Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, musician, and producer with a career that has spanned more than 50 years. His hit recordings include "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana (At the Copa)". He has recorded and released 47 Top 40 singles, including 12 that hit number one and 27 of which appeared within the top ten, and has released many multi-platinum albums.

Bob Marley

Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician who became an international musical and cultural icon, blending mostly reggae, ska and rocksteady in his compositions. Starting out in 1963 with the group the Wailers, he forged a distinctive songwriting and vocal style that would later resonate with audiences worldwide. The Wailers would go on to release some of the earliest reggae records with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry.

Bruno Mars

Peter Gene Hernandez, better known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. Raised in Honolulu, Hawaii by a family of musicians, Mars began making music at a young age. He performed in various musical venues in his hometown throughout his childhood. He graduated from high school and then moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue a musical career. Mars produced songs for other artists, joining production team The Smeezingtons.

Mars had an unsuccessful stint with Motown Records, but then signed with Atlantic Records in 2009. He became recognized as a solo artist after lending his vocals and co-writing the hooks for the songs "Nothin' on You" by B.o.B, and "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy. He also co-wrote the hits "Right Round" by Flo Rida featuring Ke$ha, and "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan. In October 2010, he released his debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. Anchored by the worldwide number-one singles "Just the Way You Are" and "Grenade", the album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200. Mars was nominated for seven Grammys at the 53rd Grammy Awards, winning Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Just the Way You Are".

Dean Martin

Dean Martin (June 7, 1917 - December 25, 1995), born Dino Paul Crocetti, was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "Mambo Italiano", "Sway", "Volare" and smash hit "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?". Nicknamed the "King of Cool", he was one of the members of the "Rat Pack" and a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage/night clubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television.

Martina McBride

Martina Mariea McBride is an American country music singer-songwriter and record producer. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material.

McBride has recorded a total of 13 studio albums, two greatest hits compilations, one "live" album, as well as two additional compilation albums. Eight of her studio albums and two of her compilations have received an RIAA Gold certification, or higher. In the U.S. she has sold over 14 million albums. In addition, McBride has won the Country Music Association's "Female Vocalist of the Year" award four times (tied with Reba McEntire for the second-most wins) and the Academy of Country Music's "Top Female Vocalist" award three times. She is also a 14-time Grammy Award nominee.

Reba McEntire

Reba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band,(1) on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. While a sophomore in college, she performed the National Anthem at the National Rodeo in Oklahoma City and caught the attention of country artist Red Steagall who brought her to Nashville, Tennessee. She signed a contract with Mercury Records a year later in 1975. She released her first solo album in 1977 and released five additional studio albums under the label until 1983.

Bobby McFerrin

On the 11th of March, 1950, Bobby McFerrin was born. His parents were classical singers and he began to study music theory early on in his life. His family then moved to Los Angeles. During high school and then in College, UCSC, he focused on the piano. Once he finished college, Bobby McFerrin toured with numerous bands including the Ice Follies.

However, it was only in 1977 that Bobby McFerrin decide to become a singer. At one point he met Bill Cosby who arranged for him take part in the 1980 Playboy Jazz Festival. It was only two years later where he released his firm album called "Bobby McFerrin" in 1982. It was in 1983, that Bobby McFerrin started converting without a band. This eventually led him to make a solo tour in Germany. It was in Germany that he recorded his album "The Voice". From that point on, he continued to make solo tours in the most prestigious locations. It is also important to realize that Bobby McFerrin worked with several important people like Garrison Keillor, Jack Nicholson, and Joe Zawinul. On "Another Night in Tunisia", Bobby McFerrin won two Grammies.

Tim McGraw

Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts, leading him to achieve total album sales in excess of 40 million units. He is married to country singer Faith Hill and is the son of former baseball player Tug McGraw.

McGraw had 11 consecutive albums debut at Number One on the Billboard albums charts. Twenty-one singles hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. He has won 3 Grammys, 14 Academy of Country Music awards, 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, 10 American Music Awards, and 3 People's Choice Awards. His Soul2Soul II Tour with Faith Hill is the highest grossing tour in country music history, and one of the top five among all genres of music.

