Tori Amos, an American singer-songwriter, pianist and composer

Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos,^[1] August 22, 1963^[2]) is mezzo-soprano vocal range.^[10]
an American singer-songwriter, pianist and composer. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range.
Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full scholarship to the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University at the age of five, the youngest person ever to have been admitted. She was expelled at the age of eleven for what Rolling Stone described as "musical insubordination."^[11] Amos was the lead singer of the short-lived 1980s pop group Y Kant Tori Read before achieving her breakthrough as a solo artist in the early 1990s. Her songs focus on a broad range of topics, including sexuality, feminism, politics, and religion.^[12]
Her charting singles include "Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "God", "Cornflake Girl", "Caught a Lite Sneeze", "Professional Widow", "Spark", "1000 Oceans", "Flavor", and "A Sorta Fairytale", her most commercially successful single in the U.S. to date.^[13] Amos has received five MTV VMA nominations, eight Grammy nominations, and has won an Echo award for her classical work. She is listed on VH1's "100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll" list. 

Early life and education

Amos is the third child of Mary Ellen (Copeland) and the Rev. Edison McKinley Amos.^[15] She was born at the Old Catawba Hospital in Newton, North Carolina during a trip from their Georgetown home in Washington, D.C. Amos has said that her maternal grandparents each had an Eastern Cherokee grandparent of their own; of particular importance to her as a child was her maternal grandfather, Calvin Clinton Copeland, who was a great source of inspiration and guidance, offering a more pantheistic spiritual alternative to her father and paternal grandmother's traditional Christianity.^[16]
When she was two years old, her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where her father had transplanted his Methodist ministry from its original base in Washington, D.C. Her older brother and sister took piano lessons, but Amos didn't need them. From the time she could reach the piano, she taught herself to play: when she was two, she could reproduce pieces of music she had only heard once,^[17] and, by the age of three, she was composing her own songs. She has described seeing music as structures of light since early childhood, an experience consistent with chromesthesia:

The song appears as light filament once I've cracked it. As long as I've been doing this, which is more than thirty-five years, I've never seen the same light creature in my life. Obviously similar chord progressions follow similar light patterns, but try to imagine the best kaleidoscope ever—after the initial excitement, you start to focus on each element's stunning original detail. For instance, the sound of the words with the sound of the chord progression combined with the rhythm manifests itself in a unique expression of the architecture of color-and-light. ... I started visiting this world when I was three, listening to a piece by Béla Bartók; I visited a configuration that day that wasn't on this earth. ... It was euphoric.^[18]

At five, she became the youngest student ever admitted to the preparatory division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music.^[19][20] She studied classical piano at Peabody from 1968 to 1974.^[19] In 1974, when she was 11, her scholarship was discontinued and she was asked to leave. Amos has asserted that she lost the scholarship because of her interest in rock and popular music, coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music.^[21][17][22]
In 1972, the Amos family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where her father became pastor of the Good Shepherd United Methodist church. At 13, Amos began playing at gay bars and piano bars, chaperoned by her father.^[21][17]
Amos won a county teen talent contest in 1977, singing a song called "More Than Just a Friend".^[20] As a senior at Richard Montgomery High School, she co-wrote "Baltimore" with her brother Mike Amos for a competition involving the Baltimore Orioles. The song won the contest and became her first single, released as a 7" single pressed locally for family and friends during 1980 with another Amos-penned composition as a B-side, "Walking With You". Before this, she had performed under her middle name, Ellen, but permanently adopted Tori after a friend's boyfriend told her she looked like a Torrey pine, a tree native to the West Coast.^[23][24]

Career

Beginnings

By the time she was 17, Amos had a stock of homemade demo tapes that her father regularly sent out to record companies and producers.^[20] Producer Narada Michael Walden responded favorably: he and Amos cut some tracks together, but none were released.^[20] Eventually, Atlantic Records responded to one of the tapes, and, when A&R man Jason Flom flew to Baltimore to audition her in person, the label was convinced and signed her.^[19]
In 1984, Amos moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career^[20] after several years performing on the piano bar circuit of the D.C. area.

