Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She was born on December 2, 1978, in the Canadian city of Victoria, British Columbia to Portuguese parents, Maria Manuela and António José Furtado. Furtado has a strong connection with Portuguese culture and also holds Portuguese citizenship. At age four she began performing and singing in Portuguese. She was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim. Raised in a Roman Catholic home, Furtado first sang at the age of four when she performed a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day. Although remaining unclear about her religious beliefs, she still affirms a belief in God, the Ten Commandments, and in avoiding the Seven Sins.

She began playing instruments at the age of nine, learning the trombone, ukulele, and, in later years, the guitar and keyboards. At the age of 12, she began writing songs, and as a teenager, she performed in a Portuguese marching band. Furtado has acknowledged her family as the source of her strong work ethic; she spent eight summers working as a chambermaid with her mother, who was a housekeeper in Victoria. She has stated that coming from a working class background has shaped her identity in a positive way.

The first musicians Furtado interacted with were underground rappers and DJs. During a visit to Toronto the summer after eleventh grade, Furtado met Tallis Newkirk, member of the hip hop group Plains of Fascination. She contributed vocals to their 1996 album, Join the Ranks, on the track “Waitin’ 4 the Streets”. After graduating from Mount Douglas Secondary School in 1996, she moved to Toronto. The following year, she formed Nelstar, a trip hop duo with Newkirk. Ultimately, Furtado felt the trip-hop style of the duo was “too segregated” and believed it did not represent her personality or allow her to showcase her vocal ability. She left the group and planned to move back home.

She performed at the 1997 Honey Jam Showcase an “all-female urban” talent show. Her performance attracted the attention of The Philosopher Kings singer Gerald Eaton (aka Jarvis Church), who then approached her to write with him. He and fellow Kings member Brian West helped Furtado produce a demo. She left Toronto, but returned again to record more material with Eaton and West.

The material recorded during these sessions led to her 1999 record deal with DreamWorks Records, where she was signed by A&R executive Beth Halper, partner of Garbage drummer and record producer Butch Vig. Furtado’s first single, “Party’s Just Begun (Again)”, was released that year on the Brokedown Palace: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Furtado continued the collaboration with Eaton and West, who co-produced her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, which was released in October 2000. Following the release of the album, Furtado headlined the “Burn in the Spotlight Tour” and also appeared on Moby’s Area:One tour. In 2002, Furtado appeared on the song “Thin Line”, on underground hip hop group Jurassic 5’s album Power in Numbers. The same year, Furtado provided her vocals to the Paul Oakenfold’s song “The Harder They Come” from the album “Bunkka” and also made the song “These words are my own”.

Furtado’s second album, Folklore, was released in November 2003. The final track on the album, “Childhood Dreams”, was dedicated to her daughter, Nevis. The album includes the single “Força” (meaning “strength” or “carry on” in Portuguese), the official anthem of the 2004 European Football Championship. Furtado performed this song in Lisbon at the championship’s final, in which the Portugal national team played. The lead single is “Powerless (Say What You Want)” and the second single is the ballad “Try”. “Powerless (Say What You Want)” was later remixed, and released in various varieties. Its one of her songs which is my absolute all time favorite.

Furtado’s third album, Loose, was released in June 2006. She named it after the spontaneous, creative decisions she made while creating the album. In this album, primarily produced by Timbaland, Furtado experiments with sounds from R&B, hip hop, and 1980s music. Furtado herself describes the album’s sound as punk-hop, described as “modern, poppy, spooky” and as having “a mysterious, after-midnight vibe… extremely visceral”. Loose has become the most successful album of Furtado’s career so far, as it reached number one not only in Canada and the United States, but also several countries worldwide.

The single “Say It Right” eventually became Furtado’s most successful song worldwide, due to its huge success in Europe and in the United States, where it became her second number-one hit. “All Good Things (Come to an End)” became her most successful song in Europe, topping single charts in numerous countries there. “Say It Right” was the song which actually compelled me to listen to more and more of her till I became her fan.

In a recent video, Nelly said “I’m writing an English album,” she says “Timbaland and I hooked up in the studio about three months ago and we wrote 20 songs in two days. I was really inspired. I think maybe some of that material will be on my English album.” On December 15, 2009, Nelly announced on her Twitter page that her new English album would be released May 25, 2010. She recently worked with Timbaland on the song “Morning After Dark”, which is featured on his new album Timbaland Presents Shock Value 2 as the lead single and was released internationally in late 2009. She has formed her own record label, Nelstar, in conjunction with Canadian independent label group Last Gang Labels. The first act signed to Nelstar is Fritz Helder & the Phantoms. Furtado released her first Spanish single Manos Al Aire on the new label.

