1.
Sean Kingston (album)
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Sean Kingston is the self-titled eponymous debut album by Sean Kingston, released on July 31,2007. The album was produced by J. R. Rotem, Sean Kingston wrote the lyrics with help from Evan Bogart. Kingston has claimed his lyrics are representative of his personal life. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA as of February 2008 with an excess of 500,000 copies, the album entered the U. S. Billboard 200 chart at #6 and fell to #13 the following week. The album reached #2 on RIANZ in its second week, sample credits Me Love - derived from the song, Dyer Maker, written by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham, performed by Led Zeppelin. Beautiful Girls - contains portions of and features samples from the recording, Stand by Me, written by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, got No Shorty - contains interpolations of the composition, I Aint Got Nobody, written by Roger A. Graham and Spencer Williams, performed by Bing Crosby, I Can Feel It - features samples of the recording, In the Air Tonight, written and performed by Phil Collins. Colors - contains an interpolation of the track, Colors, written by Tracy Morrow and Charles Glenn, take You There - features a sample of a vocal melody from Say It Right by Nelly Furtado
Sean Kingston (album)
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Sean Kingston
2.
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
Miami
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From top, left to right: Skyline of
Downtown,
Freedom Tower,
Villa Vizcaya,
Miami Tower,
Virginia Key Beach,
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts,
AmericanAirlines Arena,
PortMiami, the Moon over Miami
Miami
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The
Freedom Tower of 1925 is Miami's historical
landmark.
Miami
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Approximately 400 men voted for Miami's incorporation in 1896 in the building to the left.
Miami
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The mouth of the
Miami River at
Brickell Key
3.
Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St
Florida
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St. Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S., established in 1565 by Spain.
Florida
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Flag
Florida
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Aerial view of
Castillo De San Marcos (Florida).
Florida
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The five flags of Florida from the right,
Spain (1565–1763), the
Kingdom of Great Britain, Spain (1784–1821), the
Confederacy, and the United States. France (flag not shown) also controlled part of Florida.
4.
Kingston, Jamaica
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Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal. In the Americas, Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the United States. The local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew were amalgamated by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act of 1923, to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. Greater Kingston, or the Corporate Area refers to areas under the KSAC, however, it does not solely refer to Kingston Parish. Kingston Parish had a population of 96,052, and St. Andrew parish had a population of 555,828 in 2001, Kingston is only bordered by Saint Andrew to the east, west and north. The city proper is bounded by Six Miles to the west, Stony Hill to the north, Papine to the northeast and Harbour View to the east, communities in urban and suburban Saint Andrew. Communities in rural St. Andrew such as Gordon Town, Mavis Bank, Lawrence Tavern, Mt. Airy, two parts make up the central area of Kingston, the historic Downtown, and New Kingston. Both are served by Norman Manley International Airport and also by the smaller, Kingston was founded in July 1692 as a place for survivors of the 1692 earthquake that destroyed Port Royal. Before the earthquake, Kingston’s functions were purely agricultural, the earthquake survivors set up a camp on the sea front. Approximately two thousand people died due to mosquito-borne diseases, initially the people lived in a tented camp on Colonel Barrys Hog Crawle. The town did not begin to grow until after the destruction of Port Royal by fire in 1703. Surveyor John Goffe drew up a plan for the town based on a grid bounded by North, East, West, by 1716 it had become the largest town and the centre of trade for Jamaica. The government sold land to people with the regulation that they no more than the amount of the land that they owned in Port Royal. Gradually wealthy merchants began to move their residences from above their businesses to the lands north on the plains of Liguanea. The first free school, Wolmerss, was founded in 1729 and there was a theatre, first on Harbour Street, in 1755 the governor, Sir Charles Knowles, had decided to transfer the government offices from Spanish Town to Kingston. It was thought by some to be a location for the Assembly in proximity to the moral distractions of Kingston. By the end of the 18th century, the city contained more than 3,000 brick buildings, the harbour fostered trade, and played part in several naval wars of the 18th century
Kingston, Jamaica
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Photo of the city of Kingston taken from a helicopter
Kingston, Jamaica
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Map of Kingston 1897
Kingston, Jamaica
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Bird's eye view of Kingston after the 1907 earthquake
Kingston, Jamaica
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View of the Uptown New Kingston skyline (2007)
5.
Reggae fusion
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Reggae fusion is a fusion genre of reggae that mixes reggae or dancehall with other genres, such as pop, rock, R&B, jazz & drum and bass. Although artists have been mixing reggae with other genres from as early as the early 1970s, artists such as UB40 were described using terms that joined the various genres they performed. It was not until the late 1990s when the term was coined, the subgenre predominantly evolved from late 1980s and early 1990s dancehall music which instrumentals or riddims contained elements from the R&B and hip hop genres. Due to this, some consider dancehall artists such as Mad Cobra, Shabba Ranks, Super Cat, Buju Banton, for some of these artists, such as Buju Banton, reggae fusion became a staple throughout their careers. Therefore, Third World can be seen as arguably the original pioneers of reggae fusion leading the way for such as UB40. This led dancehall artists who were trying to break into the U. S, traditional dancehall acts, such as Shaggy and Beenie Man experienced commercial success in the American markets with the release of their albums in 2000. The early 2000s also saw Sean Paul achieve tremendous success internationally with singles such as Baby Boy, Breathe, Like Glue and Make It Clap, among many others. His albums Dutty Rock & The Trinity altogether spawned five top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits between 2002 and 2006, including number one hits, Get Busy & Temperature. In the early 90s, the evolution of reggae fusion reached another musical style in Europe with the worldwide #1 hits All That She Wants, The Sign, other Eurodance artists such as Dr. Alban, E-Rotic and the Vengaboys regularly fused their style with Reggae as well. The first reggae fusion-influenced riddim was produced in 2005 by Cordell Skatta Burrell, Reggae fusion is now a regular staple on Jamaican radio stations, especially Zip 103 FM, in the form of singles, mixes and remixes. This has led to more reggae fusion hits being produced as well as making waves on the Dancehall charts in Jamaica. One such single, Ramping Shop by Vybz Kartel and Spice, was one of the biggest reggae fusion hits in 2008, not to one of the top singles in Jamaica of that year. Holiday was also nominated and won for the Best Collaboration, in 2011, Shaggy established a reggae fusion record label called Ranch Entertainment. It is intended to be launched in the summer of 2012 and its growth locally, however, has not come without its criticisms as some feel that the subgenre only serves to dilute the raw sound of reggae and their musical culture. While On A Mission was recognized as the official song and was applauded by some. A popular dancehall artist, Mr. Vegas spoke out against the use of the song being quoted as saying It doesnt represent Jamaica 50, it doesnt reflect our culture or where our music is coming from. Stephens believed that due to ska not being at the forefront of Jamaican music for many years, combining it with something fresh could bring it back into the spotlight. Through other Caribbean-born artists such as Sean Paul, Damian Marley, Sean Kingston, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna who emerged during the mid-2000s, later in 2014, Canadian reggae fusion band, Magic
Reggae fusion
–
Genres
6.
Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. Hip hops early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The Sugarhill Gangs 1979 song Rappers Delight is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain popularity in the mainstream. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles, prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to scenes in dozens of countries. New school hip hop was the wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D. M. C. The Golden age hip hop period was a period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles, in the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s. I. G. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap, at the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being Neo soul and nu metal. Hip hop became a pop music genre in the mid-1990s. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop, the United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics. Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, during the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West. Creation of the hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap. Cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into a part of his stage performance, the first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop
Hip hop music
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1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the Bronx, a venue used by Kool Herc that is often considered the birthplace of hip hop in 1973
Hip hop music
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DJ Kool Herc, recognized as one of the earliest hip hop artists
Hip hop music
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Grandmaster Flash
Hip hop music
–
Afrika Bambaataa (left)
7.
Beluga Heights Records
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Beluga Heights Records is an American record label established by record producer J. R. Rotem. The label is known for working with musical artists such as Rihanna and Leona Lewis as well as discovering and developing new acts such as Sean Kingston, Jason Derulo. In August 2008, Beluga Heights moved to a new joint venture with Warner Bros, Records, where Jason Derulo, Auburn, and Iyaz were signed to the record label. The Beluga Heights phrase is found at the start of songs produced by the record label. Beluga Heights is also housed in the Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles, Sean Kingston Jason Derulo Iyaz Dawin J. R. R
Beluga Heights Records
–
Beluga Heights Records
8.
Epic Records
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Epic Records is an American record company owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. Epic was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical music label in 1953 and it later expanded its scope to include a more diverse range of musical genres, including pop, R&B, rock and hip hop. Historically, the label has housed popular acts such as Boston, ABBA, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Dave Clark Five, Gloria Estefan, Pearl Jam, Shakira, Anastacia, and Sly & the Family Stone. Along with Columbia and RCA Records, Epic is one of Sony Music Entertainments three main record labels, L. A. Reid has served as chairman and CEO of Epic since July 2011. Sylvia Rhone was appointed president in March 2014, Epic Records was launched in 1953 by Columbia Records for the purpose of marketing jazz, pop and classical music that did not fit the theme of its more mainstream Columbia Records label. Initial classical music releases were from Philips Records which distributed Columbia product in Europe, pop talent on co-owned Okeh Records were transferred to Epic which made Okeh a rhythm and blues label. Epics bright-yellow, black, and blue became a familiar trademark for many jazz. By 1960, the musical base had been expanded to include all genres. This was done in part to prevent the roster of Columbia Records from being overstuffed with newer artists, subsequently, Epic became better known for its signing of newer, fledgling acts. By the end of the 1960s, Epic earned its first gold records and had evolved into a formidable hit-making force in rock and roll, R&B and country music. Among its many acts, it included Roy Hamilton, Bobby Vinton, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, Tammy Wynette, Donovan, The Yardbirds, Lulu, July, Helen Shapiro and Jeff Beck. Also during the 1960s, Epic oversaw the smaller subsidiary CBS labels including Okeh Records, in 1968, Epic recordings began being distributed in the UK by CBS after the distribution deal with EMI expired that year, Epic itself launched in England around 1971. Epic was involved in a trade of artists. Graham Nash was signed to Epic because of his membership in The Hollies, when the newly formed Crosby, Stills & Nash wanted to sign with Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegün worked out a deal with Clive Davis whereby Richie Furays new band Poco would sign with Epic. Also contributing to the success was its distribution of Philadelphia International Records. Sony bought CBS Records in 1987, and the company was renamed Sony Music in 1991. In 2004, Sony merged with another powerhouse music distributor, BMG, bringing labels such as RCA, Arista, Columbia, Epic, Jive, in February 2009, singer and songwriter Amanda Ghost was appointed president of Epic Records. Later in the year, Sony BMG Music merged Epic and Columbias operations, Sony BMGs Legacy Recordings reissues the companys classic and catalog titles
Epic Records
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Classic radial sound sunburst logo, used from the 1960s to 1973, revived in late 1998; used until 2005. Still used on Japanese operations. This logo was used on
Pearl Jam 's
Vitalogy in 1994,
No Code in 1996 and
Yield in February 1998.
Epic Records
–
Epic Records
Epic Records
–
Primary businesses
9.
Entertainment One Music
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Entertainment One Music, a primary division of Entertainment One, is an independent record label in the United States. It has garnered the most Billboard hits of any independently owned music label in history and it is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name eOne Universal. On January 22,2009, Koch Records was officially branded as E1 Music by parent company Entertainment One, E1 Entertainment acquired KOCH Entertainment in June 2005, and renamed the company E1 Music. Since its inception as KOCH Records, E1 Music has charted over 100 albums on Billboards Independent Chart, E1 Music has been the number one independent label according to Billboard for the last six years and quickly grew to become North Americas largest independently owned and distributed record label. E1 Music covers all genres from adult-contemporary to rock, hip hop/urban to country. E1 Music was formed in January 1987 as Koch Records to serve as the North American umbrella for Koch Entertainment. They would sign many country, classical, and rock acts including Ringo Starr, Joan Baez, Chris Brubeck, Bob James, the label soon began to gain ground on the other independent record labels in the United States. In the 2000s, they began to sign hip hop acts. They signed various distribution deals with labels like Open Bar Entertainment, Terror Squad, D-Block Records, in 2004, they were able to sign a deal with Snoop Dogg and his Doggystyle Records along with Mobb Deep. They hired Snoop Dogg on to head up their western spin off Koch West, Koch also added onto their roster, Camron and his Diplomat Records. Diplomat rapper, Jim Jones would rise to prominence on the label through the deal, Koch later signed Yonkers rapper, J-Hood and his label On Da Grind Ent. Koch has also had releases from 2Pac, Tha Dogg Pound, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger and Gangsta Advisory. In 2007, when they signed J-Hood they gave him a big position in their Koch East division, J-Hood never released this album and he was booted from D-Block. In 2007, they signed a deal with Foxy Brown and her Black Rose Entertainment, as well as with Ray J. Slim Thug was signed to the label along with his Boss Hoggs label in late 2005. Latin Thug Records was formed by CEO Reyes to build a business with his brother and acting VP of A&R Mellow Man Ace that would focus on releasing personal projects. The label represents the extended Latin Thug family, including projects from Sen and Mellow and collaborations with B Real, Soul Assassins. In March 2008, the company signed neo-soul singer Dwele to their lineup, in October 2008, they signed also pop-jazz singer Basia, and released her comeback album Its That Girl Again a year later. Koch Records also releases music, such as Pokémon, Barney, Sesame Street, The Wiggles
Entertainment One Music
–
Entertainment One U.S. LP
10.
