Kelly Brianne Clarkson, known simply as Kelly Clarkson was born on April 24, 1982 in Fort Worth, Texas grew up in the small town of Burleson, Texas. She is the third and youngest child of Jeanne Rose, a first grade teacher, and Stephen Michael Clarkson, a former engineer. When Clarkson was six years old, her parents split up after seventeen years of marriage. She sang at her high school talent show, after which a gentleman shared some inspiring words with her: "God has given you this gift. You’ve got to sing. You’re destined to sing". She then started her classical training hoping that music would be her ticket to a college scholarship. Upon high school graduation, Clarkson was offered full scholarships to The University of Texas at Austin, University of North Texas, and Berklee but declined them to pursue a music career. Kelly Clarkson entered the television singing competition American Idol. Kelly Clarkson won the first season of American Idol on September 4, 2002, earning 58% of the vote to 42% for Justin Guarini. April 15, 2003 she released her debut album Thankful. The album went on to be certified double platinum, with almost 3 million copies sold. Since then she has released three studio albums, Breakaway in 2004, My December in 2007 and All I Ever Wanted in 2009. Kelly Clarkson has sold over 10.1 million albums in the United States thus far.
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Robin Thicke is an American Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and occasional actor born on March 10, 1977, in Los Angeles, California. Robin Thicke is the son of actor Alan Thicke and his first wife, Days of our Lives actress and singer, Gloria Loring. They divorced when he was seven. Throughout his childhood, he would be exposed to music by Bruce Springsteen courtesy of his father, as well as Luther Vandross and Whitney Houston courtesy of his mother. Robin Thicke began his songwriting career by penning hits for popular artists such as Christina Aguilera, Mya, Brandy, Marc Anthony, and Jordan Knight. In 2002, Robin Thicke released his debut single "When I Get You Alone". The track samples Walter Murphy’s "A Fifth of Beethoven," which itself is a disco rendition of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. In 2004, Thicke won his first Grammy Award for his contributions on Usher’s 2004 release, Confessions. During 2006, Thicke was featured on the track "Shooter," from Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter II. On June 11, 2005 Robin Thicke married his highschool sweetheart, Paula Patton, whom he met in a teen club at age fourteen. He has since released his third solo album, entitled Something Else, on September 30, 2008. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 charts and sold nearly 140,000 records the first week.
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Stevie Wonder was born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan. third of six children to Calvin Judkins and Lula Mae Hardaway Morris. The product of a premature birth, the blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not yet reached the front, and an aborted growth spurt caused the retinas to detach. The medical term for this condition is known as retinopathy of prematurity. Stevie Wonder took up piano at age seven, and had mastered it by age nine. During his early childhood he was active in his church choir. He also taught himself to play the harmonica and the drums, and had mastered both by age ten. Wonder also learned to play the bass during his early years. In 1961, at the age of eleven, Wonder was discovered singing outside a street corner by a relative of The Miracles’ Ronnie White, who was later introduced to Wonder. White brought Wonder and his mother to Motown Records. Impressed by the young musician, Motown CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown’s Tamla label. Stevie Wonder has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits, won twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever won by a solo artist in history. His albums have sold more than than 100 million units.
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Akon is the stage name of Aliaune Thiam, an R&B singer of Senegal origin. His date of birth is unknown to the public, with some sources stating that her was born in 1973 and still others reporting that her was born in 1981. Akon rose to fame in 2004 with the release of his debut album, Trouble. It was a critical success and spawned the hit single Locked Up and raked in over 1.6 million sales worldwide. He followed that success with the release of his second album, Konvicted in November of 2006. That album has sold over four million copies and earned Akon his first Grammy Award Nomination for the single Smack That. He has since released a third studio album entitled Freedom which has as of now become certified gold. Akon has made numerous guest appearances on other artist records. In fact, he’s credited with over 155 guest appearances on various songs. Akon is also the first solo artist to be credited with holding the number one and number two spots on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts at the same time. Besides his five Grammy Award nominations he has also received numerous award nominations, such as the MTV2 Award and Male Artist Of The Year Award in 2007.
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Katharine McPhee is an American pop and R&B singer, songwriter, actress, model, and television personality born on March 25, 1984. Katharine McPhee was persuaded by Nick Cokas and her parents to try out for American Idol. She auditioned in San Francisco, and sang "God Bless the Child", originally performed by Billie Holiday. After the first round of Hollywood week, she sang "I’ll Never Love This Way Again" by Dionne Warwick which earned favorable comments from the judges. During the second round, she performed in a group, singing "I Can’t Help Myself" by The Four Tops, forgetting the words, but the judges decided to advance the entire group. During the third round, she sang a Capella of "My Funny Valentine" and advanced to the top 40. On June 6, 2006, Sony BMG and 19 Entertainment announced that Katharine McPhee had signed to American Idol series creator Simon Fuller’s 19 Recordings Limited and Sony BMG’s RCA Records. In 2007, she released her self titled debut album. The album was released on January 30, 2007 by RCA Records. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, selling 116,000 copies in its first week. The album includes writing and production contributions from Babyface, The Underdogs, Kara DioGuardi, and Nate "Danja" Hills.
