Clive Davis is an American music producer who has worked for Columbia Records as an attorney, general manager and president, was responsible for the record division of Columbia Pictures, and founded the music labels Arista and J.
Lonnie Rashid Lynn (born March 13, 1972), known by his stage name Common (formerly Common Sense), is an American rapper and actor. He has received three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
He debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow a Dollar?, and gained critical acclaim with his 1994 album Resurrection. He maintained an underground following into the late 1990s. He achieved mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians.
His first major-label album Like Water for Chocolate (2000), received commercial success. In 2003, he won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for the Erykah Badu single "Love of My Life". His 2005 album Be was also a commercial success and was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Common received his second Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Southside" (featuring Kanye West), from his 2007 album Finding Forever. His best-of album, Thisisme Then: The Best of Common, was released in late 2007. In 2011, Common launched Think Common Entertainment, his own record label imprint, having previously released music under various other labels including Relativity, Geffen, and GOOD Music.
Common won the 2015 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song, for his song, co-written and performed with John Legend, "Glory" from the 2014 film Selma, in which he co-starred as Civil Rights Movement leader James Bevel. Common's acting career also includes roles in the films Smokin' Aces, Street Kings, American Gangster, Wanted, Terminator Salvation, Date Night, Just Wright, Happy Feet Two, New Year's Eve, Run All Night, Being Charlie, Rex, John Wick: Chapter 2, Smallfoot and Hunter Killer. He also narrated the documentary Bouncing Cats, about one man's efforts to improve the lives of children in Uganda through hip-hop/b-boy culture. He starred as Elam Ferguson on the AMC western television series Hell on Wheels.
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Gloria Estefan (born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García; born 1 September 1957) is a Cuban-American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is a seven-time Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been named one of the Top 100 greatest artists of all time by both VH1 and Billboard. Estefan's record sales exceed 75 million worldwide, making her the second best selling female latin artist in history and one of the best-selling female singers of all-time.
A contralto, Estefan started her career as lead singer of Miami Latin Boys, which was later renamed Miami Sound Machine. She and Miami Sound Machine earned worldwide success with their 1985 single "Conga", which became Estefan's signature song and led to Miami Sound Machine winning the 15th annual Tokyo Music Festival's grand prix in 1986. In 1988, she and Miami Sound Machine achieved their first number-one hit with "Anything for You". Estefan is credited with breaking down barriers and opening doors for Latin musicians, including Selena, Jon Secada, Shakira and Ricky Martin.
In March 1990, Estefan sustained a life-threatening cervical vertebrae fracture when her tour bus was involved in a serious accident near Scranton, Pennsylvania. She underwent an emergency surgical stabilization of her cervical spine and post-surgical rehabilitation that lasted almost a year, but made a full recovery. A year later, in March 1991, Estefan launched her comeback with a worldwide tour and album, Into the Light.
Estefan's 1993 Spanish-language album Mi Tierra won the first of her three Grammy Awards for Best Tropical Latin Album. Mi Tierra immediately soared to the top of the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart upon its release. The album was also the first Diamond album in Spain.
Many of Estefan's songs, including "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You", "1-2-3", "Don't Wanna Lose You", "Get On Your Feet", "Here We Are", "Coming Out of the Dark", "Bad Boy", "Oye!", "Party Time" and a remake of "Turn the Beat Around," became international chart-topping hits.
In addition to winning three Grammy Awards and being a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Estefan has been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Las Vegas Walk of Fame, and was a Kennedy Center Honors recipient in 2017 for her contributions to American cultural life. Estefan also won an MTV Video Music Award, was honored with the American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement, and has been named BMI Songwriter of the Year. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has received multiple Billboard awards.
Billboard has listed Estefan as the third Most Successful Latina and 23rd Greatest Latin Artist of all time in US, based on both Latin albums and Latin songs chart. Hailed as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by the media, she has amassed 38 number one hits across Billboard charts, including 15 chart-topping songs on the Hot Latin Songs chart. Rolling Stone has ranked her 1985 hit "Conga" the 11th Greatest Latin Pop Songs of all time. Richard Blanco, the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Poet, told The Boston Globe in 2020 that Estefan is among the Latin singers who helped him gain ground "in the musical poetry of my culture and rejuvenate my spirits".