Empire Distribution
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EMPIRE is an American distribution company and record label based in San Francisco, California with offices in New York and Atlanta. EMPIRE has supported the albums and early singles of a number of early artists. In the Atlanta scene, they were the first label to release Trinidad James, Rich Homie Quan, Migos, Rocko, in Los Angeles, they have distributed and/or are still distributing artists such as Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, Problem, Skeme and Crooked I. Theyve also been involved in New York with releases from Troy Ave, Styles P, Camron, on the R&B side they have signed artists such as Eric Bellinger, Jacquees, Jesse Boykins III, Jonn Hart and Lyrica Anderson. EMPIRE has also had several chart topping reggae albums, including reggae artist J Boogs album Backyard Boogie and Shaggys 2013 release Out Of Many, One Music. A number of albums and singles distributed by EMPIRE have charted on Billboard, including Look at Me by XXXTENTACION, All the Way Up by Fat Joe & Remy Ma, Broccoli by D. R. A. M. EMPIRE was founded in 2010 by CEO, Ghazi Shami, a music graduate of San Francisco State University. In operating the company, Shami was joined by Nima Etminan, One of the labels first charting releases was Authenticity by hip hop duo The Foreign Exchange, released on October 12,2010. It peaked at #145 on the US Billboard 200, and #23 on the US R&B chart, rapper ScHoolboy Qs album Setbacks, released on January 11,2011, also charted, reaching #100 on the Billboard 200. Longterm Mentality by Ab-Soul, released the following April, peaked at #32 on the US Billboard Top Heatseekers, in November 2013, Hopsins Knock Madness album peaked at #76 on the Billboard 200 and at #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.80. Released on July 2,2011, the album reached #113 on the US Billboard 200,2012 saw releases by artists such as Slum Village, Trinidad James, Snoop Dogg, and Freddie Gibbs, several of which charted. In 2012 the label helped organize a 2013 tour between Trae tha Truth and J. Stalin, also in 2013, EMPIRE distributed the album Still Goin In by Rich Homie Quan, which was named tenth best mixtape of 2013 by Rolling Stone. Recent albums include Phantom and the Ghost by Styles P, released on April 29,2014 and it charted at #74 on US Billboard 200, and #14 on US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. In 2013, EMPIRE established its recording division, with Fairfield, sages two debut singles Gas Pedal and Red Nose became nationwide hits, earning him and the label a platinum plaque for Gas Pedal and a gold plaque for Red Nose. Sages debut album Remember Me was released in March 2014 under EMPIRE Recordings/Republic Records. Other artists on Empire Recordings include Rayven Justice, Jonn Hart, D Lo, Emilio Rojas, Baeza, Dmac, M. I. C. Show Banga, Smoovie Baby, young Dolph & Ricco Barrino D. R. A. M
Empire Distribution
–
EMPIRE Distribution
11.
J.R. Rotem
–
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
J.R. Rotem
–
J.R. Rotem
12.
Justin Bieber
–
Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After a talent manager discovered him through his YouTube videos covering songs in 2008 and signed to RBMG, Bieber released his debut EP, My World and it was certified Platinum in the U. S. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a record chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Bieber released his first full-length studio album, My World 2.0 and it debuted at or near number one in several countries, was certified triple Platinum in the U. S. and contained his single Baby. He released his studio album, Under the Mistletoe, in November 2011. Bieber released his studio album, Believe, in 2012. His fourth studio album Purpose was released in November 2015, spawning three number one singles, What Do You Mean and his U. S. album and singles sales total 44.7 million. He has sold an estimated 100 million records, making him one of the world’s best-selling music artists, Bieber has won numerous awards, including the American Music Award for Artist of the Year in 2010 and 2012. In his career, he has won one Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for the song Where Are Ü Now at the 2016 ceremony. He has been listed four times by Forbes magazine among the top ten most powerful celebrities in the world in 2011,2012, Bieber also became the first artist to surpass 10 billion total video views on Vevo. Bieber was born on March 1,1994, in London, Ontario, at St Josephs Hospital and he is the only child of Jeremy Jack Bieber and Patricia Pattie Mallette. Pattie raised her son with the help of her mother, Diane and his mother is of French-Canadian descent, his paternal great-grandfather was of German ancestry, and his other roots are English, Scottish and Irish. He has also claimed that he has some undetermined Aboriginal Canadian ancestry, through Jeremy, Bieber has two younger half-siblings, Jazmyn and Jaxon. Pattie worked a series of low-paying office jobs, raising Bieber as a mother in low-income housing. Bieber has maintained contact with his father, Bieber attended a French-language immersion elementary school in Stratford, the Jeanne Sauvé Catholic School. Growing up, he learned to play the piano, drums, guitar and he graduated from high school in Stratford, Ontario, the St. Michael Catholic Secondary School in 2012 with a 4.0 GPA. In early 2007, aged 12, Bieber sang Ne-Yos So Sick for a singing competition in Stratford and was placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and she continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, and Biebers popularity on the site grew
Justin Bieber
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Bieber at the 2012 NRJ Music Awards
Justin Bieber
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Bieber in 2010, displaying his earlier haircut.
Justin Bieber
–
Bieber performing during his
Believe Tour in October 2012.
Justin Bieber
–
Bieber performing in
Zürich, 2011
13.
Jamaican-American
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Jamaican Americans are Americans who have full or partial Jamaican ancestry. The largest proportion of Jamaicans live in New York City, which has various other Caribbean cultural elements such as food and music. There are also communities of Jamaican Americans residing in Philadelphia, Boston, South Florida, Tampa, Los Angeles, Orlando, Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta, Cleveland, Western New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. After 1838, European colonies in the Caribbean with expanding sugar industries imported large numbers of immigrants to meet their acute labor shortage, large numbers of Jamaicans were recruited to work in Panama and Costa Rica in the 1850s. After slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865, American planters imported temporary workers, called swallow migrants and these workers, many of them Jamaicans, returned to their countries after harvest. Between 1881 and the beginning of World War I, the United States recruited over 250,000 workers from the Caribbean,90,000 of whom were Jamaicans, to work on the Panama Canal. During both world wars, the United States again recruited Jamaican men for service on various American bases in the region, the vast majority of Jamaican American are of black Afro-Caribbean descent. Apart from Canada and England, the U. S. houses the majority of Jamaican émigrés worldwide, Jamaican immigration to the U. S. increased during the civil rights era of the 1960s. As with many sources of Caribbean immigration, the geographical nearness of Jamaica to the U. S. increased the likelihood of migration. The economic attractiveness and general Jamaican perception of the U. S. as a land of opportunity explain continued migration flows despite economic downturn in America. Traditionally, America has experienced increased migration through means of family preference, through this category a substantial amount of Jamaican immigrants were able to enter mainly urban cities within the U. S that provided blue-collar work opportunities. Jamaican immigrants utilized employment opportunities despite the policies that affected some Caribbean émigrés. At present, Jamaicans are the largest group of American immigrants from the English-speaking Caribbean, however, it is difficult to verify the exact number of Jamaican Americans in this country because most of them assimilate into the wider African-American communities. The 1990 census placed the number of documented Jamaican Americans at 435,025. According to the text of Immigrant America, there were 554,897 Jamaican-born people living in the U. S. in 2000 and this represents 61% of the approximate 911,000 Americans of Jamaican ancestry. Many Jamaicans are second, third and descend from older generations. Jamaicans refer to Miami metropolitan area and Brooklyn colloquially as Kingston 21 and Little Jamaica respectively. S, and Philadelphia. In recent years, many Jamaicans have left New York City for its suburbs, Boston, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Los Angeles, and Providence
Jamaican-American
Jamaican-American
Jamaican-American
Jamaican-American
14.