Sarah McLachlan

Sarah McLachlan was adopted in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a child, she took voice lessons, along with studies in classical piano and guitar. When she was 17 years old, and still a student at Queen Elizabeth High School, she fronted a short-lived rock band called The October Game. One of the band's songs, "Grind", credited as a group composition, can be found on the independent Flamingo Records release 'Out of the Fog' and the CD Out of the Fog Too. It has yet to be released elsewhere. Her high school yearbook predicted that she was "destined to become a famous rock star."

Following The October Game's first concert at Dalhousie University opening for Moev, McLachlan was offered a recording contract with Vancouver-based independent record label Nettwerk by Moev's Mark Jowett. McLachlan's parents insisted she finish high school and complete one year of studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before moving to Vancouver and embarking on a new life as a recording artist, and McLachlan finally signed to Nettwerk two years later before having written a single song.

Shawn Mendes

Shawn Peter Raul Mendes is a Canadian singer and songwriter. He attracted a following in 2013, when he began posting song covers on the video sharing application Vine. The following year, he caught the attention of artist managers Andrew Gertler and Island Records A&R Ziggy Chareton, which led to him signing a deal with the record label.

Mendes went on to release an EP and his debut studio album Handwritten, whose single "Stitches" reached the top 10 in the US and Canada, and number one in the UK. His sophomore album, Illuminate (2016), was preceded by the single "Treat You Better". Both albums debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, making Mendes one of five artists to ever debut at number one before the age of eighteen.(3) Mendes has headlined three world tours: ShawnsFirstHeadlines, the Shawn Mendes World Tour and the Illuminate World Tour.

Idina Menzel

Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress, singer, and songwriter.

Menzel rose to prominence when she originated the role of Maureen Johnson in the Broadway musical Rent. Her performance earned her a Tony Award nomination in 1996. She reprised the role in the musical's 2005 film adaptation. In 2003, Menzel originated the role of Elphaba in the Broadway musical Wicked, a performance for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Menzel returned to Broadway as Elizabeth Vaughan in the 2014 musical If/Then, which earned her a third Tony Award nomination.

Bette Midler

Gloriously flamboyant American entertainer Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, HI, to the only Jewish family in the neighborhood. After dropping out of a drama class at the University of Hawaii, she took a tiny role in the 1966 film Hawaii, playing a seasick boat passenger (though it's hard to see her when viewing the film). Training for a dancing career in New York, Midler made the casting rounds for several months before finally winning a chorus role, and then the featured part of Tzeitel, in the long-running Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof.

During her more than forty-year career, Midler has been nominated for two Academy Awards; and won four Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award.

Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli was born on March 12, 1946, the daughter of Judy Garland and movie director Vincente Minnelli. She was practically raised at MGM studios while her parents worked long hours there and she made her film debut at fourteen months of age in the movie In the Good Old Summertime (1949). Her parents divorced in 1951 and, in 1952, her mother married Sidney Luft, with sister Lorna Luft and brother Joey Luft subsequently being born. Her father, Vincente Minnelli, later married Georgette Magnani, mother of her half-sister Christiane Nina "Tina Nina" Minnelli.

At sixteen, Liza was on her own in New York City, struggling to begin her career in show business. Her first recognition came for the play "Best Foot Forward" which ran for seven months in 1963. A year later, Judy invited Liza to appear with her for a show at the London Paladium. This show sold out immediately and a second night was added to it. Liza's performance in London was a huge turning point in both her career and her relationship with her mother. The audience absolutely loved Liza and Judy realized that Liza was now an adult with her own career. It was at the Paladium that Liza met her first husband, Peter Allen, a friend of Judy's.

