(48,'Madonna','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958) is an American pop singer-songwriter. Through her music career, she has also gained some notability as a dancer, record producer, film producer, actress, author and a fashion icon. She is a multiple Grammy- and Golden Globe-award winner, known for her ambitious music videos, stage performances and use of sexual and religious themes in her work.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Since her debut in 1982, Madonna has released many chart-topping albums and singles, and has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide. Billboard reported that her 2006 Confessions Tour holds the record for the top-grossing concert tour by a female artist. According to both the 2007 Guinness Book of Records, and Forbes, she is the top earning female singer in the world with an estimated net worth of over $325 million. In 2001, the Guinness Book of World Records listed Madonna as the &quot;World’s Most-successful Female Musician&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On December 13, 2007, it was announced that Madonna would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone (her adopted Catholic confirmation name but not legal second middle name is Veronica) in Bay City, Michigan, the daughter of Madonna Louise (née Fortin), who was of French-Canadian descent (though born in Bay City), and Silvio &quot;Tony&quot; P. Ciccone, a first-generation Italian-American who worked as Chrysler/General Motors design engineer and whose parents originated from Pacentro. Madonna is the third of six children (her siblings are Martin, Anthony, Paula, Christopher, and Melanie).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">She was raised in a Catholic family in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township (now Rochester Hills). Madonna&apos;s mother died of breast cancer at age 30 on December 1, 1963. Her father later married the family housekeeper, Joan Gustafson, and they had two children, Jennifer and Mario, together.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna convinced her father to allow her to take ballet classes. Her ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn, exposed Madonna to gay discotheques. As a young girl, Madonna attended St. Frederick&apos;s Elementary School and St. Andrew&apos;s Elementary School (present day Holy Family Regional) and West Middle School. She attended Rochester Adams High School, where she was a straight-A student and a member of the cheerleading squad. Madonna received a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan after graduating from high school. </FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After being convinced by her ballet teacher, she left the University of Michigan at the end of her sophomore year, in 1977, and moved to New York City to pursue a dance career. Madonna has said:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">“ 	When I came to New York, it was the first time I&apos;d ever taken a plane, the first time I&apos;d ever gotten a taxi-cab, the first time for everything. And I came here with $35 in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I&apos;d ever done. 	”</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">She had little money and for some time lived in squalor, working low-paying jobs including a stint at Dunkin&apos; Donuts. She also worked as a nude model. She studied with Martha Graham and Pearl Lang, and later performed with several modern dance companies, including Alvin Ailey and the Walter Nicks dancers.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">While performing as a dancer for the French disco artist Patrick Hernandez, on his 1979 world tour, Madonna became romantically involved with the musician Dan Gilroy, with whom she later formed her first rock band, the Breakfast Club, back in New York. In it, she sang and played drums and guitar before forming the band Emmy in 1980 with drummer and former boyfriend Stephen Bray. She and Bray wrote and produced dance songs that brought her local attention in New York dance clubs. DJ and record producer Mark Kamins was impressed by her demo recordings, so he brought them to the attention of Sire Records founder Seymour Stein.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1982–1985: Breakthrough</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1982, Madonna signed a singles deal with Sire Records, a new wave label belonging to Warner Bros. Records, while the label&apos;s owner, Seymour Stein was in the hospital. He signed her from his hospital room. Her first release, on October 6, 1982, was &quot;Everybody&quot;, a self-written song produced by Mark Kamins (the U.S. 12&quot; single was released on April 24, 1982). It became a hit on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Chart peaking at #3, but failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Next was Burning Up in March of 1983, and it was also a success on the U.S. dance charts peaking at #3. These results convinced Sire Records to finance an entire album by Madonna. On May 5, 1983 a double A-sided promotional 7&quot; single for &quot;Physical Attraction&quot; was released to U.S. radio but there was no chart activity.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Her debut album, Madonna, a collection of dance songs, was primarily produced by Reggie Lucas, who had also produced for several R&amp;B singers including Stephanie Mills. Madonna felt Lucas would be the producer to get the best vocals from her as he had experience working with many established R&amp;B singers. After finishing several songs, however, she was dissatisfied with the outcome. She felt her vocals were fine but was displeased with Lucas&apos; music tracks. Madonna took the finished product to her then-boyfriend John &quot;Jellybean&quot; Benitez, who remixed and rearranged them. He also added a song (&quot;Holiday&quot;). Once released, the album would see a slow start but eventually reached number eight on the U.S. albums chart and contained three successful Billboard Hot 100 singles, &quot;Holiday&quot; (U.S. #16), &quot;Borderline&quot; (U.S. #10), and &quot;Lucky Star&quot; (U.S. #4). At the time of its release, Madonna sold two million copies worldwide, one million of those in the U.S. It has since been certified with current sales of eight million worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna&apos;s look and manner of dress, portrayed in photographs, live performances and music videos, became increasingly influential among young girls and women. Defined by lace tops, skirts over capri pants, fishnet stockings, jewelry bearing the Christian cross, and bleached hair, this distinctive style became an iconic female fashion trend in the 1980s.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Her follow up album, Like a Virgin, became her first number one album on the U.S. albums chart. Buoyed by the success of its title track, Like a Virgin, which reached number one in the U.S. with a six week stay at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. Other hits included &quot;Material Girl&quot; (U.S. #2, kept out of the number one spot by USA For Africa&apos;s &quot;We Are The World&quot;), Angel&quot; (U.S. #5) and &quot;Dress You Up&quot; (U.S. #5). The album sold eight million copies in the US and another four million worldwide at its time of release. It currently stands at 17 million copies worldwide. It also produced four top-five singles in the UK. She performed the title song at the first MTV Video Music Awards, during which she writhed on the stage, on top of a wedding cake, wearing a combination bustier/wedding gown, lacy stockings, garters, and her then-trademark &quot;Boy Toy&quot; belt.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1985, Madonna entered mainstream films, beginning with a brief appearance as a club singer in the film Vision Quest. The soundtrack to the film contained her second U.S. number one pop hit, the Grammy-nominated ballad &quot;Crazy for You&quot;, as well as the UK hit &quot;Gambler&quot;. (Incidently, these songs were released by Geffen Records during the run of Madonna&apos;s &quot;Like a Virgin&quot; album. Sire Records stopped releasing material after the release of the singles &quot;Like a Virgin&quot; and &quot;Material Girl&quot; as not to overlap Geffen&apos;s releases from the soundtrack. After the Geffen songs had run their course, Sire would continue promotion on the album by releasing additional singles; &quot;Angel&quot; and &quot;Dress You Up&quot;.) Later that year, she appeared in Desperately Seeking Susan. The film introduced the dance song &quot;Into the Groove&quot;, which was released as the B-side of the U.S. 12&quot; single &quot;Angel&quot;, and became an international hit, her first number one in the UK.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna embarked on her first concert tour in the U.S. in 1985 titled The Virgin Tour, with opening act The Beastie Boys.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In July 1985, Penthouse and Playboy magazines published a number of black and white nude photos of Madonna taken in the late 1970s. The publications caused public controversy. Madonna took legal action to try and block them from being published, but when that failed she became unapologetic and defiant. Speaking to a global audience at the outdoor Live Aid charity concert at the height of the controversy, Madonna made a critical reference to the media and stated she would not take her jacket off, despite the heat, because &quot;they might hold it against me ten years from now&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1986–1991: Artistic Development</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna&apos;s 1986 album True Blue prompted Rolling Stone to declare, &quot;singing better than ever, Madonna stakes her claim as the pop poet of lower-middle-class America.&quot; The album included the soulful ballad &quot;Live to Tell&quot;, which she wrote for the film At Close Range, starring her then-husband Sean Penn. It was also the first to credit her as producer. She collaborated with composer Patrick Leonard, who would become a long-time collaborator and friend. True Blue reached #1 in various countries and sold over eleven million copies worldwide at its time of release. It spawned five successful singles, which all reached the top five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart: “Live to Tell” (U.S. #1), “Papa Don&apos;t Preach” (U.S. #1), “Open Your Heart” (U.S. #1), “True Blue” (U.S. #3) and “La Isla Bonita” (U.S. #4).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The music videos for the album displayed Madonna’s continued interest in pushing the boundaries of the video medium to a cinematic level, including elaborate art direction, cinematography, and film devices such as character and plot. Though Madonna had already made videos expressing her sexuality, she added religious iconography, gender archetypes, and social issues to her oeuvre, and these concepts would carry through her work for years to come. One notable example was the &quot;Open Your Heart&quot; video, her first collaboration with French photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1987, Madonna starred in Who&apos;s That Girl, and contributed four songs to its soundtrack, including the film&apos;s title track. Its second single, &quot;Causing a Commotion&quot; peaked in the U.S. at #2 for three weeks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna embarked on the Who&apos;s That Girl World Tour the same year, at the time the highest-grossing tour in music history, beginning her long association with backing vocalists and dancers Donna DeLory and Niki Haris, and moving closer to the more elaborately staged theater-inspired concert tour. It also marked her first run-in with the Vatican, with Pope John Paul II urging fans not to attend her performances in Italy. Later that year, Madonna released a remix album of past hits, You Can Dance, which included one new song, &quot;Spotlight.&quot; The album sold over one million copies in the U.S. and 5 million worldwide. In 1988, city officials in the town of Pacentro, Italy, planned to construct a 13-foot (4 m) statue of Madonna in a bustier. The statue was intended to commemorate the fact that some of Madonna&apos;s ancestors had lived in Pacentro.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna&apos;s fourth album, Like a Prayer, released in 1989, was co-written and co-produced with Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray. She teamed up with Prince on a duet, and he also played guitar on two songs. Like a Prayer garnered Madonna the strongest reviews of her career and attracted a more mature audience. All Music Guide described the album as &quot;her best and most consistent&quot;, while Rolling Stone hailed the album as &quot;..as close to art as pop music gets&quot;. Like a Prayer peaked at number one on the US album chart and sold seven million copies worldwide, with 4 million copies alone sold in the U.S. The album produced five hit singles: the title track, “Express Yourself&quot; (U.S. #2), “Cherish&quot; (U.S. #2), “Oh Father” and “Keep It Together&quot; (U.S. #8). The title song hit number one and became her seventh #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In January of 1990, &quot;Oh Father&quot; peaked in the U.S. at #20 and broke Madonna&apos;s string of 17 consecutive Top 10 hits from &quot;Borderline&quot; (1984) to &quot;Cherish&quot; (1989).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In early 1989, Madonna signed an endorsement deal with soft drink manufacturer Pepsi. She appeared and debuted her new song, “Like a Prayer,” in a Pepsi commercial and also made a separate music video which was not related to Pepsi. Although the commercial itself was not controversial, the video for “Like a Prayer” caused an uproar. The video premiered on MTV and featured many Catholic symbols, such as stigmata. The video depicted a black man who comes to the aid of a white woman being murdered by white men but the black man is arrested for the crime. Madonna, who has witnessed the crime, secures his release. Since the commercial and music video were nearly identical in visual terms, Pepsi was unable to convince the public that their commercial actually had nothing that could be deemed inappropriate. Pepsi revoked the commercial and allowed Madonna to keep her five million dollar fee, as the contract was nullified.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1990, Madonna starred as &quot;Breathless&quot; Mahoney in a film adaptation of the popular comic book series Dick Tracy. To accompany the launching of the film, in May 1990 she released I&apos;m Breathless, which included songs from and inspired by the film&apos;s 1930s setting. It featured her eighth U.S. #1 house music anthem &quot;Vogue&quot;, the Gershwin-esque &quot;Something to Remember&quot;, and three songs by Stephen Sondheim, including &quot;Sooner or Later&quot;, which won an Academy Award for &apos;Best Original Song&apos;, I&apos;m Breathless was a success in Europe, Australia and the United States, and sold 7 million copies worldwide (2x platinum in the U.S.). The second single released from &quot;I&apos;m Breathless&quot; was the saucy serving &quot;Hanky Panky&quot; which describes the pleasures of a nice spanky; the song would peak in the U.S. at #10.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">From April until August 1990, Madonna toured Japan, North America, and Europe on her Blond Ambition World Tour, which the singer likened to musical theatre. Featuring now familiar religious and sexual themes and symbolism, the tour drew controversy from Madonna&apos;s performance of &quot;Like a Virgin&quot;, during which two male dancers caressed her body before she simulated masturbation.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 1990, Madonna released her first greatest hits compilation album, The Immaculate Collection, which included two new songs: “Justify My Love” and “Rescue Me.” Considering that Madonna did not want to release &quot;Rescue Me&quot; as a single, it became the highest-debuting single by a female artist in U.S. chart history, entering the U.S. charts at number 15 and eventually peaking at #9. The music video for “Justify My Love,” again directed by Mondino, showed Madonna at the Royal Monceau Hotel in Paris, in suggestive scenes with her then-lover, model/actor Tony Ward, as well as scenes of S&amp;M, bondage with gay and lesbian characters, and brief nudity. It was deemed too sexually explicit for MTV, and was subsequently banned from the station. Warner Bros Records released the video as a video single — the first of its kind — and it became a very successful music video. &quot;Justify My Love&quot; &quot;curled&quot; the toes of U.S. radio stations so to speak and became her ninth #1 single in the U.S.. The album to date has sold over fifteen million copies worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1991, Madonna starred in her first documentary film, Truth or Dare (also known as In Bed with Madonna outside North America), which chronicled her successful 1990 Blond Ambition Tour, as well as her personal life. The following year, she appeared in the baseball film A League of Their Own with a mostly critically praised (one of her few film honors) portrayal of Italian American Mae Mordabito and recorded the film&apos;s theme song, &quot;This Used to Be My Playground&quot;, which became her tenth #1 single in the United States.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1992–1997: &quot;Sex&quot; controversy and becoming &quot;Evita&quot;</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Erotica, produced primarily with Shep Pettibone, featured three (out of fourteen) overtly sexual songs: &quot;Erotica&quot;, &quot;Where Life Begins&quot;, and &quot;Did You Do It?&quot;. The album peaked at number two in the U.S. and produced six singles, the most successful being its title track “Erotica” (U.S. #3). &quot;Erotica&quot; became the highest-debuting single in the history of the U.S. Hot 100 Airplay chart entering at #2. Other singles released included &quot;Deeper and Deeper&quot; (U.S. #7), &quot;Bad Girl&quot; (U.S. #36) and &quot;Rain&quot; (U.S. #14). &quot;Fever&quot; and &quot;Bye Bye Baby&quot; went on to be Top 10 singles in other parts of the world. The album coincided with the release of her coffee table book Sex which depicted the singer in many erotic positions, generating a great deal of controversy.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Girlie Show World Tour in 1993 featured Madonna dressed as a whip-cracking dominatrix, surrounded by topless dancers, including Luca Tommassini and Carrie Ann Inaba. The controversy surrounding the tour continued when she caused an uproar in Puerto Rico by rubbing the island&apos;s flag between her legs on stage, while Orthodox Jews protested against her first-ever show in Israel. Madonna would later comment that this period of her life was designed to give the world every single morsel of what they seemed to be demanding in their invasion of her private life.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the spring of 1994, after the backlash she received from the album Erotica and the coffee table book SEX, Madonna released the single &quot;I&apos;ll Remember&quot; (U.S. #2). She recorded the song for Alek Keshishian&apos;s film &quot;With Honors&quot; and put her back in good graces with American radio and the American buying public.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna released her sixth studio album Bedtime Stories in 1994, co-produced by Nellee Hooper and Dallas Austin. At the time, she was inspired by R&amp;B/rock singer Joi&apos;s debut album Pendulum Vibe, and was so in love with it that she recruited producer Dallas Austin to help with her project. The album features Madonna turning to a more R&amp;B-flavored sound. It was a success in Europe, Australia, and the United States, where it peaked at number three and was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Pop Vocal Album category. With its title track partially written by Björk, the album gave a hint of what would come musically a few years later. It produced four singles - the lead off single &quot;Secret&quot; (U.S. #3), &quot;Take a Bow&quot; (Co-written and produced with Babyface), &quot;Bedtime Story&quot; and &quot;Human Nature&quot;. &quot;Take a Bow&quot; was a success on the Billboard Hot 100, staying #1 for seven consecutive weeks, but became the first Madonna song not to chart in the UK Top 10, peaking at number 16. The Michael Haussman Spanish-themed video, meanwhile, would later help her win the lead role in Evita. The latter two singles would struggle on the U.S. chart with &quot;Bedtime Story&quot; peaking at #42 and &quot;Human Nature&quot; peaking at #46. This was the first time in the U.S. since 1983 that a Madonna single did not enter the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 7 November 1995, Madonna released Something to Remember, a collection of her best ballads, which featured three new tracks, including a cover of the Marvin Gaye classic “I Want You,” which she recorded with the British band Massive Attack, and the top ten hit (U.S. #6) “You&apos;ll See.” The album just missed the top five on the U.S. charts; it has since been certified triple platinum. The second single from &quot;Something to Remember&quot; was &quot;Love Don&apos;t Live Here Anymore&quot; (U.S. #78) which is a song previously released on the album &quot;Like a Virgin&quot; (1984).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1996, Madonna’s most critically successful film, Evita, was released. The film&apos;s soundtrack became her twelfth platinum album and produced two hit singles, “Don&apos;t Cry for Me Argentina” - her version hit #8 in the U.S., and “You Must Love Me” (U.S. #18), the latter of which was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics) specifically for the film. “You Must Love Me” won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song From a Motion Picture the following year. Madonna herself also won a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy but failed to receive an Academy Award nomination.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1998–2002: &quot;Ray of Light&quot;</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">1998&apos;s Ray of Light blended personal and introspective lyrics with Eastern sounds, down-tempo, electronic instrumentation, strings by Craig Armstrong and a strong rave flavor. The album reached number two on the U.S. albums chart and since its release has been certified 4x platinum. It earned Madonna the strongest reviews of her career since Like a Prayer. After some errors in her pronunciation of Sanskrit shlokas on Ray of Light, the BBC, London, arranged for her to take telephonic lessons to learn the basic correct pronunciation of Sanskrit words from eminent scholar Dr B P T Vagish Shastri. She then made the necessary pronunciation corrections on the album. Amazon.com described the album as &quot;her richest, most accomplished record yet&quot;, while Rolling Stone credited Madonna and her co-producer William Orbit for &quot;creating the first mainstream pop album that successfully embraces techno&quot;, stating that musically Ray of Light is her &quot;most adventurous record&quot; yet. Ray of Light produced five singles, including &quot;Frozen&quot; . The album won three awards at the 1999 Grammy Awards and has been ranked #363 on Rolling Stone&apos;s list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Microsoft used the Ray of Light title track in its 2001 advertising campaign Yes you can, to introduce Windows XP. Other singles released include &quot;Ray of Light&quot; (U.S. #5), &quot;The Power of Good-Bye&quot; (U.S. #11), and &quot;Nothing Really Matters&quot; (U.S. #93). The song &quot;Drowned World/Substitute For Love&quot; went on to be a Top 10 hit in other parts of the world. In 1998, Madonna was signed to play the role of violin teacher Roberta Guaspari Demetras in the film Music of the Heart, and studied for many months to play the violin for the role, but left the project before filming began, citing &quot;creative differences&quot; with director Wes Craven.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The children of Opus 118 - Harlem School of Music, led by Roberta Guaspari, performed with Madonna twice in 1998: &quot;Frozen&quot; at the Annual Rain Forest Benefit at Carnegie Hall, New York and at the 1998 VH1 Fashion Awards performing &quot;The Power of Good-Bye&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna followed the success of Ray of Light with the top-twenty single (U.S. #19) &quot;Beautiful Stranger&quot;, a late 60s psyche-pop song she wrote with William Orbit and recorded for the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack (1999). In 2000, Madonna starred in The Next Best Thing, her first film since &quot;Evita&quot;. Madonna contributed two songs to the film&apos;s soundtrack, &quot;Time Stood Still&quot; and the U.S. Top 40 (#29) / British chart-topper &quot;American Pie&quot;, a cover version of the 1970s Don McLean single.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Music, her eighth studio album, had Madonna getting back to the spirit of dance and house music. Despite this, she retained the moodiness of Ray of Light in &quot;Paradise (Not for Me)&quot; and introduced folk guitars in the top ten hit “Don&apos;t Tell Me” (U.S. #4) and the ballad “Gone.” Music debuted at number one on both the US and UK album charts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">It was her first US number one album since 1989&apos;s Like a Prayer. Mainly co-written and produced with French house musician Mirwais Ahmadzai, the album produced three singles, including the title track, which made number one in 26 countries including the U.S.. The third single, “What It Feels Like for a Girl” (U.S. #23), featured a controversial music video, directed by Madonna&apos;s husband, Guy Ritchie.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001, Madonna embarked on the Drowned World Tour, her first tour in eight years. It was the subject of a television special in the US and was released on DVD in November 2001 to coincide with the release of her second greatest hits album, GHV2.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2002, Madonna starred in the film Swept Away. Later that year, she released the theme song to the James Bond film Die Another Day, in which she had a brief role. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for both a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and a Golden Raspberry for Worst Song.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2003–2006: Commercial Fluctuations and Adoption Controversy</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna released her ninth studio album, American Life, in April 2003. The lyrics were themed on the aspects of the American dream, fame, fortune and society. The record received mixed reviews. The music video for the first single, &quot;American Life&quot;, caused controversy, as it contained scenes depicting war, explosions, and blood. The day before the video was to air on European television, Madonna pulled it and released an edited version, which showed her singing in front of flags from around the world. The song peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the United Kingdom, it reached number two on the charts. Having sold five million copies, American Life became the lowest selling album of her career.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Later that year, Madonna performed the song &quot;Hollywood&quot; with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott at the MTV Video Music Awards. Madonna kissed Spears and Aguilera during the performance, resulting in tabloid press frenzy. That fall, Madonna provided guest vocals on Spears&apos;s single &quot;Me Against the Music&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During the Christmas season of 2003, Madonna released Remixed &amp; Revisited, a remix EP that included rock versions of songs from American Life, as well as &quot;Your Honesty&quot;, a left-over from 1994&apos;s Bedtime Stories album. The collection did not chart in the Billboard top 100.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2004, Madonna embarked on The Re-Invention World Tour, which featured fifty-six dates in the U.S., Canada, and Europe and became the highest-grossing tour of 2004, earning $125 million. She made a documentary about the tour named I&apos;m Going to Tell You a Secret, which debuted on MTV and was directed by Jonas Akerlund. Also in 2004, Madonna was involved in a brief legal battle with Warner Music Group, with whom she co-owned record label Maverick. The legal dispute ended with Warner Music Group buying Madonna&apos;s shares in the record label. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked her #36 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In January 2005, Madonna performed a cover version of the John Lennon song &quot;Imagine&quot; on the televised U.S. aid concert &quot;Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope&quot;, which raised money for the tsunami victims in Asia.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna&apos;s tenth studio album, the Grammy-winning Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005) which sold more than 11 million copies, was built on a continuous mix of dance songs, with musical elements borrowed from the &apos;70s, and current dance music. The album received positive reviews and was considered a return to form after the negative reception to American Life. It produced four singles including &quot;Hung Up&quot; which reached #1 in a record breaking 45 countries and peaked at #7 in the U.S. With &quot;Hung Up&quot; crossing over into the Top 10, Madonna had her 36th Top 10 hit and now tied with Elvis Presley for the most Top 10 singles by any artist in the U.S. Madonna opened the 2006 Grammy Awards with &quot;Hung Up&quot;, alongside the nominated computer-generated band, Gorillaz. &quot;Sorry&quot; then became Madonna&apos;s twelfth number one in the UK, making her the female artist with the most #1 singles in the UK charts. &quot;Sorry&quot; peaked at #58 in the U.S.. The third single, &quot;Get Together&quot;, reached the UK Top 10 and became her thirty-sixth number one dance hit in the U.S. but did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The fourth and final single was &quot;Jump&quot;, another U.S. Dance Chart #1 (this became her 37th #1 on that chart) and charted at number nine in the UK.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In mid-2006, Madonna signed on to become the worldwide face of H&amp;M. Included in the deal was a specially designed track suit, created by Madonna. The next year M by Madonna, launched in the United States, and internationally. In its first week, the line took in $15 million. The company has ordered a second and third line for late 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna&apos;s Confessions Tour kicked off in late May 2006. The tour grossed a reported $260.1 million and was the top-grossing tour ever by a female artist in history, with a global audience of 1.2 million. The tour sparked controversy when she used religious symbols such as the crucifix and crown of thorns in her performance of &quot;Live to Tell&quot;. The tour ended its 60-date run on September 21, 2006, in Tokyo. A CD+DVD of &quot;The Confessions Tour - Live from London&quot; special was released on January 29, 2007 internationally and January 30, 2007 in the U.S.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In October 2006, Madonna flew to Malawi to help build an orphanage, which she also funded, as part of the Raising Malawi initiative. While there, she took custody of a baby boy, named David, with the intent of adopting him. The effort created great media frenzy and controversy and ran into legal obstacles. Madonna gave television interviews to defend herself against the negative reaction. U2 lead singer and humanitarian activist, Bono, defended her by commenting &quot;Madonna should be applauded for helping to take a child out of the worst poverty imaginable and giving him a better chance in life. Baby David is lucky to have been adopted by someone who can give him a chance of survival in this world and I don&apos;t think it&apos;s fair that people are criticising her.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2007-Present: Current Projects</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On May 16, 2007, a song was released by Madonna called &quot;Hey You&quot;, released in anticipation of Live Earth. Madonna performed &apos;Hey You&apos; amongst other songs at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London on July 7, 2007. Madonna directed her first film, Filth and Wisdom from May 14 to May 29, 2007 and has started production on her next album, which is expected to be released in early 2008. Madonna is also working on a documentary on the problems and difficulties faced by people in Malawi, called I Am Because We Are.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna was a guest vocalist on the song &quot;Sing&quot; on the Annie Lennox 2007 album Songs of Mass Destruction. The song involved twenty-three female artists joining Lennox for the collaboration. This &quot;powerful feminist anthem&quot; was born out of Lennox&apos;s involvement with Nelson Mandela’s 46664 and Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) – organisations fighting for human rights, education and health care for those affected by the HIV AIDS virus. &apos;Sing&apos; was released as a single on December 3, 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 16, 2007, Madonna announced she was not renewing her recording contract with Warner Bros, and had entered a $120 million, 10-year contract with Live Nation Inc., and will become the founding artist in its new Artist Nation division. The deal consists of all future music and music-related businesses including albums, concert tours, merchandising, fan club/web site, DVDs, music-related television and film projects, and associated sponsorship agreements. Madonna releases a statement saying she signed the new deal because of the changes in the music business: &quot;The paradigm in the music business has shifted and as an artist and a business woman, I have to move with that shift. For the first time in my career, the way that my music can reach my fans is unlimited. I&apos;ve never wanted to think in a limited way and with this new partnership, the possibilities are endless.&quot; Under the terms of the deal, Madonna will receive a signing bonus of about $18 million and a roughly $17 million advance for each of three albums, and she is expected to do 4 concert tours within the 10-year period.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 18, 2007, Madonna&apos;s publicist Liz Rosenberg told Hollywood Insider that Madonna&apos;s forthcoming studio album could be released in early 2008 and a greatest hits package is slated for a release in late 2008 or early 2009.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 13 December 2007, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced Madonna as one of the five inductees of the class of 2008. The ceremony, which will include fellow inductees John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen, the Ventures, and the Dave Clark Five, will take place on 10 March 2008.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Influences</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Religion, Ethnicity, and Family</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna has cited her Catholic and Italian background as major influences in her life and career. She has also noted on various occasions that her mother&apos;s premature death left a lasting emotional burden throughout her adolescence and adulthood. As an entertainer, Madonna has occasionally touched on these subjects in her song lyrics and visual presentation. It should be noted that she is half Italian on her father&apos;s side and not a full blooded Italian.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna&apos;s Catholic background and relationship with her parents were reflected in the 1989 album Like a Prayer, which features songs about her parents and Catholic upbringing. The video for the title track contains Catholic symbolism, such as the stigmata. Madonna used the crucifix as a religious accessory in the setting of the video, and was also included in the stage design of her &quot;Confessions&quot; tour. &quot;Promise to Try&quot; tells of her sadness towards the memory of her mother, while &quot;Oh Father&quot; is of a strict father who elicits fear in his child. In the The Virgin Tour, she wore the rosary around her neck. In the music video for &quot;La Isla Bonita&quot;, she prays to the rosary.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna&apos;s half Italian heritage has also been referenced in her work. The video for Like a Virgin, filmed in Venice, Italy, features her in Venetian settings. The &quot;Open Your Heart&quot; video sees her boss yelling at her in Italian. In the &quot;Papa Don&apos;t Preach&quot; video, Madonna wears a shirt with the slogan, &quot;Italians Do It Better&quot;. The 1988 video release of her Who&apos;s That Girl Tour, titled Ciao, Italia! - Live From Italy, was filmed mainly in Turin, Italy. In it, Madonna performs the song Papa Don&apos;t Preach while a portrait of the Pope appears on the screen behind her. &quot;Papa&quot; is the Italian word for &quot;Pope&quot;. In her 2005 documentary I&apos;m Going To Tell You a Secret, she has been quoted as jokingly stating that she has &quot;big, fat, Italian thighs.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Musical influences</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1985, Madonna commented that the first song to ever make a strong impression on her was &quot;These Boots Are Made for Walkin&apos;&quot; by Nancy Sinatra and that it summed up her take-charge attitude. As a young woman, she attempted to broaden her taste in literature, art, and music, and during this time became interested in classical music. She noted that her favorite style was baroque, and loved Chopin because she liked his &quot;feminine quality&quot;. In a 1999 interview with Larry King, Madonna identified a wide range of musical influences that impacted her such as Karen Carpenter, Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde saying they &quot;paved the way&quot; for her. Her song &quot;Rain&quot; is inspired by Karen Carpenter. In an interview with the Observer on October 29, 2006, Madonna professed a love for fellow Detroit natives The Raconteurs and The White Stripes, as well as New York band &quot;The Jett Set&quot;. Madonna has also commented that she enjoys Frank Sinatra, and especially likes to sing, &quot;My Way&quot; in the shower. Yet the most influential person in her formative years was her younger brother Christopher who influenced all aspects of her life and career; Madonna danced and choreographed with him in the early days, and he has advised her on everything from clothes to music, to home design, to boyfriends.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Film stars</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During her childhood, Madonna became fascinated by films and film stars, later saying, &quot;I loved Carole Lombard and Judy Holliday and Marilyn Monroe. They were all incredibly funny...and I saw myself in them...my girlishness, my knowingness and my innocence&quot;. Her &quot;Material Girl&quot; music video recreated Monroe&apos;s &quot;Diamonds Are A Girl&apos;s Best Friend&quot; number from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and she later studied the screwball comedies of the 1930s, particularly those of Lombard, in preparation for the Who&apos;s That Girl? film. The video for &quot;Express Yourself&quot; placed a femme fatale character alongside an androgynous figure in male attire, which was compared to Marlene Dietrich and was inspired by Fritz Lang&apos;s Metropolis movie. The video for &quot;Vogue&quot; recreated the style of Hollywood glamour photographers, in particular Horst P. Horst, and imitated the poses of Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard and Rita Hayworth, while the lyrics referenced many of the stars who had inspired her. Among those mentioned was Bette Davis, described by Madonna in a Rolling Stone interview as an idol, along with Louise Brooks and Dita Parlo. Dietrich remarked on numerous occasions how vulgar she thought Madonna&apos;s actions were as both a performer and as a person.