Ocho Rios
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Ocho Rios is a town in the parish of Saint Ann on the north coast of Jamaica. Just outside the city, travelers and residents can visit Columbus Park, where Columbus supposedly first came on land and it was once a fishing village but now caters to tourists. It is a port of call for ships as well as for cargo ships loading sugar, limestone. Scuba diving and other sports are offered in the towns vicinity. The name Ocho Rios is a misnomer because there are not eight rivers in the area and it is most likely a British corruption of the original Spanish name Las Chorreras, a name given to the village because of the nearby Dunns River Falls. The north coast highway from the airport at Montego Bay to Ocho Rios has been improved since 2000. On 26 August 2011, the Jamaican government announced a $21 million revitalization plan for the resort area, the town has restaurants, nightclubs in Margaritaville and Dolphin Cove, where tourists swim and interact with dolphins. Another major point of interest is Fern Gully, Fern Gully is the result of a 1907 earthquake that destroyed one of the river beds in the area. Fern Gully stretches about 3 miles of great rocky gorge where travellers can see over 540 variety of ferns, in 1907, the British government paved over the destroyed river bed to create what is currently known as The Fern Gully Highway. It is perhaps most notable for its use in Dr. No, the very first James Bond film and it was the home of Miss Taro, played by Zena Marshall, who was an adversary of Bond and in alliance with the main villain Dr. Julius No. It also appears as the location for the horror sequel Piranha II, The Spawning, many of the scenes being photographed at the Mallards Beach-Hyatt. In 2016, the Rio Chico resort just outside of Ocho Rios was featured on the 20th season of ABCs reality TV show The Bachelor. Ocho Rios is the name of the track on the album Sounding out the City by El Michels Affair and was also featured in the 10cc song From Rochdale to Ocho Rios. Beaches Resorts - Ocho Rios Rooms Resorts RIU Hotels & Resorts Jewel Dunns River Resort Ocho Rios travel guide from Wikivoyage Jamaica Tourist Board Ocho Rios page
Ocho Rios
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View of Ocho Rios, taken from Shaw Park Gardens - 2010
15.
Myspace
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Myspace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. It is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, Myspace was acquired by News Corporation in July 2005 for $580 million. From 2005 to 2009, Myspace was the largest social networking site in the world, since then, the number of Myspace users has declined steadily in spite of several redesigns. As of March 2017, Myspace was ranked 3,178 by total Web traffic, Myspace had a significant influence on pop culture and music and created a gaming platform that launched the successes of Zynga and RockYou, among others. Despite an overall decline, in 2015 Myspace still had 50.6 million unique visitors and has a pool of nearly 1 billion active and inactive registered users. In June 2009, Myspace employed approximately 1,600 employees, in June 2011, Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake jointly purchased the company for approximately $35 million. In August 2003, several employees with Friendster accounts saw potential in its social networking features. The group decided to mimic the popular features of the website. Within 10 days, the first version of Myspace was ready for launch, a complete infrastructure of finance, human resources, technical expertise, bandwidth, and server capacity was available for the site. The project was overseen by Brad Greenspan, who managed Chris DeWolfe, Josh Berman, Tom Anderson, the first Myspace users were eUniverse employees. The company held contests to see who could sign up the most users, eUniverse used its 20 million users and e-mail subscribers to breathe life into Myspace, and move it to the head of the pack of social networking websites. A key architect was tech expert Toan Nguyen who helped stabilize the Myspace platform when Brad Greenspan asked him to join the team. Despite over ten times the number of developers, Friendster, which was developed in JavaServer Pages, could not keep up with the speed of development of Myspace and cfm. The MySpace. com domain was owned by YourZ. com, Inc. intended until 2002 for use as an online data storage. By 2004, it was transitioned from a storage service to a social networking site. A friend, who worked in the data storage business. DeWolfe suggested they charge a fee for the basic Myspace service, Brad Greenspan nixed the idea, believing that keeping Myspace free was necessary to make it a successful community. Myspace quickly gained popularity among teenage and young adult social groups, in February 2005, DeWolfe held talks with Mark Zuckerberg over acquiring Facebook but DeWolfe rejected Zuckerbergs $75 million asking price
Myspace
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Fox Interactive Media headquarters, 407 North Maple Drive,
Beverly Hills, California, where Myspace is also housed.
Myspace
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Myspace LLC
Myspace
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Oxfam America President Raymond C. Offenheiser,
Wendi Deng, and
Rupert Murdoch with Myspace co-founders Anderson and DeWolfe at the 2006
Oxfam /Myspace Rock for Darfur event
16.
HitQuarters
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HitQuarters is an international music industry publication and contact database founded in 1999. It is the site to the songwriting tip sheet SongQuarters. The website hosts a music industry directory that includes regularly updated contact info for A&Rs. The directory is distinctive for including track records for individual entry. The idea behind this is that users can judge the value of a contact by reviewing their past successes. It also means that users are able to search for a particular artist and find out the appropriate A&R, members of HitQuarters that have gone on to find success have included Christelle, The Knife, Dominique Young Unique, Bobby Creekwater, Lesley Roy and State of Shock. One of HitQuarters most prominent features is its weekly in-depth interviews with major figures such as A&Rs. Past judges have included Visible Noise CEO Julie Weir, and producers Colin Richardson and Eddie Galan, HitQuarters founded the worlds first A&R chart that measured the success of individual A&R representatives based on points accumulated from their respective artists chart success. Most notably,2004 saw Wind-Up Records Diana Meltzer become the first woman to top HitQuarters World Top 100 A&R Chart, previous number 1s have included Clive Davis, Tommy Mottola, Dr. Dre and Mark Williams. HitQuarters is a site to SongQuarters, an online tip sheet for songwriting leads to major. SongQuarters shares the same directory as HitQuarters and its members automatically have access to the HitQuarters site. SongQuarters is a subscription based service with 7-day trials available for those wanting to try it out first, the songwriting leads are split into three categories according to the level of the artist they relate to, Top 500, Newly Signed and Developing and Unsigned and Up-and-coming. SongQuarters Official HitQuarters Facebook page Official Twitter
HitQuarters
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HitQuarters
HitQuarters
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Wind-up Records A&R
Diana Meltzer poses with HitQuarters award that made her the first No.1 female A&R.
17.
Koch Records
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Entertainment One Music, a primary division of Entertainment One, is an independent record label in the United States. It has garnered the most Billboard hits of any independently owned music label in history and it is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name eOne Universal. On January 22,2009, Koch Records was officially branded as E1 Music by parent company Entertainment One, E1 Entertainment acquired KOCH Entertainment in June 2005, and renamed the company E1 Music. Since its inception as KOCH Records, E1 Music has charted over 100 albums on Billboards Independent Chart, E1 Music has been the number one independent label according to Billboard for the last six years and quickly grew to become North Americas largest independently owned and distributed record label. E1 Music covers all genres from adult-contemporary to rock, hip hop/urban to country. E1 Music was formed in January 1987 as Koch Records to serve as the North American umbrella for Koch Entertainment. They would sign many country, classical, and rock acts including Ringo Starr, Joan Baez, Chris Brubeck, Bob James, the label soon began to gain ground on the other independent record labels in the United States. In the 2000s, they began to sign hip hop acts. They signed various distribution deals with labels like Open Bar Entertainment, Terror Squad, D-Block Records, in 2004, they were able to sign a deal with Snoop Dogg and his Doggystyle Records along with Mobb Deep. They hired Snoop Dogg on to head up their western spin off Koch West, Koch also added onto their roster, Camron and his Diplomat Records. Diplomat rapper, Jim Jones would rise to prominence on the label through the deal, Koch later signed Yonkers rapper, J-Hood and his label On Da Grind Ent. Koch has also had releases from 2Pac, Tha Dogg Pound, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger and Gangsta Advisory. In 2007, when they signed J-Hood they gave him a big position in their Koch East division, J-Hood never released this album and he was booted from D-Block. In 2007, they signed a deal with Foxy Brown and her Black Rose Entertainment, as well as with Ray J. Slim Thug was signed to the label along with his Boss Hoggs label in late 2005. Latin Thug Records was formed by CEO Reyes to build a business with his brother and acting VP of A&R Mellow Man Ace that would focus on releasing personal projects. The label represents the extended Latin Thug family, including projects from Sen and Mellow and collaborations with B Real, Soul Assassins. In March 2008, the company signed neo-soul singer Dwele to their lineup, in October 2008, they signed also pop-jazz singer Basia, and released her comeback album Its That Girl Again a year later. Koch Records also releases music, such as Pokémon, Barney, Sesame Street, The Wiggles
Koch Records
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Entertainment One U.S. LP
18.