American film and television producer Jerome Leon "Jerry" Bruckheimer has achieved great success in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Bruckheimer started producing films in the 1970s, after leaving his job in advertising, with director Dick Richards. They had worked together on the films The Culpepper Cattle Company, Farewell, My Lovely, and March or Die. Bruckheimer then worked with Paul Schrader on two movies, American Gigolo and Cat People, which began to give him notice in Hollywood.
His best known television series are CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Eleventh Hour, Without a Trace, Cold Case, The Amazing Race, and Dark Blue. His best known movies include Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, The Rock, Con Air, Coyote Ugly, Crimson Tide, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Gone in 60 Seconds, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Pirates of the Caribbean, G-Force, King Arthur, Prince of Persia and the National Treasure franchise.
Many of his films were produced by Paramount and Disney, while many of his television series were co-produced by Warner Bros. As of 2010, Bruckheimer has produced over 40 feature films, and is regarded in the industry as one of the most successful movie producers of all time.
Bruckheimer has been married twice. His first wife was Bonnie Bruckheimer. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his second wife, novelist Linda Bruckheimer. He also has one stepdaughter, Alexandra. The couple also owns a farm in Bloomfield, Kentucky, as well as another in Ojai, south of Santa Barbara
Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981), also known by her nickname J.Hud, is an American singer, actress, and talk show host. Hudson rose to fame in 2004 as a finalist on the third season of American Idol, placing seventh. She made her film debut as Effie White in the musical Dreamgirls (2006), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the youngest African-American to win in a competitive acting category. After signing to Arista Records, Hudson released her self-titled debut studio album in 2008, which was certified Gold in the US and the UK, and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album.
Hudson's subsequent studio albums, I Remember Me (2011) and JHUD (2014), both charted within the top ten of the Billboard 200, with the former also being certified Gold in the US. Meanwhile, her other acting roles include the films Sex and the City (2008), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Winnie Mandela (2011), Black Nativity (2013), Sing (2016), Cats (2019) and Respect (2021), the television shows Smash (2012), Empire (2015) and Confirmation (2016), and her Broadway debut with the musical The Color Purple. Hudson also contributed as a coach on the UK and the US version of The Voice from 2017 up to 2019, becoming the first female coach to win the former.
Cher (born Cheryl Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Goddess of Pop", she is known for her androgynous contralto voice, multifaceted career, bold visual presentation and continuous reinvention of her image and sound. Her adaptability has fueled multiple comebacks, cementing her status as a cultural icon over a career spanning seven decades. Cher gained fame in 1965 as part of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher, while also achieving solo success with top-ten singles including "All I Really Want to Do" and "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". In the 1970s, she divorced from Sonny Bono and topped the US Billboard Hot 100 with "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed" and "Dark Lady", becoming the female solo artist with the most number-one singles in US history at the time.
Following a hiatus to focus on acting, Cher returned to music with the rock-inflected albums Cher (1987), Heart of Stone (1989) and Love Hurts (1991), earning international number-one singles with "If I Could Turn Back Time" and "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)". She reached a commercial peak with the dance-pop album Believe (1998), which introduced the "Cher effect", an extreme, stylistic use of Auto-Tune to distort vocals. The title track became 1999's number-one song in the US and the UK's best-selling single by a female artist. 21st-century releases include Closer to the Truth (2013) and Dancing Queen (2018), both debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 and becoming her highest-charting solo albums in the US.
Cher rose to television stardom in the 1970s with her CBS shows The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, attracting over 30 million weekly viewers, and the namesake Cher. She made her Broadway debut in 1982 with Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and starred in its film adaptation. She earned critical acclaim for roles in Silkwood (1983), Mask (1985) and Moonstruck (1987), winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for the latter. Cher went on to star in Mermaids (1990), If These Walls Could Talk (1996), where she made her directorial debut, Tea with Mussolini (1999), Burlesque (2010) and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). Her life and career inspired the 2018 jukebox musical The Cher Show.
