1.
Rachel Stevens
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Rachel Lauren Stevens is an English singer, songwriter, actress, television presenter, model and businesswoman. She was a member of the pop group S Club 7 between 1999 and 2003 and she released her solo debut studio album Funky Dory in September 2003. The album reached number nine on the UK album chart and the British Phonographic Industry awarded it with a certification in October 2003. Two singles, Sweet Dreams My LA Ex and Funky Dory, were released from the album. In July 2004, Stevens released the single Some Girls as a charity record for Sport Relief, Come and Get It, her second studio album, was released in October 2005. It peaked at #28 in the UK, and two of its three singles reached the Top 10, in 2008, she came second in the sixth series of the BBC One series Strictly Come Dancing with her dance partner Vincent Simone. On 16 November 2010, she gave birth to her first child, in 2013, she was a mentor assistant on The X Factor New Zealand. In September 2013, Stevens announced she was pregnant with her second child, also in 2014, she was awarded FHMs sexiest woman of all time. Despite not being Irish, Stevens became one of the coaches in the 4th season of RTEs The Voice of Ireland, Stevens version of the song More, More, More is used in the ScS Sofas adverts. In November 2014, S Club 7 announced plans for an reunion tour, promptly entitled Bring It All Back 2015. Born in Southgate, London, to a Jewish family, she attended Osidge JMI School and she has two brothers, Jason and Leigh. Stevens was raised Jewish and has stated that she observe some of the holidays and Ill go to the synagogue on special occasions, in 1993, she first caught attention while beating off 5,000 competitors and winning a modelling contest sponsored by UK teen magazine Just 17. Following her first modelling jobs, she decided to study at the London College of Fashion, during that time she also worked in a film company and later ended up working in public relations, but began to lose interest and decided to pursue a career in singing instead. They recorded a total of four albums, released eleven singles. Their first album, S Club, had a strong 1990s pop sound, however, through the course of their career, their musical approach changed to a more dance and R&B sound which is heard mostly in their final album, Seeing Double. The concept and brand of the group was created by Simon Fuller, also their manager through 19 Entertainment and their television series went on to last four series, seeing the group travel across the United States and eventually ending up in Barcelona, Spain. It became popular in 100 different countries where the show was watched by over 90 million viewers, as well as the popularity of their television series, S Club 7 won two Brit Awards—in 2000 for British breakthrough act and in 2002, for best British single. In 2001, the group earned the Record of year, S Clubs second to last single reached number-five in the UK charts and their final studio album failed to make the top ten
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Dead or Alive (band)
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Dead or Alive were an English pop band, formed in 1979 in Liverpool. The band found success in the 1980s and had seven Top 40 UK singles and they were the first band to have a number one single under the production team of Stock Aitken Waterman. Two of the singles reached the U. S. Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, You Spin Me Round No.11 in 1985 and you Spin Me Round peaked at number one in 1985 in the UK, then charted again in 2003 and 2006 following Burns appearance on the television reality show Celebrity Big Brother. The latter also became the first of two singles to top the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, in December 2016, Billboard magazine ranked them as the 96th most successful dance artist of all-time. The band was discontinued with Pete Burns death in 2016, in 1977 Burns formed a band with contemporaries Julian Cope, Pete Wylie, and Phil Hurst, calling themselves The Mystery Girls. They played only one gig before disintegrating, although signed to the Erics Records label, their only release, a three-track 7 EP entitled Birth of a Nation, appeared in March 1980 on Inevitable Records. A 12-inch single featuring two of the tracks from the EP, Black Leather and Shangri-La, was released in 1985, the EP featured Black Leather, which halfway through turned into K. C. & the Sunshine Bands Thats the Way. Ogden left the band at the beginning of November 1979 shortly before the recording of demos for the planned Inevitable Records release, bassist Ambrose Reynolds helped out on both these sessions and those for the EP a month later. Pete Lloyd joined in January 1980 and the returned to playing live shows early in February. Lloyd and Reid left the band in March 1980, and Hurst followed a month or so later, the band went through several different line-up changes over the next three years while recording a series of independent singles. Burns eccentric and androgynous appearance began attracting attention, often leading to comparisons with Culture Club, Dead or Alives singles started charting on the UK Indie Chart, beginning with 1982s The Stranger reaching No.7 on that chart. This prompted major label Epic Records to sign the band in 1983 and their first release for Epic was the single Misty Circles, which appeared at No.100 on the major UK Singles Chart in 1983. At this point, the band was a five-piece consisting of Burns, Mike Percy, Tim Lever, Steve Coy, two more singles, What I Want and Id Do Anything, attracted club play, but mainstream success continued to elude the band. Dead Or Alives debut album, Sophisticated Boom Boom, was released in May 1984 and featured their first Top 40 UK single, Thats the Way, a remake of the 1975 hit by KC, Hussey departed Dead or Alive just before the albums release. The single peaked at No.22 in the UK and the album at No.29, the single You Spin Me Round went to number one on the UK singles chart after having lingered outside the Top 40 for over two months. The song also hit No.11 in the US and No.1 in Canada, other album tracks released as singles included Lover Come Back To Me, In Too Deep, and My Heart Goes Bang. They all reached the UK Top 30, in late 1986, Dead or Alive released their third album, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know, also produced by SAW
5.