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Cascada is a Euro dance group that was formed in Bonn, Germany in 2004. It consist of Natalie Horler, DJ Manian and Yanou. On February 21, 2006 they released their debut album, Everytime We Touch. The album entered The Billboard 200 at number 67, selling over 17,000 copies in its first week. It has gone on to sell over 100,000 copies in the U.S. In the UK, the album entered the charts at number six and then went on to peak at number two. They followed up the success of their debut with the release of their second studio album entitled Perfect Day. It features a number of cover songs, most notably Avril Lavigne’s "Sk8er Boi", Pink’s "Just like a Pill", Patti Smith Group’s "Because the Night" and Mark Wills’ song "What Hurts the Most". In the first week Perfect Day sold 50,000 copies in the United Kingdom. In the second week it sold over a hundred thousand copies. By the beginning of 2008, Perfect Day had already been certified platinum in the UK having sold over a million units. The next album to be released by Cascada is Evacuate the Dancefloor. It is expected to ship in mid summer 2009.
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Nightwish was formed in Kitee, Finland in 1996. It consist of Anette Olzon on vocals, Tuomas Holopainen on keyboards, Marco Hietala on bass guitar, Emppu Vuorinen on lead guitar and Jukka Nevalainen on drums. Former members include Tarja Turunen and Sami Vänskä. In 1997, they released their debut album "Angels Fall First". Even though the only single, "The Carpenter" reached number three on the Finnish singles chart, the album failed to achieve it’s high expectations. Then in late 1998 Nightwish released their sophomore album, Oceanborn. Oceanborn has sold more than 68,000 copies in Finland alone. Their third album entitled Wishmaster was released through Spinefarm Records in July of 2000. It peaked at the number one position on Finnish music charts and has since been certified platinum in Finland. After "Wishmaster", Nightwish would go on to release six more records and has sold more than 5 million CDs, DVDs and online material internationally. Their biggest US hit single, "Wish I Had an Angel" (2004), made it onto three US film soundtracks as a means to promote their North American tour. Nightwish is currently working on a new album which is scheduled to be released sometime in 2010.
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Hinder is an American rock band from Oklahoma that was formed in 2001 by drummer Cody Hanson, guitarist Joe Garvey, and singer Austin Winkler. In April 2003, before making it big, Hinder entered the March Bandness contest for Oklahoma City radio station KHBZ-FM (94.7). They made it to the Final Four out of a field of thirty-two, ultimately losing to the OKC group Falcon Five-O. They released their first EP titled Far from Close in 2003 on an independent record label, Brickden Records. It sold about 5,000 copies. The three members then began working on new material in 2004 for their next independent release. These demos caught the attention of several major record labels. After being offered record deals by Atlantic, Roadrunner, and Universal Records, Hinder signed with Universal Records in 2005. They released their debut album, Extreme Behavior, later that year. As of July 11, 2007, the album has sold 2,789,275 copies in the US. In 2008 they released their second studio album, Take It to the Limit. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA US. In early 2009 Hinder will embark on Motley Crue’s Saints of Los Angeles Tour which will also include Theory of a Deadman and the Guitar Center contest Winners The Last Vegas.
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Disturbed was formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1996 when musicians Dan Donegan, Steve "Fuzz" Kmak, and Mike Wengren hired singer David Draiman. On March 7, 2000, Disturbed released their debut album The Sickness. It spawned several hit singles such as "Voices", "The Game", "Stupify" and "Down with the Sickness". To date the album has sold over four million copies. In 2002 they released their second studio album entitled Believe. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over a quarter million copies it’s first week. It was certified double platinum by the RIAA on September 23, 2008, the same day The Sickness was certified 4x platinum. On September 20, 2005, they released their third album, Ten Thousand Fists. It became Disturbed’s second straight number one debut on the Billboard 200 chart[4] as well as their second number one album in New Zealand. The album was dedicated to the memory of Dimebag Darrell. The fourth album released by Disturbed was Indestructible. The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 2009, for shipping over 1,000,000 copies in the United States. The song "Inside the Fire" was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award in the "Best Hard Rock Performance" category.
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Laura Pausini was born and raised in the town of Solarolo, Ravenna in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna on May 16, 1974. She started to sing in local piano bars with her father Fabrizio, a musician and singer, when she was only eight years old. At the age of thirteen, Laura had her first recording experience with the album I sogni di Laura, a semi-professional release produced by her father in 1987. In 1993 her career was launched when she won the prestigious Italian Sanremo Music Festival with one of her best known songs, "La solitudine". As a natural consequence, she signed a contract with Warner Music Italy to release her first professional album, Laura Pausini. Her second album, Laura, was released in 1994 and was such a big hit that her recording company offered her a deal to record in Spanish. At the end of 1994, Pausini released her first Spanish album, Laura Pausini, a compilation of ten adapted versions of hits from her first two Italian albums. The album was so successful that made her a household name in the Spanish speaking world. In 2006, Laura Pausini won the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album for the album Resta in Ascolto.
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