Beautiful Girls (Sean Kingston song)
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Beautiful Girls is the debut single by reggae-influenced musician Sean Kingston from his eponymous debut, it was first released in 2007. Kings classic Stand by Me and uses digital pitch correction technology on the vocals, the song is about a boy who is suicidal over the failure of his relationship with a beautiful girl. Rapper Lil Mama and actors Kenny Vibert and Lil JJ are featured in the video directed by Marcus Raboy. Certain radio stations, play the version of the song. On MTV the word suicidal is completely removed with no replacement, on BET, Fuse and MuchMusic, as well as several top 40, urban and rhythmic top 40 and AC stations, suicidal was left intact. It was allegedly pulled from two FM although a spokesperson said the song is not on its playlist but could not confirm if it had been in the past. FM104 replaced suicidal with in denial, a change Sean Kingston made for the radio station, on July 24, Beautiful Girls was accidentally leaked onto the U. S. iTunes Store, two days before the planned release date. The week after the digital release it hit number one on Billboards Hot Digital Songs. Kingston became the first artist born within the 1990s to top the Hot 100 and it has also gone on to occupy the top spot on the U. S. Hot 100 Airplay and the Canadian Hot 100 and it remained on top of the UK Singles Chart for four weeks before being knocked off by the Sugababes first single from their 5th studio album Change, About You Now. The song ended 2007 as the years 15th biggest-selling single in the UK, on the official ARIA charts in Australia it debuted at #1, fell to #2 when Delta Goodrems comeback single took the top spot. Beautiful Girls returned the week and remained for a month before being replaced by Timbalands The Way I Are. After an online vote user Mallory Robbins won with an a cappella version of the song, Top honors also went to a rock cover of the song performed by the Ailan Christopher Project. Shortly afterward, recording artist JoJo released a cover version of the track which was released on MySpace. Chris Moyles also released a cover, however it was about the song describing how bad it was in his opinion. The Lead Singer of Sublime, Rome, sang the Acoustic version of Beautiful Girls on RAWsession on October 20,2008, the Plain White Ts, whose song was knocked out of the charts by this one, did a cover version for Yahoo Music. Lead vocalist Tom Higgenson says that the group started covering it as a joke almost and we started learning it because we were number one for a few weeks and then we got knocked out of the number one spot by Sean Kingston, by this song. Its kind of like an ode to Sean, maverick Sabre did the same at BBC Radio 1s Live Lounge
Beautiful Girls (Sean Kingston song)
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"Beautiful Girls"
19.
Billboard Hot 100
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The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, radio play and online streaming, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday, when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming data, is available on a real-time basis. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesdays, as of the issue for the week ending on April 15,2017, the Hot 100 has had 1,061 different number one hits. The current number one song is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, prior to 1955, Billboard did not have a unified, all-encompassing popularity chart, instead measuring songs by individual metrics. At the start of the era in 1955, three such charts existed, Best Sellers in Stores was the first Billboard chart, established in 1936. This chart ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country, Most Played by Jockeys was Billboards original airplay chart. It ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys, Most Played in Jukeboxes ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. On the week ending November 12,1955, Billboard published The Top 100 for the first time, the Top 100 combined all aspects of a singles performance, based on a point system that typically gave sales more weight than radio airplay. The Best Sellers In Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts continued to be published concurrently with the new Top 100 chart. The week ending July 28,1958 was the publication of the Most Played By Jockeys and Top 100 charts. On August 4,1958, Billboard premiered one main all-genre singles chart, the Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and Billboard discontinued the Best Sellers In Stores chart on October 13,1958. The Billboard Hot 100 is still the standard by which a songs popularity is measured in the United States, the Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan and streaming activity provided by online music sources. There are several component charts that contribute to the calculation of the Hot 100. Charts are ranked by number of gross audience impressions, computed by cross-referencing exact times of radio airplay with Arbitron listener data. Hot Singles Sales, the top selling singles compiled from a sample of retail store, mass merchant and internet sales reports collected, compiled. The chart is released weekly and measures sales of commercial singles. With the decline in sales of singles in the US
Billboard Hot 100
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The Billboard logo
20.
Gwen Stefani
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Gwen Renée Stefani is an American singer, songwriter, and fashion designer. During the bands hiatus, Stefani embarked on a pop career in 2004 by releasing her debut studio album Love. Inspired by pop music from the 1980s, the album was met both critical and commercial success. It spawned three successful singles, What You Waiting For. Rich Girl, and Hollaback Girl, the reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 while also becoming the first US download to sell one million copies. In 2006 Stefani released her studio album The Sweet Escape. The album produced two singles, Wind It Up and the albums title track The Sweet Escape. Her third solo album This Is What the Truth Feels Like was released in March 2016, Stefani has won three Grammy Awards. As a solo artist she has received accolades, including an American Music Award, Brit Award, World Music Award. In 2003, she debuted her clothing line L. A. M. B. and expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line, drawing inspiration from Japanese culture, Stefani performs and makes public appearances with four back-up dancers known as the Harajuku Girls. She was married to British musician Gavin Rossdale from 2002 to 2015, Billboard magazine ranked Stefani the 54th most successful artist and 37th most successful Hot 100 artist of the 2000–09 decade. VH1 ranked her 13th on their 100 Greatest Women in Music list in 2012, including her work with No Doubt, Stefani has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Stefani was born on October 3,1969, in Fullerton, California and she was named after a stewardess in the 1968 novel Airport, and her middle name, Renée, comes from The Four Tops 1968 cover of The Left Bankes 1966 song Walk Away Renée. Her father, Dennis Stefani, is Italian American and worked as a Yamaha marketing executive and her mother, Patti, worked as an accountant before becoming a housewife. Gwens parents were fans of music and exposed her to music by artists like Bob Dylan. She has two siblings, Jill and Todd, and an older brother named Eric. Eric was the keyboardist for No Doubt before leaving the band to pursue a career in animation on The Simpsons. Her brother Eric introduced Gwen to 2 Tone music by Madness and The Selecter and, in 1986, he invited her to provide vocals for No Doubt, finally, in 1991, the band was signed to Interscope Records
Gwen Stefani
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Stefani at the
2011 Cannes Film Festival
Gwen Stefani
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Stefani performing with No Doubt at
Voodoo 2002
Gwen Stefani
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Stefani performing during the
Harajuku Lovers Tour in 2005
Gwen Stefani
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Stefani performing during
The Sweet Escape Tour in 2007
21.
