1.
Eastern Slavic naming customs
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They are also featured in the non-Slavic Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan as a result of the expansion of Russia and the result of Russification. As with most cultures, a person has a name chosen by the parents. First names in East Slavic languages mostly originate from two sources, Orthodox church tradition and native pre-Christian Slavic lexicons, all first names are single, non-doubled. Doubled first names are a very rare foreign-influenced instance, most doubled first names are spelled with the dash. Being highly synthetic, Eastern Slavic languages treat personal names as grammatical nouns and this auxiliary stem may be identical to the word stem of the full name while most names have it derived unproductively. Most commonly, Russian philologists distinguish the forms of given names, The short name, historically also half-name, is the most simple. Some names, such as Zhanna, Mark, etc. do not possess short forms, in the latter case, one form is usually more informal than the other. Diminutive forms are produced from the name by means of various suffixes. Unlike the full name, a diminutive name carries a particular emotional attitude, depending on the nature of this attitude, nameforms can be subdivided in three broad groups, affectionate, familiar and slang. Typically formed by suffixes -еньк-, -оньк-, -ечк-, -ушк and it is often used to address children or intimate friends. Within a more official context, this form may be combined with honorific plural to address a female colleague. Colloquial diminutives are derived from short names by means of -к- suffix, expressing a highly familiar attitude, it may be considered rude or even pejorative outside of friendly context. Slang forms mostly exist for male names, being produced though suffixes -ян, -он and these suffixes give off the sense of male brotherhood once expressed by patronymic-only form of address in Soviet Union. Originating in criminal communities, these came into wide usage in Russia in the 1990s. During the days of revolutionary enthusiasm, as part of the campaign to rid Russia of bourgeois culture, there was a drive to invent new, as a result, a large number of Soviet children were given unusual or atypical names. The patronymic name is based on the first name of the father and is written in all legal, if used with the first name, the patronymic always follows it. The patronymic is formed by a combination of the fathers name, the suffix -ович is used for son, suffix -овна - for daughter. For example, if the name was Иван, then the patronymic will be Иванович for a son
2.
Ust-Dzheguta
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The dam here is the start of the Great Stavropol Canal. It was founded in 1861 as the stanitsa of Dzhegutinskaya by the Cossacks, town status was granted to it in 1975. Within the framework of administrative divisions, Ust-Dzheguta serves as the center of Ust-Dzhegutinsky District. As a municipal division, the town of Ust-Dzheguta is incorporated within Ust-Dzhegutinsky Municipal District as Ust-Dzhegutinskoye Urban Settlement. As of the 2002 Census, the distribution of the population was. Закон №84-РЗ от24 февраля2004 г, «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Карачаево-Черкесской Республики», в ред. Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования, Опубликован, День Республики, №36-37,28 февраля2004 г. Закон №21-РЗ от14 января2005 г, «Об установлении границ муниципальных образований на территории Усть-Джегутинского района и наделении их соответствующим статусом», в ред. Закона №72-РЗ от9 декабря2010 г, «О внесении изменений в Закон Карачаево-Черкесской Республики Об установлении границ муниципальных образований на территории Усть-Джегутинского района и наделении их соответствующим статусом». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования, Опубликован, День Республики, №11–12,22 января2005 г
3.
Karachay-Cherkessia
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The republic has several distinct ethnic groups, and the government recognizes five official languages. The population in 2010 was just under half a million people and it stretches for 140 kilometers from north to south and for 170 kilometers from east to west. Mountains cover 80% of the territory, Mount Elbrus, which at 5,642 meters is the highest peak in Caucasus, is located on the republics border with Kabardino-Balkaria. The republic is rich in water resources, a total of 172 rivers flow through its territory, with the largest one being the Kuban, Bolshoy Zelenchuk, Maly Zelenchuk, Urup, and Laba. There are about 130 mountain lakes of glacial origin and an abundance of mineral springs, climate is moderate, with short winters and long, warm, humid summers. The average January temperature is −3.2 °C, and the average July temperature is +20.6 °C, average annual precipitation varies from 550 millimeters in the plains to 2,500 millimeters in the mountains. Natural resources include gold, coal, clays, and more, the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast was created 12 January 1922, in the early years of the Soviet Union. It was split into Karachay Autonomous Oblast and Cherkess National Okrug on 26 April 1926, the Cherkess National District was elevated to an autonomous oblast status on 30 April 1928. In 1943, Karachay Autonomous Oblast was abolished, the Karachay people were accused of collaboration with the Nazis and subsequently deported to the Kazakh, most of the Karchay territory was split between Stavropol Krai and the Georgian SSR. On July 3,1991, the autonomous oblast was elevated to the status of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, also in December 1991, the words Autonomous Soviet Socialist were dropped from the official name of Karachay-Cherkessia. A commission was established Supreme Education Council three autonomous regions - Karachai, Cherkess and Batalpashinsk, sources,1970 to 2008, 2009-2013 According to the 2010 Census, Karachays make up 41% of the republics population, followed by Russians, and Cherkes and Abazins together make up 20%. According to a 2012 official survey 48% of the population of Karachay-Cherkessia adheres to Islam,13, in addition, 12% of the population declares to be spiritual but not religious, 7% is atheist and 4. 4% follows other religions or did not answer to the question. The head of the government in Karachay-Cherkessia is the Head, until February 2011, the President was Boris Safarovich Ebzeyev, a former judge of the Constitutional Court of Russian Federation. Rashid Temrezov is currently the Head of the republic, ethnic tension is a considerable problem in the republic. In May 1999 Karachay-Cherkessia conducted its first ever free regional presidential election, when Vladimir Semyonov, a Karachay, won the election over Stanislav Derev, a Circassian, there were protests by supporters of Derev, with widespread allegations of fraud. A court ruling upheld the election result, prompting thousands of Derevs supporters to march in protest. Although activity by separatists in the region pales in comparison with Chechnya and Dagestan, a car-bomb that killed two people in March 2001 was blamed on Chechen separatists. Muslim separatist groups have formed and dozens of their members have killed by the Russian authorities
4.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
5.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
6.
Pop music
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Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid 1950s. The terms popular music and pop music are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular. Pop and rock were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they were used in opposition from each other. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other such as urban, dance, rock, Latin. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a format, as well as the common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, according to Pete Seeger, pop music is professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music, the music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs. Pop music, as a genre, is seen as existing and developing separately, pop music continuously evolves along with the terms definition. The term pop song was first recorded as being used in 1926, Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music. The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pops earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience. Since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the meaning of non-classical mus, usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles. Grove Music Online also states that, in the early 1960s pop music competed terminologically with beat music, while in the USA its coverage overlapped with that of rock and roll. From about 1967, the term was used in opposition to the term rock music. Whereas rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral. It is not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward, and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative. It is, provided from on high rather than being made from below, pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment, the lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions
7.
R&B
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Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated as R&B or RnB, is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy. Lyrics focus heavily on the themes of triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, freedom, economics, aspirations, the term rhythm and blues has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s it was applied to blues records. This tangent of RnB is now known as British rhythm and blues, by the 1970s, the term rhythm and blues changed again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a style of R&B developed, becoming known as Contemporary R&B. It combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop, popular R&B vocalists at the end of the 20th century included Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey. Although Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine is credited with coining the term rhythm and blues as a term in the United States in 1948. It replaced the term race music, which came from within the black community. The term rhythm and blues was used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, before the Rhythm and Blues name was instated, various record companies had already begun replacing the term race music with sepia series. In 2010 LaMont Robinson founded the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame Museum, writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans. He has used the term R&B as a synonym for jump blues, however, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of its stronger, gospel-esque backbeat. Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that rhythm, according to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts. Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use to music made by black musicians. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow, lilting, while singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed, and in control. The bands dressed in suits, and even uniforms, an associated with the modern popular music that rhythm. Lyrics often seemed fatalistic, and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords, there was also increasing emphasis on the electric guitar as a lead instrument, as well as the piano and saxophone
8.
Soul music
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Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music, catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and a tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds, Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture. The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black, Soul music dominated the U. S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U. S. By 1968, the music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, by the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other genres, leading to psychedelic soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994, there are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music. The term soul had been used among African-American musicians to emphasize the feeling of being an African-American in the United States, according to another source, Soul music was the result of the urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the 60s. The phrase soul music itself, referring to music with secular lyrics, is first attested in 1961. The term soul in African-American parlance has connotations of African-American pride, gospel groups in the 1940s and 1950s occasionally used the term as part of their name. The jazz style that derived from gospel came to be called soul jazz, important innovators whose recordings in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of soul music included Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard, and Etta James. Ray Charles is often cited as popularizing the genre with his string of hits starting with 1954s I Got a Woman. Singer Bobby Womack said, Ray was the genius and he turned the world onto soul music. Charles was open in acknowledging the influence of Pilgrim Travelers vocalist Jesse Whitaker on his singing style, little Richard and James Brown were equally influential. Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson are also acknowledged as soul forefathers. Cooke became popular as the singer of gospel group The Soul Stirrers
9.