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Personal life</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Early Relationships and First Marriage</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Madonna dated Dan Gilroy, with whom she formed the band Breakfast Club. In the early 1980s, she also dated musician Stephen Bray, who later co-produced songs such as &quot;Into the Groove&quot; and &quot;Express Yourself&quot;, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, DJ and record producer Mark Kamins, and musician Jellybean Benitez, who produced tracks and remixed her debut album Madonna.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">While filming the music video for &quot;Material Girl&quot; in 1985, Madonna began dating actor Sean Penn and married him later that year. After filing and withdrawing divorce papers in December 1987, they separated on New Year&apos;s Eve of 1988 and were officially divorced in September 1989. Of her marriage to Penn, Madonna later told Tatler, &quot;I was completely obsessed with my career and not ready to be generous in any shape or form.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Post-Divorce Relationships, Motherhood, and Remarriage</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After the divorce from Penn was made official in 1989, Madonna began a highly-publicized relationship with Warren Beatty while working on the film Dick Tracy early in 1989. Despite rumors that the two had become engaged in May 1990, the couple&apos;s relationship seemed to have ended by the summer. In a 1991 interview with Vanity Fair, Madonna said, &quot;I&apos;d go, &apos;Warren, did you really chase that girl for a year?!?&apos; And he’d say, &apos;Nah, it&apos;s all lies.&apos; I should have known better. I was unrealistic, but then, you always think you&apos;re going to be the one.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late 1990, Madonna dated Tony Ward, a young bisexual model and porn star who starred in her music videos for &quot;Cherish&quot; (1989) and &quot;Justify My Love&quot; (1990). Their relationship ended by early 1991, and Madonna later began an eight-month relationship with rapper Vanilla Ice, who appeared later in her Sex book.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1992; Madonna dated actor John Enos, her bodyguard James Albright, and in 1994 went out with basketball player Dennis Rodman for four months.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In September 1994, while walking in Central Park, Madonna met fitness trainer Carlos Leon who became her personal trainer and lover. On October 14, 1996, Madonna gave birth to his child, Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon in Los Angeles, California. The couple ended their relationship in 1997. Madonna then began dating Andy Bird, who sold his story to the newspapers in a tell-all about their eighteen-month relationship in late 2000/early 2001.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On August 11, 2000, Madonna gave birth to a son, Rocco John Ritchie in Los Angeles, California, with Guy Ritchie, whom she had met in 1999 through mutual friends Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler. On December 22, 2000, Madonna and Ritchie were married in Scotland. As of 2007, Madonna resides in Marylebone, London and her country estate in Wiltshire, with Ritchie and their 3 children.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>David Banda adoption</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 10, 2006, Madonna filed adoption papers for a Malawian baby boy named David Banda Mwale, whom her family renamed David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie, born September 24, 2005, during her trip to an orphanage in Malawi.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After a passport and visa were issued for the child, Banda was flown out of Malawi on October 16. The adoption raised public controversy about whether special treatment was given to Madonna considering the fact that Malawian law normally requires one year of residence for potential adoptive parents.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on October 25, 2006, to refute the allegations. During the half-hour interview, the singer claimed that there are no written adoption laws in Malawi that regulate foreign adoption and that she had been planning to adopt for two years. She also claimed that Banda had been in critical condition and was suffering from pneumonia after surviving malaria and tuberculosis when she had found him in the orphanage. In addition, Madonna blamed the media for &quot;doing a great disservice to all the orphans of Africa, period, not just the orphans of Malawi&quot;, by discouraging people from adopting children from African nations. She stated, &quot;I wanted to go into a Third World country—I wasn&apos;t sure where—and give a life to a child who might not otherwise have had one.&quot; She also describes Banda&apos;s father as a &quot;Simple man from a village.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 22, 2006, it was reported that Yohane Banda, David Banda&apos;s biological father, did not understand what &quot;adoption&quot; meant and that he had not realized that he was giving up his son &quot;for good.&quot; He had assumed that this arrangement was more like a fostering agreement. A few days later, after the Winfrey interview, he said, &quot;These so-called human rights activists are harassing me every day, threatening me that I am not aware of what I am doing.&quot; He was also reported to say, &quot;They want me to support their court case, a thing I cannot do for I know what I agreed with Madonna and her husband.&quot; On November 1, 2006, Madonna responded to Banda&apos;s comments on an Dateline NBC interview with Meredith Vieira by saying that Yohane Banda had known what he was doing, having refused to accept her offer to financially support him and the child without adopting the child.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Work at the Kabbalah Center</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Since the late-1990s, Madonna has become a devotee of the Kabbalah Centre and a disciple of its controversial head Rabbi Philip Berg and his wife Karen. Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie attend Kabbalah classes and have been reported to have adopted a number of aspects of the movement associated with Judaism. She no longer performs on Friday nights because this is the time when the Jewish Shabbat begins. Madonna wears a red string and has visited Israel with members of the Kabbalah Centre to celebrate some of the Jewish holidays. She also studies personally with her own private-tutor, Rabbi Eitan Yardeni, whose wife Sarah Yardeni runs Madonna&apos;s favorite charitable project, &quot;Spirituality for Kids&quot;, a subsidiary of the Kabbalah Centre. Madonna reportedly donated $21 million towards a new Kabbalah school for children.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Controversy erupted again well before the release of her most recent album, Confessions on a Dance Floor. Many Israeli rabbis condemned Madonna and the forthcoming song &quot;Isaac&quot; (tenth on its track listing) because they believed the song to be a tribute to Rabbi Isaac Luria, also known as Yitzhak Luria (1534–1572), one of the greatest Kabbalists of all time, and claimed that Jewish law forbids using a holy rabbi&apos;s name for profit. In interviews, Madonna had called this song: &quot;The Binding of Isaac&quot; and rumors spread that it was based on the major episode in the life of the Hebrew patriarch Isaac. Despite continued accusations that the song is about Isaac Luria, Madonna has repeatedly denied such accusations, claiming she could not think of a title for the song and, therefore, named it after Yitzhak (Isaac) Sinwani. In the song, Madonna sings with Sinwani, an Israeli singer, who is chanting a Yemenite Jewish song. Said Madonna: &quot;The album isn&apos;t even out, so how could Jewish scholars in Israel know what my song is about? I don&apos;t know enough about Isaac Luria to write a song, though I&apos;ve learned a bit in my studies.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna has openly defended her Kabbalah studies by stating, for example:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">“ 	I wouldn&apos;t say studying Kabbalah for eight years goes under the category or falls under the category of being a fad or a trend. Now there might be people who are interested in it because they think it&apos;s trendy, I certainly do, but I can assure you that studying Kabbalah is actually a very challenging thing to do. It requires a lot of work, a lot of reading, a lot of time, a lot of commitment and a lot of discipline. 	”</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Political Views</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna opposes United States President George W. Bush. She endorsed Wesley Clark&apos;s Democratic nomination for the 2004 United States presidential election in an impassioned letter to her fans, saying at the time that &quot;the future I wish for my children is at risk.&quot; In the autumn of 2006, she expressed her support for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 election. Most recently, she stated that she would be behind Al Gore if he decided to run for the 2008 elections after seeing his documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. She also urged her fans to see Michael Moore&apos;s Fahrenheit 9/11.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Criticism</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna&apos;s lyrics have been panned as simple or even dull by some, though several critics view Madonna as a talented artist.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Moments of her career in which Madonna has been heavily criticized include her 1989 music video for &quot;Like a Prayer&quot;, the publication of the book Sex and album Erotica in 1992, her 2003 album American Life, her 2006 performance of &quot;Live to Tell&quot; during the Confessions Tour, her adoption of Malawian infant David Banda in 2006 and virtually all of her attempts at acting on stage and screen.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Much of her career has seen rebellion against the Roman Catholic Church, which has generated criticism in the past. In 1990, when Madonna toured Italy with the Blond Ambition Tour, the Pope encouraged citizens not to attend the concert. A private association of devout Roman Catholics, called Famiglia Domani, also boycotted the show for many of the same displays of sexual innuendos and eroticism the Pope had denounced.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In response, in a 1990 press conference in Italy, Madonna declared, &quot;I am Italian American and proud of it.&quot; In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Madonna said that the Pope&apos;s reaction hurt, &quot;because I&apos;m Italian, you know&quot;, but in another interview the same year stated that she had ceased to practice Catholicism because the Church &quot;completely frowns on sex... except for procreation&quot;. In the summer of 2006, Madonna drew criticism from Vatican officials when she took her Confessions Tour to Rome. Vatican officials claimed that Madonna&apos;s performance while hanging off a cross and wearing a crown of thorns was an open attack on Catholicism and should not be performed in the same city as the pope&apos;s residence.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the documentary Italians in America - Our Contribution, author Gay Talese relates Madonna&apos;s rebellion against the Catholic Church to her Italian ancestry. Talese claims that Madonna&apos;s paternal ancestors come from a region of Southern Italy with a long tradition of rebellion against the Catholic Church. Despite her alleged rebellion, Madonna had both of her biological children baptized in a Roman Catholic Church.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna has received criticism from animal rights groups for wearing fur coats and in the past, was criticized for renting out her house for hunting parties.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Influence on science</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2006 a new water bear species (Latin:Tardigrada), Echiniscus madonnae was named after Madonna. The paper with the description of E. madonnae was published in the international journal of animal taxonomy Zootaxa in March 2006 (Vol. 1154, pages: 1-36). The authors&apos; justification for the name of the new species was: &quot;We take great pleasure in dedicating this species to one of the most significant artists of our times, Madonna Louise Veronica Ritchie&quot;. The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) number of the species is 711164.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Madonna.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958) is an American pop singer-songwriter. Through her music career, she...'),(49,'Richard Marx','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963 in Winnetka, Illinois) is an adult contemporary and pop/rock singer, songwriter and record producer. He had a string of highly successful hit singles in the late 1980s and 1990s, including &quot;Endless Summer Nights&quot;, &quot;Right Here Waiting&quot; and &quot;Hazard&quot;. Although most of his major hit songs were slow ballads like these, many of his songs had a classic rock style, such as &quot;Don&apos;t Mean Nothing,&quot; &quot;Should&apos;ve Known Better,&quot; &quot;Satisfied,&quot; and &quot;Too Late To Say Goodbye&quot;. Marx placed himself in the record books by being the first solo artist to have his first seven singles hit the Top 5 on the US charts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Marx began his career in music at the age of 5, singing commercial jingles written by his father, Dick. Marx&apos;s list of &quot;commercial&quot; hits includes Arm &amp; Hammer and Nestlé Crunch.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Marx was 17 and living in Highland Park, Illinois when a tape of his songs ended up in the hands of Lionel Richie. Richie said he thought Marx had the talent to make it big, saying &quot;I can&apos;t promise you anything, but you should come to L.A.&quot; After graduating from high school, Marx moved to Los Angeles and visited Richie. &quot;He was recording his first solo album and having trouble with the background vocal,&quot; Richard recalls. &quot;He tells me, ‘Come try this part.’ It worked and I ended up singing on his album.&quot; Richard contributed backing vocals to Richie’s hits &quot;You Are,&quot; &quot;Running With The Night,&quot; and the chart-topping &quot;All Night Long,&quot; on Lionel&apos;s follow-up album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In those early years, Richard would find any excuse possible to labour in the recording industry. His enthusiasm and his presence in the studio landed him several jobs as a background singer for artists like Madonna and Whitney Houston, and, eventually, as a songwriter. He was singing for Kenny Rogers in 1984 when he overheard Rogers say he needed a new song. Within days, Richard gave him a demo of &quot;Crazy.&quot; Rogers recorded it, along with another of Richard’s songs, &quot;What About Me,&quot; which also featured James Ingram and Kim Carnes. The trio recording hit #1 Adult Contemporary and #15 on the Hot 100 (while just scraping onto the Country chart) in late 1984 while &quot;Crazy&quot; hit #1 Country and #5 AC the following year. Soon after, Richard began working with producer David Foster and writing songs for the group Chicago and R&amp;B singer Freddie Jackson.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">While working as a songwriter and doing background vocals, Marx continued to pursue a record deal of his own. His demo tape was rejected by every label in Hollywood until, finally, four years after moving to Los Angeles, the president of EMI/Manhattan Records, Bruce Lundvall, heard Marx&apos;s demo and knew he had a star on his hands. He gave Marx a record deal and the opportunity to write and record whatever he wanted. Marx contacted his good friend Fee Waybill of The Tubes, and some very talented musicians, including Joe Walsh, and Randy Meisner of the Eagles, and created a ten-track album that put Richard on the path to success.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Music Career</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Debut Album</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Marx&apos;s self-titled debut album, released in June 1987, yielded four hit singles and sold nearly 4 million copies in the US. The debut single, &quot;Don’t Mean Nothing&quot;, had been released the previous month and climbed to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as #1 on Billboard&apos;s Album Rock charts. Richard became the first new artist played on 117 radio stations nationwide during his initial week on the charts. The next two singles, &quot;Should’ve Known Better&quot; and &quot;Endless Summer Nights&quot; reached #3 and #2, respectively. The fourth single release, &quot;Hold on to the Nights&quot;, earned Marx his first #1 single.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">With the success of his self-titled album, Marx became the first male artist to reach the Top 3 with four singles from a debut album. He embarked on his first world tour, initially opening for REO Speedwagon, but quickly began headlining his own shows. Marx&apos;s first tour kept him on the road for 14 months while the album remained on the charts for more than a year and a half.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1988, Marx was nominated for a Grammy Award for &apos;Best Rock Vocal Performance - Male&apos; for &quot;Don’t Mean Nothing&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Marx later revealed in an interview on VH-1 Classic that his favorite song that he performed from his first, self-titled album was &quot;Have Mercy&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Repeat Offender</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Repeat Offender, Richard’s second release (May 1989) hit the pole position and pushed Prince out of the #1 spot on Billboard&apos;s Album chart. It went triple platinum within a few months and eventually sold over 5 million US copies. Repeat Offender was the result of the energy generated from over a year and a half on the road and was written or co-written entirely by Richard. &quot;Some people might think that it would be easier this time around, that I could just kick back,&quot; Richard said at the time, &quot;but the truth is, it’s harder, I’ve got more to prove.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The first two singles, &quot;Satisfied&quot; and the platinum-selling &quot;Right Here Waiting,&quot; both reached #1, completing a string of three consecutive No. 1 singles. When the third single from Repeat Offender, &quot;Angelia&quot; climbed to #4, Richard became the first solo artist to reach the Top 5 with his first seven singles.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Another song from the album, &quot;Children of the Night,&quot; was written in support of the Los Angeles-based organization for runaways. It became the fifth single from Repeat Offender, and all royalties were donated to the charity.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Marx&apos;s second world tour began in the spring of 1989 and took him to Australia, Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States, lasting through August 1990. Highlights of that tour included a performance in the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London and an invitation from Tina Turner to tour Germany.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Marx also had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform the Beatles’ &quot;Help&quot; at the Berlin Wall in late 1989. Richard also received his second Grammy nomination in 1990 for &quot;Best Pop Vocal Performance - Male&quot; for “Right Here Waiting”.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Other Albums</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Marx went on to release a number of other albums. In 1991 he released his third consecutive multi-platinum album Rush Street. This album saw artists such as Luther Vandross and Billy Joel appear as backing vocalists and guest pianists. The disc&apos;s first single, &quot;Keep Coming Back&quot; went Top 10 pop as well as #1 on Billboard&apos;s Adult Contemporary charts for 4 weeks running. &quot;Hazard&quot;, which depicted a man being wrongfully accused of murder in a fictional version of Hazard, Nebraska, went #1 in charts around the world. Two more Top 10 singles were culled from Rush Street with &quot;Take This Heart&quot; and &quot;Chains Around My Heart&quot;. In August of 2001 Marx admitted that the track &quot;Superstar,&quot; from the Rush Street album was about pop star Madonna.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In early 1994, as Richard and his family permanently left Los Angeles behind and returned to Chicago, Marx released Paid Vacation, and scored his fourth consecutive platinum album. The acoustic ballad Now and Forever spent 11 weeks in the Top 10 of the Hot 100 and also held the #1 position on Billboard&apos;s Adult Contemporary charts for 11 weeks - at the time just one week short of the all-time record. The follow-up single, &quot;The Way She Loves Me&quot;, reached #3.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">1997 saw the release of, Flesh And Bone, Richard&apos;s final studio album with Capitol. Marx&apos;s sales cooled with this album in the States but was a major success in other parts of the world. The album&apos;s biggest hit was &quot;Until I Find You Again&quot;, a ballad that hit #1 in several countries and #3 in the US.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Marx&apos;s first Greatest Hits compilation was released in November 1997. The 16-track album includes all of the hit singles from his first five albums plus &quot;Angel’s Lullaby,&quot; a song written about his children that originally appeared on For Our Children, Too, a compilation CD released in 1996 to benefit the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Greatest Hits was released in Asia in November 1998 and included two new songs, &quot;Slipping Away&quot; and &quot;Thanks To You,&quot; a touching tribute to his mother. Marx’s dedication and support of numerous charities has continued throughout his career.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2000, Marx created his own record company &quot;Signal 21 Records&quot; with former Blood, Sweat &amp; Tears drummer and producer Bobby Colomby. This label was the launching pad for Marx&apos;s sixth studio release titled &quot;Days In Avalon.&quot; Due to distribution problems, it failed to chart in the U.S. The title song, however, was picked up by Adult Contemporary radio stations as an album track and spent 12 weeks in the Top 30. The label folded not long after.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2004, Marx signed a deal with EMI/Manhattan and returned to the Billboard charts with his album My Own Best Enemy which featured the hits &quot;When You&apos;re Gone&quot; and &quot;Ready To Fly&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2007 Marx released a new ballad titled &quot;Your Goodbye&quot; and a remixed version of his classic love song &quot;Hold On To The Nights&quot; on a Phil Ramone compilation production called &quot;New Music From An Old Friend.&quot; This compilation was released on the Target label called Spotlight.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/RichardMarx.jpg',51,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963 in Winnetka, Illinois) is an adult contemporary and pop/rock singer, songwrite...'),(50,'Titiyo','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Titiyo Yambalu Felicia Jah ( Teh-tee-yo, born July 23, 1967) is a Swedish singer.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Titiyo is the daughter of Sierra Leonean drummer Amahdu Jah and painter/artist Monika Karlsson, known as Moki Cherry.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Her stepfather is jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, her sister is Neneh Cherry, and her half brother is Eagle-Eye Cherry. She grew up in Solna, Sweden.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">She has a daughter, Femi, (1992) by her ex-boyfriend Magnus Frykberg. Magnus produced her albums.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Musical Career</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Titiyo discovered her own singing abilities when invited by her older sister to sing with her at a studio in London. Neneh Cherry switched to her stepfather&apos;s surname, but Titiyo did not.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Jah has recorded backing vocals for a range of Swedish artists, including Army of Lovers and Jakob Hellman.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1989, Titiyo released her self-titled debut album. The single &quot;My Body Says Yes&quot; was a hit in North America, and &quot;Man in the Moon&quot; hit the Swedish charts, becoming the first soul hit in Sweden.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the 1990s, she had 3 more singles that made the UK charts:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">in 1990 &quot;After The Rain&quot; peaked at #60, charted for 3 weeks,</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;Flowers&quot; peaked at #71, charted for 1 week,</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">and in 1994 &quot;Tell Me I&apos;m Not Dreaming&quot; peaked at #45, charted for 2 weeks.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">But towards the end of the nineties her success decreased.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Comeback</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001 Titiyo made a comeback with her successful album Come Along, spawning the international hit with the same name. The album was co-written by Peter Svensson from The Cardigans and Joakim Berg from the band Kent.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The album and its title song made it to #1 in the Swedish charts. In France it made the top 20 and in Germany the top ten. The song &quot;Come Along&quot; made the top 20 (#11). Come Along was also very successful in Switzerland where it peaked at #25 and stayed on the charts for 14 weeks; while the song peaked at #22 and stayed on the charts for 32 weeks. The second single from the album &quot;1989&quot;, peaked on the Swiss charts at #83 and stayed on the charts for 3 weeks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Titiyo&apos;s 2004 best of/greatest hits album includes a few new songs. One of these is Loving Out Of Nothing, which charted in Scandinavia in early 2005 .</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Titiyo has been awarded four Swedish Grammis.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Titiyo was cited as the representative of black music in Sweden.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/titiyo.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Titiyo Yambalu Felicia Jah ( Teh-tee-yo, born July 23, 1967) is a Swedish singer.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEAD...'),(51,'2 Brothers On The 4th Floor','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">2 Brothers on the 4th Floor is a Eurodance band, consisting of the Dutch brothers Martin and Bobby Boer.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/2b4f.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">2 Brothers on the 4th Floor is a Eurodance band, consisting of the Dutch brothers Martin and Bobby Boer.</FONT></P></TEXT...'),(52,'E-Type','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Bo Martin Erik &quot;E-Type&quot; Eriksson is a musician who was born in Uppsala, Sweden in 1965. His father is Bo &quot;Bosse&quot; G. Eriksson, known from the science TV-program Vetenskapens Värld (World of Science). His mother&apos;s name is Elisabeth. He has one sibling, his sister Erika.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In his teens he moved to Bromma and now lives in the heart of Stockholm. His musical career started early: after having been a drummer for a metal group Hexenhaus he met up with Stakka Bo in 1991 with three singles as a result of the partnership: We Got The Atmosphere/The Dream in 1991 and Numania 1/Obey in 1992. This led to a work as DJ at Z-TV. His first solo single, &quot;I&apos;m Falling&quot; was released in mid of 1993 but did poorly commercially.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">E-Type&apos;s breakthrough came in 1994 with the collaboration with the Cheiron producers Denniz PoP, Max Martin, and Amadin on his debut album Made In Sweden. A single from this album, Set The World On Fire reached gold status in Sweden, #1 on the Swedish dance chart, #2 on the Swedish sale chart, and #4 in Israel. Eventually four other singles were released from the album: the ballad Do You Always (Have To Be Alone) and Russian Lullaby (co-written by Jonas Berggren from Ace of Base). The album itself was released in November 1994 and made it up to No. 2 on the album-chart. All in all, over 100 000 copies were sold in Sweden and the album was listed for 26 weeks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During 1996 E-Type and the producer-team spent their time working with the new album The Explorer, which was released in Sweden on the 23rd of October. The album sold more than 20,000 copies. In occasion of the Euro 2000 E-Type recorded the official song of the event Campione 2000</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001, E-Type released his new single Life in November 12. The forthcoming album, entitled Euro IV Ever, was postponed to the end of 2001. It was finally released in November, most of the tracks feature the voice of Na Na as female vocalist. E-Type gave a release-party on the 25th of November.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2004, Max Martin, Rami and E-type produced the album Loud Pipes Save Lives, and released it on the 24th of March. At the beginning of April, Paradise reached #11 in Finland and entered the Finnish Dance chart at position #28.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On May 14, 2007 he released a new single called True Believer. </FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The music of E-type followed the typical eurodance formula of synthesizer music built up to a dancefloor crescendo, accompanied by his own voice, and a chorus sung by a Nana Hedin. Nana provided vocals for more than half of all E-type songs. Much of E-type&apos;s success in the 1990s was built on Hedin&apos;s on-stage stand-in, indefatigable dancer Dilnarin &quot;Dee&quot; Demirbag. Dee mimed to Nana Hedins voice.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Dee left the band in 2001, respectively, to pursue solo careers. However, Dee got back together with E-type in December 2006 for a concert in Russia. She is still touring with the band occasionally. Nana Hedins voice is last heard with E-type in the song Paradise in 2004.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/EType.jpg',51,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Bo Martin Erik &quot;E-Type&quot; Eriksson is a musician who was born in Uppsala, Sweden in 1965. His father is Bo &quot;...'),(53,'Armin van Buuren','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Armin van Buuren (born December 25, 1976) is a trance music DJ and producer from Leiden, the Netherlands. In 2007, he was voted number one DJ in DJ Mag&apos;s annual Top 100 vote.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Armin van Buuren chose to pursue his career as a professional musician despite the promise of a career in law in his native country of the Netherlands, where his law degree was completed in 2004. Armin started working as a DJ in a local night club called Nexus, finished high school in 1995 and went on to university to study medicine. Meanwhile, he moved his studio equipment from his bedroom to a &apos;real&apos; studio. The first tracks he produced in his new studio were, among others, tracks like &quot;Touch Me&quot; and &quot;Communication&quot;. Van Buuren has been quoted as saying, &quot;Don&apos;t be a prisoner of your own style.&quot; He has described his musical style as &quot;liberating, euphoric, uplifting, melodic and energetic.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">He hosts a weekly radio show A State of Trance. The show completed its 300th episode in May 2007, running for over 6 years.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In October 2002, Van Buuren was voted Number 5 in the DJ Magazine 100 top DJs. The following year, he jumped up to the #3 spot, and held it strong for 3 years straight. His work left him on the #2 spot, just below Paul van Dyk in the 2006 polls.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After waiting all those years, Armin has reached Number 1 by winning the 2007 DJ Mag Top 100.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>As A Producer</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Van Buuren has always had his own studio and works alone the majority of the time. He has never employed an engineer, claiming he does not want the music to be altered by an engineer.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Since 1995, Van Buuren has released many tracks on different labels with increasing success. His first big success was &quot;Blue Fear&quot; on Cyber Records. This &apos;Euro Trance blueprint&apos; made it into the UK Chart. &quot;Communication&quot; was released on the same label, and had a huge impact on Ibiza, Spain in the summer of 1999. After being signed to AM PM Records, this track entered the UK Chart at #18 in 2000.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the beginning of 1999, Van Buuren started his label Armind together with United Recordings. The first release, Gig - &quot;One&quot;, was well received. The second release &quot;Touch Me&quot;, under the name Rising Star was signed to Ministry Of Sound in the UK, before the record was released.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">By the time of his third release, Gimmick - &quot;Free&quot; was signed to R&amp;S Records, Van Buuren had managed to make his label popular very quickly. Under the surname Gaia he released &quot;4 Elements&quot; on Captivating Sounds, a sub-label of Warner Brothers. Teaming up with DJ Tiësto, two new projects were born: Major League - &quot;Wonder Where You Are?&quot; was released on Blackhole and Alibi - &quot;Eternity&quot; was released on Armind. &quot;Eternity&quot; received club and chart success and was signed to Paul van Dyk&apos;s imprint Vandit Records. Another major collaboration followed this. Together with Ferry Corsten, Van Buuren recorded a riff-classic titled &quot;Exhale&quot; for the System F. album. Released as a single, this track reached gold status in less than a month.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2000 Van Buuren started his own AVB compilation series. He managed to find a balance between progressive, techno and trance music styles. AVB001 - &quot;A State of Trance&quot; (not to be confused with his weekly ASOT radio shows) sold more than 10,000 copies and contains Van Buuren&apos;s well known remix of Moogwai - &quot;Viola.&quot; AVB002 &quot;Basic Instinct&quot; featured a new track: Perpetuous Dreamer - &quot;The Sound Of Goodbye&quot;. This track entered the Dutch charts in June 2001 at number 26. Later in the year the track hit #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. AVB003 - &quot;In Motion&quot; was released August 6th 2001. This album contained the real trance sound and was very popular in the US. AVB004 - &quot;Transparance&quot; followed in 2002.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In March 2001 Van Buuren started his own radio show on ID&amp;T Radio. In this weekly two-hour show, entitled &apos;A State of Trance&apos;, he plays the latest popular trance music tracks. His show and the artists he features are popularized by publishing the artists and track titles on his website. This radio-show/website combination has proven popular internationally. When ID&amp;T Radio changed genres in 2004, Van Buuren left and took A State of Trance with him. The show then moved to Fresh FM, a Dutch radio station. It is now a weekly feature on SLAM!FM, another Dutch radio station, DI.FM, an online radio station, and on XM Satellite Radio channel 82 in the United States and Canada. A complete list of stations that broadcast ASOT can be found at the ASOT section of Armins website. Also in 2004, Van Buuren remixed the 24 Theme into a trance hit. In June 2005, the 200th episode was celebrated in Amsterdam and subsequently aired on radio. The 250th (8 hour) anniversary episode was celebrated in Club Asta in The Hague, The Netherlands, featuring Van Buuren, Jonas Steur, M.I.K.E., John Askew, Rank 1 and Menno De Jong.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On May 17, 2007, Van Buuren began broadcasting the first of a two part series of what would become his 300th episode of A State of Trance.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">He has also worked on remix projects involving tracks by Japanese superstar Ayumi Hamasaki.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aliases: Amsterdance, Armania, Darkstar, E=mc², Electrix, El Guitaro, Gaia, Gimmick, Hyperdrive Inc., Major League, Misteri A, Perpetuous Dreamer, Problem Boy, Rising Star, The Shoeshine Factory.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>As A Performer</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Van Buuren began his DJ career at club Nexus in Leiden, where he learned to play long DJ sets, which were regularly six to seven hours per set. During school holidays he played more than four times a week. In 1999, he met Dave Lewis who introduced him as a DJ in England and the United States. His DJ career accelerated, entering the DJ magazine Top-100 in November of 2001 at Number 27. He has played in more than 25 different countries and can often be found on the main stage at big summer festivals. Van Buuren has played a record-breaking nine-hour set for Dancetheater in The Hague (Holland). In the United Kingdom one can see him perform regularly at Passion (resident 2002), Godskitchen, Gatecrasher, Slinky, Peach and Golden.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2002 he had a residency at Glow in Washington D.C., and he has played in Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, Denver, New York City, Los Angeles, Istanbul, and St. Louis. He has also regularly appeared at Amnesia on the island of Ibiza.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">According to Van Buuren, &quot;The fans and the public are the most important thing for a DJ.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On April 12th of 2006, Van Buuren began a Canadian tour with a performance in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Despite a Wednesday booking, the venue was filled to capacity with fans eager to see Van Buuren perform. Throughout his set Van Buuren could be seen signing autographs for his eager fans.