The Sweet Escape Tour
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The Sweet Escape Tour was the second concert tour by American singer-songwriter Gwen Stefani. The tour began in April 2007 in support of her solo album The Sweet Escape. The tour was Stefanis follow up to her previous The Harajuku Lovers Tour and it went worldwide as compared to her previous tour which was constricted only to North America and had more than double the number of shows. It was Stefanis last solo effort as she rejoined her band No Doubt after the tour ended, the main feature were usage of various props such as a prison for Stefanis opening act, a six-piece band and a large multimedia screen in the backdrop showing videos and animations. The tour had its own set of controversies, a group of students making up for The National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students, banned Stefanis concert that was slated to take place August 21 at Putra Indoor Stadium. The unions vice president, Abdul Muntaqim said, Her performance and it promotes a certain degree of obscenity and will encourage youth to emulate the western lifestyle. The organizer of the vent, Maxis Communications later responded, Stefani has confirmed that her concert will not feature any revealing costumes and she will abide by the Malaysian authorities guidelines to ensure that her show will not be offensive to local sensitivities. In April, Akon drew criticism for having on-stage dirty dancing with a fifteen-year-old preachers daughter, at a club in Trinidad and Tobago, as a result, the tours sponsor Verizon Wireless decided not to sponsor the tour. Stefani donated $166,000 from her October 30 concert in San Diego to The San Diego Foundation fire relief fund, on her June 22 and June 23 concerts in Irvine, California, Stefani was joined onstage by her No Doubt bandmates. They performed their songs Just a Girl, Spiderwebs, Sunday Morning, Hella Good, the Sweet Escape tour was generally well received by critics. Christina Fuoco-Karasinski of Livedaily said, The shows pacing was impeccable, instead of silence or banter between songs, Stefanis band played musical interludes, or the dancers entertained. Katrina-Kasey Wheeler on PopMatters appreciated the props saying, everything from the set list to the visuals and props displayed a larger-than-life aura, years after Gwen Stefani first emerged as a major presence in the world of pop music, shes finally got a show to match. Chris Macias of Sacbee also appreciated the concert and described the show as Its part pep rally, part Broadway musical, joan Anderman of Boston. com said. her bad notes were hers, part of a real personality rather than a standard-issue pop star. T. Michael Crowell of the San Diego Union-Tribune also agreed and said, Her vocal range is narrow, the tour was a commercial success. The tour was the twenty-third most successful tour in the United States in 2007, the tour grossed $30,511,669 through the 55 shows in the U. S with 53 sold-out shows. Gwen announced in both the October 30 concert at the Cox Arena at Aztec Bowl and the November 1 concert at the Stockton Arena that she was filming her Sweet Escape Tour DVD. Only one concert of the Cox Arena, and Stockton Arena can be chosen for the Sweet Escape Tour DVD, for the Special occasion, Gwen did a special performance of the song U Started It which had only been seen at a few shows. During the concert she ran out into the audience to sing Cool, however, the recorded performances were not released as a separate DVD
The Sweet Escape Tour
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Promotional poster for the
Journal Pavilion
The Sweet Escape Tour
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Stefani performing during the Tour.
22.
Kelly Clarkson
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Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in 2002 after winning the first season of American Idol, Clarksons debut single, A Moment Like This, topped the Billboard Hot 100 and became the best-selling single of 2002 in the U. S. It was followed with her studio album, Thankful, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Trying to reinvent her own image, Clarkson decided to part ways with American Idol management and developed a pop sound for her second album. It sold over 15 million copies worldwide and earned Clarkson two Grammy Awards and she took further creative control for her third album, My December, by becoming the executive producer and co-writing the entire material. However, it caused feud with her label, that was dissatisfied with her darker, less commercial rock music, Clarkson returned to the top of the charts with her more mainstream-oriented fourth album, All I Ever Wanted. Its lead single, My Life Would Suck Without You, holds the record for the biggest jump to one on the Billboard Hot 100. She scored another Hot 100 number-one single with Stronger from her studio album. Clarkson also became the first act to win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album twice. Her sixth studio album and first Christmas record, Wrapped in Red, ended up as the holiday album of the year. Her seventh and final album under RCA, Piece by Piece, was her album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200. Its title track became her eleventh single on the Hot 100. She signed with Atlantic Records in 2016 and has prepared a soul-influenced album for a 2017 release, Clarkson has sold over 70 million records worldwide and scored a total of 100 number ones on the Billboard charts. Her accolades include three Grammy Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, twelve Billboard Music Awards, four American Music Awards, and two Academy of Country Music Awards. Often called one of the best vocalists in the industry, Clarkson is known for her powerhouse voice and she became the first artist in history to top each of Billboards pop, adult contemporary, country and dance charts. She was ranked nineteenth on VH1s list of 100 Greatest Women in Music, Clarkson has also ventured into television and film, as well as writing childrens book. Clarkson was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Jeanne Ann, a first-grade English teacher, and Stephen Michael Clarkson and she is the youngest of three children with a brother named Jason and a sister named Alyssa. Clarkson also has two half brothers from her fathers second marriage
Kelly Clarkson
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Clarkson at the
57th Presidential Inauguration, January 21, 2013
Kelly Clarkson
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Clarkson performed at the
Lincoln Memorial in
Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2002, following her win on American Idol
Kelly Clarkson
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Clarkson performing during her Hazel Eyes concert tour on November 15, 2005,
Canberra, Australia
Kelly Clarkson
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Clarkson and
Reba McEntire performing during the
2 Worlds 2 Voices Tour
23.
My December Tour
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The My December Tour was the fifth headlining concert tour by American pop rock artist Kelly Clarkson, and followed the release Clarksons third studio album, My December. A considerably smaller-scale tour commenced in September 2007 and ran to April 2008, with the legs in Europe. The tour was announced by both Billboard. com and Clarksons official website on April 26,2007. For the first time, Clarkson would be playing in arenas instead of the amphitheatres that her previous tours were staged in. Describing the tour, Clarkson stated, This will be the biggest tour I’ve ever done and its all about the music – we’re bringing extra musicians and we’ll be making an arena environment intimate because I want the fans to be part of the show. And you’ll hear all your favorite hits too, the show would feature a 36-row catwalk and b-stage, in order to make the large arenas more intimate for fans. Mat Kearney would be her support act for the tour, the tour was to be sponsored by Vitamin Water. The company set up a website, kellyallaccess. com. LiveNation CEO Michael Rapino said, Ticket sales have not been what we anticipated, in the end, we are in the Kelly Clarkson business and for that reason we believe that this decision will only benefit her and her fans in the long run. The My December album itself was released on June 26,2007. On September 4,2007, a new My December Tour for Fall 2007 in North America was announced on via Billboard. com and it was specified to play 26 dates in 3, 000-to-6,000 seat theatres rather than the previous arenas. Shows in Toronto, Minneapolis and Chicago also sold out, Clarkson then added Australian and European legs to the tour, to take place starting March 2008, after the first leg of her 2 Worlds 2 Voices Tour with Reba McEntire. Tickets for the Australian tour went on sale October 8,2007, on October 23,2007, the full European lineup was announced and tickets went on sale immediately. German, Swedish and Dutch tickets went on sale for fans through a number of different ticketing websites and stores across the continent, there was a high demand for Glasgow and Manchester fans and a further date was added for each within a week. Clarkson scheduled an appearance on the UK TV show This Morning on December 12 to promote the UK leg of the tour, as in the past, Clarksons concerts held more in common with traditional rock concerts than with pop- or R&B-oriented diva productions. Clarkson immediately shed the bulky red dress, however, and performed in a black pants. Halfway through the show the main curtain closed, and Clarkson and selected members performed a quieter mini-set of Because of You, Up to the Mountain. In all she performed for 75 to 80 minutes
My December Tour
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Promotional poster for the tour
My December Tour
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Promotional poster for first incarnation of tour
My December Tour
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Clarkson performing “
Miss Independent ”.
