latin recording artist. Cuts Both Ways was another big hit album in 1989. Gloria's career was interrupted in 1990 when she was seriously injured in a bus accident. She bounced back, winning a 1993 Grammy for Best Tropical Latin Album. In the 21st century she embraced her Latin roots with Spanish-language albums like Alma Carribena (2000 -- in English, "Caribbean Soul") and 90 Millas ("90 Miles," 2007).
Jackie Evancho was born April 9, 2000 and started singing since she was just eight years old. She found her interest in music after watching musical "The Phantom of the Opera". She later competed in a local singing contest in his native Pennsylvania, winning the runner-up place. Living in the suburb area of Pittsburg, she then took vocal lessons, took part in other contests to enrich her experience and uploaded her rendition of music on YouTube.
In 2009, Jackie released an indie album called "Prelude to a Dream" which covered songs from the likes of Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban and Martina McBride. It debuted at No. 2 on iTunes and Billboard Classical Albums Chart.
A year later, Jackie entered "America's Got Talent" after winning the YouTube competition sponsored by the TV show. She received the most votes from fans to be advanced to the next round and continued to become one of the audience favorites until the finale. Making a duet with Sarah Brightman in "Time to Say Goodbye" and singing solo in "Ave Maria", she finished at the second place.
Following her win as the runner-up on "AGT", Jackie signed a record deal with Columbia Records. She dropped a mini album called "O Holy Night" in October 2010. It was ranked the first on Amazon's bestseller pre-order list and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Classical chart. Also, it landed at No. 2 on Hot 200, making her the youngest female solo artist to debut in the top 10.
Dubbed "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.
Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. (Or rather, some might say all the jazz greats had the pleasure of working with Ella.)
She performed at top venues all over the world, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common - they all loved her.
Roberta Cleopatra Flack is an American singer and musician. She is best known for her classic #1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love", and for "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway.
Flack was the first, and remains the only, solo artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year on two consecutive years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won at the 1973 Grammys as did "Killing Me Softly with His Song" at the 1974 Grammys.
Aretha Louise Franklin was an American singer and songwriter. Franklin began her career as a child singing gospel at the church of her father, minister C. L. Franklin's church. In 1960, at the age of 18, Franklin embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records but only achieving modest success. Following her signing to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as "Respect", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Spanish Harlem" and "Think". By the end of the 1960s decade she had gained the title "The Queen of Soul".
Gaga is inspired by glam rockers such as David Bowie and Queen, as well as pop singers such as Madonna and Michael Jackson. She is also inspired by fashion, which she has said is an essential component to her songwriting and performances. To date she has sold over 20 million digital singles and more than four million albums worldwide.
It's been a while since a new pop artist has made her way in the music industry the old-fashioned/grass roots way by paying her dues with seedy club gigs and self-promotion. This is one rising pop star who hasn't been plucked from a model casting call, born into a famous family, won a reality TV singing contest, or emerged from a teen cable TV sitcom. "I did this the way you are supposed to. I played every club in New York City and I bombed in every club and then killed it in every club and I found myself as an artist. I learned how to survive as an artist, get real, and how to fail and then figure out who I was as singer and performer. And, I worked hard."
One of the brightest, most tragic movie stars of Hollywood's Golden Era, Judy Garland was a moved-loved character whose warmth and spirit, along with her rich and exuberant voice, kept theatre-goers entertained with an array of delightful musicals. She is still an icon to this day with her famous performances in The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948) and A Star Is Born (1954).
Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a juvenile Academy Award, won a Golden Globe Award, as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in A Star is Born and for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1961 film, Judgement at Nuremberg.
Gloria Gaynor is an American singer, best known for the disco era hits "I Will Survive" (Hot 100 number 1, 1979), "Never Can Say Goodbye" (Hot 100 number 9, 1974), "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)" (Hot 100 number 42, 1980) and "I Am What I Am" (R&B number 82, 1983). After almost 30 years of its release, Gaynor continues to ride the success of "I Will Survive", touring the country and the world over and performing her signature song on dozens of TV shows. A few successful remixes of the song during the 1990s and 2000s along with new versions of the song by Lonnie Gordon, Diana Ross, Chantay Savage, rock group Cake and others as well as constant recurrent airplay on nearly all Soft AC and Rhythmic format radio stations have helped to keep the song in the mainstream.