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On November 11, 2006 he had a live performance called Armin Only in Ahoy Rotterdam for the second time (after Nov 12, 2005) with a 9 hour solo set, where he performed to over 11,000 fans.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/arminvanbuuren.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Armin van Buuren (born December 25, 1976) is a trance music DJ and producer from Leiden, the Netherlands. In 2007, he was...'),(54,'Sylver','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sylver is a Belgian dance group best known for the song &quot;Turn the Tide&quot;. The group&apos;s vocalist is Silvy De Bie (born January 4, 1981) and keyboardist/songwriter is Wout Van Dessel (born October 19, 1974). Regi Penxten is the producer and co-songwriter.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Silvy began her musical career at age nine on the Belgian television series De Kinderacademie (The Children&apos;s Academy). Belgian law prohibiting children under 16 from working, however, put a sudden end to this career. Later, she returned with the band &quot;Lance&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Wout is a well known Belgian DJ. He and Silvy were acquainted at the disco where he was the resident DJ.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sylver has toured not only in its homeland of Belgium, but also North America, South Africa, Asia, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>History</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001 Sylver hit Germany with their debut album Chances, including the single &quot;Turn the Tide&quot;. The single immediately moved to number 8 in the charts, and within 8 weeks was number 2 (under Atomic Kitten&apos;s Whole Again), staying in the top 10 for 12 weeks. A month later, the album debuted at 16 and spent 49 weeks in the top 100. The single Forever In Love also made the charts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The second album, Little Things (2003) was no less successful, with the singles &quot;Livin&apos; My Life&quot; and &quot;Why Worry&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On November 2, 2004, the third album, Nighttime Calls, was released. The first single from this album, &quot;Love is an Angel&quot;, hit the Belgian top 10 immediately upon its release on September 20.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In addition to synthesizer and drum machine, Sylver uses guitar, piano, and percussion instruments. The album Crossroads was released in May 2006. The major track is Lay All Your Love On Me from ABBA.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/silvy.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sylver is a Belgian dance group best known for the song &quot;Turn the Tide&quot;. The group&apos;s vocalist is Silvy De ...'),(55,'Mike Oldfield','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953 in Reading, Berkshire) is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age and more recently dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature. He is best known for his hit 1973 album Tubular Bells which broke new ground as an instrumental concept album and launched Virgin Records.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Oldfield&apos;s parents are Maureen and Raymond Oldfield, a nurse and doctor respectively. His sister Sally and brother Terry are successful musicians in their own right and have appeared on several of his albums. Mike Oldfield attended the now defunct Presentation College at 63 Bath Rd., Reading, in Berkshire.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Early Career</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Oldfield&apos;s career began fairly early in his life, playing acoustic guitar in local folk clubs. At this time, he already had two fifteen minute instrumental pieces in which he would &quot;go through all sorts of moods&quot;, a precursor to his landmark 1970s compositions. In his early teens, Oldfield was involved in a &apos;beat group&apos; playing Shadows style music (he has often cited Hank Marvin as a major influence, and would later cover the Shadows&apos; song &quot;Wonderful Land&quot;). In 1967 he and his sister Sally formed the folk duo The Sallyangie and were signed to Transatlantic Records after exposure in the local folk scene. An album, Children of the Sun was issued in 1968. After Sallyangie disbanded, he formed another duo with his brother Terry, called Barefoot, which took him back to rock music.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1970 he joined ex-Soft Machine vocalist Kevin Ayers&apos; backing group The Whole World playing bass guitar. The band also included keyboardist and composer David Bedford, who quickly befriended Oldfield and encouraged him in his composition of an early version of Tubular Bells. Bedford would later arrange and conduct an orchestral version of that album. With Ayers, Oldfield recorded two albums, Whatevershebringswesing and Shooting at the Moon. Both albums featured early versions of what would become his trademark sound.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Having recorded a demo version of Tubular Bells, Oldfield attempted to convince someone in the music industry to take the project on, but was told the project was unmarketable. However, in 1972 he met the young Richard Branson who was setting up his own record label, Virgin Records, and after playing the demo to engineers Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth, he began recording the 1973 version of the album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>(1973-1991) Virgin Years</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tubular Bells became Oldfield&apos;s most famous work. The instrumental composition was recorded in 1972 and launched on 25 May 1973 as the inaugural album of Richard Branson&apos;s Virgin Records label. The album was groundbreaking, as Oldfield played more than twenty different instruments in the multi-layered recording made in Branson&apos;s Manor studios, and its style progressed continuously, covering many diverse musical genres. The album quickly reached the Top 10 of the UK album chart and has spent 279 weeks on the chart to date, a figure bettered by only ten other albums. Its 2,575,000 UK sales put it at No.28 on the list of the best selling albums in the UK. In the U.S., it received attention chiefly by appearing in the soundtrack to The Exorcist. In the autumn of 1974, the follow-up LP, Hergest Ridge, was No.1 in the UK for three weeks before being dethroned by Tubular Bells. Although Hergest Ridge was released over a year after Tubular Bells, it reached No.1 first. Tubular Bells spent 11 weeks (10 of them consecutive) at No.2 before its one week at the top. In 1979, Tubular Bells was used as the main musical score for The Space Movie, a Virgin movie that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. The Exorcist track is the score used for the landing sequence of the Apollo flights.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Like Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge is a two-movement instrumental piece, this time evoking scenes from Oldfield&apos;s Herefordshire country retreat. This was followed in 1975 with the pioneering world music piece Ommadawn, and 1978&apos;s Incantations which introduced more diverse choral performances from Sally Oldfield, Maddy Prior and the Queen&apos;s College Girls Choir.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Around the time of Incantations, Oldfield underwent a controversial self-assertiveness therapy course known as Exegesis. Possibly as a result, the formerly reclusive musician staged a major European tour to promote the album, chronicled in his live album Exposed, much of which was recorded at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham, the first-ever concert there.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1975, Oldfield received a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Composition in &quot;Tubular Bells - Theme From The Exorcist&quot;. In 1979, he recorded a version of the signature tune of the popular British Childrens Television programme, Blue Peter, which was used by the show for 10 years.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The early 1980s saw Oldfield make a transition to &quot;mainstream&quot; popular music, beginning with the inclusion of shorter instrumental tracks and contemporary cover versions on Platinum and QE2 (the latter named after the cruise ship). Soon afterwards he turned to songwriting, with a string of collaborations featuring various lead vocalists alongside his characteristic searing guitar solos. The best known of these is &quot;Moonlight Shadow&quot;, his 1983 hit with Maggie Reilly. This song has been covered by various other artists, including Aselin Debison (Canadian folk singer) and DJ Mystic (electronic/techno). In 2002 it was a huge hit in central Europe for the German dance act Groove Coverage. The most successful Oldfield composition on the US pop charts during this period was actually a cover version — Hall &amp; Oates&apos;s remake of Oldfield&apos;s &quot;Family Man&quot; for their 1982 album H2O.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Oldfield later turned to film and video, writing the score for Roland Joffé&apos;s acclaimed film The Killing Fields and producing substantial video footage for his album Islands. Islands continued what Oldfield had been doing on the past couple of albums, with an instrumental piece on one side and rock/pop singles on the other. Of these, &apos;Islands&apos;, sung by Bonnie Tyler and &apos;Magic Touch&apos;, with vocals by Max Bacon (US version) and Jim Price (UK/rest of the World) were the major hits. In the USA, Virgin America really worked &apos;Magic Touch&apos;, servicing album rock, new age and top 40 programmers. The single was a major success, reaching the top 10 on the Billboard album rock charts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Earth Moving was released in July 1989, and was a moderate success. The album was the first to feature rock/pop songs on both sides. Several were released as singles: &apos;Innocent&apos; and &apos;Holy&apos; in Europe, and &apos;Hostage&apos; in the USA for album rock stations. This was, however, a time of much friction with his record label. Virgin Records reportedly insisted that any future instrumental album should be billed as Tubular Bells 2. Oldfield&apos;s rebellious response was Amarok, an hour-long work featuring rapidly changing themes (supposedly devised to make cutting a single from the album impossible), unpredictable bursts of noise, and a very cleverly-hidden Morse code insult directed at Richard Branson. Although regarded by many fans as his greatest work, it was not a commercial success. His parting shot from the Virgin label was Heaven&apos;s Open, which continued the veiled attacks on Branson but was notable for being the first time Oldfield had contributed all the lead vocals himself. Some say this was due to his desire to quit Virgin as soon as possible (he had previously stated that his voice did not belong on his recordings). This theory is supported by the fact that Heaven&apos;s Open is the only album that Oldfield released as Michael Oldfield, not Mike Oldfield.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>(1992-2003) Warner Years</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The very first thing Oldfield did when arriving at this new label, Warner Bros. Records, and as his final insult to his former label, was to write and release Tubular Bells II (This was a re-interpretation of Tubular Bells), which was premiered at a live concert at Edinburgh Castle. He then continued to embrace new musical styles, with The Songs of Distant Earth (based on Arthur C. Clarke&apos;s novel of the same name) exhibiting a softer &quot;New Age&quot; sound. In 1994 he also had an asteroid named after him, 5656 Oldfield.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1995 Oldfield further continued to embrace new musical styles by producing a celtic themed album, Voyager. In 1998 he produced the third Tubular Bells album, Tubular Bells III (also premiered at a concert, this time in Horse Guards Parade, London), drawing from the dance music scene at his new home on the island of Ibiza. This album was still inspired by themes from Tubular Bells, but differed in lacking a clear two part layout.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During 1999 Oldfield released two albums. The first, Guitars, which used guitars as the source for all the sounds on the album, including percussion. The second, The Millennium Bell, consisted of pastiches of a number of styles of music that represented various historical stages over the past millennium. The work was performed live in Berlin for the city&apos;s millennium celebrations in 1999-2000.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Most recently, he added to his repertoire the Music VR project, combining his music with a virtual reality-based computer game. His first work on this project is Tr3s Lunas launched in 2002, a virtual game where the player can interact with a world full of new music. This project appeared as a double CD, one with the music, and the other with the game.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2003 he released Tubular Bells 2003, a re-recording of the original Tubular Bells, on CD, and DVD-Audio. This was done to &quot;fix&quot; many &quot;imperfections&quot; in the original due to the recording technologies of the early 1970s and limitations in time that he could spend in the recording studio. It celebrated the 30th anniversary of Tubular Bells, Oldfield&apos;s 50th birthday and his marriage to Fanny in the same year. The DVD-Audio version has the same content as the CD version in surround, and some demos of the original Tubular Bells. At around the same time Virgin released an SACD version containing both the original stereo album and the 1975 quadraphonic mix by Phil Newell. In the 2003 version, the original voice of the &apos;Master of Ceremonies&apos; (Viv Stanshall) was replaced by the voice of John Cleese, Stanshall having died in the interim.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>(2004- Present) Recent Years</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 12 April, 2004 Oldfield launched his next virtual reality project, Maestro, which contains music from the Tubular Bells 2003 album and also some new chillout melodies. The games are available free of charge on Oldfield&apos;s website.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A double album, Light &amp; Shade was released on Mercury Records, with whom Mike had recently signed a three album deal. The two discs contain music of contrasting moods, one relaxed (&quot;Light&quot;) and the other more edgy and moody (&quot;Shade&quot;). The album was released on 26 September 2005. &quot;Light&quot; includes a selection of tracks from the album in U-MYX format, which allows listeners to create their own remixes.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2006 Oldfield said he was working on a long instrumental and later added that it would be a classical album &quot;going to be based around the festival of Hallowe’en&quot;. Oldfield will only be playing &quot;classical guitar and grand piano&quot;, while the rest is choir and orchestra. Karl Jenkins has been assisting with the orchestration. The confirmed title of the album is Music of the Spheres and should be released by Universal in the UK on March 9, 2008. Although unrelated to this new project, he headlined the German Nokia Night of the Proms tour, consisting of 18 concerts in December 2006.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">His autobiography Changeling was published in May 2007 by Virgin Books.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Personal Life</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Oldfield and his siblings were raised Roman Catholic, the faith of their Irish mother[8].In the late 1970s, Oldfield briefly married Diana D&apos;Aubigny (the sister of the Exegesis group leader), but this lasted just a few weeks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Mike Oldfield has six children. In the early 1980s, he had three children with Sally Cooper (Molly, Dougal and Luke). In the late 1980s, he had two children (Greta and Noah) with Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland. In the 2000s, he married Fanny Oldfield (née Vandekerckhove), whom he met during his time in Ibiza; they have one son together (Jake).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 2006, fellow musician Noel Gallagher won a Spanish court case against Oldfield. Gallagher had bought an Ibiza villa for £2.5 million from Oldfield in 1999, but quickly discovered that part of the cliff-top property was falling into the sea. He was also annoyed by the huge “eyesore” of a yacht moored in his view - but it turned out it was his with the house. Gallagher and girlfriend Sara MacDonald spent summer 2006 at the villa, and the resulting court case paid Gallagher a six-figure sum in compensation.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2007 Oldfield caused a stir in the British press by criticizing Britain for being too controlling and over protective, specifically concentrating on the smoking ban which the country introduced in the summer of that year. With this Oldfield moved from his Gloucestershire home to Spain. Oldfield has lived outside of the UK in the past; including living in Los Angeles and Ibiza in the 1990s and Switzerland in the mid-1980s, for tax reasons.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/MikeOldfield.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953 in Reading, Berkshire) is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and compose...'),(56,'Eagle-Eye Cherry','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Eagle-Eye Lanoo Cherry (born 7 May 1971, in Stockholm, Sweden) is an American-Swedish musician. He is the son of jazz artist Don Cherry and brother to Neneh Cherry.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Born in Sweden in 1971, while growing up Eagle-Eye and older sister Neneh Cherry spent months on the road with their father, the trumpeter Don Cherry, acquiring an early taste for tour buses and the nomadic lifestyle of working musicians. At the age of 12, he was sent to school in New York, where he stayed on to work as an actor and a drummer in various bands. In 1993 he starred on the short lived NBC action/adventure television show &quot;South Beach (1993 TV series)&quot;. It was not until 1996 that he returned to Sweden to begin writing and making his debut album, Desireless, which became a commercial success throughout the world during 1998-1999.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Eagle-Eye has also had his music featured on Santana&apos;s Supernatural album as well as in films such as Wim Wenders&apos; &quot;The Blues&quot;, &quot;Y Tu Mama Tambien&quot;, &quot;The Love Of The Game&quot;, &quot;GO&quot;, &quot;Best Laid Plans&quot;, &quot;Holes&quot; and &quot;Over Her Dead Body&quot;. Some of his most known songs include &quot;Save Tonight&quot;, &quot;Falling In Love Again&quot;, &quot;Are You Still Having Fun&quot;, &quot;Long Way Around&quot; &quot;Feels So Right, &quot;Skull Tattoo&quot; and &quot;Don&apos;t Give Up&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Eagle-Eye is currently recording his fourth studio album due out in 2008.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Cherry02.jpg',51,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Eagle-Eye Lanoo Cherry (born 7 May 1971, in Stockholm, Sweden) is an American-Swedish musician. He is the son of jazz art...'),(57,'Blue System','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blue System was a German pop group that was founded by Dieter Bohlen in 1987 after the break-up of Modern Talking.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Originally group consisted of Dieter Bohlen (composer, producer, lead vocals and second vocals), Joachim Vogel (rhythm-guitar), Jean Dupuy and Frank Otto (drums). In 1988 Frank Ottoo was replaced by Michel Rollin. After that in 1991 a new keyboardist joined - Achim Striben. In 1992 Dirk Sauer, Rene Engelman and Fristch Wolfagang joined the group, while Joachim Vogel left.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Some of the group&apos;s singles such as &quot;Sorry Little Sarah&quot; and &quot;Magic Symphony&quot; were very popular and entered German dance charts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group released many video clips (23) for their songs, which were shown on major German TV channels.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blue System also performed frequently in Germany and Russia.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/bluesystem.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blue System was a German pop group that was founded by Dieter Bohlen in 1987 after the break-up of Modern Talking.</FONT>...'),(58,'Electronic','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Electronic was an alternative rock/dance group formed by New Order singer and guitarist Bernard Sumner and ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. They co-wrote the majority of their output between 1989 and 1998, collaborating with Neil Tennant on three tracks in their early years, and former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos on nine songs in 1995.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>History</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The two first met in 1984 when the Smiths guitarist contributed to a Quando Quango track that Sumner was producing, but Electronic did not materialise until 1988, when the New Order frontman suggested Marr add guitar to a solo album he was planning — this was quickly abandoned when the idea of joining forces for a full-time group emerged.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Inspired by contemporary dance music like Italo house and acts such as Technotronic, their initial concept was to release white label records on Factory and remain an anonymous entity, in contrast to their considerable reputations with The Smiths and New Order. The track &quot;Lucky Bag&quot; and the name Electronic itself are two of the vestiges of this initial approach; when Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant heard of their budding partnership in 1989 through sleeve designer Mark Farrow he suggested a collaboration.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The fruits of this union became &quot;Getting Away with It&quot;, Electronic&apos;s debut single which was released in December 1989 and sold around a quarter of a million copies. It was a Top 40 hit in America the following spring, and after a support slot for Depeche Mode in August 1990 their chances of anonymity soon vanished. Instead, Sumner and Marr took a more commercial direction, blending synthesizers, guitars and analogue technology whilst retaining the template of modern alternative rock.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Electronic.jpg',51,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Electronic was an alternative rock/dance group formed by New Order singer and guitarist Bernard Sumner and ex-Smiths guit...'),(59,'Belinda Carlisle','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Belinda Carlisle, born on August 17, 1958 in Hollywood, California) is the lead vocalist and a founding member of the all-female New Wave band Go-Go&apos;s as well as a successful solo artist.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A former high school cheerleader, Carlisle is also the eldest of seven children.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Early Career And The Go-Go&apos;s</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Carlisle&apos;s first venture into music was a brief stint as drummer for the punk band The Germs under the name Dottie Danger, although illness prevented her from ever performing with them live. Soon after leaving this band she founded the Go-Go&apos;s (originally named The Misfits) with friend and fellow music novice Jane Wiedlin. With bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock, the Go-Go&apos;s became one of the most successful American bands of the early 80&apos;s, helping to usher &quot;new wave music&quot; into popular American radio and becoming the first all-female band in rock history to achieve a #1 album, who also wrote their own music and played their own instruments. The Go-Go&apos;s recorded two more studio albums (including Vacation, which went gold thanks to the title track). &quot;Head over Heels,&quot; from the album Talk Show, made it to #11, but they never repeated the success of their multi-platinum debut, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits &quot;We Got the Beat&quot; and &quot;Our Lips Are Sealed&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The antics of the Go-Go&apos;s in the early- to mid-1980s contrasted with their public image. Since then, the group&apos;s notoriety from that time period had become something of a legend, involving drugs and sex. Years later, in a 2007 interview with PlanetOut, Carlisle said that the band had female groupies and said, &quot;Well, without going into too much detail ... I think all of us in the band, we&apos;ve all had ... we&apos;ve all seen the experience you are probably wondering about. And, yeah, like I said, without going into too much detail, we&apos;ve all been there and done that.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Belinda</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Carlisle left the Go-Go&apos;s in 1985 to embark on a solo career (although she continued to work with fellow Go-Go Charlotte Caffey). Carlisle&apos;s first solo album, Belinda, was released on I.R.S. Records in 1986. Her #3 summer hit &quot;Mad About You&quot; was followed by the Motown-influenced single &quot;I Feel The Magic&quot; and by a cover version of &quot;Band of Gold&quot;, all three songs included on the album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably &quot;In My Wildest Dreams,&quot; the opener in the movie Mannequin, as well as &quot;Dancing in the City&quot; from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Heaven On Earth</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Carlisle underwent yet another metamorphosis for her second solo album, trading her California Girl blonde bob for long auburn hair for 1987&apos;s Heaven on Earth, (released in the United States through MCA and in the United Kingdom through Virgin). The musical style eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle&apos;s first album for slickly produced 1980s power-pop. The album became a Top Five bestseller in the UK and Australia and was nominated for an Grammy Award. It had a sonic style that was due to producer Rick Nowels, who had previously worked with Stevie Nicks and who would later collaborate with Madonna.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The first release from Heaven on Earth was &quot;Heaven Is a Place on Earth&quot; which topped the single charts not only in the US but also in the UK and Australia. (The dance mix of the song also topped the dance chart.) The radio-ready song was further propelled by a video directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second release from Heaven on Earth was the US #2 and UK Top 10 smash &quot;I Get Weak,&quot; written by Diane Warren; it was accompanied by another Keaton-directed video. The third single and video from the album was &quot;Circle in the Sand,&quot; another Top 10 hit in the US, the UK and Germany too. &quot;World Without You&quot; was another British hit, followed by 1988&apos;s low-charting ballad &quot;Love Never Dies&quot; in the UK. In the U.S., the fourth single &quot;I Feel Free,&quot; a cover of the Cream classic, missed the Top 40.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Runaway Horses</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Carlisle&apos;s follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was &quot;Runaway Horses&quot; of October 23, 1989. The album again hit the Top Five in both, Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in both countries, but surprisingly failed to reach similar success in the US. The first release, Leave a Light On was peaking at #11 in the US and became another Top Five smash in the UK and Australia. The song features a slide guitar solo by George Harrison (see Greatest Hits). The second US single, &quot;Summer Rain&quot; reached #30 in Spring 1990. The song, which Carlisle noted was the most difficult song she had ever sung up to that point, peaked successfully at #6 in Australia where it has maintained popularity, and the tune saw a cover version in 2004 by the Australian group Slinkee Minx. Whereas in the US, Carlisle&apos;s success was decreasing, her popularity remained big in Europe and Australia. In 1990, further singles from the &quot;Runaway Horses&quot; album were successful as well, the summer mood influenced La Luna,a Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia, and the powerful rock hymne (We Want) the Same Thing, another Top 10 smash in the UK. In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go&apos;s reunited for a tour to support their greatest-hits album &quot;Go Go&apos;s Greatest&quot;, including a new recording of the cover song &quot;Cool Jerk&quot;. A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights organization. Later in the year, Carlisle joined with The Smithereens lead singer Pat Dinizio on his group&apos;s ballad &quot;Blue Period.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Live Your Life Be Free</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle. The single &quot;Do You Feel Like I Feel?&quot; was accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek video inspired by the B-movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track &quot;Live Your Life Be Free&quot; merged 1960s influences with producer Rick Nowel&apos;s trademark bombast, and featured a video that emphasized colorful imagery, fashion, and Carlisle&apos;s photogenic face. Subsequent releases, &quot;Half the World&quot; and &quot;Little Black Book&quot; were also hits outside the U.S. Although Live your life be free flopped in the US due to a huge lack of promotion from the record company, it did have success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK) including the title track as take off single, a Top 20 hit in the UK and Australia.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Best of Belinda Vol.1</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After her bad experiences concerning promotion with her US record company, Belinda broke up her contract there. Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 &lt;&lt;Best of&gt;&gt; CD underlined in an impressive way the popularity of her songs, The Best of Belinda Vol.1 a 15 track collection, triumphantly reached #1 in both, the UK and Australia and certified double platinum in both territories. The greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses and Live Your Life Be Free, only omitting the ballad &quot;Love Never Dies&quot;, and the three I.R.S. singles from her first album, namely &quot;Mad About You&quot;, &quot;I Feel The Magic&quot; and &quot;Band of Gold&quot;; also no soundtrack song features on the collection. Private luck was on her side as well, as later that year Belinda gave birth to her only son, James Duke.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Real</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Carlisle&apos;s fifth solo album, &quot;Real&quot;, was released 1993 on the Virgin label in the U.S. and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle&apos;s polished pop music formula. Gone was her glamorous image and picture-perfect pop. Even the album&apos;s cover photograph featured her with very little make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the disc, collaborating heavily with friend and former Go-Go&apos;s member Charlotte Caffey. The album reached #9 in the UK and its first single &quot;It&apos;s Too Real (Big Scary Animal)&quot; reached a respectable #12 placing in the UK. The second single from Real was &quot;Lay Down Your Arms&quot;, which made the Top 30 in the UK, but did not fare well in other territories, hence it was noticeably absent from Carlisle&apos;s second greatest-hits album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At this time, Carlisle also recorded &quot;One by One&quot; on the soundtrack of the 1993 movie &quot;The Harvest&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After the Northridge Earthquake in 1994, Carlisle and her family moved to Europe. The Go-Go&apos;s reunited again later that year to support the retrospective double-CD &quot;Return to the Valley of the Go-Go&apos;s&quot; which included three new songs, however the band broke up after the promotional tour. Carlisle has since lived in France and England.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>A Woman and a Man</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Carlisle returned to the recording studio and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996, she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis Records label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe and included several hits. The leadoff single &quot;In Too Deep&quot; returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching #6.&quot;Always Breaking My Heart&quot;, written and produced by Roxette&apos;s Per Gessle, peaked at #8. The album spawned two more UK hits, &quot;Love in the Key of C&quot; and &quot;California&quot;. Another track of the album never released as a single was &quot;He goes on&quot; written by Crowded House&apos;s Neil Finn. The album reached at number #12 in the UK. As a result of A Woman and A Man&apos;s UK success, the album was released in the U.S. during the summer of 1997 on the Ark21 label. Despite the recent successful comeback in Europe and the promotional appearances Carlisle made on American television and radio, the album did not enjoy similar success in North America.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1996, Carlisle recorded &quot;I Wouldn&apos;t Be Here (If I Didn&apos;t Love You)&quot; for the Two if by Sea official movie soundtrack. In 1997, she recorded &quot;I Won&apos;t Say (I&apos;m in Love)&quot; from Disney&apos;s Hercules as part of that movie&apos;s standard distribution in Europe and was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany. Neither of these tracks have been released on compilation albums.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Greatest Hits</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label. Carlisle recorded three new tracks for the album, including the single &quot;All God&apos;s Children&quot;, and the songs &quot;A Prayer for Everyone&quot; and &quot;Feels Like I&apos;ve Known You Forever&quot;. The second disc of her &quot;A Place on Earth&quot; greatest hits album contained remixes of some of her hits. Some of the remixes were done by William Orbit, who also worked with Madonna on her 1998 &quot;Ray of Light&quot; album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Voila</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2007, the singer released her seventh album Voila, which was her first solo studio work of full album length in over ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics. Voila was released via Rykodisc in the U.K. on 5 February 2007 and in the U.S. the following day.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Collaborations</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During her solo career, Carlisle has had the opportunity to work with numerous prominent musicians from the 1960s. Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas did backup singing for Heaven on Earth; Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys arranged and sang back-up on &quot;California&quot; from A Woman and A Man. She performed live with her idols the Beach Boys, and performed with Freda Payne when Carlisle covered Payne&apos;s classic hit &quot;Band of Gold.&quot; As mentioned above, ex-Beatle George Harrison contributed guitar work to the single &quot;Leave a Light On&quot;, as well as the song &quot;Deep Deep Ocean&quot;, both tracks found on the Runaway Horses album. Belinda performed backing vocals on Then Jerico&apos;s album Big Area on the track &quot;What Does it Take?&quot;, She also performed back vocals on The Smithereens album 11 for the track &quot;Blue Period&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">She also worked with noted musicians of her own generation, such as Duran Duran&apos;s Andy Taylor on her debut solo album Belinda (Taylor appears in her &quot;Mad About You&quot; video clip); Thomas Dolby played the keyboards in some Heaven on Earth tracks; and Bryan Adams did backup vocals in &quot;Whatever It Takes&quot; from the Runaway Horses album. Another notable collaboration was the one with the ambient mastermind and legend Brian Eno who played the keyboards in her latest release Voila.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Personal Life</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1986 Carlisle married Morgan Mason, son of the British actor James Mason and former Deputy United States Chief of Protocol. Morgan made appearances in Carlisle&apos;s videos &quot;Mad About You&quot; and &quot;Heaven Is a Place on Earth&quot;. They have a son, James Duke Mason, (born April 27, 1992). She has been reported as being &quot;deeply into Buddhist chanting&quot;, though precisely what form is unclear.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In an interview printed on March 7, 2007, the singer stated that &quot;I was wondering about happiness and started reading a lot of books by the Dalai Lama, and slowly embraced Buddhism&quot; (published by Newindpress, India). On Sydney Morning Herald: &quot;&quot;I don&apos;t smoke anymore, I don&apos;t drink any more and I don&apos;t do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 a real passage in time for me&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Later Career</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Since their late 1990s reconciliation and 2001 reunion, the Go-Go&apos;s have continued playing and touring together almost every summer. In recent years Carlisle has continued making singing and non-singing television appearances. She has been a frequent guest on music-related programs and she appeared on a celebrity edition of ABC&apos;s Who Wants to be a Millionaire? In 2004 she appeared on the ITV1 reality show Hell&apos;s Kitchen as one of ten celebrity chefs competing against one another. She has also appeared on the ITV1 reality show Hit Me Baby One More Time, where she sang a cover of Coldplay&apos;s hit, &quot;The Scientist&quot; as well as her own &quot;Heaven Is a Place on Earth&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2006–2007</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Carlisle continued her string of TV appearances in 2006, having signed to appear on the Simon Cowell-produced Celebrity Duets, a FOX network reality competition pairing celebrities not famous for singing (like Lucy Lawless and Cheech Marin) with actual singers like Carlisle, Michael Bolton, Jon Secada and Macy Gray. Carlisle sang &quot;Heaven is a Place on Earth&quot; and &quot;I Get Weak&quot; with Lea Thompson in the September 7 episode.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Carlisle also performed on the opening night of Manchester Gay Pride 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Carlisle performed a set with other 1980&apos;s acts at Retro Fest on 1st September 2007 at Culzean Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/bely-2.