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell is one of the most highly regarded and influential songwriters of the 20th century. Her melodious tunes support her poetic and often very personal lyrics to make her one of the most authentic artists of her time. As a performer she is widely hailed for her unique style of playing guitar. Mitchell's unflinching struggle for her own artistic independence has made her a role model for many other musicians, and somewhat of a bane to music industry executives. She is critical of the industry and of the shallowness that she sees in much of today's popular music. Mitchell is also a noted painter and has created the beautiful artwork that appears on the packaging of her music albums.

Van Morrison

Known as "Van the Man", Morrison started his professional career when, as a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish showbands, covering the popular hits of that time. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band Them, with whom he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria". His solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. After Berns' death, Warner Bros. Records bought out his contract and allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks (1968). Though this album gradually garnered high praise, it was initially a poor seller.

Jason Mraz

Jason Thomas Mraz is an American singer-songwriter who first came to prominence in the San Diego coffee shop scene in 2000. In 2002, he released his debut studio album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)". With the release of his second album, Mr. A-Z, in 2005, Mraz achieved major commercial success. Mraz has won two Grammy Awards and received two additional nominations, and has also won two Teen Choice Awards, a People's Choice Award and the Hal David Songwriters Hall of Fame Award.

Maria Muldaur

Maria Muldaur's musical roots run deep. Born and raised in New York City's Greenwich Village, Muldaur was surrounded by bluegrass, old-timey, jazz, blues and gospel music, but her very first musical influences were from the records of country and western singers Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb. At age five, she would sing Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" while her aunt accompanied her on the piano. As a teenager, Maria tuned into early rhythm and blues and was an avid fan of Fats Domino, Little Richard, Clyde McPhatter and Ruth Brown. She became interested in the girl groups coming onto the scene and formed her own, The Cashmeres, while in high school.

Willie Nelson

Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 30, 1933)(1) is an American country singer-songwriter, author, poet, actor, and activist. His 1975 album Red Headed Stranger was a huge commercial success and, along with the 1978 album "Stardust", made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music.

Nelson started studying music from mail order material that his grandparents gave him. He wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band at nine. During high school, he toured locally with the Bohemian Fiddlers as their lead singer and guitar player. After graduating from high school in 1950, he joined the Air Force. However, he was discharged due to back problems. After his return, Nelson attended Baylor University for two years but dropped out because he was succeeding in music. During this time, he worked as a disc jockey in Texas radio stations and a singer in honky tonks.

Aaron Neville

In the long and distinguished career of Aaron Neville, Nature Boy is unique. A deeply satisfying suite of standards sung with remarkable sensitivity, Nature Boy is both a hallmark and a revelation: Aaron's feel for sweetly swinging jazz is pitch-perfect. He reinvents the Great American Songbook with a sure, soft touch; he lavishes his remarkable gifts on a project he calls "precious." Nature Boy is a classic-and classy-in every respect.

Dolly Parton

Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, actress, author, businesswoman, and humanitarian, known primarily for her work in country music.

Parton is the most honored female country performer of all time. Achieving 25 RIAA certified gold, platinum, and multi-platinum awards, she has had 25 songs reach No. 1 on the Billboard Country charts, a record for a female artist. She has 41 career top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and she has 110 career charted singles over the past 40 years. All-inclusive sales of singles, albums, hits collections, and digital downloads during her career have topped 100 million worldwide. She has garnered eight Grammy Awards, two Academy Award nominations, ten Country Music Association Awards, seven Academy of Country Music Awards, three American Music Awards, and is one of only seven female artists to win the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award. Parton has received 46 Grammy nominations, tying her with Bruce Springsteen for the most Grammy nominations and placing her in tenth place overall.

Sandi Patti

Sandra Faye "Sandi" Patty is an American Christian music singer, known for her wide vocal range and expressive flexibility which has led music critics to dub her "The Voice". Patty's career expanded after she won her first two GMA Dove Awards in 1982 and began singing backup for Bill Gaither and the Bill Gaither Trio. She headlined her first national tour in 1984 and reached national acclaim after her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was included during the ABC Statue of Liberty re-dedication broadcast on July 6, 1986. This exposure led to multiple mainstream television appearances including The Tonight Show, Christmas in Washington, Walt Disney's Fourth of July Extravaganza, and the 1998 Pepsi 400; the clip was frequently used on television sign-offs for the remainder of their existence. She was invited to sing the national anthem at the Indianapolis 500 in 1987-88, 1990-92, and once again in 2013.