With 100 million records sold, Cher is among the world's best-selling music artists. Her accolades include an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy, three Golden Globes, the Billboard Icon Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, honors from the Kennedy Center and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cher is the only solo artist with a number-one single on a Billboard chart in seven consecutive decades, from the 1960s to the 2020s. Her 2002–2005 Living Proof: The Farewell Tour was the highest-grossing concert tour by a female artist at the time, earning US$250 million (about $390 million in 2023). Cher is also known for her fashion, political views, social media presence, philanthropy and activism, including LGBTQ rights and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Steven Randall "Randy" Jackson (born October 29, 1961) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and dancer. Randy is best known as a former member of his family band the Jacksons. Randy is the youngest Jackson brother and the second-youngest Jackson sibling before his sister Janet Jackson. He is the eighth child in the Jackson family.
Randy was born at St Mary's Mercy Hospital in Gary, Indiana to Joseph Jackson and Katherine Jackson. Nicknamed "Little Randy", Jackson is the ninth child of the Jackson family and youngest of the brothers. Jackson was only two years old when the Jackson 5 was formed and thus not an original member. While Randy's brothers toured, Jackson honed his skills as a musician, mastering piano and the bongos.
Randy was not an original member of the Jackson 5, first appearing live with his brothers in 1971 at a Christmas show the Jackson 5 held for blind children. Although he was on every Jackson 5 tour since 1972, mainly playing the congas among other instruments, Randy did not officially join the family band until 1975 when they left Motown for CBS Records and older brother Jermaine chose to stay with Motown, prompting Randy to replace him. The Jackson 5 officially changed their name to the Jacksons when they signed with Epic in part because Motown owned the name "Jackson 5". At age 16, he co-wrote the Jacksons' most successful single on Epic, "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" with Michael.
On March 3, 1980, Jackson was seriously injured in a car crash in Hollywood, California. In June 1980, he appeared on the cover of the weekly African-American newsmagazine Jet. The cover headline read: "Randy Jackson Walks Again: Talks About His Future."
Jackson plays congas, percussion, keyboards, piano, bass, and guitar, among other instruments. In addition to singing and playing on the Jacksons' recordings, he worked with Michael on his album Off the Wall. He participated in the Jacksons' Destiny World Tour from 1979 to 1980, the Triumph Tour in 1981, Victory Tour in 1984, and the band's later projects. After the Victory Tour, Jackson worked with Lionel Richie on his album Dancing On The Ceiling in 1985. Jackson, along with brothers Jackie, Tito, Marlon, and his sister La Toya joined USA For Africa to sing in "We Are The World", which was led by Jackson’s brother Michael, Lionel Richie, Quincy Jones, and Harry Belafonte.
He was left out when the Jackson 5 were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; only the five original members were inducted.
He was part of the Jacksons' 2001 reunion at Madison Square Garden, but did not appear as an official cast member in their 2009 A&E reality series The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty. He did contribute backing vocals with Jackie, Tito, Marlon and Jermaine for Michael's "This Is It". ..
Source: Article "Randy Jackson (Jacksons singer)" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award nominations, 28 Grammys, and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992.
Jones came to prominence in the 1950s as a jazz arranger and conductor before working on pop music and film scores. He moved easily between musical genres, producing Lesley Gore's major pop hits of the early 1960s (including "It's My Party") and serving as an arranger and conductor for several collaborations between the jazz artists Frank Sinatra and Count Basie in the same time period. In 1968, Jones became the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "The Eyes of Love" from the film Banning. Jones was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the 1967 film In Cold Blood, making him the first African American to be nominated twice in the same year. Jones produced three of popstar Michael Jackson's most successful albums: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987). In 1985, Jones produced and conducted the charity song "We Are the World", which raised funds for victims of famine in Ethiopia.
In 1971, Jones became the first African American to be the musical director and conductor of the Academy Awards. In 1995, he was the first African American to receive the academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the second most Oscar-nominated African American, with seven nominations each. In 2013, Jones was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as the winner, alongside Lou Adler, of the Ahmet Ertegun Award. He was named one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time.