Singing
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist, Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists, Singers may perform as soloists, or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised and it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice, if practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort, exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles, the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming, humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individuals size, Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation, another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singers Formant and it has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds, Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds
10.
Accordion
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Accordions are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist, the concertina and bandoneón are related, the harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family. The instrument is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or keys, causing pallets to open and these vibrate to produce sound inside the body. Valves on opposing reeds of each note are used to make the instruments reeds sound louder without air leaking from each reed block. The performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the manual. The accordion is widely spread across the world, nevertheless, in Europe and North America, some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is used in cajun, zydeco, jazz music. The piano accordion is the official city instrument of San Francisco, the oldest name for this group of instruments is harmonika, from the Greek harmonikos, meaning harmonic, musical. Today, native versions of the accordion are more common. These names refer to the type of accordion patented by Cyrill Demian, accordions have many configurations and types. Similar to a bow, the production of sound in an accordion is in direct proportion to the motion of the player. The bellows is located between the right- and left-hand manuals, and is made from pleated layers of cloth and cardboard, with added leather and metal. It is used to pressure and vacuum, driving air across the internal reeds and producing sound by their vibration. These boxes house reed chambers for the right- and left-hand manuals, each side has grilles in order to facilitate the transmission of air in and out of the instrument, and to allow the sound to better project. The grille for the manual is usually larger and is often shaped for decorative purposes. The right-hand manual is used for playing the melody and the left-hand manual for playing the accompaniment. The manual mechanism of the instrument either enables the air flow, or disables it, the different types have varying components. All instruments have reed ranks of some format, the most typical accordion is the piano accordion, which is used for many musical genres
11.
Piano
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The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. The word piano is a form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument. The first fortepianos in the 1700s had a sound and smaller dynamic range. An acoustic piano usually has a wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings. Pressing one or more keys on the keyboard causes a padded hammer to strike the strings. The hammer rebounds from the strings, and the continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air, when the key is released, a damper stops the strings vibration, ending the sound. Notes can be sustained, even when the keys are released by the fingers and thumbs and this means that the piano can play 88 different pitches, going from the deepest bass range to the highest treble. The black keys are for the accidentals, which are needed to play in all twelve keys, more rarely, some pianos have additional keys. Most notes have three strings, except for the bass that graduates from one to two, the strings are sounded when keys are pressed or struck, and silenced by dampers when the hands are lifted from the keyboard. There are two types of piano, the grand piano and the upright piano. The grand piano is used for Classical solos, chamber music and art song and it is used in jazz. The upright piano, which is compact, is the most popular type, as they are a better size for use in private homes for domestic music-making. During the nineteenth century, music publishers produced many works in arrangements for piano, so that music lovers could play. The piano is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, with technological advances, amplified electric pianos, electronic pianos, and digital pianos have also been developed. The electric piano became an instrument in the 1960s and 1970s genres of jazz fusion, funk music. The piano was founded on earlier technological innovations in keyboard instruments, pipe organs have been used since Antiquity, and as such, the development of pipe organs enabled instrument builders to learn about creating keyboard mechanisms for sounding pitches
12.
Universal Music Group
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Universal Music Group is an American-French global music corporation that is a subsidiary of the Paris-based French media conglomerate Vivendi. UMGs global corporate headquarters are in Santa Monica, California and it is considered one of the Big Three record labels, along with Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Universal Music was once the music attached to film studio Universal Pictures and its origins go back to the formation of the American branch of Decca Records in September 1934. The Decca Record Co. Ltd. of England spun American Decca off in 1939, MCA Inc. merged with American Decca in 1962. The present organization was formed when its parent company Seagram purchased PolyGram in May 1998, however, the name had first appeared in 1996 when MCA Music Entertainment Group was renamed Universal Music Group. The PolyGram acquisition included Deutsche Grammophon which traces its ancestry to Berliner Gramophone making Deutsche Grammophon UMGs oldest unit, UMGs Canadian unit traces its ancestry to a Berliner Gramophone breakaway firm the Compo Company. With the 2004 acquisition of Universal Studios by General Electric and merging with GEs NBC and this is the second time a music company has done so, the first being the separation of Time Warner and Warner Music Group. On June 25,2007, Vivendi completed its €1.63 billion purchase of BMG Music Publishing, after receiving European Union regulatory approval, doug Morris stepped down from his position as CEO on January 1,2011. Former chairman/CEO of Universal Music International Lucian Grainge was promoted to CEO of the company, Grainge later replaced him as chairman on March 9,2011. Morris became the chairman of Sony Music Entertainment on July 1,2011. With Grainges appointment as CEO at UMG, Max Hole was promoted to COO of UMGI, starting in 2011 UMGs Interscope Geffen A&M Records will be signing contestants from American Idol/Idol series. On January 2011, UMG announced it was donating 200,000 master recordings from the 1920s to 1940s to the Library of Congress for preservation, in March 2011, Barry Weiss became chairman & CEO of The Island Def Jam Music Group & Universal Republic Records. Both companies are restructuring under Weiss, in December 2011, David Foster was named Chairman of Verve Music Group. Among the other companies that had competed for the music business was Warner Music Group which was reported to have made a $2 billion bid. However, IMPALA has said it would fight the merger, coincidentally, UMG sister company StudioCanal has owned the EMI Films library for several years. On September 21,2012, the sale of EMI to UMG was approved in Europe, UMG divested Mute Records, Parlophone, Roxy Recordings, MPS Records, Cooperative Music, Now Thats What I Call Music. Jazzland, Universal Greece, Sanctuary Records, Chrysalis Records, EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, the Beatles recorded music library was allowed to remain with UMG despite being considered part of Parlophone and is now managed by UMGs reorganized Capitol Music Group worldwide. Robbie Williams, who had recorded for Chrysalis, had his transferred to Universals Island Records
13.
EMI
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EMI was a British multinational conglomerate founded in March 1931 and was based in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, it was the fourth-largest business group and its EMI Records Ltd. group of record labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records and Capitol Records. EMI also had a publishing arm, EMI Music Publishing—also based in London with offices globally. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, other members of the Sony consortium include the Estate of Michael Jackson, The Blackstone Group, and Abu Dhabi–owned investment fund Mubadala Development Company. The new vertically integrated company produced sound recordings as well as recording, the companys gramophone manufacturing led to forty years of success with larger-scale electronics and electrical engineering. He was killed in 1942 whilst conducting flight trials on an experimental H2S radar set, post-war, the company resumed its involvement in making broadcasting equipment, notably providing the BBCs second television transmitter at Sutton Coldfield. It also manufactured broadcast television cameras for British television production companies as well as for the BBC, the commercial television ITV companies also used them alongside cameras made by Pye and Marconi. Exports of this piece of equipment were low, however, the company was also for many years an internationally respected manufacturer of photomultipliers. This part of the business was transferred to Thorn as part of Thorn-EMI, in 1958 the EMIDEC1100, the UKs first commercially available all-transistor computer, was developed at Hayes under the leadership of Godfrey Hounsfield, an electrical engineer at EMI. In 1973 EMI was awarded a prestigious Queens Award for Technological Innovation for what was called the EMI scanner. After brief, but brilliant, success in the imaging field, EMIs manufacturing activities were sold off to other companies. Subsequently, development and manufacturing activities were sold off to companies and work moved to other towns such as Crawley. Emihus Electronics, based in Glenrothes, Scotland, was owned 51% by Hughes Aircraft, of California, US and it manufactured integrated circuits electrolytic capacitors and, for a short period in the mid-1970s, hand-held calculators under the Gemini name. Early in its life, the Gramophone Company established subsidiary operations in a number of countries in the British Commonwealth, including India, Australia. Over 150,000 78-rpm recordings from around the world are held in EMIs temperature-controlled archive in Hayes, in 1931, the year the company was formed, it opened the legendary recording studios at Abbey Road, London. During the 1930s and 1940s, its roster of artists included Arturo Toscanini, Sir Edward Elgar, during this time EMI appointed its first A&R managers. These included George Martin, who brought the Beatles into the EMI fold. When the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931, at this point RCA had a majority shareholding in the new company, giving RCA chair David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board
14.