Luciano Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti was the best-selling classical singer and humanitarian known for his most original and popular performances with the 'Three Tenors' and 'Pavarotti & Friends'. Pavarotti was blessed with a voice of a rare range, beauty and clarity, which was best during the 60s, 70s and 80s. In 1966 he became the first opera tenor to hit all nine "high C's" with his full voice in the aria 'Quel destin' in 'La Fille du Regiment' (aka.. The Daughter of the Regiment) by Gaetano Donizetti. He repeated this feat in his legendary 1972 Met performance and was nicknamed "King of the High C's" in rave reviews. Pavarotti's popularity was arguably bigger than that of any other living tenor in the world. His 1993 live performance in the New York's Central Park was attended by 500,000 fans while millions watched it on television. During the 1990s and 2000s Pavarotti was still showing his ability to deliver his clear ringing tone in the higher register, albeit in fewer performances.

Christina Perri

Christina Judith Perri is an American singer and songwriter from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. After her debut single "Jar of Hearts" was featured on the television series So You Think You Can Dance in 2010, Perri signed with Atlantic Records and released her debut extended play, The Ocean Way Sessions. Her debut studio album, Lovestrong (2011), followed soon after and has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Perri also gained recognition for writing and recording "A Thousand Years", the love theme for the film The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012), which appears on the accompanying soundtrack. The song went on to sell over 4 million copies in the United States, being certified 4× platinum. She later released her second extended play, A Very Merry Perri Christmas (2012), followed by her second studio album, Head or Heart

Katy Perry

Katy Perry was born in California, the middle child of pastor parents. She has an older sister and younger brother. Raised in a deeply religious family, Perry's first experience of performing was singing in church. A passion for music grew and at the age of 15, Perry began visiting Nashville, gaining experience of song writing and recording demos.

She signed to a Christian record label, Red Hill, and recorded an album, under her birth name of Katy Hudson. The album was not a success. At age 17 she moved to Los Angeles and collaborated with producer Glen Ballard, but was not able to secure a lasting record deal. Perry did sign to Columbia Records in 2004, but again this did not prove a success, and she was dropped.

Phillip Phillips

Phillip LaDon Phillips Jr. is an American singer, songwriter and musician who won the eleventh season of American Idol on May 23, 2012. His coronation song, "Home," released after his win, became the best selling of all coronation songs. His debut album The World from the Side of the Moon was released on November 19, 2012. His second album, Behind the Light, was released on May 19, 2014.

Edith Piaf

Edith Piaf born Edith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads. Among her songs are "La Vie en rose" (1946), "Non, je ne regrette rien" (1960), "Hymne a l'amour" (1949), "Milord" (1959), "La Foule" (1957), "l'Accordeoniste" (1955), and "Padam... Padam..." (1951).

Legend has it that Edith Piaf was born (as Edith Giovanna Gassion) on a Parisian street corner with two policemen attending. This is not a far-fetched idea, however, and may be true. Ediths mother was an alcoholic Italian street singer and part-time prostitute who neglected her for all of two months and then abandoned her to her father. Ediths father, Jean Gassion, was a famous acrobat who hadnt the time nor the skills to nurture an infant. He dropped the child off with his mother, the madam of a bordello, and she raised Edith through the toddler years.

Pink Pink

Alecia Beth Moore , known professionally as Pink (stylized as P!nk), is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. She was signed to her first record label with original R&B girl group Choice in 1995. The label, LaFace Records, only saw potential in Pink, offering her a solo deal. Choice disbanded in 1998. Pink rose as an artist with her debut solo album, Can't Take Me Home (2000). It was certified double-platinum in the United States and spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hits: "There You Go" and "Most Girls". She gained further recognition with the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack "Lady Marmalade", which gave Pink her first Grammy Award as well as her first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100.