Ella Jane Goulding is an English singer and songwriter. Her career began when she met record producers Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who later became her manager and A&R. After signing to Polydor Records in July 2009, Goulding released her debut extended play, An Introduction to Ellie Goulding, later that year.
In 2010, she became the second artist to top the BBC's annual Sound of... poll and win the Critics' Choice Award at the Brit Awards in the same year. She released her debut studio album, Lights, in 2010; it debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and has sold over 850,000 copies in the UK. Her cover of Elton John's "Your Song" reached number two in the UK in December 2010 and on 29 April 2011 she performed the song at the wedding reception of Prince William and Catherine Middleton at Buckingham Palace. The album's title track, "Lights", was released in the US in March 2011, and peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 10
Ariana Grande-Butera, better known as Ariana Grande is an American singer and actress. She began her career in 2008 in the Broadway musical 13, before playing the role of Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series Victorious, and in the spinoff Sam & Cat until 2014. She has also appeared in other theatre and television roles and has lent her voice to animated television and films.
Grande's music career began in 2011 with the soundtrack Music from Victorious. In 2013, she released her first studio album Yours Truly, which entered atop the US Billboard 200. The album's lead single, "The Way", opened in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, with critics comparing her wide vocal range to that of Mariah Carey.
Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, media personality and actress, best known for her Christian music. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christian Pop". As of 2009, Grant remains the best-selling contemporary Christian music singer ever, having sold over 30 million units worldwide.
Grant has won six Grammy Awards, 25 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and had the first Christian album ever to go Platinum. Heart in Motion is her highest selling album, with over five million copies sold in the United States alone. She was honored with a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005 for her contributions to the entertainment industry.
Faith Hill (born Audrey Faith Perry; September 21, 1967) is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated 8 number-one singles and 3 number-one albums on the U.S. Country charts.
Hill has been honored by the Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association, the American Music Awards and the People's Choice Awards. Her Soul2Soul II Tour 2006 with husband McGraw became the highest-grossing country tour of all time.(1) In 2001, she was named one of the "30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies Home Journal. In 2008, Faith Hill released her first Christmas album, titled Joy to the World. In 2009 Billboard named her as the #1 Adult Contemporary artist of the decade 2000-2009. Hill was ranked the 39th best artist of the 2000-10 decade by Billboard.
Considered by many to be the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, Billie Holiday lived a tempestuous and difficult life. Her singing expressed an incredible depth of emotion that spoke of hard times and injustice as well as triumph. Though her career was relatively short and often erratic, she left behind a body of work as great as any vocalist before or since.
Born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, Billie Holiday spent much of her young life in Baltimore, Maryland. Raised primarily by her mother, Holiday had only a tenuous connection with her father, who was a jazz guitarist in Fletcher Henderson's band. Living in extreme poverty, Holiday dropped out of school in the fifth grade and found a job running errands in a brothel. When she was twelve, Holiday moved with her mother to Harlem, where she was eventually arrested for prostitution.
Horne was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, but moved with her parents to Long Beach, California, when she was 11. At the age of 13, she became part of the newly formed Los Angeles Concert Youth Chorus. She attended the University of Southern California where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi fraternity. She is an alumna of Long Beach Polytechnic High School and returned in 1995 in a performance to benefit its music program. As a high school student, Marilyn was part of the St. Luke's Choir of Long Beach under the direction of William Ripley Dorr. This prestigious choir often worked for the movie studios and recorded on Capitol Records. Marilyn and her sister Gloria were part of St. Luke's Quartet along with tenor, Bob James and Baritone, Philip D. Haynes.
She studied voice under William Vennard at the University of Southern California School of Music and participated in Lotte Lehmann's vocal master classes.
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was an American singer, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, Guinness World Records cited her as the most awarded female act of all-time.(1) Houston is one of the best-selling music artists of all-time, with 200 million records sold worldwide.(2)(3) She released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum, or gold certification. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know", influenced several African American women artists who follow in her footsteps.
Houston made her screen acting debut as Rachel Marron in the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992). She performed the lead single from the film's original soundtrack, "I Will Always Love You", which received the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became the best-selling single by a woman in music history. With the soundtrack, which received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1994. Houston made other high-profile film appearances and contributed to their soundtracks, including Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996). The latter's soundtrack became the best-selling gospel album in history.
