Born: 27 March 1970
Birthplace: Huntington, New York
Best Known As: Pop diva who sang "We Belong Together"
Mariah Carey's remarkable vocal range helped her gospel-influenced dance tunes reach the top of the pop charts in the early 1990s. Her hit albums included Mariah Carey (1990), Music Box (1993) and Butterfly (1997). Critics winked at Carey's 1993 marriage to Tommy Mottola, the head of Sony Music and Columbia Records (Carey's label), but her vocal abilities and babe-appeal kept her in good standing with fans and made her a favorite on MTV. (Carey and Mottola were divorced in 1998; she married actor Nick Cannon in 2008.) In 2001 Carey left Columbia to sign with EMI's Virgin Records for a reported $100 million; her first Virgin album, Glitter, the soundtrack to her semi-autobiographical 2001 movie, was widely considered a disappointment. In July of 2001 Carey was hospitalized for exhaustion, and the next month her publicists said that Carey was also receiving psychiatric treatment. The next year she split with EMI, which paid $28 million to buy out the remainder of her contract. By the end of 2005 she was at the top of the charts again, and her album, The Emancipation of Mimi, featuring the hit single, "We Belong Together," earned 8 Grammy nominations. She won three, including one for Best Contemporary R&B Album.
Carey's exact vocal range is a matter of some debate; some claim it was an astonishing seven octaves at the start of her career, while others suggest four or five octaves is more accurate... In 1998 Carey co-starred in a much-discussed VH1 special, Divas Live, along with Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain... Carey's ex-husband Tommy Mottola married Mexican pop star Thalia in December of 2000.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Mariah Carey
Madonna
Birth Name: Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone
Born: 16 August 1958
Birthplace: Bay City, Michigan
Best Known As: Pop superstar singer of "Like a Virgin"
Genre: Rock
Active: '80s, '90s, 2000s
Instrument: Vocals
Madonna used a mixture of talent, pulchritude and relentless self-promotion to become one of the most famous recording artists of the 20th century. She released her self-titled first album in 1983 in the guise of a streetwise pop ragamuffin, and over time she kept one step ahead of the game by jumping from persona to persona: dance club queen, balladeer, cowgirl, channeler of the Mysterious East. Her other albums have included Like a Virgin (1984), Ray of Light (1998), Music (2000), American Life (2003) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). She has also acted in over a dozen movies, including Dick Tracy (1990, with Warren Beatty) and A League of Their Own (1992, with Rosie O'Donnell). No stranger to controversy, Madonna has long been a favorite of the tabloids on topics ranging from her racy videos and TV appearances to her sometimes-mystical religious beliefs to her marriages to actor Sean Penn (1985-89) and filmmaker Guy Ritchie (2000-present). Her daughter Lourdes was born in October of 1996, fathered by Madonna's personal trainer, Carlos Leon. In August of 2000 Madonna and Ritchie had a son, Rocco. In October of 2006 they adopted a a motherless 13-month-old child, David Banda, from the African country of Malawi.
Madonna attended the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship... Her daughter Lourdes is named for the site where Bernadette Soubirous saw visions of the Virgin Mary... A fall from a horse in 2005 left the pop star with a broken collarbone and three cracked ribs.
Enrique Iglesias
Download:
Bailamos (3.33 MB) - Enrique Iglesias
Could I Have This Kiss Forever (5.98 MB) - Enrique Iglesias & Witney Houston
Password: decesare27
Born in 1975, Enrique led the life of a typical teen while growing up in Miami. He started writing and recording songs without telling his parents about it. In fact, he shopped his first demo posing as a Central American unknown named Enrique MartÃnez. Only after landing a record contract with regional Mexican label Fonovisa, did Enrique decide to use his real name.
Recorded in Spanish, his self-titled debut sold more than a million copies in the first three months after it was released (to this day, it has sold over seven million). His second effort, 1997's "Vivir," broke into the U.S. Top 40 and was promoted with the first of many lavishly produced world tours.
Within three years, Enrique became the biggest-selling Spanish-language singer in the world. He has enjoyed 16 #1 Billboard Latin hits, more than any other artist in history.
Sheryl Crow
Bolder and more free-spirited than ever, Sheryl Crow embarks on paths both deeply personal and grandly global on Detours (Interscope/A&M Records). Filled with songs about having and holding, changing and letting go, about beginnings, endings, and the roads between them, Detours was inspired by "how I feel things are going in the world and what's happened to me the last couple of years," says the nine-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter.
Crow's lyrical signposts range from the demise of a relationship, the adoption of a child (baby Wyatt, who guests on "Lullaby For Wyatt"), a public bout with breast cancer to the war in Iraq ("Peace Be Upon Us," featuring Arabic lyrics sung by Ahmed Al Hirmi), environmental disaster ("Gasoline" featuring Ben Harper), and the ravaged New Orleans of Hurricane Katrina ("Love Is Free").
Marking her reunion with Bill Bottrell, who produced her sensational 1993 debut, Tuesday Night Music Club, Detours winds its way across the pop musical landscape from the rockin' "Shine Over Babylon" and acoustic folk "God Bless This Mess" to the plaintive "Diamond Ring." An out-of-the-blue telephone call from Crow prompted a reconciliation with Bottrell and brought him to the studio at her farm near Nashville to produce her sixth studio album.
Each of her previous studio albums has charted Top 10 and earned at least platinum certification. The seven times platinum Tuesday Night Music Club hit #3 and earned three Grammys--Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the classic "All I Wanna Do." The album also featured "Strong Enough," "Can't Cry Anymore," and "Leaving Las Vegas."
1996's triple platinum Sheryl Crow (#6) earned the Grammy for Best Rock Album and, for "If It Makes You Happy," Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. 1998's platinum The Globe Sessions (#5) also garnered the Best Rock Album Grammy, as its "Everyday Is A Winding Road" and "My Favorite Mistake" both reached the Pop Top 20.
The new millennium brought 2002's platinum C'mon C'mon (#2), whose gold "Soak Up The Sun" peaked in the Top 20 and "Steve McQueen" again nabbed her a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy. The 2003 greatest hits compilation, the four times platinum The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow, was also a #2 charter, featuring a new recording, a cover of Cat Stevens' "The First Cut Is The Deepest." 2005's platinum Wildflower (#2) featured the dues with Sting, "Always On Your Side."
On Detours, the fearlessly outspoken Sheryl Crow continues a journey of self-discovery that has increasingly appealed to both the head and the heart.
Courtesy of MSN News - Lifestyle