Rachel Platten

Rachel Ashley Platten is an American singer and songwriter. She released three independent albums between 2003 and 2014, before signing with Columbia Records in early 2015.

She rose to fame in 2015 with the release of the single "Fight Song", which peaked at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100, topped the charts in the United Kingdom and peaked within the top ten of multiple charts worldwide. Platten won an Emmy Award for the live performance of the song on Good Morning America. Her major-label debut album, Wildfire, released in 2016, was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and also featured "Stand by You" and "Better Place".

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on Tuesday, January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo, Mississippi. In September 1948 when Elvis was 13, he and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After graduating from Humes High School in Memphis, Elvis took odd jobs working as a movie theater usher and a truck driver for Crown Electric Company. He began singing locally as "The Hillbilly Cat", then signed with a local recording company, then in 1955 with RCA. He did much to establish early rock and roll music, bringing black blues singing into the white, teenage mainstream. Teenage girls became hysterical over his blatantly sexual gyrations, particularly the one that got him nicknamed "Elvis the Pelvis" (TV cameras were not permitted to film below his waist). At the time of his death, he had sold more than 600-million singles and albums.

Otis Redding

Otis Ray Redding Jr. was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, and talent scout. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. Redding's style of singing gained inspiration from the gospel music that preceded the genre. His singing style influenced many other soul artists of the 1960s, such as James Carr and Freddie Jackson. (Woodstra and Elewine) During his lifetime, his recordings were produced by Stax Records, based in Memphis, Tennessee.

Lana Del Rey

Vocalist Lana Del Rey makes atmospheric, orchestral, retro-'60s-sounding pop that showcases her torchy image and sensuously husky singing style. A native of Lake Placid, New York, Del Rey released the single, "Kill Kill", under her given name, Lizzy Grant, in 2009, before remaking herself into the pop femme fatale character, Lana Del Rey. A video for the single, "Video Games", appeared online in August of 2011 and drew considerable buzz, as did a secret show she performed at Brooklyn's Grasslands Gallery that September. Del Rey's EP, featuring the songs "Video Games" and "Blue Jeans", was released in fall 2011. Amidst a heavy dose of hype, her debut album, "Born to Die", was announced by Interscope for release early the following year. Del Rey cemented the anticipation around the album with an appearance on "Saturday Night Live" (1975), becoming the first artist since Natalie Imbruglia, in 1998, to perform on the show before the release of her debut album.

Lionel Richie

A founder member of the Commodores, Lionel Richie's debut solo album was a U.S. #3 hit in 1982, and "Truly," a ballad from that album, reached #1, winning him a Grammy. He performed one of his most popular hits, "All Night Long" (1983), at the closing ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and co-wrote the famine relief song "We Are the World" with Michael Jackson in 1993.

Singer and songwriter Lionel Richie born on June 20, 1949 in Tuskegee, Alabama, USA. His grandfather worked at the Tuskegee Institute with Booker T. Washington.

A founder member of the Commodores, his debut solo album Lionel Richie (1982) was a US number 3 hit, and 'Truly', a ballad from that album, reached US number 1, winning him a Grammy award. He performed one of his most popular hits, 'All Night Long' (1983), at the closing ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Richie co-wrote the famine relief song 'We Are The World' with Michael Jackson in 1993. Later albums include Louder Than Words (1996), Renaissance (2000), and Coming Home (2006).

Rihanna Rihanna

Robyn Rihanna Fenty, known by the mononym Rihanna, is a Barbadian singer, songwriter, and actress. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados and raised in Bridgetown, during 2003 she recorded demo tapes under the direction of record producer Evan Rogers and signed a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for its then-president, hip hop producer and rapper Jay Z. In 2005, Rihanna rose to fame with the release of her debut studio album Music of the Sun and its follow-up A Girl like Me (2006), which charted on the top 10 of the US Billboard 200 and respectively produced the singles "Pon de Replay" and "SOS".