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Belinda Carlisle, born on August 17, 1958 in Hollywood, California) is the lead vocalist and a founding member of the all...'),(60,'Benny Benassi','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Benny Benassi (born Marco Benassi on July 13, 1967 in Milan, Italy) is an Italian disc jockey and producer of eurodance/electronic music, who lives in Reggio Emilia, a town in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. He is known for his 2002 summer club megahit &quot;Satisfaction&quot;. Benny Benassi ranks as the 15th most popular DJ in the world according to the TheDJList website.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>History</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A native of Milan, DJ/producer Benny Benassi started DJing alongside cousin Alle Benassi in the late 1980s in their hometown, before moving to Larry Pignagnoli&apos;s Off Limits production studio in the mid 1990s, creating music for various acts, including Whigfield, J.K. and Ally &amp; Jo. Benassi first hit the dance floor with his own projects in 2001 with the single &quot;I Feel So Fine&quot;. Released under the name KMC with vocals by Dhany, the track first stormed the charts in Benassi&apos;s native Italy, but soon became a number one hit in the U.K.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After moving from eurohouse to electro, &quot;Satisfaction&quot; took Benassi&apos;s success worldwide a year later with high-profile DJs like Carl Cox, Darren Emerson, and Roger Sanchez singing its praises. This reached Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart after the Ministry of Sound record company replaced the original video (an almost still picture of the band overlayed with graphics) with a video of models using power tools. Released in 2003, the campy and quirky Hypnotica was Benassi&apos;s solo debut. At the end of 2004, he won the European Border Breakers Award for Hypnotica, which racked up the most sales for an Italian album outside of Italy. Benassi often works with vocalists Paul French and Violeta, who are collectively known as The Biz.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Benny then produced a group with cousin Alle, called Benassi Bros., a project designed to shine the spotlight on the two Biz vocalists, Paul French and Violeta and other guest singers. A year after the release of Hypnotica, Pumphonia marked their first full length release. And then in 2005, Benassi Bros. released their second album ...Phobia.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Some of his singles have charted high in the United Kingdom and have been played world-wide in clubs. Remixes for OutKast, Goldfrapp, and Felix da Housecat followed. Benassi also remixes the music of his contemporaries, such as DJ Tomcraft and Fischerspooner.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2005, Benny founded the record label known as Pump-Kin Music. The focus of the label is primarily new and unsigned producers. Through this venture, he hopes to give exposure to some of the lesser known DJ/production talent across the world. More recently it has been announced that it&apos;s also opening a sub-label, Funky Pump-Kin.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In August 2007, Benassi released a remix of Public Enemy&apos;s &apos;Bring the Noise.&apos; The track quickly reached the #1 spot on Beatport.com and imeem. The video for the track was created by &apos;The Eclectic Method&apos;, featuring a montage of live footage from Public Enemy, the video was premiered on imeem.com.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/bennybenassi.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Benny Benassi (born Marco Benassi on July 13, 1967 in Milan, Italy) is an Italian disc jockey and producer of eurodance/e...'),(61,'Enigma','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Enigma is an innovative electronic musical project founded by Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson in 1990. Cretu is both the composer and the producer; his wife Sandra often provides vocals on Enigma tracks. The pair have also worked together under the name Sandra. Jens Gad co-produced and played guitar on three of the Enigma albums. Six studio albums have been produced under the name of the project. Enigma was among the first recording group to use non-percussion musical instrument and vocal samples, such as the iconic Shakuhachi flute and Gregorian monk chants samples on their crossover hit album, MCMXC a.D..</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>History</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">From the late 1970s onwards, Michael Cretu already had his own music career on his hands and apart from several collaboration efforts with several other musicians, he also produced his wife&apos;s albums. Before Enigma, he released a number of albums under his own name, but none of them sold particularly well. Cretu revealed in an interview that he believed that his ideas were running out at that point.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In December 1990, after 8 months of preparation, Cretu released Enigma&apos;s debut album, the groundbreaking MCMXC a.D. that received over 60 platinum awards worldwide. The album was Cretu&apos;s first commercial success through the single Sadeness (Part I), which juxtaposed Gregorian chants and sexual overtones over a dance beat that was highly peculiar to the ears of the public at that time. Cretu explained that the album was about unsolved crimes and philosophical themes such as life after death, hence the name Enigma. He had previously used a Gregorian-type chant on the opening seconds of Sandra&apos;s 1987 single &quot;Everlasting Love&quot;, without integrating them into other parts of the song. &quot;Sadeness&quot; quickly rose to the top of the charts in Germany and France; it went on to become an almost worldwide hit. Later Cretu would claim that the now signature Enigma sound was inspired after falling asleep on the London Underground.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Before the album was released, Cretu was cautious of the response towards the upcoming album, decided to forgo mentioning his and most of the personnel&apos;s real name and credited himself as Curly M.C., while the album sleeve contained little information about the background of the project, furthering the mystery about the creators of the album and leading to speculation whether Enigma was a band, a person or a group.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1993, Cretu was given an offer by producers to compose the full soundtrack of the motion picture Sliver but he was unable to accept the offer. Instead, he came up with &quot;Carly&apos;s Song&quot; and &quot;Carly&apos;s Loneliness&quot;, which was used in the movie and credited in the motion picture soundtrack as well.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the same year, The Cross of Changes was released and it received about the same, if not an even larger and better response from the public (it sold 6 million copies in a year). However, both of the albums also hitched up lawsuits over the issue of sampling from other music sources.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1996, Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! (French for &quot;The King is dead, long live the King!&quot;) was released. Cretu&apos;s idea was that this third album was the child of the previous two albums, and therefore included familiar elements of Gregorian chants and tribal chants in it. Though the album was as meticulously crafted by Cretu as the earlier two albums, it failed to achieve the same level of success that they enjoyed. As a result only two of the three singles originally slated were released, with the third one (&quot;The Roundabout&quot;) being silently cancelled in 1998.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The 1999 release of The Screen Behind the Mirror included samples from Carl Orff&apos;s Carmina Burana on four tracks on the album. This time the Gregorian chants were toned down a lot, but still Shakuhachi flutes and other traditional Enigma signatures remain. Only &quot;Gravity of Love&quot; and &quot;Push the Limits&quot; were released as singles from the album. Ruth-Ann Boyle from the band Olive and also Andru Donalds mark their first appearance on the Enigma project.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001, Cretu released a new single called &quot;Turn Around&quot; together with Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits and Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection to end what he considers to be the first chapter of Enigma. A light show was held at the Munich Planetarium in conjunction of the release of the compilation albums.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">2003&apos;s Voyageur was considered by many to be a total makeover for the project. Practically all of the prominent Enigma signature elements (the ethnic and/or Gregorian chants, the famous Shakuhachi flutes) were no longer in use for this album. As a result many fans had difficulty appreciating this new direction and sales were affected. From a statistical point of view, every Enigma studio album to date has sold roughly half of what the previous release did.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On August 28, 2005, Enigma&apos;s management (Crocodile-Music.de) announced the release of the project&apos;s latest single, &quot;Hello and Welcome&quot;. The single was originally slated to be released in October, however it was moved to November 25, 2005 and finally saw release in Germany on March 10, 2006. The song will also be the walk-in music for the German boxer, Felix Sturm, and much like Voyageur shows little similarity to earlier Enigma works.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On September 26, 2006, Enigma&apos;s sixth album A Posteriori was released worldwide, containing a new version of &quot;Hello and Welcome&quot; and the new song &quot;Goodbye Milky Way&quot;, which, despite earlier announcements, was and will not be released as a single. The album is more techno, electronic, than any previous one. The concept is based on such sciences as astronomy, physics, history and sociology.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A DVD version of A Posteriori was released on December 16, 2006. The DVD features kaleidoscope images in synchronization with the multi channel remastered music.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late March 2007, a special &quot;Private Lounge Remix&quot; album version of A Posteriori was released on the Apple iTunes music store. This compilation includes 12 new remixed tracks from the album by artists such as Boca Junior, Tocadisco, etc. Some of these tracks were available previously on the original A Posteriori iTunes album and on the abovementioned DVD release.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Influence</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Enigma&apos;s first two studio albums also led to the creation and popularity of bands and musical groups that follow similar styles. Era and Gregorian (led by former Enigma member Frank Peterson) are among some notable groups which capitalised songs which heavily incorporate Gregorian chants in their works. Enigma and Deep Forest are also to be considered by many to have brought the tribal chant genre to the ears of the public. Achillea, a musical project by co-producer/guitarist on several albums, Jens Gad, features music with similar atmospherics, while featuring female vocals in different languages, with different singers from different parts of the world. Enigma also influenced Christopher von Deylen&apos;s musical project Schiller. The influence can be heared in any album by the band. Cretu&apos;s musical project is also included into the list of influences of Schiller.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Critics and fans have noted down the probable influences if not similarities of Enigma and the works of other notable musicians. Some examples include Delerium&apos;s Semantic Spaces album, Mike Oldfield&apos;s albums, The Songs of Distant Earth and Tubular Bells III, all B-Tribe&apos;s albums and Sarah Brightman&apos;s cover of Hooverphonic&apos;s song, &quot;Eden&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Sampling and Lawsuits</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1994, Cretu was sued by Munich-based choir Kapelle Antiqua and its record label, Polydor Germany for infringing its &quot;right of personality&quot; through distortion in the samples used in &quot;Sadeness (Part I)&quot; and &quot;Mea Culpa&quot;. While the musical composition was in the public domain, the recording by Kapelle Antiqua was copyrighted. European law also recognizes moral rights (droit moral) in works that American copyright does not.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Cretu was not spared over the issue of sampling when in 1998, Kuo Ying-nan and Kuo Hsiu-chu from Taiwan&apos;s Ami tribe filed a suit over uncredited vocals in &quot;Return to Innocence&quot;. Both of the lawsuits have since been settled, but besides compensation and acknowledgement on the source of samples on both lawsuits, the anonymity that Cretu intended to keep after the release of the first album was shattered due to the first lawsuit.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Burned by the lawsuits, the samples used in the production of the third and fourth studio album, Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! and The Screen Behind the Mirror were credited properly this time and Cretu&apos;s fifth album, Voyageur contained no samples at all.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/enigma4.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Enigma is an innovative electronic musical project founded by Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson in 1990. ...'),(62,'La Bouche','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">La Bouche is a Eurodance/Dance-pop duo formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1994, consisting of Melanie Thornton and Lane McCray.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Sweet Dreams</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their debut album, entitled Sweet Dreams, went five times Platinum and nine times Gold worldwide; In the United States, Sweet Dreams, peaked at #28 on the Billboard 200, and was certified double-platinum by the RIAA. It sold over 8 million copies worldwide. Its first single, entitled &quot;Le Click: Tonight is the Night&quot;, reached #68 on the Billboard Hot 100, #22 on the Hot Dance Club/Play Chart, and #2 on the Euro Hot 100. The Follow-up, Be My Lover, was top 10 in fourteen countries, #1 in Germany and #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1995. It went on to win the ASCAP award for the &quot;Most Played Song in America&quot;, and sold 6 million copies worldwide. The third single from their debut album, Sweet Dreams climbed to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100, to #3 on the US Dance Chart, #1 in Germany, and #1 on the Euro Hot 100. while the final single, a cover of Hamilton&apos;s &quot;Fallin&apos; in Love&quot;, climbed to #3 on the Hot Dance Club/Play Chart, and #4 on the Euro Hot 100. All four are considered Eurodance classics. &quot;I Love To Love&quot; was remixed and released. It peaked at #8 on the Australian music chart.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>SOS</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The second and final album, S.O.S., also known as A Moment of Love, was released in 1998, it featured the European hit, &quot;You Won&apos;t Forget Me&quot;, (also #48 on the Billboard Hot 100).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Melanie Thornton&apos;s Solo Career</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2000, Melanie Thornton left the group to pursue a solo career. She was replaced by Natascha Wright and a single was released entitled All I Want in April of the same year. Poor sales resulted, and Farian decided to put the group to rest. Meanwhile, Melanie Thornton was achieving momentous popularity with a single called Love How You Love Me and then with Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming), recorded for a Coca Cola Christmas commercial.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">While promoting her album Ready To Fly, which was released in the month of April but had a new version coming out in a few weeks, Thornton was killed in a plane crash near Zurich on November 24, 2001. Thornton&apos;s album sold remarkably well, before and after her death.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In April 2002, Farian compiled songs from Thornton&apos;s debut album of the year prior along with selections from the first and second La Bouche albums into a best of collection entitled The Best of La Bouche [feat. Melanie Thornton].</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Commemoration</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 2002, one year following Thornton&apos;s death, La Bouche producer Farian prepared a tribute single entitled &quot;In Your Life&quot;. The song was an unreleased B-side from Thornton&apos;s debut album. Farian combined vocals for the track recorded prior to Thornton&apos;s death and had Kayo Shekoni from Le Click provide additional vocals to complete the mix. The single was released worldwide in 2002 and in the US in 2003. It peaked at #9 in the on the Hot Dance Club/play chart and also made the Top 10 on the Dance Radio Airplay charts. Alongside Justin Timberlake, Kayo Shekoni and Lane McCray did club appearances and performed alongside Coolio and Jennifer Lopez. However, record company contracted for the US release, &quot;Logic Records&quot;, folded shortly after the release.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">La Bouche continue to tour, but there are no plans for a third album or new singles the time being.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/LaBouche.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">La Bouche is a Eurodance/Dance-pop duo formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1994, consisting of Melanie Thornton and Lane...'),(63,'Rammstein','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Rammstein is a German NDH-Metal band. The band is widely accepted as part of the Neue Deutsche Härte-scene, alongside bands such as Oomph! and Die Krupps. Their sound has been dubbed as Tanz-Metall (lit. &quot;Dance Metal&quot;). Their songs are performed almost exclusively in German. Formed in 1994, they have sold over 12 million records worldwide. Rammstein&apos;s entire catalogue is published by Universal Music Group.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Although most songs are written in German, the band has had significant success outside German-speaking nations, in Europe as well as in the rest of the Western World, and Asia. It has been confirmed that the band is reunited from their vacation and has begun writing their sixth studio album, which will be released sometime in 2008.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Kruspe, Riedel and Schneider originally founded Rammstein following an attempt by Kruspe to compose American-influenced music with a West Berlin band called Orgasm Death Gimmicks. As Kruspe put it, &quot;I realized it&apos;s really important to make music and make it fit with your language, which I didn&apos;t do in the past. I came back [to Germany] and said, &apos;It&apos;s time to make music that&apos;s really authentic&apos;. I was starting a project called Rammstein to really try to make German music&quot;. He invited Till Lindemann, a former competitive swimmer and drummer for the garage-rock band First Arsch, to join the project as a vocalist. The four entered a contest for new bands and won, attracting the interest of Paul H. Landers, who knew them all and decided to join the band. Christian &quot;Flake&quot; Lorenz was the last member to join; he had played with Landers before in the punk-rock band Feeling B and was initially reluctant to come on board, but was eventually persuaded to join. Their first album was released a year later.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>History</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Rammstein was started by Richard Z. Kruspe. In 1989 he escaped from East Germany over the border between Austria and Hungary. He eventually ended up in West Berlin and started a band in 1993 (Orgasm Death Gimmicks). At that time he was very influenced by American music. After the wall came down, he moved back home to Schwerin where Till Lindemann worked as a basket weaver and played drums in the band First Arsch.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At this time, Richard lived with Oliver Riedel (of the band The Inchtabokatables) and Christoph &quot;Doom&quot; Schneider (of Die Firma). Richard realized that the music he had previously made was not right for him. He envisioned something with machines and hard guitars together. The three started working together on a new project.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Richard soon found it hard to write music and lyrics at the same time. He got Till to join them as he had often heard him singing while working. A contest for new bands was announced and the prize was studio time. The four of them recorded the first Rammstein demo and won. Paul Landers knew them all and wanted to know what they were doing. After listening, he agreed to join. At this point, all they needed for the machine-sound was a keyboarder. They tried to get Christian &quot;Flake&quot; Lorenz to join, as he had played with Paul before in the band Feeling B. Flake was not entirely thrilled with the idea at first and didn&apos;t want to join for a long time. However, he eventually agreed.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Name</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Rammstein takes its name indirectly from the western German town of Ramstein-Miesenbach, site of an airshow disaster in 1988. The band&apos;s signature song, the eponymous Rammstein, is a commemoration of the tragedy that took place at the Ramstein Air Base. At the show, three Italian air force jets collided on August 28, 1988 at the US airbase. About 40 spectators died in the first minutes, and several hundred more were injured. In the next two months, the death toll rose to 72. The extra &quot;m&quot; in the band&apos;s name allows the word to mean &quot;battering ram&quot; (literally &quot;ramming stone&quot;), reinforcing the image of the band&apos;s music as powerful and revolutionary.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The minor planet 110393 Rammstein is named in the band&apos;s honour.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/rammstein_3.jpg',51,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Rammstein is a German NDH-Metal band. The band is widely accepted as part of the Neue Deutsche HÃ¤rte-scene, alongside ba...'),(64,'Blues Traveler','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blues Traveler is an American rock band formed in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1987. They are best known to general audiences for their hit songs &quot;Run-Around&quot;, &quot;Hook&quot; and &quot;But Anyway&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">As of 2007, the group comprises singer and harmonica virtuoso John Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla, drummer Brendan Hill, bassist Tad Kinchla and keyboardist Ben Wilson. Tad Kinchla and Ben Wilson joined the band following the death of original bassist Bobby Sheehan in 1999 of a drug overdose in New Orleans.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band&apos;s latest release is an acoustic &quot;remix&quot; best of album called Cover Yourself.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">While Blues Traveler is best known among fans for their improvisational live shows, the general public is most familiar with the group from their fourth studio album Four. Released in 1994, the two singles &quot;Run-Around&quot; and &quot;Hook&quot; gained mainstream radio popularity.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blues Traveler&apos;s subsequent releases were not as successful as the quintuple platinum sales of Four, though the band has maintained a loyal fanbase from the beginning of their career. Their albums with A&amp;M in the later 1990s include Straight on Till Morning and Bridge.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sheehan&apos;s death in 1999 and Popper&apos;s struggle with obesity put a damper on the group&apos;s success, and A&amp;M dropped the band after low sales of their 2001 album Bridge. However, the band took this transition period as an opportunity to start in new directions musically.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group signed with Sanctuary Records and released Truth Be Told on August 5, 2003. Their latest album, ¡Bastardos!, was released on September 13, 2005 by Vanguard Records.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blues Traveler has recorded a &quot;best-of&quot; collection of older songs reinterpreted with acoustic instrumentation called Cover Yourself. The band recently played an acoustic session on A&amp;E&apos;s Private Sessions.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Formation</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The genesis of Blues Traveler was a high school garage band formed in Princeton, New Jersey in the mid 1980s. Harmonicist, singer and guitarist John Popper and drummer Brendan Hill formed a group they called The Establishment (later renamed Blues Band) with Hill&apos;s brother on bass and a rotating roster of guitarists. The band produced a few cassette tape demos. In addition to some original songs, their repertoire included upbeat covers of &quot;Gloria&quot; and &quot;The Battle Hymn of the Republic&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group added guitarist and football player Chan Kinchla. Although he was a promising athlete, Kinchla decided to commit to playing music instead after a knee injury. Popper met bassist Bobby Sheehan and the two became good friends, with Sheehan becoming the new bass player for Blues Band in 1987.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The quartet held a basement jam session (later christened The Black Cat Jam) which spawned the core grooves for several songs on their first album. A black cat happened to be nearby, and the group took this as a sign and adopted the Black Cat as their mascot figure.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group changed their name to Blues Traveler, taking the latter part from the name of the primary demon in the film Ghostbusters, Gozer the Traveler.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Early Years</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After graduating Princeton High School and moving to New York City, Popper, Hill, and Sheehan enrolled in the music program at The New School for Social Research while Kinchla attended New York University. Blues Traveler began playing gigs along the New York-area club circuit, sometimes nightly. The group shared an apartment together, along with Popper&apos;s friend, singer Chris Barron, and developed a close relationship with Barron&apos;s band, Spin Doctors (which formed out of another group Popper and Hill had founded). The two groups would often share the stage, playing non-stop concerts of multiple sets.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group attracted the attention of David Graham, son of the world-famous concert promoter Bill Graham, and became one of Graham&apos;s many acts. Blues Traveler then started a relentless touring schedule, expanding their reach up and down the east coast.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During this time, Blues Traveler acquired a devout follower, Gina-Z (subject of the band&apos;s song &quot;Gina&quot;) who is involved with the group&apos;s business to the present day. At one New York show they were discovered by an A&amp;M Records talent scout, Patrick Clifford, and the band signed their first recording contract.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>First Albums</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blues Traveler released their self-titled debut album in 1990, with the song &quot;But Anyway&quot; getting airplay on college radio stations. The album included Joan Osborne on backing vocals on two tracks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A second album, Travelers and Thieves, followed in 1991. Upon Bill Graham&apos;s death that year, they released a live EP, On Tour Forever, as a tribute to Graham, which featured guitar legend Carlos Santana. The group was becoming well-known in the new wave of jam bands that was developing in the early 1990s.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Around this time, the mainstream national audience was exposed to Blues Traveler by television host David Letterman, who has introduced them as &quot;[his] favorite band&quot;. The band has since made more appearances on The Late Show than any musical artist. Letterman&apos;s band leader Paul Shaffer has played on a number of Blues Traveler recordings.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1992, the group founded the HORDE festival as an alternative to others such as Lollapalooza, along with other bands such as Phish and Spin Doctors. Blues Traveler began recording their third album, Save His Soul. Recording was temporarily interrupted by John Popper&apos;s motorcycle accident, although the band resumed touring shortly thereafter with Popper in a wheelchair. Two singles were released from the album, &quot;Defense &amp; Desire&quot; and &quot;Conquer Me&quot;, which reached #34 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Mainstream Breakthrough</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band&apos;s fourth album, titled four, was released in late 1994. The upbeat pop single &quot;Run-around&quot; became a smash hit and was followed by the catchy &quot;Hook&quot;. &quot;Run-around&quot; won a Grammy award and broke a record for most weeks on the chart.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blues Traveler appeared at Woodstock &apos;94 and later became an opening act for The Rolling Stones.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band played on the 1995 season premiere of Saturday Night Live as a last-minute replacement for Prince. They were featured in an episode of the sitcom Roseanne, and later recorded the show&apos;s theme song for its final season. The 1996 comedy film Kingpin featured the group playing their song &quot;But Anyway&quot; during the closing credits. The song then became the band&apos;s third top 40 hit, peaking at #12.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group recorded the Johnny Rivers song &quot;Secret Agent Man&quot; for the film Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and the Bob Seger song &quot;Get Out of Denver&quot; for the film Things to Do in Denver When You&apos;re Dead, as well as Fats Domino&apos;s &quot;I&apos;m Walkin&apos;&quot; for Fast Track to Nowhere. Several previously-recorded Blues Traveler songs were included on film soundtracks, including The Last Seduction, Speed, Very Bad Things, White Man&apos;s Burden, and The Truth About Cats and Dogs. The band also appeared in the 1998 film Blues Brothers 2000 and on its soundtrack, playing &quot;Maybe I&apos;m Wrong&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blues Traveler recorded the Sly and the Family Stone song &quot;I Want to Take You Higher&quot; for the NORML compilation album Hempilation and the John Lennon song &quot;Imagine&quot; for the Lennon tribute album Working Class Hero. The original song &quot;Christmas&quot; was included on the benefit album A Very Special Christmas 3.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The double live album, Live from the Fall, was released in 1996. It featured recordings from the band&apos;s autumn 1995 concerts and showcased the strength of the band&apos;s live performances.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The next studio album, Straight On Till Morning, was released in 1997. It achieved platinum status, reaching number 11 on The Billboard 200 albums chart, but did not perform as well as four. The single &quot;Carolina Blues&quot; peaked at number four on the Mainstream Rock Tracks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band made an appearance performing in the 1999 independent film Wildflowers.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">By the end of 1998, the band had prepared a concept album called The Sun, The Storm and The Traveler, based on Aesop&apos;s fable of The North Wind and the Sun, and they planned to record it after a hiatus in the fall of 1999. That summer, John Popper had emergency heart surgery due to artery blockage, forcing the band to cancel their annual July 4th Red Rocks shows at the last minute.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During the hiatus, Popper released a solo album with a backing band consisting of Dave Matthews Band drummer Carter Beauford and members of the group Cycomotogoat.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Sheehan&apos;s Death and New Lineup</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On August 20, 1999, Bobby Sheehan was found dead in his New Orleans home, where he had been recording music with some friends the night before. Sheehan&apos;s death was ruled an accidental drug overdose, with cocaine, diazepam, and heroin found in his system.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The remaining members of Blues Traveler convened and agreed that Sheehan would have wanted them to continue as a band. Auditions for a new bassist were held in concert, and included Chan Kinchla&apos;s younger brother Tad, who was unanimously determined to be the best choice for the role. Additionally, an open call was sent for a permanent keyboard player, a role of which Sheehan had often been a proponent. Ben Wilson of the band Big Dave and the Ultrasonics was chosen, and has since became a central contributor to the band&apos;s songwriting.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band discarded their concept album material, instead releasing a smaller online EP, Decisions of the Sky, and went to work collectively composing a new set of songs with the new lineup. The resulting album was Bridge, which had the working title Bridge Outta Brooklyn as a tribute to Sheehan (with both the acronym B.O.B. and his nickname &quot;Brooklyn Bobby&quot;). The songs &quot;Girl Inside My Head&quot; and &quot;Just for Me&quot; received airplay, but the album&apos;s sales fell somewhat short of expectations.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The live album What You and I Have Been Through and the compilation Travelogue: Blues Traveler Classics were both released in 2002.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Recent Years</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blues Traveler were one of dozens of artists who were jettisoned as part of A&amp;M&apos;s corporate restructuring. The band signed with Sanctuary Records for their next album, Truth Be Told, which only reached number 147 on The Top 200 chart.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band&apos;s 2003 Independence Day concerts at Red Rocks Ampitheatre were released on the CD Live on the Rocks and the DVD Thinnest of Air.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band left Sanctuary for Vanguard Records and released ¡Bastardos!, which was produced by Wilco&apos;s Jay Bennett and was touted as the band&apos;s return to music that they wanted to play. The album charted at 49 on the Top Independent Albums, and a live EP of songs from the album was released to independent record stores.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On September 19, 2005, Blues Traveler played their cover of Beetlejuice&apos;s song &quot;This is Beetle&quot; on the Howard Stern radio show.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blues Traveler have been featured on VH1&apos;s Behind the Music, A&amp;E&apos;s Private Sessions, and Austin City Limits. The group recorded the title track to the Sandra Boynton children&apos;s album Dog Train, which was also used as the promotional music for the American Kennel Club&apos;s National Championship event. The band&apos;s music has been used in video games (NASCAR 2000) and commercials (Busch Beer). The songs &quot;Business as Usual&quot; and &quot;Money Back Guarantee&quot; are used as transitional music on the public radio finance program Marketplace and its sister show Marketplace Money.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group recorded &quot;Rag Mama Rag&quot; for the 2007 tribute album Endless Highway: The Music of The Band.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blues Traveler&apos;s next album will be Cover Yourself, a &quot;best-of&quot; album of previously-released songs re-recorded and reinterpreted with acoustic instrumentation. It was released October 30th through Columbia/Red Ink Records.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Blues_Traveler.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Blues Traveler is an American rock band formed in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1987. They are best known to general audience...'),(65,'Camouflage','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Camouflage is a German synthpop and dance music trio consisting of Marcus Meyn, Heiko Maile and Oliver Kreyssig. Their only Hot 100 entry was &quot;The Great Commandment&quot; which climbed to #59 in 1989. The song did spend three weeks at #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. They also had two additional minor hits in the dance chart in 1989.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>History</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1983, Heiko Maile, Marcus Meyn, Martin Kahling and Oliver Kreyssig, four friends from Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany, founded the band &quot;Licenced Technology.&quot; In 1984, Martin Kahling left the band. Soon after, the group renamed itself &quot;Camouflage,&quot; inspired by a &quot;Yellow Magic Orchestra&quot; song of the same name. The three young musicians set up their first studio in the basement of Heiko&apos;s parents&apos; house, calling it &quot;Boy&apos;s Factory.&quot; Their first live gigs at local music clubs soon followed. That next year, Camouflage recorded two demo tapes at their studio, and in 1986, the group won a local radio music contest - after a friend of theirs handed one of the demos in. A small Frankfurt music label, &quot;Westside,&quot; showed interest in taking Camouflage on. There, the song &quot;The Great Commandment&quot; was recorded to be presented to bigger music companies. After considering offers from several record companies, Camouflage decided to sign a contract with Metronome.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Working with Axel Henninger, Camouflage re-recorded &quot;The Great Commandment&quot; in Axel&apos;s studio in 1987. The single was released in September of that year and rose to number 14 in the German charts. Their follow-up single &quot;Stranger Thoughts&quot; was released in February 1988, rising to number 20. In March, &quot;Voices &amp; Images,&quot; Camouflage&apos;s debut album, was released. The album topped the US Billboard Dance Charts twice having been played often by small independent radio stations. In New York, Heiko, Oli and Marcus signed a contract with the US label Atlantic that same year, releasing &quot;Voices &amp; Images&quot; and the single &quot;That Smiling Face&quot; for the US market in the fall of 1988. In an old factory loft near their hometown, Heiko, Oli and Marcus set up &quot;Boy&apos;s Factory 2,&quot; their new studio.