Agent J (album)
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Agent J is the ninth studio album by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai. It was released on September 21,2007, by Capitol Music Taiwan and it was renamed Love Mission in mainland China. Tsais last studio album, Dancing Diva, not only brought her to the top of the charts, expectations were naturally high for the new record, and Tsai was upping the ante with eleven new tracks and her first ever music movie. The album is set to be as successful as Dancing Diva, the album has sold more than 2.5 million copies in Asia, with more than 200,000 copies sold in Taiwan alone, and became the best-selling album of the year in Taiwan. The eleventh track, Sun Will Never Set, reached number 1 on the Hit FM Annual Top 100 Singles, the title track, Agent J, reached number 14 on the chart. The second track, Bravo Lover, reached number 41 on the chart, the album earned Tsai an MTV Asia Award nomination for Favorite Artist Taiwan. To further promote the album, Tsai released her debut film under the title on September 5,2007. The film is directed by Jeff Chang, Sheng Kuang, and Wei-kang Lai and starring Jolin Tsai, Kim Jaewon, Stephen Fung, and Carl Ng, the film can be divided into three parts. In the first part, Tsai played a girl who traveled in Paris, France and she was taken away by a secret organization and got brainwashed, and she was selected as a special agent due to her lithe physique to help the organization to assassinate people. At the last, she was instructed by the organization to kill her boyfriend, because she lost all her memory, she was confused about the last smile the man gave to her, and she went to his apartment and found the old photos bearing witness to their relationship. In the second part, Tsai played a people in prison and was selected by an organization to carry out an assassination in exchange for her freedom. Her target, Blue Beard, received intelligence and sent two killers to assassinate her in London, England and she met a photographer named Hsiao-tung Lu, and she fled under the cover of the man. They started a relationship, but one day she found her boyfriend was also an agent sent by Blue Beard. On the night she went to kill Blue Beard, Blue Beard shot her boyfriend from behind, in the third part, she played an undercover agent who was instructed to save a fellow agent named Vince who approached a gang boss in Bangkok, Thailand. However, she found the Vince was her ex-boyfriend who was supposed to be died a few years ago was working for the gang boss, one day both of their undercover identities exposed, and they started a gun battle with the gang member. Vince took a bullet in the chest and was died, and he left her alone again
6.