LeAnn Rimes

LeAnn Rimes (born August 28, 1982) is an American country singer-songwriter, actress, and author. She is best known for her rich vocals similar to country music singer Patsy Cline, and her rise to fame at the age of 13, becoming the youngest country music star since Tanya Tucker in 1972.

Since her debut, Rimes has won many major industry awards, which include two Grammys, three ACMs, one CMA, twelve Billboard Music Awards, and one American Music award. In addition, Rimes has also released ten studio albums and four compilation albums through her record label of 13 years, Asylum-Curb, and placed over 40 singles on American and international charts since 1996. She has sold over 37 million records worldwide, with 20.3 million album sales in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Olivia Rodrigo

Olivia Isabel Rodrigo (born February 20, 2003) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She first rose to prominence as a child actress on the Disney television programs Bizaardvark (2016-2019) and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019-2022).

After her 2020 signing with Geffen and Interscope Records, Rodrigo released her debut single, "Drivers License", which broke various records and became one of the best-selling songs of 2021, helping her achieve mainstream fame. She followed it up with the singles "Deja Vu" and "Good 4 U", and released her debut studio album, Sour, in 2021. The album earned her critical and commercial success, winning various accolades, including three Grammy Awards. A Disney+ documentary, Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U, followed in 2022, chronicling her creative process with Sour.

Linda Ronstadt

Singer. Born on July 14, 1946, in Tucson, Arizona. From a musically inclined family, Ronstadt left college to her dreams of being a singer in Los Angeles. Although she recorded and performed with the Stone Poneys and a solo artist for years, she finally found success with Heart Like a Wheel (1974). The album had several hits, including "You're No Good" and "When Will I Be Loved." The album went platinum-meaning it sold more than one million copies-as did her next few albums, establishing her as a music superstar during the 1970s.

In 1980s, Ronstadt tried her hand at pop standards, working with famed arranger Nelson Riddle. Together they put out three albums: Lush Life (1982), What's New (1983), and For Sentimental Reasons (1986). She also explored her Hispanic heritage by recording a Spanish-language album Canciones de Mi Padre (1987), which was filled with traditional Mexican songs like the ones her father loved. Two other Spanish-language albums followed-Mas Canciones (1990) and Frenesi (1992).

Diana Ross

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Ross rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes, which, during the 1960s, became Motown's most successful act, and is to this day the United States' most successful vocal group, as well as one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. Ross' success as lead singer of The Supremes helped to make it possible for future African-American R&B and soul acts to find mainstream success. The group released a record-setting twelve number-one hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "You Can't Hurry Love", "You Keep Me Hangin' On", "Love Child", and "Someday We'll Be Together".

Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka is an American pop singer, pianist, composer and record producer. Since his music career began in 1957, he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and others, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard Greenfield and Phil Cody.

After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School, Sedaka and some of his classmates formed a band called the Tokens. The band had minor regional hits with songs like "While I Dream", "I Love My Baby", "Come Back, Joe", and "Don't Go", before Sedaka launched out on his own in 1957. Sedaka's first three solo singles, "Laura Lee", "Ring-a-Rockin'", and "Oh, Delilah!" failed to become hits (although "Ring-a-Rockin'" earned him the first of many appearances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand), but they demonstrated his ability to perform as a solo singer, so RCA Victor signed him to a recording contract.

Shakira Shakira

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, known as Shakira, is a Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer, and record producer. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she began performing in school, demonstrating Latin American, Arabic, and rock and roll influences and belly dancing abilities. Shakira's first studio albums, Magia and Peligro, failed to attain commercial success in the 1990s; however, she rose to prominence in Latin America with her major-label debut, Pies Descalzos (1996), and her fourth album, Donde Estan los Ladrones?

Shakira has received numerous awards and recognition for her work. According to Sony, Shakira is the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold between 50 and 60 million records.