Anastacia
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Anastacia Lyn Newkirk is an American singer-songwriter, producer and former dancer. She is best known for her pop music of the early 2000s which had a significant impact in Europe. Her first two albums Not That Kind and Freak of Nature were released in succession to major success. Spurred on by the multi-platinum, global smash Im Outta Love and her commercial appeal continued with international hits such as Paid My Dues, One Day In Your Life and the official song of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Boom. After recovering from cancer, she returned with 2004s Anastacia which deviated from previous albums into pop-rock, peaking at number one in 11 countries, it became Europes second biggest selling album of the year. Its lead Left Outside Alone remained at one on the European Billboard chart for 15 weeks. In 2005, the multi-platinum compilation project Pieces of a Dream was released which spawned the chart topping duet with Eros Ramazzotti, Anastacia established herself as one of the top selling international female pop-singers of the 2000s before taking a hiatus in late 2006. She has sold over 52 million records worldwide and has topped the U. S. dance chart on two separate occasions. In 2014, Anastacia made a comeback with her studio album Resurrection, which reached the top ten in the Italian, Netherlands, Switzerland, German. Her Ultimate Collection was released in 2015 and peaked in the top ten of the UK charts, known for her powerful mezzo-soprano voice and her small stature of 5 feet 2 inches, she has been dubbed the little lady with the big voice. Also famed for her glasses, she underwent corrective lasic surgery in August 2005. During her life Anastacia has battled many health problems and she was diagnosed with Crohns disease at age 13, breast cancer at age 34, and supraventricular tachycardia at age 39. In 2013 Anastacia was diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time, on October 1,2013 to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Anastacia informed the media that she had undergone a double mastectomy. Anastacia was born in Chicago, Illinois, her late father Robert Newkirk was a club-singer and her mother Diane Hurley an actress on Broadway, after her father left the Newkirk family, they moved to New York City when she was a teenager. Then she enrolled at the Professional Childrens School in Manhattan, Anastacia was diagnosed with Crohns disease when she was thirteen. Despite her illness she soon became interested in dance, at age 19, a diet triggered a Crohns relapse. Despite her ongoing health problems Anastacia continued to pursue her ambitions for the next decade, Anastacia started her career in 1983 as a dancer for hire. Her first claim to fame was as a dancer, making regular appearances in the mid-1980s and early-90s on MTVs Club MTV
15.
Nelly Furtado
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Nelly Kim Furtado ComIH is a Portuguese-Canadian singer and songwriter. Furtado first gained fame with her debut album Whoa, Nelly, a critical and commercial success that spawned two top 10 singles, Im Like a Bird and Turn Off the Light. The first single won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, in 2003 she released her second album Folklore and was preceded by the lead single Powerless. Furtados third album Loose became her best selling album with 12 million copies sold worldwide, the album spawned four successful number one singles, Promiscuous, Maneater, Say It Right and All Good Things. She released her first Spanish language album Mi Plan in 2009 which won her a Latin Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Album, in 2012 Furtado released her fifth album The Spirit Indestructible. Furtado has sold over 40 million records worldwide, making her one of the most successful Canadian artists. Furtado has a star on Canadas Walk of Fame and was awarded Commander of the Order of Prince Henry on February 28,2014 in Toronto by Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Furtado was born on December 2,1978, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Her Portuguese parents, António José Furtado and Maria Manuela Furtado, were São Miguel Island in the Azores and had immigrated to Canada in the late 1960s, Nelly was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim. Her siblings are Michael Anthony and Lisa Anne, at age four, she began performing and singing in Portuguese. Furtados first public performance was when she sang a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day and she began playing musical instruments at the age of nine, learning the trombone, ukulele and – in later years – the guitar and keyboards. At the age of 12, she began writing songs, and as a teenager and she has stated that coming from a working-class background has shaped her identity in a positive way. During a visit with her sister Lisa Anne in Toronto, the summer after grade eleven, Furtado met Tallis Newkirk and she contributed vocals to their 1996 album, Join the Ranks, on the track Waitin 4 The Streets. After graduating from Mount Douglas Secondary School in 1996, she moved to Toronto to reside with her sister Lisa Anne, the following year, she formed Nelstar, a trip hop duo with Newkirk. Ultimately, Furtado felt the style of the duo was too segregated. She left the group and planned to back home. In 1997, she performed at the Honey Jam talent show and her performance attracted the attention of The Philosopher Kings singer Gerald Eaton, who then approached her to write with him. He and fellow Kings member Brian West helped Furtado produce a demo and she left Toronto, but returned again to record more material with Eaton and West. Furtados first single, Partys Just Begun, was released that year on the Brokedown Palace, Furtado continued the collaboration with Eaton and West, who co-produced her debut album, Whoa, Nelly. which was released in October 2000
16.
Ryan Tedder
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Ryan Benjamin Tedder is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Tedders production and songwriting work has proven successful commercially, Apologize, written with and performed by his band OneRepublic, Bleeding Love, performed by Leona Lewis, and Halo, performed by Beyoncé, all made it to the list of best-selling singles of all time. In early 2014, Billboard named him The Undercover King of Pop, ryan Benjamin Tedder was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was raised by an family of missionaries and pastors in a Christian church. He began learning to play the piano at the age of three via the Suzuki method and his early interest in music was prompted by his musician father and school-teacher mother, who coaxed their young son into practicing piano in exchange for candy corn. Tedder started singing at the age of seven and he has commented, I sang for two hours a day every day of my life until I was eighteen. He continued to perform musically during his adolescence through church, school, in his senior year, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There he met and became friends with future OneRepublic bandmate Zach Filkins on their team at the Colorado Springs Christian School. He attended Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma and began to showcase his own material there, Tedder completed his college education and graduated from ORU in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Relations and Advertising. For years Tedder worked as a waiter, and also as an assistant at Pottery Barn, before securing an internship at DreamWorks SKG in Nashville. He produced demos for songwriters and labels, charging $300 to $400 a track, the prize for the winner was a music contract with Basss now-defunct management company, Free Lance Entertainment. The contestants performed live and were rated by judges and the audience. Tedder later revealed the record and publishing deal he was offered wasnt real and it was just a bunch of hype that didnt turn into anything. One year after winning the MTV competition, Tedder caught the attention of the hip hop producer Timbaland, Tedder commented that he was with Timbaland from 2002–2004 to develop as an artist while producing for other artists at the time. Tedders work crossed many genres and he has had many chart successes both in America and the United Kingdom with a number of artists. In June 2007, Tedder signed a publishing administration deal with Kobalt Music Publishing. The deal included Tedders new works and all songs not performed by OneRepublic, Tedder met producer Morten Schjolin in 2005, doing various collaborations for Tattoos second album. Tedder is the writer of the hit, Apologize, performed by his band OneRepublic
17.
Edvin Marton
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Edvin Marton is a Ukrainian-born Hungarian composer and violinist. He became known as the violinist of the skaters, mainly because Evgeni Plushenko, Stéphane Lambiel and he was born in an area of Ukraine largely inhabited by ethnic Hungarians. He was born into a family and by the age of five was already learning the violin from his parents. He was eight years old when accepted into that alma mater for the most talented musicians of the Soviet Union and he continued his studies with Eugenia Tchougaeva. He gave his first important concert at the age of twelve, at the age of seventeen he became a student at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music Budapest, in the class of Géza Kapás. He took part in a given by Ruggiero Ricci, where he won the prize for the best participant. He was also the Grand Prize winner of the International Course Competition in Berlin, since 1993 he has been a young soloist for the National Philharmonic Concert Agency in Hungary. He has performed with almost all the main Hungarian orchestras, and given concerts in Austria, Italy, Germany, in May 1994 the famous violin teacher Dorothy DeLay invited him to the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. Where he gave a concert with Rohan de Silva, in New York he won a scholarship and was admitted to the class of Dorothy Delay at the Juilliard School of Music. His studies in New York City at the Juilliard School of Music brought professional contacts which meant changes in his musical style. There, in one of the most revered classical music environments of Juilliard, he mingled with DJs, while still in his twenties, Marton had traveled to more than thirty countries and played in such renowned concert halls as the Berliner Philharmonie and Viennas Konzerthaus. But he was looking for a change, a former classmate said of him, After he graduated from the music academy the talented, jovial and rotund Lajos disappeared, only to return as a slim, easy listening, music playing Edvin Marton. Habanera Romanza andaluza Jota Navarra Playera Zapateado Spanish Dance Spanish Dance Caprice Basque, Moderato Allegro moderato Zigeunerweisen, lento Un poco più lento Allegro molto vivace Concert Fantasy on Carmen, Introduction.6 Fireworks Paganini Bonus- Cest la Vie feat
18.