Y Kant Tori Read (1986–88)

In 1986, Amos formed a musical group called Y Kant Tori Read, named for her difficulty sight reading.^[25] In addition to Amos, the group was composed of Steve Caton (who would later play guitars on all of her albums until 1999), drummer Matt Sorum, bass player Brad Cobb and, for a short time, keyboardist Jim Tauber. The band went through several iterations of songwriting and recording; Amos has said interference from record executives caused the band to lose its musical edge and direction during this time. Finally, in July 1988, the band's self-titled debut album, Y Kant Tori Read, was released. Although its producer, Joe Chiccarelli, stated that Amos was very happy with the album at the time,^[26] Amos has since criticized it, once remarking: "The only good thing about that album is my ankle high boots."^[27]
Following the album's commercial failure and the group's subsequent disbanding, Amos began working with other artists (including Stan Ridgway, Sandra Bernhard, and Al Stewart) as a backup vocalist. She also recorded a song called "Distant Storm" for the film China O'Brien; in the credits, the song is attributed to a band called Tess Makes Good.^[28]

The Atlantic years (1990–2001)

Despite the disappointing reaction to Y Kant Tori Read, Amos still had to comply with her six-record contract with Atlantic Records, which, in 1989, wanted a new record by March 1990. The initial recordings were declined by the label, which Amos felt was because the album had not been properly presented.^[29] The album was reworked and expanded under the guidance of Doug Morris and the musical talents of Steve Caton, Eric Rosse, Will MacGregor, Carlo Nuccio, and Dan Nebenzal, resulting in Little Earthquakes, an album recounting her religious upbringing, sexual awakening, struggle to establish her identity, and sexual assault.^[19] This album became her commercial and artistic breakthrough, entering the British charts in January 1992 at Number 15.^[19] Little Earthquakes was released in the United States in February 1992 and slowly but steadily began to attract listeners, gaining more attention with the video for the single "Silent All These Years".^[19]
Amos traveled to New Mexico with personal and professional partner Eric Rosse in 1993 to write and largely record her second solo record, Under the Pink. The album was received with mostly favorable reviews and sold enough copies to chart at No. 12 on the Billboard 200,^[30] a significantly higher position than the preceding album's position at No. 54 on the same chart.^[31] However, the album found its biggest success in the UK, debuting at number one upon release in February 1994.

Her third solo album, Boys for Pele, was released in January 1996. The album was recorded in an Irish church, in Delgany, County Wicklow, with Amos taking advantage of the church's acoustics. For this album, Amos used harpsichord, harmonium, and clavichord as well as the piano. The album garnered mixed reviews upon its release, with some critics praising its intensity and uniqueness while others bemoaned its comparative impenetrability. Despite the album's erratic lyrical content and instrumentation, the latter of which kept it away from mainstream audiences, Boys for Pele is Amos's most successful simultaneous transatlantic release, reaching No. 2 on the UK Top 40^[32] and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 upon its release.^[30]
Fueled by the desire to have her own recording studio to distance herself from record company executives, Amos had the barn of her home in Cornwall converted into the state-of-the-art recording studio, Martian Engineering Studios.^[33]
From the Choirgirl Hotel and To Venus and Back, released in May 1998 and September 1999, respectively, differ greatly from previous albums as Amos's trademark acoustic piano-based sound is largely replaced with arrangements that include elements of electronica, dance music, and vocal washes. The underlying themes of both albums deal with womanhood and Amos's own miscarriages and marriage. Reviews for From the Choirgirl Hotel were mostly favorable and praised Amos's continued artistic originality. Debut sales for From the Choirgirl Hotel are Amos's best to date, selling 153,000 copies in its first week.^[34] To Venus and Back, a two-disc release of original studio material and live material recorded from the previous world tour, received mostly positive reviews and included the first major-label single available for sale as a digital download.^[35]
Shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Amos decided to record a cover album, taking songs written by men about women and reversing the gender roles to reflect a woman's perspective.^[36][37] That became Strange Little Girls, released in September 2001. The album is Amos's first concept album, with artwork featuring Amos photographed in character of the women portrayed in each song.^[37] Amos would later reveal that a stimulus for the album was to end her contract with Atlantic without giving them original songs; Amos felt that since 1998, the label had not been properly promoting her and had trapped her in a contract by refusing to sell her to another label.^[38]

