Kimbra
Lee Johnson (born 27 March 1990), known mononymously as Kimbra, is a New
Zealand singer-songwriter/guitarist. On 29 August 2011, she released a debut
album Vows which reached the top 5 in New Zealand and Australia. On 22 May
2012, the album was released in North America, debuting at number 14 on the
Billboard charts. Kimbra featured in the multi-platinum single "Somebody
That I Used to Know" by Gotye.
Birth
name: Kimbra Lee Johnson
Born:
27 March 1990 (age 22)
Hamilton,
New Zealand
Genres:
Pop, soul, jazz
Occupations:
Singer, songwriter, musician
Instruments:
Vocals, guitar, tambourine
Years
active: 2000–present
Labels:
Forum 5, Warner Bros. Records
Associated
acts: Miami Horror, Gotye, As Tall As Lions, Mark Foster, Nesian Mystic
Ray
Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), known by his shortened
stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre
of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues
styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records. He also helped racially
integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on
ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums. While with ABC,
Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic
control by a mainstream record company. Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only
true genius in show business.”
The
influences upon his music were mainly jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and country
artists of the day such as Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Charles
Brown, Louis Armstrong. His playing reflected influences from country blues and
barrelhouse, and stride piano styles.
Rolling
Stone ranked Charles number ten on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of
All Time" in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100
Greatest Singers of All Time". In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted:
"This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important
than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll,
but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell
ever put so many styles together and made it work?"
Birth
name: Ray Charles Robinson
Born:
September 23, 1930. Albany, Georgia, United States
Origin:
Greenville, Florida, United States
Died:
June 10, 2004 (aged 73), Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Genres:
Rhythm and blues, soul, blues, soul blues, rock and roll, jazz, vocal jazz,
country, pop, gospel
Amy
Winehouse was a five-time Grammy Award-winning English singer-songwriter known
for such hits as 'Rehab' and 'You Know I'm No Good' among her other works.
She
was born Amy Jade Winehouse, on September 14, 1983, in Enfield, London, England
to a Jewish family with Russian ancestry on her mother's side. Her father,
Mitchell Winehouse, was a taxi driver; her mother, Janis Winehouse (nee
Seaton), was a pharmacist. Her family shared her love of theater and music. Amy
was brought up on jazz music; she played her brother's guitar and received her
own guitar at age 13. Young Amy Winehouse was a rebellious girl. At age 14, she
was expelled from Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, London. At that
time she pierced her nose and tattooed her body. She briefly attended the BRIT
School in Croydon, and began her professional career at 16, performing
occasional club gigs and recording low cost demos. At age 19, she recorded her
debut, Frank (2003), a jazz-tinged album that became a hit and earned her
several award nominations. During the next several years, she survived a period
of personal upheaval, a painful relationship, and has been struggling with
substance abuse. Her 2006's album 'Back on Black' was an international hit, and
'Rehab' made No. 9 on the US pop charts.
Her
big break came in 2008. Amy Winehouse became the first British female to win
five Grammy Awards on the same night, February 10th, 2008, including Best New
Artist and Record of the Year for 'Rehab'. Her Grammy performance was broadcast
from London via satellite, because she was unable to appear in person in Los
Angeles due to temporary problems with her traveling visa. Following her
success at the Grammy Awards, Winehouse gave a string of highly successful
performances during the year 2008. In June, she was suddenly hospitalized with
a serious lung condition. However, she left hospital for one evening to perform
for Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday celebration in London's Hyde Park. She
sang her hits Rehab and Valerie, drawing cheers and applause form the crowds
and a smile from Mandela. Winehouse also performed for Roman Abramovich's party
in Moscow; there she earned $2 million for her one-hour gig.
Amy
Winehouse developed a distinctive style of her own. Her signature beehive
hairstyle has become the model for fashion designers, while her vulnerability,
her fragile personality and self-destructive behavior has been regular tabloid
news, and subject of criticism and controversy. In April 2008 she was named the
second greatest "ultimate heroine" by the British population at
large, and a month later was voted the second most hated personality in the UK.