Ed Sheeran

Edward Christopher Sheeran, MBE is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk. He attended the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, Surrey, as an undergraduate from the age of 18 in 2009. In early 2011, Sheeran independently released the extended play, No. 5 Collaborations Project. After signing with Asylum Records, his debut album, + (read as "plus"), was released on 9 September 2011 and has since been certified seven-times platinum in the UK. The album contains the single "The A Team", which earned him the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In 2012, Sheeran won the Brit Awards for Best British Male Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act.

Sia Sia

Sia Kate Isobelle Furler is an Australian singer-songwriter,record producer and music video director. She started her career as a singer in the local Adelaide acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she released her debut studio album titled OnlySee in Australia. She then moved to London, England, and provided lead vocals for the British duo Zero 7.

In 2000, Sia signed to Sony Music's sub-label Dance Pool and released her second studio album, Healing Is Difficult, the following year. Displeased with the promotion of the record, she signed to Go! Beat and released her third studio album, Colour the Small One, in 2004. The project struggled to connect with a mainstream audience, and so Sia relocated to New York City in 2005 and began touring across the United States. She released her fourth and fifth studio releases, Some People Have Real Problems and We Are Born, in 2008 and 2010, respectively. She then took a hiatus from performing, during which she focused on songwriting for other artists. Her catalogue includes the successful collaborations "Titanium" (with David Guetta), "Diamonds" (with Rihanna) and "Wild Ones" (with Flo Rida).

Janis Siegel

Over the past four and a half decades, the voice of Janis Siegel, a nine-time Grammy winner and a seventeen-time Grammy nominee, has been an undeniable force in The Manhattan Transfer's diverse musical catalog. Alongside her career as a founding member of this musical institution, Siegel has also sustained a solo career that has spawned almost a dozen finely-crafted solo albums and numerous collaborative projects, amassed a large international fan base and garnered consistently high critical praise.

Norm Silver

Norm Silver is a founding member of the nationally acclaimed 17th Avenue All-Stars, an award winning a cappella group with six successful CD's, 3 time Western Regional Championships and 1993 National Harmony Sweepstakes Winners. They have opened for the Temptations, BB King, Robert Cray, America, Mel Torme, and The Fifth Dimension, performed at the Winter Park Jazz Festival, Chama Music Festival, Live Oak Festival in Santa Barbara and appeared in the feature film "The Laramie Project."

Carly Simon

She was raised in the Riverdale section of New York City with two sisters and a brother. Her father, Richard Simon, played Chopin and Beethoven on the piano. Three of her uncles gained distinction in various fields of music. George, as an authority on Jazz, Henry, as a Musicologist and book editor and Alfred as the music director of a classical radio station.

She attended Riverdale county school and spent two years at Sarah Lawrence before dropping out to form a folk duo with her sister, Lucy. They billed themselves as the Simon Sisters and managed to get work at small clubs on the eastern seaboard. Lucy eventually left the act and married a physician. Carly's eldest sister Joanna was a professional opera singer.

She met her first husband James Taylor as a child when their parents had summered near one another on Martha's Vinyard. She married Taylor in 1971 and they later divorced. She has been married to writer Jim Hart since 1981 and they live on Martha's Vineyard, Mass. She has a son and daughter from her marriage to James Taylor.

Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra has been called the greatest popular singer of the century. Whether that is true, in a century that also offers us Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and many others is, of course, a matter of personal emotional choice and, therefore, unknowable. What can be said is that under the intense and fickle scrutiny of the pop marketplace for nearly two-thirds of a century, Sinatra's music was in the air the world breathed and fell out of fashion only long enough for the deserters either to grow up or recognize that what was offered in its place was almost always trash by comparison.

Frank Sinatra, American singer and motion-picture actor who, through a long career and a very public personal life, became one of the most sought-after performers in the entertainment industry; he is often hailed as the greatest American singer of 20th-century popular music.