My December Tour
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Clarkson in April 6, 2008.
24.
Tomorrow (Sean Kingston album)
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Tomorrow is the second studio album by reggae singer Sean Kingston. The album was released on September 7,2009, currently, two singles have been released from the album. Despite Fire Burning being a summer hit in 2009, the album only peaked at #37 on the U. S. Billboard 200 albums chart with only 13,000 copies sold in the first week of release. It dropped out of the top 40 the next week, falling 40 spots to #87, tomorrows sound is significantly different from the sound of Kingstons debut album. In this new LP, he explores sounds of 1990s eurodance and electropop, using instruments like Roland 808 drum machine, Auto-Tune and synthesizers while adding his signature reggae and pop music. Tomorrow also melds together genres of rock and soft rock. Influences of nu-disco, Euro disco and electropop show on Fire Burning, Face Drop, the song War was originally supposed to feature rap artist Lil Wayne, but he was taken out of the song on the final version. Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone said For the most part--despite Auto-Tuned slow songs--Kingstons mix of young-adult desire, simon Vozick-Levinson of Entertainment Weekly felt that Although hes got plenty of hooks, personality is in much shorter supply. While some of his reviews are positive, others feel his album lacks novelty, jason Richards of Now Magazine said that although he is a good singer-songwriter, his album lacks novelty and feels irritating. Bill Lamb of About. com, Its abundantly clear on Tomorrow that Sean Kingston plans to stick around for awhile, at least half of the songs here could be pop hit singles and fit easily into contemporary pop radio playlists. Sean Kingston may want to consider stripping his sound down a bit more, Sean Kingston has successfully delivered the goods he has to offer a second time around. Fire Burning was the first official single from the album, released on April 24,2009 and it peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the most successful single from the album. Face Drop was the official single from the album. It was released to radio stations on August 18,2009, lyrically, Face Drop is plea to not judge by appearance. It peaked at #61 on the Billboard Hot 100, which was of moderate success compared to Kingstons previous hits, iTunes released promotional singles from the album as part of Countdown to Tomorrow. All singles received the same animated artwork, each with a different color background and my Girlfriend was the first promo single and was released digitally on July 28,2009. Wrap U Around Me was the promo single and was released digitally on August 4,2009. Tomorrow was the promo single and was released digitally on August 11,2009
Tomorrow (Sean Kingston album)
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Tomorrow
25.
Fire Burning
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Fire Burning is a song by Jamaican-American singer-songwriter Sean Kingston. It is released as the single from his second studio album Tomorrow. Unlike many of his previous singles, which are all produced by J. R. Rotem, the song was used for the opening number of the Miss Universe 2009 live at the Atlantis Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas. Fire Burning is a written by Robin Wang. The songs instrumentation consists of a heavy synthesizers and a variety of percussive sounds, the song is set in common time with a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute and is written in the key of B♭ minor. It begins with an energetic clarion call to the floor followed by modern dance beat. Kingston had released the song on his MySpace webpage to promote his song, the song was released to radio stations and for digital download April 24,2009. To date the song has played more than 13 million times on his MySpace page. As of July 22,2012, the song has sold over 3 million downloads, Sean Kingston performed the song for the first time live at the Teen Choice Awards 2009. The music video premiered on MTV on June 15,2009, rick Ross makes a cameo appearance in the video along with fellow island singer Iyaz. The video was directed by Gil Green, the video also shows Kingstons Audi R8 in the video. Fire Burning Fire Burning Fire Burning Fire Burning Fire Burning Fire Burning 103.5 KTU replaced the opening Shorty fire burning in the opening, to KTU is burning. He also comments that the chorus is repetitive, it sounds just like Unstoppable by Kat Deluna, but this song is often what makes for a sizzling club hit. Digital download Fire Burning –4,03 CD-Single Fire Burning –4,00 War –2,59 Fire Burning debuted at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100, since then it has entered the top ten peaking at #5. It also peaked at two on the Canadian Hot 100 for eight consecutive weeks. It became a #1 Record in South Africa. Prior to this Fire Burning was ranked 36th on South Africas Year-End-Chart, Sean Kingston MySpace Official website Official UK website Sean Kingston interview by Pete Lewis, Blues & Soul August 2009 Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Fire Burning
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"Fire Burning"
26.
Face Drop
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Face Drop is the second single from Sean Kingstons second studio album Tomorrow, was released to radio stations on August 18,2009 and released digitally on iTunes on September 1,2009. The song has gone gold in the US, selling over 500.000 copies and it features Seans girlfriend breaking up with him then lil Sean appears. Everytime he walks by a pedestrian, they become animated, after, they appear at a pool party where his ex is then they start splashing her. The official remix features former Pretty Ricky member & singer Pleasure P was released, face Drop became Kingstons second #1 from the album Tomorrow in South Africa. It has also been certified Gold in New Zealand and was Top 30 on US radio, seanKingston. com -Sean Kingston Official Site Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Face Drop
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"Face Drop"
27.
Jason Derulo
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Jason Joel Desrouleaux, known professionally as Jason Derulo, is an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Since the start of his recording career in 2009, Derulo has sold over 30 million singles and has achieved eleven Platinum singles, including Wiggle, Talk Dirty, In My Head. After Beluga Heights became part of the Warner Music Group, Derulo released his debut single Whatcha Say in May 2009 and it sold over five million digital downloads, gaining an RIAA certification of triple Platinum, and reaching number 1 in the U. S. and New Zealand. Derulo released his single, In My Head, in December 2009. His debut album, Jason Derulo, was released on March 2,2010 and he released his second studio album, Future History, on September 16,2011, the album was preceded by the release of the UK number-one single Dont Wanna Go Home. Derulos third international album, Tattoos, was released on September 24,2013, in 2015, Derulo released his single Want to Want Me and announced his fourth studio album, Everything Is 4, which was released on June 2,2015. Derulo was born in Miramar, Florida, the son of Haitian parents and he started singing at a young age. He attended performing arts schools in Florida and made early attempts at music composition. His writing skills began attracting attention when he was a teenager and he also wrote Bossy for Birdman, a New Orleans-based rapper, and made a guest appearance on the song, highlighting his ability as a vocalist. Derulo has been writing songs for artists including Diddy, Danity Kane, Donnie Klang, Sean Kingston, Cassie, Derulo was discovered by music producer J. R. Rotem, who signed him to his record label Beluga Heights Records and Warner Bros. On August 4,2009, Jason released his debut single and it was produced by J. R. Rotem with additional production by Fuego. The track heavily samples the Imogen Heap song Hide and Seek, in late August 2009, the song debuted at number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number 1 in November 2009. It was Derulos first and only one hit. The singles music video was released in September 2009, after the single became successful and he released the second single from his album, In My Head, on December 8,2009. It debuted at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100, Derulos debut album, Jason Derulo, stylised with an umlaut as Jason Derülo, was released on March 2,2010. Jason Derulo first charted within the top ten of the UK and he spent six weeks promoting the album in his appearances as one of the opening acts for Lady Gagas 2009–2010 The Monster Ball Tour. The third single of the album is Ridin Solo, which was released worldwide on April 26,2010, by July, the single had reached number nine in the Billboard Hot 100. Derulo has also featured in a song by new artist Will Roush called Turn it Up
Jason Derulo
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Derulo performing in December 2013
Jason Derulo
28.