George Michael called her the "best female vocalist he has heard in his
entire career," while Keith Richards warned that she "won't be around
long" if her behavior doesn't change.
Musically,
Amy Winehouse created a cross-cultural and cross-genre style. She experimented
with an eclectic mix of jazz, soul, pop, reggae, world beat and R&B. She
had a special ability to channel hurt and despair into her performances. Her
voice, phrasing and delivery sometimes sounded like a mix between Billy
Holliday, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan, and coupled with similarities in
personal problems, she at times resembled another incarnation of legendary
"Lady Blues".
Amy
Winehouse died at the age of 27, on 23 July 2011, in her London home. She was
cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and her ashes were laid to rest in Edgwarebury
Jewish Cemetery in London, United Kingdom. Her death caused considerable
mourning worldwide.
Eunice
Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage
name Nina Simone (/ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/), was an American singer, songwriter,
pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music.
Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of
styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.
Born
the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be
a concert pianist as a child. Her musical path changed direction after she was
denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in
Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by
someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. She then
began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical
education to become a classical pianist and was required to sing as well. She
was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendition of
"I Loves You Porgy" became a smash hit in the United States in 1958.
Over the length of her career, Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly
between 1958 — when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue — and 1974.
Her
musical style arose from a fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music,
in particular with influences from her first inspiration, Johann Sebastian
Bach, and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her
characteristic low tenor. She injected as much of her classical background into
her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop
music was inferior to classical. Her intuitive grasp on the audience-performer
relationship was gained from a unique background of playing piano accompaniment
for church revivals and sermons regularly from the early age of six years.
After
20 years of performing, she became involved in the civil rights movement and
the direction of her life shifted once again. Simone's music was highly
influential in the fight for equal rights in the US.
Birth
name: Eunice Kathleen Waymon
Born:
February 21, 1933. Tryon, North Carolina, United States
Died:
April 21, 2003 (aged 70), Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
Alicia Augello Cook
(born January 25, 1981), better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an
American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Keys was
raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York
City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano. She attended Professional
Performing Arts School and graduated at 16 as valedictorian. Keys released her
debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with
Columbia and then Arista Records.
Keys' debut album,
Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies
worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B
artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including
Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". Her second studio
album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another
success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an
additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first
live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She
became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one
and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.
Keys made guest
appearances on several television series in the following years, beginning with
Charmed. She made her film debut in Smokin' Aces and went on to appear in The
Nanny Diaries in 2007. Her third studio album, As I Am, was released in the
same year and sold six million copies worldwide, earning Keys an additional
three Grammy Awards. The following year, she appeared in The Secret Life of
Bees, which earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards. She released her
fourth album, The Element of Freedom, in December 2009, which became Keys'
first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom. Throughout her career, Keys
has won numerous awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and 25
million singles, which makes her one of the best selling artists of all time.
Billboard magazine named her the top R&B artist of the 2000–2009 decade,
establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time. In 2010,
VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Billboard magazine placed her number ten on their list of Top 50
R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years.
Birth name: Alicia
Augello Cook
Also known as: Lellow
Born: January 25,
1981 (age 31)
Origin: New York
City, United States
Genres: Soul,
R&B, blues, hip hop, jazz, neo soul, electronic
Occupations:
singer-songwriter, record producer, actress
Sting
(born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner on 2 October 1951), CBE, is an English
musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor and
philanthropist. Prior to starting his solo career, he was the principal
songwriter, lead singer and bassist of the New Wave band The Police.
Sting
has varied his musical style throughout his career, incorporating distinct
elements of jazz, reggae, classical, New Age, and worldbeat into his music. As
a solo musician and member of The Police, Sting has received sixteen Grammy
Awards for his work, receiving his first Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental
Performance in 1981, three Brit Awards — winning Best British Male in 1994, a
Golden Globe, an Emmy Award, and several Oscar nominations for Best Original
Song. He is a member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters
Hall of Fame.
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