Jolin Tsai
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Jolin Tsai is a Taiwanese singer, songwriter, dancer, actress and entrepreneur. Known for reinventing both her music and image, she is cited as a role of popularizing dance music as mainstream music in Greater China. Born and raised in Taiwan, Tsai began her career by winning the champion at an MTV singing competition at the age of 18. Her debut album, released in 1999 and titled 1019, was a huge success and her fifth album, Magic, is regarded as one of her biggest successes so far, right after her album, Dancing Diva, which reflected her mature artistic statement. After several successful albums and dozens of hits, she released her latest album, Play, having sold more than 25 million records in Asia, Tsai is recognized as one of the best-selling artists in Asia. Her work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including six Golden Melody Awards, an MTV Asia Award and she has been acclaimed as an entrepreneur, particularly after she founded her own music production and management company Eternal in 2009. Forbes reported that she is one of the highest-paid Chinese celebrities, Tsai was born to parents Tsai Chu-chen and Huang Chun-mei in Hsinchuang, Taiwan, on September 15,1980. Her father is of Han Chinese descent, while her mother is half Han Chinese and her Papora maternal grandmother hails from Puli. Tsai was known for her grade, and frequently achieved top 3 in class since elementary school. Tsai was a 200-meter sprinter in school, but quit after she injured her ankle. Tsai later attended Hsinchuang Junior High School and Chingmei Girls High School where she and her friends formed a band Twister for which she sang, but the band quickly dissolved. In the second year of school, she made her performance debut on campus. In a different campus event, she sang Bette Midlers The Rose, in 1998, Tsai joined an MTV singing competition for a record of an extracurricular activity she performed in order to help her apply for colleges. However, she emerged champion at the competition where she sang a rendition of Whitney Houstons Greatest Love of All in the final round. It was a win that kickstarted her singing career and paved the way to her journey in becoming a teen idol. In 1999, she majored in English literature at Fu Jen Catholic University, after Tsai signed a recording deal with Universal, her debut single, Living with the World, was released in July 1999. She then started developing her album,1019, which was primarily recorded in Quad Studios in New York City. The album was released in September 1999, and she received positive feedback for the album, Tsai was named as the Teenage Boy Killer by media, and became an instant hit among teenagers in Taiwan
7.
Lucky Number (album)
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Lucky Number is the fourth studio album by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai. It was released on July 7,2001, by Universal Music Taiwan, Tsai tinkered again with her style for the album, but the downturn in her fortune continued from her last album, Show Your Love. Just after the released of the album, Tsais music career came to a due to the conflict with her management company of the time. The album did not manage to bring her back to the popularity she enjoyed. The fourth track, If You Dont Want to, reached number 94 on the Hit FM Annual Top 100 Singles
8.
Hannah Spearritt
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Hannah Louise Spearritt is an English actress and singer. She is a member of the pop group S Club 7 from 1999 until they split in 2003. In November 2014, the announced plans for an arena reunion tour, Bring It All Back 2015. Spearritt is also known for playing the role of Abby Maitland in the drama Primeval, Spearritt was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk to Michael and Jenny Spearritt. She is the youngest of three children and her sister is former model and fashion designer Tanya Spearritt. Her uncle, Eddie Spearritt, from Lowestoft was a football player who played for Ipswich Town in the 1960s. At the age of three, Spearritt modelled in a Mothercare catalogue, when she was 12, Spearritt landed a part in the Lowestoft Players amateur dramatics societys production of Annie. Thereafter, she auditioned for the National Youth Music Theatre. While with the NYMT she met future S Club member and boyfriend Paul Cattermole, as well as her friend and future flatmate and she appeared in the NYMTs productions Pendragon —performing in New York and Hong Kong, Tin Pan Ali, and the West End musical Bugsy Malone. In 1998, she got a role in the television film The Cater Street Hangman and she had also made appearances on the National Lottery Show and Blue Peter. While Spearritt was studying mathematics, performing arts and media studies at college in Great Yarmouth and they recorded a total of four studio albums, released eleven singles and went on to sell over fourteen million albums worldwide. Their first album, S Club, had a strong 1990s pop sound, however, through the course of their career, their musical approach changed to a more dance and R&B sound which is heard mostly in their final album, Seeing Double. S Club 7 won two BRIT Awards—in 2000 for British breakthrough act and in 2002, for best British single, in 2001, the group earned the Record of the Year award. Group member Paul Cattermole departed the group in 2002, and the changed its name from S Club 7 to simply S Club. On 21 April 2003, during a live performance, S Club announced that they were to disband. In 2003, she was in Los Angeles to audition for a role in the film Agent Cody Banks 2, Destination London and she got the role and three days after leaving S Club, she began filming. In March 2004, Spearritt successfully auditioned for a role in the horror film Seed of Chucky. Shortly after completing filming, Spearritt decided to take a break from show-business to travel, in early November 2005, she made her acting comeback in the BBCs Blessed, an eight-part sitcom