Evgeni Plushenko
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Evgeni Viktorovich Plushenko is a retired Russian figure skater. He is a four-time Olympic medalist, a three-time World champion, a seven-time European champion, a four-time Grand Prix Final champion, Plushenkos four Olympic medals tied Swedens Gillis Grafströms record for most Olympic medals in figure skating. Plushenko was born on 3 November 1982 in Dzhamku, Solnechny District, Khabarovsk Krai and his mother was originally from Volgograd, Russian SFSR, and his father, a carpenter, was born in Donetsk, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Plushenko lived in Volgograd before moving to Saint Petersburg in 1994, a 1998 graduate of school No. His surname is most commonly romanized as Plushenko but other variations exist, the Cyrillic shcha may be transliterated as sh to reflect modern Russian pronunciation or, alternatively, as shch to reflect the older pronunciation. The letter ю is pronounced yu, so a more accurate transliteration would be Plyushchenko and his given name is romanized as Evgeni or Yevgeny. On 18 June 2005, Plushenko married Maria Ermak, a student at the Saint Petersburg State University. Their son, Egor Evgenievich, was born on 15 June 2006, in February 2008, they were officially divorced. In August 2009, Plushenko announced his engagement to Yana Rudkovskaya and they were married on 12 September 2009. Their son, Alexander, was born in January 2013, Plushenkos mother died on July 10,2015. Since Plushenko frequently suffered from colds, his mother decided he needed exercise and his first coach was Tatiana Skala. He trained in Volgograd, Russia until his ice rink closed when he was 11 years old, in 1994, his mother took him to Saint Petersburg to train under the guidance of Alexei Mishin. Plushenko made quick progress on the international scene and he became the youngest ever World Junior Champion and World medalist at age 14, winning the 1997 World Junior Championships. The following year, at age 15, he won the medal at the 1998 World Championships. Plushenko developed a rivalry with Alexei Yagudin, with whom he trained under Mishin until Yagudin left in 1998, in 2000, Plushenko defeated Yagudin at the 2000 European Championships, but finished at the 2000 World Championships. Plushenko had a very successful 2000–01 season, winning every event he entered, at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Plushenko and Yagudin were considered co-favorites. Plushenko finished 4th in the program after falling on his quadruple toe loop. Plushenko won most of the competitions he entered in the four years
19.
Larisa Dolina
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Larisa Aleksandrovna Dolina is an Azerbaijani-born prominent Russian jazz and pop singer and an actress. She was awarded the Order of Honour in 2005, Dolina was born on September 10,1955, in Baku to an Azerbaijani Jewish family. Her father, Aleksandr Markovich Kudelman, was a worker, her mother, Galina Izrailevna Kudelman. When Dolina was three, the moved to Odessa. At six, she began attending a school where she studied the cello. Dolinas musical career began in 1971 in the performance group My Odessity and she then worked as lead singer for the State Performing Orchestra of Armenia, the State Performing Orchestra of Azerbaijan, and the performing group Sovremennik. In 1981, Dolina performed together with Weyland Rodd as part of the Anthology of jazz vocals tour, in 1982, Dolina performed the hit Tri belyh konya for the soundtrack of the film Charodei. In 1984, she sang in the musical Istoriya doktora Fausta, Dolina began a solo career in 1985, working with the Leningrad based composer Viktor Reznikov. She began to produce her own shows, including Zatyazhnoy Pryzhok, Kontrasty, Ldinka. In 1990, Dolina played the role in the rock opera Giordano opposite Valery Leontiev. In 1991, Dolina performed in front of 20,000 people at the festival Radio Prestige in La Rochelle, the same year, she was awarded the prize of Best female singer at Profi, a Russian national competition. In 1993, she became an Honored Artist of Russia, in 1994, she won the Crystal dolphin prize at the all-Russian competition in Yalta and also won the national musical award Ovation after being nominated in the best female rock singer category. In 1996, she won the Ovation award again, this time in the best female pop singer category, Dolina appeared as an actress in the films Barkhatniy sezon, My iz dzhaza, Ostrov pogibshih korabley, and Suvenir dlia prokurora. Her songs have featured in more than 70 live action. In 2003, Dolina joined the political party Edinaya Rossiya, in 2007, Dolina performed several George Gershwin compositions at the Gershwin Gala at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. In 2010, she played roles, including the lead, in the musical Lyubov and shpionazh. During 2004, Dolina performed live at the Kostya Tszyu-Sharmba Mitchell boxing rematch in Phoenix, Arizona, in February 2011, Dolina performed Summertime and Wonder Where You Are at a concert at Crocus City Hall dedicated to the songs of jazz legend Al Jarreau. Both songs were part of Dolinas new album titled Hollywood Mood and she followed that up with a rendition of Private Dancer by Tina Turner at the Novaya Volna competition in July 2011
20.
J.R. Rotem
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Jonathan Reuven Rotem better known by his stage name J. R. Rotem, is an Israeli American record producer, songwriter and music publisher. Rotem, who is Jewish, was born in South Africa to Israeli immigrant parents in 1975 and he moved to Toronto at the age of two and finally to Moraga, California at the age of twelve. Rotems entry point into music was in receiving classical piano instruction at a young age, when he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston it was initially with the intention of studying film scoring, but he ended up majoring in jazz composition. Nevertheless, further success was not forthcoming and for years Rotem struggled to make headway in the industry. Rotem says, One of my biggest goals for years was meeting a manager with a good reputation and with connections to get my music to people. When asked in an interview with HitQuarters what made Katz decide to take the producer on, he said, This was a time where most of the people were beat makers, JR on the other hand, had a vast musical background. So musically there were no limitations as far as what he could bring, number two J. R he was very, very focused. And number three he was humble, if I gave him any suggestions about his tracks he would literally sit there and take notes. Then he would back the next day with the changes I had suggested. Rotems next major cut was 50 Cents Position of Power in 2005, in 2006, together with Katz and his brother Tommy, Rotem started his own record label, Beluga Heights, inking a joint venture partnership with Epic. Sean Kingston, a young Miami-based artist, was the labels first signing, kingstons self-titled debut album went on to sell over 2 million albums and 10 million singles worldwide. Rotem also started a company under the Beluga Heights umbrella. Under a newly formed joint venture with Warner Bros, records, the label signed pop sensation Jason Derülo, whose debut album went on to sell 14 million singles and over 1 million albums worldwide. In 2009, Rotem was honored as BMI Producer of the Year, in 2011 he was again honored by BMI as Songwriter of the Year alongside Lady Gaga and Derülo. His trademark is a horn that follows with a stylised J-J-J-J-J-R and/or Beluga Heights at the start or end of records with which he has been affiliated, J. R. Rotem is managed by Pulse Management, a division of Pulse Recording. In 2015, Rotem worked alongside Neyo and Timbaland on the music for Season 2 of Foxs Empire, on October 17,2015, Gwen Stefani premiered Used to Love You, co-written and produced by Rotem at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City which was Gwens first single. Rotem has ten songs on Stefanis album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like which was released on March 18,2016, the DJBooth, Jonathan JR Rotem Interview SOHH June 2007 Feature Interview, HitQuarters Apr 2010
21.
Timbaland
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Timothy Zachery Tim Mosley, known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer, singer, songwriter, rapper and DJ. Timbalands first full credit production work was in 1996 on Ginuwine. the Bachelor for R&B singer Ginuwine, after further work on Aaliyahs 1996 album One in a Million and Missy Elliotts 1997 album Supa Dupa Fly, Timbaland became a prominent producer for R&B and hip hop artists. As a rapper he released several albums with fellow rapper Magoo. A Timbaland-owned imprint label, Mosley Music Group, featured such as Nelly Furtado. In 2007, Timbaland released an album, Shock Value. As a songwriter he has written as of 2014,85 UK hits and 99 hits Stateside, Timbaland has received widespread acclaim for his production style. Timothy Zachery Mosley was born on March 10,1972 in Norfolk, Virginia, to Latrice, who ran a shelter, and Garland Mosley. He graduated from Salem High School of Virginia Beach, Virginia, during his time as a DJ, he was known as DJ Tim or DJ Timmy Tim. His brother, Sebastian, is reportedly around nine years younger and his sister Courtney Rashon is a makeup artist and author from New Jersey. While attending high school, Timbaland began a collaboration with rapper Melvin Barcliff. The teenage Mosley also joined the production ensemble S. B. I. which also featured Neptunes producer Pharrell, Mosley was also high school friends with brothers Terrence and Gene Thornton, who would become known as Pusha T and Malice of the rap group Clipse, respectively. In 1986, when Timbaland was 14 years old, he was shot by a co-worker at a local Red Lobster restaurant and was partially paralyzed for nine months. During this time, he began to learn how to DJ using his left hand, singer and rapper Missy Elliott heard his material and began working with him. She and her R&B group, Sista, auditioned for DeVante Swing, DeVante signed Sista to his Swing Mob record label and Elliott brought Mosley and Barcliff along with her to New York, where Swing Mob was based. It was DeVante who renamed the young producer Timbaland, after the Timberland brand of construction boots. He and Magoo became part of SCI Zakys School stable of Swing Mob signees known as Da Bassment crew, joining artists such as R&B singer Ginuwine, male vocal group Playa, and the girl group Sugah. Timbaland did production work on a number of projects with DeVante, including the 1995 Jodeci LP The Show, The After-Party, The Hotel, Elliott began receiving recognition as a songwriter for artists such as R&B girl group 702 and MC Lyte. Due to Timbalands connection with her, he was contacted to produce remixes of her songs
22.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
23.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
24.