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">With producer Dan Lacksman of Telex, the band recorded a new album &quot;Methods of Silence&quot; at Synsound Studio in Brussels that following year. Now left to experiment more freely after the commercial success of their first album, Dan&apos;s recording work revealed an interesting mix of digital high-tech and out-dated studio equipment. Single &quot;Love is a Shield&quot; (position 9 in German charts) stayed in the charts for over six months, and the album reached 13. After follow-up single &quot;One Fine Day,&quot; the band embarked on their first live concert tour to great financial success.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">More recently Polydor released &quot;Archive#1 (Rare Tracks)&quot;, a new Camouflage compilation. Expected in the shops by November 20th 2007 the release brings together a host of rare tracks and remixes spread over two discs.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Camouflage.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Camouflage is a German synthpop and dance music trio consisting of Marcus Meyn, Heiko Maile and Oliver Kreyssig. Their on...'),(66,'D.H.T.','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">DHT (for Dance. House. Trance) is a Belgian pop music duo, consisting of singer, Edmée Daenen (born March 25, 1985) and Flor Theeuwes (born July 28, 1976). They had a hit in the U.S. and in Australia in 2005 with their cover version of &quot;Listen to Your Heart&quot;, originally recorded by Roxette. The track reached #7 in the UK Singles Chart in December of that year.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">They have been one of the very few artists to crack the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 top 10 with a Trance song, and also one of the few Europeans to do so.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The duo includes Edmée Daenen, joined at the age of 15, performing female vocals on record (in 2003 she joined DHT on stage), and Flor.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/DHT.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">DHT (for Dance. House. Trance) is a Belgian pop music duo, consisting of singer, EdmÃ©e Daenen (born March 25, 1985) and ...'),(67,'Happa-tai','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;Yatta!&quot; is a 2001 song by a Japanese comedy band called はっぱ隊 (Happa-tai; literally &quot;Leaf Squad&quot; in Japanese, though they called themselves &quot;Green Leaves&quot; in English). Yatta is also a Japanese exclamation meaning &quot;it&apos;s done!&quot;, &quot;I did it!&quot;, &quot;ready!&quot; or &quot;all right!&quot;. The song was first performed as a sketch on the Japanese sketch comedy show &quot;笑う犬の冒険&quot; (Warau Inu no Bōken; Adventures of a Laughing Dog), known as &quot;Silly Go Lucky&quot; in the United States, where Happa-tai, a sendup of a stereotypical boy band, is portrayed by some of Japan&apos;s most well-known comedians. It became extremely popular on the Internet through the distribution of its music video and also a Flash animation called Irrational Exuberance which used the song.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The song itself is a distinctly disco-influenced number based on the song Go West by The Village People, with altered lyrics. The video features its members singing and dancing exuberantly while wearing only underwear with a large green leaf on the front. The six band members&apos; synchronized dancing and personalized poses for the camera parody the boy band craze.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The sketch is a strongly ironic commentary on attempts by the Japanese government and others to maintain optimism in the face of Japan&apos;s severe economic troubles, depicting men impoverished to the degree of having no clothing but the figurative fig leaf (though in this case the leaves are attached to the men&apos;s briefs) yet maintaining an irrational, irrepressible belief in their own potential for success. The sketch satirizes many of the stereotypes of Japanese pop culture, including such tropes as a romantic interlude during the song&apos;s bridge that takes place on a city street filled with floating sakura blossoms.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 2001-04-18, the &quot;Yatta!&quot; single was released under the Pony Canyon label in Japan. It surprisingly hit #6 in the charts, and went triple-platinum in Japan within a number of weeks. While the song was intended to be humorous, the Internet audience in the United States generally assumed it to be earnest, probably due to the obvious work that went into the special effects in the video. The incomprehensibility of such an elaborate video enhanced its popularity among Western audiences who could not understand the Japanese lyrics.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The song and video have since been used as a web culture in-joke on many different websites, akin to All your base are belong to us, and the amount of independent video of various kinds that has referenced or used it is quite prolific. The actors who performed as Happa-tai were even brought to perform &quot;YATTA!&quot; in the United States on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Host Jimmy Kimmel compared himself to Ed Sullivan introducing the Beatles in their first American performance.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Yatta.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;Yatta!&quot; is a 2001 song by a Japanese comedy band called ã¯ã£ã±éšŠ (Happa-tai; literally &quot;Leaf Squad&qu...'),(68,'Da Buzz','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Da Buzz is a Swedish eurodance/pop music group, members are writers/producers Per Lidén and Pier Schmid and lead-singer Annika Thörnquist. All three are from Karlstad.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band have had a successful career in their native Sweden, where they are one of the most popular dance groups with a career spanning seven years, five albums, and 15 hit singles. They have reached #1 twice in their homeland, in 2003 with &quot;Alive&quot; and in 2006 with &quot;Last Goodbye&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">They participated in Melodifestivalen in 2003 with the song Stop Look Listen.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A greatest hits album was released in november 2007. Their latest single &quot;Baby Listen To Me&quot; was released in September 2007, and became the band&apos;s 8th top 10 hit.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Da%20Buzz.jpg',51,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Da Buzz is a Swedish eurodance/pop music group, members are writers/producers Per LidÃ©n and Pier Schmid and lead-singer ...'),(70,'Weird Al Yankovic','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Alfred Matthew &quot;Weird Al&quot; Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, satirist, parodist, songwriter, accordionist, and television producer. Yankovic is known in particular for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. Since receiving his first accordion lesson a day before his seventh birthday, he has sold more than 12 million albums (more than any comedy act in history), recorded more than 150 parody and original songs, and has performed more than 1,000 live shows. His works have earned him three Grammy Awards among nine nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records in the United States. Yankovic&apos;s first top ten Billboard album and single were both released in 2006, nearly three decades into his career.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In addition to recording his albums, Yankovic has written and starred in his own movie and television show, directed music videos for himself and other artists including Ben Folds and Hanson. He has also made guest appearances on television shows such as The Simpsons, Behind the Music, Johnny Bravo, Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Robot Chicken, in addition to starring in his own Al TV specials.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Early Life</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The only child of Nick Yankovic (June 4, 1917–April 9, 2004; an American of Yugoslavian descent) and Mary Elizabeth (née Vivalda; February 7, 1923–April 9, 2004, an American of Italian and English descent), Alfred was born in Downey, California, and raised in the neighboring town of Lynwood. Nick was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and began living in California after serving during World War II. He believed &quot;the key to success&quot; was &quot;doing for a living whatever makes you happy&quot; and often reminded his son of this philosophy. Nick married Mary Vivalda in 1949. Mary, who had come to California from Kentucky, gave birth to Alfred ten years later.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Alfred&apos;s first accordion lesson was on October 22, 1966, a day before his seventh birthday. A door-to-door salesman traveling through Lynwood offered the Yankovic parents a choice of accordion or guitar lessons at a local music school. Yankovic claims the reason his parents chose accordion over guitar was &quot;They figured there should be at least one more accordion-playing Yankovic in the world,&quot; referring to Frankie Yankovic, to whom he has no relation. He continued lessons at the school for three years before continuing to learn on his own. Yankovic&apos;s early accordion role models include Frankie Yankovic and Myron Floren (the accordionist on The Lawrence Welk Show). In the 1970s, Yankovic was a big fan of Elton John and claims John&apos;s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album &quot;was partly how I learned to play rock &apos;n roll on the accordion.&quot; He would repeatedly play the album and try to play along on his accordion. As for his influences in comedic and parody music, Yankovic lists artists including Tom Lehrer, Stan Freberg, Spike Jones, Allan Sherman, Shel Silverstein and Frank Zappa &quot;and all the other wonderfully sick and twisted artists that he was exposed to through the Dr. Demento Radio Show.&quot; Other sources of inspiration for his comedy come from Mad magazine, Monty Python, and the Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker parody movies.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic began kindergarten a year earlier than most children, and he skipped the second grade. &quot;My classmates seemed to think I was some kind of rocket scientist so I was labeled a nerd early on,&quot; he recalls. As his unusual schooling left him two years younger than most of his classmates, Yankovic was not interested in sports or social events at school. He claims to have been a &quot;straight A&quot; student throughout high school, which earned him the honor of becoming valedictorian of his senior class. Yankovic was fairly active in his school&apos;s extracurricular programs, including the National Forensic League (in which he &quot;usually brought home some kind of trophy&quot;), a play based upon Rebel Without a Cause, the yearbook program (for which he wrote most of the captions), and the Volcano Worshipper&apos;s Club, &quot;which did absolutely nothing. We started the club just to get an extra picture of ourselves in the yearbook.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Dr. Demento, &quot;My Bologna,&quot; and Early Fame</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1976, Yankovic, then a high school senior, sent a homemade tape to Dr. Demento, the host of a comedy radio program. The tape&apos;s first song was &quot;Belvedere Cruisin&quot;, about his family&apos;s Plymouth Belvedere; another song included on the tape (which never received airtime) was &quot;Dr. D Superstar&quot;, a parody of the title song from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Demento said &quot;&apos;Belvedere Cruising&apos; might not have been the very best song I ever heard, but it had some clever lines [...] I put the tape on the air immediately.&quot; Yankovic also played at local coffeehouses saying:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;It was sort of like amateur music night, and a lot of people were like wannabe Dan Fogelbergs, They&apos;d get up on stage with their acoustic guitar and do these lovely ballads. And I would get up with my accordion and play the theme from &apos;2001.&apos; And people were kind of shocked that I would be disrupting their mellow Thursday night folk fest.&quot; </FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During Yankovic&apos;s sophomore year as an architecture student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he became a disc jockey at the university&apos;s radio station, KCPR. Yankovic said he had been nicknamed &quot;Weird Al&quot; by fellow students and &quot;took it on professionally&quot; as his persona for the station. In 1978, he released his first recording (as Alfred Yankovic), &quot;Take Me Down&quot;, on the LP, Slo Grown, as a benefit for the Economic Opportunity Commission of San Luis Obispo County. The song mocked famous local landmarks such as the fountain toilets at Madonna Inn.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In mid 1979, shortly before his senior year, &quot;My Sharona&quot; by The Knack was on the charts and Yankovic took his accordion into the restroom across the hall from the radio station (to take advantage of the echo chamber acoustics) and recorded a parody entitled &quot;My Bologna&quot;. He sent it to Dr. Demento, who played it to good response from listeners. Yankovic met The Knack after a show at his college, and introduced himself as the author of &quot;My Bologna&quot;. The Knack&apos;s lead singer, Doug Fieger, said he liked the song and suggested that Capitol Records vice president Rupert Perry release the song as a single. &quot;My Bologna&quot; was released as a single with &quot;School Cafeteria&quot; as its B-side, and the label gave Yankovic a six-month recording contract. Yankovic, who was &quot;only getting average grades&quot; in his architecture degree, began to realize that he might make a career of comedic music.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On September 14, 1980, Yankovic was a guest on the Dr. Demento Show, where he was to record a new parody live. The song was called &quot;Another One Rides the Bus&quot;, a parody of Queen&apos;s hit, &quot;Another One Bites the Dust&quot;. While practicing the song outside the sound booth, he met Jon &quot;Bermuda&quot; Schwartz, who told him he was a drummer and agreed to bang on Yankovic&apos;s accordion case to help Yankovic keep a steady beat during the song. They rehearsed the song just a few times before the show began. &quot;Another One Rides the Bus&quot; became so popular that Yankovic&apos;s first television appearance was a performance of the song on the The Tomorrow Show (April 21, 1981) with Tom Snyder. On the show, Yankovic played his accordion, and again, Schwartz banged on the accordion case and provided comical sound effects.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Band and Fame</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">1981 brought Yankovic on tour for the first time as part of Dr. Demento&apos;s stage show. His stage act in a Phoenix, Arizona, nightclub caught the eye of manager Jay Levey, who was &quot;blown away&quot;. Levey asked Yankovic if he had considered creating a full band and doing his music as a career. Yankovic admitted that he had, so Levey held auditions. Steve Jay became Yankovic&apos;s bass player, and Jay&apos;s friend Jim West played guitar. Schwartz continued on drums. Yankovic&apos;s first show with his new band was on March 31, 1982. Several days later, Yankovic and his band were the opening act for Missing Persons. The unimpressed audience threw items at the group, and they were booed off the stage.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic recorded &quot;I Love Rocky Road&quot; (a parody of &quot;I Love Rock &apos;N Roll&quot; as recorded by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts) in 1982. Due to the influence of his new producer, Rick Derringer, it managed to become a hit on Top 40 radio, leading to Yankovic&apos;s signing with Scotti Bros. Records. In 1983, Yankovic&apos;s first self-titled album was released on Scotti Bros. He released his second album &quot;Weird Al&quot; Yankovic in 3-D in 1984. The first single &quot;Eat It&quot; a parody of the Michael Jackson song &quot;Beat It&quot; became quite popular, thanks in part to the music video, a shot-for-shot parody of Jackson&apos;s &quot;Beat It&quot; music video, and to Yankovic&apos;s self-styled &quot;uncanny resemblance&quot; to Jackson. Peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, &quot;Eat It&quot; remained Yankovic&apos;s highest-charting single until &quot;White &amp; Nerdy&quot; placed at number 9 in October 2006.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1985, Yankovic co-wrote and starred in a mockumentary of his own life entitled The Compleat Al, which intertwined the facts of his life up to that point with fiction. The movie also featured some clips from Yankovic&apos;s trip to Japan and some clips from the Al TV specials. The Compleat Al was co-directed by Jay Levey, who would direct UHF four years later. Also released around the same time as The Compleat Al was The Authorized Al, a biographical book based on the film. The book, resembling a scrapbook, included real and fictional humorous photographs and documents.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic and his band toured as the opening act for The Monkees in mid 1987 for their second reunion tour of North America. Yankovic claims to have enjoyed touring with The Monkees, despite the fact &quot;the promoter gypped us out of a bunch of money.&quot; He also noticed &quot;they didn&apos;t seem to get along all that great when they weren&apos;t on stage. There was even a separate tour bus for each Monkee!&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic also appeared on the Wendy Carlos recording of Prokofiev&apos;s &quot;Peter and the Wolf&quot; as the narrator in 1988. The album also included a sequel of Camille Saint-Saëns&apos;s composition The Carnival of the Animals entitled the &quot;Carnival of the Animals Part II&quot;, with Yankovic providing humorous poems for each of the featured creatures in the style of Ogden Nash, who had written humorous poems for the original. Rubén Valtierra joined the band on keyboards in 1991, allowing Yankovic to concentrate more on singing and increasing his use of the stage space during concerts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A factual biographical booklet of Yankovic&apos;s life, written by Dr. Demento, was released with the 1994 box set compilation Permanent Record: Al In The Box. The Dr. Demento Society, which issues yearly Christmas re-releases of material from Dr. Demento&apos;s Basement Tapes, often includes unreleased tracks from Yankovic&apos;s vaults, such as &quot;Pacman&quot;, &quot;It&apos;s Still Billy Joel To Me&quot; or the live version of &quot;School Cafeteria&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>New Look, Personal Life, and Career To Present</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On January 24, 1998, Yankovic had LASIK eye surgery to correct his extreme myopia. In the same period, he shaved off his mustache and grew out his hair, thus radically changing his trademark look. (He had previously shaved his mustache in 1983 for the video of Ricky in order to resemble Desi Arnaz more closely, and in 1996 for his &quot;Amish Paradise&quot; video.) Yankovic reasoned, &quot;If Madonna&apos;s allowed to reinvent herself every 15 minutes, I figure I should be good for a change at least once every twenty years.&quot; He parodied the reaction to this &quot;new look&quot; in a commercial for his nonexistent MTV Unplugged special. The commercial featured Yankovic in the short-haired wig from the music video for The Saga Begins, claiming his new look was an attempt to &quot;get back to the core of what I&apos;m all about,&quot; that being &quot;the music.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic married Suzanne Krajewski on February 10, 2001. Their daughter, Nina, was born February 11, 2003. They also have a pet cockatiel named Bo. They used to have a pet poodle, Bela (pictured atop Yankovic&apos;s head on the cover of his album, Poodle Hat). Despite songs such as &quot;Pretty Fly for a Rabbi&quot;, his frequent use of &quot;Oy vey&quot; and other Yiddish phrases, Yankovic is not of Jewish ancestry, and identifies himself as a Christian.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic changed his diet to become a vegetarian in 1992, after a fan of his gave him the book Diet for a New America and he felt &quot;it made [...] a very compelling argument for a strict vegetarian diet.&quot; He eats no meat, and tries to avoid egg and dairy products. When asked how he can &quot;rationalize&quot; performing at events such as the Great American Rib Cook-Off when he is a vegetarian, he replied &quot;The same way I can rationalize playing at a college even though I’m not a student anymore.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On April 9, 2004, Yankovic&apos;s parents, Nick, 86, and Mary, 81, were found dead in their Fallbrook, California, home, apparently the victims of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning from their fireplace that had been recently lit. The flue was closed, which trapped the carbon monoxide gas inside the house, suffocating them. An hour after his wife notified him of his parents&apos; death, Yankovic went on with his concert in Appleton, Wisconsin, saying that &quot;since my music had helped many of my fans through tough times, maybe it would work for me as well&quot; and that it would &quot;at least ... give me a break from sobbing all the time.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic&apos;s career in novelty and comedy music has outlasted many of his &quot;mainstream&quot; parody targets, such as Toni Basil, MC Hammer, Men Without Hats, and Crash Test Dummies. While most novelty artists are one-hit wonders, Yankovic&apos;s continued success (including the top 10 single &quot;White &amp; Nerdy&quot; and album Straight Outta Lynwood in 2006) has enabled him to escape the stigma often associated with novelty music.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Music</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">While Yankovic&apos;s song parodies (such as &quot;Eat It&quot;) have resulted in success on the Billboard charts (see List of singles by &quot;Weird Al&quot; Yankovic), he has actually recorded an equally large number of original humorous songs (&quot;You Don&apos;t Love Me Anymore&quot; and &quot;One More Minute&quot;). His work depends largely on the satirizing of popular culture, including television (see The TV Album), movies (&quot;The Saga Begins&quot;), food (see The Food Album), popular music (the polkas), and sometimes issues in contemporary news (&quot;Headline News&quot;). Yankovic claims he has no intention of writing &quot;serious&quot; music. In his reasoning, &quot;There&apos;s enough people that do unfunny music. I&apos;ll leave the serious stuff to Paris Hilton and Kevin Federline.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Although many of Yankovic&apos;s songs are parodies of contemporary radio hits, it is rare that the song&apos;s primary topic lampoons the original artist as a person, or the song itself. Most Yankovic songs consist of the original song&apos;s music, with a separate, unrelated set of amusing lyrics. Exceptions include &quot;Smells Like Nirvana&quot;, which references unintelligible lyrics in &quot;Smells Like Teen Spirit&quot;, &quot;Achy Breaky Song&quot;, which refers to the song &quot;Achy Breaky Heart&quot;, &quot;(This Song&apos;s Just) Six Words Long&quot;, which refers to the repetitious lyrics in &quot;Got My Mind Set On You&quot; and &quot;Confessions Part III&quot;, which references &quot;Confessions&quot; and &quot;Confessions Part II&quot; in the first few lines.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic&apos;s humor normally lies more in creating unexpected incongruity between an artist&apos;s image and the topic of the song, contrasting the style of the song with its content (such as the rap songs &quot;Amish Paradise&quot; and &quot;White &amp; Nerdy&quot;), or in pointing out trends or works which have become pop culture clichés (such as &quot;eBay&quot; and &quot;Don&apos;t Download This Song&quot;).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic is the sole writer for all his songs, and for &quot;legal and personal reasons&quot; does not accept parody submissions or ideas from fans. There exists, however, one exception to this rule in the case of &quot;Like a Surgeon.&quot; Madonna was reportedly talking with a friend and happened to wonder aloud when Yankovic was going to turn her &quot;Like a Virgin&quot; into &quot;Like a Surgeon.&quot; Madonna&apos;s friend was a mutual friend of Yankovic&apos;s manager, Jay Levey, and eventually Yankovic himself heard the story from Levey.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Unlike other parody artists such as Tom Lehrer and Allan Sherman, Yankovic strives to keep the backing music in his parodies the same as the original. While Lehrer reproduced the songs on piano and Sherman reproduced them orchestrally, Yankovic and his band essentially play the original song with new lyrics. Instead of using instrumental versions of the original songs, Yankovic and his band transcribe the original song by ear and re-record the song for Yankovic&apos;s parody version.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In addition to his parodies, Yankovic also includes a medley of various songs on most albums, each one reinterpreted as a polka, with the choruses or memorable lines of various songs juxtaposed for humorous effect. Yankovic has been known to say that converting these songs to polka was &quot;...the way God intended.&quot; Because the polkas have become a staple of Yankovic&apos;s albums, he has said he tries to include one on each album because &quot;fans would be rioting in the streets, I think, if I didn&apos;t do a polka medley.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Some of Yankovic&apos;s original songs are pastiches or &quot;style parodies&quot;, for which he chooses a band&apos;s entire body of work to honor/parody, rather than any single hit by that band. Such bands include Devo with &quot;Dare to Be Stupid&quot;, Talking Heads with &quot;Dog Eat Dog&quot;, Frank Zappa with &quot;Genius in France&quot;, Nine Inch Nails with &quot;Germs&quot;, or most recently, charity records with &quot;Don&apos;t Download This Song&quot;. Others are style parodies in the style of a genre of music, rather than a specific band (for example, country music with &quot;Good Enough For Now&quot;).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic has contributed original songs to several films (&quot;This Is the Life&quot; from Johnny Dangerously; &quot;Polkamon&quot; from the movie Pokémon: The Movie 2000, and a parody of the James Bond title sequence in Spy Hard), in addition to his own film, UHF. Other songs of his have appeared in films or television series as well, such as &quot;Dare to Be Stupid&quot; in Transformers: The Movie.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic&apos;s recurring jokes include the number 27 (as seen on the covers for Running With Scissors, Poodle Hat, and Straight Outta Lynwood) and the names Bob (the Al TV interviews often mention the name), Frank (&quot;Frank&apos;s 2000&quot; TV&quot;), and Leroy Finkelstein (music video for &quot;I Lost On Jeopardy&quot;). Also, a hamster called Harvey the Wonder Hamster is a recurring character in The Weird Al Show and the Al TV specials, as well as the subject of an original song on Alapalooza. Yankovic has also put two backmasking messages into his songs. The first, in &quot;Nature Trail to Hell&quot;, said &quot;Satan Eats Cheez Whiz&quot;; the second, in &quot;I Remember Larry&quot;, said &quot;Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">His latest three album releases feature the longest songs Yankovic has ever released. The &quot;Albuquerque&quot; track from Running with Scissors is 11 minutes and 23 seconds; &quot;Genius in France&quot; from Poodle Hat runs for 8 minutes and 56 seconds; &quot;Trapped in the Drive-Thru&quot; from Straight Outta Lynwood is 10 minutes and 53 seconds long. Prior to 2007, (apart from a one-off performance of &quot;Albuquerque&quot; in Albuquerque, New Mexico), these &quot;epic&quot; songs were not performed live in their entirety due to their length and complexity. (See Live performances for details)</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Music Videos</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">While Yankovic&apos;s music generally does not parody the song or the artist of the original song, Yankovic&apos;s music videos will sometimes incorporate parodies of many elements of the original song&apos;s music video, or otherwise spoof the general style of the music. Most notably, the video for &quot;Smells like Nirvana&quot; uses an extremely similar set to Nirvana&apos;s &quot;Smells Like Teen Spirit&quot;, including using several of the same actors. This video contended with &quot;Smells like Teen Spirit&quot; at the 1992 MTV Music Video Awards for Best Male Video. Other videos that are parodies of their original song videos include &quot;Eat It&quot;, &quot;Fat&quot;, &quot;Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies&quot;, &quot;Bedrock Anthem&quot;, &quot;Headline News&quot;, and &quot;White &amp; Nerdy&quot;. The video for &quot;Dare to be Stupid&quot; is, as stated by Yankovic, a style parody in general of Devo videos. &quot;It&apos;s All About the Pentiums&quot; plays on the style of rap and hip-hop videos. Recent videos have included notable celebrities in addition to Yankovic and his band; for example, Dick Van Patten is featured in both &quot;Smells Like Nirvana&quot; and &quot;Bedrock Anthem&quot;, Drew Carey appears in &quot;It&apos;s All About the Pentiums&quot;, and Donny Osmond and Seth Green appear in &quot;White &amp; Nerdy&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Reactions From Original Artists</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Under the &quot;fair use&quot; provision of U.S. copyright law, affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, one does not need permission to record a parody. However, as a personal rule, and as a means of maintaining good relationships within the music community, Yankovic has always requested permission from the original artist before recording his parodies. Most artists have had positive reactions to Yankovic&apos;s parodies. Several have considered it to be something of a badge of honor to have Yankovic ask permission to parody their song or style, since they felt that Yankovic would not choose to do so unless they were a success or had made an impact on the music scene at the time. There are, however, a few notable exceptions, where people have not allowed parodies or otherwise withdrawn permission.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Positive</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Kurt Cobain of Nirvana said that the band felt they had &quot;made it&quot; after Yankovic recorded &quot;Smells Like Nirvana&quot;, a parody of the grunge band&apos;s smash hit, &quot;Smells Like Teen Spirit&quot;.[6] On his Behind the Music special, Yankovic stated that when he called Cobain to ask if he could parody the song, Cobain gave him permission, then paused and asked, &quot;Um...it&apos;s not gonna be about food, is it?&quot; Yankovic responded with &quot;No, it&apos;ll be about how no one can understand your lyrics&quot;. According to members of Nirvana interviewed for Behind the Music, when they saw the video of the song, they laughed hysterically. Additionally, Cobain described Yankovic as &quot;a musical genius.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Michael Jackson is also a big fan of Yankovic. Jackson has twice allowed him to parody his songs (&quot;Beat It&quot; and &quot;Bad&quot; became &quot;Eat It&quot; and &quot;Fat&quot;, respectively). When he granted Yankovic permission to do &quot;Fat&quot;, Jackson allowed him to use the same set built for his own &quot;Bad&quot; video from the Moonwalker video. Though Jackson was a good sport about &quot;Eat It&quot; and &quot;Fat&quot;, he requested that Yankovic not record a parody of &quot;Black or White&quot;, because he felt the message was too important. However, Yankovic has performed a concert-only parody &quot;Snack All Night&quot; in some of his live shows. Yankovic also has a cameo appearance, along with many other celebrities, in Jackson&apos;s music video for &quot;Liberian Girl&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Mark Knopfler approved Yankovic&apos;s parody of the Dire Straits song &quot;Money for Nothing&quot; for use in the film UHF on the provision that Knopfler himself were allowed to play lead guitar on the parody which was later titled &quot;Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*&quot;. Yankovic commented on the legal complications of the parody in the DVD audio commentary for UHF, explaining &quot;We had to name that song &apos;Money for Nothing &apos;slash&apos; Beverly Hillbillies &apos;asterisk&apos; because the lawyers told us that had to be the name. Those wacky lawyers! What ya gonna do?&quot; The &quot;Al in The Box&quot; booklet referred to the song&apos;s &quot;compound fracture of a title.&quot; When a fan asked about the song&apos;s title, Yankovic shared his feelings on the title, replying &quot;That incredibly stupid name is what the lawyers insisted that the parody be listed as. I&apos;m not sure why, and I&apos;ve obviously never been very happy about it.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The song &quot;The Saga Begins&quot; (a parody of Don McLean&apos;s &quot;American Pie&quot;) accurately states the entire plot of The Phantom Menace, despite being written before the film&apos;s release. Yankovic got the plot details from rumor websites. He was slightly unsure about Anakin proposing to Amidala, so he attended a $500 screening to confirm, and ended up making only very minor alterations to the lyrics. McLean was pleased with the parody, and even told Yankovic that the parody&apos;s lyrics sometimes enter his mind during live performances. Yankovic&apos;s parody not only replicates the music from the original Don McLean song, but it also replicates the multi-layered rhyming structure in the verses and chorus. Additionally, George Lucas loved the song and a LucasFilm representative told Yankovic, &quot;You should have seen the smile on his face.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Chamillionaire was also very pleased, even putting Yankovic&apos;s parody &quot;White &amp; Nerdy&quot; on his official MySpace page before it was on Yankovic&apos;s own page. Chamillionaire stated in an interview, &quot;He&apos;s actually rapping pretty good on it, it&apos;s crazy [...] I didn&apos;t know he could rap like that. It&apos;s really an honor when he does that. [...] Weird Al is not gonna do a parody of your song if you&apos;re not doing it big.&quot; In September of 2007, Chamillionaire credited &quot;White &amp; Nerdy&quot; for his recent Grammy win, stating &quot;That parody was the reason I won the Grammy, because it made the record so big it was undeniable. It was so big overseas that people were telling me they had heard my version of Weird Al&apos;s song.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Negative</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">One of Yankovic&apos;s most controversial parodies was 1996&apos;s &quot;Amish Paradise&quot;, based on &quot;Gangsta&apos;s Paradise&quot; by hip-hop artist Coolio, which, in turn, was based on &quot;Pastime Paradise&quot; by Stevie Wonder. Reportedly, Coolio&apos;s label gave Yankovic the impression that Coolio had granted permission to record the parody, but Coolio maintains that he never did. While Coolio claimed he was upset, legal action never materialized, and Coolio accepted royalty payments for the song. After this controversy, Yankovic has always made sure to speak directly with the artist of every song he parodied. At the XM Satellite Radio booth at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show Yankovic and Coolio made peace. On his website, Yankovic wrote of this event, &quot;I don’t remember what we said to each other exactly, but it was all very friendly. I doubt I’ll be invited to Coolio’s next birthday party, but at least I can stop wearing that bulletproof vest to the mall.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2003, Yankovic was denied permission to make a video for &quot;Couch Potato&quot;, his parody of Eminem&apos;s &quot;Lose Yourself&quot;: Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my &apos;Lose Yourself&apos; parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">For the Poodle Hat Al TV special, Yankovic raised the question of artistic expression in a false interview with Eminem. As Yankovic has always done for his Al TV specials, he edited the footage of a previous Eminem interview and inserted himself asking questions such that it unmasked Eminem as a hypocrite on the matter of an artist&apos;s right to free speech. The clip is one of several screened during Yankovic&apos;s 2007 &quot;Straight Outta Lynwood&quot; tour (other clips have interviews with Jessica Simpson, Celine Dion, Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, Cher, Madonna, Michael Stipe, and Kevin Federline).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Refused Parodies</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On numerous occasions, Prince has refused Yankovic permission to record parodies of his songs. Yankovic has stated in interviews that he has &quot;approached him every few years [to] see if he&apos;s lightened up.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is a self-proclaimed Yankovic fan, but when Yankovic wished to create a polka medley of Led Zeppelin songs, Page refused. Yankovic was, however, allowed the very rare opportunity to re-record a sample of &quot;Black Dog&quot; for a segment of &quot;Trapped in the Drive Thru&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Paul McCartney, also a Yankovic fan, refused Yankovic permission to record a parody of Wings&apos; &quot;Live and Let Die&quot;, entitled &quot;Chicken Pot Pie&quot;, because McCartney is a vegetarian and did not wish to condone the eating of animal flesh. Yankovic, who is a vegetarian as well, has stated that he respects McCartney&apos;s decision to refuse the parody, and is hesitant to &quot;put Paul on the list&quot; of artists who have refused permission for a parody. However, like &quot;Snack All Night&quot;, &quot;Chicken Pot Pie&quot; has been performed numerous times in concert. His concerts often feature parodies for which the artist did not give permission or could not be released for various reasons.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2006, Yankovic gained James Blunt&apos;s permission to record a parody of &quot;You&apos;re Beautiful&quot;. However, after Yankovic had recorded &quot;You&apos;re Pitiful&quot;, Blunt&apos;s label, Atlantic Records, rescinded this permission. The parody was pulled from Yankovic&apos;s Straight Outta Lynwood due to his label&apos;s unwillingness to &quot;go to war&quot; with Atlantic. Yankovic released the song as a free download on his MySpace profile, as well as his official website, since it was not Blunt himself objecting to the parody. In the &quot;White &amp; Nerdy&quot; video, Yankovic&apos;s character is seen vandalizing the record label&apos;s Wikipedia entry with the exclamation &quot;YOU SUCK!&quot; After the video was released online, Wikipedia&apos;s Atlantic Records article mirrored the video with numerous &quot;vandals&quot; editing it. Yankovic has said that he does not approve of the vandalism, though he admits being amused by it. During various live performances of &quot;You&apos;re Pitiful&quot;, Yankovic took off layers of shirts (similar to the music video for &quot;You&apos;re Beautiful&quot;) revealing a series of humorous t-shirts. Among these was a bright yellow shirt with the words &quot;Atlantic Records sucks!