Whatcha Say
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Whatcha Say is the debut single by American singer Jason Derulo and the first single released from his self-titled debut album. It was available for download on May 5,2009. It was produced by J. R. Rotem with additional production by German record producer Fuego and heavily samples the song Hide, whatcha Say topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week. Derulo recorded a new French-English version with French Guiana singer Fanny J, a new music video has also been released. But Derulo weaves easily in and out of Heaps parts and matches his autotuned vocals to hers pretty well to craft a catchy, if derivative, whatcha Say was performed live by Derulo on Thanksgiving Day in Philadelphia for the 90th anniversary of the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade. The song was featured in Ben Afflecks film The Town, the song was also featured on the popular teen show, Gossip Girl, in the episode Treasure of Serena Madre, which premiered on November 30,2009. The music video was released as the video of the week on iTunes on October 27,2009. The music video premiered on Monday, November 16 on MTVs AMTV, a music video was also released for the acoustic version, which features J. R. Rotem playing the piano. It reached number one in the issue dated November 14,2009, the song also reached the number-one spot on the Canadian Nielsen SoundScan Digital Songs chart. Whatcha Say entered and peaked on the UK Singles Chart on November 22,2009 at number 3, by June 2014, the single has sold over 4 million digital copies in the US
Whatcha Say
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"Whatcha Say"
29.
Sugababes
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The Sugababes are an English girl group, formed in 1998 with founding members Siobhán Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan. Their debut album, One Touch, was released in the UK through London Records on 27 November 2000, the album achieved moderate success, peaking at number 26 in April 2001 and eventually being certified Gold. In 2001, Donaghy departed the group amid rumours of a rift with Buchanan and they released three studio albums before Buena announced her departure in December 2005, leading to Amelle Berrabah being brought in to replace her. Following the release of their first greatest hits album, the new line-up released two studio albums, in September 2009, after 11 years in the Sugababes, Buchanan, the final original member, was replaced by former UK Eurovision entry Jade Ewen. Range, Berrabah and Ewen released the seventh studio album, Sweet 7, in 2010, after which they signed to RCA Records. In 2013, Ewen confessed that the Sugababes had split two years earlier, the original line-up of the band reformed in 2011, under the new name Mutya Keisha Siobhan. In 2006, British Hit Singles & Albums named the Sugababes as the most successful act of the 21st century with six UK number one singles. They have been a fixture in the British tabloids due to their several line-up changes. The Sugababes were formed in 1998 by All Saints manager Ron Tom, Siobhán Donaghy and Mutya Buena, both aged just 13, had been signed as solo artists, but decided to work together after performing at the same showcase. While working in the studio, Buena invited her best friend Keisha Buchanan to watch them, manager Tom decided the three girls were to be a trio, likening their different appearances to the United Colors of Benetton campaign. Originally dubbed the Sugababies, the name was tweaked to Sugababes when they were signed by London Records to give the group a more mature image. The groups debut single, Overload, peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart in 2000 and was nominated for a BRIT Award for Best Single, the group co-wrote most of the tracks on debut album One Touch with the help of All Saints producer Cameron McVey. One Touch peaked at number 26 on the UK Albums Chart, the album produced three more top 40 hits—New Year, Run for Cover and Soul Sound. The sales of One Touch did not meet London Records expectations and it was later certified gold by the BPI and had sold 220,000 copies in the UK by 2008 according to Music Week. During a Japanese promotional tour in August 2001, Donaghy left the group and she stated initially that she wanted to pursue a fashion career, but was eventually diagnosed with clinical depression amid reports of in-fighting amongst the groups members. Donaghy later stated that she was forced out of the group by Buchanan, former Atomic Kitten member Heidi Range was announced as Donaghys replacement. Having already started work on an album with new member Range. Their first single on the new label, Freak like Me scored the group their first UK number 1 single, follow-up single Round Round also debuted on top of the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number 2 in Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand
Sugababes
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The fourth (and current) line-up of the Sugababes performing live in 2011. L–R:
Amelle Berrabah,
Jade Ewen and
Heidi Range.
Sugababes
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Second Sugababes line-up in May 2005
Sugababes
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The third-lineup of the Sugababes
Sugababes
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Third Sugababes line-up in April 2008 on the Change Tour, their largest scale tour to date.
30.
Sweet 7
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Sweet 7 is the seventh and final studio album by British girl group the Sugababes, released on 15 March 2010, by Island Records. It marks as the release from the fourth line up following them splitting in 2011. Production for the album began in April 2009 and was completed in January 2010, Sweet 7 is the only release since the controversial departure of Keisha Buchanan, who was replaced by 2009 Eurovision Song Contest entry Jade Ewen in September 2009. As a result of the group line-up change, Sweet 7 was re-recorded to feature the vocals of new member Ewen, as a result, this is the only album that features none of the original members. Despite the high-profile input, Sweet 7 was negatively received by critics, the negative reviews stemmed to the originality of the image due to the loss of Buchanan, as well as a lack of an identifiable sound and soul from the project. Sweet 7 peaked at number 14 in the UK and number 35 in Ireland, promotion for the album ended after the release of the final single so that the group could begin work on a new album. But they split after they released its intended single Freedom, prior to the albums creation, Sugababes signed a US record deal with Jay-Zs label Roc Nation. The album was recorded by Sugababes mostly in Los Angeles and New York, the group primarily worked with RedOne, Ryan Tedder, Stargate, Fernando Garibay, up-and-coming production team the Smeezingtons. One of the tracks, No More You, was written by Ne-Yo. Keisha Buchanan compared the song to Rihannas Hate That I Love You, the group also collaborated with Sean Kingston. Sugababes also joked that Rihannas been like our fourth member, listening to all our songs and saying what she liked and what she didnt like. Buchanan told BBC Radio 1s Newsbeat, the album has definitely got the British feel throughout the album - weve not gone away, Buchanan continued, I think its given us a fresh energy again. I think the one thing we wanted to do was come back with something different and she also admitted the girls had become complacent around the time of Catfights and Spotlights but they also said that they are very proud of that album. After the release of the albums first single Get Sexy and just two months before its projected November 2009 release, it was reported by the media that Amelle Berrabah had quit the group. Buchanan, however, denied any drama within the group and insisted that Berrabah would remain a member for the moment. On 21 September 2009, it was announced that Buchanan had left the band, Buchanan was replaced by Jade Ewen, who immediately began recording her vocals over Buchanans in preparation for the albums release. Thank You for the Heartbreak is a song with a 1980s electro influence. David Balls of Digital Spy described it as a snappy electropop number, there was a potential lyrical mashup with the songs lyric, dancing off my tears, on which Heidi Range replied, If people want to sing that when we perform it, well, we wont complain
Sweet 7
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Sweet 7