Singer-songwriter
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Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose, and perform their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. The genre began with the folk-acoustic tradition, singer-songwriters often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano. Singer-songwriter is used to define popular music artists who write and perform their own material, such an artist performs the roles of composer, lyricist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and often self-manager. Most records by artists have a similarly straightforward and spare sound that placed emphasis on the song itself. The term has also used to describe songwriters in the rock, folk, and pop music genres including Henry Russell, Aristide Bruant, Hank Williams. Song topics include political protest, as in the case of the Almanac Singers, Pete Seeger, the concept of a singer-songwriter can be traced to ancient bardic oral tradition, which has existed in various forms throughout the world. Poems would be performed as chant or song, sometimes accompanied by a harp or other similar instrument, after the invention of printing, songs would be written and performed by ballad sellers. Usually these would be versions of existing tunes and lyrics, which were constantly evolving and this developed into the singer-songwriting traditions of folk culture. The term singer-songwriter in North America can be traced back to singers who developed works in the blues and folk music style. Early to mid-20th century American singer-songwriters include Lead Belly, Jimmie Rodgers, Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker, Blind Willie McTell, Lightnin Hopkins, Son House, the tradition of writing topical songs was established by this group of musicians. This focus on social issues has greatly influenced the singer-songwriter genre, artists who had been primarily songwriters, notably Carole King, Townes Van Zandt, and Neil Diamond, also began releasing work as performers. In contrast to the approach of most prior country and folk music. The adjectives confessional and sensitive were often used singer-songwriter style, in the rock band era, members were not technically singer-songwriters as solo acts. However, many were singer-songwriters who created songs with band members. Many others like Eric Clapton found success as singer-songwriters in their later careers, there were hints of cross-pollination, but rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with different audiences. An early attempt at fusing elements of folk and rock was highlighted in the Animals House of the Rising Sun, dylan plugged an entire generation into the milieu of the singer-songwriter. In the mid- to late 1960s, bands and singer-songwriters began to proliferate the underground New York art/music scene. Lotti Golden, in her Atlantic debut album Motor-Cycle, chronicled her life in NYCs East Village in the late 60s counterculture, visiting subjects such as gender identity, kate Bush remained distinctive throughout with her idiosyncratic style
25.
Karachay
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The Karachays are a Turkic people of the North Caucasus, mostly situated in the Russian Karachay–Cherkess Republic. The Karachays are a Turkic people descended from the Kipchaks, in Turkic, Karachay means Black River. The Kipchaks came to the Caucasus in the 11th century CE, in the 14th century, Alania was destroyed by Timur and the decimated population dispersed into the mountains. Timurs incursion into the North Caucasus introduced the nations to Islam. In the nineteenth century Russia took over the area during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus, on October 20,1828 the Battle of Khasauka took place, in which the Russian troops were under the command of General Georgy Emanuel. After the annexation, the self-government of Karachay was left intact, including its officials, interactions with neighboring Muslim peoples continued to take place based on both folk customs and Sharia law. In Karachay, soldiers were taken from Karachai Amanat, pledged an oath of loyalty, from 1831 to 1860, the Karachays joined the anti-Russian struggles carried out by the Caucasian peoples. Between 1861 and 1880, to escape reprisals by the Russian army and this relationship with Nazi Germany resulted, when the Russians regained control of the region in November 1943, with the Karachays being charged with collaboration with Nazi Germany and deported. The majority of the population of about 80,000 were forcibly deported and resettled in Central Asia, mostly in Kazakhstan. In the first two years of the deportations, disease and famine caused the death of 35% of the population, of 28,000 children, 78%, many Karachays migrated to Turkey after the Russian annexation of the Karachay nation in the early 19th century. Karachays were also forcibly displaced to the Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, since the Nikita Khrushchev era in the Soviet Union, many Karachays have been repatriated to their homeland from Central Asia. Today, there are sizable Karachay communities in Turkey, Uzbekistan, the United States, the Karachays are very proud of the symbol of their nation, Mount Elbrus, the highest twin-peaked mountain in Europe with an altitude 5,642 meters. Karachay people live in communities that are divided into families and clans, a tukum is based on a familys lineage and there are roughly thirty-two Karachay tukums. Prominent tukums include, Aci, Batcha, Baychora, Bayrimuk, Bostan, Catto, Cosar, Duda, Hubey, Karabash, Laypan, Lepshoq, Ozden, Silpagar, Tebu, Teke, and Toturkul. Karachay people are very independent, and have strong traditions and customs which dominate many aspects of their lives, e. g. weddings, funerals and they are fiercely loyal to both their immediate family and their tukum. They will never offend a guest, cowardice is the most serious shame for a male. The Karachay dialect of the Karachay-Balkar language comes from the branch of Turkic languages. The Kumyks, who live in northeast Dagestan, speak a related language
26.
Eurovision Song Contest 2006
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, Greece on 18 May and 20 May 2006. The hosting national broadcaster of the contest was Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi, the Finnish band Lordi won the contest with the song Hard Rock Hallelujah, written by lead singer Mr. Lordi. Hard Rock Hallelujah was the first ever hard rock song to win the contest, since Eurovision is normally associated with pop music. This was Finlands first victory in Eurovision after waiting forty-five years and it is also noted that they scored the same amount of points in the semi-final and the grand final. In the semi-final, both the hosts sang Katrina and the Waves contest-winning Love Shine A Light, for one of the intervals, Sakis Rouvas sang an English version of his Greek hit Seho Erotefthi called Im in love with you. Helena Paparizou, who performed the song in Kiev, returned to the Eurovision stage in Athens. An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was a fan book released from this year. The 2006 contest also saw the 1, 000th song to be performed in the contest, Armenia also entered for the first time in the contest. The venue that was chosen as the host venue, was the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, the official logo of the contest remained the same from 2004 and 2005 with the countrys flag in the heart being changed. The 2006 sub-logo created by the design company Karamela for Greek television was based on the Phaistos Disc which is a popular symbol of ancient Greece. According to ERT, it was inspired by the wind and the sea, the golden sunlight, following Istanbuls Under The Same Sky and Kievs Awakening, the slogan for the 2006 show was Feel The Rhythm. This theme was also the basis for the postcards for the 2006 show, to save time in the final, the voting time lasted ten minutes and the voting process was changed, points 1-7 were shown immediately on-screen. The spokespersons only announced the countries scoring 8,10 and 12 points, constantinos Christoforou saluted from Nicosia, the last divided capital in Europe, during Cyprus reading, the telecast displayed Switzerland by mistake. This voting process has been criticized because suspense was lost by only reading three votes instead of ten, and for the first time, the display for the Macedonian entry had the title spelled out in its entirety instead of being abbreviated as it has been in previous years. Participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be members of the EBU. The semi-final was held on 18 May 2006 at 21,00,23 countries performed and all 37 participants and Serbia & Montenegro voted. Shaded countries qualified for the Eurovision Final Notes 1. ^ The song also contained phrases in Spanish,2. ^ The song also contained phrases in French. The finalists were, the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, the top 10 countries from the 2005 final, the final was held on 20 May 2006 at 21,00 and was won by Finland
27.
Never Let You Go (Dima Bilan song)
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Never Let You Go is a pop/rock song that was performed by Dima Bilan at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. He was representing Russia and ended up in 2nd place, at the performance in Athens, Dima Bilan was wearing a white tank top with a number representing his place in the contests running order -13 and 10 in the semi-final and final respectively. Bilan had two ballerinas dancing in the background and a piano covered in red rose petals, from which a ghost-like female figure emerged halfway through the song. On the night of the semi-final the song was performed 13th, following Polands Ich Troje with Follow My Heart, the song received 217 points, placing 3rd in a field of 23 and proceeding to the final. On the night of the final Bilan performed 10th in the order, following Denmarks Sidsel Ben Semmane with Twist of Love. The song received 248 points, finishing second behind Finlands Lordi and this was Russias best showing at Eurovision up to that time. He beat Alsou, who also came 2nd in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000, the song was succeeded as Russian representative by Serebro with Song #1. Dima Bilan performed the song at the World Music Awards in Earls Court on 15 November 2006, lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
28.