On September 20, 2003, in Toronto, Furtado gave birth to a daughter, Nevis, whose father is Jasper Gahunia [AKA DJ Lil' Jazz, Canadian DMC Champion 1998]. Furtado and Gahunia, who had been good friends for several years, remained together for four years until their breakup in 2005. Furtado told Blender magazine that they continue to be good friends and jointly share responsibility of raising Nevis.

In July 2007 it was reported that Furtado was engaged to Cuban sound engineer Demacio “Demo” Castellón. He worked with her on Loose. On October 17, 2008, it was reported in People Magazine that Furtado and Castellón have been married since July 19, 2008. Furtado confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that she married Castellón on July 19, 2008.

For World AIDS Day in 2006, Furtado, Enrique Iglesias, Kanye West, Kelly Rowland, Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson teamed up with MTV, BET, and Nike to perform at an AIDS awareness concert in South Africa. Furtado also hosted a program about AIDS on MTV, which also featured celebrity guests Alicia Keys and Justin Timberlake. Nelly also donated money to save the Sooke Potholes in her hometown Victoria, B.C.

You can catch up with Nelly Furtado on Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. Visit her official website for further details, more links to her pages, and access to her photographs and blogs.

http://www.nellyfurtado.com/default.aspx

His complete name is Allah Rakha Rahman, and he was born on January 6, 1966 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His real name is A.S. Dileep Kumar, dunno how many of you knew that. He was born in a musically inclined Mudaliar Tamil family. After the death of his father, R.K.Shekhar (who was a Chennai based composer and conductor for Malayalam films) at Rahman’s early age, his family rented out his father’s musical equipment as a source of income. He was raised by his mother.

Despite this stroke of ill-luck during his childhood, Rahman’s bond with music developed and formed deep roots in his heart. During the years of his growing up, he served as a keyboard player and an arranger in bands such as “Roots”, with childhood friend and percussionist Sivamani (the guy seen playing wierd and varied instruments in Rahman’s live shows), John Anthony, Suresh Peters, Jojo and Raja.

He is the founder of Chennai based rock group, “Nemesis Avenue” where he used to play the keyboard and the piano, the synthesizer, the harmonium and the guitar. He had particular fondness and creative bend towards the synthesizer, and he explains that by saying that the synthesizer is the “ideal combination of music and technology”. He joined the troup of Ilaiyaraja, as a keyboard player, which was one of the many composers to whom musical instruments belonging to his father were rented.

Having obtained early training in music under Master Dhanraj, Rahman later played in the orchestra of M.S.Viswanathan and Ramesh Naidu, accompanied by Ustad Zakir Hussain and other accomplished musicians on world tours and obtained a scholarship to the Trinity College of Music where he graduated with a degree in Western classical music.

In 1992, Rahman began his own music recording and mixing studio attached to the backyard of his house called the Panchathan Record Inn, which was developed into India’s most advanced recording studio. He initially composed music jingles for advertisements, Indian Television channels and music scores in documentaries, among other projects. In 1992, he was approached by film director Mani Ratnam to compose the score and soundtrack for Ratnam’s Tamil film Roja. The debut led Rahman to receive the Rajat Kamal award for Best Music Director at the National Film Awards, the first time ever by a first-time film composer. Rahman has since then gone on to win the award three more times (for his scores for Minsaara Kanavu (Electric Dreams, Tamil) in 1997, Lagaan (Tax, Hindi) in 2002, Kannathil Muthamittal (A Peck on the Cheek, Tamil) in 2003, the most ever by any composer.

Rangeela, directed by Ram Gopal Varma, marked Rahman’s debut for Hindi-language films made in the Mumbai film industry. Many successful scores for films including Dil Se and the percussive Taal followed.

Rahman has worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Javed Akhtar, Gulzar, Mehboob, Vairamuthu and Vaali. His collaborations with some film directors have always resulted in successful soundtracks, particularly with the director Mani Ratnam who he has worked with since Roja, all of which have been hits, and the director S. Shankar.

Rahman attached and opened a developed extension studio to his Panchathan Record Inn in 2005 called AM Studios in Kodambakkam, Chennai — considered to be the most developed, equipped and high tech studio in Asia. In 2006, Rahman launched his own music label, KM Music. In 2008, he scored the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, for which he won a Golden Globe and two Academy Awards, becoming the first Indian citizen to do so. In the United States, the soundtrack topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart and reached #4 on the Billboard 200 chart. The song “Jai Ho” reached #2 on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles and #15 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Rahman has been involved in several projects aside from film. He made an album Vande Mataram (1997) on India’s 50th anniversary of independence to commercial success. He followed it up with an album for the Bharat Bala–directed video Jana Gana Mana, a conglomeration of performances by many leading exponents/artists of Indian classical music. Rahman has written jingles for ads and composed several orchestrations for athletic events, T.V. and internet media publications, documentaries and short films.