Moira Smiley

Moira Smiley is a Singer / Composer who creates and performs new work for voices. A musical polyglot, and vocal shape-shifter, her voice - and composing - are heard on feature films, BBC & PBS television programs, NPR, and on more than 60 albums. She accompanies herself with banjo, accordion, piano and percussive movement, and when she's not leading her own group, moira smiley & VOCO, Moira has toured with Indie artist tUnE-yArDs, Irish super-group, Solas, The Lomax Project and Billy Childs' "Laura Nyro Re-Imagined". She's also toured with Paul Hillier's Theater of Voices and KITKA. Recent solo performances include TED, Stravinsky's 'Les Noces', the London Proms Festival, features on BBC Radio3, and ABC Australia's Books & Arts programs. Moira's recordings feature spare, vocally driven collections of warped traditional songs, original polyphony and body percussion. She is a well-known choral composer (recent commissions included for Los Angeles Master Chorale) and arranger, with millions of singers around the world singing her works. In 2018, she released a solo album and choral songbook called 'Unzip The Horizon'.

Sam Smith

Samuel Frederick Smith is an English singer-songwriter. He rose to fame in October 2012 when he was featured on Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart. His subsequent feature-on Naughty Boy's "La La La"-earned him his first number one single in May 2013. In December 2013, he was nominated for the 2014 Brit Critics' Choice Award and the BBC's Sound of 2014 poll, both of which he won.

Esperanza Spalding

Hailed as a prodigy on the acoustic double bass within months of first touching the instrument as a 15-year-old, Esperanza Spalding has emerged as a fine jazz bassist, but has also distinguished herself playing blues, funk, hip-hop, pop fusion, and Brazilian and Afro-Cuban styles as well. Born in Portland, OR in 1984, Spalding was not well served by the public school system and soon dropped out of classes to be home schooled. Returning to the public school system at 15, she encountered her first acoustic bass (she had already been playing violin for several years) and immediately took to the instrument. Dropping out of school again, Spalding enrolled in classes at Portland State University as a 16-year-old, and earned her B.A. in just three years and was immediately hired as an instructor in the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston in the spring of 2005. After touring and playing with a whole host of artists, including Joe Lovano, Patti Austin, Michel Camilo, Charlie Haden, Regina Carter, Pat Metheny, Dave Samuels, and a host of others.

Britney Spears

Britney Jean Spears was born in rural Louisiana (Kentwood) to Jamie Spears and Lynne Spears. As a child, Britney attended dance classes, and she was great at gymnastics, winning many competitions and the like. But, most of all, Britney loved to sing. At age 8, Britney tried out for "The All New Mickey Mouse Club" (1989), but was turned down due to her young age. This directed her to an off-Broadway show, "Ruthless", for a 2-year run as the title character. At age 11, she again tried for "The All New Mickey Mouse Club" (1989) and, this time, made it as a mouseketeer alongside many stars of today (Justin Timberlake and J.C. Chasez of *NSYNC and Ryan Gosling). Her big break, however, came when she was signed as a Jive Recording Artist in the late 90s. With the release of her debut album, "...Baby One More Time" in early 1999, Britney became an international success, selling 13 million copies of "Baby" and 9 million (as of July 2001) of her sophomore album, "Oops!...I Did It Again", released in May of 2000.

Dusty Springfield

Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien, better known as Dusty Springfield, was an English pop singer and record producer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive sensual mezzo-soprano sound, she was an important blue-eyed soul singer and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with six top 20 singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 and sixteen on the UK Singles Chart from 1963 to 1989. She is a member of the US Rock and Roll and UK Music Halls of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time. Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde bouffant hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up, as well as her flamboyant performances made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.

Born in West Hampstead to a family that enjoyed music, Springfield learned to sing at home. In 1958 she joined her first professional group, The Lana Sisters, and two years later formed a pop-folk vocal trio, The Springfields, with her brother Tom Springfield and Tim Field. The Springfields became the UK's top selling act. Her solo career began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit, "I Only Want to Be with You".