&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Live Performances</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic often describes his live concert performances as &quot;a rock and comedy multimedia extravaganza&quot; with an audience that &quot;ranges from toddlers to geriatrics.&quot; Apart from Yankovic and his band performing his classic and contemporary hits, staples of Yankovic&apos;s live performances include a medley of parodies, many costume changes between songs, and a video screen on which various clips are played during the costume changes. A concert from Yankovic&apos;s 1999 tour for the Running With Scissors album (Touring With Scissors) was released on VHS in 1999 and on DVD in 2000. Titled &quot;Weird Al&quot; Yankovic Live!, the concert was recorded at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California, on October 2, 1999. For legal reasons, video clips (apart from those for Yankovic&apos;s own music videos) could not be shown for the home release, and unreleased parodies were removed from the parody medley for the performance.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">2003 saw Yankovic on tour overseas for the first time. Prior to 2003, Yankovic and his band had toured only the United States and parts of Canada. Following the success of Poodle Hat in Australia, Yankovic performed eleven shows in Australia&apos;s major capital cities and regional areas in October of that year.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic began the tour for Straight Outta Lynwood in Auckland, New Zealand on March 10, with ten concerts in Australia following. The North American leg of the tour began in May, and will last throughout the mid year. During the encore of the Straight Outta Lynwood tour, the song &quot;Albuquerque&quot; was performed in its entirety for the first time, with Yankovic improvising throughout the performance. Yankovic stated in the past that, he was afraid that performing the song frequently would leave his vocals &quot;trashed,&quot; (likely because of the screaming involved in the song, in addition to its extensive length) - as the Albuquerque, New Mexico performance did in 1999.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Straight Outta Lynwood tour&apos;s parody medley features one &quot;chapter&quot; of &quot;Trapped in the Drive-Thru&quot;, a new verse of &quot;Headline News&quot; dealing with Britney Spears&apos; 2007 head-shaving shock and underpants-less limousine trip in late 2006, (later replaced with a verse about Paris Hilton getting released from prison) and the concert-only parody of T-Pain&apos;s &quot;I&apos;m N Luv (Wit A Stripper)&quot;, &quot;I&apos;m in Love with The Skipper&quot;, a song about the title character from Gilligan&apos;s Island and his supposed homosexual feelings towards The Skipper. Yankovic explains that while he was given permission to record the song for Straight Outta Lynwood, he decided &quot;at the last minute&quot; not to put the song on the album. However, T-Pain is still mentioned in the album&apos;s &quot;special thanks&quot; section. On September 8, 2007, Weird Al had performed his 1,000th live show at Idaho Falls, Idaho.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>UHF</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1989, Yankovic starred in a full-length feature film, co-written by himself and manager Jay Levey, and filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma called UHF. A satire of the television and film industries, also starring Michael Richards, Fran Drescher, and Victoria Jackson, it brought floundering studio Orion their highest test scores since the movie RoboCop. However, it was unsuccessful in theaters, likely due to a release in mid 1989, going up against Ghostbusters II, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, and others.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The film has since become a cult classic, with out-of-print copies of the VHS version selling for up to $100 on eBay until the release of the DVD in 2002. Yankovic occasionally shows clips from the film at his concerts (to which MGM, the film&apos;s current owner, initially objected in the form of a cease and desist letter). To apparently make it more accessible to overseas audiences where UHF TV stations were less prominent, the film was titled The Vidiot From UHF in Australia and parts of Europe.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">UHF shows the creation of Yankovic&apos;s signature food—the Twinkie Wiener Sandwich. The snack consists of an overturned Twinkie split open as a makeshift bun, a hot dog, and Easy Cheese. Yankovic has stated that he has switched to using tofu hot dogs since becoming a vegetarian, but still enjoys the occasional Twinkie-Wiener Sandwich.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Notable Television Appearances</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic had a TV series called The Weird Al Show, which aired from September 1997 to September 1998 on CBS. Though the show appeared to be geared at children, the humor was really more for his adult fans (as such, it is often compared to Pee-wee&apos;s Playhouse). The entire series was released on DVD by Shout! Factory on August 15, 2006.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic has hosted Al TV on MTV and Al Music on MuchMusic many times, generally coinciding with the release of each new album. For Poodle Hat, Al TV appeared on VH1 for the first time. A recurring segment of Al TV involves Yankovic manipulating interviews for comic effect. He inserts himself into a previously conducted interview with a musician, and then manipulates his questions, resulting in bizarre and comic responses from the celebrity.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">VH1 produced a Behind the Music episode on Yankovic; however, he was so clean-cut that the producers could not find any of the typical angst-laced problems that make many rock stars&apos; stories compelling (as Yankovic noted in the episode), so they stretched many smaller disappointments and skirmishes during his career into major downfalls to fit the program&apos;s classic formula. His two commercial failures (his film UHF and his 1986 album Polka Party!) were presented as having a larger impact on the direction of his career than they really had. Also, Coolio&apos;s later disapproval of &quot;Amish Paradise&quot; was played up as a large feud. Much was also made over his apparent lack of a love life, though he got married shortly after the program aired.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic has done voice-overs for a number of animated series. He appeared in a 2003 episode of The Simpsons, singing &quot;The Ballad of Homer &amp; Marge&quot; (a parody of John Mellencamp&apos;s &quot;Jack and Diane&quot;) with his band. The episode, &quot;Three Gays of the Condo&quot;, in which Marge hires Yankovic to sing the aforementioned song to Homer in an attempt to reconcile their marriage, later won an Emmy Award for &quot;Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)&quot;. Yankovic is the voice for Squid Hat on the Cartoon Network show, The Grim Adventures of Billy &amp; Mandy. He is also the announcer of the cartoon&apos;s eponymous video game adaptation. During a BotCon 2007 panel session, voice actor David Kaye confirmed Yankovic will have a guest appearance voicing a waste collection vehicle Transformer in the upcoming Transformers: Animated cartoon series. Previously, Yankovic&apos;s &quot;Dare to be Stupid&quot; song was featured in the animated 1986 film The Transformers: The Movie.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">An exhaustive list of television shows on which Yankovic has appeared is available on his official website.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Directing Career</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;Weird Al&quot; Yankovic has directed many of his own music videos; he has directed all of his music videos from 1993’s &quot;Bedrock Anthem&quot; to his latest, 2006’s &quot;White &amp; Nerdy&quot;. He also directed the end sequence of 1986’s &quot;Christmas at Ground Zero&quot; (an original piece juxtaposing Christmas with nuclear warfare) from his Polka Party! album and the title sequence to Spy Hard, for which he sang the title song.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In addition to his own, he has directed several videos for Hanson (The Titanic sequences in &quot;River&quot;), The Black Crowes (&quot;Only a Fool&quot;), Ben Folds (&quot;Rockin&apos; the Suburbs&quot;), Jeff Foxworthy (&quot;Redneck Stomp&quot; and &quot;Party All Night&quot;), and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (&quot;Wail&quot;). He has cameo appearances in his videos for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Hanson (as the interviewer), and Ben Folds (as the producer fixing Folds&apos; &quot;shitty tracks&quot;).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Misattribution and Imitators</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Songs posted to file sharing networks are often misattributed to him due to their humorous subject matter. Often, his surname is misspelled (and thus mispronounced) as &quot;Yankovich&quot;, among other variations. Much to the disdain of Yankovic, these misattributed files include songs that are racist, sexually explicit, or otherwise offensive. A young listener who had heard several of these offensive tracks by way of a file sharing service confronted Yankovic online, threatening a boycott due to his supposedly explicit lyrics. Quite a few of the songs, such as &quot;Star Wars Cantina&quot; by Mark Jonathan Davis (later of Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine), &quot;Star Wars Gangsta Rap&quot;, &quot;Yoda Smokes Weed&quot;, &quot;Chewbacca&quot; and several more have a Star Wars motif. Some songs misattributed to him are not songs, but spoken skits, such as &quot;Sesame Street on crack&quot;, which is also widely misattributed to Adam Sandler.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yankovic cites these misattributions as &quot;his real beef with Peer-to-peer file sharing sites&quot;:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;If you do a search for my name on any one of those sites, I guarantee you that about half of the songs that come up will be songs I had absolutely nothing to do with. That particularly bothers me, because I really try to do quality work, and I also try to maintain a more-or-less family-friendly image—and some of these songs that are supposedly by me are just, well, vulgar and awful. I truly think my reputation has suffered in a lot of people&apos;s minds because of all those fake Weird Al songs floating around the Internet.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A list of songs frequently misattributed to Yankovic can be found at The Not Al Page and a list of all commercially released songs recorded by Yankovic can be found on his website.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Weird Al Star Fund</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Weird Al Star Fund is a campaign started by Yankovic&apos;s fans to get him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Their mission is to &quot;solicit, collect, and raise the necessary money, and to compile the information needed for the application to nominate &apos;Weird Al&apos; Yankovic for a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.&quot; Fans worldwide have sent donations to raise the US$15,000 needed for a nomination. In addition to the preferred method of cash donations, many methods were used to raise money for the cause, such as a live benefit show held April 11, 2006, and selling merchandise on the official website and eBay, including T-shirts, calendars, and cookbooks. On May 26, 2006, the campaign hit the then-$15,000 target, just five days before the May 31 deadline to submit the necessary paperwork. However, Yankovic was not included on the list of inductees for 2007. On February 9, 2007, the Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce raised the price to sponsor a new star to $25,000 and as such the Fund is accepting donations again. Yankovic&apos;s application was resubmitted for consideration in 2007, but he was not included among 2008&apos;s inductees.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/weird%20al.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Alfred Matthew &quot;Weird Al&quot; Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, satirist, parodist,...'),(104,'DJ Marc Aurel','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">DJ Marc Aurel (real name Marc Auerswald) is a eurodance/trance/house DJ with notable hits such as &quot;Running&quot; and &quot;Sound of Love&quot;.  </FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Right after &quot;The Sun&quot;, one of his earliest works, DJ Marc Aurel has got a new rocket-like-start with his newly published hit called &quot;Running&quot;. The soft vocals combined with the impressive melody put the audience immediately under his spell. </FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Within the very first week &quot;Running&quot; had a spot in almost every chart: DDC highest entry 8; GDP 20; DJ Top40 8; DMC highest entry 23; GDC 8; ECC 18.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The remixing was again put in the hands of Dumonde, who did a perfect job translating the beautiful, melancholy power feeling. Since the club-feedback has been so overwhelmingly great the video has already been taped in Capetown by Oliver Sommer.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the meantime Marc published &quot;The Sun&quot; and &quot;Running&quot; which includes several other remixes. The MarcAurel remix &quot;Are U Ready&quot; by Escanor has hit the single-dance-charts and was played over and over by radio stations everywhere and - last but not least - was eventually placed in the German charts. </FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Recently Marc has published the remix &quot;Trippin&quot; by Goldtrix. This song made it to No. 6 in the British sales-charts in very little time.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Nathalie (of Blue Nature fame), participant of the Grand Prix preliminaries has been supported by Marc with his remix for her song &quot;Don&apos;t Say Goodbye&quot;. This song climbed the German charts as well.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The mix-collection of his singles reproduces his DJ-sets as well as a mixture of commercial, easy listening, cool and pushy components. Even though musical taste differs, Marc continues to entertain crowds with his unique turntable style.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The best way to describe him is to call him a Trance and Techno DJ. But on special occasions - to keep the audience going - he is also capable of playing a groovy house-set. </FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/MarcAurel.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">DJ Marc Aurel (real name Marc Auerswald) is a eurodance/trance/house DJ with notable hits such as &quot;Running&quot; and...'),(71,'Sugababes','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sugababes are a BRIT Award-winning British pop group trio from London. They have been named the most successful all-female act of the 21st century.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group formed in 1998. Releasing twenty singles, 6 of those reaching #1 in the UK (plus the #1 with Band Aid 20) and five albums that have reached top 40 charts worldwide, they have had more top ten hits with original songs than any other girl group since The Supremes, Destiny&apos;s Child, and Bananarama. The Sugababes are one of the few British groups to have five of their albums reach the top 3, two of which were number 1. In 2003, they won a Brit Award for &quot;Best Dance Act&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group have so far attained at least platinum album sales from four of their albums in their native UK. They have also gained success around Europe and Asia with Number One singles in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Austria and New Zealand. Upon their release of &quot;About You Now&quot;, the Sugababes became the first group to have a single chart at #1 based on downloads alone, and are also the only all female act to have topped the single, album and download chart simultaneously twice.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>One Touch</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group was created, when Keisha Buchanan and Mutya Buena, friends since they were only eight years of age, met Siobhán Donaghy at a 1998 party when they were thirteen, and were introduced by manager, Ron Tom. Buena and Donaghy had been working separately with Tom, and while they were recording tracks for the album that would become &quot;One Touch&quot;, it was suggested that the group might work better with a third member. Buchanan had been invited to come along to watch by Buena and was asked if she could sing; which of course, she could (she had appeared aged just six on Michael Barrymore&apos;s popular My Kind of Music show, where she gave an amazingly strong vocal performance of Whitney Houston&apos;s &quot;The Greatest Love Of All&quot;).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The name &apos;Sugababes&apos; originates from Buchanan&apos;s school nickname, &apos;Sugar baby&apos;. While recording the album the band was officially known as &quot;The Sugababies&quot; (an unreleased track from these sessions repeats over and over &quot;Sugababies on the run, shake it shake it&quot;). When all the band members were aged just fourteen, they were offered a record contract by London Records and tweaked their name to the more mature &quot;Sugababes&quot;. This is also possibly due to the fact that there was already a band called &quot;Sugababies&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their debut single &quot;Overload&quot; made the UK Top 10 and was nominated for a BRIT Award for Best Single, climbing to number 3 in Germany and number 2 in New Zealand. The group co-wrote most of the tracks on One Touch, with the help of All Saints producer Cameron McVey.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their debut album produced three more top 20 hits in the UK - &quot;New Year&quot;, &quot;Run for Cover&quot; and &quot;Soul Sound&quot;. During a Japanese promotional tour Siobhán Donaghy left the group stating initially that she wanted to pursue a fashion career, eventually being diagnosed with clinical depression amid reports of in-fighting between the Sugababes members.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Heidi Range, a founding member of Atomic Kitten, was announced as Donaghy&apos;s replacement in 2001. Despite peaking at number 26 on the UK Album Charts, and faring even better in Germany, where it peaked at number 7, the sales of One Touch did not meet London Records&apos; expectations, and they dropped the group in 2001.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Angels with Dirty Faces</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Having already started work on a second album with new member, Heidi Range, the trio looked for a new record label, eventually signing to Island Records. Their first single on the new label, &quot;Freak Like Me&quot;, was produced by Richard X - recorded in Richard X&apos;s own flat, and one of the last tracks to be recorded for the album. The song used the backing track from &quot;Are Friends Electric?&quot; by Gary Numan&apos;s Tubeway Army, with the group singing lyrics taken from Adina Howard&apos;s &quot;Freak Like Me&quot;. The single debuted at number one in the UK.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their second single with Range, &quot;Round Round&quot;, produced by Kent-based production group, Xenomania, was the group&apos;s second UK number one single and reached number two in Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand. It was also their first top twenty hit in Australia, peaking at number thirteen going Gold (with sales over the 35,000 copies).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On the back of these hits, Sugababes&apos; second album Angels with Dirty Faces debuted at number two on the UK album chart and was a success across Europe, eventually being certified triple platinum in the UK, and selling one million copies in Europe. The third single from the album, a ballad entitled &quot;Stronger&quot; gained the girls their third straight top 10 hit in their native country. The track was released as a double-A side with &quot;Angels with Dirty Faces&quot; in the UK, the latter song chosen as the theme tune to The Powerpuff Girls Movie.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The fourth single &quot;Shape&quot;, which samples the Sting track &quot;Shape of My Heart&quot;, made number eleven in the UK and made the top 10 in the Netherlands and Ireland in early 2003. The single featured a live version of &quot;Freak like Me&quot; which they performed at the 2003 BRIT Awards, having won the award for &quot;Best British Dance Act&quot;. Their success also led to them recording a new track, entitled &quot;Party in the Club&quot;, for the theme tune to ITV&apos;s teenage drama show Girls in Love, based on the book of the same name by Jacqueline Wilson.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Three</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group&apos;s third album Three was released in late 2003 and continued success reaching number three on the UK Album Chart, preceded by the Xenomania produced &quot;Hole in the Head&quot;. It was the groups&apos;s third UK number one single and their first number one in Denmark. It reached number two in Ireland, Netherlands and Norway, and also became the babes&apos; first single to chart in the official Billboard charts peaking at #96 and hit the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart at #1. It also performed well on the Hot Dance Airplay chart.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The second single, &quot;Too Lost in You&quot;, which appeared on the soundtrack to the film Love Actually and was written by Diane Warren, went top ten in the UK, Germany, Netherlands and Norway, as well as going top ten on both sides of the Straits of Taiwan (Taiwan and China). The song was originally recorded in French by Patricia Kaas and entitled &quot;Quand J&apos;ai Peur De Tout&quot; . The album&apos;s third single, &quot;In the Middle&quot;, released in 2004, went to number 8 in the UK. The fourth single to be released from &quot;Three&quot; was the ballad, &quot;Caught in a Moment&quot;, gave the girls another top 10 hit, peaking at number 8, backed by tracks recorded from their Sessions@AOL appearance.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2004, the trio joined acts such as Coldplay&apos;s Chris Martin, Dido and Robbie Williams on a 2004 version of the 1984 Band Aid&apos;s original &quot;Do They Know It&apos;s Christmas?&quot;, which in December went to number 1 in the UK and sold over 200,000 copies in its first week. All the money raised by this charity single went towards famine relief in the Darfur region of Sudan.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After a break from the music industry, whilst recording their fourth album, Mutya Buena announced she and her boyfriend Jay, were expecting a child. Their daughter named Tahlia Maya Buena, was born in March 2005.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group later gave their first performance for over a year at the Edinburgh Live 8 concert. In this time, the girls had been recording their fourth album, working with variety of songwriters and producers, including USA producer, Dallas Austin.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Taller in More Ways</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 2 October 2005 the Dallas Austin produced &quot;Push the Button&quot; debuted at number one in the UK, giving the group their fourth number one single and first Irish number one single. It went on to sell over 300,000 copies in the UK alone and was later nominated at the BRIT Awards for &apos;Best British Single&apos;. It also went number one in Austria and New Zealand, and is also their biggest Australian hit to date, peaking at #3 and going platinum, selling around 100,000 copies. &quot;Push the Button&quot; became their most popular song in the United States yet, becoming another huge hit on the Hot Dance Airplay and Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 16 October 2005, Taller in More Ways became the group&apos;s first UK number one album. On that same date, the group celebrated being number one in the singles, album, airplay, and download charts at the same time. &apos;In addition to Austin, Taller in More Ways saw the trio continue work with Guy Sigsworth and Xenomania, as well as Cameron McVey, who had not worked with the group since One Touch.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Following an apparent illness that prevented Buena from promoting the follow up single &quot;Ugly&quot;, it was announced on 21 December 2005 that Buena had left Sugababes. According to an announcement on their site, &quot;[Buena]&apos;s decision was based purely on personal reasons and she will continue to remain the best of friends with both [Buchanan] and [Range]&quot;. It was found that Buchanan wanted to stay friends with Buena but found it hard as she never sees her. The last remaining original member, Buchanan, said upon Buena&apos;s departure,</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;...we will all miss Mutya, but we also knew there was still a place for bringing in somebody new who could help us carry on taking the Sugababes brand of music forward&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amelle Berrabah joined the group in late December. Before joining the Sugababes, Berrabah featured in the band &apos;Boo2&apos; with her sister, Samiya.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The third single was a re-recorded version of &quot;Red Dress&quot;, which was released in early 2006, and gave the group a third consecutive top 5 hit from the album entering the UK singles chart at number four. Berrabah re-recorded 3 tracks and co-wrote a brand new track with Buchanan and Range, all of these appeared on a re-release of Taller in More Ways, which reached 18 in the UK chart.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In early 2006, Taller in More Ways earned a Platinum Award from the IFPI in recognition of over 1 million copies sold in Europe. In April 2006, the girls won &quot;Best World Group&quot; at the ESKA Music Awards 2006 in Poland.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The final single from Taller in More Ways was &quot;Follow Me Home&quot;, released only in the UK in June, where it charted at 32, which is Sugababes lowest chart position ever.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Overloaded: The Singles Collection</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sugababes returned to the recording studio to start work on their fifth album, in mid-2006, recording two tracks for their contractual greatest hits collection, entitled Overloaded: The Singles Collection. The lead single from the compilation, &quot;Easy&quot;, was co-written by George Astario and Jason Pebworth from Californian band Orson, who share management with Sugababes. &quot;Easy&quot; was released, prior to the hits compilation album, and peaked at number eight in the UK Single Charts. The singles compilation was released on 13 November 2006, peaking at number three on the album charts in the UK. The compilation contains tracks from One Touch to Taller in More Ways, excluding &quot;New Year&quot;, &quot;Soul Sound&quot;, &quot;Angels with Dirty Faces&quot;, and &quot;Follow Me Home&quot;, most of which were not released outside the UK. A separate DVD was also released, featuring 14 of their music videos and karaoke versions, as well as a special deluxe digital download version featuring live performances, a special digital download remix collection, entitled Overloaded: The Remix Collection, and a Napster Live Session, featuring acoustic versions of four of their hits and their cover of Primal Scream&apos;s hit, &quot;Rocks&quot;. On 6 November 2006, Sugababes joined Feeder on stage for the encore of Feeder&apos;s WAR Child gig at &apos;The Roundhouse&apos; in Camden, London. They performed a cover of R.E.M.&apos;s &quot;Everybody Hurts&quot; as well as &quot;Freak Like Me&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late 2006, it was announced that Sugababes would be releasing the 2007 Comic Relief single, as a duet with fellow UK girl group, Girls Aloud, a cover of the hit, &quot;Walk This Way&quot;. Credited as &apos;Sugababes Vs Girls Aloud&apos;, the single was released on 12 March 2007 in the UK and became the band&apos;s fifth UK number one single and the first with Berrabah.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Mattel has teamed up with Sugababes to create a new themed Barbie doll collection, which hit stores in May 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On the 8 October 2007 the album &quot;Overloaded: The Singles Collection&quot; jumped back into the UK&apos;s Official Album Chart at #43, almost a year after it was first released.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Change</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After their successful Greatest Hits Tour, the Sugababes returned to the recording studio in summer 2006 to work on the album, which would also be the first album that features all vocals done by Berrabah, Buchanan, and Range together. The group have once again chosen to work with William Orbit and the American producers Dr. Luke and Dallas Austin who worked with the group on a number of tracks from their number one 2005 album Taller In More Ways, alongside Novel, who has worked with Stacie Orrico and Kent-based Xenomania, who have provided the group with 2 UK #1 singles in the past.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">With the release of their single &quot;About You Now&quot; produced by Dr. Luke, the Sugababes were the first band ever to top the UK Singles Chart on downloads alone. The song also broke the record for the biggest jump to #1. On 14 October 2007, Change became the group&apos;s second UK number one album, which charted straight to the #1 spot on the UK Albums Chart. On that same date, the group celebrated being number one in the singles, album, and download charts at the same time. &quot;About You Now&quot; remained on #1 for 4 weeks in a row. It also debuted at #8 in Germany. The Sugababes will release their second single &quot;Change&quot; on Monday, 17 December 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sugababes have also recorded a song with Annie Lennox and twenty-two other female acts for Lennox&apos;s fourth solo studio album, Songs of Mass Destruction. Titled &quot;Sing&quot;, it was written as an anthem for HIV/AIDS, according to Lennox&apos;s official site. The girls also recently covered Betcha by Golly Wow! for Radio 1 Established 1967.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Notable Television Appearances</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sugababes have appeared on many music shows such as CD:UK, TOTP, MTV, Popworld, VIVA, awards shows such as the MOBO Awards, NME Awards, MTV Europe Music Awards, BRIT Awards and TV shows such as The Paul O&apos;Grady Show, BBC 1, T4, The Charlotte Church Show, Ant &amp; Dec&apos;s Saturday Night Takeaway and others. Live performances include Glastonbury festival, Prince&apos;s Trust, Live 8 Edinburgh, and performing in countries around the world including Portugal, Germany, Japan, Australia and South Africa among others. They performed to over 1 million people in 2005 alone.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2006 they performed &quot;Hole in the Head&quot; at the Royal Variety Performance at the London Coliseum.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 18 October 2007, the Sugababes performed at Swarovski Fashion Rocks 2007, for the Princes Trust concert. The girls sang a unique rendition of &quot;Lady Marmalade&quot; alongside Patti LaBelle for the finale of the concert, receiving a standing ovation from the audience in the Royal Albert Hall.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>British Tabloids</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In Britain, the members of the group do not get much media coverage as individuals, but the group&apos;s perceived &apos;moodiness&apos;, alleged backstage catfights, and press junket tantrums have hit the headlines. They are well-known for being surrounded by continuous rumours of in-fighting within the band and constant split reports - most notably the alleged bullying of Siobhán Donaghy who quit the band in 2001. Further rumours suggested that the two remaining members Keisha Buchanan and Mutya Buena had bullied replacement Heidi Range, although Range has repeatedly denied such allegations; Buena later admitted that she &quot;just didn&apos;t talk to her&quot; when she first joined. Buchanan claimed that there has been only one serious fallout within the band and that was between herself and Range during a 2004 gig in Dublin, regarding the Britney Spears music video, &quot;Toxic&quot;. The girls have also hit headlines, following their tour with Take That, attacking the lead singer Gary Barlow for his rudeness.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In April 2007, Amelle Berrabah, was detained over allegations she assaulted an 18-year-old woman on the dance floor in the Bar Med club located in Bridge Street, Guildford, Surrey. The Daily Mirror and The Sun newspaper reported the singer spent the night in a cell, before being released without charge.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/sugababes.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sugababes are a BRIT Award-winning British pop group trio from London. They have been named the most successful all-femal...'),(73,'Bon Jovi','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Bon Jovi is a hard rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Fronted by lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi, the group originally achieved large-scale success in the 1980s.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Bon Jovi formed in 1983 with lead singer Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, bassist Alec John Such, and drummer Tico Torres. Other than the departure of Alec John Such in 1994 (which pared the lineup down to a quartet), the lineup has remained the same for the past 23 years.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After two moderately successful albums in 1984 and 1985, the band scored big with Slippery When Wet (1986) and New Jersey (1988), which sold a combined 19 million copies in the U.S. alone, charted eight Top Ten hits, and launched the band into global superstardom. After non-stop touring, the band went on hiatus after the New Jersey Tour in 1990, during which time Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora both released successful solo albums. In 1992, the band returned with the double platinum Keep the Faith and has since created a string of platinum albums throughout the 1990s and 2000s, also expanding their musical horizons, combining rock with such genres as pop, adult contemporary, and country. The band has also been credited with inspiring the MTV Unplugged series with their famous sit-down acoustic performance at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2006, the band won a Grammy for best Country Collaboration for &quot;Who Says You Can&apos;t Go Home&quot; with Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland and also became the first rock band to reach #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart with the same song. They have also been nominated twice for the smash hit &quot;It&apos;s My Life&quot; and two songs from the album Bounce, &quot;Misunderstood&quot; and &quot;Everyday&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Throughout their career, the band has released ten studio albums, of which nine have gone platinum. In addition, the band has charted 19 singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, four of which reached #1 (&quot;You Give Love a Bad Name&quot;, &quot;Livin&apos; On A Prayer&quot;, &quot;Bad Medicine&quot;, and &quot;I&apos;ll Be There for You&quot;). The band also holds the record for the most weeks for a hard rock album at #1 on the Billboard 200 with Slippery When Wet, as well as the most Top 10 singles from a hard rock album, with New Jersey, which charted five such singles.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Over the past 23 years, Bon Jovi has sold over 120 million albums worldwide, 34 million in the United States alone.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Formation</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Founding member Jon Bon Jovi began to play piano and guitar at thirteen with his first band, called Raze. He was enrolled in an all-boys Catholic school, St. Joseph High School in Metuchen, New Jersey, but left to attend public school at Sayreville War Memorial High School. At sixteen, Bon Jovi met David Bryan (born David Bryan Rashbaum) and formed a 12-piece cover band named Atlantic City Expressway after the New Jersey highway. They played at New Jersey clubs, even though they were minors. Still in his teens, Bon Jovi played in the band John Bongiovi and the Wild Ones, playing local clubs like &quot;The Fast Lane&quot; and opening for known acts in the area.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">By mid-1982, out of school and working part-time in a shoe store, Bon Jovi took a job at the Power Station Studios, a Manhattan recording facility where his cousin, Tony Bongiovi, was a co-owner. Bon Jovi made several demos (including one produced by Billy Squier) and sent them out to many record companies, but failed to make an impact.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1983, Bon Jovi visited the local radio station WAPP 103.5FM &quot;The Apple&quot; in Lake Success, New York. He spoke directly to the D.J., Chip Hobart, who suggested Bon Jovi let WAPP include the song &quot;Runaway&quot; on a compilation album of local homegrown talent. Bon Jovi was reluctant but eventually gave them the song on which Bon Jovi had used studio musicians to play on the track &quot;Runaway&quot; (originally written in 1980). The studio musicians who helped record &quot;Runaway&quot; were known as The All Star Review. They were: guitarists Dave Sabo and Tim Pierce, keyboardist Roy Bittan, drummer Frankie LaRocka and bassist Hugh McDonald.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The song began to get airplay in the New York area, then other sister stations in major markets picked up the song. In March 1983 Bon Jovi called David Bryan, who in turn called bassist Alec John Such and an experienced drummer named Tico Torres.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tapped to play lead guitar was Bon Jovi&apos;s neighbor, Dave Sabo (a.k.a. The Snake), who later formed the group Skid Row.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Richie Sambora became the band&apos;s lead guitarist.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Before joining the group, Sambora had toured with Joe Cocker, played with a group called Mercy and had been called up to audition for Kiss. He also played on the album Lessons with the band Message, which was re-released on CD through Long Island Records in 1995. Message was originally signed to Led Zeppelin&apos;s Swan Song Records label, although the album was never released.