In 1999 Rahman, along with choreographers Shobhana and Prabhu Deva Sundaram and a Tamil cinema dancing troupe performed with Michael Jackson in Munich, Germany, for his “Michael Jackson and Friends Concert.” In 2002, he composed his maiden stage production Bombay Dreams (2002) following a commission from musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, a success in London’s West End.

Rahman is involved in various charitable causes. In 2004, he was appointed as the Global Ambassador of the Stop TB Partnership, a project by WHO. He has shown support to charities including Save the Children, India, and worked with Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam for his song “Indian Ocean”. The song featured a-ha keyboard player Magne Furuholmen and Travis drummer, Neil Primrose. The proceeds of the song went towards helping orphans in Banda Aceh, one of the areas worst affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

He has won thirteen Filmfare Awards, four National Film Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe and two Academy Awards. Working in India’s various film industries, international cinema and theatre, by 2003, Rahman, in a career spanning over a decade, has sold more than 100 million records of his film scores and soundtracks worldwide, and sold over 200 million cassettes, making him one of the world’s all-time top selling recording artists. Time magazine has referred to him as the “Mozart of Madras” and several Tamil commentators have coined him the nickname “Isai Puyal”. In 2009, the magazine placed Rahman in the Time 100 list of ‘World’s Most Influential People’.

His wife’s name is Saira Banu and he has three children, Khadijah, Rahima, and Aameen. Rahman is a practising Sufi Muslim. He had become an atheist as a result of childhood struggles, but eventually converted Islam in 1989, the religion of his mother’s family. He is very devoted to his mother. During the Oscar Award, he paid her a tribute saying: “There is a Hindi dialogue ‘mere pass ma hai’ which means even if I have got nothing I have my mother here.”

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was born on October 13, 1948 in the city of Faisalabad, Pakistan. He was the fifth child and first son of Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, a distinguished and legendary musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and Qawwal. Nusrat’s family, which included his four older sisters and his younger brother, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan grew up in central Lyallpur, in a small flat which was rented from a local businessman. In 1979, Nusrat married his first cousin, Naheed (the daughter of Fateh Ali Khan’s brother, Salamat Ali Khan); they had one daughter, Nida.

Nusrat’s family has an unbroken tradition of performing Qawwali for approximately 600 years. Nusrat’s father was initially reluctant to allow him to enter the family business, instead hoping his son would become a doctor or an engineer, having felt Qawwals had a low social status.

However, Nusrat’s enthusiasm for Qawwali eventually persuaded his father to train him in the art. Nusrat began by learning to play tabla alongside his father before progressing to learn Raag Vidya and Bolbandish. He then went on to learn to sing within the classical framework of khayal. Khan’s training with his father was cut short when his father died in 1964, leaving Nusrat’s paternal uncles, Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, to complete his training.

His first performance was at a traditional graveside ceremony for his father, known as chehlum, which took place forty days after his father’s death. In 1971, after the death of Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan, Nusrat became the official leader of the family Qawwali party and the party became known as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan & Party.

Nusrat’s first public performance as the leader of the Qawwali party was at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival organised by Radio Pakistan, known as Jashn-e-Baharan. Nusrat went on to distinguish himself from other Qawwals and became renowned on the Indian subcontinent and in the Muslim world. He sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and occasionally in Persian, Brajbhasha and Hindi. His first major hit in Pakistan was the song Haq Ali Ali, which was performed in a traditional style and with traditional instrumentation. The song featured restrained use of Nusrat’s sargam improvisations and attracted a large number of listeners.

Nusrat reached out to Western audiences through his work with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ in 1985, his collaborations with Canadian musician Michael Brook (on the albums Mustt Mustt (1990) and Night Song (1996)), and his work with Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder in 1995 on two songs for the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking. He also contributed to the soundtrack of Natural Born Killers.

Peter Gabriel’s Real World label later released five albums of Nusrat’s traditional Qawwali, together with some of his experimental work which included the albums Mustt Mustt and Star Rise. Nusrat provided vocals for The Prayer Cycle, which was put together by Jonathan Elias, but died before the vocals could be completed. His album Intoxicated Spirit was nominated for a Grammy award in 1997 for best traditional folk album.