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Contest. It was hosted in Belgrade, Serbia after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki and this year was the first time there were three contests, two semi-finals which were held on 20 and 22 May, and the traditional grand final which was held on 24 May 2008. The shows were hosted by Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović at the Belgrade Arena which had a capacity of 25,000 seats. After a total of 272 points, Dima Bilan representing Russia was declared the winner, with the song Believe written by American Jim Beanz, so far this has been the only time Russia has won the contest. Russia came third in the semi-final, making it the winner with the worst semi-final result, ukraine were runners up for the second year running, with 3rd place going to Greece, 4th to Armenia seeing their best result so far and 5th to Norway. 2008 also saw, for the first time ever, Eurovision. tv streaming national finals live on ESCTV with broadcasters permission. On 30 January 2008, Eurovision. tv revealed the theme of the Contest, The Confluence of Sound, Serbia gained the right to host the Contest after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland. Since Serbia was the winner of the preceding contest, the 2008 contest was held there. The Belgrade Arena was chosen as the venue for the contest, on 14 September 2007, the Mayor of Helsinki handed over the Eurovision keys to the Deputy of Belgrade. This ceremony is meant to be a tradition from the 2008 contest and onward, ukraine was considered an option since they came second in Eurovision Song Contest 2007. YLE were another option, as hosted the previous years competition in Helsinki. Greeces Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi also offered the EBU to host the contest in Athens and it was later decided that the contest would stay in Belgrade, with the EBU giving support. RTS would gain a guarantee of safety and security from the government of Serbia for all visitors, the delegations of Albania, Croatia and Israel had special security. RTS ran a competition led to the creation of the 2008 Contests branding, logo. The theme of the Contest was based around the confluence of sound and this was symbolic as Belgrade lies on the confluence of two European rivers, the Sava and Danube. The logo chosen, a treble clef, formed the basis of the design created by Boris Miljković. The postcards in the first and second semi-final were based around the creation of the flag of the nation that was to perform next, each post card had a short story related to each country and its people. During each postcard a short letter was displayed, the postcards were brought to an end by a stamp with this years Eurovision logo
29.
Belgrade
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Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and its name translates to White city. The urban area of the City of Belgrade has a population of 1.34 million, one of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city and it was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid-2nd century. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo and it frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841, northern Belgrade remained the southernmost Habsburg post until 1918, when the city was reunited. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars, Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918, to its final dissolution in 2006. Belgrade has an administrative status within Serbia and it is one of five statistical regions of Serbia. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council, City of Belgrade covers 3. 6% of Serbias territory, and 22. 5% of the countrys population lives within its administrative limits. It is classified as a Beta- global city, chipped stone tools found at Zemun show that the area around Belgrade was inhabited by nomadic foragers in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras. Some of these belong to the Mousterian industry, which are associated with Neanderthals rather than modern humans. Aurignacian and Gravettian tools have also discovered there, indicating occupation between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago. The first farming people to settle in the region are associated with the Neolithic Starčevo culture, there are several Starčevo sites in and around Belgrade, including the eponymous site of Starčevo. The Starčevo culture was succeeded by the Vinča culture, a more sophisticated farming culture that grew out of the earlier Starčevo settlements which is named for a site in the Belgrade region. Evidence of early knowledge about Belgrades geographical location comes from ancient myths, the rock overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers has been identified as one of the place in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The Paleo-Balkan tribes of Thracians and Dacians ruled this area prior to the Roman conquest, Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe Singi, after the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, the Scordisci took the city, naming it Singidūn. In 34–33 BC the Roman army led by Silanus reached Belgrade, jovian reestablished Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, ending the brief revival of traditional Roman religions under his predecessor Julian the Apostate. In 395 AD, the passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire
30.
Believe (Dima Bilan song)
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Believe is the winning Russian entry for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest sung by Dima Bilan. The song was composed and written by Jim Beanz & Dima Bilan, on 20 May 2008 Bilan sang in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, and the song was voted into the final by public vote. It was performed 24th out of 25 songs in the final on 24 May 2008 and this song won the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, finishing with a total of 272 points, becoming the fourth ex-Soviet Union country to win the annual contest. Dmitriy Medvedev, the president of Russia, admitted that he watched the contest. In March 2008 a video was produced for the song Believe, the whole team took part in the production – Dima Bilan, Evgeni Plushenko, Edvin Marton and Yana Rudkovskaya, producer of Dima Bilan. The action of the starts in a hospital where a mother finds out that her son has leukaemia. Then the action proceeds to a bar where Dima Bilan is watching TV and he immediately calls his producer, Yana Rudkovskaya, and tells her that they have to do something to raise money to help a child survive. They decide to give a charity concert with all the three participants performing, at the end of the video you can see the boy after the surgery. He smiles, gets up from the wheelchair and runs to greet the people who saved his life, Dima, Evgeni and Edvin meet the boy with presents happy that the money raised at the concert saved a child’s life. The video is strongly connected to the song delivering the message that everything is possible in this if you only believe. Dima Bilan also represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006, with the pop song Never Let You Go. The song also has its Russian version which was popular in many countries
31.
Enrique Iglesias
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Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler, known professionally as Enrique Iglesias, is a Spanish singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. He is widely regarded as the King of Latin Pop, in 2010, he parted with Interscope Records and signed with another Universal Music Group label Republic Records to release bilingual albums. In 2015, Iglesias parted ways with Universal Music Group after a decade and he signed with Sony Music, his upcoming albums will be by Sony Music Latin in Spanish and RCA Records in English. Iglesias has sold over 159 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling Spanish artists ever, Iglesias has scored over 150 number-one hits across all of the Billboard charts. He has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two number-ones, and holds the record for producing 27 number-one Spanish-language singles on the Billboards Hot Latin Tracks and he also holds the record for most number-one hits and the longest-running number-one hit on that chart. Iglesias also has 14 number-ones on Billboards Dance charts, more than any male artist. Iglesias was born in Madrid, Spain, and is the third and youngest child of Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and Filipina socialite, isabels aunt is actress Neile Adams, the first wife of American actor Steve McQueen and grandmother of actor Steven R. McQueen. He was raised with two siblings, Chabeli and Julio. His mother is Filipina and his father is Spanish, with family from Galicia and Andalusia and his father is of Jewish ancestry and has also claimed Puerto Rican ancestry on his mothers side. At first, Iglesias and his two siblings stayed with their mother, but in 1986, Iglesias grandfather, Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga, was kidnapped by the armed Basque terrorist group ETA. For their safety, Enrique and his brother Julio were sent to live with their father in Miami, there, they were brought up mostly by the nanny, Elvira Olivares, to whom he later dedicated his first album. He also lived in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, for one year with his mother, as his fathers career kept him on the road, the young Iglesias was raised by the family nanny. He attended the prestigious Gulliver Preparatory School and later went on to business at the University of Miami. Iglesias did not want his father to know about his plans for a musical career and he borrowed money from his family nanny and he recorded a demo cassette tape which consisted of a Spanish song and two English songs. Approaching his fathers former publicist, Fernán Martínez, the two promoted the songs under the stage name Enrique Martínez with the backstory of being a singer from Guatemala. Iglesias was signed on to Fonovisa Records, after dropping out of college, he traveled to Toronto to record his first album. On 12 July 1995, Iglesias released Enrique Iglesias, a collection of rock ballads, including hits such as Si Tú Te Vas, Experiencia Religiosa. This album Vivir, along with Iglesias next two albums, was released by the Mexican label Fonovisa and his song Por Amarte was included in Televisas telenovela Marisol, but with a twist, instead of Por amarte daría mi vida, the words were Por amarte Marisol, moriría
32.
Channel One Russia
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Channel One is the first television channel to broadcast in the Russian Federation. It has its headquarters in the Technical Center Ostankino near the Ostankino Tower, First among Russias country-wide channels, Channel One has more than 250 million viewers worldwide. From 1995 to 2002 the channel was known as Public Russian Television or Russian Public Television. Channel One has produced films, including four of the highest-grossing Russian movies after the Soviet collapse, Night Watch, The Turkish Gambit, Day Watch. It airs the Russian adaptations of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, survivor, and Star Factory, as well as many homegrown productions. 1991,1992 Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers,1991,1992 Disneys Adventures of the Gummi Bears. 1992 When the Soviet Union was abolished, the Russian Federation took over most of its structures, One of the first acts of Boris Yeltsin’s new government was his signing of a presidential decree on 27 December 1991, providing for Russian jurisdiction over the central television system. The ‘All-Union State TV and Radio Company’ was transformed into the Russian State TV, a presidential decree of 30 November 1994 transformed Ostankino into a closed joint-stock company, Russian Public TV. The shares were distributed between state agencies and private shareholders, including numerous banks, the partial privatization was inspired by the intolerable financial situation of Ostankino owing to huge transmission costs and a bloated payroll. Following the 1998 financial collapse, the channel obtained a government loan of $100 million from state-controlled bank Vneshekonombank, also in 1998, the closed joint stock company was transformed into an open stock company. However, controlling votes on the board of directors remained in the hands of structures linked to then-Kremlin-connected businessman Boris Berezovsky, thanks to this state of affairs, Berezovsky was able to preserve control over the channel’s cash flows as well as over its editorial line until 2002. From 1 April 1995 until late 2002, the channel was called ORT and it maintained the traditional programs and shows of the First Channel of the Soviet Television, such as Vremya, KVN, Chto. V mire zhivotnykh and Klub puteshestvennikov, the last two are no longer on the air of this channel, Sergey Dorenko, popularly dubbed as TV-killer, was a close ally of business oligarch and media magnate Boris Berezovsky. From September 1999 to September 2000 he hosted the weekly program simply called Sergey Dorenkos Program on Saturdays at 9 pm. This was especially heavy on criticism and mercilessly attacked Putin’s opponents, in August 2000, however, his program criticized how the Putin government handled the explosion of the Russian submarine Kursk. Ernst stated that he yanked the show because Dorenko had defied his orders to stop discussing the plan to nationalize Boris Berezovskys 49-percent stake in the network. Berezovsky claims that in 2001 he was forced by the Putin administration to sell his shares and he first tried to sell them to a third party, but failed. Soon after Berezovskys withdrawal, the new ownership changed the name to Pervy Kanal
33.
Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
34.
Alsou
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Alsou Ralifovna Abramova, better known as just Alsou, is a Russian singer. She competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 in which she came in place giving her recognition across Europe. Alsou hosted the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 held in Moscow, Alsou was born in Bugulma, Tatar ASSR, Russian SSR, Soviet Union. Her father, Ralif Rafilovich Safin, who is of Bashkir descent, is an oligarch, a former LUKoil executive and a current member of the Federal Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament. He is also the owner of the FC Zhemchuzhina-Sochi football team and was named the 100th richest citizen of Russia by Forbes magazine in 2004, Alsous mother, Raziya Iskhakovna, is an architect of Volga Tatar descent. She has an older half-brother Rusla, older brother Marat, when Alsou was a year old her family moved from Bugulma to Siberia. At 5 years old Alsou asked her parents for a piano and she was then allowed to attend a private music school. After living in Moscow due to her fathers business, she moved to New York City. While living in London, Alsou visited Russia often, in 1998, at the wedding of her brother Marat which was celebrated on the bank of the Moskva River, Alsou sat at the grand piano and sang I Will Always Love You. After this private performance her family began to persuade her to pursue a singing career. On March 18,2006, Alsou married Yan Abramov, a millionaire, Abramov allegedly proposed to her with a fireworks display. On September 7,2006 Alsou gave birth to a baby daughter Safina at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the name for the girl was chosen by the father, Yan Abramov. It is spelled the way as Alsous maiden name but with the accent falling on the second syllable making its pronunciation different from Alsous maiden name. On April 29,2008 Alsou gave birth to her second daughter Mikella, at the age of 15 Alsou was introduced to music manager Valeriy Belotserkovskiy. She again performed I Will Always Love You and impressed the manager and he began work with Alsou the next day. Her debut Russian album was the self-titled Alsou was released September 16,1999 and it was very successful in Russia and spawned 3 singles, Zimniy Son Vesna, Inogda. After the huge success of Alsous debut Russian album she was signed to Universal Music Russia, by 2000 more than 700.000 legal copies of CD Alsou were sold in Russia. In 2000, Alsou recorded her first English language single Solo and was entered into the Eurovision Song Contest 2000, Written By Andrew Lane eventually finishing second overall
35.
Eurovision Song Contest 2000
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It was the first time since 1996 that the contest was held on mainland Europe. The contest was the second to be held in Stockholm, the presenters were Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin, and the contest was won by the Olsen Brothers who represented Denmark with the song Fly on the Wings of Love. The song was written by one of the brothers, Jørgen Olsen, the Globe Arena was, at the time, the largest venue chosen to host the contest with a capacity of 16,000 spectators. The postcards used to each country participating involved Swedish themes that incorporated each nation in some respect. All the postcards are filmed in Stockholm, Sweden, however, the exception is the postcard for Sweden. The favourite in this years contest was Estonia, who was also a fan favourite, however, as the voting results came in, Denmark immediately took control of the scoreboard, beating Russia into second place and Latvia into 3rd place. Slovakia, Greece and Hungary decided not to compete for financial reasons and these countries were, Finland, Macedonia, Romania, Russia and Switzerland. Latvia also joined contest as the country to debut. For the first time, an official CD compilation was released, such a disc was attempted in the previous year, however it lacked four of the competing songs. SVT announced on July 7,1999 that the contest would be hosted by the Globe Arena in Stockholm, other possible candidates had been Scandinavium in Gothenburg and Malmömässan in Malmö. They had previously hosted Eurovision Song Contest 1985 and 1992 respectively, the Globe was said to be chosen because Stockholm hadnt hosted the contest since 1975 and that it would be somewhat cheaper than the other options. The graphic design programme for this years contest was developed by Stockholm Design Lab and was centred around a stylised mouth symbol and it was given the Excellent Swedish Design award later that year. The softness of the mouth was contrasted with a pointy typeface, the intermission during the finale of the ESC was Once Upon a Time Europe Was Covered With Ice, a movie/song directed, composed and edited by Johan Söderberg and produced by John Nordling. For the film Söderberg had traveled all over Europe to record children performing the score, on stage were violinist Caroline Lundgren, drummer Strängnäs Trumkorps plus street musicians from Stockholm and dancers from the Bounce Street Dance Company. There were some controversies concerning some participating countries, israel, who opened the contest, entered a group who waved Israeli and Syrian flags advocating peace between the two nations. The two male singers in the also ran up to each other and kissed for a brief moment. This issue was rejected by the European Broadcasting Union, later, NOS declared that it was both for practical reasons as well as because they found it inappropriate to broadcast a light entertainment programme on the night of such a catastrophic event. As a result, televoting had to be suspended and the Dutch votes were given by a jury instead
36.
MTV Russia Music Awards
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The MTV Russia Music Awards made its debut in 2004 and have celebrated local Russian talent as well as International. The MTV Russia Music Awards features local and international acts and music celebrities being honoured by Russian viewers, V. Meladze - Prityazhenya bolshe net Best International Act, The Rasmus - In the Shadows Best Pop Act, Smash. - Freeway Best Rock Act, Kipelov - Ya svoboden Best Hip Hop/Rap Act, Kasta - Revnost Best Dance Act, dj Smash Best Hip-Hop Project, CENTR feat. It is yet to be scheduled if the prize will be back in 2010. 2004 — Vladimir Posner 2005 — Valery Gazzaev 2006 — crew of the sailfish Kruzenshtern 2004 — Viktor Tsoi 2005 — Boris Grebenshchikov 2006 — Andrei Makarevich 2007 — Mumiy Troll 2008 — t. A. T. u. 2006 — Alena Sviridova 2007 — Moralny codex MTV MTV Russia MTV Networks Europe Official MTV RMA website Official MTV Russia website
37.
MTV Europe Music Award
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The MTV Europe Music Awards is an event presented by MTV Networks Europe which awards prizes to musicians and performers. Since 2007, the winners are chosen by the viewers and fans by visiting the EMAs website, the first EMAs ceremony was held in 1994 in Berlin, Germany. Though it was conceived as an alternative to the MTV Video Music Awards. The MTV Europe Music Awards are held every year in a different country and it has been hosted mostly in the United Kingdom. Since 2011 other worldwide/regional nominations have been added, the awards are presented annually and broadcast live on MTV Europe, MTV Live HD and most of the international MTV channels as well as online. 1994, The first MTV Europe Music Awards in 1994 were held on 24 November, George Michael performed Jesus To A Child and Freedom surrounded by many famous models including Naomi Campbell and Bono received the Free Your Mind Award on behalf of Amnesty International. 1995, French nuclear testing in the South Pacific got the most attention at the 1995 ceremony, during his acceptance speech after winning the award for Best Rock, Bon Jovi lead singer Jon Bon Jovi said, The only enemy is ignorance. Lets get rid of all nuclear testing. And U2s Bono said, What a city, what a night, what a crowd, what a bomb, what a mistake, stop abusing the earth, urged Madonna in a videotaped segment before designer agnès b. picked up the award for Greenpeace. 1996, During their performance Metallica performed the songs Last Caress, instead of performing their single King Nothing as scheduled. The song So What. is known for its amount of expletives and references to bestiality among many other controversial lyrics while Last Caress has lyrics pertaining to murder, as a result of their performance Metallicas performance and references to Metallica have been removed from future broadcasts of the ceremony. 1997, U2 opened the show performing Mofo dressed in boxing gowns,1998, On this year 6 new categories were introduced including the MTV Selects, UK and Ireland, Northern, Central and Southern. Faithless opened the show with God is a DJ and Madonna performed The Power of Goodbye, the big winners of the night were the Spice Girls and Madonna with two awards. Mel C, alias Sporty Spice, and Emma Bunton, known as Baby Spice, on receiving the award, Mel C shouted, Weve done it again. And a big hello from the two, she added, referring to Mel B and Victoria Adams, both of whom were pregnant and did not attend the ceremony at the Fila Forum in Milan. The Prodigy won the Best Dance award but according to their frontman, Liam Howlett, the Free Your Mind award, given to organisations helping with human rights, was given to Serbian radio station Radio B92 in Belgrade. 1999, Britney Spears was the big winner of the winning four awards. She also performed during the ceremony, entertaining the crowd with a medley of her hits. Baby One More Time, the other multiple winner was Boyzone, who nabbed two awards, for Best UK & Ireland Act and Best Album
38.