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Drummer Tico Torres was also an experienced musician, having recorded and played live with Phantom&apos;s Opera, The Marvelettes, and Chuck Berry. He appeared on 26 records and had recently recorded with Frankie and the Knockouts, a Jersey band with hit singles during the early 1980s.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">David Bryan had quit the band he and Bon Jovi founded in order to study medicine. While in college, he realized he wanted to pursue music full-time and was accepted to Juilliard School, the New York music school. When Bon Jovi called his friend and said he was putting together a band and a record deal looked likely, Bryan followed Bon Jovi&apos;s lead and gave up his studies.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Bon Jovi lineup, which remained stable for a decade, was:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Jon Bon Jovi (lead vocals, rhythm guitar)</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Richie Sambora (lead guitar, backing vocals)</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">David Bryan (keyboard, backing vocals)</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tico Torres (drums, percussion)</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Alec John Such (bass guitar, backing vocals)</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1980s</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Once the band began playing showcases and opening for local talent, they caught the attention of record executive Derek Shulman, who signed them to Mercury Records, part of the PolyGram company. Because Jon Bon Jovi wanted a group name, Jerry Jaffe, head of A&amp;R at PolyGram, came up with Bon Jovi.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">With the help of their new manager Doc McGhee, the band&apos;s debut album, Bon Jovi, was released on January 21, 1984. The album went gold in the U.S. (sales of over 500,000) and was also released in the UK. The group found themselves opening for ZZ Top at the Madison Square Garden (before their first album had been released), and for Scorpions and Kiss in Europe. They also made an appearance on the popular television program American Bandstand.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1985, Bon Jovi&apos;s second album 7800°Fahrenheit was released. While embarking on a tour opening up for Ratt, the album received a poor response by critics. The leading British metal magazine Kerrang!, who had been very positive about the debut record, called the album &quot;a pale imitation of the Bon Jovi we have got to know and learned to love.&quot; Jon Bon Jovi himself later said it could have and should have been better.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">They brought in songwriter Desmond Child for their third album, Slippery When Wet. With Child co-writing many of their hits, the band shot to super-stardom around the world with songs &quot;You Give Love a Bad Name&quot;, &quot;Livin&apos; On A Prayer&quot;, and &quot;Wanted Dead or Alive&quot;. Bon Jovi has said the album was named after the ubiquitous highway warning signs, but Bryan has said the following about the album&apos;s title:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">    &quot;During the recording of the record we frequently wound up in a striptease club where incredibly good looking girls were putting water and soap on each other. They became so slippery because of that, that you couldn&apos;t hold on to them even if you wanted to really bad. &apos;Slippery when wet!&apos; one of us yelled out and the rest of us immediately knew: that had to be the title of the new album! Originally we were going to put a picture of some huge breasts, the really big ones, on the cover; but when the PMRC [a moral board chaired by Tipper Gore, wife of future Vice President Al Gore] found out, we were in big trouble. So we made it into a very decent cover.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The album has sold in excess of 26 million copies worldwide since its release in late 1986. In 1987, the band headlined England&apos;s &quot;Monsters of Rock&quot; festival with Dio, Metallica, W.A.S.P., Anthrax, and Cinderella. The tour took its toll on singer Jon Bon Jovi when he began having vocal difficulties. The extremely high notes and unrelenting schedule threatened to damage his voice permanently. With the help of a vocal coach, he made it through the tour. Bon Jovi has tended to sing slightly lower pitches since then.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The next album was 1988&apos;s New Jersey. The album was recorded shortly after the tour for Slippery. The resulting album was a commercial success, with hit songs &quot;Bad Medicine&quot;, &quot;Lay Your Hands on Me&quot; and &quot;I&apos;ll Be There for You&quot;, which are still in their live repertoire. New Jersey was a commercial hit and became the first hard rock album to spawn five Top Ten singles. &quot;Bad Medicine&quot; and &quot;I&apos;ll Be There for You&quot; both hit number one, and &quot;Born to Be My Baby&quot; (#3), &quot;Lay Your Hands on Me (#7), and &quot;Living in Sin&quot; (#9) rounded out the list.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">New Jersey was supported by video releases such as New Jersey: The Videos and Access All Areas, as well as a massive 18-month tour, originally billed as The Jersey Syndicate Tour. In 1989, the band headlined the Moscow Music Peace Festival along with the Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe, and Skid Row.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1990s</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Between 1990 and 1992, the band members went their separate ways for a while to refocus before writing and recording their next album. This time off also helped them determine where Bon Jovi would fit within the rapidly changing music scene upon their return. Jon Bon Jovi recorded a solo album, a soundtrack to the movie Young Guns II, more commonly known as Blaze of Glory, (in which he had an extremely brief cameo). Released in 1990, the album featured high profile guests such as Elton John, Little Richard, and Jeff Beck. The album fared well commercially, received positive reviews and quickly achieved platinum status. The title track, &quot;Blaze of Glory&quot;, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Jon an Academy Award nomination for Best Song. &quot;Blaze of Glory&quot; was awarded a Golden Globe.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sambora, with the help of Tico Torres and David Bryan, released a solo album entitled Stranger In This Town, in 1991. The album featured Eric Clapton on the song &quot;Mr. Bluesman&quot;. David Bryan recorded a soundtrack for the horror movie The Netherworld, which was the brighter part of that year after he was hospitalized with an illness due to a South American parasite.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1992, the band returned with the album Keep the Faith. Produced by Bob Rock, it featured more a mature sound and lyrical content. Singles &quot;Bed of Roses&quot;, &quot;Keep the Faith&quot; and &quot;In These Arms&quot;, all hit the Top 40 in the U.S. Other songs on the album were released as singles internationally, mainly &quot;Dry County&quot;, &quot;I Believe&quot;, and &quot;I&apos;ll Sleep When I&apos;m Dead.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1994, Bon Jovi released a greatest hits album titled Cross Road, with two new tracks: the hit singles &quot;Always&quot; and &quot;Someday I&apos;ll Be Saturday Night&quot;, as well as an updated rendition of &quot;Livin&apos; on a Prayer&quot; entitled &quot;Prayer &apos;94&quot;, available only on the U.S. version. &quot;Always&quot; was originally written for a soundtrack to the film Romeo Is Bleeding, but after seeing (and disliking) the movie, the band decided not to lend the song to the producers and instead released it on &quot;Cross Road&quot;. The video for &quot;Always&quot; featured Carla Gugino, an actress known for her roles in several TV shows&apos; and films such as Son In Law and actor Jack Noseworthy, best known for his role in the 2000 film U-571. &quot;Always&quot; spent thirty-two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of Bon Jovi&apos;s biggest hits. The song peaked at #4 on the US charts and at #1 in countries across Europe, Asia and in Australia. The single sold very well, going platinum in the U.S.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">That same year, bassist Alec John Such left the band, the first lineup change since Bon Jovi began. Hugh McDonald, who was the bassist on &quot;Runaway&quot;, unofficially replaced Such as bassist, with rumors that he had also recorded bass on previous albums. Jon Bon Jovi said, regarding the departure of Such: &quot;Of course it hurts. But I learned to accept and respect it. The fact that I&apos;m a workaholic, studio in, studio out, stage on, stage off, want to be dealing with music day and night, doesn&apos;t mean everyone else has to adjust to that pace. Alec wanted to quit for a while now, so it didn&apos;t come as a complete surprise.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The 1995 album These Days went platinum in the U.S. and topped the UK charts. It spun off one hit single in the U.S., &quot;This Ain&apos;t A Love Song&quot;. Other tracks proved to be popular European singles, including &quot;Hey God&quot;, &quot;Something for the Pain&quot;, &quot;Lie to Me&quot;, and the title track.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At the end of the These Days Tour, the band once again decided to take a break and pursue other interests. Tico used the opportunity further pursue his painting while David started writing and composing various musicals. In 1998, Richie released his second solo outing called Undiscovered Soul.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Jon had also been bitten by the acting bug. He landed lead roles in movies Little City and The Leading Man, and supporting roles in Moonlight and Valentino, Homegrown, and U-571, among others. While he was free between filming different movies, Jon wrote what would become his second solo album, 1997&apos;s Destination Anywhere. The album received positive reviews and was a success across Europe. A short movie of the same name was recorded around the record&apos;s release, based entirely on the songs from the record and starring Jon Bon Jovi, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon and Whoopi Goldberg. Dave Stewart of Eurythmics played guitar on the record, and produced some of the tracks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Bon Jovi reunited in 1999 to record the song &quot;Real Life&quot; for the movie EdTV. David Bryan didn&apos;t make it to the filming of the video for the song because of a hand injury sustained in a home improvement mishap, so the band used a cardboard cutout of him for the shoot.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2000s</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After a nearly three-year hiatus, during which several band members worked on independent projects, Bon Jovi regrouped in 1999 to begin work on their next studio album. Their 2000 release, Crush, enjoyed success both in the U.S. and overseas, thanks in part to the smash-hit single &quot;It&apos;s My Life&quot;, co-written by Swedish producer Max Martin. Crush, which also produced such hits as &quot;Say It Isn&apos;t So&quot; and &quot;Thank You For Loving Me&quot;, soon became the band&apos;s most successful studio album since Keep the Faith, and helped introduce them to a new, younger fan base.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Crush Tour, which began that summer, originally encompassed only 60 or so shows and was extended due to demand, with the band remaining on tour through mid-2001. While on tour, Bon Jovi released a collection of live performances from throughout their career in an album entitled, One Wild Night: Live 1985-2001. The Crush tour was notable in that the European 2000 leg included the band headlining two nights at Wembley Stadium. These was the final shows at the venue before it was demolished. Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the band performed as part of the star-studded The Concert for New York City benefit for victims and their families. They performed an acoustic medley of &quot;Livin&apos; on a Prayer&quot; and &quot;Wanted Dead or Alive&quot; with a stirring finale of &quot;It&apos;s My Life&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late 2002, Bounce hit stores. It produced hit singles &quot;Everyday&quot; and the title track. The band went on the U.S. Bounce Tour for this album, during which they made history as the last band to play Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia before it was torn down. The band also released a promotional album through Target, featuring eight demo and live tracks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Following the end of the Bounce Tour in August 2003, Bon Jovi embarked on a project; originally intending to produce an album consisting of live acoustic performances, the band ended up rewriting, re-recording and reinventing 12 of their biggest hits in a new and much different light. This Left Feels Right was released in November 2003.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The following year the band released a box set entitled 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can&apos;t Be Wrong, the title being an homage to Elvis Presley&apos;s 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can&apos;t Be Wrong. The set consisted of four CDs packed with 38 unreleased and 12 rare tracks, as well as a DVD. The box set marked the sales of 100 million Bon Jovi albums and also commemorated the 20th anniversary of the release of the band&apos;s first record in 1984.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 2004, Bon Jovi was honored with the Award for Merit at the American Music Awards, where they performed a sneak preview of an unfinished song, &quot;Have a Nice Day&quot;. Bon Jovi also participated in Live 8 on July 2, 2005, where they debuted the full, final version of &quot;Have a Nice Day&quot;, alongside &quot;Livin&apos; on a Prayer&quot; and &quot;It&apos;s My Life&quot;. On August 20, 2005, the band headlined Miller Brewing Co.&apos;s Big Brew-Ha, celebrating its 150th anniversary. The free stadium concert at Miller Park in Milwaukee included one preview song from the band&apos;s forthcoming album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Bon Jovi&apos;s ninth studio album, Have a Nice Day, was released in September 2005. The album topped the charts around the world, giving Bon Jovi its career-best first week sales of over 202,000 albums. &quot;Have A Nice Day&quot; was the first single off the new album, and debuted at radio worldwide on July 18, 2005. The second single, &quot;Who Says You Can&apos;t Go Home&quot;, was released in the U.S. in early 2006, although internationally it was the third single release after &quot;Welcome to Wherever You Are&quot;. In the U.S. a duet version of &quot;Who Says You Can&apos;t Go Home&quot; with country singer Jennifer Nettles of the band Sugarland was released, and in May 2006, Bon Jovi became the first Rock &amp; Roll Band to have a #1 hit on Billboard&apos;s Hot Country Chart. On February 11, 2007, Bon Jovi also won the Grammy Award, for &quot;Best Country Collaboration with Vocals&quot; for &quot;Who Says You Can&apos;t Go Home&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Soon after the release of Have A Nice Day, the band started gearing up for the new 2005-2006 worldwide Have A Nice Day Tour. This tour, being shorter than previous ones with only seventy-five shows originally planned, took the band to numerous stages and arenas throughout the world. During the tour, Bon Jovi performed as the headlining act at Nascar&apos;s Daytona 500 on February 19, 2006. Originally it was planned for them to be the first act to perform at the new Wembley Stadium in London, but the stadium&apos;s rebuilding project was delayed until 2007. The concerts were therefore moved to the Milton Keynes National Bowl and Hull, KC Stadium with the same performance dates. Following dates in Japan and Europe, Bon Jovi extended the tour and returned to the U.S. in 2006 for a few stadium shows, including 3 sold-out shows in the band&apos;s native New Jersey at Giants Stadium. On February 7, 2006, a promotional album, Live from the Have a Nice Day Tour, was released through Wal-Mart, which contained six live tracks recorded in December 2005 in Boston. Three of these tracks were released in the U.K. in June 2006 as B-sides on the single &quot;Who Says You Can&apos;t Go Home&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On November 14, 2006, Bon Jovi were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame alongside James Brown and Led Zeppelin, joining music legends such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, U2, Madonna and Elvis Presley. They will not be eligible for the U.S. equivalent until 2009.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">With the end of the Have A Nice Day Tour, Bon Jovi began to throw around ideas for their next project. Among the potential offerings were going to Nashville to record with country stars (following the success of &quot;Who Says You Can&apos;t Go Home&quot;), a second greatest hits CD, a new studio album, and even new movies.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In June 2007, Bon Jovi released their tenth studio album, Lost Highway. The album debuted at number #1 on the Billboard charts, the first time that Bon Jovi have had a number one album on the U.S. charts since the release of New Jersey in 1988. The album sold 292,000 copies in its first week on sale in the U.S., and became Bon Jovi&apos;s third US number one album. The first single from the new album was &quot;(You Want to) Make a Memory&quot;, which debuted (and peaked) at #27 in the Billboard Hot 100, Bon Jovi&apos;s highest ever debut in the U.S. charts. The album reached Number #1 in Japan, Canada, Australia and Europe, and reached number #2 in the UK.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">To promote the new album, Bon Jovi made several television appearances, including the 6th annual CMT Awards in Nashville, American Idol, and MTV Unplugged, as well as playing at the Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium. They also performed ten promotional gigs in the U.S., Canada, the UK and Japan. As part of the &apos;tour&apos;, Bon Jovi were the first group to perform at London&apos;s new O2 Arena (formerly the Millennium Dome) when it opened to the public on June 24, 2007. The 23,000-seater stadium sold out within one minute of tickets being released.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On June 6, 2007, Richie Sambora checked himself into a rehabilitation facility. This meant that he missed a concert in Puerto Rico as well as several television appearances, with backup guitarist Bobby Bandiera taking his place. He checked out on June 13, and was present for Bon Jovi&apos;s remaining summer concerts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">When questioned on American Idol, Jon Bon Jovi stated that the band would embark on a tour beginning in January, after playing ten dates in New Jersey in the fall. According to Richie Sambora this tour would be a greatest hits tour, so it would not be in direct support of Lost Highway. However, in October 2007 the band announced the Lost Highway Tour. Starting with the New Jersey gigs, the band are touring Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and then Europe, finishing in the summer. In early December 2007 the band took time off from their Canadian tour to become the first ever American band to headline the Royal Variety Performance in Liverpool, England, performing in front of the Queen herself. In February 2008 Bon Jovi will start their American tour with a performance at the halftime show of Super Bowl XLII.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/jon_bon_jovi_2.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Bon Jovi is a hard rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Fronted by lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi, the group ori...'),(72,'Lene Alexandra','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Lene Alexandra Øien (born October 29, 1981 in Trøgstad, Norway) is a Norwegian singer and model for FHM magazine, as well as for Norwegian lad&apos;s mags Lek and Cats. She began her musical career in 2007 at age 25 when she released her first single entitled &quot;My Boobs Are OK.&quot; The single charted in several European countries and broke the top 10 in Norway and Finland. Alexandra speaks Norwegian as well as English and Swedish and has done promotion in both Norwegian and English alike.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At age 14 , Lene Alexandra appeared on television for the first time on a Norwegian talent show called Juniorsjansen. Upon seeing other talented singers and musicians, the experience only left her feeling insecure and discouraged and therefore she had given up on her dreams of a music career for the first time. At 19 she began nude modeling and also appeared on the Norwegian counterpart of popular show &quot;Survivor&quot;. She made friends with the host who also has his own record label, and offered to work at the label free without a salary as long as one day she might be able to make music with them. After years of working at the record company, she began her music career and released her first single &quot;My Boobs Are OK.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Lene%20Alexandra.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Lene Alexandra Ã˜ien (born October 29, 1981 in TrÃ¸gstad, Norway) is a Norwegian singer and model for FHM magazine, as we...'),(74,'Wilson Phillips','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Wilson Phillips is an American singing group consisting of Carnie and Wendy Wilson and Chynna Phillips. Their 1990 self-titled debut album scored four Grammy Award nominations, two American Music Award nominations and a Billboard Music Award. The group is also known for being the offspring of prominent musicians; the Wilsons are the daughters of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, while Phillips&apos; parents are John Phillips and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas &amp; the Papas.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Early Life</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Wilson sisters and Phillips grew up together in southern California in the 1970s and 1980s. The three shared a love of music and songwriting, and developed their own style of vocal harmonies. In 1989, the trio signed with SBK Records.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Chart Success</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Wilson Phillips released their debut album Wilson Phillips in 1990.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their debut single, &quot;Hold On&quot;, hit #1 on the U.S Billboard charts. The follow up singles, &quot;Release Me&quot; and &quot;You&apos;re in Love&quot; also hit #1. The singles &quot;Impulsive&quot; and &quot;The Dream Is Still Alive&apos;&quot;, would peak at #4 and #12, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100. The album would go on to sell 4 million copies worldwide and peaking at #2 on the Billboard Top 200.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In June of 1992, Wilson Phillips released their second album, Shadows and Light. The album was deeply personal and adopted a more serious tone, with tracks exploring issues such as child abuse (&quot;Where Are You&quot;) and their estrangement from their fathers (&quot;Flesh and Blood&quot;, &quot;All the Way From New York&quot;). Although the album received good reviews, it failed to generate the same success as the group&apos;s debut album. The first single, &quot;You Won&apos;t See Me Cry&apos;&quot;, peaked at #20. The follow up singles, &quot;Give It Up&quot; and &quot;Flesh and Blood&quot;, failed to crack the top 20. The album would eventually go on to sell over one million copies, peaking at #4 the Billboard Top 200.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Shortly after the release of Shadows and Light, Chynna Phillips announced plans for a solo career, and the group decided to split up.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1993-2003</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During the next decade, the group went their separate ways. In 1993, Wendy and Carnie Wilson released the Christmas holiday themed album, Hey, Santa!, a collection of classic holiday themes with an original song (the title track). In 1995, Chynna Phillips released a solo album, Naked and Sacred. The same year, Carnie went on to host her own short-lived syndicated television talk show entitled, Carnie!. In 1997, Carnie and Wendy, along with their father, Brian Wilson released The Wilsons and the single, &quot;Monday Without You&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A Greatest Hits album was released in 2000, although the group did not officially reunite for the release. On March 29, 2001, they group reunited to perform the Beach Boys&apos; song &quot;You&apos;re So Good To Me&quot;, at a tribute show to Brian Wilson held at New York&apos;s Radio City Music Hall. Chynna Phillips dedicated the performance to her own father John Phillips who had died a few days earlier.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Reunion</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Wilson Phillips reunited in 2004 to release California, an album of cover songs. A single, &quot;Go Your Own Way&quot;, a song originally recorded by Fleetwood Mac, peaked at #13 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The album debuted at #35 on the charts with 31,000 copies sold, but due to lack of promotion, the album has yet to reach sales of 100,000 copies.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In New Zealand, the album was a surprise hit, reaching the top 10 and amassing gold sales following &quot;Go Your Own Way&quot;, topping the adult contemporary radio chart for several weeks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2004-Present</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Carnie and Wendy have announced that they will once again tour as The Wilsons. They have created a new website containing both tour dates and information about their reentry into the music scene.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Wilson_phillips_2004.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Wilson Phillips is an American singing group consisting of Carnie and Wendy Wilson and Chynna Phillips. Their 1990 self-t...'),(83,'Tess','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tess Mattisson, born January 13 1978 Solna, Stockholm, Sweden), Swedish singer. Worked as a dancer and back-up singer for Rob&apos;n&apos;Raz, Dr. Alban, Basic Element and Drömhus. Before pursuing a solo career, she and DJ/producer Andréz formed the eurodance duo La Cream.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/tess.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tess Mattisson, born January 13 1978 Solna, Stockholm, Sweden), Swedish singer. Worked as a dancer and back-up singer for...'),(75,'Whigfield','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sannie Charlotte Carlson (born April 11, 1970 in Skælskør, Denmark) is best known by her artist name Whigfield. She is a Danish singer best known for the song &quot;Saturday Night&quot;, a hugely popular single of summer 1994.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Whigfield spent several years in Africa as a child before returning to her native country. She rose to prominence when her single &quot;Saturday Night&quot; became the summer smash hit of 1994, thanks to extensive play in the clubs of the Mediterranean and the fact that it had a dance which many found easy to learn. She became the first ever non-UK artist to debut at No.1 in her first week in the UK Singles Chart. Her music was also very successful in Brazil, Spain, The Netherlands, Canada, Australia, France and the Nordic countries during the 1994 Eurodance phenomenon.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">However the only place where she has yet to achieve success, and has eluded her since, is the United States (Even though she placed both &quot;Saturday Night&quot; and &quot;Another Day&quot; on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1995, with &quot;Night&quot; peaking at #19 and &quot;Day&quot; coming in at #21, respectively).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Later singles include &quot;Think of You&quot;, &quot;Close To You&quot;, &quot;Last Christmas&quot;, &quot;Gimme Gimme&quot; and &quot;Sexy Eyes&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Like the group Milli Vanilli, Whigfield was accused of not singing her own songs. This was because she did all her live performances lip synching (miming to a backing track), and she has a high-pitched voice in the recorded tracks which is different to her speaking voice. &quot;Saturday Night&quot; was produced by Larry Pignagnoli and Davide Riva, two Italian producers known for a variety of Eurodance projects, who usually worked with vocalists such Daniella Galli (better known as Dhany), Annerley Gordon (aka Ann Lee) and Sandy Chambers. Another Pignagnoli project, Ally &amp; Jo, featured a similar voice to Whigfield&apos;s but different faces in the CD cover and led to the accusations. However, it has been demonstrated on numerous occasions that Whigfield does do her own vocals, whilst touring in Brazil with a live band and being requested to sing live by Neil Fox, a UK DJ.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In October 2007 Whigfield released &quot;All In One&quot;, a greatest hits album with past hits being resung with newer, modern beats. The album includes updated versions of &quot;Think Of You&quot;, &quot;Gotta Getcha&quot;, &quot;Sexy Eyes&quot;, &quot;Givin All My Love&quot;, &quot;No Tears To Cry&quot;, &quot;Was A Time&quot;, &quot;Close To You&quot;, &quot;Out Of Sight&quot;, &quot;Another Day&quot;, and ofcourse her biggest hit &quot;Saturday Night&quot;. The album also includes 2 brand new songs titled &quot;Right in the Night&quot; and &quot;Rainbow&quot;. It is not known if any singles will be released.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Whigfield.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sannie Charlotte Carlson (born April 11, 1970 in SkÃ¦lskÃ¸r, Denmark) is best known by her artist name Whigfield. She is ...'),(76,'NG3','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Consisting of Linda, Andrea, and Malin, NG3 have enjoyed considerable success in Sweden, Norway and Germany and have their sites firmly set on the UK for 2004…</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">With her long blonde hair 22-year-old Linda embodies the storybook Swede. However, Linda’s childhood was not without its problems - on the receiving end of bullying at school, Linda withdrew into herself and developed bulimia. A move to an arts college helped her change all this though. She spent 3 years studying music where she blossomed as a musician and with the support of true friends gained enough self-confidence to battle the disorder. Stints in Mallorca and Hamburg followed before Linda met producer Ali Lehtonen back in Sweden who introduced her to Andrea.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">22-year-old Andrea was born in Chile but aged 7 immigrated to Sweden with her mother. Like Linda, Andrea’s early years were not simple and she sadly never got the chance to know her father who died in 1999. Dance and music were an important focus for her as a youngster and she kept herself busy with ballet classes, and singing in the school choir before starting her own radio show aged 12. At 17 she joined radio station P3 which broadcasts over all Scandinavia, entertaining listeners with her honey-textured voice.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">20-year-old Malin whose mother is Portuguese and father is Swedish is the 3rd member of the group. Growing up in rural Sweden she sang in the local choir and learned to play the flute and violin. Aged 16 Malin headed to the city to study French, Spanish, English and Business Studies, but music remained close to her heart and she composed a song for a cartoon film. On a whim she took part in the Miss Sweden pageant and walked away with the victory crown. In 2001 she represented her country at the Miss Universe contest in Puerto Rico, before meeting Ali and being introduced to the other 2 girls.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/ng3.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Consisting of Linda, Andrea, and Malin, NG3 have enjoyed considerable success in Sweden, Norway and Germany and have thei...'),(77,'Insane Clown Posse','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Insane Clown Posse (commonly known as ICP) is an American rap duo originally from Wayne, Michigan but formed in the neighborhood of Delray. ICP consists of Violent J (Joseph Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (Joseph Utsler). The duo was originally part of a larger group known as Inner City Posse, which broke up in 1992. The duo has earned one platinum album and four gold albums. They also have starred in their own feature film and formed their own wrestling federation JCW, Juggalo Championship Wrestling (formerly Juggalo Championshit Wrestling). ICP has dedicated followers, known as Juggalos and/or Juggalettes.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">ICP began in the late 1980s, when a small group of rappers known as the Inner City Posse were performing locally in Detroit. In 1990 Joseph Bruce (&quot;Violent J&quot;) released &quot;Intelligence and Violence&quot; along with D-Lyrical. Then he, along with his long time friend, Joseph Ustler (&quot;Shaggy 2 Dope&quot;) released &quot;Bass-ment Cuts&quot; in 1991.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The first release that gained them local attention was Dog Beats in 1991. This album led to the beginning of a long lasting and fulfilling relationship with their manager, Alex Abbiss. After gaining a certain level of experience in music, the group decided they wanted to move in a different direction. Then one night in late 1991 Violent J had a strange dream &quot;of a clown, a carnival spirit, with six joker cards in his hands&quot;. That marked the beginning of the Insane Clown Posse. ICP would release six &quot;Jokers Cards&quot;, warning the world of impending doom. Each Joker&apos;s Card album insert featured the cryptic message &quot;After All Six Have Risen The End Of Time Will Consume Us All&quot;. Soon, ICP began their &quot;Journey of the Dark Carnival&quot; by starting work on the first Joker&apos;s Card titled Carnival Of Carnage. This also began their longtime friendship with producer Mike E. Clark, who would produce their music up until 2001 and again in 2006.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Carnival of Carnage Era (1992 - 1993)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1991 ICP began recording Carnival of Carnage. After finding a producer named Chuck Miller, They recorded only 3 songs &quot;Red Neck Hoe&quot;,&quot;Fuck Your Rebel Flag&quot; and &quot;Psychopathic&quot;. ICP realized Chuck Miller was scamming them since ICP didn&apos;t have much knowledge of producing tactics so they decided it was time to look for a new producer. Then they found Mike Clark who along with Esham helped them record and produce the rest of Carnival of Carnage. After a strenuous amount of time promoting and their third member John Kickjazz dropping out they finally released their first joker&apos;s card, Carnival of Carnage in October 1992, on their independent label Psychopathic Records. They hinted that the next five major-release albums would be numbered in this fashion. They also said that &quot;the end will consume us all&quot; once the Sixth Joker&apos;s Card was revealed, and that their fans would know all there is to know about the Dark Carnival (alternately referred to as &quot;The Dead Carnival&quot; on The Riddlebox) - something that the band refers to on every album as a powerful force that has spoken to them. On its release date, &quot;Carnival&quot; sold only 17 copies.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1993, the group released an EP titled Beverly Kills 50187 as a sideshow EP between the first and second Joker&apos;s Cards. This is the only album to feature a third member of ICP called Greez-E.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Ringmaster/Riddlebox Era (1994 - 1996)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In March 1994, ICP released the second Joker&apos;s Card, The Ringmaster on Psychopathic Records. The Ringmaster gained ICP a strong local following and with strong promoting and performing The Ringmaster sold 100,000 copies. They began to sell out much larger clubs like St. Andrew&apos;s Hall and the State Theater and began playing in neighboring states such as Ohio. In August 1994 ICP released The Terror Wheel EP and gained local radio play with the song &quot;Dead Body Man&quot;. 1994 continued to be a big year for ICP with the first Hallowicked show in Detroit along with a Christmas album &quot;Carnival X-Mas&quot; and a solo album titled &quot;Fuck Off.&quot; by Shaggy 2 Dope. After selling big locally and gaining attention they signed with Jive in 1995. </FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In October 1995 The Riddlebox was released on Jive Records.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;Riddlebox&quot; was the first Insane Clown posse album to be released outside of Detroit, due to ICP&apos;s strong promoting tactics throughout the Midwest. In between Hollywood Records buying ICP&apos;s contract from Jive in 1996 they released the &quot;Tunnel of Love&quot; EP.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Around this time, ICP were frequently seen inside Ultrasound Music in Cleveland, OH handing out demo tapes and flyers for their shows at the Grog Shop. They said Cleveland was like their &quot;second home.&quot; They advertised these events by parking a cube truck painted black and parked with various simple clown markings outside the venue.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Both &quot;The Ringmaster&quot; and &quot;The Riddlebox&quot; have been certified gold.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Great Milenko/Amazing Jekel Brothers Era (1997 - 1999)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1997, the duo released the 4th Joker Card, The Great Milenko.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The album was recorded at the studios of Hollywood Records, a Disney-owned record label. After the recording was completed, a board of Disney representatives threatened to halt the release of the album unless significant changes were made to its content. To ensure that their major-label debut would see the light of day, ICP obliged and removed three songs from the album and altered the content of others. However, just six hours after the album&apos;s initial release, it was unexpectedly pulled from the shelves. ICP&apos;s upcoming tour was canceled, and they were dropped from Hollywood Records. It was later revealed that Disney had received a flood criticism from religious organizations, and, in fear of tarnishing their reputation, had forced Hollywood Records to drop ICP.