Nusrat contributed songs to, and performed in, several Pakistani films. Shortly before his death, he recorded a song each for two Bollywood films, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya (in which he also appeared) and Kachche Dhaage. He also sang the immensely-popular title song of the film, Dhadkan. Nusrat contributed the song ‘Gurus of Peace’ to the album ‘Vande Mataram’, composed by Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman, and released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India’s independence.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan holds the world record for the largest recorded output by a Qawwali artist—a total of 125 albums as of 2001. Since then, many posthumous albums have been released, but an accurate count of the total number of albums is not available.

Nusrat was taken ill with kidney and liver failure on August 11, 1997 in London, England while on the way to Los Angeles in order to receive a kidney transplant. Nusrat died of a sudden cardiac arrest at Cromwell Hospital, London, on Saturday, August 16, 1997, aged 48, at the height of his career. His body was returned to Faisalabad, Pakistan and his funeral was attended by thousands of people.

While it is undoubtedly difficult to put into words what makes Nusrat’s music so deeply appealing to so many listeners, many of whom do not understand a single word of the languages he sings in, here is one fan’s attempt to explain: “Nusrat’s music invites us to eavesdrop on a man communing with his God, ever so eloquently. He makes the act of singing a passionate offering to God. But we do not merely eavesdrop. The deepest part of Nusrat’s magic lies in the fact that he is able to bring our hearts to resonate with the music, so deeply, that we ourselves become full partners in that offering. He sings to God, and by listening, we also sing to God”.

Though it is quite difficult to decide which among his classic compositions is the best, here are some of his songs that I often listen to…

Tere Bin Nahi Lagda Dil Mera (Album)

Dulhe ka sehra (Dhadkan)

Aafreen Aafreen (Album)

Madonna Louise Ciccone, or Madonna as we know her, was born on the 16th of August 1958. There coudn’t have been a better time than her birthday month to write about her!! An american recording artist also described as an actress and now an entrepreneur, Madonna was born in Bay City, Michigan and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan. She moved to New York city in 1977 for a career in modern dance. This explains her unusual yet entertaining form of dancing.

After performing as a member of the pop musical groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her self-titled debut album, Madonna in 1983 by Sire Records. A series of hit singles from her studio albums Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986) gained her global recognition, establishing her as a pop icon for expanding the boudaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a regular feature on MTV.

Her recognition was augmented by the film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) which widely became seen as a Madonna starrer, despite her not playing the lead. Expanding on the use of religious imagerty with Like a Prayer (1989), Madonna received positive critical reception for her diverse musical productions, while at the same time receiving criticism from religious conservatives and the Vatican.

In 1996, Madonna played the starring role in the film, Evita, for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. Her single, “You Must Love Me” which was featured on the film’s soundtrack album won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Madonna’s seventh studio album Ray of Light (1998) became one of her most critically acclaimed, recognized for its lyrical depth. In 2005, Madonna released Confessions on a Dance Floor, which earned the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Her eleventh studio album Hard Candy (2008), became her seventh to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Madonna’s look and manner of dress, performances and music videos, became influential among young girls and women. Largely created by stylist and jewelry designer Maripol, Madonna’s style of dress; defined by lace tops, skirts over capri pants, fishnet stockings, jewelry bearing the Christian cross, multiple bracelets, and bleached hair, became a female fashion trend in the 1980s.

While filming the music video for “Material Girl” Madonna started dating actor Sean Penn and married him on her twenty-seventh birthday that year. In 1988, city officials in the town of Pacentro began to construct a 13-foot (4 m) statue of Madonna in a bustier. The statue commemorated the fact that her ancestors had lived in Pacentro. Madonna’s marriage to Sean Penn also ended. After filing and withdrawing divorce papers in December 1987, they separated on New Year’s Eve 1988 and divorced in January 1989. Of her marriage to Penn, Madonna said, “I was completely obsessed with my career and not ready to be generous in any shape or form.”

In 1992, Madonna founded her own entertainment company, Maverick, consisting of a record company (Maverick Records), a film production company (Maverick Films), and also music publishing, television, merchandising and book-publishing divisions. The deal was a joint venture with Time Warner as part of $60 million worth of recordings and businesses. The deal gave her a twenty percent royalty, equal at the time to Michael Jackson’s.

Madonna starred in the movie The Next Best Thing in 2000. She contributed two songs to the film’s soundtrack, “Time Stood Still” and the international hit “American Pie”, a cover version of the 1970s Don McLean single. Madonna’s eighth studio album, Music, was released in 2000 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. It produced three singles; “Music”, which became Madonna’s twelfth number one US single as well as “Don’t Tell Me” and “What It Feels Like for a Girl”. The latter’s music video depicted Madonna committing murders and accidents with cars and was banned by MTV and VH1 from airing. The same year Madonna became involved in a relationship with Guy Ritchie, whom she had met in 1999 through mutual friends Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler. On August 11, 2000, she gave birth to their son, Rocco. Later that year, Madonna and Ritchie married in Scotland.