Luciano Pavarotti, an Italian operatic tenor who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time

Luciano Pavarotti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (12 October 1935 – 6 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, gaining worldwide fame for the quality of his tone, and eventually established himself as one of the finest tenors of the 20th century.^[1][2]
As one of the Three Tenors, Pavarotti became well known for his televised concerts and media appearances. From the beginning of his professional career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy to his final performance of "Nessun dorma" at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin,^[3] Pavarotti was at his best in bel canto operas, pre-Aida Verdi roles, and Puccini works such as La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. Pavarotti was also noted for his charity work on behalf of refugees and the Red Cross, amongst others. He died from pancreatic cancer on 6 September 2007.

Mick Jagger, an English singer, songwriter, actor and, the lead singer and a co-founder of the Rolling Stones

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer, songwriter, actor and, the lead singer and a co-founder of the Rolling Stones.^[1]

Jagger's career has spanned over 50 years, and he has been described as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of Rock & Roll".^[3] Jagger's distinctive voice and performance, along with Keith Richards' guitar style, have been the trademark of the Rolling Stones throughout the career of the band. Jagger gained press notoriety for his admitted drug use and romantic involvements, and was often portrayed as a countercultural figure.
In the late 1960s, Jagger began acting in films (starting with Performance and Ned Kelly), to mixed reception. In 1985, he released his first solo album, She's the Boss. In early 2009, Jagger joined the electric supergroup SuperHeavy. In 1989 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2004 into the UK Music Hall of Fame with the Rolling Stones. In 2003, he was knighted for his services to popular music.

From the time that the Rolling Stones developed their anti-establishment image in the mid-1960s, Mick Jagger, with guitarist Keith Richards, has been an enduring icon of the counterculture. This was enhanced by his controversial drug-related arrests, sexually charged on-stage antics, provocative song lyrics, and his role of the bisexual Turner in the 1970 film Performance. One of his biographers, Christopher Andersen, describes him as "one of the dominant cultural figures of our time", adding that Jagger was "the story of a generation".^[95]
Jagger, who at the time described himself as an anarchist and espoused the leftist slogans of the era, took part in a demonstration against the Vietnam War outside the US Embassy in London in 1968. This event inspired him to write "Street Fighting Man" that same year.^[96] A variety of celebrities attended a lavish party at New York's St. Regis Hotel to celebrate Jagger's 29th birthday and the end of the band's 1972 American tour. The party made the front pages of the leading New York newspapers.

Bob Givens, an American animator, character designer and layout artist. He worked for numerous animation studios during his career, including Disney, Warner Bros. Cartoons, Hanna-Barbera and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises

 Robert "Bob" Givens (born March 2, 1918) is an American animator, character designer and layout artist. He worked for numerous animation studios during his career, including Disney, Warner Bros. Cartoons, Hanna-Barbera and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, beginning his career during the 1930s and continuing until the early 2000s. He was a frequent collaborator with director Chuck Jones, working under Jones both at Warner Bros. and Jones' own production company.
After joining Disney he worked as an animation checker on several of their short subjects (mostly involving Donald Duck), before working on their first feature-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.^[2]
He subsequently joined Warner Bros. for his first stint at the studio, which was spent working mostly under Chuck Jones and Tex Avery. For the 1940 cartoon A Wild Hare, Avery asked Givens to redesign a rabbit character previously designed by director Ben Hardaway and character designer Charles Thorson, which Avery thought had potential, but was "too cute" in his existing design. Givens therefore created the first official design for the rabbit, now named Bugs Bunny, who would become the studio's biggest star. Givens' design was subsequently refined by fellow animator Robert McKimson (under whom Givens would frequently work in the decades ahead) two years later.
Givens's initial spell at the studio was ended when he was drafted during World War II (his last cartoon for the studio before leaving, ironically, being 1942's The Draft Horse). As part of his military service he worked with former Warner Bros. animator Rudolf Ising on military training films.^[4] He subsequently returned to Warner Bros. in the 1950s and mostly worked as a layout artist under McKimson, and also Jones later on, staying with the studio until its 1954 shutdown. Unlike many of his co-workers, Givens did not rejoin the Warner Bros. studio when it eventually opened again, and worked at various studios including UPA, Hanna-Barbera and the Jack Kinney studio.^[5] He returned for one last spell at Warner Bros. in the early 1960s, continuing until the studio's final shutdown, and even acting as the layout artist on False Hare, the final cartoon (in production order) made by the studio.
Givens followed most of the Warner Bros. staffers to new studio DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, while also working with Jones once more on the Tom and Jerry cartoon produced by Jones at Sib Tower 12 Productions. He continued his Looney Tunes association by working at the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts cartoon studio in the late 1960s, remaining with that studio until it shut down. Further spells at DePatie-Freleng and Hanna-Barbera followed during the 1970s, before working at the reformed Warner Bros. Animation studio on The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales and Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island. He then had spells at Filmation (whose founder, Lou Scheimer had actually worked under Givens when the two were freelancers in the 1950s) and Film Roman.
Givens did the layout from Garfield and Friends from seasons 1 through 4 from the years 1988-1992 and Bobby's World from seasons 1 through 5 from the years 1989-1994 Film Roman studios.
In the 1990s he worked with Chuck Jones once again, handling the production design duties on the Looney Tunes cartoons Jones's production company worked on for Warner Bros. His last animation credit was on 2001's Timber Wolf, a direct-to-video animated feature written and produced by Jones.Following Jones's death the following year, Givens largely retired from active animation work, though continued to teach and give animation talks well into his nineties

Ronnie O'Sullivan, an English professional snooker and pool player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the sport's history

Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan, OBE (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker and pool player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the sport's history. He is noted for his rapid playing style, mercurial temperament and his ambivalent relationship with the sport, from which he has taken prolonged sabbaticals and repeatedly threatened to retire.
A childhood snooker prodigy, O'Sullivan macentury break at age 10, and his first maximum break at age 15. He turned professional in 1992, at the age of 16, and soon earned the nickname "The Rocket", because of his rapid playing style. He achieved his first major professional success when he won the 1993 UK Championship at the age of 17 years and 358 days, making him the youngest player ever to win a ranking title – a record he still holds. He is also the youngest player to have won the Masters, having captured his first title in 1995 at the age of 19 years and 69 days.
His record in Triple Crown events now stands at five World Championship, a record seven Masters, and five UK Championship titles. His career total of 28 ranking titles puts him in joint second place (with Steve Davis and John Higgins) behind Stephen Hendry, who has 36, and his career earnings of over £8 million put him in second place after Hendry on snooker's all-time prize-money list. O'Sullivan has held the world number one ranking on multiple occasions, most recently during the 2009/2010 season. His other achievements include ten Premier League titles and winning the Nations Cup with England in 2000.
Known as a prolific break-builder, O'Sullivan holds the record for the most competitive century breaks with 860. He also holds the record for the most ratified maximum breaks in professional competition (13), and for the three fastest competitive maximum breaks the quickest of which was compiled in 5 minutes and 20 seconds.

Michael Owen, a former English footballer who played as a striker for Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United. He eas the winner of Ballon d'Or in 2001

Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979) is a former English footballer who played as a striker for Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City, as well as for the England national team. He is a regular pundit and co-commentator on BT Sport football coverage, and sometimes appears on BBC's Match of the Day as a pundit. Since retiring from football, he has become a successful racehorse breeder and owner.
The son of former footballer Terry Owen, Owen was born in Chester and began his senior career at Liverpool in 1996. He progressed through the Liverpool youth team and scored on his debut in May 1997. In his first full season in the Premier League, he finished as joint top scorer with 18 goals. He repeated this the following year and was Liverpool's top goal-scorer from 1997–2004, gaining his name as a proven goal-scorer despite suffering from a recurring hamstring injury. In 2001, Liverpool won a cup treble of the UEFA Cup, FA Cup and Football League Cup, and Owen was the recipient of the Ballon d'Or. He went on to score 118 goals in 21Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.
6 appearances in the Premier League for Liverpool, and 158 goals in 297 total appearances. Regarded as one of the greatest Liverpool players, Owen came 14th in the "100 Players Who Shook The Kop", an official Liverpool fan poll. In 2004, Owen was named by
Owen moved to Real Madrid for £8 million in mid-2004; he was frequently used as a substitute. He scored 13 goals in La Liga before returning to England the following season where he joined Newcastle United for £16 million. After a promising start to the 2005–06 season, injuries largely ruled him out over the next 18 months. After his return, he became team captain and was the team's top scorer for the 2007–08 season. Newcastle were relegated in the 2008–09 season and Owen moved to Manchester United as a free agent. He spent three years at Old Trafford before joining Stoke City in September 2012. Owen is one of eight players to have scored 150 or more goals in the Premier League. He is also the youngest player to have reached 100 goals in the Premier League. On 19 March 2013, Owen announced his retirement from playing at the end of the 2012–13 season.
Internationally, Owen first played for the senior England team in 1998, becoming England's youngest player and youngest goalscorer at the time. His performance at the 1998 FIFA World Cup brought him to national and international prominence and he went on to score in UEFA Euro 2000, the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004. He is the only player to have scored in four major tournaments for England. He played at the 2006 World Cup, but suffered an injury which took him a year to recover from. Occasionally playing as captain, he is England's 11th-most-capped player and has scored a former national record (since overtaken by Wayne Rooney) of 26 competitive goals, with 40 in total from 89 appearances, most recently in 2008.

Luc Besson, a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He directed or produced the films Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), and Nikita (1990), all using a distinctive style dubbed Cinéma du look by critics

Luc Besson is a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He directed or produced the films Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), and Nikita (1990), all using a distinctive style dubbed Cinéma du look by critics. Besson has been nominated for a César Award for Best Director and Best Picture for his films Léon: The Professional and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. He won Best Director and Best French Director for his sci-fi action film The Fifth Element (1997). He wrote and directed the 2014 sci-fi thriller film Lucy.

In 1980, he founded his own production company, called Les Films du Loup, and later Les Films du Dauphin (fr). This was superseded in 2000 by his co-founding EuropaCorp film company with his longtime collaborator, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam (fr). As writer, director, and/or producer, Besson has so far been involved in the creation of more than 50 films.

Out of boredom, Besson started writing stories, including the background to what he later developed as The Fifth Element (1997), one of his most popular movies.The film is inspired by the French comic books which Besson read as a teenager. He reportedly worked on the first drafts of Le Grand Bleu while still in his teens. Besson directed and co-wrote the screenplay of this science fiction thriller with the screenwriter, Robert Mark Kamen.
At 18, Besson returned to his birthplace of Paris. There he took odd jobs in film to get a feel for the industry. He worked as an assistant to directors including Claude Faraldo and Patrick Grandperret. Besson directed three short films, a commissioned documentary, and several commercials.
After this, he moved to the United States for three years, but returned to Paris, where he formed his own production company. He first named it Les Films du Loup, but changed it to Les Films du Dauphin. In the early 1980s, Besson met Éric Serra and asked him to compose the score for his first short film, L'Avant dernier. He later used Serra as a composer for other films of his.
Since the late 20th century, Besson has written and produced numerous action movies, including the Taxi (1998–2007) and The Transporter (2002–2008) series, and the Jet Li films Kiss of the Dragon and Unleashed/Danny the Dog. His English-language films Taken, Taken 2 and Taken 3, all starring Liam Neeson, have been major successes, with Taken 2 becoming the largest-grossing export French film. Besson produced the promotional movie for the Paris bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Besson won Best Director and Best French Director for his film The Fifth Element (1997). he was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture César Awards for his films Léon: The Professional (1994) and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999).
French actor Jean Reno has appeared in several films by Besson, including Le dernier combat (1985), Subway, The Big Blue (1988), Nikita (1990), and Léon: The Professional (1994).