World Music Awards
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The World Music Awards is an international awards show founded in 1989 under the high patronage of Albert II, Prince of Monaco and is based in Monte-Carlo. Awards are presented to the worlds best-selling artists in the various categories, sales figures are provided by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Nine awards are voted online by the public, the awards are gold-plated, each depicting an artist holding the world. Past Legend Award winners include, The Diamond World Music Award was created in 2001 to honor artists who have sold over 100 million records over the course of their careers, the awards were presented to Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey in the male and female artist award categories
39.
Michael Jackson
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Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, actor, and philanthropist. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music, dance, the eighth child of the Jackson family, Michael made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5. He began his career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music, the popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jacksons 1987 album Bad spawned the U. S and he continued to innovate with videos such as Black or White and Scream throughout the 1990s, and forged a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and his distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres. Thriller is the album of all time, with estimated sales of 65 million copies worldwide. Jacksons other albums, including Off the Wall, Bad, Dangerous and he is recognized as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time by Guinness World Records. Jackson won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. He became the first artist in history to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades when Love Never Felt So Good reached number nine on May 21,2014. Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, aspects of Jacksons personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In 1993, he was accused of sexual abuse, but the civil case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of child sexual abuse allegations. While preparing for his concert series, This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25,2009. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician, Jacksons death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world. Forbes ranks Jackson as the dead celebrity with earnings of $825 million in 2016. Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29,1958 and his mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovahs Witness. She played clarinet and piano and once aspired to be a country-and-western performer, michaels father, Joseph Walter Joe Jackson, a former boxer, was a steelworker at U. S. Steel
40.
Rihanna
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Robyn Rihanna Fenty is a Barbadian singer, songwriter, and actress. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, she first entered the industry by recording demo tapes under the direction of record producer Evan Rogers in 2003. She ultimately signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for its then-president. She assumed creative control for her studio album Good Girl Gone Bad. Its successful lead single Umbrella became a breakthrough in her career. After releasing four consecutive platinum albums, including the Grammy Award winner Unapologetic. Her eighth studio album Anti and its lead single Work reached number-one on the Billboard 200, with sales exceeding 230 million records worldwide, Rihanna is one of the best-selling artists of all time. Widely recognized for reinventing her style, she received the Fashion Icon lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2014. Forbes ranked Rihanna the fourth most powerful celebrity of 2012, and was named one of Times 100 Most Influential People in the World later that year, Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20,1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados. Her mother, Monica, is an accountant of African American background. Rihanna has two brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty, and two half-sisters and a half-brother from her fathers side, each born to different mothers from his previous relationships. She grew up in a bungalow in Bridgetown and sold clothes with her father in a stall on the street. Rihannas childhood was affected by her fathers addiction to crack cocaine. As a child, she went through a lot of CT scans for the excruciating headaches she suffered, even thought it was a tumor, by the time she was fourteen, Rihanna’s parents had divorced and her health began to improve. Rihanna grew up listening to music and began singing at around the age of seven. She attended Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School and Combermere High School, Rihanna was an army cadet in a sub-military programme, the singer-songwriter Shontelle was her drill sergeant. Although she initially wanted to graduate high school, she chose to pursue a musical career instead. In 2003, Rihanna formed a trio with two of her classmates
41.
Bob Sinclar
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Bob Sinclar is a French record producer, house music DJ, remixer and the owner of the record label Yellow Productions. Christophe Le Friant began DJing in the 1980s under the name Chris the French Kiss, during this time he was more influenced by hip-hop and jazz music and created music projects such as The Mighty Bop and Reminiscence Quartet, this one with an ensemble of musicians. Le Friant used the alias Desmond K in the Reminiscence Quartet, Le Friant adopted the new name of Bob Sinclar in 1998. He became known for popularising the French touch of music with heavy use of sampled and filtered disco strings. He describes his style as inspired by peace, love. Several of Sinclars songs have become hits, being particularly popular in Europe. Some of his most popular hits include Love Generation and World, Hold On, in 2006, Bob Sinclar received the TMF Award Best Dance International
42.
Miami
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Miami is a seaport city at the southeastern corner of the U. S. state of Florida and its Atlantic coast. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, Miamis metro area is the eighth-most populous, Miami is a major center, and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, media, entertainment, the arts, and international trade. In 2012, Miami was classified as an Alpha−World City in the World Cities Study Groups inventory, in 2010, Miami ranked seventh in the United States in terms of finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, education, and other sectors. It ranked 33rd among global cities, in 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Miami Americas Cleanest City, for its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets, and citywide recycling programs. According to a 2009 UBS study of 73 world cities, Miami was ranked as the richest city in the United States, Miami is nicknamed the Capital of Latin America and is the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality. Miami has the third tallest skyline in the U. S. with over 300 high-rises, Downtown Miami is home to the largest concentration of international banks in the United States, and many large national and international companies. The Civic Center is a center for hospitals, research institutes, medical centers. For more than two decades, the Port of Miami, known as the Cruise Capital of the World, has been the number one cruise port in the world. It accommodates some of the worlds largest cruise ships and operations, Metropolitan Miami is the major tourism hub in the American South, number two in the U. S. after New York City and number 13 in the world, including the popular destination of Miami Beach. The Miami area was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous Native American tribes, the Tequestas occupied the area for a thousand years before encountering Europeans. An Indian village of hundreds of people dating to 500–600 B. C. was located at the mouth of the Miami River, in 1566 the explorer, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, claimed it for Spain. A Spanish mission was constructed one year later in 1567, Spain and Great Britain successively controlled Florida, and Spain ceded it to the United States in 1821. In 1836, the US built Fort Dallas as part of its development of the Florida Territory and attempt to suppress, the Miami area subsequently became a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. Miami is noted as the major city in the United States conceived by a woman, Julia Tuttle, a local citrus grower. The Miami area was known as Biscayne Bay Country in the early years of its growth. In the late 19th century, reports described the area as a promising wilderness, the area was also characterized as one of the finest building sites in Florida. The Great Freeze of 1894–95 hastened Miamis growth, as the crops of the Miami area were the ones in Florida that survived. Julia Tuttle subsequently convinced Henry Flagler, a tycoon, to expand his Florida East Coast Railway to the region
43.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
44.
Girls Aloud
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Girls Aloud are an English-Irish pop girl group, which was created through the ITV talent show Popstars, The Rivals in 2002. The group comprised singers Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts, the group achieved a string of twenty consecutive top ten singles in the United Kingdom, including four number ones. They also achieved seven certified albums, of which two reached number one and they have been nominated for five Brit Awards, winning the 2009 Best Single for The Promise. The groups musical style was pop, but throughout their career they had experimented with electropop and dance-pop, Girls Alouds collaborations with Brian Higgins and his songwriting and production team Xenomania earned the group critical acclaim, due to an innovative approach to mainstream pop music. The group became one of the few UK reality television acts to achieve continued success, guinness World Records lists them as Most Successful Reality TV Group in the 2007 edition. They also hold the record for Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a Female Group in the 2008 edition, and are credited again for Most Successful Reality TV Group in the 2011 edition. The group was named the United Kingdoms biggest selling girl group of the 21st century. In March 2013, after the Ten, The Hits Tour, the group Girls Aloud was formed on 30 November 2002, in front of millions of viewers on ITVs Popstars, The Rivals. The concept of the programme, hosted by Big Brother presenter Davina McCall was to produce a boyband, following the initial success of HearSay, several thousand applicants attended auditions across the United Kingdom in hope of being selected. Ten girls and ten boys were chosen as finalists by judges Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh, Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts, who had made it into the final fifteen but not the final ten, were chosen as their replacements. During October and November, the finalists took to the participating in weekly Saturday night live performances. Each week the contestant polling the fewest phone votes was eliminated, the group was named Girls Aloud and were managed by Louis Walsh until 2005 when Hilary Shaw replaced him. The new group competed with the winning group, One True Voice to have 2002s Christmas number one single. Girls Aloud won the battle with their single Sound of the Underground, produced by Brian Higgins, the song spent four consecutive weeks at number one and was certified platinum in March 2003. After the success of their first single Sound of the Underground, Girls Aloud spent five months recording the follow-up single, Sound of the Underground was completed in April 2003 and released the following month. The album entered the charts at two and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. The second single, No Good Advice, was released in May 2003 to similar success. Girls Alouds third single, Life Got Cold, charted at number three in August 2003, in November 2003, Girls Aloud released a cover version of the Pointer Sisters 1980s dance hit Jump
Marija Šerifović
Alexander Rybak
Lena