As an artist, Madonna’s music has been the subject of much scrutiny among critics. Author Robert M. Grant comments in his book Contemporary Strategy Analysis (2005), wrote that what has brought her success is “certainly not outstanding natural talent. As a vocalist, musician, dancer, songwriter, or actress, Madonna’s talents seem modest.” He asserts Madonna’s success lies in relying on the talents of others and that her personal relationships have served as cornerstones to the numerous reinventions in the longevity of her career. Conversely, Rolling Stone magazine has named Madonna “an exemplary songwriter with a gift for hooks and indelible lyrics, and a better studio singer than her live spectacles attest.” She has been called “the perfect vocalist for lighter-than-air songs”, despite not being a “heavyweight talent.”
Madonna’s Catholic background and relationship with her parents were reflected in the album Like a Prayer. It is also an evocation of the impact religion had on her career. Madonna joined the Jewish mystic religion Kabbalah in 1994 after the release of her album Bedtime Stories. She has spoken about the influence of the religion on her and donated millions of dollars for schools based on the religion, around New York and London. In 2004, she changed her name to Esther, which in Hebrew means “star”. However, her immersion in Kabbalah caused a furor and she faced opposition from Rabbis who called Madonna’s joining the religion as sacrilegious and a case of celebrity dilettanism.

According to Rolling Stone, Madonna “remains one of the greatest pop acts of all time”. She is also “the world’s highest earning female singer on earth”. Madonna’s 2008 Sticky & Sweet Tour became the highest grossing concert tour by a solo artist. In the United Kingdom, she is the most successful female in the singles chart history and has more number one singles than any other female solo artist. In 2008, she surpassed Elvis Presley as the artist with most top ten hits in the history of Billboard Hot 100. In 2007, Madonna was listed by VH1 as eighth in the Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. On March 10, 2008, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Madonna is ranked by the Recording Industry Association of America as the best-selling female rock artist of the twentieth century and the second top-selling female artist in the United States with sixty-three million certified albums; she has sold over two-hundred million albums worldwide. In 2007, Guinness World Records listed her as the world’s most successful female recording artist of all time and she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the following year. Considered to be one of the most influential women in contemporary music, Madonna has been known for continually reinventing her music and image and for retaining a standard of anonymity within the recording industry; she is recognized as an influence among numerous music artists.

Here is a list of Madonna’s songs that are my favorites…

Frozen

Nothing Really Matters

Music

Take a Bow

Like a Virgin

Micheal Jackson

Micheal Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, the seventh child in the Jackson family. He made his debut as a performer in 1964 as a member of The Jackson Brothers who were subsequently renamed “The Jackson 5″. He began his solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group and that successful career let him to being given the title of “King of Pop” in subsequent years. Jackson’s 1982 album “Thriller” remains the ‘world’s best-selling album of all time’.

He was the first African American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV, with videos such as “Beat It”, “Billy Jean” and “Thriller” bringing fame to the channel which was relatively new at that time. Beyond his success on television, he popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and moonwalk with his elaborate stage performances.

MJ raised and donated millions of dollars for beneficial causes through his Heal the World Foundation, charity singles, and support of 39 charities. No wonder, he created such a place in the heart of one and all.

Some aspects of his personal life though created controversies that damaged his public image. Though he was heavily accused of child sexual abuse in 1993, the criminal investigation was closed due to lack of evidence and Jackson was not charged. The singer had experienced health problems since early 1990s along with conflicting reports regarding the state of his finances since the late 1990s.

He was tried and acquitted of different sexual abuse allegations and several other charges. His achievements include multiple “Guinness World Records” including one for “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time”, 13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career, more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era.

The legendary singer diead of a cardiac arrest on 25th June 2009. Through all the ups and downs of his life, MJ always held his smile. He kept repeating the words, “I’m innocent…” on being repetitively being charged with sexual abuse complaints. His charities still contribute towards helping the under-priveleged. He even recorded some of his songs specially for the purpose of highlighting environmental concerns or fostering peace.

He can most certainly be called, the most misunderstood man….. How will the music world ever recover from his loss…

Some of my personal favorite songs by MJ are listed below. To download them, right click and select “Save Target As…”

Thriller

Beat It

Remember the Time

Billy Jean

Earth Song