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A minor media frenzy followed, fueled by ICP appearances on MTV to express outrage over being dropped by Hollywood Records. Originally unwilling to nullify ICP&apos;s recording contract and relinquish ownership of the album, Hollywood eventually agreed to allow Island Records to release the album in its uncut form. The controversy turned out to be a blessing in disguise for ICP; the high-profile debacle had created public interest in the duo and their music. The first single, &quot;Halls of Illusions,&quot; and the second, &quot;Hokus Pokus,&quot; both received airplay on MTV.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Great Milenko has been certified platinum.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Four songs from the album were made into music videos: &quot;Piggy Pie&quot;, &quot;Halls Of Illusions&quot;, &quot;Hokus Pokus (although it should be noted that the version in the video is actually the &apos;Headhunta&apos;z Remix&apos; found on Forgotten Freshness Volumes 1 &amp; 2)&quot;, and &quot;How Many Times,&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1998, the group released the first of a series of compilation albums, titled Forgotten Freshness Volumes 1 &amp; 2. This album has been certified gold, and is their only non-studio album to have been so certified.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1999, the 5th Joker Card, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, was released.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;The Amazing Jeckel Brothers&quot; debuted at number four on the Billboard charts, just beneath The Backstreet Boys during the boy band craze, and two years after the Disney scandal. The single, &quot;Another Love Song,&quot; was made into a video and put in MTV&apos;s regular rotation. The duo also made an appearance at the Woodstock &apos;99 festival. The Amazing Jeckel Brothers would prove to be ICP&apos;s biggest mainstream success.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Amazing Jeckel Brothers has been certified gold by the RIAA, although Insane Clown Posse press materials claim the album has achieved platinum status.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Big Money Hustlas (2000)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Insane Clown Posse&apos;s self-produced first feature film, Big Money Hustlas, was released in 2000. The film was something of an underground hit. In addition to both Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, in the lead roles of Big Baby Sweets and Sugar Bear, the film also co-starred Jamie Madrox and Monoxide of Twiztid as Violent J&apos;s henchmen; and Big Stank and Lil&apos; Poot, and Harland Williams as Officer Harry Cox. There are also cameo appearances by Mick Foley and The Misfits. The film featured music by both Insane Clown Posse and Twiztid. Most of the ICP material was from The Amazing Jeckel Brothers.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Bizaar/Bizzar era (2000 - 2001)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2000, ICP was disappointed by the way Island Records had been promoting them and didn&apos;t want the label to release the final Joker&apos;s Card. Since they still had two more records left to release to fulfill their contract with Island, they released Bizaar and Bizzar, as separate albums. Both albums were released on the same day.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Before the release of these albums, Sharon Osbourne, on The Howard Stern Show, bet Insane Clown Posse that their next record wouldn&apos;t sell more than 200,000 copies, and that they would be subsequently dropped from their distributor. Violent J claimed the album would sell 500,000. Together, &quot;Bizaar&quot; and &quot;Bizzar&quot; sold over 250,000 each, totaling over 500,000. ICP claims they won the bet, but there is disagreement as to whether Bizaar counts as one release or half of the originally planned release. Violent J also said on a later appearance on Howard Stern that &quot;The Wraith: Shangri-La&quot; was the album the bet was about. &quot;Shangri-La&quot; sold less than &quot;Bizzar Bizaar.&quot; Also, ICP was in fact dropped from their distributor after the release of the &quot;Bizaar Bizzar&quot; albums. Violent J claimed that they had forgotten to renew the contract. Regardless, ICP claims to have won the bet and has asked Osbourne to make a donation to charity to honor the bet. Osbourne has not responded.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">ICP also clashed with MTV over the release of their videos for &quot;Lets Go All the Way,&quot; a cover song from the band Sly Fox, and &quot;Tilt - A - Whirl.&quot; MTV agreed to show the videos but broadcast them late at night. Eventually, ICP requested that every Juggalo/Juggalette vote for the video &quot;Lets Go All the Way&quot; on MTV&apos;s Daily Top Ten show, TRL. Despite a large number of votes in favor of the video, MTV refused to play it. Although never played on TRL, the &quot;Let&apos;s Go All the Way&quot; video continued to be played on MTV late at night or early in the morning.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">ICP released an EP with Chaos! comics entitled The Pendulum EP. The EP was originally released as a dozen singles in the ICP comic series from the same company but was later re-release as a EP with the graphic novel version of the comic series.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001, the group released their second compilation album, titled Forgotten Freshness Volume 3.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Wraith Era (2002 - 2004)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">When the sixth Joker&apos;s Card debuted, it was revealed that there would be two versions. While the face of the Sixth Joker&apos;s Card was &quot;The Wraith&quot; (or simply Death), The Wraith had two &quot;exhibits&quot; to present to all who will listen: Shangri-La and Hell. Each of the exhibits was given its own album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 2002, ten years after the first Joker&apos;s Card was released, The Wraith: Shangri-La was released. The album was panned by most critics and labeled &quot;The Worst Album of All Time&quot; by Blender Magazine. Although reviled by critics, the album spawned a successful single, &quot;Juggalo Homies,&quot; which received radio airplay. a music video of the song was played on both MTV2 and Fuse. On the album&apos;s final track, it is revealed that the group follows God and that the hidden message of their music was always to follow God and make it to Heaven.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2003, Violent J released his first solo album, named Wizard of the Hood. The album is a parody of The Wizard of Oz. A single based on the same idea had been previously released on the &quot;Carnival of Carnage&quot; album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In August 2004, the duo released the Wraith&apos;s second exhibit, The Wraith: Hell&apos;s Pit. The album was better received by critics, but did not receive as much media attention. &quot;Bowling Balls&quot; was released as a radio promo, and a video of the song was released on the bonus disc included with the album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Calm Era (2005 - 2006)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">With the release of The Wraith albums, the Jokers Card era ended. In 2005, the band released an EP entitled The Calm, which was to be the prelude to their next album, The Tempest. The ICP produced the album, which featured a new sound. However, &quot;The Calm&quot; is widely regarded as Insane Clown Posse&apos;s worst album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 2005, ICP released their fourth compilation album, Forgotten Freshness Volume 4. Unlike their other compilation albums, &quot;Forgotten Freshness Volume 4&quot; contained several new songs. The album&apos;s single, &quot;The People,&quot; was made into a music video in 2006. The video features ICP rehearsing the song in their studio, with photos of juggalos and fans flashing on the screen. This marks the first time ICP has made a music video from a non-studio album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2006, Shaggy 2 Dope released his first full-length solo album, Fuck The Fuck Off. It was his first solo work since 1994&apos;s Fuck Off EP. Shortly afterwards, Insane Clown Posse released their first remix album, called The Wraith: Remix Albums, which contained remixes of most of the tracks off both &quot;Wraith&quot; albums.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Tempest era (2007 - Present)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In February 2007, ICP were featured on one of the final episodes of VH1&apos;s The White Rapper Show.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On February 23, 2007 ICP released the first single for &quot;The Tempest,&quot; entitled &quot;I Do This.&quot; They also announced that Twiztid would join them on their Tempest World Tour. This was quickly followed by a second track, &quot;Haunted Bumps,&quot; and a photo, presumably the cover, which features ICP riding a roller coaster and a new logo composed of Insane Clown Posse written in lightning.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After a long delay, The Tempest was finally released on March 20, 2007. It was met with a mixed response from fans. Despite the mixed response, most fans agreed it was much better than The Calm.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">An advertisement inside the album announced that the next EP, Eye of the Storm, would be released at the 2007 Gathering of the Juggalos. &quot;The Tempest&quot; debuted at number twenty on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling some 33,000 copies in its first week. As of June 2007, it had sold around 70,000 copies. On their Hallowicked Tour 2007, the ICP announced that they were currently working on a follow-up from their Eye of the Storm EP. An album dealing with the &quot;destruction of the world&quot; is due to be released in 2008-2009. The ICP has said the delay is because they are working on a new film and another &quot;Dark Lotus&quot; album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Icp_handsjcw.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Insane Clown Posse (commonly known as ICP) is an American rap duo originally from Wayne, Michigan but formed in the neigh...'),(78,'Phil Collins','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, songwriter, drummer and actor. He is best known as the lead singer and drummer of progressive rock group Genesis and as a Grammy and Academy Award-winning solo artist. He is also an actor, having starred in numerous films.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins sang the lead vocals on eight American chart-toppers between 1984 and 1989; seven as a solo artist and one with Genesis. His singles, often dealing with lost love, ranged from the drum-heavy &quot;In the Air Tonight&quot;, to the dance pop of &quot;Sussudio&quot;, to the political statements of his most successful song, &quot;Another Day in Paradise&quot;. His international popularity transformed Genesis from a progressive rock group to a regular on the pop charts and an early MTV mainstay. Collins&apos; professional career began as a drummer, first with obscure rock group Flaming Youth and then more famously with Genesis. In Genesis, Collins originally supplied backing vocals for front man Peter Gabriel, singing lead on only two songs, namely &quot;For Absent Friends&quot; from 1971&apos;s Nursery Cryme album and &quot;More Fool Me&quot; from Selling England by the Pound, which was released in 1973. On Gabriel&apos;s departure in 1975, Collins became the group&apos;s lead singer. As the decade closed, Genesis&apos;s first international hit, &quot;Follow You, Follow Me&quot;, demonstrated a drastic change from the band&apos;s early years. His concurrent solo career, heavily influenced by his personal life, brought both him and Genesis commercial success. According to Atlantic Records, Collins&apos; total worldwide sales as a solo artist, as of 2002, were over 100 million.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins was given a toy drum kit for Christmas when he was five. Later, his uncle made him a makeshift one that he used regularly. As Collins grew they were followed by more complete sets bought by his parents. He practiced by playing alongside the television and radio, and never learned to read and write conventional musical notation; instead, he uses a system he devised himself.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">His professional training began at fourteen when he entered Barbara Speake Stage School. He began a career as a child actor and model, and won his first major role as The Artful Dodger in a London production of Oliver!. He appeared in The Beatles&apos; A Hard Day&apos;s Night as one of hundreds of screaming teenagers during the concert sequence. Although only an extra in this sequence, Collins receives a close-up all to himself: his mother was hired to cast the extras in this sequence, and she arranged for her son to receive a brief close-up in the film. He also auditioned for the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (1968). In 1970, the 19-year old Collins played percussion on the George Harrison song &quot;The Art of Dying&quot;; Harrison credited him in the liner notes to the remastered CD version of the album released in 2000. Collins was among the last three finalists for the role of &quot;I.Q&quot; on the children&apos;s American television show The Bugaloos. He lost out to English actor/musician John McIndoe.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Despite the beginnings of an acting career, Collins continued to gravitate towards music. While attending Chiswick Community School he formed a band called The Real Thing and later joined The Freehold. With the latter group, he wrote his first song titled &quot;Lying Crying Dying&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins&apos; first record deal came as drummer for Flaming Youth, who released a single album, Ark 2 (1969). A concept album inspired by the recent media attention surrounding the moon landing, Ark 2 failed to make much commercial success despite positive critical reviews. Melody Maker featured the album as &quot;Pop Album of the Month&quot;, describing it as &quot;adult music beautifully played with nice tight harmonies&quot;. The album&apos;s main single, &quot;From Now On&quot;, failed on the radio. After a year of touring, band tensions and the lack of commercial success dissolved the group.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Genesis Era</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1970, Collins answered a Melody Maker classified ad for &quot;...a drummer sensitive to acoustic music, and acoustic twelve-string guitarist&quot;. Genesis placed the ad after having already lost three drummers over two albums. The audition occurred at the home of Peter Gabriel&apos;s parents. Prospective candidates performed tracks from the group&apos;s second album, Trespass (1970). Collins arrived early, listened to the other auditions while swimming in Gabriel&apos;s parents&apos; pool, and memorised the pieces before his turn.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins won the audition. Nursery Cryme was released a year later. Although his role remained primarily that of drummer and backing vocalist for the next five years, he twice sang lead vocals: once on &quot;For Absent Friends&quot; (from Nursery Cryme) and once on &quot;More Fool Me&quot; (from Selling England by the Pound).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1974, while Genesis were recording the album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Brian Eno (who is credited with &quot;Enossification&quot; for electronic vocal effects on the track &quot;Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging&quot;) needed a drummer for his album Another Green World. Collins was sent to fill the gap, and played drums in lieu of payment for Eno&apos;s work with the band.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1975, following the final tour supporting the concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Gabriel left the group to pursue solo projects. Collins became lead vocalist after an unfruitful search for Gabriel&apos;s replacement. In the short term, the group recruited former Yes and King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford to play drums during live shows, although Collins continued to play during longer instrumental sections. Bruford&apos;s drumming can be heard on the track The Cinema Show on the live album Seconds Out. He was soon replaced by ex-Frank Zappa band member Chester Thompson, who became a mainstay of the band&apos;s live line-up. The first album with Collins as lead vocalist, 1976&apos;s A Trick of the Tail, reached the American Top 40, and climbed as high as #3 on the UK charts. Said Rolling Stone, &quot;Genesis has managed to turn the possible catastrophe of Gabriel&apos;s departure into their first broad-based American success.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins simultaneously performed in a jazz fusion group called Brand X. The band recorded their first album, Unorthodox Behaviour, with Collins as drummer. Since he put greater priority on his career with Genesis, there were several Brand X tours and albums released without Collins. He credits Brand X as his first use of a drum machine as well as his first use of a home 8-track tape machine.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">As the decade closed, Genesis began a shift from their progressive rock roots and toward pop music. The album ...And Then There Were Three... featured their first UK Top 10 and US Top 40 single, &quot;Follow You, Follow Me&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the 1980s, the group scored a string of successful albums, including Duke, Abacab, Genesis, and Invisible Touch. This last album&apos;s title track reached number one on the American Billboard charts, the only Genesis song to do so. The group received an MTV &quot;Video of the Year&quot; nomination in 1987 for &quot;Land of Confusion&quot;, another popular single from the album, although they lost to Gabriel&apos;s solo hit, &quot;Sledgehammer&quot;. Reviews were generally positive, with Rolling Stone&apos;s J.D. Considine stating, &quot;every tune is carefully pruned so that each flourish delivers not an instrumental epiphany but a solid hook.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins left Genesis in 1996 to focus on his solo career; the last studio album with him as the lead singer was 1991&apos;s We Can&apos;t Dance. He and Gabriel reunited with other Genesis members in 1999 to re-record &quot;The Carpet Crawlers&quot; for Genesis&apos;s Turn It On Again: The Hits. When in the mid-2000s discussions of a possible Genesis reunion arose, Collins stated that he would prefer to return as the drummer, with Gabriel handling the vocals. Eventually Turn It On Again: The Tour was announced for 2007, with the Collins/Rutherford/Banks lineup.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Solo Career</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">An early theme in Collins’ music, although never specifically mentioned in his albums, involved his then-recent divorce. Two songs he wrote on the Genesis album Duke, &quot;Please Don&apos;t Ask&quot; and the Top 20 hit &quot;Misunderstanding&quot;, dealt with failed relationships. One year earlier he had produced and played drums on John Martyn&apos;s Grace and Danger, an album whose main theme is also marriage breakup. With the recording of his first solo album, Face Value, Collins attributed his divorce as his main influence.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins’ marital frustrations formed the bulk of his first solo album as well as his second album, Hello, I Must Be Going!. With songs such as &quot;In The Air Tonight&quot; and &quot;I Don&apos;t Care Anymore&quot;, Collins’ early albums had a dark presence, usually heavy on the drums. Regarding Face Value, he says, &quot;I had a wife, two children, two dogs, and the next day I didn&apos;t have anything. So a lot of these songs were written because I was going through these emotional changes.&quot; There were occasional poppier influences – Face Value&apos;s &quot;Behind the Lines&quot;, for example, was a jazzy remake of a Genesis song he co-wrote. Face Value was a critical and multi-platinum success, and saw Collins’ profile increase further. Hello, I Must Be Going! gave him a UK #1 for his cover of The Supremes&apos; &quot;You Can&apos;t Hurry Love&quot;. The album went triple-platinum in the United States like its predecessor and the Supremes cover was his first Top 10 US hit (it also hit the Top 10 of Billboard&apos;s Adult Contemporary chart). The album also reached #2 on the UK album chart, spending well over a year there.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1982 he produced Something&apos;s Going On, a solo album by Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Frida), of ABBA fame. Frida, who had just parted with bandmate and husband Benny Andersson, had been impressed by Collins&apos;s solo efforts. Consequently, she approached Collins with her own solo project. The resulting album, featuring Collins on drums, spawned the 1982–83 international smash hit &quot;I Know There&apos;s Something Going On&quot; (Russ Ballard) and Collins’ duet with Frida titled &quot;Here We&apos;ll Stay.&quot; An edit featuring Frida on all vocals was released as a single. Two years previously, he had contributed drums to Peter Gabriel&apos;s third self-titled record, which was the first record to feature Collins’ signature &quot;gated reverb&quot; sound, used on a song called &quot;Intruder&quot;. As the story goes, Gabriel &quot;didn&apos;t want any metal on the record&quot; and asked him to leave his cymbals at home, to concentrate on the sound of his kit more heavily than usual. Studio engineer Hugh Padgham augmented this drum style by using a special microphone (which was intended for studio communication rather than recording) and feeding it through a signal compressor. The result was the &quot;gated reverb&quot; sound which Collins made famous. This was the same &apos;big drum sound&apos; used on such songs as &quot;In The Air Tonight&quot;, and &quot;Mama&quot; by Genesis.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A turning point in Collins’ musical style came when he was asked to compose the title track for the film Against All Odds, a song which he re-worked to become &quot;Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)&quot; from an original Face Value session out-take entitled &quot;How Can You Sit There?&quot;. The emotionally charged ballad shot to #1 in the US and #2 in the UK.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1984, Collins produced Philip Bailey&apos;s Chinese Wall album. He performed a duet on one of the album&apos;s tracks, &quot;Easy Lover&quot; which went to #2 on the U.S. pop chart and spent four weeks at #1 in the UK. Collins worked with the horn section of Bailey&apos;s band, Earth, Wind &amp; Fire (later known as the Phenix Horns) throughout the 1980s, both on solo and Genesis tracks. By the end of 1984, Collins participated in Bob Geldof&apos;s Band Aid charity project, as well as, playing drums on the Band Aid single &quot;Feed The World (Do They Know It&apos;s Christmas)&quot;, a drum part he laid down in one take (while being filmed).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins was invited to perform at Live Aid in 1985, Bob Geldof&apos;s charity concert, at both Wembley Stadium in England, and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia in the U.S. He accomplished this by performing earlier in the day at Wembley as both a solo artist and alongside Sting (on hiatus from The Police), then boarding a Concorde to perform his solo material, and drum for Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton in Philadelphia. Howard Jones re-recorded his song &quot;No One Is To Blame&quot;, off his Dream into Action album, featuring Phil Collins as drummer, backing vocalist, and producer. He has also played drums on singles for Robert Plant and Tina Turner on their respective albums. He also produced and played drums on the Eric Clapton album Behind the Sun as well as the follow-up, August. His solo success, as well as his concurrent career with Genesis, led to a 1985 cover story in Rolling Stone, with the tag reading &quot;Phil Collins Beats the Odds&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins released his most successful album, No Jacket Required, earlier that same year. It contained the hits &quot;Sussudio&quot;, &quot;One More Night&quot;, &quot;Don&apos;t Lose My Number&quot; and &quot;Take Me Home&quot;. The album featured Sting, Helen Terry and ex-bandmate Peter Gabriel as backing vocalists. He also recorded the successful song &quot;Separate Lives&quot;, a duet with Marilyn Martin, and an American number one, for the movie White Nights. Collins had three American number one songs in 1985, the most by any artist that year. No Jacket Required went on to win several Grammy awards including one for Album of the Year.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">No Jacket Required received criticism that the album was too safe despite its upbeat reviews and commercial success. A positive review by David Fricke of Rolling Stone ended, &quot;After years on the art-rock fringe, Collins has established himself firmly in the middle of the road. Perhaps he should consider testing himself and his new fans&apos; expectations next time around.&quot; &quot;Sussudio&quot; also drew criticism for sounding too similar to Prince’s &quot;1999&quot;, a charge that Collins did not deny. Nevertheless, the album went straight to #1 in the US and UK.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;Don&apos;t Lose My Number&quot;&apos;s B-side, the ballad &quot;We Said Hello Goodbye&quot;, was rediscovered in 1987 by some Midwestern radio programmers who began playing it, and it soon became a nationwide radio hit. It was later included on the No Jacket Required CD.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1988, Collins starred in the movie Buster about the Great Train Robbery, which took place in England in the 1960s. The movie generated good reviews and Collins did three songs for the movie; &quot;Two Hearts&quot; - which he co-wrote with Motown songwriter, Lamont Dozier - &quot;A Groovy Kind of Love&quot; (originally a 1966 hit for The Mindbenders; lyrics by Toni Wine, and music by Carole Bayer Sager, but with the melody of the Rondo section of Muzio Clementi&apos;s &quot;Sonatina in G major,&quot; op. 36 no. 5.), and thirdly he did the lyrics and music for the song &quot;Loco In Acapulco&quot;, performed by the legendary Four Tops.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1989, Collins produced another successful album, ...But Seriously, featuring the anti-homelessness anthem &quot;Another Day in Paradise&quot;, with David Crosby on backing vocals. (Collins later went on to co-write, sing and play on the song &quot;Hero&quot; on Crosby&apos;s 1993 album Thousand Roads.) Another Day in Paradise went to Number 1 on the Billboard Charts at the end of 1989 and won Collins a Grammy for Record of the Year (1990). In the process, it became the last #1 US pop hit of the 1980s. The album &quot;...But Seriously&quot; became the first #1 US album of the 1990s. Other songs included &quot;Something Happened on the Way to Heaven&quot;, &quot;Do You Remember?&quot; (US release only), and &quot;I Wish It Would Rain Down&quot; (the latter featuring Clapton on guitar). Songs about apartheid and homelessness demonstrated Collins’ turn to politically-driven material. This theme recurred on his later albums. A live album, Serious Hits... Live!, followed.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins’ record sales began to drop with the 1993 release of Both Sides, a largely experimental album which, according to Collins, included songs that &quot;were becoming so personal, so private, I didn&apos;t want anyone else&apos;s input&quot;. Featuring a less polished sound and fewer up-tempo songs than his previous albums, Both Sides was a significant departure. Collins used no backing musicians, performed all the vocal and instrumental parts at his home studio, and used rough vocal takes for the final product. The album was not well received by radio. Its two biggest hits were &quot;Both Sides of the Story&quot; and &quot;Everyday&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins attempted a return to poppier music with Dance into the Light, which Entertainment Weekly reviewed by saying that &quot;even Phil Collins must know that we all grew weary of Phil Collins.&quot; It included minor hits such as the title track and the Beatles-inspired &quot;It’s in Your Eyes&quot;. Although the album went Gold in the US, it sold considerably less than his previous albums. Only the title track made a brief appearance on Collins’ then forthcoming Hits collection. Despite this, its subsequent tour regularly sold out arenas.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1996, Collins formed The Phil Collins Big Band. With Collins as drummer, the band performed jazz renditions of Collins’ and Genesis&apos;s hits. The Phil Collins Big Band did a world tour in 1998 that included a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1999, the group released the CD A Hot Night in Paris including big band versions of &quot;Invisible Touch&quot;, &quot;Sussudio&quot;, and the more obscure &quot;The Los Endos Suite&quot; from A Trick of the Tail.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A Hits album released in 1998 was very successful, returning Collins to multi-platinum status in America. The album’s sole new track, a cover of the Cyndi Lauper hit &quot;True Colours,&quot; received considerable play on the Adult Contemporary charts while peaking at #2. Some of Collins’ earlier hits (e.g. &quot;I Missed Again&quot;, &quot;If Leaving Me Is Easy&quot;, etc.) and other successes were left off of this compilation.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins&apos; next single, &quot;You&apos;ll Be in My Heart&quot;, from the Disney movie Tarzan, spent 19 weeks at #1 on Billboard&apos;s Adult Contemporary chart - the longest time ever up to that point - and Collins obtained an Oscar. It was his third nomination in the songwriters category, having been previously nominated in 1984.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Metacritic&apos;s roundup of album reviews found his most recent studio album, 2002&apos;s Testify, to be the worst-reviewed album by the time of its release, though it has since been &quot;surpassed&quot; by three more recent releases. The album&apos;s &quot;Can&apos;t Stop Loving You&quot; (a Leo Sayer cover) was yet another #1 Adult Contemporary smash hit for Collins. Testify sold 140,000 copies in the United States by year&apos;s end, although a successful worldwide tour followed.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The hip-hop group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony recorded a remake of the song &quot;Take Me Home&quot; titled &quot;Home&quot; on their album Thug World Order. The song features verses by the group, with the chorus sung by Collins. Though the BTNH-Collins collaboration was highly criticized in the United States (for example, VH1 rated it #9 on its &quot;top 20 least hip-hop moments in history), it received so much positive reception in the UK that Bone Thugs decided to name Collins an honorary member under the moniker &quot;Chrome Bone&quot;.Collins reported losing his hearing in one ear, and in 2003 announced his last solo tour. He called it the &quot;First Final Farewell Tour&quot;, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the multiple farewell tours of other popular artists. He continued touring through 2006 while working with Disney on a Broadway production of Tarzan, a musical which received generally poor reviews. In 2007, Collins reunited with his Genesis bandmates for a tour of Europe and North America. He accepted an invitation to drum for the &quot;house band&quot; celebrating Queen Elizabeth II&apos;s Golden Jubilee. He has played drums for Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne, Cliff Richard as well as Eric Clapton.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Films, Theatre and Television</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The majority of Collins&apos; film work has been through music. Four of his seven American number one songs came from film soundtracks, and his work on Disney&apos;s Tarzan earned him an Oscar. Collins&apos;s acting career has been brief. As a child, he appeared in three films, although two of the films were for brief moments as an extra. Besides the aforementioned A Hard Day&apos;s Night (1964), Collins&apos;s first lead role was in Calamity the Cow (1967).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins wrote and performed the title song to Against All Odds in 1984. The song became the first of his seven American number one songs and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song. Collins was not invited to perform the song at that year’s presentation, although he was in the audience and had arranged his tour around the telecast. It was believed that the Academy, despite nominating him, did not know who he was. A note to Collins&apos; label from telecast co-producer Larry Gelbart explaining the lack of invitation stated, &quot;Thank you for your note regarding Phil Cooper (emphasis added). I&apos;m afraid the spots have already been filled&quot;. Collins instead watched Ann Reinking perform his song. For a long time afterward, he would inform audiences at concerts, &quot;Miss Ann Reinking&apos;s not here tonight, so I guess I&apos;ll have to sing my own song,&quot; before performing &quot;Against All Odds&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins performed (although did not write) &quot;Separate Lives&quot; for the film White Nights (1985). A duet with Marilyn Martin, the single became an additional Number One for Collins as well as another nominee for an Academy Award (it being a songwriters award, Collins was not nominated). The song had parallels to his first two albums. Writer Stephen Bishop noted that he was inspired by a failed relationship and called &quot;Separate Lives&quot; &quot;a song about anger&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins&apos;s first film role since becoming a musician came in 1988 with Buster. His rendition of &quot;Groovy Kind of Love&quot;, originally a 1966 single by The Mindbenders, reached Number One. The film also spawned the hit single &quot;Two Hearts&quot;, which he wrote in collaboration with legendary Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier. Movie critic Roger Ebert said the role of Buster was &quot;played with surprising effectiveness&quot; by Collins, although the film&apos;s soundtrack proved more successful than the movie.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins&apos; had a starring role in 1993&apos;s Frauds. He had cameo appearances in Steven Spielberg&apos;s Hook (1991) and And the Band Played On (1993). He also supplied voices to two animated features, Balto (1995) and The Jungle Book 2 (2003). A long-discussed but never completed project was a movie titled The Three Bears. Originally meant to star him alongside Danny DeVito and Bob Hoskins, he often mentioned the film but an appropriate script never materialized.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins performed the soundtrack to the animated film Tarzan (1999) for The Walt Disney Company. He won an Oscar for &quot;You&apos;ll Be in My Heart&quot;, which he performed at that year’s telecast as well as during a Disney-themed Super Bowl halftime show. The song, which he also recorded in Spanish among other languages, became his only appearance on Billboard&apos;s Hot Latin Tracks. Disney hired him along with Tina Turner in 2003 for the soundtracks to another animated feature film, Brother Bear, and had some airplay with the song &quot;Look Through My Eyes&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On television, he twice hosted the Billboard Music Awards. He also appeared in an episode of the series Miami Vice, entitled &quot;Phil the Shill&quot;, in which he plays a cheating con-man. He also guest starred in several sketches with The Two Ronnies. Most recently, he had a cameo appearance on the television series Whoopi.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001, Collins was sought out by the satirist Chris Morris and appeared in the Brass Eye &apos;Paedophile Special&apos; endorsing a spoof charity called &apos;Nonce Sense&apos;. At one point Collins, dressed in a matching baseball cap and t-shirt emblazoned with the name of this fictitious charity, stares into the camera and declares: &quot;...I&apos;m talking Nonce-sense.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2005, Collins&apos; work on Brother Bear was expanded as Disney used the song &quot;Welcome&quot; as the theme for Walt Disney&apos;s Parade of Dreams, the main parade celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2006 Disney&apos;s Tarzan was adapted for Broadway. Collins contributed 11 new songs and instrumental pieces, and was deeply involved in the production. Unlike the movie, where Collins sang all the material, the characters sang on stage.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins made an appearance as himself in the 2006 PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, set in 1984. He appears in three missions in which the main character must save him from a gang that is trying to kill him, the final mission occurring during his concert, where the player must defend the scaffolding against saboteurs whilst Phil is simultaneously performing &quot;In The Air Tonight.&quot; After this, the player is given the opportunity to watch this performance of &apos;In the Air Tonight.&apos; &quot;In The Air Tonight&quot; is also featured in the movie Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters and the 2007 Gorilla commercial for Cadbury&apos;s Dairy Milk chocolate.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Personal Life</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins was married to Andrea Bertorelli of Canada, whom he met at a drama class in London, in 1975. They had a son, Simon Collins, and Collins adopted Bertorelli&apos;s daughter Joely Collins, now a Canadian actress. They divorced in 1980.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins and his second wife, Jill Tavelman, were married from 1984 to 1996. They had one daughter, Lily, who now co-hosts the Nickelodeon program Slime Across America and is currently a fashion model signed to Next. Collins openly admits that some of their divorce-related correspondence was by fax (one, about access to their daughter, was reproduced in The Sun), but denies that this took her by surprise.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins married his third wife, Orianne Cevey, in 1999. The couple had two sons, Nicholas and Matthew. They lived in Switzerland (Begnins), overlooking Lake Geneva, before announcing their separation on March 16, 2006. Collins has said he will continue to live in Switzerland to be near the children. He lives in Féchy.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins is the boyfriend of CBS news anchor Dana Tyler. The pair met when Tyler interviewed him about Tarzan opening on Broadway in May 2006.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collins is a supporter of animal rights and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In 2005, he donated autographed drumsticks in support of PETA&apos;s campaign against Kentucky Fried Chicken. Collins is a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club although used to support QPR, before changing his mind when Spurs reached the 1991 FA Cup Final.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/phil-collins.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, songwriter, drummer and actor. He is best known...');