Janet Jackson is the younger sister of the singing Jackson brothers, including the late "King of Pop" Michael Jackson. She released her first album in 1982; her career really took off with the 1986 album Control, which included the hit single "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" She quickly became a regular fixture in pop music and on MTV, known for her smartly sexy songs and high-energy dancing (the choreography in her videos was done by Paula Abdul). In 1999 she was a guest artist with Busta Rhymes on his hit "What's It Gonna Be." She also ventured into the movies, starring with Tupac Shakur and Maya Angelou in the 1993 film Poetic Justice. Her other albums include Damita Jo (2004, with a title taken from Jackson's middle name), 20 Y.O. (2006) and Discipline (2008).
Etta James was an American singer who performed in various genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz and gospel. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as "The Wallflower", "At Last", "Tell Mama", "Something's Got a Hold on Me", and "I'd Rather Go Blind". She faced a number of personal problems, including heroin addiction, severe physical abuse, and incarceration, before making a musical comeback in the late 1980s with the album Seven Year Itch.
Acclaimed vocalist, DARIA, an innovative singer and songwriter with a beautiful voice, unerring pitch and wide vocal range, blends Jazz, Brazilian music, Afro Cuban and world rhythms to create her own powerful and expressive style. Growing up in San Francisco, Daria was part of a uniquely creative family. Her mother spoke five languages, taught creative writing and is a published author. Her father was a first violinist with the San Francisco Symphony. Daria began to sing at age six. In her teens she fell in love with Jazz. She went on to study with Bobby McFerrin, Mark Murphy and Brazilian musician, Celia Malheiros. Daria has 2 critically acclaimed CDs, Just the Beginning, produced by Ian Dogole and Feel The Rhythm, produced by Frank Martin and seven-time Grammy Nominee, Wayne Wallace. The title track, Feel The Rhythm, a beautiful Brazilian style song, received Honorable Mention at the Billboard World Music Competition.
Carly Rae Jepsen is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actress. She performed in several lead roles in her high school's musical productions, eventually pursuing musical theatre at the Canadian College of Performing Arts. Upon completing her studies, Jepsen moved to Vancouver's west side where she honed her songwriting craft. In 2007, she placed third on Canadian Idol - season five and subsequently recorded her folk-influenced debut, Tug of War.
Her breakthrough came in 2012 with her second studio album, Kiss, which marked a greater shift into mainstream pop music and was a moderate seller worldwide. Its single "Call Me Maybe" became a viral sensation, reaching number one in 18 countries and culminating as the year's best-selling single globally.
She was born Geetali Norah Jones Shankar to legendary Indian musician, Ravi Shankar, and Sue Jones in New York City. Fittingly, her birth name, Geetali, carries the meaning of "song" or "melodious", and was bestowed on her by her father. No one could have possibly imagined how fully she would embody that name, even while circumstances removed her from the influences of her father's musical gifts.
Norah Jones was raised by her mother in a Dallas suburb, and that's where her musical talents began to reveal themselves. She performed in church choirs, learned to play the piano and guitar, and even briefly tried her hand at the alto saxophone. She attended Interlochen Arts Camp, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas, and the University of North Texas, where she majored in jazz piano, and won Best Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist (twice, in 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996). At the age of sixteen, she officially shortened her name to Norah Jones, no longer carrying the Indian, "Geetali". Nonetheless, the "melodious song" was very much alive, and moving full-steam ahead.
Janis Lyn Joplin grew up in Port Arthur, Texas listening to the blues. In high school, she started singing them, first at coffee houses, and eventually in southern California and around New York's Greenwich Village. She returned to Texas to give college a try, and became heavily involved with drugs and alcohol. She was an excellent student, but continued to be drawn to the musician's life.
Joplin had become friends with Chet Helms in Austin in the early '60s. By 1966, Helms was in San Francisco promoting groups like Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead. Helms convinced Joplin to move to San Francisco and hook up with a band he was managing, Big Brother and the Holding Company. After appearing at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, the group rocketed to national prominence, and Joplin was established as a major musical star.
Joplin was the first bona fide female rock star, breaking the "girl singer" mold that existed in pop and folk music. She was smart and funny. Her lifestyle, her outfits and her vocal style were "over the top." Although she recorded only a few albums and was not a prolific songwriter, She fused blues and rock in ways that were unique among both male and female singers and her personal style opened the door to a generation of female rock singers.
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